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150 years later, batteaumen are once again bringing life to Scottsville

Published Thu, 26 Dec 2024 15:41:15 GMT

SCOTTSVILLE, Va. (AP) — Two hundred years ago, it was tobacco. The long, flat-bottomed batteau invented to transport the crop down the James River turned Scottsville into one of the biggest port cities in the early 19th-century Virginia.Now, with a 530-person population and a one-block downtown, Scottsville might not look like much to someone passing through. But on the town’s very own stretch of the James River still float the batteaux, although carrying very different cargo.The James River Batteau Company offers both midday and sunset cruises in its batteau, paired with charcuterie boards, local history lessons and live music. Since co-owners Will Smith and Will Cash founded the tour company at spring’s start last year, they’ve been booked just under capacity with tourists from Charlottesville, Richmond, Washington and beyond.“Where I really think the future of tourism in Albemarle County and Charlottesville is the merger of the raw beauty of this area with its unique history,” Sm...

US Republicans need to move beyond Trump, Nikki Haley warns

Published Thu, 26 Dec 2024 15:41:15 GMT

Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley on Sunday urged GOP voters to leave former President Donald Trump and his legal woes in the rearview.“While I think he was the right president at the right time, you know, earlier and while I think his policies were good, I don’t think he’s the right president at the right time going forward,” Haley, who served as ambassador to the United Nations under Trump, said Sunday during an interview on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”“I think we’ve got to move forward. Otherwise, we will have a general election that’s doing nothing but dealing with lawsuits.”The former president’s legal troubles have been the topic dominating the Republican primary race, leaving little oxygen left for the cluster of GOP candidates looking to dethrone the runaway front-runner. Four criminal cases are playing out against Trump, two of which have yielded indictments. An indictment in a third, involving the former president’s alleged efforts to stoke the Jan. 6 riot, ...

Macron warns against attack on French interests in Niger after coup

Published Thu, 26 Dec 2024 15:41:15 GMT

French President Emmanuel Macron said France will respond “immediately” to any violence against French interests in Niger following the coup in the African country. The French government “will not tolerate any attack on France and its interests” in Niger, Macron said on Sunday, according to media reports. Macron’s comments were in response to thousands of people demonstrating in front of the French embassy in Niamey, the capital of Niger. According to media reports, the crowds in front of the French embassy were shouting “Long live Putin” and “Down with France.”Tensions are running high in Niger after the country’s military last week took the country’s democratically elected president hostage and proclaimed it was in charge. West African leaders were holding an emergency meeting on Sunday in Nigeria to decide what to do about the coup, Reuters reported. The military leaders in Niger claimed the goal of the me...

Car crash in Cambridge sends one to hospital during strong thunderstorms

Published Thu, 26 Dec 2024 15:41:15 GMT

Cambridge police responded to a car crash that sent one person to the hospital during the strong storms Saturday night.Around 9 p.m., multiple crews including the Massachusetts State Police responded to the crash on Memorial Drive at the Brookline Street overpass. Images shared by officials shows one white car amid leaves and broken tree branches.One person was seriously hurt and transported for further care.https://twitter.com/CambridgeMAFire/status/1685474845998379008?s=20

New Hampshire mother and daughter reportedly kidnapped in Haiti, people warned to not travel there

Published Thu, 26 Dec 2024 15:41:15 GMT

A woman from New Hampshire who works for a nonprofit organization in Haiti and her young daughter have been reported as kidnapped as the U.S. State Department issued a “do not travel advisory” in the country and ordered nonemergency personnel to leave there amid growing security concerns.Alix Dorsainvil, a nurse for El Roi Haiti, and her daughter were kidnapped on Thursday, the organization said in a statement Saturday.El Roi, which runs a school and ministry in Port au Prince, said the two were taken from campus. Dorsainvil is the wife of the program’s director, Sandro Dorsainvil.“Alix is a deeply compassionate and loving person who considers Haiti her home and the Haitian people her friends and family,” El Roi president and co-founder Jason Brown said in the statement. “Alix has worked tirelessly as our school and community nurse to bring relief to those who are suffering as she loves and serves the people of Haiti in the name of Jesus.”A State Department spokesperson said i...

A bomb at a political rally in northwest Pakistan kills at least 40 people and wounds more than 150

Published Thu, 26 Dec 2024 15:41:15 GMT

KHAR, Pakistan (AP) — A powerful bomb ripped through a rally by supporters of a hard-line cleric and political leader in the country’s northwestern Bajur district that borders Afghanistan on Sunday, police and health officials said. At least 40 people were killed and more than 100 wounded.Senior police officer Nazir Khan said the workers convention of Maulana Fazlur Rehman’s Jamiat Ulema Islam party was taking place on the outskirts of Khar, the capital of Bajur district, when the explosion took place.AP video showed wounded people being carried from the scene in the chaotic aftermath of the explosion.Adam Khan, 45, was hit by splinters in his leg and both hands. He said it was around 4 p.m. when the the explosion knocked him to the ground.“There was all dust and smoke around and I was under the some injured people from where I hardly (could stand) up but only to see chaos and some scattered limbs,” he said.No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, but the Islamic St...

French embassy in Niger is attacked as protesters waving Russian flags march through capital

Published Thu, 26 Dec 2024 15:41:15 GMT

NIAMEY, Niger (AP) — Thousands of supporters of the junta that took over Niger in a coup this week marched through the streets of the capital on Sunday denouncing the country’s former colonial power and lighting a door at the French Embassy ablaze before the army broke up the crowd.Black smoke could be seen across the city from the burning of the door, which was captured on video by The Associated Press. The Russian mercenary group Wagner is operating in neighboring Mali, and President Vladimir Putin would like to expand his country’s influence in the region. The new junta’s leaders have not said whether they would move toward Moscow or stick with Niger’s Western partners. French President Emmanuel Macron said Sunday that attacks on France and its interests would not be tolerated. Anyone who attacked French nationals, the army, diplomats and French authorities would see an immediate response, he said. Niger, a French colony until 1960, had been seen as the We...

Record heat waves illuminate plight of poorest Americans who suffer without air conditioning

Published Thu, 26 Dec 2024 15:41:15 GMT

DENVER (AP) — As Denver neared triple-digit temperatures, Ben Gallegos sat shirtless on his porch swatting flies off his legs and spritzing himself with a misting fan to try to get through the heat. Gallegos, like many in the nation’s poorest neighborhoods, doesn’t have air conditioning.The 68-year-old covers his windows with mattress foam to insulate against the heat and sleeps in the concrete basement. He knows high temperatures can cause heat stroke and death, and his lung condition makes him more susceptible. But the retired brick layer, who survives on about $1,000 a month largely from Social Security, says air conditioning is out of reach. “Take me about 12 years to save up for something like that,” he said. “If it’s hard to breath, I’ll get down to emergency.”As climate change fans hotter and longer heat waves, breaking record temperatures across the U.S. and leaving dozens dead, the poorest Americans suffer the hottest days with the fewest defenses. Air con...

Helicopter crashes near I-70 in Ohio, killing pilot and causing minor accidents, police say

Published Thu, 26 Dec 2024 15:41:15 GMT

SPRINGFIELD, Ohio (AP) — A helicopter hit power lines and crashed near an interstate in Ohio over the weekend, killing the pilot and causing a series of crashes, authorities said.The Bell 206L-4 aircraft was flying near I-70 in Springfield Township in Clark County when it hit the lines and crashed into a cornfield shortly after noon Saturday, the Ohio State Highway Patrol said.The pilot, 36-year-old Isaac Lee Santos of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, was pronounced dead at the scene, state troopers said. The aircraft was owned by Helicopter Applicators Inc. of Gettysburg, which does aerial applications such as herbicide and insecticide to farmland and other industries, according to the Springfield News-Sun.Power lines fell onto the westbound and eastbound lanes of I-70, resulting in minor crashes of seven vehicles, authorities said. No other injuries were reported. The highway was closed for about five hours and Ohio Edison crews have been working to restore power to the area.The Federal ...

One person is dead and multiple were wounded in Indiana shooting, police say

Published Thu, 26 Dec 2024 15:41:15 GMT

MUNCIE, Ind. (AP) — A shooting at a large party in Indiana early Sunday morning left one person dead, police said. A hospital said 19 people were being treated for injuries at its facility.Muncie police responded to multiple reports of gunfire on the city’s east side just after 1 a.m., The Star Press reported. Police said in a news release that there was no active threat to the community and that “multiple” victims were injured, including some critically.“Due to the number of victims and nature of the incident, multiple agencies were contacted to assist,” Muncie Deputy Police Chief Melissa Criswell said in a statement sent to The Star Press.Police did not say how many people were injured, but officials at Indiana University Health Ball Memorial Hospital in Muncie told WTHR-13 that 19 victims were treated in their emergency department for injuries related to the shooting. Criswell said some victims sustained critical injuries and were transferred by medical helicopter to other ...