The B-C Wildfire Service wants people to take precautions with any fire use over the long weekend, saying most wildfires are preventable.   It also suggests people planning to travel to check for wildfire activity, road closures and evacuation orders and alerts, while also paying attention to weather conditions.The service's dashboard shows there are about 30 fires currently burning in B-C. The service says the province continues to have below-average rainfall at this time of year, and is warning about prolonged drought, noting the northeast remains the driest region.

The sexual assault trial of five former members of Canada's world junior hockey team will now continue in London, Ontario with a judge alone after the jury was dismissed. It comes after a juror sent a note to the judge yesterday indicating some members of the panel felt two of the defence lawyerswere laughing at them as they came into court each day.Both lawyers denied doing anything of the like, but it still caused concerns about jury bias. Michael McLeod, Dillon Dube, Alex Formenton, Carter Hart and Callan Foote have pleaded not guilty to sexual assault in relation to an encounter tha

Alberta has now seen more than 400 cases of measles within the last two months. The province confirmed 14 new cases Thursday, bringing the provincial total to 409 since the beginning of March. More than 300 of the total cases of the highly contagious disease have been found in children, with 127 cases confirmed in those under age five. The government says 35 people have been hospitalized. More than half of all cases have been in southern parts of Alberta, while just six cases have been confirmed in the Edmonton area. Measles symptoms include fever, coughing, runny nose, red eyes and a blot

Alberta's bill lowering the bar for a separation referendum has spurred a First Nation to push ahead with a legal challenge against the premier's flagship sovereignty act. Danielle Smith has said her Alberta Sovereignty Within a United Canada Act is needed to push back on what the province believes is unconstitutional federal encroachment on provincial jurisdiction. But Onion Lake Cree Nation Chief Henry Lewis says it undermines his community's pre-existing treaty with the Crown. He announced the legal challenge is moving forward a day after Smith's government passed a bill significantly l

Delegations from Russia and Ukraine met Friday in Istanbul for their first direct peace talks in three years, officials said. A Ukrainian delegation led by Defense Minister Rustem Umerov sat down with a low-level Russian team headed by presidential aide Vladimir Medinsky, according to Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Heorhii Tykhyi, who published a photo of the meeting. The officials present sat around a U-shaped table, with the Russians and Ukrainians facing each other. Officials and observers expect the Turkish-brokered talks to yield little immediate progress on stopping the more

Khalilullah Yusuf, 36, of Toronto, has been sentenced to 12 years in prison by Ontario Superior Court in the largest terrorist financing case in Canadian history. Yusuf admitted that he launched online fundraising campaigns and transferred funds in both money transfers and cryptocurrencies to support the Islamic State. He also ran propaganda to justify terrorist attacks on foreign nationals in Afghanistan. According to the RCMP, Khalilullah Yusuf, a Toronto resident, funded terrorist activities abroad through cryptocurrency and money transfers between September 2019 and December 2022. Yusuf

The winning ticket for the Lotto Max jackpot sold in Surrey, and which Surrey resident has won the $80 million prize, has been revealed. The BCLC announced the winner during a media event today. Surrey resident Justin Simporios won the $80 million prize. This is the largest lottery win in BC to date. It is also the largest amount won by a single person in Canadian lottery history. Simporios said that when he found out that the winning ticket was purchased in Surrey, he jokingly told his wife that he had become a millionaire and she told him not to joke. But when he checked the ticket numbers,

US President Donald Trump, who took credit for the Pakistan-India ceasefire, took a U-turn on Thursday. He said in Qatar that he did not mediate between the two countries, he only helped. Trump said that I am not saying that I did it, but it is certain that I helped settle what happened between India and Pakistan last week. He said that there could have been a much worse situation between India and Pakistan, both of them had suddenly started firing missiles and we settled everything. Earlier Trump had said that he had told both the countries that if they did not make a ceasefire, America wo

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre (PWAH'-lee-ehv) has offered to help Prime Minister Mark Carney draft a federal budget. Poilievre says he wants Carney to ``steal his ideas'' as he listed off policies his party campaigned on in the recent election, such as cutting spending on consultants and foreign aid.   His remarks come a day after the Liberal government announced it will not put forward a fiscal plan until after the fall economic update. Parliament returns in a couple of weeks.