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Share! :D North Korean leader Kim Jong Un warned he’s ready to use his nuclear weapons in potential military conflicts with the United States and South Korea, criticizing Yoon Suk-yeol for the first time, warning Seoul was pushing towards the brink of war, state media reported on Thursday. Kim’s speech to war veterans on the 69th anniversary of the end of the 1950-53 Korean War was apparently meant to boost internal unity in the impoverished country amid pandemic-related economic difficulties. He accused the United States of “demonizing” North Korea to justify its hostile policies. Kim said regular U.S.-South Korea military drills that he claimed target the North highlight U.S. “double standards” and “gangster-like” aspects because it brands North Korea’s routine military activities — an apparent reference to its missile tests — as provocations or threats. North Korea's first lady Ri Sol Ju attended the event and was seen crying next to her husband Kim Jong Un while singing the national anthem.

Share! :D Canada’s Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly says that Russian President Vladimir Putin is playing games with G7 countries over energy exports to Europe. “We called his bluff. It is now clear that Putin is weaponizing energy flows to Europe. The world sees through his game and that’s why we decided to make sure we took a strong stance and a difficult decision by sending back the turbine directly to Germany,” Joly said during a news conference alongside her German counterpart, Annalena Baerbock, in Montreal on Wednesday. Canada issued a special sanctions permit that allowed the import, repair and re-export of up to six Russian turbines in a bid to help Germany as it struggles with energy supply. Russia has claimed that the turbine Canada returned to Germany wasn’t properly repaired and lacks the proper paperwork.

Share! :D Chilean authorities started investigating a mysterious sinkhole on Monday, that’s about 25 meters in diameter. It appeared over the weekend in a mining area in the north of the country. Chilean media showed aerial images of the sinkhole on land operated by a Canadian Lundin Mining LUN.TO copper mine, about 665 kilometres north of the capital Santiago. The National Service of Geology and Mining (Sernageomin) became aware of the sinkhole on July 30 and have sent specialist personnel to the area, the agency's director David Montenegro said in a statement. The statement added there is a distance of nearly 200 meters to the bottom and that no materials have been detected there. Tierra Amarilla Mayor Cristóbal Zúñiga Arancibia told local media the sinkhole is a consequence of the unconscious and unmeasured extractive activities that are carried out in the area. Sernageomin reported the closure of areas from the entrance to the work site of Alcaparrosa mine, located near the sinkhole. Lundin Mining did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Lundin Mining owns 80 per cent of the property and the rest is held by Japan's Sumitomo Corporation.

Share! :D U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi left Taiwan on Wednesday after pledging solidarity and hailing its democracy, leaving a trail of Chinese anger over her brief visit to the self-ruled island that Beijing claims as its own. “We are supporters of the status quo and the rest, and we don’t want anything to happen to Taiwan by force. So strength and one of the biggest sources of strength is democracy,” Pelosi said. Pelosi, whose delegation made an unannounced but closely watched stop in Taiwan late on Tuesday after visits to Singapore and Malaysia, was scheduled to continue her Asian tour with stops in South Korea and Japan.

Share! :D Members of the Miami-Dade County Police, fire department, and Hialeah police all participated in a simulated active shooter drill on Wednesday in order to gain experience with reacting to active school shooter calls, regardless of the municipalities they work for. "In Miami-Dade County, we've had school police here since 1957. So we've had this type of training historically for many, many years. However, the level of training that we're doing now is cutting edge," said Miami-Dade Schools Police Chief Edwin Lopez. Hialeah High School was the setting for the drill, complete with blank shots being fired. Participants could be heard screaming and some wore white t-shirts with bloodstains. The drill was held as summer break nears an end and before schools return for a new academic year in the fall.

Share! :D Some Kansas residents celebrated on Tuesday night after a vote that could have given the Republican-led legislature to restrict or outright ban abortions in the state was defeated by voters, with those who voted against it giving each other hugs with others shedding tears of joy. "We will not tolerate an extreme ban on abortions in our state," Rachel Sweet, regional director of public policy and organizing at Planned Parenthood, told a crowd that had gathered in Wichita after the results came in. As of Wednesday afternoon, more than 58 per cent of voters — or more than 534,000 — cast their vote against the ballot measure. Just over 374,000 — or 41.2 per cent — voted in favour. Not everyone was celebrating however, with one man speaking on stage at a "Vote Yes" event calling it a "difficult time," and that "we're going to get through this difficult period." U.S. President Joe Biden and Vice-President Kamala Harris also reflected on the vote on Wednesday, with Biden calling it a "decisive victory" and that it sent a "powerful signal" that Americans would vote in the upcoming midterm elections to protect the right to choose.

Share! :D UPDATE: Janet Mort confirmed to Global News Tuesday that a doctor has come forward and agreed to take her husband on as a patient. Readers of a widely circulated Vancouver Island newspaper opened their broadsheets July 30, 2022, to find a shocking sign of just how bad British Columbia’s family doctor crisis has become. Printed on page A2 of the Victoria Times Colonist was an unusual newspaper ad: a plea for help from a Greater Victoria senior. “We need a doctor’s help to renew my 82-year-old husband’s prescriptions. We will agree to any reasonable fee,” the ad reads. “Our wonderful family doctor retired at Christmas. No walk-in clinics seem to be available. Today even Telus Health MyCare had no Dr. virtual appointments available for months,” it continues. The ad was posted by Janet Mort, an Order of British Columbia recipient who has a PhD in language and literacy and who has been lauded for work helping children overcome reading problems. Mort's husband of 51 years Michael is dealing with a variety of medical conditions, including recovery from recent brain surgery. When their doctor retired more than six months ago, he renewed Michael's prescriptions and recommended a few options including Telus' telemedicine platform. Kylie Stanton reports.

Share! :D Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear said Wednesday that three people were still missing in Breathitt County, identifying them as three women. He added that it’s still difficult to determine an accurate number of unaccounted individuals. The three missing women do not account for people missing reported missing to local agencies. In "good news," Beshear said there were no new reported deaths as a result of the intense flooding due to heavy rainfall that hit parts of the state last week. There were also 219 people temporarily housed in state parks and another 221 in shelters for a total of 440 displaced individuals. He said that number was only a "fraction" of the total number displaced, as some are living with family or friends.

Share! :D After months of complaints by passengers and tour operators, Toronto Pearson Airport has rolled out new technology aimed at speeding up the arrival process. The airport had begun testing eGates technology in June in a bid to combat airport delays. The Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) said the eGates give international travellers arriving at Terminal 1 "another option to present their customs and immigration declaration, whether the declaration was made using the Advance CBSA Declaration feature in ArriveCAN or directly on the device."

Share! :D If you thought food prices were sky-high in your hometown, try living in Canada's North: the city of Iqaluit is used to seeing food prices two or even three times the national average. The northernmost city is inaccessible by road from the south and its short growing season means food and supplies often have to be flown in. Costs are also getting worse as inflation afflicts the rest of the country. Now Inuit groups there are banding together to fight food insecurity. Jeff Semple reports from Iqaluit, where hunters and researchers are helping a city hungry for a solution.

Share! :D Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones testified Wednesday that he now understands it was irresponsible of him to declare the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre a hoax and that he now believes it was “100 per cent real.” Speaking a day after the parents of a 6-year-old boy who was killed in the 2012 attack testified about the suffering, death threats and harassment they’ve endured because of what Jones trumpeted on his platforms, the Infowars host told a Texas courtroom that he definitely thinks the attack happened. Meanwhile, in a shocking turn of events, the Sandy Hook family lawyer revealed that Alex Jones’ lawyer had accidentally sent him the entire digital copy of Jones’ cellphone 12 days ago. “You know what perjury is, right?” the lawyer asked Jones before stating that Jones had lied under oath when he previously testified that he had “personally searched” his phone for the phrase Sandy Hook and found no messages. Jones also told the jury in his defamation suit that “any compensation above $2 million will sink us,” referring to his show Infowars.

Share! :D Temperatures reached up to 40 degrees Celsius on Wednesday in France, as the country entered the peak of its third heat wave of the summer. While the episode is milder than the previous one, the heat is further worsening the drought experienced in the country since July. “Over the coming days, as well as over last week, we are still expecting very anticyclonic weather throughout the country, without rainfall, and so there is so far no end in sight to this drought," French weather forecaster Florian Hortola said. The blistering temperatures have led authorities to implement water use restrictions in nearly all regions of mainland France, in an effort to preserve crops. With the effects of climate change, heatwaves and droughts are only expected to become more common and last longer, according to Hortola. “There have been other years, but these heatwaves have been more and more numerous in recent years and are set to become more so in the years to come," Hortola concluded. “All this is linked to global warming.”

Share! :D Russian energy giant Gazprom now says it's "impossible" to accept the delivery of the natural gas pipeline turbine repaired in Canada, even after Ottawa exempted it from sanctions to help maintain Europe's flow of energy. Since Canada allowed the return of the turbine used in the Nord Stream 1 natural gas pipeline, which runs under the Baltic Sea from Russia to Germany, Russia reduced natural gas supplies to Germany to 20 per cent. As Redmond Shannon reports, critics say it was always clear Moscow was using energy as a weapon to manipulate the West.

Share! :D After the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, voters in the traditionally conservative state of Kansas have overwhelmingly decided to preserve legal access to abortion. Jackson Proskow has the reaction and explains what these results could signal ahead of the U.S. midterm elections in November. Back in Canada, Scott Aitchison, Roman Baber, and Jean Charest faced off in the third and final debate of the Conservative leadership race, ahead of party members casting their votes in September. Abigail Bimman looks at what the trio had to say; why the two remaining candidates, Leslyn Lewis and Pierre Poilievre, sat this one out and what experts believe this debate could do to impact voters. After months of complaints by passengers and tour operators, Toronto Pearson Airport has rolled out new technology aimed at speeding up the arrival process. As Sean O'Shea reports, a dozen new electronic gates may help relieve some of the congestion. Russian energy giant Gazprom now says it's "impossible" to accept the delivery of the natural gas pipeline turbine repaired in Canada, even after Ottawa exempted it from sanctions to help maintain Europe's flow of energy. As Redmond Shannon reports, critics say it was always clear Moscow was using energy as a weapon to manipulate the West. With Canada's North facing the country's highest grocery prices, Inuit groups are banding together to fight food insecurity. Jeff Semple reports from Iqaluit, where hunters and researchers are helping a city hungry for a solution. And widely considered to be baseball's greatest broadcaster, lauded for his elegant phrasing and perfect timing, Los Angeles Dodgers announcer Vin Scully has died at the age of 94. Ross Lord looks back at Scully's career highlights and legacy, as an announcer who called some of the MLB's most memorable games.

Share! :D At a press conference on Wednesday, Taiwan's defence ministry slammed China’s military drills being conducted, following a visit by U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. As the highest-level U.S. visit in 25 years to the island China claims as its own, Beijing has responded with a burst of military activity in surrounding waters, summoning the U.S. ambassador in Beijing and halting several agricultural imports from Taiwan. Taiwan’s defence ministry spokesperson Sun Li-fang said the "reckless" drills were challenging international order, destroying regional security and amounted to a blockade of Taiwan's territorial air space and waters. Sun also warned that China was continuing to engage in spreading misinformation, and that citizens should not believe in internet rumours. At a separate news conference, Taiwan’s digital minister Audrey Tang said that all public institutions in Taiwan have been hit by cyber attacks, as tensions with China rose following Pelosi’s visit. According to Tang, attacks on Taiwan government units surpassed 15,000 gigabits on Tuesday, 23 times higher than the previous daily record. In Beijing, Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said that China has not seen its military drills around Taiwan causing freedom of navigation issues. Chunying added that China's military actions were legitimate and meant as a deterrent to Taiwan.

Share! :D Wesley Wallace said he's been dealing with monkeypox for about three weeks. He said the pain is so unbearable that "it hurts to exist."

Share! :D Evacuees at a northern Philippine town on Thursday hoped for a reprieve after a powerful earthquake damaged their homes and killed at least five people. The 7.1-magnitude quake struck the island of Luzon on Wednesday morning, damaging buildings which included historical sites and injuring more than 130 people. Residents in Banguid town in Abra province, which was just 11 km from the epicentre, camped outside their homes while some took refuge at tents provided by the local government in fear of strong aftershocks. Seismologists have recorded nearly 800 aftershocks since the main quake. "I hope the tremors would completely stop tomorrow. That's my prayer, so we can return to our boarding home," one local resident affected by the disaster, Nestor Tuzon, said. The Philippines is prone to natural disasters and is located on the seismically active Pacific "Ring of Fire," a band of volcanoes and fault lines that arcs round the edge of the Pacific Ocean. Earthquakes are frequent and there are an average of 20 typhoons a year, some triggering deadly landslides.

Share! :D Canada's national police force is under strain and under the microscope. The inquiry into the Royal Canadian Mounted Police response to the 2020 Nova Scotia mass shooting is still ongoing. After a series of investigations and lawsuits over sexual harassment, and amid accusations of political interference in the 2020 Nova Scotia massacre investigation, public trust is eroding in the RCMP. Ross Lord explains why rebuilding that trust will be challenging, and some senior police managers are admitting drastic measures could soon be required just for the force to maintain services.

Share! :D As Texas feuds with the White House over illegal border crossings, the state is bussing over droves of undocumented migrants to Washington, D.C., leaving them homeless. D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser calls the transport "cruel, political gamesmanship," and she's now asking the federal government for help as her city's resources are becoming overwhelmed with migrants with nowhere to live. As Jennifer Johnson explains, the crisis is overwhelming the U.S. capital's resources.

Share! :D For the first time since Russia launched its invasion, a ship carrying Ukrainian grain has left the port of Odesa. Under a deal brokered by the United Nations and Turkey to allow food shipments, the "Razoni" and the ships to follow should have safe passage through the Black Sea and onto global markets. Redmond Shannon reports on the hopes it should help ease the global food crisis exacerbated by the conflict.

Share! :D U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi arrived in Taiwan late on Tuesday, starting a visit that Beijing had warned her against taking, saying it would undermine Sino-U.S. relations. This trip is a part of Pelosi’s Asia tour that included visits to Singapore, Malaysia, South Korea and Japan. Leading up to her controversial visit, supporters and critics have been vocal about her highly-anticipated visit, from both within Taiwan and abroad. Outside the Grand Hyatt Hotel, where the U.S. House Speaker is staying, a group of demonstrators against Pelosi's visit stomped on a U.S. flag and a banner depicting her. Meanwhile, other Taipei residents have had more of a mixed reaction, with some students saying that “Pelosi’s visit should be a good thing for us,” while others believed that “the visit won’t have any real benefit, in the end we are just a chess piece in someone else’s game.” In Beijing, foreign ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying told reporters during a news briefing that "we hope that the U.S. officials will clearly understand the importance, sensitivity and danger of this issue." Moscow has also expressed their support for Beijing, saying that “we consider the settlement of the situation in the Taiwan Strait to be an internal matter for China.”

Share! :D Fuelled by fierce winds and extreme heat, the Keremeos Creek wildfire in B.C.'s Interior has exploded in size, prompting hundreds of residents in the South Okanagan region to leave. Though, as Neetu Garcha explains, some residents are deciding to stay put. Statistics Canada has released its latest hate crime data covering last year, 2021, which shows that incidents reported to police have jumped by 72 per cent since the start of the pandemic. Sean O'Shea has the reaction from communities impacted by hate crimes in Toronto. The alleged sexual assault victim at the centre of a lawsuit quietly settled by Hockey Canada says she did go to the police, contrary to the organization's earlier claims. Abigail Bimman has more on how the woman is trying to set the record straight, and on Hockey Canada's apology. Despite warnings from the Chinese government, U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has gone ahead with her visit to Taiwan. Reggie Cecchini explains how the trip has raised tensions and security worries, as Beijing warns she is "playing with fire." Afghanistan's Taliban government is criticizing the U.S. drone strike that killed Al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri, who helped Osama Bin Laden orchestrate the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. Redmond Shannon looks at al-Zawahiri's ascent through Al Qaeda, and the other attacks he was involved in. Long-range, heavy weapons, like the M777 howitzers donated by Canada, are key in helping Ukraine's troops fend off Russian forces. Crystal Goomansingh was granted access to a secret location near the front lines to meet up with the troops using the sophisticated weapons. Rock icon Bruce Springsteen is facing backlash because his concert ticket prices have ballooned by thousands of dollars, far beyond the reach of many fans. Ross Lord explains how Ticketmaster's 'dynamic pricing' model is to blame and what this strategy, which was born in the USA, means for live music.

Share! :D The U.S. Justice Department filed a lawsuit Tuesday against the state of Idaho over its restrictive abortion law, with Attorney General Merrick Garland arguing it conflicts with federal law requiring doctors to provide pregnant women medically necessary treatment that could include abortion. It is the first major action brought by the Justice Department challenging a so-called "trigger law" that was set up to take effect once the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the landmark Roe v. Wade case. The suit was brought because federal prosecutors believe the Idaho law would force doctors to violate the federal Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act, which requires anyone coming to a medical facility for emergency treatment to be stabilized and treated. Idaho's law criminalizes all abortions, subjecting anyone who performs or attempts to perform them to a felony punishable by between two to five years. White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre also spoke Tuesday about the lawsuit. "Idaho's law and its treatment of women are devastating; it's extreme and threatens lives," she said.

Share! :D The father of a six-year-old who was killed during the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting testified on Tuesday that that conspiracy theorist Alex Jones was a coward who made his life a living hell and that his apologies were “worthless.” “At this stage, any apology would not be sincere and it’s come too late,” Neil Heslin said. Jones is currently embroiled in multiple defamation lawsuit over comments he made on his hugely popular far-right talk show Infowars, falsely reporting that the school shooting at Sandy Hook was a hoax and the distraught parents who lost their children were crisis actors. Heslin and Scarlett Lewis, parents of the late Jesse Lewis, took the stand and recounted living in fear of Jones’ followers after he popularized the Sandy Hook conspiracy theory. “Truth is so vital to our world. Truth is what we base our reality on and we have to agree on that to have a civil society. Sandy Hook is a hard truth,” she said, speaking directly to Jones. Jones also testified on Tuesday in his own defence.

Share! :D The Taliban has condemned the U.S. drone strike in Kabul, Afghanistan that killed al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahiri, one of the key masterminds behind the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the United States. Al-Zawahiri and the better-known Osama bin Laden plotted the 9/11 attacks that brought many ordinary Americans their first knowledge of al-Qaida. Bin Laden was killed in Pakistan on May 2, 2011 after a nearly decade-long hunt. The operation is a significant counterterrorism win for the Biden administration just 11 months after American troops left Afghanistan following a two-decade war.