OTTAWA – Canada’s mental health and addictions minister believes fear and stigma are driving criticism of the government’s decision to support prescribing pharmaceuticals to drug users to combat the country’s overdose crisis. Ya’ara Saks attributes growing pushback to most harm reduction strategies – including federal funding for what are referred to as safer … Read more
SEOUL, South Korea – Russian President Vladimir Putin has gifted North Korean leader Kim Jong Un a Russian-made luxury limousine for his personal use, both countries announced Tuesday, in another sign of their expanding co-operation. Observers said the shipment violates a UN resolution that bans supplying luxury items to North Korea, in an … Read more
KYIV, Ukraine – Delays in weapons deliveries from Western allies to Ukraine are opening a door for Russian battlefield advances, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says, making the fight “very difficult” along parts of the front line where the Kremlin’s forces captured a strategic city last weekend ahead of the war’s two-year anniversary. Zelenskyy … Read more
VATICAN CITY – One afternoon in mid-December, Pope Francis had a meeting that wasn’t on his official agenda or otherwise recorded, that underscored the utter dysfunction of the Catholic Church’s response to the global clergy sex abuse scandal. In the main reception room of the Vatican hotel where he lives, Francis met for … Read more
A European Space Agency satellite is expected to reenter and largely burn up in Earth’s atmosphere on Wednesday morning. The agency’s Space Debris Office, along with an international surveillance network, is monitoring and tracking the Earth-observing ERS-2 satellite, which is predicted to make its reentry at 6:14 a.m. ET Wednesday, with a 15-hour … Read more
CARACAS, Venezuela – Venezuela’s government and opposition on Wednesday doubled down on their respective defense and condemnation of the detention of a prominent human rights attorney, evidencing once more their vastly different interpretations of an agreement to work on conditions for a free and fair presidential election this year. The deal, signed in … Read more
Ontario Provincial Police are highlighting the importance of practicing caution when riding a snowmobile. This comes after a tragic snowmobile collision on Saturday that claimed the life of a 29-year-old woman and sent a 33-year-old male passenger to hospital, where he remains in critical condition. It happened at around 4 p.m. in McNab/Braeside on a … Read more
Ottawa – As the Bank of Canada waits for the right moment to start cutting interest rates, some economists are arguing that its decision shouldn’t hinge on the housing market. Canada’s inflation rate has edged up and down over the last several months after dropping from its 2022 highs as global price pressures … Read more
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti – A judge in Haiti responsible for investigating the July 2021 assassination of President Jovenel Moise indicted his widow, Martine Moise, ex-prime minister Claude Joseph and the former chief of Haiti’s National Police, Leon Charles, among others, in a report released Monday. The indictments are expected to further destabilize Haiti as … Read more
When Dr Rachel Clarke first started writing down her experiences of working on a Covid-19 ward, she never meant to make them public. Scribbled at her kitchen table, mostly in the middle of the night when she was too stressed to sleep, her notes were originally intended as a kind of private therapy: a place … Read more
