New homelessness response team holds first meeting as Happy Valley-Goose Bay's problem deepens

A government-led team of politicians and Indigenous leaders held its first meeting Wednesday as residents in Happy Valley-Goose Bay urged swift action to address a growing number of transient people in the community. The Acute Response Team, established this week, seeks to find immediate solutions to a problem that the town's mayor says has become a safety issue. "We brought the concerns that our community was in a crisis situation because we had seen an increase in that escalation in terms of t

Canada's Summer McIntosh, 15, wins 2nd gold medal at world aquatics

Summer McIntosh of Kelowna, B.C., capped a sensational week of swimming on Saturday, becoming the first Canadian with two victories and four medals at a single world championship. The 15-year-old lowered her junior record time to four minutes 32.04 seconds in the women's 400-metre individual medley on Saturday in Budapest, Hungary. Earlier this week, she also set world junior marks in the 200 butterfly (gold) and 400 freelstyle (silver) while earning freestyle relay bronze in the 200. '"This is

Putin promises Belarus nuclear-capable missiles to counter 'aggressive' West

MOSCOW (Reuters) -Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday told his counterpart from Belarus that Moscow would supply Minsk with missile systems capable of carrying nuclear weapons, the Russian foreign ministry said. At a meeting with Putin in St Petersburg, Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko expressed concern about the "aggressive", "confrontational" and "repulsive" policies of its neighbours Lithuania and Poland. He asked Putin to help Belarus mount a "symmetrical response" to what he said were nuclear-armed flights by the U.S.-led NATO alliance near Belarus' borders.

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  Ukraine accuses Russia of bringing Belarus into war after missile launches from northern neighbor

  Fox News
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  Ukraine’s intelligence agency calls Russian missile strikes launched from Belarus a provocation

  The New Voice of Ukraine

Senator in 2010 deposition: 13-year-olds can consent to sex

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Before he became a leading voice for conservative causes on Capitol Hill, U.S. Senator James Lankford spent more than a decade as the director of youth programming at the Falls Creek Baptist Conference Center, a sprawling campground about 80 miles south of Oklahoma City that attracts more than 50,000 campers in grades six through 12 each year. The Republican lawmaker's tenure at the camp is a prominent feature of his political profile, noted in the first paragraph of his off

Guns in paradise: Ruling could undo strict Hawaii carry law

HONOLULU (AP) — Megan Kau takes occasional weeklong hunting trips to the Hawaiian island of Lanai, where she enjoys watching the sunrise and hearing the distant rustle of deer and mouflon sheep in the tropical wilderness, a rifle ready at her side. As a gun owner, she also goes to shooting ranges several times a year. Those outings are the only times the attorney and Oahu native sees others with guns in this tourist mecca where strict laws make it harder to purchase firearms and restrict carryin

Invasive plant known as Giant Hogweed discovered in Don Valley area, Metrolinx says

A plant considered to be a dangerous weed has been discovered in the area of the Don Valley, Metrolinx says in a warning to the public. Metrolinx, the province's regional transit agency, said in the warning this week that its crews found Giant Hogweed, a noxious and leafy plant that is an invasive species, along the tracks of the Richmond Hill train corridor and in Toronto parkland recently. The plant is growing near the rail corridor between E.T. Seton Park in the east and the Bayview on-ramp t

Biden 'respects' Supreme Court despite abortion ruling, White House says

ABOARD AIR FORCE ONE (Reuters) -President Joe Biden, who is weighing unilateral actions to counter an "extreme" ruling ending the U.S. right to abortion, nonetheless "respects" the Supreme Court and sees no need to expand its membership, a spokesperson said. Biden is looking for more "solutions" in the aftermath of the abortion decision, including possible unilateral executive orders, according to spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre. But, speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One, she offered no timeline for the release of such orders and downplayed their significance: "Nothing could fill the hole that this decision has made," she said.

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  Ariz. Democrats, Planned Parenthood react to Supreme Court ruling to overturn Roe v. Wade

  AZCentral | The Arizona Republic
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  Letter: Concerning Roe v. Wade, women 'deserve better'

  The Palm Beach Post

PHOTOS: The Prairies endure multiple days of severe storms, tornado threats

Severe storms swept across the Prairies through much of the week, bringing tornadoes, strong winds, large hail, torrential downpours and localized flooding to some areas.

On his 70th birthday, friends and family will pay tribute to late downtown St. John's icon

This weekend, friends and family plan to celebrate the life and legacy of a man well known to many in the downtown St. John's community. Patrick Brown, who died in February, could often be seen around Duckworth Street and Water Street, putting up posters for local events. As part of his route, he also made it his mission to pick up litter scattered around the area. Friends and family have placed a memory stone dedicated to Brown in Bannerman Park, and will also participate in a Celebration of Li

'Like losing a friend': Suspicious fire destroys rural Saskatchewan church

Father Doug Jeffrey received a jarring text at 7:28 a.m. Thursday: It included a picture of a beloved church he pastored for the past three years in flames. "The text just alerted me to the fact that the church was on fire and that it was mostly destroyed," the Catholic priest said of Our Lady of the Smile church, one of three he administers. He said the text shocked him, and he thought "No, not our little church." Now that it's sunk in, that shock has shifted to sadness. A little more than an h

Taliban calls for release of frozen funds after deadly earthquake

KABUL (Reuters) -Afghanistan's Taliban administration on Saturday called on international governments to roll back sanctions and lift a freeze on central bank assets following the earthquake that killed more than 1,000 people and left thousands homeless. The 6.1-magnitude quake that struck the east of the country early on Wednesday destroyed or damaged 10,000 homes and injured about 2,000 people, straining the country's fragile health system and posing a major test for the ruling Taliban. "The Islamic Emirate is asking the world to give the Afghans their most basic right, which is their right to life and that is through lifting the sanctions and unfreezing our assets and also giving assistance," Abdul Qahar Balkhi, foreign affairs ministry spokesman, told Reuters in an interview.

Pope hails families, blasts 'culture of waste' after Roe

ROME (AP) — Pope Francis celebrated families Saturday and urged them to shun “selfish” decisions that are indifferent to life as he closed out a big Vatican rally a day after the U.S. Supreme Court ended constitutional protections for abortion. Francis didn’t refer to the ruling or explicitly mention abortion in his homily. But he used the buzzwords he has throughout his papacy about the need to defend families and to condemn a “culture of waste” that he believes is behind the societal acceptanc

Russia fires missiles across Ukraine, cements gains in east

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russian forces are seeking to swallow-up the last remaining Ukrainian stronghold in the eastern Luhansk region, the governor said Saturday, while pressing their momentum following the withdrawal of Ukrainian troops from the charred ruins of Sievierodonetsk. Russia also launched dozens of missiles on several areas across the country far from the heart of the eastern battles. Some of the missiles were fired from Russian long-range Tu-22 bombers deployed to Belarus for the firs

Provincial authorities probe death of female inmate at Prince Albert prison

Provincial and police officials are investigating the death of a woman who was declared dead in her cell at the Pine Grove Correctional Centre in Prince Albert. The Ministry of Corrections, Policing and Public Safety said in a news release that the inmate, 33, was found unresponsive in her cell Friday morning. According to the release, correctional staff called EMS and "initiated life-saving measures," but the woman was pronounced dead at about 8:45 a.m. As of Friday's release, authorities were

Thousands march in Munich to demand G7 action on poverty and climate

BERLIN (Reuters) -Some 4,000 people marched in Munich on Saturday calling on leaders of the Group of Seven industrialized countries to take action to fight poverty, climate change and world hunger and end dependence on Russian fossil fuels. Leaders of the United States, Germany, France, Britain, Italy, Canada and Japan will meet on Sunday at the start of a three-day summit at Schloss Elmau in the Bavarian mountains, aiming to increase pressure on Russia whose actions in Ukraine have created food and energy shortages across the globe. Protesters carried banners reading "Stop The War Russia And USA/NATO Hands Off Ukraine" and "Imperialism Starts Here", and demanded the G7 allocate more funds for crisis prevention, civil conflict management and economic development.

Alleged Family conflict in Montreal leaves father dead, son arrested

Montreal police say a man has died after being involved in what they describe as a family dispute with his son. Police say they received a call around 5:30 a.m. on Friday about a 62-year-old man who was allegedly stabbed in a home in the city's north end. The man, whose identity has not yet been released, was taken to hospital where he later died of his injuries. The victim's 21-year-old son was arrested on-site and remains in custody. Montreal police spokesperson Marianne Allard-Morin says offi