LIVE B.C. seeks ban on using drugs in 'all public spaces,' shifting approach to decriminalization
The B.C. government is moving to have drug use banned in "all public spaces," marking a major shift in the province's approach to decriminalization.
As he recovers from a breakthrough infection of the coronavirus, U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham said Thursday that he has urged former President Donald Trump to press his supporters to get the COVID-19 vaccine, which the South Carolina Republican called “the antidote to the virus that's wreaking havoc on our hospitals.”
“I've urged him to be aggressive and say, `Take the vaccine,”' Graham said in an extensive interview with The Associated Press, his first since disclosing this week that he had tested positive for the virus, months after being vaccinated.
On Monday, Graham said he had tested positive days after gathering with a handful of Senate colleagues on Sen. Joe Manchin's houseboat. That same night, Saturday, Graham said he began experiencing flu-like symptoms.
Saying he felt “achy and kind of yucky” through the weekend, Graham said Thursday that his symptoms had been steadily improving, although Monday and Tuesday were “pretty tough days.” He said he believed his symptoms would have been much worse had he not been vaccinated.
“It went from sort of a mild sinus infection until just a full-blown, feeling like crap,” Graham told AP.
Graham declined to talk about the Manchin event on Thursday, except to say that “everybody there was vaccinated.” Long a proponent of vaccination, Graham received his shots in December.
Asked Thursday if President Joe Biden planned to highlight pro-vaccine comments from Republicans like Graham, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said vaccination “is not political to us” but added, “We think it's great that he's out there talking about the impact of the vaccine.”
Graham is a longtime ally of Trump, who received the vaccine earlier this year. This week, former Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar wrote in an op-ed for The New York Times that he wished that Trump had gotten the shot publicly, so that his supporters could “see how much trust and confidence he has” in the vaccines.
In March, Trump said on Fox News that he would recommend vaccination to “a lot of people that don't want to get it, and a lot of those people voted for me.”
But last month at a rally in Phoenix, Trump told supporters that he felt some people were not taking the vaccine because they “don't trust” President Joe Biden and stressed people's “freedoms 100 percent” to do what they felt best.
On Thursday, Graham said he had just gotten off the phone with Trump, who had been checking on him every day during his illness. He applauded Trump's work to develop the vaccine and said he saw vaccinations as necessary for the country to regain its footing.
“He's very proud of that accomplishment,” Graham said. “From a conservative person's point of view, we should do all we can as a nation to get our economy back up and running and to protect our way of life.”
Recognizing that taking the vaccine might be a “sacrifice” for some, Graham said the task paled in comparison with others that have been required of Americans in the past.
“No one's being asked to go off to fight radical Islam or fight a foreign enemy. We're being asked to make responsible medical decisions,” Graham said. “Take the vaccine.”
The B.C. government is moving to have drug use banned in "all public spaces," marking a major shift in the province's approach to decriminalization.
The Canadian Transportation Agency has hit a record high of more than 71,000 complaints in a backlog. The quasi-judicial regulator and tribunal tasked with settling disputes between customers and the airlines says the backlog is growing because the number of incoming complaints keeps increasing.
An orca whale calf that has been stranded in a B.C. lagoon for weeks after her pregnant mother died swam out on her own early Friday morning.
After the Assembly of First Nations' national chief complained to Air Canada about how staffers treated her and her ceremonial headdress on a flight this week, she says the airline responded by offering a 15 per cent discount on her next flight.
Sophie Gregoire Trudeau says there is 'still so much love' between her and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, as they navigate their post-separation relationship co-parenting their three children.
An American Airlines flight attendant was indicted Thursday after authorities said he tried to secretly record video of a 14-year-old girl using an airplane bathroom last September.
Philadelphia 76ers All-Star centre Joel Embiid has been diagnosed with Bell’s palsy, a form of facial paralysis he says has affected him since before the play-in tournament.
The current overall public health risk posed by the H5N1 bird flu virus is low, the World Health Organization said on Friday, but urged countries to stay alert for cases of animal-to-human transmission.
An idyllic 453-acre private island is up for sale off the west coast of Scotland and it comes with sandy beaches, puffins galore, seven houses, a pub, a helipad and a flock of black-faced sheep.
Mounties in Nanaimo, B.C., say two late-night revellers are lucky their allegedly drunken antics weren't reported to police after security cameras captured the men trying to steal a heavy sign from a downtown business.
A property tax bill is perplexing a small townhouse community in Fergus, Ont.
When identical twin sisters Kim and Michelle Krezonoski were invited to compete against some of the world’s most elite female runners at last week’s Boston Marathon, they were in disbelief.
The giant stone statues guarding the Lions Gate Bridge have been dressed in custom Vancouver Canucks jerseys as the NHL playoffs get underway.
A local Oilers fan is hoping to see his team cut through the postseason, so he can cut his hair.
A family from Laval, Que. is looking for answers... and their father's body. He died on vacation in Cuba and authorities sent someone else's body back to Canada.
A former educational assistant is calling attention to the rising violence in Alberta's classrooms.
The federal government says its plan to increase taxes on capital gains is aimed at wealthy Canadians to achieve “tax fairness.”
At 6'8" and 350 pounds, there is nothing typical about UBC offensive lineman Giovanni Manu, who was born in Tonga and went to high school in Pitt Meadows.