People gathered in Bangkok on Sunday for one of the biggest demonstrations against the country's military rulers since the 2014 coup. The student-led movement has three core demands: hold new elections, amend the constitution and end the intimidation of government critics
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Minsk: tens of thousands gather in biggest protest in Belarus history – video
Tens of thousands of Belarusians assemble in Minsk as an extraordinary week of rising sentiment comes to a close. ‘I made my choice and my vote was thrown in the bin, so I’ll keep coming out until our president leaves,’ said one demonstrator. Seven days after the country’s authoritarian ruler, Alexander Lukashenko, claimed to have secured 80% of the vote in a presidential election, his legitimacy is in tatters and his regime faces its biggest crisis since he came to power 26 years ago
Continue reading...‘We will win’: vast Belarus rally adamant Lukashenko must go
As many as 100,000 people attend biggest protest in country’s history in defiant and euphoric mood
Looking out across the vast crowd, the protesters could not quite believe it. Was this really Belarus? How had their country changed so quickly?
A week ago in the same spot, riot police had used batons and rubber bullets to terrorise those protesting against Alexander Lukashenko’s rigged election victory. Yet despite thousands of arrests and the shocking violence meted out to so many of them, the mood in the country has turned from despair to resilience to euphoria as the week progressed.
Continue reading...Pro-democracy movement draws thousands in Bangkok
Mostly student protesters demand dissolution of parliament, with some calling for reforms to the monarchy
At least 10,000 demonstrators, mostly students, gathered at Bangkok’s democracy monument on Sunday, as they stepped up their demands for political change, and some called for reforms to the monarchy.
The protest was one of the biggest since the 2014 coup, and follows a month of almost daily rallies that have drawn support from high school and university students across the country.
Continue reading...Thailand protests: police arrest student activist for sedition
Pro-democracy rallies continue with large event due to be held in Bangkok on Sunday
A prominent student protest leader in Thailand has been arrested on charges of sedition as pro-democracy rallies continued across the country.
Parit Chiwarak, 22, whose arrest was livestreamed on social media, was stopped on the outskirts of Bangkok on Friday night. As he was physically carried into a car, he raised his hand in a three-fingered salute – a gesture borrowed from the Hunger Games that is used by protesters and symbolises opposition to the military-backed government.
Continue reading...‘They were smashing me with batons’: detained Belarusians tell of jail abuse
Savage attacks by prison guards and riot police follow election protests as Lukashenko holds on to power
People detained in Belarus during the past few days of unrest have told the Guardian about systematic mistreatment and abuse, suggesting that guards and riot police loyal to Alexander Lukashenko’s regime have terrorised thousands of Belarusians caught up in the crackdown on recent protests.
Those detained in police stations, jails and makeshift prisons spoke of ritual beatings, up to 55 women being crammed into a cell meant for two people and men who were kept in stress positions for hours on end. Leaked audio files and other testimony has corroborated the reports of widespread torture as Lukashenko tries to hold on to power.
Continue reading...Will knocking Belarus offline save president from protests?
Alexander Lukashenko has cut off entire population’s internet to try to stifle election dissent
As he fights for his political survival, Alexander Lukashenko has taken a big gamble by cutting off the internet across most of Belarus.
Belarusians seeking to protest against his government have been mostly cut off from the outside world: mobile internet has been throttled and popular messaging apps have been disabled, leaving demonstrators scrambling to find wifi connections and working VPNs or proxies to get online and then sharing what news they can find.
Continue reading...Chicago erupts with violence and looting after police shooting
More than 100 arrested after overnight looting on shopping district as mayor decries ‘an assault on our city’
Unrest and violence erupted in the center of Chicago early on Monday after weeks of bubbling tension in a number of neighborhoods across the city and protests on Sunday after a man was shot by police on the south side.
Continue reading...Belarus opposition candidate rejects election result after night of protests
‘I will believe my own eyes,’ says Svetlana Tikhanovskaya after commission says Alexander Lukashenko won landslide
Share your reaction on the Belarus election result
The main opposition candidate in Belarus’s election has rejected the official results that gave President Alexander Lukashenko a landslide victory and her team has vowed to stay in the country to campaign for a change of power.
“I will believe my own eyes – the majority was for us,” Svetlana Tikhanovskaya told reporters in the capital, Minsk, on Monday, after widespread reports of vote-tampering in Sunday’s election.
Continue reading...Trump and his company under investigation by New York district attorney, filing suggests – live
- Filing suggests Vance is investigating possible fraud
- Trump calls Birx’s dire warning on coronavirus in the US ‘pathetic’
- Join us for an online event with Eric Holder to discuss voter suppression in the 2020 election, Thursday at 5pm ET. Register now
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New York prosecutors argue they are justified in seeking Trump’s tax returns because of public reports of “extensive and protracted criminal conduct at the Trump Organization.”
Expanding on our earlier post, lawyers from the Manhattan district attorney’s office argued that in court on Monday.
Manhattan District Attorney District Attorney Cyrus Vance is seeking eight years of the Republican president’s personal and corporate tax records, but has disclosed little about what prompted him to request the records, other than part of the investigation is related to payoffs made to women to keep them quiet about alleged affairs with Trump.
In their court filing Monday, though, attorneys for Vance said Trump’s arguments that the subpoena was too broad stemmed from “the false premise” that the probe was limited to so-called “hush-money” payments.
Trump just answered questions from reporters at the White House, expanding on his threat to ban Tik Tok, disagreeing with Fauci, and again promoting hydroxychloroquine, even as top administration officials acknowledge that there is no evidence the drug is an effective treatment for the virus.
Responding to a handful of questions on Monday afternoon, Trump said the social media platform Tik Tok must be sold to Microsoft or another company by 15 September or it will be shut down in US. He also said the Treasury should receive payment as a portion of any deal between the social media platform and a US company.
Continue reading...Berlin protests against coronavirus rules divide German leaders
Up to 20,000 demonstrated against restrictions, raising fears of a rise in infections
German leaders are divided over whether to restrict the rights of demonstrators, after tens of thousands of people who took to the streets of Berlin at the weekend failed to abide by hygiene and distancing rules.
According to officials, up to 20,000 people took part in demonstrations against the government’s coronavirus restrictions at different locations across Berlin on Saturday, amalgamating for a joint rally later in the day. Organisers said up to 1.3 million people took part, a figure that police denied.
Continue reading...Will Trump actually pull federal agents from Portland? – video explainer
Federal agents accused of behaving like an 'occupying army' are said to be pulling out of Portland, Oregon, in an embarrassing climbdown by the White House, but many protesters are sceptical over whether the agents will actually withdraw from the city.
The force, which have been dubbed by some as 'Donald Trump’s troops', were sent in by the president a month ago to end what he called 'anarchy' during Black Lives Matter protests sparked after the police killing of George Floyd.
The Guardian's Chris McGreal looks at what Trump was hoping to gain by sending paramilitaries into the city, if and how they will leave, and how their presence has fuelled anger among most residents
Continue reading...Concern as Hong Kong postpones elections for a year, citing Covid-19
The decision is ‘an assault on fundamental freedoms’, says Hong Kong Watch, as democracy deteriorates
The Hong Kong government has postponed its upcoming elections for one year, citing the growing coronavirus outbreak in the territory but sparking immediate accusations that the pandemic was being used as a pretext to suppress democracy.
The city’s leader, Carrie Lam, announced on Friday she had invoked colonial-era emergency regulations to delay the 6 September vote to 5 September 2021, saying it was the “hardest decision I have made in the past seven months”, but had the full support of the Chinese central government.
Continue reading...Soldiers and police deployed at anti-corruption demonstrations in Zimbabwe
As the economy falters, President Emmerson Mnangagwa blames foreign interference, issues warnings to ‘rogue Zimbabweans’
Hundreds of police and soldiers have been deployed on the streets of cities across Zimbabwe ahead of planned anti-corruption demonstrations on Friday.
Recent weeks have seen rising tensions in the poor southern African country as security agencies have sought to stifle widespread anger at soaring prices, inadequate public services and allegations of graft at the highest levels of President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s government.
Continue reading...‘I was shielded from my history’: the changes young black Britons are calling for
Exclusive: from schools to policing, 50 people share their experiences of growing up in the UK
- In their own words: the voices behind the UK’s anti-racism rallies
- Mapped: how George Floyd’s death sparked a wave of UK protests
Following the resurgence of the Black Lives Matter movement in the UK and across the world, the Guardian interviewed 50 young black Britons, many of whom have been at the heart of the recent anti-racism protests, to ask what changes they would like to see in their lifetime.
Three demands came up repeatedly: decolonising the curriculum; divesting funds away from police forces in favour of a public health-focused approach to crime; and better representation of black Britons across a wider section of society.
Continue reading...Young, British & Black: the voices behind the UK’s anti-racism protests
The death of George Floyd in the US sparked the UK’s biggest anti-racism protests in centuries. We spoke to 50 young people at the heart of these rallies
Continue reading...New York protester forced into unmarked van by plainclothes police – video
Footage showing police officers in New York forcing a female protester into an unmarked minivan in east Manhattan has provoked an outcry.
Video shows plainclothes officers carrying the woman away while uniformed police stand guard, actions criticised as ‘abusive and indefensible’ by the American Civil Liberties Union.
In a statement, the New York Police Department said the protester was wanted for damaging police cameras during five separate criminal incidents in and around City Hall Park
Continue reading...‘I want to stand up to Trump’: Portland protesters unleash fury over BLM, Covid-19 and economy
Protesters say they’re demonstrating for multiple reasons as concern grows that the nightly battles play into Trump’s hands
Some come early and leave before the atmosphere turns and the trouble begins. Others sit out the peaceful demonstration and arrive in time for the nightly showdown to the beat of drummers rallying Portland’s ad hoc force of protesters against “Trump’s troops”.
But each evening follows the same broad ritual in downtown Portland in support of Black Lives Matter and against Donald Trump’s deployment of federal paramilitaries even as the protests have swelled to draw in organized groups of mothers, military veterans and first time demonstrators pushed too far by the president.
Continue reading...Outcry in New York after police force protester into unmarked van
Video shows plain-clothes officers carrying the protester away while uniformed police stand guard, actions criticised as ‘abusive and indefensible’
Police officers in New York have been filmed arresting a female protester by forcing her into an unmarked minivan in east Manhattan.
Footage of Tuesday’s arrest drew sharp criticism from the American Civil Liberties Union, which called the arrest “dangerous, abusive, and indefensible,” in a post on Twitter.
Continue reading...‘These are his people’: inside the elite border patrol unit Trump sent to Portland
Bortac, a quasi-militarised outfit equivalent to the Navy Seals, has been deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan
In January 2011, James Tomsheck, then a top internal affairs investigator inside US Customs and Border Protection, attended a meeting of about 100 senior CBP leaders in a hotel in Irvington, Virginia.
Amid the sanitized splendor of the hotel ballroom, he vividly recalls hearing the nation’s then highest-ranking border patrol agent, David Aguilar, laying out his vision for the future. Border patrol, the former CBP deputy commissioner said, was to become the “marine corps of the US federal law enforcement community”.
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