Freshly back from a visit to the country UN Women’s Chief of Humanitarian Action Sofia Calltorp told reporters in Geneva of the suffering inflicted upon families left without heating, electricity and reliable shelter amid brutal winter conditions. Sixty-five per cent of Ukraine’s energy generation capacity has been destroyed by deliberate attacks.

“Those energy blackouts, they are not just technical disruptions,” she said. “They directly undermine women’s safety, protection and economic security.” 

Ms. Calltorp explained that extended darkness, lack of street lighting and disrupted transport “severely restrict women’s mobility and increase exposure to harassment and accidents.”

Many Ukrainian women work in sectors that are the hardest hit by extended power cuts, such as education, health, social services and retail, and are now losing their jobs, the UN Women official said.

A widowed mother of eight starts a life from scratch in a new city and inspires other displaced women.

No electricity, no school, no salary

“In Kyiv, in a heated tent that had been set up to support citizens, I met with Irina… She told me: ‘No electricity means no school for my children and no electricity means no job for me. It means no salary.’”

UN Women reported that 2025 was the deadliest year of the conflict for women so far and that since 24 February 2022, more than 5,000 women and girls have been confirmed killed and 14,000 injured, with the real toll likely far higher.

Despite the challenges, Ukraine’s women are “carrying the country forward” and women-led organizations are at the heart of humanitarian response, Ms. Calltorp said. They provide vital protection, psychosocial support, emergency assistance and livelihood opportunities to hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians – yet they are now under serious threat because of funding cuts.

One in three women-led organizations warned that they may not survive beyond six months, according to a recent survey focused on the impact of cuts in foreign assistance

“Due to the funding reductions in 2025 and 2026, these organizations in Ukraine are projected to lose at least $53.9 million by the end of the year,” said UN Women’s representative in Ukraine Sabine Freizer Gunes. “If this continues, an estimated 63,000 women in 2026 will lose access to services” such as support for survivors of conflict-related sexual violence.

“There will be more women in need of psychosocial and legal support. There’ll be less political participation for women, less economic opportunity and less economic growth in Ukraine. Weakening women’s organizations at this moment risks weakening the entire humanitarian and recovery architecture of Ukraine,” Ms. Freizer Gunes said. 

Photo courtesy of Ukrainian Women’s Fund

Women fleeing the combat zones of Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts stand in line to receive humanitarian aid.

Vulnerable groups hit hard by attacks on energy infrastructure

Turning to the broader humanitarian impact of the energy crisis, Jaime Wah, Deputy Head of Delegation for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) in Ukraine, said that when the power goes out “it is often the most vulnerable who carry the consequences.” 

“For older people, people with disabilities and those with chronic illnesses, this is life-threatening,” she insisted.

Speaking from Kyiv, Ms. Wah said that while “cold homes increase illness,” the psychosocial toll of the power outages is “equally serious.” 

“Prolonged darkness, isolation and constant uncertainty are exhausting communities,” she stressed. “Many people have experienced traumatic events, yet access to specialized mental health and psychosocial support remains limited.”

The conflict’s devastating toll on health is further deepened by attacks on healthcare which are “severe and widespread” in Ukraine, World Health Organization (WHO) spokesperson Christian Lindmeier said.

In the past four years WHO has verified more than 2,870 confirmed attacks, resulting in 233 deaths and 937 injuries among healthcare workers and patients. 

“Facilities operate beyond surge capacity, with the workforce depleted and infrastructure damaged,” Mr. Lindmeier warned.

The WHO spokesperson also said that the reported number of people with disabilities has increased by nearly 390,000, or more than 10 per cent, since February 2022. 

Beyond this figure, “it’s the support [for people with disabilities] that is missing, the freedom of movement for people, the lack of supplies.” 

“The numbers are one thing. The story behind [them is] a much bigger one,” he insisted.

Amber Glenn needed to give herself some reassurance.

On Friday, the American figure skater hit the ice to complete the jump that knocked her down in the standings during Tuesday’s short program and ultimately cost her a medal at the Milano Cortina Games.

Glenn, 26, shared the moment on TikTok, taking viewers with her as she completed the jump — a triple loop — which she failed to execute Tuesday.

She completed a double loop instead and was given zero points for an invalid element, with her score of 67.39 dropping her to 13th place.

“Come with me to do the jump that cost me an Olympic medal,” Glenn said in the video.

Upon skating backwards, Glenn launched into the jump and landed it cleanly.

“That’s fine. I’m fine. I’m fine,” she said immediately afterwards in relief. “Everything’s fine.”

The Texas native’s short program left her in tears as she skated off the ice.

Glenn rebounded Thursday with a season-best free skate score of 147.52.

In the four-minute program, Glenn landed the triple loop and the triple axel, which she is known for, and pumped her fist after she finished.

Her only mistake came in touching the ice on her final jump.

“I just thought, ‘I’m going to do what I do best, which is enjoy skating,’” Glenn said, “and that’s what I did today.”

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2026 WINTER OLYMPICS

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Glenn finished fifth with a total of 214.91, with her teammate, Alysa Liu, taking gold to end the U.S. women’s 24-year figure skating drought with a score of 226.79.

Although her individual run at the Olympics didn’t result in a medal, Glenn is walking away from this year’s games with her head held high.

“I’m ecstatic. I’m happy that I did my job,” she said afterward. “Of course there’s so much that I wish I could have done better, and there’s going to be so many ‘What ifs?’ after this. But to tell myself that I did what I could, that’s enough.”

Glenn is the oldest woman to represent the United States in singles figure skating at the Olympics since 1928.

Police searches at Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s former home of Royal Lodge, in Windsor, are continuing, after he was released by police under investigation on Thursday evening.

His arrest came after police said they were assessing a complaint over the alleged sharing of confidential material by the former prince with late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Mountbatten-Windsor has consistently and strenuously denied any wrongdoing.

The BBC’s Helena Wilkinson has been reporting on the arrest from outside the former prince’s home, asking the question of what’s next for the King’s brother?

A rain-to-snow transition is sweeping across Ontario once again, with eastern and central parts of the province forecast to receive up to 20 centimetres of snow through Saturday.

According to weather forecasters, a storm similar to Wednesday’s system will move across southern and eastern Ontario on Friday, bringing another round of mixed and shifting precipitation.

The showers started Friday morning and will move east throughout the day.

Many regions are expected to see rain transition to freezing rain before changing over to snow, though not all areas will experience every phase.

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The precipitation near the Greater Toronto Area will create cloudy and wet conditions throughout the day, before the rain is expected to stop in the evening.

Compared with Wednesday’s storm, the approaching system is expected to deliver more consistent snowfall to eastern Ontario, including Ottawa, where accumulation totals could climb significantly.

According to Environment Canada, the heaviest snowfall, between 15 and 20 centimetres, is forecasted for parts of eastern and central Ontario, where colder air is expected to remain firmly in place.

Toronto, however, is expected to stay warm enough to predominantly see rain for much of the event, with a gradual shift to snow possible later.

Environment Canada has also issued yellow freezing rain warnings for some areas north and east of Ottawa, as well as regions farther north, including areas near Barrie.

Environment Canada urges the public to check driving conditions before getting behind the wheel.

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Alberta Premier Danielle Smith will be holding a press conference in Calgary on Friday morning to discuss her government’s plans to hold a provincial referendum this fall that will ask Albertans’ opinions on various immigration and constitutional issues.

Smith announced her plans in a provincewide television address on Thursday evening.

The vote will be held on Oct. 19, and the premier said there will be nine questions on the ballot, including whether the Government of Alberta should push to have the federal Senate abolished, whether the Canadian constitution should be amended to allow provincial governments to select the justices appointed to provincial King’s Bench and Appeal courts and whether the constitution should be amended to give provincial laws dealing with areas of shared constitutional jurisdiction priority over federal laws.

2:04
Alberta referendum: Premier Smith says Oct. 19 vote will focus on immigration, fiscal position

However, the most controversial questions focus on giving the province more control over immigration, including whether the province should introduce a new law mandating that only Canadian citizens, permanent residents and individuals with an “Alberta-approved” immigration status will be eligible for provincially-funded programs, such as health care, education and other social services.

Critics have assailed the province’s plan as “weaponizing” the issue of immigration to win votes.

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In an interview with Global News, Bradley Lafortune, executive director of Public Interest Alberta, reacted to the government’s referendum plans by saying, “This is a Trump-style, MAGA government that is doing their best to imitate the current Republicans in the United States.”

Smith announced the referendum plans one day after the executive director of her Calgary office, in a post on social media, railed against Canada’s immigration policies, saying, “unsustainable mass immigration into Canada” fills him “with profound disgust.”

In the post on X, Bruce McAllister also asked,”‘Why import from nations with failed systems when our Judeo-Christian heritage and principles have worked so well here?”

Global News will be livestreaming the premier’s Friday morning press conference online starting at 11:30 MST/13:30 EDT.

1:59
Premier Danielle Smith staffer under fire for immigration comments

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Pharmacists say they’re taking on a bigger role in day-to-day health care as the Yukon struggles with a shortage of family doctors and long wait times at hospitals and clinics.

Sunjin Han, a fourth-year pharmacy student at the University of Manitoba who recently completed a two-month internship at some Whitehorse pharmacies, said she encountered patients who did not have clear instructions on how to take their prescriptions.

“I noticed a lack of empowerment in terms of Yukoners’ health care,” she said. “I found that a lot of individuals were just missing a lot of information about why they’re taking medications in the first place, not really knowing how to use certain things such as inhalers for asthma.”

The Yukon government has been gradually expanding services pharmacists are allowed to provide. In 2019, it passed new regulations allowing pharmacists to administer vaccines. In 2022, the government made permanent some pandemic-era rules that allow pharmacists to extend prescriptions and issue new prescriptions for some minor conditions, such as urinary tract infections and pinkeye.

Edmund Tan, a pharmacist who owns the two Shoppers Drug Mart locations in Whitehorse, said those changes, combined with the fact that pharmacies tend to be open longer hours than clinics, have led to an increase in people seeking treatment directly from pharmacists.

“We’re certainly seeing an increase in patients coming in that are asking more questions, and us supporting them with prescribing for small things, minor ailments, that’s certainly increasing, and I’m really, really happy to see that grow so that we can help support the burden of primary access,” he said.

But Tan said barriers to pharmacy access remain, particularly for communities outside of Whitehorse, where the vast majority of the territory’s pharmacies are located. That often means pharmacists must provide advice over the phone and mail prescriptions out.

And Tan said the Yukon government can go farther in expanding the range of services pharmacists can provide.

“There’s a lot of areas that currently have more scope than what we currently have in the Yukon,” he said. 

“So whether it’s more scope to prescribe or more scope to manage medications, they exist in other provinces and other jurisdictions with a lot of impact on reducing emergency room times, reducing doctor visits, reducing wait times, et cetera. ”

Yukon Health Minister Brad Cathers says the Yukon government is “actively considering” expanding the scope of practice for pharmacists in the territory and says he recently met with pharmacists to discuss the issue. The Yukon Party promised during last fall’s election campaign to work with pharmacists to expand their scope of practice.

Cathers says in other jurisdictions, pharmacists are permitted to treat more minor ailments compared to the Yukon.

“We recognize that there’s a very good case to be made that allowing pharmacists to more fully use their training here in the Yukon would be comparable to what’s done in other jurisdictions,” he said. “And has a very solid case to be made that it can reduce some of the visits to the emergency department and the walk-in clinic as well.”

Cathers said he cannot provide specific examples of how the government would expand the services pharmacists can provide, as it still needs to consult with pharmacists and other stakeholders, including doctors.

People who work in the tourism and museum sectors in Nova Scotia are calling the government’s decision to close three museums and most provincially operated visitor information centres “short-sighted.”

On Thursday, employees at the Fisherman’s Life Museum in Oyster Pond, Prescott House Museum in Starrs Point and the Sutherland Steam Mill Museum in Tatamagouche were informed they are losing their jobs because the three museums will be permanently closed.

The province also confirmed Thursday it is closing the visitor information centres at Halifax Stanfield International Airport, Peggys Cove, Port Hastings and Yarmouth. The centre in Amherst will operate from May to October instead of year-round.

The province says it needs to modernize the museum system, and that maintaining all the sites and buildings had become increasingly difficult. It also said it needs to update how it delivers information to tourists. The cuts come as the provincial government grapples with a $1.4-billion budget deficit.

‘It represented a lot of us’

“It strikes me as extremely short-sighted and it’s such a dangerous precedent that a museum that is in public hands … can just be disregarded and kind of cast to the side,” said Matthew Hughson, who worked as the site supervisor at the Fisherman’s Life Museum for eight years.

Former employees at the museum on the province’s Eastern Shore said closing it will be a blow to tourism in the rural community and to the preservation of the area’s heritage. The museum represented a traditional fishing family’s home, and a way of life that included both hardships and charm.

“It represented a lot of us,” said Amanda Dyke, who worked at the museum for nine summers as a heritage interpreter. “It’s where a lot of us came from — fishing families, rural, living-off-the-land type of people and professions.

“You know, like we love all our beautiful estate museums, they’re great, but how many people come from that or can relate to that?”

Denise Tufts, who was the maintenance and grounds worker for two seasons, said the site was already running on a shoestring budget, and employees sometimes brought supplies from home, such as paint, tools and stationery, to keep it running.

“If you want austerity, Tim Houston, this place is what that was about. This place, this is how people lived,” Tufts said. “I mean, it’s just, it’s really bad optics.”

Dyke said the museum saw visitors from all over the world as well as locals and newcomers to the province.

“It’s sad that it will be ignored. You know, someone who’s just showing up here, they’re probably not going to look through a school textbook and learn about this stuff. They wanted to come see it, experience it,” Dyke said.

The employees said they are worried about what will happen with the artifacts, buildings and properties.

Cost savings

According to the Department of Communities, Culture, Tourism and Heritage, Nova Scotia’s museums need more than $10 million in repairs and maintenance, and closing the three sites will reduce those costs and “allow us to invest where it matters most,” said a statement from the department.

The estimated labour cost for the three affected museums was about $260,000 per year.

On average, over the past five years, the Fisherman’s Life Museum received 1,466 visitors per year, while Prescott House Museum had 1,247 visitors per year and the Sutherland Steam Mill Museum had 1,035.

The budget for the visitor information centres was more than $1 million per year, plus $200,000 for visitor enumeration.

What will happen with the museums?

It is unclear exactly what will become of the properties and buildings that comprise the museum sites.

“Over the coming months, we will complete the administrative process of closing the sites,” reads a statement from the Department of Communities, Culture, Tourism and Heritage. “We will then engage with local communities to explore options for future use of the buildings that continue to benefit the community.”

As for the artifacts inside the museums, they will be “managed according to professional museum standards,” the statement said. Some items may be kept within the province’s museum system, while others could be transferred to community organizations or institutions.

Visitor information centres ‘full of people’

Samantha Bambrick owns a hop-on, hop-off transportation and tour service called Alternative Routes Nova Scotia.

She said in the summer, her business received about five calls a day from people who found out about her through staff at the visitor information centre at Peggys Cove.

Bambrick said the visitor centre is needed and well used by tourists.

“It’s full,” she said. “That place is packed morning to evening every day and it’s full of people just asking questions.”

The fact that people go to the centre to ask questions in person is proof that the other options — such as seeking tourism information online — aren’t enough, Bambrick said.

“The reason why they land at the airport and they still don’t know what they’re going to do is because they’re not able to find that information properly. So to have real humans who can sit in front of people and tell them what to do, I think is really important.”

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The spring sitting of the P.E.I. Legislature will be prorogued for 30 days, Premier Rob Lantz announced Friday afternoon.

MLAs already knew they would not be returning to Province House for the upcoming spring sitting of the legislature, the start date for which was set for Feb. 24. 

Now, the spring sitting is set to return to the George Coles Building on March 24, beginning with a speech from the throne.

“The Speech from the Throne will outline our government’s priorities moving forwards — strengthening our healthcare system, ensuring energy security, improving affordability for Island families, and taking responsible action on land use and protection,” said a written statement attributed to Lantz. 

The announcement of the delay follows a busy period in P.E.I. politics, especially for the governing Progressive Conservative Party. 

Lantz was selected to be permanent leader of the party at its leadership convention in early February, where he won 53.1 per cent of the vote. Lantz was closely trailed by his only competitor, Mark Ledwell, who won 46.8 per cent of the vote. 

He was sworn in as premier for the second time, having previously served as premier and interim PC Party leader for about nine months following Dennis King’s surprise resignation in February 2025. He stepped down from both roles in December so he could run for permanent leadership of the party.

Just a few days after his swearing in, Lantz shuffled his cabinet, renaming some portfolios and adding some new faces to the mix. 

At least one of those appointments has drawn some criticism. The P.E.I. Fisherman’s Association has pushed back against the provincial government’s attempts to grant Sidney MacEwen the ability to sit as a cabinet member while also maintaining his lobster fleet. 

WARNING: This story references sexual assault allegations and may affect those who have experienced​ ​​​sexual violence or know someone affected by it.

The lawyer for Frank Stronach accused one of the complainants in his sexual assault case of lying, rejecting her testimony that she couldn’t remember some details of the alleged attack.

“My position is, is that you have regret. That’s what you have going on in your mind as you’ve been conveying your narrative to this court,” Leora Shemesh said as she cross-examined the complainant in a Toronto courtroom on Friday.

“You really do have memories. This whole narrative of, ‘I don’t remember how I got from here to there, and I don’t remember how clothes came off,’ that’s a lie.”

“No, that’s not true,” the woman said.

“I’m going to suggest to you that you absolutely do know exactly how things happened. But you are embarrassed to admit that you have regret,” Shemesh said.

“That’s not true and not the case,” the woman said.

On Thursday, court heard that the woman, now in her 60s, was a university student who had worked for Stronach’s company in the summer of 1983.

The woman told court that she got the job because her father had known Stronach. Near the end of the summer, Stronach asked her to go out for dinner, she said.

During that evening, Stronach invited her to see the view from his apartment at Harbourfront, the woman said. She said she felt quite uncomfortable about the invitation, but thought she should go since he had taken her out to dinner and got her a job.

Once in the apartment, while she was standing at the window looking at the view, Stronach came up from behind, put his arms around her and started fondling her breasts, the woman told court.

She said somehow from there she ended up in the bedroom face down on the bed. The woman said she wasn’t completely naked but Stronach pulled her trousers down, probably to her thighs.

She said Stronach, standing behind her, then raped her.

The 93-year-old founder of auto-parts giant Magna International faces a total of 12 charges, including sexual assault and forcible confinement. Two of the counts, rape and attempted rape, are considered historical charges as they were abolished when the Criminal Code was amended in 1983 to create the offence of sexual assault.

Stronach has denied the allegations and has pleaded not guilty to all charges.

Preparatory meeting with Crown

On Thursday, Shemesh focused on the complainant’s past police statements and a preparatory meeting she had with Crown attorneys for the case on Jan. 20, 2026.

That meeting has become an issue in the case. Shemesh, before the trial began, said she would be asking for the charges against her client to be stayed, arguing that some of the complainants may have been coached during preparatory meetings with the Crown.

During cross-examination, Shemesh zeroed in on the phrase “I would have” that the woman had used repeatedly in relaying her story in a June 2024 statement with police.

Shemesh said the woman had never used that phrase during her court testimony on Thursday, though the woman said she thought she used it once during her testimony.

Shemesh suggested it was during that preparatory meeting that the woman learned that “I would have” is not the best phrase to utilize in the court proceeding.

The woman said at no point during that meeting was she ever told how she “should put things.” She said she hadn’t specifically avoided the use of that phrase during her court testimony.

Shemesh also raised how the topic of “omissions” came up in the preparatory meeting. For example, the woman said the Crown told her in that meeting that it was an omission that she didn’t know how she had got to the bedroom in the condo unit.

“So that’s something that is brought to your attention, that there are omissions here, and we need to discuss those omissions,” Shemesh said.

“There was no discussion about the omissions at all,” the woman said. “[The Crown] said, ‘this is an omission.’ And then that was it.”

Shemesh also asked the woman if she agreed there were “portions of time and space that are lost to you.”

The woman agreed, but said there are two categories of problems with memory.

“One is memory where it was a long time ago. 
And there are other problems of memory where they’re very painful memories, and really, your mind blocks them out.”

The woman did agree, however that she didn’t have a clear recollection of how she got to the bedroom that night, the room itself, if she had any discussions with Stronach or how she was behaving that evening.