Here are the latest Top News stories from The Canadian Press. All times are Eastern unless otherwise stated. Coverage plans are included when available. Entries are subject to change as news develops.
IF YOU NEED HELP, PLEASE SEND AN EMAIL TO mainslots@thecanadianpress.com and we'll get back to you right away.
TOP HEADLINES:
-- Ontario, Quebec see dip in hospitalizations
-- Ukraine expresses gratitude for Canadian loan
-- Ottawa beacon to illuminate Queen's Jubilee
-- Panel finds misconduct a 'cultural norm' in CHL
-- Auger-Aliassime sails into Round 4 at Aussie Open
TOP NEWS STORIES:
Ontario, Quebec see dip in hospitalizations
COVID-Cda
Both Quebec and Ontario are reporting a drop in COVID-19-related hospitalizations but an uptick in patients requiring intensive care. Words: 197
–
Ukraine expresses gratitude for Canadian loan
Cda-Ukraine
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada -- The president of Ukraine is thanking Canada for a $120-million loan aimed at bolstering his country's economy amid a hostile buildup of 100,000 Russian troops along its borders. Words: 198, Photos: 1. Will be writethru.
–
Ottawa beacon to illuminate Queen's Jubilee
Jubilee-Celebrations
Ottawa, , -- The Queen has made no secret of her affection for Canada, which she has visited 22 times during almost seven decades on the throne By Marie Woolf. Words: 1051, Photos: 1
—
Prepare agriculture for climate change: experts
Agriculture-Climate-Change
Wildfires, sweltering heat and extensive flooding in British Columbia last year have underscored the importance of strengthening the agricultural sector's resilience to the effects of climate change and extreme weather, experts say. By Brenna Owen. Words: 789. Photos: 1
—
Panel finds misconduct a 'cultural norm' in CHL
HKO-CHL-Wellbeing-Report
Allegations of abuse against players and volunteers coupled with cover-ups by teams who field complaints are so widespread that they've turned off-ice misconduct into a "cultural norm" within the Canadian Hockey League, a newly released report has found By Nick Wells. Words: 590
–
Auger-Aliassime sails into Round 4 at Aussie Open
TEN-Australian-Open-Canadians
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia -- For the second year in a row at the Australian Open, Montreal’s Félix Auger-Aliassime has advanced to the second week. By By Stephanie Myles. Words: 846, Photos: 1
–
Kinross distances itself from Ghana explosion
Kinross-Ghana-Explosion
Toronto, Ontario, Canada -- Kinross Gold Corp. says it didn't own or operate the truck involved in a deadly explosion in Ghana Thursday that was carrying supplies to the company's mine. Words: 158
–
COMING LATER:
Border tragedy a 'warning shot': expert
Mba-Border-Deaths
The discovery of four people who perished in the cold trying to cross the Canada-U.S. border could put a new twist on the immigration debate in the United States. By James McCarten.
FROM AP:
Here are the AP’s latest coverage plans, top stories and promotable content. All times EST. For up-to-the minute information on AP’s coverage, visit Coverage Plan at https://newsroom.ap.org.
—————————-
TOP STORIES
—————————
RUSSIA-UPPING THE ANTE — With tens of thousands of Russian troops positioned near Ukraine, the Kremlin has kept the U.S. and its allies guessing about its next moves in the worst security crisis to emerge between Moscow and the West since the Cold War. By Vladimir Isachenkov. SENT: 970 words, photos. With RUSSIA-US-UKRAINE — The Baltic nations of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania plan to send U.S.-made anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles to Ukraine. The United States fully endorsed the move amid Kyiv’s escalating tensions with Russia. SENT: 530 words, photos.
UNITED STATES-UKRAINE-DASHED HOPES — On a warm spring day in Ukraine 26 years ago, American, Russian and Ukrainian officials smiled for cameras as they planted symbolic sunflower seedlings in freshly tilled earth where Soviet nuclear missiles had once stood ready. That hopeful moment has given way to today’s fears of renewed conflict and a new cold war. By National Security Writer Robert Burns. SENT: 910 words, photos.
See full coverage of Ukraine here.
VIRUS OUTBREAK — The sweeping “zero-tolerance” strategy that China has used to keep COVID-19 case numbers low and its economy functioning may, paradoxically, make it harder for the country to exit the pandemic. Most experts say the coronavirus around the world isn’t going away and believe it could eventually become, like the flu, a persistent but generally manageable threat if enough people gain immunity through infections and vaccines. By Aniruddha Ghosal and Huizhong Wu. SENT: 820 words, photos.
BRAZIL-BITCOIN-PYRAMID-SCHEME — In April, Brazil’s federal police busted two men and a woman loading a chopper with 7 million reais — $1.3 million — in neatly packed bills. The detainees told police they worked for G.A.S Consulting & Technology, a cryptocurrency investment firm founded by a former waiter-turned-multimillionaire and the central figure in one of Brazil’s biggest-ever alleged pyramid schemes. Police say the company owned by Glaidson Acácio dos Santos had total transactions worth at least $7 billion from 2015 through mid-2021 as part of a Bitcoin-based Ponzi scheme that promised investors 10% monthly returns. Prosecutors have identified at least 27,000 victims in Brazil and seven other countries, including the U.S., United Arab Emirates, the U.K. and Portugal. The true tally is likely much higher. By Diane Jeantet. SENT: 1,665 words, photos. Eds: This story has moved as the Sunday Spotlight. An abridged version of 1,095 words is also available.
POLICE-OFFICERS-SHOT — The 22-year-old New York City police officer who was shot to death while responding to a call in a Harlem apartment once wrote that he joined the force to make a difference in the “chaotic city.” A copy of a letter Jason Rivera wrote in 2020 to his commanding officer was obtained by The Associated Press. By Bobby Caina Calvan and Michael R. Sisak. SENT: 630 words, photos.
HUNGER-IN-AMERICA-VOLUNTEERS -- Food banks are experiencing a critical shortage of volunteers as the omicron variant frightens people away from group activities. Individual volunteers are shying away from their usual shifts, and companies and schools that regularly supply large groups of volunteers are canceling their participation over virus fears. The end result in many cases has been a serious increase in spending by the food banks at a time when they’re already dealing with higher food costs due to inflation and supply chain issues. By Ashraf Khalil. SENT: 905 words, photos.
———————————-
TRENDING NEWS
———————————
ODD-IRELAND-POST-OFFICE-BODY -- Police in Ireland are investigating reports that the body of a dead man was brought to a post office in an attempt to collect his pension. SENT: 195 words.
SEVERED-ARM --Officials in Maine say a public works crew saved the life of a man they happened to see stumbling along a street carrying his own severed arm. SENT: 185 words.
MONKEYS-CRASH — Residents of a Pennsylvania county are being warned not to approach a lab monkey that is missing after a Pennsylvania traffic crash. State troopers urged people not to look for or capture the monkey after a crash the day before on a state highway near an Interstate 80 exit. SENT: 450 words, photos.
REGINA-KING-SON'S-DEATH — Ian Alexander Jr., the only child of award-winning actor and director Regina King, has died. He turned 26 on Wednesday. SENT: 475 words, photos.
ASTROPHYSICIST KILLED-STRAY BULLET -- Police in the Atlanta area say a stray bullet struck and killed an English astrophysicist while he was inside an apartment. SENT: 320 words, photos.
SLOVENIA-BALLOONING ACCIDENT — Police in Slovenia say a hot air balloon mishap has injured four people. SENT: 110 words.
——————————————————————
MORE ON THE VIRUS OUTBREAK
——————————————————————
VIRUS-OUTBREAK-WUHAN-DOCUMENTARY — The homeless, the sick, the elderly: For people who fell through the cracks of the official system, the then-unprecedented decision to isolate the central Chinese city of Wuhan and its 13 million people was a matter of life or death. Film director Lan Bo hopes to sound the alarm with a documentary, “Wuhan, I Am Here,” about volunteers who helped neighbors get food and medical care following the lockdown in early 2020 of the city where the coronavirus pandemic began. SENT: 570 words, photos.
VIRUS OUTBREAK-CHINA — The first commercial airline flights in one month took off Saturday from Xi’an in western China as the government eased travel curbs imposed after a coronavirus outbreak ahead of next month’s Winter Olympics in Beijing. SENT: 310 words, photos.
VIRUS OUTBREAK-EUROPE — Thousands of people have gathered in European capitals to protest vaccine passports and other requirements their governments have imposed in hopes of ending the coronavirus pandemic. SENT: 290 words, photos.
VIRUS OUTBREAK-SAMOA — The prime minister of Samoa has placed the small Pacific nation into a 48-hour lockdown after 15 passengers on a flight from Australia tested positive for COVID-19. SENT: 190 words.
—————————————————
WASHINGTON/POLITICS
—————————————————
ABORTION-STATES — State-by-state battles over the future of abortion are setting up around the U.S. Republican lawmakers are proposing new restrictions based on laws in Texas and Mississippi and some Democratic-led states are working to preserve access. If the Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade entirely, the decision on whether to keep abortion legal would fall to the states. More than 20 states already have laws on the books that would quickly ban or dramatically restrict abortion. Meanwhile, 15 states have moved to protect abortion access. SENT: 985 words, photos.
SINEMA-FILIBUSTER — Democratic Sen. Kyrsten Sinema is growing increasingly isolated from some of her party’s most influential officials and donors after playing a key role in scuttling voting rights legislation. Leaders of the Arizona Democratic Party have voted to censure her. SENT: 1,070 words, photo.
———————-
NATIONAL
———————-
2020-CENSUS-CHALLENGES — When officials in Chester, Georgia, heard that the 2020 census had pegged their small town at 525 people, their jaws dropped. They believed the town was almost triple that size and feared an inaccurate number would force them to make budget cuts. Chester and two other small municipalities in Georgia are the first communities in the U.S. to challenge the accuracy of their numbers from the once-a-decade head count that determines political representation and federal funding. SENT: 875 words, photos.
UNIVERSITY-OF-MICHIGAN-SEX-ASSAULT — Jon Vaughn’s small blue-and-white camper has been parked outside the home of the University of Michigan’s president since early October, and he says it isn’t moving anytime soon. The 51-year-old former star running back is one of more than 1,000 students who say they were sexually abused by the university’s late sports doctor Robert Anderson over more than three decades. The school recently announced a $490 million settlement with the alleged victims. But Vaughn says he still wants answers and the camper isn’t moving until he gets them. SENT: 675 words, photos.
WINTER-WEATHER — A layer of ice and a blanket of snow cover coastal areas stretching from South Carolina to Virginia after a winter weather system brought colder temperatures and precipitation not often seen in the region. SENT: 765 words, photos.
CALIFORNIA WILDFIRE-BIG SUR — A wind-driven wildfire in coastal California has forced evacuations in the Big Sur area and authorities to shut down a stretch of Pacific Coast Highway. SENT: 210 words, photos.
CUSTODY DEATH-VIDEO — Surveillance video shows a Black 17-year-old struggling with staff at a Wichita juvenile center last fall before he died after he was restrained facedown for more than 30 minutes. Sedgwick County released 18 video clips late Friday afternoon of what happened before Cedric Lofton was rushed to a hospital on Sept. 24. He died two days later. SENT: 470 words.
MENTAL-HEALTH-JAIL-CONDITIONS — A Georgia sheriff has agreed to improve jail conditions for women with serious mental illness to settle a lawsuit alleging that prolonged solitary confinement and unsanitary conditions risked causing them serious psychological harm. SENT: 670 words.
————————————-
INTERNATIONAL
————————————-
BRITAIN-CONSERVATIVES-CONTENDERS — Revelations that Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his staff partied while Britain was in a coronavirus lockdown have provoked public outrage and led some members of his Conservative Party to consider ousting their leader. A look at some leading contenders to replace him. SENT: 780 words, photos. WITH: BRITAIN-POLITICS — A British politician who accuses the government of blackmailing opponents of Prime Minister Boris Johnson says he will take his allegations to the police. SENT: 485 words, photos.
YEMEN — Yemen’s Houthi rebels and an aid group say the death toll from a Saudi-led coalition airstrike that hit a prison run by the rebels has climbed to at least 82 detainees. SENT: 1,020 words, photos.
SYRIA-IS — Kurdish-led fighters advanced slowly under the cover of U.S.-led coalition air power in Syria’s northeast. Intense clashes with Islamic State militants took place around a prison where thousands of extremists were held, officials say. SENT: 530 words, photos.
VENEZUELA-OPPOSITION — A deeply symbolic victory for Venezuela’s opposition hasn’t resolved a deep divide over its strategy. Many see the ballot box as the way to victory and point to their win in Barinas state, the homeland of the late President Hugo Chavez, who founded the current socialist government. But others see little sense in contesting elections they say are profoundly skewed against them. SENT: 1,180 words, photos.
TONGA-VOLCANO-ERUPTION-AUSTRALIA — Three flights from Australia carrying food, water, medical supplies and telecommunications equipment landed in Tonga as the Pacific nation continues to grapple with the aftermath of an underwater volcanic eruption and tsunami. SENT: 430 words, photos.
NIGERIA-GIRLS ABDUCTED — Witnesses say Islamic extremists have abducted 17 girls in northeast Nigeria. Two residents told The Associated Press that members of the Boko Haram jihadi group attacked a village in Borno state on Thursday. SENT: 490 words.
EL SALVADOR-MURDERED PRIESTS — The Roman Catholic Church is beatifying two priests and two lay people who were victims of right-wing death squads during El Salvador’s civil war. SENT: 620 words, photos.
AFGHANISTAN — A bomb attached to a packed minivan has exploded in Afghanistan’s western Herat province, killing at least seven civilians and wounding nine others. SENT: 140 words.
INDIA-BUILDING-FIRE — A major fire in a 19-story residential building killed at least six people and injured 15 others in Mumbai, India’s financial and entertainment capital, officials say. SENT: 200 words.
MALAYSIA-MAHATHIR — Former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad has been hospitalized for the third time in just over a month but his daughter says his condition is stable. SENT: 190 words, photos.
————————————-
ENTERTAINMENT
————————————-
MEAT LOAF-ELLEN FOLEY — It was singer Ellen Foley who belted out three famous words of warning to Meat Loaf — “Stop Right There!” — about halfway through their eight-and-a-half minute duet “Paradise By the Dashboard Light,” the epic seduction song on his mega-selling 1977 “Bat Out of Hell” album. Foley is looking back on the singular experience of making the memorable song as she recalls Meat Loaf and a “beautiful, feisty, joyful friendship” that began in her early 20s. UPCOMING: 700 words by 3 p.m., photo.
FRANCE-PARIS FASHION WEEK — Veteran menswear designer Veronique Nichanian delivered an atypical glam rock twist to her luxuriant wares for the Hermes collection shown at Paris Fashion Week. SENT: 550 words, photos.
———————
SPORTS
———————
FBN-BENGALS-TITANS — The Tennessee Titans, fresh off a first-round bye, are as healthy as they’ve been in months Saturday looking for their first win as the AFC’s No. 1 seed as they host AFC North champ Cincinnati, fresh off snapping a 31-year postseason drought, with a spot in the AFC championship on the line. UPCOMING: 850 words, photos. Game starts at 4:30 p.m.
FBN-49ERS-PACKERS — Aaron Rodgers and the top-seeded Green Bay Packers host the San Francisco 49ers in an NFC divisional playoff game that marks the ninth time these two storied franchises have faced off in the postseason. They’ve split their previous eight playoff meetings. The Packers beat the 49ers on the road 30-28 in a Sept. 26 game that was decided on Mason Crosby’s 51-yard field goal as time expired. UPCOMING: 700 words, with photos. Game starts at 8:15 p.m.
——————————————-
HOW TO REACH US
———————————————-
At the Nerve Center, Richard A. Somma can be reached at 800-845-8450 (ext. 1600). For photos, Donald E. King (ext. 1900). For graphics and interactives, ext. 7636. Expanded AP content can be obtained from http://newsroom.ap.org. For access to AP Newsroom and other technical issues, contact apcustomersupport@ap.org or call 844-777-2006.
The Canadian Press
