Editor Brian Harrod Provides Comprehensive up-to-date news coverage, with aggregated news from sources all over the world from the Roundup Newswires Network
In stark contrast to right-wing claims, 93% of demonstrations have involved no serious harm to people or property
The vast majority of the thousands of Black Lives Matter protests this summer have been peaceful, with more than 93% involving no serious harm to people or damage to property, according to a new report tracking political violence in the United States.
But the US government has taken a “heavy-handed approach” to the demonstrations, with authorities using force “more often than not” when they are present, the report found.
Liu Yifei, who stars as Chinese heroine, has voiced support for Hong Kong police during suppression of protests
Calls to boycott Disney’s live-action remake of Mulan have been reignited ahead of its release on Friday, with Thai pro-democracy activists joining those vowing to shun the film.
Bulgarian protesters were confronted by riot police outside parliament in Sofia on Wednesday night in the largest demonstration in two months of anti-government demonstrations.
More than 60 protesters were arrested in the capital as demonstrators threw bottles, eggs and firecrackers at police cordoning off the parliament building.
The prime minister, Boiko Borisov, faces accusations of corruption as demonstrators demand the disbandment of government
A Bay Area police officer has been charged with voluntary manslaughter in the shooting of a Black man in a Walmart store in April.
The district attorney in California’s Alameda county announced the charge against officer Jason Fletcher, 49, in the killing Steven Taylor, 33. Responding to a call about a possible shoplifter with a baseball bat at a Walmart, Fletcher fired first his taser and then his pistol at Taylor, killing him.
Lee Merritt, an attorney for Taylor’s family, said Taylor was going through a mental health crisis on Saturday afternoon, and that he has previously suffered from paranoid schizophrenia and bipolar depression. “He was shot after he had become completely helpless and no longer represented a threat,” Merritt told the Guardian on Monday.
Merritt said he wasn’t sure yet whether police shot Taylor with a Taser or bullet after he was already down, and that an autopsy was under way.
Donald Trump appeared to defend the teenage gunman charged with killing two people and injuring another with an AR-15-style rifle during protests against the police shooting of an African American man in Kenosha, Wisconsin.
At a White House press briefing Trump said Kyle Rittenhouse, 17, 'probably would have been killed but it’s under investigation'.
Trump also defended his supporters in Portland who fired paintball guns and pepper spray on Saturday
Joe Biden has responded to Trump’s refusal to condemn Kyle Rittenhouse:
In a statement, he said:
Tonight, the President declined to rebuke violence. He wouldn’t even repudiate one of his supporters who is charged with murder because of his attacks on others. He is too weak, too scared of the hatred he has stirred to put an end to it.
So once again, I urge the President to join me in saying that while peaceful protest is a right — a necessity — violence is wrong, period. No matter who does it, no matter what political affiliation they have. Period.
If Donald Trump can’t say that, then he is unfit to be President, and his preference for more violence — not less — is clear.
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is seeking a communications firm to “defeat despair and inspire hope,” bidding out a $250m contract, Politico reports.
Ahead of the elections, with 180,000 Americans dead from coronavirus, HHS wants a firm to help “deliver important public health and economic information the administration can defeat despair, inspire hope and achieve national recovery.”
Several weeks ago, the department sent out to a number of communications firms a “performance work statement,” which lays out what work will be expected of the winning firm. The document says that the vast majority of the money will be spent from now until January.
The document also lists the goals of the contract: “defeat despair and inspire hope, sharing best practices for businesses to operate in the new normal and instill confidence to return to work and restart the economy,” build a “coalition of spokespeople” around the country, provide important public health, therapeutic and vaccine information as the country reopens and give Americans information on the phases of reopening.
Berlin’s interior minister has expressed regret over a standoff outside the Reichstag building on Saturday during a rally against coronavirus restrictions.
Speaking to a committee of the city state’s interior ministry on Monday, Andreas Geisel said he was “deeply regretful” about the images from the protest, which were seen around the world.
Protests against Alexander Lukashenko's contested election win have continued in the country, with an estimated 100,000 demonstrators taking to the streets of the capital, defying a government crackdown. Protesters in Minsk were met with an increased security presence as anti-government rallies continued for a third week
PM suspends interior minister over claims he acted unlawfully by supporting street protests
A power struggle in Libya’s UN-backed government that erupted over street protests has raised fears about the future of fragile peace-building efforts after its prime minister, Fayez al-Sarraj, said the interior minister had acted unlawfully in giving his backing to the calls for improved living standards.
The surprise developments, unfolding over the past week, move Libya away from a carefully planned UN-backed move to build on a ceasefire and plans to resume oil production agreed a fortnight ago.
UNHCR and IOM say 200 rescued people urgently need to get off Banksy-funded ship
The UN refugee agency urged European nations on Saturday to let in hundreds of migrants rescued from the Mediterranean by humanitarian boats, including one financed by the British street artist Banksy.
The UNHCR and the International Organization of Migration (IOM) said more than 200 rescued refugees and migrants needed immediately to get off the nonprofit search-and-rescue ship Louise Michel, saying it was far beyond its safe capacity.
Activists report being held for hours without charge
For many Kenosha residents, Saturday morning was starting like the five mornings before them since Jacob Blake’s shooting by the police last Sunday, after a night of large, peaceful protests demanding justice and equality.
Hundreds took to the streets, some working to patch damage and doll up the blistered city, 40 miles south of Milwaukee in Wisconsin, on the shore of Lake Michigan, by painting rainbows and hearts on boarded-up businesses.
Far-right extremists tried to storm the German parliament building on Saturday following a protest against the country’s pandemic restrictions, but were intercepted by police and forcibly removed.
The incident occurred after a daylong demonstration by tens of thousands of people opposed to the wearing of masks and other government measures intended to stop the spread of the new coronavirus. Police ordered the protesters to disband halfway through their march around Berlin after participants refused to observe physical distancing rules, but a rally near the capital’s iconic Brandenburg Gate took place as planned.
Climate protests including ‘funeral march’ due to take place across UK, with focus on airports
Climate demonstrations are due to take place across the UK this weekend, as the environmental campaign group Extinction Rebellion launches its latest “uprising”.
This weekend’s events will include a “funeral march” in Lewes, East Sussex, to “mark the death and destruction wrought by humans on our natural world”. The march, described as a Procession for the Planet, will include mourners dressed in black and a jazz band.
Volunteers accuse charity of excluding deprived and minority ethnic schoolchildren
Volunteers are accusing the National Trust of excluding deprived and minority ethnic schoolchildren from enjoying nature and visiting its properties with the planned sacking of the charity’s education officers.
The number of protests and petitionsare growing over the trust’s controversial “reset” involving the proposed loss of 1,200 jobs, including its learning staff, as the charity plans to stop providing any curriculum-based content or learning activities for schools.
President accepts Republican presidential nomination in event staged at White House, raising ethical concerns
Against a backdrop of a global pandemic, heightened racial tensions, and widespread unemployment, Donald Trump framed his Democratic rival Joe Biden as the real danger to the country’s safety and economic welfare in his address to the Republican convention on Thursday.
Accepting the party’s presidential nomination ahead of November’s elections, Trump argued for more than an hour that his administration had accomplished everything it had set out to do and warned that a Biden presidency could be ruinous.
Democratic nominee Joe Biden says he has spoken to the family of Jacob Blake, the African American man who was repeatedly shot in the back by police officers in Kenosha, Wisconsin.
'What I saw in that video makes me sick,' Biden said of the footage of Blake being shot while three of his children looked on in a nearby car.
The Democratic nominee went on to urge protesters to remain peaceful and avoid 'needless violence'. Biden repeated the words of Blake’s mother, Julia Jackson, who said yesterday that her son would not want to see violence and destruction carried out in his name.
Three shot as Wisconsin city rocked by further violence on streets following shooting of Jacob Blake
Two people were shot dead and another injured when at least one gunman opened fire on protesters in Kenosha, Wisconsin, amid demonstrations against the police shooting of Jacob Blake three days ago.
David Beth, the county sheriff, said one person was shot in the head and another in the chest shortly before midnight on Tuesday. Another person was shot in the arm. The victims have not been identified.
Ted Hui and Lam Cheuk-ting held over incident in July 2019 when white-clad thugs attacked activists at train station
Hong Kong police have arrested pro-democracy lawmakers over involvement in protests in 2019, including one who was injured when a large group of thugs attacked protesters and civilians at the Yuen Long transport station.
The arrests come amid a crackdown on dissent and freedom of expression.