Google Maps adds AI features to help users explore and navigate the world around them

LONDON (AP) — A British ban on protesting outside abortion clinics went into effect on Thursday, though it left a question mark over whether anti-abortion demonstrators who pray silently will be breaking the law.

The law, which applies to England and Wales, bars protests within 150 meters (164 yards) of clinics. Scotland and Northern Ireland, which make their own health policies, recently enacted similar bans.

The new rules make it an offense to obstruct someone using abortion services, “intentionally or recklessly” influence their decision, or cause “harassment, alarm or distress.” Offenders face a fine, with no upper limit.

The buffer zone rule was passed 18 months ago as part of the previous Conservative government’s Public Order Act, but wrangling over whether it would apply to silent prayer protests, and a change in government in July, have delayed it taking effect.

The Crown Prosecution Service says silent prayer near an abortion clinic “will not necessarily commit a criminal offense,” and police say they will assess each case individually.

Anti-abortion campaigners and religious groups argue that banning silent-prayer protests would be an affront to freedom of religion. But pro-choice campaigners say silent anti-abortion demonstrators are often intimidating to women entering clinics.

“It’s difficult to see how anyone choosing to perform their prayers right outside an abortion clinic could argue they aren’t attempting to influence people — and there are countless testimonies from women who say this makes them feel distressed,” said Louise McCudden, U.K. head of external affairs at MSI Reproductive Choices, one of Britain’s biggest abortion providers.

In March 2023, lawmakers rejected a change to the legislation proposed by some conservative legislators that would have explicitly allowed silent prayer within the buffer zones. The final rules are a potentially messy compromise that is likely to be tested in court.

Crime and Policing Minister Diana Johnson said she was “confident that the safeguards we have put in place today will have a genuine impact in helping women feel safer and empowered to access the vital services they need.”

But Bishop John Sherrington of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales, said the government had “taken an unnecessary and disproportionate step backwards” on religious freedom.

“Religious freedom includes the right to manifest one’s private beliefs in public through witness, prayer and charitable outreach, including outside abortion facilities,” he said.

Abortion is not as divisive an issue in the U.K. as in the U.S., where women’s access to terminations has been rolled back, and banned in some states, since the Supreme Court overturned the landmark Roe v. Wade ruling in 2022.

Abortion was partly legalized in Britain by the 1967 Abortion Act, which allows abortions up to 24 weeks of pregnancy if two doctors approve. Later abortions are allowed in some circumstances, including danger to the mother’s life.

But women who have abortions after 24 weeks in England and Wales can be prosecuted under the 1861 Offenses Against the Person Act. Last year a 45-year-old woman in England was sentenced to 28 months in prison for ordering abortion pills online to induce a miscarriage when she was 32 to 34 weeks pregnant. After an outcry, her sentence was reduced.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

Bridget Carleton was in Minneapolis this summer when a WNBA fan stopped her on the street. The fan rolled up a sleeve to reveal a tattoo of Carleton’s name and her Minnesota Lynx jersey number on their arm.

For the Canadian, it was just another example of the league’s growing popularity in its most successful season ever.

“The passion these fans have, it’s been a lot of fun,” said Carleton of the fan’s ink. “I feel like, especially in women’s sports, fans can be connected to us on a different level because we put ourselves out there.

“We try to show our personalities, be more than just the athletes we are. I think that’s what’s special about it and they get to know us.”

The WNBA reached new highs in 2024 on and off the court.

It started with a hotly anticipated draft where NCAA scoring sensation Caitlin Clark was selected first overall by the Indiana Fever. The Chicago Sky took rebounding wiz Angel Reese seventh overall in that same draft, which American sports broadcaster ESPN said averaged 2.4 million viewers, up 328 per cent over 2023 to become the most-viewed WNBA Draft ever.

May’s announcement of a new franchise based in Toronto generated more buzz in Canada before the WNBA’s season had begun.

Although the as-yet-unnamed Toronto franchise won’t play until 2026, the WNBA reports that regular-season viewership in Canada was up 148 per cent year over year.

The second annual WNBA Canada Game a pre-season exhibition held on May 5 in Edmonton, featured a sellout crowd for the second consecutive year. Viewership of the second Canada Game was up 65 per cent in Canada over the 2023 edition in Toronto.

The excitement continued on the court as Las Vegas Aces centre A’ja Wilson set a new WNBA record with 26.9 points per game, Reese set the new rebounding mark with 13.1 per game, and Clark fed into a rivalry with Reese over rookie of the year honours with a league-best 8.4 assists per game.

Ultimately, Clark won the rookie of the year award after Reese’s season ended early with a hairline fracture in her wrist.

ESPN reported several new ratings highs, including the most-viewed regular season ever across its platforms, averaging 1.2 million viewers per game in the United States, up 170 per cent over 2023.

When Clark’s Fever played Reese’s Sky on June 23 it was the most-watched regular-season game in WNBA history, averaging 2.3 million viewers.

Carleton, playing her sixth WNBA season, felt that excitement.

“Arenas all across the country were sold out consistently the playoffs were just another level of energy and excitement in every single building,” she said on Wednesday from her home in Chatham-Kent, Ont. “You felt it on social media, even in the cities, walking around on the street where two, three years ago, I probably wouldn’t have gotten recognized.

“Now it’s hard to go out in public without at least one or two people noticing me or saying ‘hey, good game last night,’ things like that. It’s so fun to be a part of this wave.”

Carleton averaged a career-high 29.9 minutes per game for Minnesota, scoring 9.6 points, 3.8 rebounds, 2.2 assists and a steal per game. She finished third in voting for the league’s Most Improved Player Award, helping the Lynx (30-10) reach the playoffs for a 15th time.

“Getting a solid opportunity this year to be a consistent starter and play significant minutes was just a credit, I think, to all the hard work I put in and being the player I can be,” said Carleton. “I’m really proud of how far I’ve come as a professional and I think this year was a good showing of that.”

Carleton kept contributing in the post-season, making two clutch free throws with two seconds left in the fourth quarter as Minnesota forced a decisive Game 5 of the WNBA Finals on Oct. 18 by beating the New York Liberty 82-80.

That winner-take-all finale also drew record numbers of viewers with ESPN reporting that WNBA Finals Presented by YouTube TV was the most-watched Finals in the league’s 25 years, averaging 1.6 million viewers, up 115 per cent over 2023.

Each telecast in the five-game series averaged more than a million American viewers, with Games 3, 4, and 5 each becoming the most-viewed WNBA Finals games ever on U.S. cable.

“I think women’s basketball has been on the rise for a long time, and finally, we’re getting the recognition we deserve,” said Carleton. “People just gave us a chance finally, and they obviously love the product and are sticking to it.

“It’s been so much fun. Definitely, it’s fun to see the growth, to get to where we are now.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 31, 2024.

CALGARY – Fuel retailer Parkland Corp. has lowered its full-year earnings forecast as sluggish market conditions continue to take a bite out of margins at the company’s Burnaby, B.C. refinery.

The Calgary-headquartered company is experiencing similar challenges to refiners worldwide, as the industry deals with a glut of fuel supply and weak global economic conditions that have reduced demand.

On a conference call to discuss the company’s third-quarter financial results Thursday, CEO Bob Espey said adjusted earnings from the company’s refining segment fell 73 per cent year-over-year, to $49 million compared to $188 million in the same three-month period last year.

He said this was in spite of Parkland’s Burnaby refinery operating smoothly, with a strong utilization rate.

Globally, refiners are dealing with weak “crack spreads,” an industry term that measures the difference between wholesale petroleum product prices and crude oil prices.

When crack spreads are strong, refineries make more money, and when they are weak, refineries make less money.

Crack spreads globally are currently low due to a variety of factors, including weak economic conditions that have reduced fuel demand in China as well as the U.S. government’s sale of 1 million barrels of gasoline last quarter from its Northeast supply reserve, which pushed more fuel onto the market.

“In terms of the dynamics that are causing the crack spreads to come down, there is a period here where we’re seeing lots of supply, so the market is sloppy,” said Espey.

“Generally what we see in times like that, which we’ve seen in the past, is the market does work to clean itself up … We do see global demand continuing to grow next year, which will start to improve some of the oversupply globally.”

The current market conditions are so difficult that some U.S. refiners have announced plans to temporarily curb their output as a result of the weak market conditions.

Many global oil majors are also reporting decreased third-quarter earnings due to weakness from their refining segments. Reuters reported Thursday that French giant TotalEnergies saw its third-quarter earnings hit a three-year low this year, in large part due to the collapse of refining margins.

For its own third quarter, Parkland reported its earnings declined by 60 per cent year-over-year, from $230 million in 2023 to $91 million in the third quarter of 2024.

Espey said while he does believe the market will ultimately correct itself, he expects the challenging refinery market conditions to persist through the remainder of the year.

Parkland said Wednesday after the close of markets that it is lowering its full-year 2024 adjusted earnings guidance to between $1.7 and $1.75 billion, down from a previous forecast of between $1.9 and $2.0 billion.

This is the second consecutive quarter the company has lowered its forecast, from $1.95 billion to $2.05 billion originally.

It attributed the lower forecast largely to due to the lower refining margins in the third quarter, as well as the unplanned outage that occurred at the Burnaby refinery in the first quarter of this year.

“I believe our business is resilient and these headwinds are temporary,” Espey said.

Parkland’s Burnaby refinery, which the company acquired in 2017, is one of Canada’s only remaining West Coast refineries. It provides a quarter of the gasoline and diesel consumed in the province of B.C.

The company also operates approximately 4,000 fuel and convenience retail stores and commercial locations across Canada, the U.S. and the Caribbean.

This year, Parkland has continued to face calls to take drastic action to improve its share price performance, which is down 23 per cent from the start of the year.

Both U.S.-based activist investor Engine Capital LP, as well as Parkland’s largest shareholder Simpson Oil Ltd., have called on Parkland to conduct a review of strategic alternatives — including a possible sale of the company.

Parkland has said such a review is unnecessary and does not consider the best interests of the majority of its shareholders.

In August, Simpson Oil — which is based in the Cayman Islands and owns about 20 per cent of Parkland’s shares — launched a lawsuit against the fuel retailer. The lawsuit seeks to overturn a set of voting restrictions that are part of a 2019 board governance agreement between Simpson and Parkland.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 31, 2024.

Companies in this story: (TSX:PKI)