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.
Germany's plan to spend billions of euros to help keep gas prices low for its consumers and businesses has received a tepid welcome from fellow European Union members, with some worrying that the measure could exacerbate the energy crisis.
With a recession looming, Chancellor Olaf Scholz said last week that his government would spend up to 200 billion euros (dollars) on the "gas price brake." Some EU countries think the move by the bloc's biggest economy should have been coordinated with them. They said they worry it could jack up prices elsewhere.
European economies were already struggling to recover from the coronavirus pandemic, but high inflation and Russia's war in Ukraine, notably its decision to switch off the gas taps to several EU countries, has given them a fresh battering.
The solution, according to some opponents of Germany's plan -- among them France and Italy -- should be more solidarity among EU partners and more use of European Union funds, rather than go-it-alone national efforts.
"If we want to avoid fragmentation, if we want to face this crisis, I think we need a higher level of solidarity, and we need to put in place some further common tools," Economy Commissioner Paolo Gentiloni said at a meeting of EU finance ministers in Luxembourg.
But he was cautious not to point the finger directly at Germany.
Dutch Finance Minister Sigrid Kaag agreed on the need to coordinate the response to the energy crunch among the 27 member countries, but she opposed the creation of any new EU fund to address the challenge.
The EU already has several funds with "billions and billions that are available and could be put to good use in the first instance," Kaag told reporters. "We need to channel what we have and invest it in the right manner."
The Dutch government also unveiled details of a planned energy price cap for households Tuesday, together with the outline of a subsidy system aimed at easing the pain for small-to-medium-sized businesses that use a lot of power.
German Finance Minister Christian Lindner, for his part, said "there had been a misunderstanding," about what he described as "our protective shield."
"Our measure is targeted," Lindner told reporters. "We have to change the order of the electricity market, but our package is not unproportionate. In fact, it is proportionate if you compare the size and the vulnerability of the German economy."
Czech Finance Minister Zybnek Stanjura, who chaired the meeting, conceded that opinions on the best way ahead differ widely. "Different member states have different energy mixes and so they have different ideas about what needs to be done first," he said.
The issue is likely to get thrashed out yet again at a summit of EU leaders in Prague on Friday, where the war in Ukraine and its economic fallout for Europe are top of the agenda. But the chances of a breakthrough this week appear slim.
"None of us had foreseen this. We do not know how long this situation will last, the longer-term impact on the economy," Kaag said. "So coming out of corona, we need to act appropriately, without inadvertently fuelling inflation. And that's sort of the tight rope we are walking, or dancing on."
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.”