Wildfire smoke has led to air quality alerts in six provinces and territories.

The Environment Canada air quality alerts cover a huge swath of central Canada, including much of Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba. Parts of the Northwest Territories, western Ontario and Labrador are also affected.

In Alberta, air quality alerts stretch from near Red Deer in the south to the boundary with Northwest Territories. The most severe air quality warnings are in effect in the northwestern part of the province, including areas in and around High Level. At least four northern Alberta communities have been evacuated so far. Conditions are expected to improve later Friday.

“Smoke is causing very poor air quality and reduced visibility,” Environment Canada warned. “As smoke levels increase, health risks increase. Limit time outdoors. Consider reducing or rescheduling outdoor sports, activities and events.”

Environment Canada also urges those in affected areas to keep windows and doors closed, use an air filter inside, and to wear a mask when outdoors.

“You may experience mild and common symptoms such as eye, nose and throat irritation, headaches or a mild cough,” Environment Canada said. “More serious but less common symptoms include wheezing, chest pains or severe cough. If you think you are having a medical emergency, seek immediate medical assistance.”

Russian captain denies manslaughter in North Sea collision. The Russian captain of a cargo ship that collided with a U.S. tanker in the North Sea pleaded not guilty to the manslaughter of one of his crew at a U.K. court hearing on Friday.

Vladimir Motin, 59, from St. Petersburg, appeared by video link from prison for the pretrial hearing at London’s Central Criminal Court. Assisted by a Russian interpreter, he denied a charge of gross manslaughter over the death of 38-year-old Mark Angelo Pernia.

Motin was ordered detained until his next hearing, and his trial was set for Jan. 12.

The Portugal-flagged cargo ship Solong was traveling at about 15 knots (17 mph or 28 km/h) when it hit the anchored tanker MV Stena Immaculate about 12 miles (19 kilometres) off the coast of northeast England on March 10, sparking a fire that lasted nearly a week. The tanker was transporting jet fuel for the U.S. military.

Rescuers saved 36 people from both ships. Pernia, from the Philippines, is missing and presumed dead.

U.K. authorities have said that there’s nothing to indicate that the collision was connected to national security.

Environmental damage from the collision was far less than initially feared, though thousands of pellets used in plastics production, known as nurdles, from the ruptured containers on the Solong have since washed up along England’s east coast.

Conservationists say the nurdles aren’t toxic, but can harm animals if ingested.

U.S. and allies accuse North Korea and Russia of flagrantly violating UN sanctions in military deals.

The U.S. and 10 allies on Thursday said the military cooperation between Russia and North Korea flagrantly violates UN sanctions and has helped Moscow increase its missile strikes on Ukrainian cities.

They made the accusations in their first report since joining forces to monitor sanctions against North Korea after Russia vetoed a resolution in March 2024 to continue the monitoring by a UN Security Council panel of experts. It had been issuing reports of Pyongyang’s sanctions violations since 2010.

The 29-page report produced by the Multilateral Sanctions Monitoring Team — comprised of the U.S., Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, New Zealand, South Korea and the United Kingdom — said the evidence it gathered demonstrates that North Korea and Russia have engaged in “myriad unlawful activities” explicitly prohibited by UN sanctions resolutions.

It said North Korea has transferred arms and related materiel by sea, air and rail, including artillery, ballistic missiles and combat vehicles, for Russia’s use in the war in Ukraine.

Russia has transferred air defense systems to North Korea, and its forces trained the North’s troops deployed to support Russia’s war, the team said. And Moscow also has supplied refined petroleum products to Pyongyang in far excess of the yearly cap under UN sanctions, and has maintained corresponding banking relations with the North in violation of sanctions.

The 11 countries said this unlawful cooperation has “contributed to Moscow’s ability to increase its missile attacks against Ukrainian cities including targeted strikes against critical civilian infrastructure.”

The cooperation also has provided resources for North Korea to fund its military and banned ballistic missile programs., and it allowed the more than 11,000 troops Pyongyang has deployed to Russia since October 2024 to gain first-hand military experience, the team said.

There was no immediate response from the Russian Mission to the United Nations to a request for comment on the report.

The report covers the period between Jan. 1, 2024, and April 30, 2025, and points to evidence that Russia and North Korea intend to further deepen their military cooperation for at least the foreseeable future.

It cites an unnamed country in the team reporting that Russian-flagged cargo vessels delivered as many as 9 million rounds of ammunition for artillery and multiple rocket launchers from North Korea to Russia in 2024.

The report includes images of containers, which the team says were from North Korean and Russian ports and an ammunition dump in Russia.

Citing an unnamed team member, the report says North Korea last year transferred at least 100 ballistic missiles to Russia, which were launched into Ukraine “to destroy civilian infrastructure and terrorize populated areas such as Kyiv and Zaporizhzhia.” It also transferred “elements of three brigade sets of heavy artillery,” the report said.

It includes images of a North Korean 170mm self-propelled gun that it said was being transported through Russia, and North Korean multiple rocket launcher ammunition and an anti-tank missile it said were found in Ukraine.

The team said in a joint statement that it will continue to monitor implementation of UN resolutions “and raise awareness of ongoing attempts to violate and evade UN sanctions.” It urged North Korea “to engage in meaningful diplomacy.”

The Security Council imposed sanctions after North Korea’s first nuclear test explosion in 2006 and tightened them over the years in a total of 10 resolutions seeking — so far unsuccessfully — to cut funds and curb its nuclear and ballistic missile programs.

The last sanctions resolution was adopted by the council in December 2017. China and Russia vetoed a U.S.-sponsored resolution in May 2022 that would have imposed new sanctions over a spate of intercontinental ballistic missile launches, and have blocked all other UN action against North Korea.

#UN nuclear watchdog chief says ‘jury is still out’ on Iran-U.S. talks, but calls them a good sign.

The head of the United Nations’ atomic watchdog said Wednesday that “the jury is still out” on negotiations between Iran and the U.S. over Tehran’s rapidly advancing nuclear program, but described the continuing negotiations a good sign.

Rafael Mariano Grossi, director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, described himself as being in near-daily conversation with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, as well as talking to Steve Witkoff, the U.S. Middle East envoy.

Grossi acknowledged one of his deputies was in Tehran on Wednesday. Iranian officials identified the official as Massimo Aparo, the head of the IAEA’s safeguards arm. That’s the division that sends inspectors into Iran to monitor its program, which now enriches uranium up to 60 per cent purity — a short, technical step from weapons-grade levels of 90 per cent.

“For the moment, the jury is still out. We don’t know whether there’s going to be an agreement or not,” Grossi told journalists attending a weeklong seminar at the agency in Vienna.

However, he described the ongoing meetings as a good sign.

“I think that is an indication of a willingness to come to an agreement. And I think that, in and by itself, is something possible.”

Iran and the U.S. so far have held five rounds of talks in both Muscat, Oman, and Rome, mediated by Omani Foreign Minister Badr al-Busaidi. A sixth round has yet to be set.
Talks focused on Iranian enrichment

The talks seek to limit Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for the lifting of some of the crushing economic sanctions the U.S. has imposed on the Islamic Republic, closing in on a half-century of enmity.

U.S. President Donald Trump has repeatedly threatened to unleash airstrikes targeting Iran’s program, if a deal isn’t reached. Iranian officials increasingly warn they could pursue a nuclear weapon with their stockpile of uranium.

Trump has described Iran as having an American proposal to reach a deal. However, Iran repeatedly has denied receiving such a proposal, including on Wednesday with Mohammad Eslami, the head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran.

However, if a deal is reached, Iran might allow the IAEA to have American inspectors on their teams during inspections, Eslami said. Americans represent the largest single nationality of IAEA employees, a 2023 agency report showed.
Iran maintains its own pressure

Before Grossi’s comments to journalists in Vienna, the head of Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard issued a new warning to the U.S. as the negotiations go on.

“Our fingers on the trigger, we are in ambush and we are waiting,” Gen. Hossein Salami warned. “If they make a mistake, they will immediately receive responses that will make them completely forget their past.”

Despite the tensions, Grossi said that he believed “there’s always a way” to reach a deal between the Americans and the Iranians — even with the disagreement over enrichment. He added the IAEA had been making some “suggestions” to both the Iranians and the Americans, without elaborating.

However, he added that any possible deal likely would require a “solid, very robust” IAEA investigation of Iran’s program to understand where it stood after years of Tehran restricting inspectors’ ability to assess it.

“My conversations with my Iranian colleagues and counterparts, I always invite them to be absolutely transparent,” Grossi said. “And they tell me that a nuclear weapon is un-Islamic. I tell them, ‘Well, yeah. You know, that is perfect. It’s a statement that I respect. But in this business, you have to show it. You have to be verified in this.’”

And asked about his own political future, Grossi acknowledged his interest in pursuing the post of UN secretary-general, which is now held by António Guterres, whose current five-year term expires in 2027.

“What I have said to colleagues in other parts of the world is that, seriously considering that, yes, but for the moment, I’m here and I have, as you can see from this discussion, I have a lot on my plate,” he said.

Fire halts production at Ecuador’s biggest oil refinery. A fuel tank fire on Monday halted production at Ecuador’s largest oil refinery, sparking the evacuation of nearby residents as a giant plume of smoke billowed from the facility.

Operations at the plant in Esmeraldas province, which can refine 110,000 barrels per day (bpd), were suspended “to safeguard the security of the facilities and personnel,” state oil company Petroecuador said.

It said no one was injured in the blaze, and five people received medical attention for minor effects of smoke inhalation.

Workers were evacuated from the site that was cordoned off by soldiers and refinery staff, an AFP journalist observed.

Ecuadoran police said it was evacuating residents of the area, without specifying how many.

The cause of the fire at the refinery near Ecuador’s border with Colombia was not yet known.

Writing on X, Energy Minister Ines Manzano said the situation was “under control,” but the assurance did little to quell the concerns of residents.

Ramiro Medina, a plant worker, said “a loud noise” was heard, “and we all started running.”

“What is happening now is quite worrying,” added community representative Edgar Romero.

“We smelled something and thought it was coming from the Jaime Hurtado school, which was being fumigated today.... (but then) we smelled gasoline... We hope that the authorities will take action.”
Fuel supply ‘guaranteed’

Petroecuador, which operates the facility, did not specify the amount of fuel that was in the tank when the fire broke out.

Ecuador is one of South America’s top oil producers and is heavily reliant on its petroleum exports for revenue.

In 2024, the country produced about 475,000 barrels of crude per day, of which it sold nearly three-quarters, earning $8.6 billion in oil exports.

But production last year was disrupted by recurring power cuts linked to the worst drought in 60 years, which reduced the level of hydroelectric reservoirs to historic lows.

In March this year, a massive fuel pipeline leak saw more than 25,000 barrels of crude spill into three rivers, in an incident that also forced a suspension of oil exports.

Ecuador has two other refineries, with respective capacity for 45,000 and 20,000 barrels per day.

The government said in a statement Monday that “the supply of fuel is completely guaranteed throughout the country” despite the fire.

US President Donald Trump called his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin “crazy” on Sunday after Moscow launched a deadly barrage of drones against Ukraine, even as the warring countries completed a large-scale prisoner exchange.

France’s first lady seems to push her husband as they land in Vietnam. He says they were joking.

That was French President Emmanuel Macron ‘s explanation Monday for video images that showed show his wife, Brigitte, pushing her husband away with both hands on his face before they disembarked from their plane to start a tour of Southeast Asia this weekend.

The moment quickly made headlines in France, with media trying to decipher the interaction that cameras spotted through the just-opened door of the plane. The headline of a story on the website of the daily Le Parisien newspaper asked: “Slap or `squabble’? The images of Emmanuel and Brigitte Macron disembarking in Vietnam trigger a lot of comment.”

Macron later told reporters that the couple -- married since 2007 after meeting at the high school where he was a student and she was a teacher -- were simply joking around.

“We are squabbling and, rather, joking with my wife,” he said, adding that the incident was being overblown into “a sort of geo-planetary catastrophe.”

In video taken by The Associated Press as the Macrons arrived in Hanoi, Vietnam, on Sunday, a uniformed man can be seen pulling open the plane door and revealing the president standing inside, dressed in a suit and talking to someone who wasn’t visible.

Brigitte Macron’s arms -- in red -- were seen reaching out and pushing Macron away, with one hand covering his mouth and part of his nose while the other was on his jaw. The French leader recoiled, turning his head away. Then, apparently realizing that he was on camera, he broke into a smile and gave a little wave.

In subsequent images, Macron and his wife, wearing a red jacket, appeared at the top of the stairs. He offered an arm but she didn’t take it. They walked down the carpeted stairs side by side.

The French leader argued that the images and reaction to them offered a cautionary tale about disinformation in the social media age, noting that in recent weeks, other videos had been used to circulate made-up stories about him.

“Everyone needs to calm down,” he said.

His office also downplayed the interaction.

“It was a moment where the president and his wife were decompressing one last time before the start of the trip by horsing around. It’s a moment of complicity. It was all that was needed to give ammunition to the conspiracy theorists,” his office said.

Brigitte Macron was Brigitte Auziere, a married mother of three children, when they met at his high school. A teacher, she supervised the drama club where Emmanuel Macron, a literature lover, was a member.

He moved to Paris for his last year of high school, but promised to marry Brigitte. She later moved to the French capital to join him and divorced before they finally married.

U.S. President Donald Trump says Russian leader Vladimir Putin ‘has gone absolutely CRAZY!’.

WASHINGTON — U.S. President Donald Trump made it clear he is losing patience with Vladimir Putin, leveling some of his sharpest criticism at the Russian leader as Moscow pounded Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities with drones and missiles for a third straight night.

“I’ve always had a very good relationship with Vladimir Putin of Russia, but something has happened to him. He has gone absolutely CRAZY!” Trump wrote in a social media post on Sunday night.

Trump said Putin is “needlessly killing a lot of people,” pointing out that “missiles and drones are being shot into Cities in Ukraine, for no reason whatsoever.”

The attack was the largest aerial assault since Russia’s full-scale invasion of the country in February 2022, according to Ukrainian officials. At least 12 people were killed and dozens injured.

The U.S. president warned that if Putin wants to conquer all of Ukraine, it will “lead to the downfall of Russia!” But Trump expressed frustration with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as well, saying that he is “doing his Country no favors by talking the way he does.”

“Everything out of his mouth causes problems, I don’t like it, and it better stop,” Trump wrote on social media.

The president has increasingly voiced irritation at Putin and the inability to resolve the now three-year-old war, which Trump promised he would promptly end as he campaigned to return to the White House.

He had long boasted of his friendly relationship with Putin and repeatedly stressed that Russia is more willing than Ukraine to reach a peace deal.

But last month, Trump urged Putin to “STOP!” assaulting Ukraine after Russia launched another deadly barrage of attacks on Kyiv, and he has repeatedly expressed his frustration that the war in Ukraine is continuing.

“I’m not happy with what Putin’s doing. He’s killing a lot of people. And I don’t know what the hell happened to Putin,” Trump told reporters earlier Sunday as he departed northern New Jersey, where he spent most of the weekend. “I’ve known him a long time, always gotten along with him, but he’s sending rockets into cities and killing people and I don’t like it at all. ”

A peace agreement between Russia and Ukraine remains elusive. Trump and Putin spoke on the phone this past week, and Trump announced after the call that Russia and Ukraine will “immediately” begin ceasefire talks. That conversation occurred after Russian and Ukrainian officials met in Turkey for the first face-to-face talks since 2022. But on Thursday, the Kremlin said no direct talks were scheduled.

The European Union has slapped new sanctions on Russia this month in response to Putin’s refusal to agree to a ceasefire. But while Trump has threatened to step up sanctions and tariffs on Russia, he hasn’t acted so far.

Seung Min Kim, The Associated Press

Russia and Ukraine swap hundreds of prisoners, hours after Moscow’s largest missile-and-drone attack

Nine of a doctor’s 10 children are killed in Israel’s latest strikes in #Gaza. The bodies of 79 people killed by Israeli strikes have been brought to hospitals in the past 24 hours, Gaza ‘s Health Ministry said Saturday, a toll that doesn’t include hospitals in the battered north that it said are now inaccessible.

Nine of a doctor’s 10 children were among those killed in Israel’s renewed military offensive, colleagues and the Health Ministry said.

Alaa Najjar, a pediatrician at Nasser Hospital, was on duty at the time and ran home to find her family’s house on fire, Ahmad al-Farra, head of the hospital’s pediatric department, told The Associated Press.

Najjar’s husband was severely wounded and their only surviving child, an 11-year-old son, was in critical condition after Friday’s strike in the southern city of Khan Younis, Farra said.

The dead children ranged in age from 7 months to 12 years old. Khalil Al-Dokran, a spokesperson for Gaza’s Health Ministry, told the AP that two of the children remained under the rubble.

Israel’s military in a statement said it struck suspects operating from a structure next to its forces, and described the area of Khan Younis as a “dangerous war zone.” It said it had evacuated civilians from the area, and “the claim regarding harm to uninvolved civilians is under review.”

Earlier on Saturday, a statement said Israel’s air force struck over 100 targets throughout Gaza over the past day.

The Health Ministry said the new deaths brought the war’s toll to 53,901 since the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack on Israel that sparked the 19 months of fighting. The ministry said 3,747 people have been killed in Gaza since Israel resumed the war on March 18 in an effort to pressure Hamas to accept different ceasefire terms. Its count doesn’t differentiate between civilians and combatants.

Israel’s pressure on Hamas has included a blockade of Gaza and its over 2 million people since early March. This week, the first aid trucks entered the territory and began reaching Palestinians since the blockade began.

COGAT, the Israeli defense body overseeing aid for Gaza, said 388 trucks had entered since Monday. About 600 trucks a day had entered during the ceasefire.

Warnings of famine by food security experts, and images of desperate Palestinians jostling for bowls of food at the ever-shrinking number of charity kitchens, led Israel’s allies to press the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to allow some aid to return.

Netanyahu’s government has sought a new aid delivery and distribution system by a newly established U.S.-backed group, but the United Nations and partners have rejected it, saying it allows Israel to use food as a weapon and violates humanitarian principles.

Israel may now be changing its approach to let aid groups remain in charge of non-food assistance, according to a letter obtained by the AP. Israel accuses Hamas of siphoning off aid but the U.N. and aid groups deny there is significant diversion.

Hospitals in Gaza are again reporting attacks and other Israeli pressure.

The Health Ministry said 11 security personnel have been trapped at the European Hospital in southern Gaza following heavy gunfire and airstrikes since at least Tuesday. Dr. Saleh Hams, director of the nursing department, said patients were evacuated after an Israeli strike on May 13. Hams said the security staff stayed behind to protect from looting, and that it was the only hospital in Gaza offering neurosurgery, cardiac care and cancer treatment.

Israel said it will continue to strike Gaza until Hamas releases all of the 58 remaining Israeli hostages and disarms. Fewer than half of the hostages are believed to be alive since the Oct. 7 attack, in which militants killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted 251 others.

Hamas has said it will only return the remaining hostages in exchange for more Palestinian prisoners, a lasting ceasefire and an Israeli withdrawal from the territory. Netanyahu has rejected those terms and has vowed to maintain control over Gaza and facilitate what he refers to as the voluntary emigration of much of its Palestinian population.

“The Israeli government and its leader have a clear choice: deal or war, saving lives or abandonment,” Liran Berman, brother of hostages Gali and Ziv Berman, told a weekly rally in Tel Aviv as families and supporters again demanded an agreement that would bring everyone home.