More than 115 cases of eye damage reported in Ontario after solar eclipse
More than 115 people who viewed the solar eclipse in Ontario earlier this month experienced eye damage after the event, according to eye doctors in the province.
Former U.S. President Donald Trump played another round at his home course Thursday, this one different from so many others. He was part of the Saudi-funded LIV Golf Invitational pro-am, put on by a breakaway league he says is creating a "gold rush" for players.
The third LIV Golf event, which starts Friday at Trump National Bedminster, added four new players to the 48-man field that illustrated how the disruption goes beyond the PGA Tour.
Henrik Stenson of Sweden is among the newcomers, which led the European tour to strip him of the Ryder Cup captaincy for the 2023 matches in Italy.
Stenson was made aware during his news conference of a report in The Daily Telegraph, later matched by Golf Digest, that Luke Donald would be Europe's captain.
"I don't feel like I've given it up," Stenson said. "I made every arrangement possible here to be able to fulfill my captain's duties, and I've had great help here from LIV to be able to do that. And still, the decision was made that I was to be removed. I'm obviously disappointed over the situation. But it is what it is, and yeah, we move on from there now."
By adding Stenson -- the other three were Paul Casey, Charles Howell III and Jason Kokrak -- LIV Golf now has 12 former major champions on its roster, though only five among the top 50 in the world ranking.
"You have really the best players in the world, many of the best players, and soon you'll probably have all of them," said Trump, who played in the pro-am with Dustin Johnson and Bryson DeChambeau, along with his son, Eric.
"Remember this, if there's a merger (between LIV Golf and the PGA Tour), the people who didn't come will never get anything except a thank-you from the people who took advantage of them."
There is no conversation at the PGA Tour about a possible merger. Commissioner Jay Monahan said last month that while the tour welcomes healthy competition: "The LIV Saudi golf league is not that. It's an irrational threat, one not concerned with the return on investment or true growth of the game."
Trump felt slighted when a World Golf Championship left his Trump National Doral course near Miami after 2016 when a replacement title sponsor could not be found.
Backed by Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund, LIV Golf has been awarding massive money -- various reports put total signing fees at around US$1 billion so far. The PGA Tour has suspended players who join for violating regulations that require a release to play overseas. It does not grant releases for tournaments held in North America.
The prize money at LIV Golf events totals $25 million, with the winner getting $4 million. Last place in the 54-hole events with no cut is guaranteed $120,000.
"Now they have an alternative and nobody would have ever known there was going to be a gold rush like this," Trump said.
Trump and his senior adviser and son-in-law, Jared Kushner, cultivated very close relationships with the Saudi crown prince while Trump was in office.
And the administration's response to human rights concerns was criticized by many as not being strong enough, particularly after the murder of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi and repeated concerns expressed about civilian deaths in the Saudi-led war in Yemen against Iran-backed rebels.
LIV Golf CEO Greg Norman has said it would support any player who chose to challenge the suspension in court. That hasn't happened on the PGA Tour yet, though Ian Poulter and Branden Grace were among four players allowed to play in the Scottish Open when a British judge issued a temporary stay against European tour suspensions.
Poulter and Lee Westwood said they still have no clarity from the European tour on future tournaments or their eligibility for the Ryder Cup.
Europe's points system typically begins in September.
"I'm still eligible to play on the European tour. I don't think I've been banned from playing any events," Westwood said, adding the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth is still on his schedule. "I've had no correspondence on that. That's an event, a qualifying event, for the European Ryder Cup team."
The European tour's flagship event is Sept. 8-11 south of London, held a week after a LIV Golf event outside Boston and a week before the LIV event in the Chicago suburbs.
More than 115 people who viewed the solar eclipse in Ontario earlier this month experienced eye damage after the event, according to eye doctors in the province.
The B.C. NDP has asked the federal government to recriminalize public drug use, marking a major shift in the province's approach to addressing the deadly overdose crisis.
George Mallory is renowned for being one of the first British mountaineers to attempt to scale the dizzying heights of Mount Everest during the 1920s. Nearly a century later, newly digitized letters shed light on Mallory’s hopes and fears about ascending Everest.
An orca whale calf that has been stranded in a B.C. lagoon for weeks after her pregnant mother died swam out on her own early Friday morning.
Sophie Gregoire Trudeau says there is 'still so much love' between her and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, as they navigate their post-separation relationship co-parenting their three children.
An Ontario man who took out a loan to pay for auto repairs said his car was repossessed after he missed two payments.
Devastating tornadoes tore across parts of eastern Nebraska and northeast Texas Friday as a multi-day severe thunderstorm event ramped up in the central United States, injuring at least three people.
A Sherwood Park family says their new house is uninhabitable. The McNaughton's say they were forced to leave the house after living there for only a week because contaminants inside made it difficult to breathe.
Donald Trump's defence team attacked the credibility Friday of the prosecution's first witness in his hush money case, seeking to discredit testimony detailing a scheme between Trump and a tabloid to bury negative stories to protect the Republican's 2016 presidential campaign.
Mounties in Nanaimo, B.C., say two late-night revellers are lucky their allegedly drunken antics weren't reported to police after security cameras captured the men trying to steal a heavy sign from a downtown business.
A property tax bill is perplexing a small townhouse community in Fergus, Ont.
When identical twin sisters Kim and Michelle Krezonoski were invited to compete against some of the world’s most elite female runners at last week’s Boston Marathon, they were in disbelief.
The giant stone statues guarding the Lions Gate Bridge have been dressed in custom Vancouver Canucks jerseys as the NHL playoffs get underway.
A local Oilers fan is hoping to see his team cut through the postseason, so he can cut his hair.
A family from Laval, Que. is looking for answers... and their father's body. He died on vacation in Cuba and authorities sent someone else's body back to Canada.
A former educational assistant is calling attention to the rising violence in Alberta's classrooms.
The federal government says its plan to increase taxes on capital gains is aimed at wealthy Canadians to achieve “tax fairness.”
At 6'8" and 350 pounds, there is nothing typical about UBC offensive lineman Giovanni Manu, who was born in Tonga and went to high school in Pitt Meadows.