Letetra Widman, the sister of Jacob Blake, who was shot in the back by police on Sunday, gives an impassioned plea saying that above all the other labels given to her brother, he is human.
Letetra said she had been inundated with messages of support but that all she really wanted was change.
Continue reading...Demonstrations over hunger by people thrown out of work by the pandemic have been met with violent repression
Violeta Delgado was at a protest over food shortages under Chile’s coronavirus lockdowns when the police arrived and fired off a volley of teargas rounds.
Delgado, who was seven months pregnant, says she put her hands up to show she was unarmed, but was struck by a police vehicle and knocked to the ground.
Continue reading...The embattled Belarusian president is shown brandishing a rifle in official footage taken during protests in Minsk on 24 August. Alexander Lukashenko watched the demonstrations from his helicopter before a meeting with riot police outside his palace in clips released by his press service. He could be heard pledging to 'deal with' the protesters, after a crowd estimated at more than 200,000 gathered to call for his removal
Defiant protesters have rallied in central Minsk again in a sign that even a threat to use the army was not enough to quell the uprising against authoritarian president Alexander Lukashenko. Unofficial estimates put the crowd that formed outside the parliament at 150,000 people or more.
Demonstrations have been held in the capital and other Belarusian towns since 9 August, when an election which protesters describe as rigged granted Lukashenko a sixth term in office. Demonstrators are demanding he quit after 26 years in power, and that new elections be held.
Defence minister’s threat to call in army fails to quell protests sparked by disputed election
Defiant protesters have flooded central Minsk again in a sign that even a threat to use the army was not enough to quell the uprising against Belarus’s authoritarian president, Alexander Lukashenko.
The vast square outside the parliament was turned into a sea of red and white by protesters waving the traditional Belarusian flag adopted by the protest movement and chanting “resign!” and “put Lukashenko in a police van!”. Unofficial estimates put the crowd at 150,000 people or more.
Continue reading...Federal agents clashed with protesters, accusing them of damaging vehicles and throwing projectiles
Smoke filled the air outside a police precinct in Portland, Oregon early on Saturday, as authorities worked to clear a crowd accused of damaging patrol vehicles, throwing projectiles and pointing lasers at officers.
Related: The Department of Homeland Security is a rogue agency. Democrats must take action | Trevor Timm
Continue reading...Bloc declares solidarity with protests against Lukashenko’s grip on power as it vows to press ahead with sanctions
The EU has said it does not recognise Alexander Lukashenko as Belarus’s president and vowed to press ahead with sanctions on his regime, following an emergency summit in response to 10 days of protests that have shaken the autocrat’s 26-year grip on power.
“The European Union stands in solidarity with the people of Belarus,” said Charles Michel, the European council president, who convened the last-minute meeting of the EU’s 27 leaders. Belarus’s presidential elections had been “neither free nor fair and did not meet international standards”, he said. “We don’t recognise the results presented by the Belarus authorities.”
Continue reading...The Belarusian president, Alexander Lukashenko, walked off stage to chants of 'step down' after a speech to workers at the Minsk tractor works on Monday. The factory is one of the large state-run industrial plants that are the pride of his Soviet-style economic model and core support base. During his speech, Lukashenko said he would be willing to hand over power after a referendum in an apparent attempt to pacify mass protests and strikes
Continue reading...Embattled Belarus president looked shaken as people yelled ‘liar’ in fresh blow to regime
Alexander Lukashenko’s grip on power in Belarus has taken a further hit, as workers heckled him during a visit to a factory on the outskirts of Minsk.
The visit to the the state-owned MZKT military vehicles factory on Monday was meant to show the Belarusian president was still in control and retained the support of workers at the vast factories that are the backbone of the country’s neo-Soviet economy, a day after the biggest rally in the country’s recent history against his rule.
Continue reading...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
Continue reading...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...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...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...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...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...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...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...‘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.
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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...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.
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