In Europe, Belgian police used water cannon and tear gas on Sunday to disperse some rowdy protesters in Brussels after most demonstrators marched peacefully to protest tightened COVID-19 restrictions that aim to counter a surge of coronavirus infections.
Thousands came to reject the new measures announced on Friday, the third week in a row that the government has tightened its rules as an avalanche of new cases strains the country’s health services, depriving people with other life-threatening diseases of treatment.
Shouting “Freedom! Freedom!” and carrying banners that read, “United for our Freedom, Rights and our Children,” protesters marched to the European Union headquarters. Some also carried signs critical of vaccines and against making vaccine shots mandatory.
The main crowd in Sunday’s mostly peaceful march had already dispersed when about 100 protesters ran into a riot police barricade cordoning off access to the European Commission. After a brief standoff with police, protesters hurled trash and other objects, including a bicycle, at police and set off firecrackers and flares. Police used water cannon and fired tear gas to disperse the crowd. There were no immediate reports of injuries.
Protesters burn garbage on the street during a demonstration in Brussels on Sunday. (Johanna Geron/Reuters)
On Friday, Prime Minister Alexander De Croo announced that daycare centres and primary schools will close for the holiday a week early, and children must now wear masks from the age of six. Indoor events will only be allowed with a maximum of 200 people.
Previously, the government closed nightclubs and ordered bars and restaurants to shut at 11 p.m. for three weeks. Speculation had been rife that closing times would be brought forward to 8 p.m., but the cabinet decided against it.
According to the latest coronavirus figures, the EU nation of 11 million appears to have reached a plateau.
On a weekly average, 17,862 new daily cases were reported in Belgium, a rise of six per cent over the previous week. Hospital admissions rose four per cent. More than 3,700 people are hospitalized with the virus, 821 of them in intensive care. More than 27,000 people with the virus have died in Belgium since the outbreak began last year.
What’s happening across Canada
WATCH | Canada ramping up new testing requirements at airports:
Government ramping up new COVID-19 testing requirements at airports
8 hours ago
Canada has imposed new travel restrictions and testing requirements in response to the new coronavirus variant, omicron. Rosemary Barton spoke to Minister of Health Jean-Yves Duclos about the government’s evolving response to COVID-19. 8:29
COVID-19 hospitalizations expected to rise across Quebec, says province.
New restrictions take effect in N.B. as province sees 118 new infections.
What’s happening around the world
As of Sunday, more than 265.6 million cases of COVID-19 had been reported worldwide, according to Johns Hopkins University’s coronavirus tracker. The reported global death toll stood at more than 5.2 million.
WATCH | WHO warns of information ‘roller-coaster’ surrounding omicron:
WHO warns ‘bit of a roller coaster’ coming on information about omicron
2 days ago
The World Health Organization’s emergencies director, Mike Ryan, says the transparency around rapidly emerging data on the coronavirus variant omicron is empowering but recognizes how unsettling it is to be hearing bits of information in real time. 1:49
In Africa, both Senegal and Tunisia confirmed their first case of the omicron coronavirus variant.
In the Asia-Pacific region, Australia’s medicine regulator provisionally approved the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine for children between the ages of five and 11, with the health minister saying the rollout could begin beginning Jan. 10.
In the Americas, a Norwegian Cruise Line ship with at least 10 passengers and crew members infected with COVID-19 docked Sunday in the U.S. city of New Orleans, where health officials said they were trying to disembark people without worsening the spread of the coronavirus illness.
PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Donald Trump is refusing to say how he voted on Florida’s abortion measure — and getting testy about it.
The former president was asked twice after casting his ballot in Palm Beach, Florida, on Tuesday about a question that the state’s voters are considering. If approved, it would prevent state lawmakers from passing any law that penalizes, prohibits, delays or restricts abortion until fetal viability — which doctors say is sometime after 21 weeks.
If it’s rejected, the state’s restrictive six-week abortion law would stand.
The first time he was asked, Trump avoided answering. He said instead of the issue that he did “a great job bringing it back to the states.” That was a reference to the former president having appointed three conservative justices to the U.S. Supreme Court who helped overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade decision in 2022.
Pressed a second time, Trump snapped at a reporter, saying “you should stop talking about it.”
Trump had previously indicated that he would back the measure — but then changed his mind and said he would vote against it.
In August, Trump said he thought Florida’s ban was a mistake, saying on Fox News Channel, “I think six weeks, you need more time.” But then he said, “at the same time, the Democrats are radical” while repeating false claims he has frequently made about late-term abortions.
In addition to Florida, voters in eight other states are deciding whether their state constitutions should guarantee a right to abortion, weighing ballot measures that are expected to spur turnout for a range of crucial races.
Passing certain amendments in Arizona, Missouri, Nebraska and South Dakota likely would lead to undoing bans or restrictions that currently block varying levels of abortion access to more than 7 million women of childbearing age who live in those states.
NEW YORK (AP) — In a new video posted early Election Day, Beyoncé channels Pamela Anderson in the television program “Baywatch” – red one-piece swimsuit and all – and asks viewers to vote.
In the two-and-a-half-minute clip, set to most of “Bodyguard,” a four-minute cut from her 2024 country album “Cowboy Carter,” Beyoncé cosplays as Anderson’s character before concluding with a simple message, written in white text: “Happy Beylloween,” followed by “Vote.”
At a rally for Donald Trump in Pittsburgh on Monday night, the former president spoke dismissively about Beyoncé’s appearance at a Kamala Harris rally in Houston in October, drawing boos for the megastar from his supporters.
“Beyoncé would come in. Everyone’s expecting a couple of songs. There were no songs. There was no happiness,” Trump said.
She did not perform — unlike in 2016, when she performed at a presidential campaign rally for Hillary Clinton in Cleveland – but she endorsed Harris and gave a moving speech, initially joined onstage by her Destiny’s Child bandmate Kelly Rowland.
“I’m not here as a celebrity, I’m not here as a politician. I’m here as a mother,” Beyoncé said.
“A mother who cares deeply about the world my children and all of our children live in, a world where we have the freedom to control our bodies, a world where we’re not divided,” she said at the rally in Houston, her hometown.
“Imagine our daughters growing up seeing what’s possible with no ceilings, no limitations,” she continued. “We must vote, and we need you.”
Harris used the song in July during her first official public appearance as a presidential candidate at her campaign headquarters in Delaware. That same month, Beyoncé’s mother, Tina Knowles, publicly endorsed Harris for president.
Beyoncé gave permission to Harris to use the song, a campaign official who was granted anonymity to discuss private campaign operations confirmed to The Associated Press.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh and Green Party Leader Elizabeth May pay tribute to the life of Murray Sinclair, former judge, senator and chair of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Sinclair died November 4, 2024 at the age of 73. (Nov. 4, 2024)
