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Scotsman
8 hours ago
- Automotive
- Scotsman
The £20 car engine fine that has been dished out just once in over 3 years and is angering campaigners
Only one motorist has been penalised in more than three years with this £20 fine. Sign up for the latest news and analysis about Scottish transport Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... Calls for an increase in the £20 fine for drivers leaving their engines running while parked have been rejected by ministers, angering backers of tougher measures. The decision came despite a coalition of 20 environmental, health and transport organisations and unions seeking a four-fold rise in penalties to £80 per fine. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Motorists can be fined for leaving their engines idle if they refuse to switch off | Contributed They said only one fine had been issued in Scotland over the past three-and-a-half years despite 1,158 complaints to more than 20 councils. Fines were introduced in 2003, but drivers can only be charged if they refuse to switch off their engine when asked. City of Edinburgh transport convener Stephen Jenkinson, who was among those calling for an increased deterrent, said fines were too low to change motorists' behaviour. He said: 'At this stage, the Scottish Government is not looking to allow local authorities to increase the charge, and that's a problem. The fine is not sufficient to make the behavioural change that we are looking to see. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad 'From the Scottish Government's perspective, when people are asked, they will change their behaviour. But I've not seen any evidence to back that up. 'You always need a little bit of stick to go with your carrot, and the fact the fine has never increased since it was introduced shows it's not really a priority for the Scottish Government.' Mr Jenkinson said enforcement was made more difficult because it could only be done by council officials with other duties like dog fouling - not by parking attendants who deal with problem parking. However, he said the council would redouble efforts to crack down on vehicle idling around schools. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad A poster for the Engine Off, Every Stop campaign in London | Contributed The convener said: 'The evidence would suggest children are more affected by particulate matter from idling vehicles' emissions than adults because they are closer to it as they are lower down, and their lungs aren't developed sufficiently to handle the fumes. 'We do need to have a focus on that area. I need to encourage officers to ensure they are tackling vehicle idling predominately at our education estates as a priority.' David Hunter, convener of the Edinburgh group of pedestrian campaigners Living Streets, said: "If the Scottish Government's concern about air quality justifies the creation of low emission zones, it makes no sense whatsoever to freeze penalties for engine idling for decades. 'Penalties must be sufficiently high to make it economic for councils to enforce legislation.' Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad John Adeolu, community project manager of the Edinburgh Air Pollution Programme, said: 'While increasing the fine level could help deter this behaviour, it will not make the difference we need unless it is backed by visible and consistent enforcement.' Scottish Greens MSP Mark Ruskell said: 'Increasing the fine for idling is a positive step towards reducing transport emissions, but it must be part of action plans by councils to drive down pollution, including an expansion of low emission zones.' Net Zero and Energy Secretary Gillian Martin said evidence from councils 'suggest the vast majority of idling drivers switch off their engines when requested and therefore very few fixed penalties are issued'. 'With this being the case, we have no current plans to increase the level of fines for engine idling,' she said.
Yahoo
10-06-2025
- Yahoo
Officers cleared in death of CT man who died following struggle during shoplifting investigation
Multiple Milford police officers have been cleared in the death of a man who went into cardiac arrest shortly after a struggle with police as authorities were investigating a shoplifting complaint at a supermarket last June. The report detailing the investigation, released Tuesday by the Connecticut Office of Inspector General, said the death of 52-year-old Michael Brown was caused by a heart attack that was brought on by the struggle with officers with the Milford Police Department. However, the investigation determined that police did not use excessive force during the struggle and that their actions would not have led to someone's death without the underlying health conditions that Brown had, Inspector General Robert Devlin, Jr., wrote. On June 5, 2024, Milford officers were dispatched to the Stop & Shop on Bridgeport Avenue just after 10:30 a.m. after store employees claimed that saw a man they identified as Brown fill a trash bag with about $648 worth of cleaning supplies, the report said. Brown allegedly spotted one of the loss prevention officers watching him and left the merchandise behind, leaving the store and driving away in a red Ford Fusion. The vehicle was located shortly thereafter in the parking lot of a Big Y on Boston Post Road. Officer Gregory Marriner and Officer Austin Groves positioned their cruisers in front of and behind the Focus, the report said. Inside the vehicle, a man with a dog told police he had been with a man named 'Michael,' who he said was in the store, according to the report. Shortly thereafter, police spotted Brown coming out of the store and confronted him. Body camera footage from the incident shows that Brown told police his name was 'Peter' as he continued toward the Focus. Police asked him for his identification and told him not to get into the car. Footage from police, released along with Devlin's report, showed that Marriner and Groves struggled for over a minute to get Brown out of the driver seat. According to the report, police believed he was going to take off after he reached toward the ignition. Milford chief releases additional arrest footage of man who later died in police custody During the struggle, Brown tells police 'wait' several times and then says his leg is broken, the footage shows. 'My leg is broken, look at it,' Brown shouts. 'I'm asking you please,' Brown said. 'I'm asking you please, bro.' Police were able to pull Brown out of the vehicle shortly after Sgt. Edward O'Keefe and Officer Stephani Peloso arrived to help, the report said. As they did, he shouted multiple more times that his leg was broken, the footage shows. Brown continued to say his leg was broken as he was placed onto his stomach and handcuffed, according to the footage. He then says multiple times that he can't breathe as he is being restrained. According to the report, Brown was wanted on multiple warrants accusing him of shoplifting. Paramedics from the Milford Fire Department responded to the scene after he was secured in handcuffs. After he was handcuffed, Brown continued saying his leg was broken and requested water — which he was given. Once he was on the stretcher, Lt. Josh Stanton of the Milford Fire Department noted that Brown was breathing heavily and fast, according to the report. Stanton said Brown was sweating and his skin was warm to the touch so he made the decision to immediately take Brown to the Milford Campus of Bridgeport Hospital, which was only a few minutes away, the report said. During transport, Brown was given oxygen. Stanton said he suspected narcotic intake since Brown's pupils were dilated and he was experiencing agonal breathing and he administered two milligrams of Narcan, according to the report. Stanton administered two milligrams of Narcan. While in the ambulance, Stanton said Brown's body went limp and he went into cardiac arrest. He arrived at the hospital at 11:12 a.m. and was pronounced dead 20 minutes later, the report said. The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner ruled Brown's death was a homicide, finding that he died of cardiac arrhythmia due to hypertensive and atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease, the report said. His medical emergency, the autopsy showed, was brought on by his struggle with the officers, according to the report. A doctor with the medical examiner's office went over her findings with Devlin's office and said his death was 'less about the actions of the police and more about Brown's heightened arousal during the struggle.' The doctor, the report said, 'did not believe that the struggle would have been lethal to a person without the underlying health problems exhibited by Brown,' Devlin wrote. 'For Brown, however, the duress of the struggle with the police tipped the scales leading to the cardiac arrhythmia that caused his death.' The toxicology report showed that Brown had fentanyl, oxycodone and THC in his system, the report said. An exam also found that his leg was not fractured, according to the report. Devlin's analysis of the incident found that police did not use excessive force when they removed Brown from the vehicle. 'His medical reaction was not due to the officers' use of force but to his precarious medical condition which, under the stress of the struggle, caused Brown to go into cardiac arrest,' Devlin wrote. Devlin's investigation concluded that the in-custody death 'was not due to the use of excessive force by Milford police officers nor to was it the result of criminality. To the contrary, it was rooted in Brown's underlying cardiovascular disease.'
Straits Times
08-06-2025
- Politics
- Straits Times
Chinese students reconsidering the US as Republicans threaten their visas
AUSTIN, Texas – Over lunch at the University of Texas at Austin, a professor from China and two Chinese students spoke dispiritedly this past week of the directive issued by Secretary of State Marco Rubio to 'aggressively revoke' visas of Chinese nationals studying in 'critical fields'. They also talked about a Republican bill in Congress that would ban Chinese student visas to the United States. Even if such matters never come to pass, said Xiaobo Lu, a professor of government at the university in Austin, 'the damage is already being done'. 'Chinese students are practical,' he said. 'They now have to consider whether, if they come to America, their studies will be disrupted. There's no removing that uncertainty. That ship has sailed.' The two students accompanying Prof Lu to lunch, who asked not to be named for fear that their visa status might be at risk, described several recent conversations with Chinese friends. One had decided to turn down offers at two prestigious American journalism schools and had opted instead for the programme at the University of Hong Kong. Another said no to a coveted slot at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in favour of a modest local government job. A third Chinese friend, currently studying at Johns Hopkins University, is mulling whether to pack his bags and finish his degree back home. Their accounts align with sentiments shared by a senior academic official at the University of Texas, who said that several excellent graduate school candidates from China had withdrawn their applications. The official added that a number of Chinese students on the Austin campus were afraid to criticise the measures. He spoke on the condition of anonymity because he shared those fears. There are about 1,400 Chinese students on the Austin campus. A spokesperson for the university said that its administrators would have no comment. The chilling effect that has overtaken some Chinese nationals in the United States on student visas comes as the Trump administration and its allies have suggested that their presence constitutes a national security threat. Such assertions, combined with the continuing trade war with China, represent an increasingly strident anti-China sentiment among conservative officials, even as their states wrestle with the benefits and drawbacks of having Chinese students in their colleges and universities. The bill in Congress, called the Stop CCP Visas Act, was introduced in March by Representative Riley Moore, a freshman Republican from West Virginia who said in an interview that 'we're going to push hard for it'. Its prospects in the House are uncertain, and it has little chance of passing in the Senate, where it would need Democratic support to achieve a filibuster-proof supermajority. The timing of the legislation is also curious, given that Chinese student enrollment in the United States has fallen by more than 25 per cent, from about 370,000 in 2019 to roughly 277,000 in the 2023-24 academic year, according to data from the Institute of International Education. Critics say that even if the bill goes nowhere, its message and Mr Rubio's directive will alienate foreign students who are considering the United States. 'Why take the chance to come here when you know that some new policy might disrupt your studies?' said Eddie West, the assistant vice-president for international affairs for California State University, Fresno. 'And you could understand if a family in India is looking at this and saying, 'Are we going to be targeted next?'' Of the Chinese citizens whose visas would be revoked by his bill, Mr Moore was dismissive of the idea that they were here simply studying. 'Maybe some are,' he said. He added that a law passed in 2017 by the Chinese government, the National Intelligence Law, stipulates that citizens living abroad must support their home country's intelligence-gathering efforts. Of the estimated 15 per cent of Chinese nationals who receive government scholarships to study abroad, he said, 'they have to regularly report back to the diplomatic mission. They are active spies'. Mr Moore did not provide evidence to support his claims. The two University of Texas students, and eight other Chinese students and faculty members interviewed for this article, said they had never once interacted with their government back home, other than during the visa procurement process. Mr Moore did cite three instances over the past three years when Chinese students had been charged with attempting to gain access to US military information. He said his views on Chinese students were validated by an investigative report published last month by The Stanford Review, a conservative newspaper published by Stanford University students. The article, 'Uncovering Chinese Academic Espionage at Stanford,' relied on anonymous sources and concluded, 'In short, there are Chinese spies at Stanford.' But the only person named as a spy was a former Stanford researcher, Chen Song, who was charged with visa fraud in 2020 for what the Justice Department said was lying about her affiliation with the Chinese military. The Stanford Review story did not mention that the Justice Department withdrew the fraud charge and four other charges against Song a year later. A prominent Stanford faculty member quoted in the article, political sociologist Larry Diamond, reaffirmed to The New York Times his concern about 'the dangers of China penetrating our systems and ripping off our technology'. But, Mr Diamond said: 'I am completely opposed to Moore's legislation and think it would be incredibly destructive to our interests. 'This takes a blind sledgehammer to a problem that needs highly targeted tools.' Jessica Chen Weiss, a professor of China studies at Johns Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies, said that a vast majority of Chinese students in the United States are not here to spy or obtain information for their government. 'Chinese students who come to the United States want to stay and contribute,' she said, adding that three-quarters of Chinese graduate students in the fields of science, technology, engineering and math stay in the United States. The number is even higher for doctoral students in artificial intelligence, she noted. Democratic Representative Grace Meng of New York, chair of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus, said in a statement that the legislation was 'xenophobic and wrongheaded'. She pointed to a survey earlier this year by The Asian American Foundation that found more than 1 in 4 Americans viewed Chinese Americans as a threat to American society. She added that Mr Moore's initiative, if passed, 'would send a dangerous message that people of Chinese descent – and Asian Americans more broadly – do not belong in this country'. Mr Moore said that he had not discussed the extent of any threat posed by Chinese students with his state's flagship college, West Virginia University, where around 130 Chinese students are enrolled. University officials declined to comment for this article. One of the bill's seven Republican co-sponsors, Representative Brandon Gill of Texas, said in a statement that 'it's time we start taking seriously the threat of the Chinese Communist Party and the hundreds of thousands of students they send to American universities each year, many of whom have been traced back to its espionage operations'. The statement provided no evidence for that assertion. Along with Mr Gill, five other co-sponsors – Representatives Troy Nehls of Texas, Andy Ogles of Tennessee, Burgess Owens of Utah, Addison McDowell of North Carolina and Scott Perry of Pennsylvania – represent districts in states that President Donald Trump won in November. Republican Senator Ashley Moody of Florida, where Mr Trump was also victorious in November, introduced a similar bill in the Senate. Each of these states has universities with large Chinese student populations, including the president's alma mater, the University of Pennsylvania, with more than 2,000 Chinese students, according to the most recent public data. 'We're literally skimming off the best and brightest China has to offer,' said Peter Lorge, a professor specialising in Chinese military history at Vanderbilt University, which has more than 700 Chinese students. 'They're fighting to come here, and their own country is struggling to get them to come back. The idea that we'd turn them away is baffling to me.' Mr David Firestein, the president of the George H.W. Bush Foundation for US-China Relations, said in an interview that the thousands of current and former Chinese students living in Texas contribute roughly US$500 million (S$644 million) annually to the state's economy. 'Banning them would be devastating to both our universities and to the state of Texas as a whole,' he said. His comments were echoed by Di Wang, a professor of history at Texas A&M from 1998 to 2015, who said in an interview that A&M's 'large number of professors and students from China have made substantial contributions to the education, research and exchanges between the people of the US and China'. Prof Wang described the current approach by Mr Rubio and Mr Moore as 'shortsighted, extreme and detrimental to the US. It would alienate many young Chinese who have a favourable view of the US and wish to learn from it'. Mr Moore scoffed at the idea that Chinese students experiencing life in an open society would have a salutary effect. 'They've been getting exposed to democratic values since Richard Nixon,' he said. 'That whole paradigm of, 'Let's introduce the free market into China and eventually democracy will flourish' – that's never happened.' Prof Weiss said that Mr Moore's bill could have unintended consequences for US security. During the Red Scare era of the 1950s, she said, a leading rocket scientist, Qian Xuesen, 'was prevented from continuing his scientific career in the United States,' even though he helped found the Jet Propulsion Laboratory at the California Institute of Technology. Instead, Qian returned to China, where he helped develop China's ballistic missile system. Mr Lu, the University of Texas government professor, also referred to the saga of Qian as an example of how the significant contributions by Chinese scholars can be imperiled by fixating on unsubstantiated suspicions. 'It would be like a doctor treating a small skin rash on a shoulder,' he said, 'by amputating the whole arm.' NYTIMES Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
Scoop
07-06-2025
- Politics
- Scoop
Defending Rights & Dissent And Project South Sue DHS & FBI For 'Cop City Records
Civil liberties group Defending Rights & Dissent and social justice organization Project South are jointly suing the Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Bureau of Investigation for their failure to provide records relating to the proposed law enforcement training facility in Atlanta known as 'Cop City.' The complaint is linked here. DRAD and Project South have been seeking documents that will uncover the extent and duration of DHS and FBI investigations and surveillance of the grassroots movement to stop 'Cop City' since February 2023. More than two years later, DHS has failed to respond entirely, while the FBI has repeatedly stonewalled and slow-walked the release of these documents in the public interest. 'Individuals exercising their First Amendment rights have been branded as terrorists or extremists for opposing Cop City. All too often we know federal agencies like the FBI or DHS play a role in facilitating these crackdowns. When free expression is on the line, we need full transparency from the government. It is unacceptable that these agencies have stonewalled us, forcing us to take them to court in order to defend the people's right to know and freedom to act,' said Chip Gibbons, Defending Rights & Dissent Policy Director. 'Cop City' has been controversial since it was first proposed in 2021 as a $90 million training ground for police and fire departments to be built on the beloved South River Forest, widely known as one of last remaining green spaces in metropolitan Atlanta, Georgia. A movement in opposition to the facility known as 'Stop Cop City' has garnered national attention, with thousands of residents and activists voicing their criticisms of the project. Law enforcement has aggressively cracked down on these protests, arresting activists, charging more than 40 with 'domestic terrorism,' and even shooting and killing 26-year-old Manuel Paez Terán during a raid on the public park. Previously released documents have already shown that both DHS and the FBI have been monitoring activists' web activity and are treating their opposition as consistent with 'anarchist violent extremist' and 'environmental violent extremist' ideologies. This aggressive surveillance contributed to Georgia police's violent repression of the Stop Cop City movement. 'The right to protest is enshrined in the U.S. Constitution. This fundamental right has continuously been violated by the U.S. government through its surveillance of social justice movements historically and in the present moment. This long and dark history needs to be exposed and the government's surveillance with the aim of destroying our movements must be countered,' said Juilee Shivalkar, Staff Attorney with Project South. DHS and FBI have 60 days to respond to the Freedom of Information Act lawsuit, which was filed on May 9. Defending Rights & Dissent is a national civil liberties organization that defends the American people's right to know and freedom to act through grassroots mobilization, public education, policy expertise, and advocacy journalism. Founded in 1986, Project South, the Institute to Eliminate Poverty & Genocide, is rooted in the legacy of the Southern Freedom Movement and Black Radical Tradition. Project South cultivates strong social movements in the U.S. South and global South, powerful enough to contend with some of the most pressing and complicated social, economic, and political problems we face today.
Scottish Sun
31-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Scottish Sun
Two Spice Girls set to snub Mel B's 50th birthday celebrations tonight days after reunion announcement
Click to share on X/Twitter (Opens in new window) Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) MEL B's big 50th birthday bash in Leeds tonight is set to be a glitzy affair. But The Sun can reveal TWO of her Spice Girls bandmates are giving it a miss. 6 Mel B is celebrating her milestone birthday in Leeds tonight Credit: Getty 6 Geri and Mel used to be very close but have kept their distance in recent years Credit: Splash News 6 Geri Horner is snubbing Mel B's birthday bash Credit: Getty 6 Victoria Beckham is out of town for work Credit: Getty Victoria Beckham and Geri Horner will be skipping the bash. Posh is out of town for work, but Geri has turned down the invitation. An insider spilled: 'Mel's throwing a huge party in Leeds for her 50th. It's also her fiance's birthday today so it's a joint celebration and will be a real family affair. "But Geri and Posh can't make it. Posh had a work commitment she couldn't get out of. "It's a bit awkward given the reunion excitement." The Sun has contacted their reps for comment. The snub comes just days after we revealed plans for the group to reunite as Avatars, following in the footsteps of pop legends Abba. It would see holograms of Geri, Mels B and C, Emma Bunton and Victoria playing their biggest hits. Victoria, who was not part of their 2019 tour, was said to have suggested she would agree if the others did. A source added: 'Their former manager Simon Fuller is desperate to have one last hurrah with the Spice Girls and this is his latest idea. Mel B drops biggest clue yet that Spice Girls are reuniting with cryptic comment on Instagram "He was the person who came up with the original idea for Abba and their digital show and he thinks this model could work perfectly for the group. Mel B is due to marry Rory McPhee, 38, later this year. It comes as Geri and Mel suffered a "frosty reunion" at Victoria's birthday last year. Geri and Mel are said to have kept their distance at Oswald's private members' club in Mayfair at the star-studded bash. A source said of the stars, who had a second No1 in 1996 with Say You'll Be There: 'Mel tried to smooth things over with Geri at the party but it didn't go as planned. "She was laughing it all off but Geri didn't seem interested in hearing what she had to say and wandered off. 'When it came to taking their group picture, Geri kept as far away from Mel as possible which was awkward to watch." Any awkwardness between the group, who split in 2000, seemed to be forgotten by the time they hit the dancefloor — where they performed their 1997 hit Stop. Onlookers told The Sun the five also sat down at a table together and talked during the evening. 6 Geri Horner and Mel B had a frosty reunion at Victoria Beckham's 50th birthday bash last year
