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LONDON

'Not my king': UK republicans want coronation to be the last

On his way to be crowned this week, King Charles III will travel by gilded coach through streets swathed in red, white and blue Union flags - and past a warning from history.

At Trafalgar Square stands a large bronze statue of King Charles I, the 17th-century monarch deposed by Parliament and executed in 1649. On Saturday, more than 1,500 protesters, dressed in yellow for maximum visibility, plan to gather beside it to chant "Not my king" as the royal procession goes by.

"We'll try and keep the atmosphere light, but our aim is to make it impossible to ignore," said Graham Smith, chief executive of the anti-monarchist group Republic.

The coronation, he said, is "a celebration of a corrupt institution. And it is a celebration of one man taking a job that he has not earned."

Republican activists have long struggled to build momentum to dislodge Britain's 1,000-year-old monarchy. But they see the coronation as a moment of opportunity.

Queen Elizabeth II, who died in September after 70 years on the throne, was widely respected because of her longevity and sense of duty.

Opinion polls suggest opposition and apathy to the monarchy are both growing. In a recent study by the National Centre for Social Research, just 29 per cent of respondents thought the monarchy was "very important" - the lowest level in the centre's 40 years of research on the subject. Opposition was highest among the young.

"I think it's definitely shifting," said Smith, whose group wants to replace the monarch with an elected head of state. "People are quite happy to criticise Charles in a way they weren't willing to necessarily in public about the queen."

Virginia

Snake switches off traffic light

A large snake brought traffic to a stop at an intersection in Prince William County, Virginia.

The snake was in an electrical panel at the intersection of Prince William Parkway and Sudley Manor Drive and caused a power outage on Monday, the Prince William County Police Department said in a statement. A police officer and an animal control officer worked together to remove the snake from the panel and release it unharmed in the area, authorities said.

The snake was so large that it flipped a breaker switch that shut off the signal, but it didn't damage anything inside the box, officials told news outlets. It's believed that the snake had been living in the box for a while due to molten skin found inside.

When traffic signals aren't working because of a power outage, police say to treat intersections like stop signs.

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Shirtless senator votes in meeting

A Minnesota state senator became a reluctant star on social media after he voted shirtless while lying in bed during what should have been a routine legislative commission meeting.

In a video streamed on YouTube, Republican Senator Calvin Bahr, of East Bethel, can briefly be seen voting - with a School House Rock I'm Just a Bill character on the wall behind him - during a Zoom call on Monday with the Legislative Audit Commission.

After voting, Bahr quickly turned the camera off, leaving a black screen showing just his name.

A GOP Senate spokeswoman said Bahr, a truck driver, worked until 4:45 a.m. and then went to bed before Monday's meeting. She said he would not comment on the vote or the video. The Minneapolis Star Tribune reported.

The video prompted several memes and social commentary before comments were turned off.

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Canada mulls expelling Chinese diplomat

Canada's foreign minister said on Thursday that the country is considering the expulsion of Chinese diplomats over an intelligence agency report saying one of them plotted to intimidate the Hong Kong relatives of a Canadian lawmaker.

Foreign Minister Melanie Joly said her department was summoning China's ambassador to a meeting to underline that Canada won't tolerate such interference. She said the intelligence agency report indicated that opposition Conservative lawmaker Michael Chong and his Hong Kong relatives were targeted after Chong criticised Beijing's human rights record.

"We're assessing different options including the expulsion of diplomats," Joly said before a parliamentary committee.

Canada's spy agency has not released details publicly. Chong has said the report identifies a Toronto-based diplomat as being part of the plot. Chong has been critical of Beijing's treatment of Uyghur Muslims in China's Xinjiang province.