IN PHOTOS Northern lights dance across the night sky in southern Ont.
From London, to Mildmay, Collingwood and St. Thomas, here are some highlights of Friday night and Saturday morning's northern lights display.
Tens of thousands of environmental activists staged a rally outside Germany's parliament Friday, two days before the country holds a national election, to demand that politicians take stronger action to curb climate change.
The protest outside the Reichstag in Berlin was part of a string of rallies around the world, from Japan, Indian and Nigeria to Greece, Italy and Britain -- amid dire warnings that the planet faces dangerous temperature rises unless greenhouse gas emissions are cut sharply in coming years. Across Germany alone, hundreds of thousands of marchers joined similar protests in several cities and towns.
The idea for a global "climate strike" was inspired by teenage Swedish activist Greta Thunberg's solo protest in Stockholm three years ago. It snowballed into a mass movement until the coronavirus pandemic put a stop to large gatherings. Activists have only recently started staging smaller protests again.
Thunberg, 18, addressed the Berlin rally from a stage, telling the crowd that voting is important but must be coupled with protests that put politicians under constant pressure.
"We can still turn this around," she said, to cheers. "We demand change, and we are the change."
Thunberg and prominent German climate activist Luisa Neubauer accused politicians of falling short, saying the programs of the main parties weren't far-reaching enough to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit) -- the more ambitious limit in the 2015 Paris climate accord.
Neubauer has referred to Sunday's election as the "vote of the century," arguing that the decisions taken by the next government will influence the country's efforts to tackle climate change for decades to come. The issue has been a major topic during the election campaign.
Friday's rally was a multi-generational event, drawing school-age participants as well as adults. Rene Bohrenfeldt, an IT expert at the Berlin rally, said he hoped older Germans would consider the issue when casting their votes on Sunday.
"The majority of voters are older than 50 and determine the outcome of the election," Bohrenfeldt, 36, said. "I appeal to all grandmothers to make the right decision for the climate and for their grandchildren."
Civics teacher Anne Kokott, cradling her infant son, Enzo, said she hoped Friday's large turnout would signal the urgency of dealing with the climate crisis and perhaps have an impact on undecided or older voters.
"Today is important because of the election," Kokott, 36, said.
Christiane Koetter-Lietz, who attended with her children and grandchildren, said she would be voting for Germany's Green party, which has campaigned for tougher measures to cut the country's greenhouse gas emissions.
"We have water catastrophes, fire catastrophes, the world is burning. This is the very last warning," said the 69-year-old from the western town of Unna.
Across the street from the protest, two young climate activists pressed on with a hunger strike meant to draw politicians into making public commitments on climate policy.
Henning Jeschke, 21, started his fast on Aug. 30, initially as part of a group of seven, with the others having since dropped out, most this week. In their place, another hunger striker joined Jeschke. Both have said they would escalate and begin refusing liquids.
Organizers initially said Jeschke and Lea Bonasera would stop taking liquids Thursday evening, but Jeschke's father, Eckart, said the more severe protest is to begin Saturday morning. The hunger strikers are demanding that Olaf Scholz of the Social Democrats, seen as a front-runner for becoming Germany's next chancellor, acknowledges publicly that the country faces a climate emergency.
A German government official said pressure from young climate activists already had resulted in concrete policies in recent years, from higher carbon prices to billions of euros (dollars) being invested in greener technologies.
"We also have a new mood across society, where politicians don't have to explain why they're doing something to protect the climate anymore. They have to explain why they're not protecting the climate," German Environment Ministry spokesman Nikolai Fichtner said.
In Prague, the Czech Republic's capital, hundreds of students and environment activists shouted "Now or never," and displayed banners with slogans and statements such as "Climate justice," and "We want a healthy planet for our children."
Small groups of young climate protesters held demonstrations in multiple Indian cities on Friday, calling on politicians and big businesses to ramp up their ambitions for reducing global greenhouse gas emissions and to commit to a raft of climate pledges.
"Just because there is a pandemic doesn't mean you stop working around the climate crisis," said Srijani Datta, a youth climate activist in New Delhi.
Global warming also has been a top election issue in Iceland, where voters head to the polls for a general election on Saturday. All parties running for seats in the North Atlantic island nation's parliament acknowledge global warming as a force of change in a sub-Arctic landscape but disagree on how to respond to it.
While many of the protests worldwide were restrained family affairs, activists in Britain blocked the country's busiest ferry port Friday to highlight the climate crisis, as well as fuel poverty in the U.K.
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Karel Janicek in Prague and Rishabh R. Jain in New Delhi, India, contributed to this report.
From London, to Mildmay, Collingwood and St. Thomas, here are some highlights of Friday night and Saturday morning's northern lights display.
For decades, North Bay, Ontario's water supply has harboured chemicals associated with liver and developmental issues, cancer and complications with pregnancy. It's far from the only city with that problem.
The Netherlands' contestant in the Eurovision Song Contest was dramatically expelled from competition hours before Saturday's final of the pan-continental pop competition, which has been rattled by protests over the participation of Israel.
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Biden wants the 2024 election to be a referendum on Trump's record and plans, but he also wants voters to look favourably on his own policies and actions
Evan Bouchard scored 5:38 into overtime and the Edmonton Oilers bounced back for a 4-3 win over the Vancouver Canucks in the second round of the Stanley Cup playoffs on Friday.
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An evacuation alert was issued for two Wood Buffalo communities Friday night, as crews battled an out-of-control wildfire near Fort McMurray.
A cyclist turned herself in and received a fine after striking a four-year-old girl who was crossing the street to catch a school bus.
A family of fifth generation farmers from Ituna, Sask. are trying to find answers after discovering several strange objects lying on their land.
A Listowel, Ont. man, drafted by the Hamilton Tigercats last week, is also getting looks from the NFL, despite only playing 27 games of football in his life.
A small Ajax dessert shop that recently received a glowing review from celebrity food critic Keith Lee is being forced to move after a zoning complaint was made following the social media influencer’s visit last month.
The Canada Science and Technology Museum is inviting visitors to explore their poop. A new exhibition opens at the Ottawa museum on Friday called, 'Oh Crap! Rethinking human waste.'
The Regina Police Service says it is the first in Saskatchewan and possibly Canada to implement new technology in its detention facility that will offer real-time monitoring of detainees’ vital health metrics.
The stakes have been set for a bet between Vancouver and Edmonton's mayors on who will win Round 2 of the Stanley Cup playoffs.
A grieving mother is hosting a helmet drive in the hopes of protecting children on Manitoba First Nations from a similar tragedy that killed her daughter.
A chicken farmer near Mattawa made an 'eggstraordinary' find Friday morning when she discovered one of her hens laid an egg close to three times the size of an average large chicken egg.
A P.E.I. lighthouse and a New Brunswick river are being honoured in a Canada Post series.