HellsBelle

A federal law proposed by a northern Ontario MP could see community groups get funding through the justice system.

The private member's bill from Sudbury Liberal Viviane Lapointe would allow judges who issue fines to criminals to direct that "restitution" money to charitable organizations.

The bill specifically mentions groups combatting homelessness, addiction and human trafficking.

Cristina Scarpellini, the founder of Angels of Hope Against Human Trafficking in Sudbury, says this came up at the trial of a man who was running a local prostitution ring.

"Although the survivor did mention to me that she did feel that there was justice, but she did say to me, 'You know, where's all my money that I made him? Why's he allowed to keep that? Why isn't it going to organizations or myself?" she said.

The US military says it has carried out strikes on three boats it has accused of trafficking drugs in the Pacific Ocean, killing eight people.

The US Southern Command posted footage of the strikes on social media and said the vessels were "transiting along known narco-trafficking routes... and were engaged in narco-trafficking".

More than 20 vessels in the Pacific and the Caribbean have been targeted in recent months, killing at least 90 people, as part of President Donald Trump's escalating campaign against gangs he accuses of transporting drugs in the region.

Across the world, desperate parents of sick or dying children are being exploited by online scam campaigns, the BBC World Service has discovered. The public have given money to the campaigns, which claim to be fundraising for life-saving treatment. We have identified 15 families who say they got little to nothing of the funds raised and often had no idea the campaigns had even been published, despite undergoing harrowing filming.

Nine families we spoke to - whose campaigns appear to be products of the same scam network - say they never received anything at all of the $4m (£2.9m) apparently raised in their names.

A whistleblower from this network told us they had looked for "beautiful children" who "had to be three to nine years old… without hair".

We have identified a key player in the scam as an Israeli man living in Canada called Erez Hadari.

Almost 90 flights linked to Jeffrey Epstein arrived at and departed from UK airports, some with British women on board who say they were abused by the billionaire, a BBC investigation has found.

We have established that three British women who were allegedly trafficked appear in Epstein's records of flights in and out of the UK and other documents related to the convicted sex offender.

US lawyers representing hundreds of Epstein victims told the BBC it was "shocking" that there has never been a "full-scale UK investigation" into his activities on the other side of the Atlantic.

The UK was one of the "centrepieces" of Epstein's operations, one said.

Almost 90 flights linked to Jeffrey Epstein arrived at and departed from UK airports, some with British women on board who say they were abused by the billionaire, a BBC investigation has found.

We have established that three British women who were allegedly trafficked appear in Epstein's records of flights in and out of the UK and other documents related to the convicted sex offender.

US lawyers representing hundreds of Epstein victims told the BBC it was "shocking" that there has never been a "full-scale UK investigation" into his activities on the other side of the Atlantic.

The UK was one of the "centrepieces" of Epstein's operations, one said.

Alexandra Ching has lived in Bondi her whole life, describing the iconic beach nearby as her back yard. On Sunday evening, like many residents in the area, she heard pops echo through the neighbourhood and thought they were fireworks.

“Everyone did, but I thought it was too light and no one could see them, so what’s the point,” Ching tells the Guardian. She left her apartment to see people “streaming up Bondi Road”. When she saw the looks on their faces, she knew something was wrong.

As Ching stood on the road speaking with a couple who had run up the hill, still dripping wet in their swimmers, she heard someone come up behind her. It was a lifeguard sprinting towards Bondi, barefoot, from neighbouring Tamarama beach – about 1.5km away – carrying a defibrillator.

“I heard someone say ‘excuse me’, and as I turned I just saw this flash of blue,” she recounts. “He was just flying past. It was just him running in the direction that everyone was trying to escape from, carrying that big kit and barefoot … He’s running at something that surely every fibre in your being, you know, would tell you to go in the other direction."

A super-complaint has been filed against police forces in England and Wales over years-long delays in investigating sexual offences.

More than 37,000 sexual offence investigations have taken longer than three years to conclude over the past decade, campaigners said.

Sexual offence cases taking more than three years to investigate have increased more than sevenfold over the past 10 years, from 533 in 2014-15 to 4,008 in 2024-25, according to freedom of information requests submitted by the organisations to the Home Office and police forces across England and Wales. At the end of March 2025, there were almost 14,000 investigations that had been open for more than three years, the organisations said.

Their research found that investigations lasting between three and four years had increased from 137 cases in 2014-15 to 2,261 cases in 2024-25.

Cuts to US aid funding have directly led to the closure of more than 1,000 family planning clinics, new figures shared with the Guardian reveal.

Millions of people have been left without access to contraceptives or care, including those who have suffered sexual assault, as part of a “radical shift towards conservative ideologies that deliberately block human rights”, according to the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF).

A survey of its member associations found that approximately 1,394 service delivery points, or clinics, have been shut down, including 1,175 in Africa, and that 34 had laid off staff as a result of the Trump administration’s cuts, representing at least 969 job losses.

Campaigners say the cuts have emboldened anti-rights groups, reporting a rise in rhetoric opposing abortion and access to contraception for teenagers.

A mass shooting in which 15 people were killed during a Hanukkah celebration at Sydney's Bondi Beach was "a terrorist attack inspired by Islamic State," Australia's federal police commissioner Krissy Barrett said Tuesday.

The suspects were a father and son, aged 50 and 24, authorities have said. The older man was shot dead while his son was being treated at a hospital on Tuesday.

A news conference by political and law enforcement leaders on Tuesday was the first time officials confirmed their beliefs about the suspects' ideologies.

The Carney government is making good on a promise to help tackle one of the most potent forms of climate pollution, as it announces new measures to address methane emissions from the oil and gas industry.

CBC News obtained an early copy of the announcement that Environment, Climate Change and Nature Minister Julie Dabrusin is expected to deliver in Metro Vancouver Tuesday afternoon.

It contains significant emission reductions but offers more leeway to oil and gas producers to comply after many complained the original proposal was too strict. It also addresses methane released by landfills, which are responsible for a smaller portion of emissions.

Like many Albertans at this time of year, Louis Francescutti is thinking about the weather.

“The snow fell last night, so temperatures are well below zero,” said the Edmonton emergency physician.

“As we speak, there are probably men and women out there developing frostbite right now. And so my colleagues probably later today or tomorrow will start treating this year’s round of frostbites.”

“About two to three weeks ago, I saw two patients that had infected amputation sites from last year’s frostbite,” said Francescutti.

“In other words, we are still dealing with frostbite from a year ago. And now these men and women are still homeless and chances are they’re going to reinjure themselves again.”

FOR THE BETTER PART of a century, there was one thing even the U.S. government would not do to pad the profits of defense contractors.

Now, more than 80 years of precedent may be coming to an end.

On Thursday, lawmakers in the House approved a “pilot program” in the pending Pentagon budget bill that could eventually open the door to sending billions to big contractors, while providing what critics say would be little benefit to the military.

The provision, which appeared in the budget bill after a closed-door session overseen by top lawmakers, would allow contractors to claim reimbursement for the interest they pay on debt they take on to build weapons and other gadgets for the armed services.