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Man arrested after car collides with gates of Downing Street; police don’t suspect terror attack

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 17:55:08 GMT

LONDON (AP) — A car collided Thursday with the gates of Downing Street in central London, where the British prime minister’s home and offices are located, setting off a rapid, intense security response at one of London’s most-fortified sites.No one was injured and police said they were not treating the incident as terror-related. Police arrested a man on suspicion of criminal damage and dangerous driving, and local officers, rather than counterterrorism detectives, were handling the investigation.Prime Minister Rishi Sunak was in his office at the time of the crash, which revived memories of attacks on London’s government district. It was not immediately clear whether the crash was deliberate. Video footage posted on social media showed a silver hatchback car heading straight for the gates at low speed across Whitehall, the main thoroughfare in London’s government district. “I heard a bang and looked up and saw loads of police with taser guns shouting a...

Indiana doctor’s discipline hearing centers on privacy, reporting of Ohio 10-year-old’s abortion

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 17:55:08 GMT

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — A hearing on possible disciplinary action opened Thursday for an Indianapolis doctor who spoke publicly about providing an abortion to a 10-year-old rape victim from Ohio, with finger pointing over how the case became a political flashpoint in the national abortion debate.Indiana’s Republican attorney general has accused Dr. Caitlin Bernard of violating state law by not reporting the girl’s child abuse to Indiana authorities. She’s also accused of breaking federal patient privacy laws by telling a newspaper reporter about the girl’s treatment.Bernard and her attorneys maintain that the doctor followed Indiana’s child abuse reporting requirements to hospital staff and that the girl’s rape was already being investigated by Ohio authorities. Bernard’s lawyers also say she didn’t release any identifying information about the girl that would break privacy laws.The Indianapolis Star cited the girl’s case in a July 1 article that sparked a national political...

Public safety minister announces funding for Akwesasne after migrant deaths

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 17:55:08 GMT

QUEBEC — The federal government has announced funding to help the Akwesasne Mohawk Territory fight organized crime, after the death of eight migrants in the St. Lawrence River earlier this year.Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino was in the community Thursday where he announced more than $12 million for policing and other initiatives over the next five years.The money includes a $10.4-million funding renewal to help the Akwesasne Mohawk Police Service fight organized crime, as well as separate amounts for new police equipment and for community groups working to prevent violence.“Akwesasne, like all other communities at the same time, has been confronting the challenges around crime and I would point out that we have seen issues that involve the illegal flow of contraband, obviously organized criminal elements, and most recently, the tragedy involving eight lives lost around an ongoing investigation and human smuggling,” he said.The announcement came after the bodies o...

Virgin Galactic completes final test flight before launching paying customers to space

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 17:55:08 GMT

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M (AP) — Virgin Galactic completed what’s expected to be its final test flight Thursday before taking paying customers on brief trips to space. Six of the company’s employees, including two pilots, landed at Spaceport America in southern New Mexico after the short up-and-down flight that included a few minutes of weightlessness. It took about an hour for the mother ship to carry the spaceplane to an altitude of 44,500 feet (13,563 meters), where it was released and fired its rocket motor to make the final push.“Successful boost, WE HAVE REACHED SPACE!” Virgin Galactic tweeted.It reached an altitude of 54.2 miles (87 kilometers) before gliding back down to the runway, according to the company.The flight came nearly two years after founder Richard Branson beat fellow billionaire and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and rocket company Blue Origin into space. Bezos ended up flying nine days later from West Texas and Blue Origin has since launched several passenger tr...

After Club Q shooting, New York woman accused of threats to Colorado LGBTQ businesses

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 17:55:08 GMT

DENVER (AP) — A New York woman has been indicted for making threats against Denver-area LGBTQ businesses in the days after five people were killed at a gay nightclub in Colorado Springs last year.Sharon Robinson, who appeared in federal court in Brooklyn on Wednesday, is accused of calling at least four businesses on Dec. 8 and making threats including, “You’re gonna be shot up like Club Q,” and, “I’m going to go over there and shoot you all,” according to her May 17 indictment. Robinson, 40, who prosecutors say lives in Brooklyn, is accused of making anti-gay slurs during the calls and the grand jury found that she targeted the businesses because of their actual and perceived sexual orientation, the indictment said. That finding could lead to a longer sentence if Robinson is convicted, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for Colorado said in a press release Wednesday announcing Robinson’s indictment and arrest. The federal public defender who represented Robinson during he...

Ontario police forces target street racing, say activity is on the rise

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 17:55:08 GMT

Several police forces in Ontario say they will be working together to crack down on street racing, which they say has been on the rise.Police across the Greater Toronto Area, as well as Ontario Provincial Police and forces in Waterloo and Barrie, are part of the operation —  dubbed Project Erase — that will use enforcement and education to combat the issue.The #OPP, along with policing partners across the #GTA, are launching the E.R.A.S.E. campaign in Mississauga. #ERASE #DriveSafe #DriveLegal. pic.twitter.com/HmX1TNTatu— OPP Highway Safety Division (@OPP_HSD) May 25, 2023Peel Regional Police and partnering agencies will provide details about Project E.R.A.S.E., our collaborative efforts with eliminating street racing and other high-risk driving behaviours https://t.co/PWsbExeGqR— Peel Regional Police (@PeelPolice) May 25, 2023Toronto police acting Supt. Matt Moyer says that since January, Toronto has seen 521 charges related to stunt driving and a 31 per ce...

Quebec provincial police conduct raid in Mohawk community of Kanesatake

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 17:55:08 GMT

QUEBEC — Investigators with the Quebec provincial police’s financial crimes unit are conducting searches in a Mohawk community near Montreal.The Mohawk Council of Kanesatake says provincial police are searching the band office and the health centre in connection with an investigation into the community’s COVID-19 task force.The council said in a post on Facebook that the grand chief and the manager of the community’s health centre are co-operating with investigators.Provincial police spokesman Sgt. Marc Tessier says he can’t comment on the nature of the police operation.The community has been officially served by provincial police since an Indigenous-led force was disbanded in 2005, but police rarely enter the community, which was the site of the 1990 Oka Crisis — a 78-day standoff over land rights between Mohawk people and the Canadian Armed Forces.Multiple media have reported that some Kanesatake community members are living under a climate of intimidation ...

B.C. Premier embarks on trade mission in Japan, Korea, Singapore and Vietnam

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 17:55:08 GMT

VICTORIA — British Columbia Premier David Eby is heading to Asia on a trade mission that makes stops in Japan, Korea, Singapore and Vietnam.But the premier’s tour itinerary, released by his office on the day of his departure, does not include China.Eby says in a statement the overseas mission will bolster B.C.’s trade and investment ties in the Indo-Pacific region, the world’s fastest growing economic zone.B.C. cabinet ministers Josie Osborne and Brenda Bailey, and Jagrup Brar, the New Democrat government’s minister of state for trade, will accompany Eby on the trip.The statement says the premier and his ministers will meet with government and economic leaders in the Asian countries on issues of trade and investment, and discuss partnership opportunities ranging from clean technology to critical minerals and communications technology.The statement says Eby and his ministers return June 7.This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 25, 2023.The C...

Sports no sure respite from politics when title-winning athletes visit the White House

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 17:55:08 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Calvin Coolidge wasn’t as big a baseball fan as his wife, Grace. But even Silent Cal got swept up in the excitement of the Washington Senators’ unexpectedly successful season in 1924. After the team clinched the American League pennant, the players swung by the White House to shake hands and pose for pictures with Coolidge. It was the beginning of what would eventually become a tradition of victorious athletes visiting the president, and it’ll continue on Friday when Joe Biden hosts the championship men’s and women’s college basketball teams. But what started as a nonpartisan rite of passage has become increasingly tangled up in politics, a shift that some peg to Bill Clinton’s presidency. Tom Lehman, a professional golfer, declined a White House invitation and described Clinton as “a draft dodging baby killer.”“That’s really when it started,” said Fred Frommer, a former Associated Press journalist who has written about the history...

America aged quickly in the last decade as baby boomers lived longer and births dropped

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 17:55:08 GMT

The United States grew older, faster, last decade.The share of residents 65 or older grew by more than a third from 2010 to 2020 and at the fastest rate of any decade in 130 years, while the share of children declined, according to new figures from the most recent census.The declining percentage of children under age 5 was particularly noteworthy in the figures from the 2020 head count released Thursday. Combined, the trends mean the median age in the U.S. jumped from 37.2 to 38.8 over the decade.America’s two largest age groups propelled the changes: more baby boomers turning 65 or older and millennials who became adults or pushed further into their 20s and early 30s. Also, fewer children were born between 2010 and 2020, according to numbers from the once-a-decade head count of every U.S. resident. The decline stems from women delaying having babies until later in life, in many cases to focus on education and careers, according to experts, who noted that birth rates never rec...