Approximately 2,000 people in the Village of Ashcroft have been told to be ready to leave their homes at a moment's notice, after an evacuation alert was put into place at noon Friday for the entire community, about 100 kilometres west of Kamloops.

The warning comes with officials forecasting smoky skies across much of B.C. as over 300 fires burn across the province, with more expected in the days ahead.

Cliff Chapman with the B.C. Wildfire Service (BCWS) said Thursday the province appeared to be "on the precipice of a very challenging 72 hours" with hot and dry weather, dry lightning and strong winds forecast.

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Russian forces attacked the southern Ukrainian city of Mykolaiv with a missile on July 19, killing at least three people, including a child, and injuring 14, Mayor Oleksandr Sienkevych said.

Explosions were reported after an air raid alert went off in the region, the Ukrainian Air Force reported.

A residential part of the city came under attack, Sienkevych said. According to President Volodymyr Zelensky, Russia hit a playground, damaging nearby high-rise buildings.

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A global IT outage has caused widespread disruption across multiple industries, including significant issues within the health-care sector in B.C.

The province's Ministry of Health confirmed the disruption is impacting its networks and computers.

In a statement, the ministry said it has implemented "contingency plans" to ensure that health-care services remain operational, and patient care is not disrupted "to the best of our ability."

It is urging people to contact their care providers Friday if they have questions about appointments or services.

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Volodymyr Zelenskiy has taken aim at the Hungarian prime minister, Viktor Orbán, accusing him of betraying fellow European leaders after Orbán’s recent “peace mission” to Moscow.

The Ukrainian president kicked off the European Political Community summit at Blenheim Palace on Thursday with an emotional speech in which he made veiled but repeated references to Orbán’s recent attempts to get close to Moscow.

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He told the session: “We have maintained unity in Europe by acting together, which means that Putin has missed his primary targets … This is our advantage, but it remains an advantage only as long as we are united.”

Referring to Putin, he said: “He may try to approach you, or go to some of your partners individually, trying to tempt or pressure you to blackmail you so that one of you betrays the rest. We keep our unity.”

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Brazil has recorded unprecedented levels of rape and other forms of gender-based violence for the second year running, amid growing concerns over rightwing efforts to criminalize rape victims who have an abortion.

The data, released on Thursday in the annual report by the Brazilian Forum on Public Safety, showed that reported cases of rape rose by 6.5% from the previous year to a new historic high of 83,988 – or one every six minutes.

Experts say the figures are “even more alarming” against a backdrop of far-right activism, which includes a bill currently before the lower house of Congress that seeks to penalize rape survivors who seek a termination.

Every single indicator of gender-based violence increased in 2023 compared with the previous year, including murder (0.8%), sexual harassment (48.7%) and stalking (34.5%).

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Emmanuel Macron’s party formed a last–minute agreement with right-leaning lawmakers to win a key vote in parliament on Thursday that opens the door to the French president playing a greater-than-expected role in forming the country’s next government.

The two political groups put together an ad-hoc alliance to reelect Yaël Braun-Pivet as head of the French National Assembly, the fourth highest-ranking official in France. The vote was widely seen as a test to see who could work together in France’s fractured parliament to name a future prime minister.

In combining their forces, the centrists and the center right seized political momentum while also delivering a stunning blow to their rivals further to the left.

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Reservation Dogs is finally getting some Emmy love in its final season.

The FX/Hulu comedy, co-created by Sterlin Harjo and Taika Waititi, has long been a critical favorite, picking up recognition at the Golden Globes, Critics Choice Awards, Spirit Awards and Writers Guild Awards. Emmy nominations, though, have remained elusive — until Wednesday morning.

The show was recognized in the best comedy series category for the 2024 Emmys, competing alongside Abbott Elementary, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Hacks, Only Murders in the Building, Palm Royale, The Bear and What We Do in the Shadows.

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Germany, which overcame its initial reluctance to support Ukraine to become the country’s biggest European supplier of military aid, looks poised to change course as the finance minister said the government would slash future assistance by half in order to fulfill other spending priorities.

That appeared to be Berlin's unequivocal message to Ukraine on Wednesday as the government detailed its preliminary 2025 budget, in which military aid to Ukraine is slated to be cut by half to just €4 billion, according to a draft seen by POLITICO.

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The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has rejected calls for an immediate independent inquiry into the security failures that allowed the deadliest attack in his country’s history.

Speaking to Israel’s parliament, Netanyahu told lawmakers: “First, I want to beat Hamas.”

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The Israeli defence minister, Yoav Gallant, had last week called for the formation of a state-commission inquiry for the 7 October attacks.

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Just four days after a Russian missile hit Ukraine’s leading hospital for children, the floors of Okhmatdyt’s main building looked surprisingly spotless.

The dust and shattered glass from the devastating blast that defaced the building were wiped out. Damaged furniture was removed, and the staff wearing clean scrubs rushed along the well-lit corridors. At first glance, things seemed almost normal, if not for the absence of patients.

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But Russia’s latest attack in its genocidal war against Ukraine demonstrated that Ukrainians continue to unite and resist in the face of such brutality. Thousands of volunteers have amassed to save their fellow citizens and later to help rebuild the hospital.

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Ukraine's military intelligence (HUR) claimed on July 16 that it had hacked nearly 100 Russian websites that support the Kremlin's war effort, taking them offline and replacing their homepages with a picture of a bloody pig's head.

The intelligence agency said the operation was carried out on July 15 with the help of "the volunteer hacker community."

"The cyberattack was aimed at destroying internal information of companies that serve Russian public sector clients involved in the war against Ukraine," it said in a post on Telegram.

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Vance is one of Trump's most vocal supporters and an outspoken critic of U.S. aid to Ukraine.

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Vance has said that it would be "completely irresponsible" for Ukraine to join NATO. He has also argued for the U.S. to focus solely on preventing Chinese expansion, even if that means sacrificing sovereign Ukrainian lands to Russia.

"Any peace settlement is going to require some significant territorial concessions from Ukraine, and you're gonna have a peace deal, because that's the only way out of the conflict," Vance said in February.

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