By MARY CLARE JALONICK

WASHINGTON (AP) — A protester and three U.S. Capitol Police officers were treated for injuries in a Senate office building on Wednesday after the protester resisted arrest for disruptive behavior and grabbed onto a doorway as the officers and a Republican senator tried to drag him out of the room.

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The protester, Brian C. McGinnis of North Carolina, was arrested and faces three counts of assaulting a police officer and three counts of resisting arrest and unlawful demonstration, the Capitol Police said in a statement.

“This afternoon, an unruly man who started to illegally protest during a hearing put everyone in a dangerous position by violently resisting and fighting our officer’s attempts to remove him from the room,” Capitol Police said in a statement.

Multiple videos show that McGinnis stood up and started shouting during the Senate Armed Services hearing and that police officers immediately grabbed him and tried to remove him from the room. McGinnis was protesting the U.S. military campaign in Iran, shouting, “America does not want to send its sons and daughters to war for Israel!”

The officers pulled McGinnis toward the exit as he violently resisted them and grabbed onto a doorway while they were trying to pull him out. Montana Sen. Tim Sheehy, a Republican member of the Armed Services panel who is a former Navy SEAL, ran over to assist and pull the protester’s arm off the door as other protesters yelled that McGinnis’ hand was stuck.

Capitol Police said in the statement that McGinnis “got his own arm stuck in a door to resist our officers and force his way back into the hearing room,” and said he was treated for his injuries.

Sheehy said in a statement on social media that he was trying to de-escalate the situation.

“This gentleman came to the Capitol looking for a confrontation, and he got one,” Sheehy said, “I hope he gets the help he needs without causing further violence.”

A video posted on an X account under the name Brian McGinnis appears to show the same man standing outside the Capitol on Wednesday morning before the hearing. The account’s description says he is a “Green Party Candidate for US Senate.”

He says in the video that he was “here in D.C. trying to speak out against the Senate” to ask them about sending the country into war.

“Anyone who feels disillusioned and betrayed by our government, you are not alone,” he says in the video.

After a decade of debate and more than two years of review, the St. Paul City Council has approved new regulations around drive-throughs.

Council Member Saura Jost, who took the lead on amending existing drive-through regulations, said she sought to balance business interests and public demand for quick access to food, pharmacies and banking with calls for a safer and more pedestrian-friendly urban environment.

The new rules approved Wednesday do not cap the number of drive-through businesses in the city — which is currently around 75 — but they do bar drive-through lanes within 660 feet of light rail, streetcar or bus rapid transit stations, including planned stations along fully-funded or federally-approved transit corridors. That’s the same distance as a typical city block.

In zoning districts that blend retail and housing, dubbed T3-T4 “traditional neighborhood” districts, the drive-through service windows must be part of a building that is at least four stories in height and 40,000 square feet in floor area.

The ordinance amendment spells out the required number of off-street “stacking” spaces in queuing lanes — six for banks and pharmacies, 12 for fast-food, 14 for coffee shops — and emphasizes that “in no event are vehicles permitted to stack into public sidewalks, trails, bicycle lanes, alleys, or streets.” Additional stacking beyond the minimums could be required by a zoning administrator following site plan review by city staff.

With an eye toward public safety, drive-throughs may continue to operate into the night, long after their on-site dining areas close to the public. A drive-through window is not allowed to double as a walk-up.

For bank, pharmacy and credit unions, drive-through lanes and service windows must be located to the side or rear of buildings and at least 60 feet from a residentially-zoned property, unless that property sits across a major arterial street, or it’s somehow buffered by the building the drive-through is attached to. An exception would be if the residential units are situated in the same building.

If the drive-through is for food and beverages, the distance requirement increases to 120 feet.

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By JONATHAN MATTISE and KRISTIN M. HALL

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Elon Musk’s proposed Tesla tunnel loop under the streets of Nashville was met with opposition Tuesday by the metro council, which passed a resolution to put their concerns about safety, transparency and a lack of local input on the record.

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The resolution, with 20 members voting for and 15 against with two abstaining, can’t force one of Musk’s companies to stop, stall or change their plans for the Music City Loop. But Nashville officials want to register their grievances after the politically connected tech billionaire’s company, The Boring Company, teamed up with willing state government partners to bypass local authority.

In July, Republican Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee and The Boring Company announced plans for the Music City Loop, featuring an initial 13-mile stretch that would include connecting the airport and downtown, which was later expanded to about 25 miles to include a second leg west of downtown. They promised a project that would come at no cost to taxpayers, albeit with free use of some state land near the Capitol. The first section of the tunnel is supposed to be operational by the first quarter of 2027.

The Nashville loop relies on a fleet of dedicated Tesla vehicles driven by trained drivers, with more than 30 stations being designed and the potential for more routes and stations. The company says the cost to ride is expected to be lower than other transportation options. The cars will be human-driven, though the company says it could explore autonomous vehicles in the future.

“Colleagues, public land needs to be for public good and public infrastructure decisions must prioritize the welfare, safety and express needs of Nashville residents,” said Delishia Porterfield, who sponsored the resolution, Tuesday night before the vote.

John Rutherford, a council member who voted against the resolution, asked his colleagues to set aside their political opinions about Musk. He said a vote of opposition would risk closing the door to any dialogue with The Boring Company.

A representative for The Boring Company did not immediately have a comment when reached by the AP.

The Boring Company has another Tesla tunnel in Las Vegas that already provides rides on the electric cars, though the full route isn’t finished. The company lists some research tunnels in use, including one in Texas in which passengers could travel in autonomous electric pods at upwards of 600 mph (965 kph). Plans for tunnels in some other cities have fallen through. Overseas, another Boring Company tunnel is planned for Dubai.

The Boring Company’s CEO Steve Davis said at the project’s announcement that they chose Nashville based on the need to address traffic and the partnership with state officials.

FILE – People protest against the Music City Loop, an underground tunnel by Elon Musk’s The Boring Company, Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2026, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV, File)

“Nashville has been fantastic. Moved at an incredible speed, so welcoming, so kind, so so friendly,” Davis said.

But Nashville officials, advocates and others seemed mostly blindsided at the announcement, and the council resolution questions why the city wasn’t “meaningfully” consulted about a major change to the transit roadmap in Music City, where transportation projects are still being rolled out after voters approved a transit-funding tax increase in 2024.

The resolution also draws attention to potential geological and environmental concerns, citing its underground porous limestone that creates risks for sinkholes and water movement, in addition to the city’s history of major flooding.

Last month officials from The Boring Company answered questions from the council and heard from residents, who voiced concerns about environmental impacts, safety of the tunnel and whether the company was compliant with the Americans With Disabilities Act.

Lindsay Lee, chair of the Mayor’s Advisory Committee for People with Disabilities, said the company gave vague assurances that the vehicles would be ADA-compliant.

FILE – President and CEO of the Boring Company Steve Davis holds a hat during a news conference announcing the company’s intent to build the Music City Loop, a private transportation tunnel that will connect the airport to downtown, Monday, July 28, 2025, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV, File)

“As far as anyone is aware, they do not manufacture wheelchair-accessible Teslas,” said Lee in an email interview on Wednesday. “Are we supposed to believe that will change in time for the proposed launch one year from now?”

The Boring Company says it has “a strong track record in safely managing variable ground conditions,” including in Las Vegas. David Buss, the vice president of commercial and government affairs, told the council that Nashville was “a great place to do tunneling,” as evidenced by existing tunnels built previously by other entities.

This isn’t the first time that a Musk-owned company has drawn criticism from Tennesseans for operating around regulatory loopholes and without advance notice. His xAI data center began operating in Memphis in 2024, powered in part by pollution-emitting gas turbines, without first applying for a permit, which led to residents loudly protesting at city meetings.

By JONEL ALECCIA

The blockbuster GLP-1 drugs that have reshaped the treatment of diabetes and obesity may help prevent multiple substance use disorders — and reduce the tragic outcomes they cause, a large new study finds.

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An analysis published Wednesday in a medical journal looked at electronic health records from more than 600,000 U.S. Veterans Affairs patients with diabetes. It found that those treated with medications such as Ozempic and Mounjaro were less likely to develop addictions to alcohol, nicotine, cocaine, opioids and other substances than those treated with a different class of drugs.

In those already addicted, the GLP-1 drugs were linked to lower risks of hospitalization, overdose and death, according to the study.

The new results suggest — but don’t prove — that the weight-loss medications may be able to target the underlying source of cravings that affect the more than 48 million Americans with substance use disorders.

“They’re actually working against the root cause of all these different addictions,” said Dr. Ziyad Al-Aly, the study’s lead author and a chief researcher at the VA St. Louis Health Care System.

Here’s what you need to know about the new research published by The BMJ:

How the study was designed

Previous studies have suggested that the drugs known as GLP-1s, or glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists, could reduce addictions by targeting the brain’s reward pathways. But those studies have been small and often limited to one substance.

For this study, one of the largest to date, Al-Aly and his colleagues analyzed data from the electronic records of more than 600,000 Veterans Affairs patients with diabetes over three years. They compared people who received GLP-1 drugs with those treated with medications that lower blood sugar.

The patients were divided into seven parallel trials that analyzed the risk of developing addictions to multiple substances including alcohol, cannabis, cocaine, nicotine and opioids. Another trial looked at the risk of specific harms among people with existing addictions when they took the different types of medication.

What the researchers found

Al-Aly and his colleagues found that people starting the GLP-1 drugs had lower risks of developing addiction to multiple substances. Compared with the other medications, people taking the GLP-1 drugs had a reduced risk for addiction: 18% for alcohol, 14% for cannabis, 20% for both cocaine and nicotine, and 25% for opioids.

In patients who already had substance use disorders, starting the GLP-1s was linked with a 31% lower risk of emergency department visits, 26% lower risk of hospitalizations, 25% lower risk of suicidal thoughts or attempts, 39% lower risk of overdose — and 50% lower risk of death.

Overall, the study found that using GLP-1 drugs likely prevented about seven cases of substance use disorder and 12 incidents involving serious harm for every 1,000 users over three years, Al-Aly said.

The limits of the study

Among the study’s limitations: It was conducted within the VA health system, which serves a population that is mostly older, white and male, although Al-Aly said the results were consistent in more than 35,000 women. It also includes data only from people with diabetes, not the general population.

The researchers also couldn’t account for some factors, such as socioeconomic status or lifestyle choices, that could affect the results. And the analysis focuses on the effects of using GLP-1s compared with another drug, not compared with no treatment.

As an observational study, the new analysis showed that the GLP-1s are associated with reduced risk of substance use disorders and harms, not that the drugs themselves caused the reduction.

Addiction researchers see a need for new medications

The new findings are striking, said Dr. Lorenzo Leggio, a National Institute on Drug Abuse clinical director who wasn’t involved in the study.

“Even though we don’t fully understand the mechanism, somehow the GLP-1 system is tackling addiction biology and the foundational system that underlies all these disorders,” he said.

Diabetes and weight-loss trials have shown that the GLP-1 drugs target hormones in the gut and the brain that control appetite and feelings of fullness, cutting down on what’s described as “food noise,” or intrusive thoughts of food. In the same way, this study indicates the drugs may tamp down “alcohol or drug noise,” Leggio said.

Growing evidence that GLP-1s might prevent substance use disorders is exciting, said Dr. Anna Lembke, a Stanford University addiction medicine specialist.

“We haven’t really had a new tool in our toolbox from a pharmacotherapy perspective to treat addiction in a long time,” said Lembke, noting that some addiction specialists are already prescribing GLP-1s off-label, especially when other treatments have failed.

She cautioned that the GLP-1 drugs don’t work the same way for all users and that they have risks that must be weighed against potential benefits.

What comes next

The new findings do not, by themselves, justify prescribing GLP-1 drugs to prevent or treat substance use disorders, Al-Aly said. That evidence would need to come from randomized controlled clinical trials that directly compare the use of the drugs against a placebo, or dummy medication. Several such trials are pending, Leggio noted.

The goal is finding a new way to treat addictions, which are a leading cause of sickness and death around the world.

“The consequence in terms of chronic disease of these addictive drugs is actually gigantic in our society,” Leggio said.

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.