Protester drives at New Zealand police as cordon tightens

By NICK PERRY
Associated Press

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — Police in New Zealand’s capital say a protester drove a car toward a police line, narrowly avoiding officers, and other protesters sprayed officers with a stinging substance. The protesters oppose COVID-19 vaccine mandates and have been camped outside Parliament for two weeks. The latest clashes began after about 250 officers and staff arrived at dawn and used forklifts to move concrete barriers into a tighter cordon around the encampment, where hundreds of cars and trucks have blocked city streets. The protests come just as New Zealand experiences its first big COVID-19 outbreak, which has been fueled by the omicron variant.