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.
The UN's atomic energy chief warned Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in a meeting Monday that the perilous situation at Europe's largest nuclear plant "isn't getting any better" as relentless fighting in the area puts the facility at risk of a nuclear disaster.
The Zaporizhzhia plant, which continues to power war-torn Ukraine, has lost several of its power transmission cables during Russia's war, and on multiple occasions has had to switch to emergency diesel generators to power its essential cooling systems preventing a meltdown.
International Atomic Energy Agency Director-General Rafael Grossi plans to visit the Russian-held plant this week. The Vienna-based agency has staff permanently deployed at the plant following Russia's invasion 13 months ago.
In the meeting, covered exclusively by The Associated Press, Grossi said the situation at the plant remains tense because of the heavy military presence around it and a blackout that recently struck the facility, something that has occurred repeatedly since Russian forces took it over last year.
Earlier this month, fighting interrupted power supply to the plant for half a day, forcing staff to activate backup generators.
Grossi expressed alarm at that development. "Each time we are rolling a dice," he told his agency at the time. "And if we allow this to continue time after time, then one day our luck will run out."
Grossi and Zelenskyy met in the the city of Zaporizhzhia, which is in Ukrainian-held territory, about 50 kilometres (30 miles) northeast of the nuclear plant with the same name.
The IAEA announced in January it was placing teams of experts at all four of Ukraine's nuclear power plants to reduce the risk of accidents.
The agency's permanent presence at all of Ukraine's nuclear facilities marked an unprecedented expansion for the agency. That presence includes the now-closed Chernobyl plant whose deadly nuclear accident in 1986 spread fallout over much of Europe.
Grossi emphasized that his seventh trip to Ukraine underlined his commitment and support for "as long as it takes."
Also attending the meeting were other IAEA officials, the head of the presidential office Andriy Yermak and the head of nuclear state operator Energoatom, Petro Kotin.
While in Zaporizhzhia, Zelenskyy also inspected military positions in the partially-occupied province and awarded soldiers with military honours. He also visited with wounded soldiers at city hospitals as well as an apartment building that Kyiv claims was hit by Russian forces last Wednesday, killing at least one person.
Elsewhere, two people were killed and 29 wounded Monday when Russian forces shelled the Ukrainian city of Sloviansk, in the partially occupied eastern Donetsk region, local officials said.
Video footage of the aftermath showed damaged residential buildings, debris in the streets and vehicles on fire.
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy described the attack as "terrorism."
Russia has denied targeting residential areas even though artillery and rocket strikes have hit Ukrainian apartment buildings and civilian infrastructure daily during the war.
The Sloviansk attack followed a typical pattern of long-range shelling adopted by the Kremlin's forces, especially in recent months as the fighting became deadlocked during the bitterly cold winter months.
In the eastern Donetsk region, some 10 cities and villages were shelled by Russian forces over the previous 24 hours, Ukraine's presidential office reported Monday.
On Monday morning, Russian missiles hit the city of Avdiivka, damaging residential buildings, a hotel and a courthouse, it said.
Avdiivka Mayor Vitali Barabash said utility companies are being evacuated from the frontline city, as it "resembles more and more a landscape from post-apocalyptic movies."
Attacks also intensified in the partially occupied southeastern Zaporizhzhia region, where 14 settlements on the front line were shelled, authorities said.
In the partially occupied Kherson region, the Ukrainian-controlled part of the province was shelled 20 times by the Russian artillery and aviation, wounding four people, the presidential office said.
The mayor of the occupied city of Melitopol said several explosions shook the city Monday, damaging a building where Russian security forces have been quartered.
Mayor Ivan Fyodorov posted photos of smoke billowing over the area where the Russian barracks are located.
The Russian-installed authorities said "artillery shelling" of Melitopol partially destroyed a vocational school building, damaged several other buildings and wounded four people.
Meanwhile, Zelenskyy met in Kyiv with British actor Orlando Bloom, the head of Ukraine's presidential office Andriy Yermak said Monday.
Bloom, who is also a UNICEF goodwill ambassador, arrived in the Ukrainian capital over the weekend and visited its suburb of Irpin.
During his meeting with Zelenskyy, Bloom said "he was struck by the courage and resilience of Ukrainians, who despite the war remain strong," Yermak wrote.
Bloom "will support projects to provide humanitarian assistance and restore infrastructure, focused on ensuring the interests of Ukrainian children," the official said.
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.
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.
A man has been handed a lengthy hunting ban and fined thousands of dollars for illegally killing a grizzly bear, B.C. conservation officers say.
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.
The Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) says it's investigating an interaction between a uniformed officer and anti-Trudeau government protestors after a video circulated on social media.
An emergency slide fell off a Delta Air Lines jetliner shortly after takeoff Friday from New York, and pilots who felt a vibration in the plane circled back to land safely at JFK Airport.
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.
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.
A loud explosion was heard across Hamilton on Friday after a propane tank was accidentally destroyed and detonated at a local scrap metal yard, police say.
As if a 4-0 Edmonton Oilers lead in Game 1 of their playoff series with the Los Angeles Kings wasn't good enough, what was announced at Rogers Place during the next TV timeout nearly blew the roof off the downtown arena.
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.”