Festivities and concern as 2022 Beijing Winter Games kick off

It’s estimated that 1 million Ukranians have now fled the country. Mike Armstrong reports from Poland detailing the refugee situation unfolding there.

PHILADELPHIA - Several Ukrainian communities around Philadelphia have organized relief efforts to help their homeland that continues to valiantly defend itself against an invasion from Russia. The Ukrainian Educational and Cultural Center is collecting thousands of boxes of supplies, community leaders are coming together to help, and businesses are holding fundraisers.Craft Hall in Old City held a fundraiser Thursday where every dollar donated was doubled for Voices of Children.Adam Hornik, Craft Hall Owner, partnered with Ukrainian-born DJ Irene Whoo for the event."This organization provides them both psychological and financial and logistical support to help them deal with this tragedy that they are going through," Hornik said.Whoo accompanied the fundraising effort by playing traditional Ukrainian music that she fell in love with as a youth. "We grew up listening to traditional dance, fun, Ukrainian music," Whoo said. "Lots of instruments lots of horns, violins.  It’s drinking music, my people they are rambunctious and fun and happy."Her family fled Ukraine in the early 90’s during the Russian Occupation. The daily rhythms of life that play in her head have been overshadowed by the sounds of war that are breaking her heart."I really just wanted to put something together for everyone to not even talk about anything but positive things," Whoo said. "Hugging each other, be happy, dance."Local pastry chefs are coming together to 'Bake for Ukraine' and there's ways that you can help their cause!Volunteers at the Ukrainian Educational and Cultural Center in Jenkintown worked tirelessly to process, package, and ship thousands of boxes of donations to support families in Ukraine.

As Russia continues to wage war in Ukraine, Latvian President Egils Levits tells Global’s Mercedes Stephenson that he fears Russia could also invade his nation as a former member of the USSR.

Facade with sign at Amazon Books retail store on Santana Row in the Silicon Valley, San Jose, California, December 14, 2019. NEW YORK (AP) - Amazon is closing all of its brick-and-mortar bookstores, as well as its 4-star shops and pop up locations, as the online retail behemoth reworks its physical footprint.The Seattle-based company said Wednesday that the move, which affects 66 stores in the U.S.

Covid-19 release contagious droplets when they breathe out, so a face covering helps to avoid spreading the disease. If you’re meeting people indoors it’s important to let fresh air in, so it’s a good habit to open the windows for 10 minutes every hour when people visit.

The increasing number of cases and hospitalisations is a reminder of the importance getting vaccinated and boosted.

SHARON HILL, Pa. - A Delaware County judge on Thursday upheld charges against three former Sharon Hill police officers charged in the deadly shooting of 8-year-old Fanta Bility. Officers Devon Smith, Sean Dolan, and Brian Devaney face manslaughter and reckless endangerment charges for the deadly shooting last August. They were fired from the Sharron Hill Police Department following a 6-1 Borough Council vote in January. According to investigators, on Aug.

WASHINGTON (AP) - House Speaker Nancy Pelosi had stern words Thursday for two of the most right-wing members of her chamber after their outbursts during President Joe Biden's State of the Union."I agree with what Sen. Lindsey Graham said, ‘Shut up.’ That's what he said to them. They should just shut up," the California Democrat told reporters about the conspicuous interruptions by GOP Reps.

LOS ANGELES - With rent prices skyrocketing across the country, some renters and prospective renters are finding themselves squeezed financially due to tight inventory, significantly high rental costs and multiple offers on less-than-ideal one-bedroom apartments. If this sounds like you, well, you’re not alone.Rentals have exploded across the nation, causing many to dig deep into their savings and risk eviction now that the federal moratorium has ended.But could renters possibly see some relief in the coming months amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic? Will prices for apartments finally come down?Brian Carberry, an expert with leading national consumer resource Rent.com, says rental prices started to skyrocket last summer, and monthly payments remain high for renters. "It really boils down to supply and demand right now," Carberry told FOX Television Stations Group. "Occupancy rates are at an all-time high right now, so there’s just not a lot of available inventory on the market for all of these people that are looking for a place to live.

California boys who were reported missing in 2020 have been charged with killing the children, although their bodies have not been found, authorities said Wednesday.Trezell West and Jacqueline West were arrested Tuesday night on murder and other charges in an indictment returned by a grand jury, Kern County District Attorney Cynthia Zimmer told a news conference in Bakersfield.Orrin West, 4, and his brother Orson, 3, were reported missing from their family’s backyard in the desert town of California City on Dec. 21, 2020.

press release from California Attorney General Rob Bonta states. TikTok's privacy policy states that users 13 and under may use the app to play with effects, watch videos, and follow others but not post public videos or interact with other users via messages. Recently the app experimented with the 'profile view' function, which would allow users to see who viewed their profile.

Dancing on Ice legends Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean have shared a health update on contestant Connor Ball after the musician took a nasty fall during the latest live show.Last Sunday (February 27), The Vamps singer and his professional partner Alexandra Schauman skated to George Ezra’s Paradise dressed as pirates, but things didn’t go to plan as he lost his balance during a risky move and fell to the ice.He managed to slice his shin with a blade leaving it bleeding as concerned hosts Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby checked he was ok.During an appearance on Channel 4's Steph's Packed Lunch, Olympic skating champions Torvill and Dean gave an update on the star’s recovery.Asked if anyone had surprised them this series, Chris replied: "I think Connor is a surprise because our other top celebrities are all from a dancing background and Connor, he's a guitar player and so not so much."He's really stepped up, he's a stand out - he's our dark horse."Jayne added: "As Chris said, Connor, each week, has got better and better but unfortunately he's had a couple of falls recently. "He managed to kick himself in the shin last week, he's had stitches in his leg.

COVID-19 in Alberta declined slightly on Thursday to 1,204. That’s a drop from 1,231 patients in hospital with the disease on Wednesday.Of the people in hospital, 80 are being treated in intensive care.

Tamara Lich, one of the leaders of the convoy protest that occupied downtown Ottawa for three weeks last month was in court Wednesday, hoping to overturn an earlier judicial decision that she be held without bail until her trial on the charges of counselling to commit the offence of mischief and committing mischief.

The Philadelphia District Attorney's office announced the charges Thursday against 51-year-old James Pitts on the recommendation of a grand jury. PHILADELPHIA - A former Philadelphia homicide detective has been arrested on perjury and obstruction charges.The Philadelphia District Attorney's office announced the charges Thursday against 51-year-old James Pitts on the recommendation of a grand jury.A request for Pitts' current employment status with the Philadelphia Police Department was not immediately answered.

PHILADELPHIA - The Philadelphia Auto Show returns this weekend and prospective car buyers have never had so many options to choose from, but inflated gas prices worsened by the war in Ukraine seem to have pushed electric and hybrid vehicles to the forefront.According to AAA Mid-Atlantic, the national average price for a gallon of regular gasoline is $3.57, up five cents from last week. Drivers were paying $2.67 a gallon on average a year ago at this time.The auto show, which runs from Mar.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has challenged Russian President Vladimir Putin to sit down for talks while urging the West to offer a stronger military assistance to Ukraine to fight the Russian invasion.In a sarcastic reference to a long table Putin used for his recent meetings with foreign leaders and Russian officials, Zelenskyy said: "Sit down with me to negotiate, just not at 30 meters," adding, "I don’t bite. What are you afraid of?"During Thursday's news conference, Zelenskyy said that prospects for another round of talks between Russian and Ukrainian negotiations don’t seem promising, but emphasized the need to negotiate, adding that "any words are more important than shots."RELATED: Who is Volodymyr Zelenskyy?: How this comedian became a wartime presidentHe said the world was too slow to offer support for Ukraine and prodded Western leaders to enforce a no-fly zone over Ukraine to deny access to the Russian warplanes.

Mike Bradley is among 15 Canadian mayors calling for the federal government to scrap all COVID-19 testing requirements for land border travellers who are double- or triple-vaccinated.In an open letter addressed to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, the border city mayors, including Niagara Falls Mayor Jim Diodati and Windsor Mayor Drew Dilkens, ask for an end to the testing guidelines, which they say are out of line with public health mandates and unjustified by current science.The letter, also cc’d to Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland, public safety minister Marco Mendocino, and health minister Jean-Yves Duclos, cites the “heavy price” pandemic travel measures have had on border communities, including through the lengthy closure of the land border to all but essential travel. Feds scrapping pre-arrival COVID PCR test requirement for fully vaccinated travellers The letter comes days after the federal government lifted its pre-arrival PCR test requirements for double- and triple-vaccinated travellers.As of Monday, a negative rapid antigen or PCR test result will be accepted to meet entry requirements, provided the tests are administered by a lab or health care entity.

Americans living in rural areas are less likely to be vaccinated against COVID-19 than their urban counterparts, and the gap between the two groups did not close during the Delta and Omicron surges, according to research published today in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR).

In the latest global COVID-19 developments, some recent hot spots reported new daily record cases, as US officials announced the transfer of some technology to an international effort to speed and share new pandemic tools.

From March 2020 to September 2021, women were more likely than men to lose their jobs, forego work to care for others, and report increasing violence, and women and girls were more likely than men and boys to drop out of school for reasons other than school closures, according to a study yesterday in The Lancet.University of Washington at Seattle researchers reviewing public

LOUISVILLE, KY - SEPTEMBER 23: In this handout photo provided by the Shelby County Detention Center, former Louisville, Kentucky detective Brett Hankison poses for a mug shot on September 23, 2020 in Louisville, Kentucky. Hankison was charged with th LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) - A Kentucky jury on Thursday cleared a former police officer of charges that he endangered neighbors when he fired shots into an apartment during the 2020 drug raid that ended with Breonna Taylor’s death.The panel of eight men and four women delivered its verdict about three hours after it took the case following closing arguments from prosecution and defense attorneys.Hankison had been charged with three counts of wanton endangerment for firing through sliding-glass side doors and a window of Taylor’s apartment during the raid that left the 26-year-old Black woman dead.

CLAYTON COUNTY, Ga. - Clayton County police have arrested a man accused of bringing a 13-year-old girl from Kansas to Georgia to have sex with her.At a press conference Wednesday, the Clayton County Police Department said that 33-year-old Jonesboro resident Harold Graham met the underage girl on the popular gaming app Roblox on Feb. 18. According to investigators, Graham was able to convince the girl two days later to sneak out of her home in Topeka, Kansas and run away with him back to Clayton County.

COVID-19-related deaths was reported by the Saskatchewan government Thursday.In the seven days ending Feb. 26, the deaths of 44 people with COVID-19 were reported in Saskatchewan, up from 37 in the previous reporting period.More than half the deaths — 24 — were reported in people aged 80 and older.One-quarter of the new deaths — 11 — were in the north-central zone and nine were reported in the Regina region.

Ontario’s chief medical officer of health says mask mandates will be removed by the end of March as long as positive public health trends continue.Dr. Kieran Moore says the province can “only mandate masking for so long,” with the risk from COVID-19 decreasing.He says Ontario has a very high vaccination rate, hospitalizations have been declining, and he believes the worst is behind us.However, he says that due to limited access to PCR testing, the true number of daily new COVID-19 cases can be estimated by multiplying the number of positive tests by 10, meaning there could be more than 22,000 new cases today.

Beijing Winter Olympics on Tuesday, his second medal of the 2022 Games.Parrot won the gold in the slopestyle event last week. So far, it is Canada’s only gold of these Games.The 27-year-old Quebec native fell in his first of three runs, but recovered on his second jump by landing a huge cab 1800 to earn a score of 94 — the second highest overall for that run.He then scored a respectable 76.25 with a 1620 in his third and final run, his top two scores combining to claim second place.

Russia's Kamila Valieva attends a training session on February 13, 2022 prior the figure skating event at the Beijing 2022 Olympic Games. (ANNE-CHRISTINE POUJOULAT/AFP via Getty Images) Russian teenager Kamila Valieva has been cleared to compete in the women's figure skating competition at the Winter Olympics despite failing a pre-Games drug test, setting her up for an attempt at a second gold medal.Whatever happens on the ice, Valieva will not get a medal ceremony moment in Beijing.

Gold medallist Erin Jackson of Team United States poses with a Bing Dwen Dwen mascot and the winning time during the Women's 500m at the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games. (Catherine Ivill/Getty Images) Erin Jackson has become the first Black woman to win a speedskating medal at the Winter Olympics.And a gold one, at that.Jackson won the 500 meters Sunday with a time of 37.04 seconds, giving the American speedskating program its first speedskating medal of the Beijing Games and first individual medal since 2010.But this one meant much more than national pride.The 29-year-old Jackson, a former inline skater who switched to the ice shortly before the 2018 Pyeongchang Olympics, joined fellow American Shani Davis as the only Black athletes to win speedskating medals at the Olympics.The silver went to Miho Takagi of Japan, while Angelina Golikova of the Russian team took the bronze.Jackson's gold came after the native of balmy Ocala, Florida, slipped at the U.S.

Shaun White of Team United States reacts during the Men's Snowboard Halfpipe Final on day 7 of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics at Genting Snow Park on February 11, 2022 in Zhangjiakou, China. BEIJING (AP) - In Shaun White’s farewell performance on Friday, Ayumu Hirano of Japan won an elusive Olympic gold in the halfpipe with a boundary-pushing final run.There was no doubt about the winner after Hirano's electric performance as the last rider to go. His run included an intricate and unprecedented series of flips and spins that pushed a sport obsessed with progression to new heights.

Beijing on Thursday after winning bronze in the first freestyle skiing mixed-team aerials event at an Olympics.Marion Thenault, Miha Fontaine and Lewis Irving, all of Quebec, were representing Canada for the final at the Genting Snow Park in Zhangjiakou, China.Canada was among six nations appearing in the qualifying stage, and advanced to the medal round with a combined score of 326.94, making them the third seed team in the last stage. China, the United States and Switzerland also advanced.In the final, the Canadians locked in a combined score of 290.98 for bronze.

Canada’s Eliot Grondin won the silver medal in a thrilling photo finish in men’s snowboard cross at the Beijing Winter Olympics on Thursday.

Canada’s James Crawford won the bronze medal in the men’s alpine combined skiing event at the Beijing Winter Olympics on Thursday.

Olympic silver in a men’s 1,500-metre short-track speed skating race that came down to a matter of millimetres on Wednesday.Dubois, of Terrebonne, Que., advanced to the final after official review following an error in the semis. He took home the medal in a photo-finish over bronze medallist Semen Elistratov of the Russian Olympic Committee.

An ongoing legal issue that could affect the medallists in the team figure skating competition at the Beijing Olympics, an event in which Canada finished fourth, has caused the award ceremony to be delayed, the IOC said Wednesday.

Winter Olympics since 1998 in Nagano, Japan.She has a decade’s worth of knitted red mittens, purchased every year since their debut as part of the Canadian Olympic uniform in 2010.But this year Reid says she won’t be buying anything, because after the merchandising partnership changed hands from Hudson’s Bay to Lululemon, she considers the prices too steep to justify.“They were a great, affordable way to show Canadian Olympic pride and some of the money goes to support our national team,” Reid says of her iconic mittens.“I looked at the Lululemon site and I was pretty surprised to see the prices. I was OK with The Bay’s mittens going up to $20, but $68 for a pair is too much for me.”Reid isn’t alone.

Drew Lawson from the Canadian Sports Institute Calgary joins Global News Morning Calgary to provide an update on the Canadian athletes competing at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing.

Day four of competition was full of ups and downs for Canada at the Beijing Winter Olympics, with another win in women’s hockey and close calls in multiple medal events.

In an unfortunate turn of events, Vincent Zhou will not be able to compete in the Men’s ice skating events at the 2022 Winter Olympics.

Canada hauled in four Olympic medals on Monday, bringing its tally to six at the Beijing Winter Olympics.

Canada has won a historic bronze medal in mixed team ski jumping at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics.

Max Parrot captured Canada’s first gold medal at the Beijing Winter Olympics in men’s snowboard slopestyle on Monday.Parrot dominated the slope alongside teammate Mark McMorris, who won bronze. It’s the second straight Olympics that Parrot and McMorris have shared the podium in the event.A native of Bromont, Que., Parrot’s gold-medal win is an upgrade from his silver at the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Games.

Canadian freestyle skier Mikael Kingsbury has won the silver medal in the men’s moguls event at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics.

Canada’s Isabelle Weidemann won the bronze medal in the women’s 3,000-metre speedskating race at the Beijing Winter Olympics on Saturday.

BEIJING :

investigation into the origins of Covid-19.

The 2022 Winter Olympics are set to kick off in Beijing in a matter of days, yet the games may already be facing less global enthusiasm than usual. As Eric Sorensen reports, China’s severe COVID-19 restrictions and a slew of human rights controversies are souring the mood around the upcoming competition.

Beijing Olympics ever has tried the slope that’ll be used with medals at stake. Not yet, anyway.They might have given it a look — either via footage that made the rounds last year or, in recent days, because the course can be seen from where Winter Games participants are training.No one, though, is allowed to ski on the actual track that will be used for racing until Thursday, the first of three official training days planned ahead of the men’s downhill, which is scheduled to open the Alpine program on Sunday.

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