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Javier E

For Hong Kong's Youth, Protests Are 'a Matter of Life and Death' - The New York Times - 0 views

  • For the many high-school and university-age students who flooded the streets, the issue is much bigger than extradition alone. As they see it, they are fighting a “final battle” for some semblance of autonomy from the Chinese government.
  • young people in Hong Kong feel less affinity with mainland China and are more likely to see themselves as having a distinct Hong Kong — as opposed to Chinese — identity. Beijing’s efforts to grapple with this have backfired; when officials tried to impose a patriotic education curriculum in schools in 2012, young people led the protests against it.
  • Many young protesters see the extradition bill as hurting the territory’s judicial independence — in their view, the last vestige of insulation they now have from Beijing’s influence.
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  • The most prominent leaders of what became known as the Umbrella Movement or Occupy Central were jailed, and their legions of young supporters were left bitterly disenchanted.
  • the extradition fight, he added, is “a matter of life and death.”
  • “The extradition law is a danger to our lives,” said Zack Ho, 17, a high school student who helped organize a boycott of classes. “Once this passes, our rule of law would be damaged beyond repair.”
  • Who’s going to be quite so willing, openly, to take six years of jail as the prize for the protests?” said Claudia Mo, a pro-democracy Hong Kong lawmaker, referring to a sentence handed down last year to Edward Leung, a local activist, for his role in a 2016 clash between protesters and the police.
  • “They came out not for personal interests but for the greater ideal of Hong Kong,” said Ms. Wong. “A good mother shall listen to her own child, and apparently Carrie Lam refuses to do so.”
  • “Fear is striking in all of our hearts,” said Mr. Leung, the student union president, referring to the possibility of being prosecuted
  • Analysts say that if demonstrations descend into violence, the authorities would have an easy excuse to prosecute young protesters, discredit them as radicals or attack them with a vengeance.
  • “Sometimes I think to myself, is it because I have not done enough? What else could have been done?” said So Hiu-ching, a 16-year-old high schooler who attended a student strike at a park near government offices on Monday morning.“I go home and cry,” she said, “but after that, I have to get up and try to rally more people.”
anonymous

Myanmar: At least 114 killed in bloodiest day of protests yet - CNN - 0 views

shared by anonymous on 27 Mar 21 - No Cached
  • At least 114 civilians were killed across Myanmar on Saturday, according to a tally by the independent Myanmar Now news outlet, as the military junta continued to crack down on peaceful protests.The killings in 44 towns and cities across the country would represent the bloodiest day of protests since a military coup last month.
  • Among those killed is reportedly a 13-year-old girl, who was shot in her house after the junta's armed forces opened fire in residential areas of Meikhtila, in Mandalay region, according to Myanmar Now. She is among 20 minors killed since the start of the protests, Myanmar Now reported.
  • The lethal crackdown came on the country's Armed Forces Day. Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, the junta leader, said during a parade in the capital Naypyitaw to mark the event that the military would protect the people and strive for democracy, Reuters reported.State television had said on Friday that protesters risked being shot "in the head and back." Despite this, demonstrators against the February 1 coup came out on the streets of Yangon, Mandalay and other towns.
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  • The UN office in Myanmar said it "is horrified by the needless loss of life today with reports of dozens of people shot dead by the military across the country, in the bloodiest day since the coup."
  • According to the latest tally by the nonprofit Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, at least 328 people have been killed in Myanmar since the military coup on February 1. Saturday's deaths would bring the total number of civilians killed to more than 400, but the exact number remains unclear. Aid groups fear the number may be higher.
  • A boy reported by local media to be as young as 5 was among at least 29 people killed in Mandalay. At least 24 people were killed in Yangon, Myanmar Now said, according to Reuters.
  • Meanwhile, one of Myanmar's two dozen ethnic armed groups, the Karen National Union, said it had overrun an army post near the Thai border, killing 10 people -- including a lieutenant colonel -- and losing one of its own fighters, Reuters reported.A military spokesman did not respond to calls from the news agency seeking comment on the killings by security forces or the insurgent attack on its post.
  • The US Embassy in Myanmar joined the European Union and United Kingdom embassies in condemning killings by security forces in Myanmar on Saturday and calling for an end to the violence.
  • News reports cited by Reuters said there were deaths in the central Sagaing region, Lashio in the east, in the Bago region, near Yangon, and elsewhere. A 1-year-old baby was hit in the eye with a rubber bullet.In Naypyitaw, Min Aung Hlaing reiterated a promise to hold elections, without giving any time frame, Reuters reported.
  • The military has said it took power because November elections won by Aung San Suu Kyi's party were fraudulent, an assertion dismissed by the country's election commission.Suu Kyi, the elected leader and the country's most popular civilian politician, remains in detention at an undisclosed location. Many other figures in her party are also being held in custody.
  • In its warning on Friday evening, state television said protesters were "in danger of getting shot to the head and back." It did not specifically say security forces had been given shoot-to-kill orders, and the junta has previously suggested some fatal shootings have come from within the crowds.
  • Diplomats told Reuters that eight countries -- Russia, China, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Vietnam, Laos and Thailand -- sent representatives, but Russia was the only one to send a minister.
  • Support from Russia and China, which has also refrained from criticism, is important for the junta as those two countries are permanent members of the United Nations Security Council and can block potential UN actions.Armed Forces Day commemorates the start of the resistance to Japanese occupation in 1945 that was orchestrated by Suu Kyi's father, the founder of the military.
  • Gunshots hit the US cultural center in Yangon on Saturday, Reuters reported, but nobody was hurt and the incident was being investigated, US Embassy spokesperson Aryani Manring said.Protesters have taken to the streets almost daily since the coup that derailed Myanmar's slow transition to democracy.
  • General Yawd Serk, chair of the Restoration Council of Shan State/Shan State Army - South, one of the ethnic armies in the country, told Reuters in neighboring Thailand: "If they continue to shoot at protesters and bully the people, I think all the ethnic groups would not just stand by and do nothing."
anniina03

Iraqi Protesters Return to the Streets - The New York Times - 0 views

  • Iraqi protesters took to the streets early Friday to resume antigovernment demonstrations that were suspended two weeks ago, after shootings by the security forces killed nearly 150 protesters nationwide, shocking the country and deepening disappointment with the government.
  • the government said this week that it would prosecute more than a dozen military and police commanders who ordered or oversaw the shootings
  • The government announced reforms, as well as the creation of new jobs and housing, but it seemed doubtful that would be enough to quell public anger over the country’s corruption, unemployment and lack of basic public services.
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  • Early Friday morning, after protesters knocked down barriers and entered the Green Zone, security forces fired sound bombs and tear gas canisters in an attempt to push them back. The Green Zone houses many government offices, the prime minister’s residence, the Parliament and many embassies.
  • by Thursday evening, cellphone stores had boarded up their windows, money exchanges had closed and traffic was light. As protesters began to gather during the night in Tahrir Square, the site of some of the violence earlier this month, the security forces closed two of the bridges that lead into the Green Zone.
  • If, as many expect, the protests on Friday are bigger and angrier than those two weeks ago, Iraq will face an internal crisis as serious as anything it has seen since elected governments began in the post-Saddam Hussein era.
  • Mr. Mehdi has promised changes before, and his litany of new promises raised the question of whether Iraqis would believe in his ability to fulfill them now when he had proved unable to get them to stick in the past. .
  • At least initially, it appeared on Friday that all sides would try to refrain from violence.The Ministry of Communication said it had received no instructions to shut down the internet, so protesters and other people were able to contact each other on Friday morning. That is in contrast to early October, when the government cut access to the internet, and then restored it, but with restricted access to social media.
anniina03

India's first-time protesters: Mothers and grandmothers stage weeks-long sit-in against... - 0 views

  • As the temperature in India’s capital plunged on a recent evening, Rehana Khatun bundled her 29-day-old daughter in a fuzzy quilt and went out for her new nightly activity: participating in a sit-in against the government.
  • She is one of a few hundred Muslim women — including grandmothers and children — who have occupied a stretch of road for a month, undeterred by rain, cold or threats, as a sign of opposition to a new law that excludes Muslim migrants from a fast track to citizenship.
  • The protest in the capital’s Shaheen Bagh neighborhood has become an enduring symbol of the demonstrations that have swept India over the new law, which was passed in December. Most of the women are homemakers, many in hijabs, and their long-running ­vigil has been featured on prime-time news shows, inspired similar sit-ins and attracted solidarity from across India.
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  • Hundreds of thousands of people from around the country have taken to the streets in opposition to the law since its passage. Opponents say the measure is discriminatory and violates India’s secular ethos.
  • Monday, a member of Parliament from the ruling party said that any protester who damaged public property should be shot or jailed.
  • Several protests have devolved into showdowns with the police, who have responded with force. Since December, 24 people have died nationwide, nearly all of them in Uttar Pradesh, India’s largest state.
  • The peaceful sit-in at Shaheen Bagh began after police stormed a nearby university campus and assaulted unarmed student protesters. The first night, the demonstration consisted of four women and six men. In the following days, the men went to work, but the number of women coming out of their homes kept growing. Now the protest is led by women while the men watch from the sidelines.
  • “In all my 35 years of working with Muslim women, I had never witnessed a scene such as this,” activist Syeda Hameed, chair of the Muslim Women’s Forum, wrote after a visit. “What I was witnessing was the new generation of Muslim women who speak boldly without an iota of fear.”
  • India’s powerful home minister, Amit Shah, has said the citizenship law will be followed by a nationwide push to verify all citizens, an exercise that many believe targets Muslims.
  • As the protest has endured, there have also been points of friction. There are arguments over who should be allowed on stage, whether to accept donations of supplies and how to keep away local politicians. Some chief volunteers recently tried to call off the protest to avoid its becoming a tool for political parties, but the women did not leave. Rumors about impending action by police to clear the road has not deterred them, either.
Javier E

New questions about Trump's ugly Bible stunt hint at some dark truths - The Washington ... - 0 views

  • Disturbing new details are emerging about the violent crackdown on protesters that preceded President Trump’s Bible photo op near the White House
  • What was supposed to capture Trump bravely standing up for “law and order” is rapidly coming to typify his megalomania, his terror of looking weak, and — perversely enough — his profound contempt for the rule of law
  • a crucial fact: Trump and his handlers have gone to extraordinary lengths to showcase this moment as a great triumph.
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  • At the core of the new Post report are two questions: Who issued the order to clear away the protesters, and to what degree was it linked to the decision to hold that photo op?
  • The administration has defended itself by claiming the two were not linked, and that the removal action carried out a decision to expand the security perimeter around the White House that had been made in advance.
  • But numerous other officials, including the chiefs of the D.C. police and National Guard Bureau, have now challenged this claim. They say they had no advance notice that the U.S. Park Police would commence forcible removal. That undercuts the notion that it was part of a pre-planned effort.
  • at the time, Trump was in a rage inside the White House about reports that he was hunkered down, the report documents. White House officials were discussing expanding the perimeter, but they were also discussing holding an event to showcase Trump in control — the visit to the church.
  • there’s still another revelation here: The clearing away of the protesters might have violated a 2015 court settlement between the Park Police and the Justice Department.
  • ven if the perimeter expansion had been discussed, there was never any firm indication of a time when it would happen. And then, right after Trump made the decision to walk to the church, this was relayed to the Secret Service on the ground, whereupon the crackdown suddenly ensued, including chemical gassing and violent shoving with shields.
  • That 2015 settlement set new rules for how federal law enforcement engages with protesters, requiring three audible warnings about pending dispersal, plus the identification of avenues for protesters to disperse themselves peacefully.
  • there was already a strong case that the protesters’ First Amendment rights were violated.
  • “The government can impose reasonable time, place and manner restrictions on speech in public forums, and in some circumstances it can clear protesters to protect public safety or the safety of public officials,”
  • “But the First Amendment requires that the restrictions be reasonable,” Jaffer said. “They went from zero to 60 in a matter of seconds.”
  • The 2015 settlement more clearly defined what law enforcement must do to protect protesters’ rights in a situation like this, yet this appears to have been violated as well,
  • “These limits were totally disregarded here,
  • this episode stands as the precipitating moment at which some of the darkest and most seminal truths about the Trump presidency emerged. Trump’s abuses led military officials to feel the need to signal to the country that something is very wrong, that our values and ideals are under serious threat.
  • We are now learning that the crackdown might have been more tightly tied to Trump’s desire to stage a messianic and megalomaniacal photo op than previously known — and that the abuses undertaken to facilitate it might have been worse than we thought.
Javier E

Social distancing is over - The Washington Post - 0 views

  • In a few weeks, one of two things will have happened. Either covid-19 cases will abruptly reverse their decline in some of America’s largest cities, and we will know that they were seeded by the days of rage we are living through . . . or they won’t. Either way, social distancing is over.
  • In the happy scenario, the protests will have performed an enormous public service, even beyond agitating for justice. They are basically running a natural experiment that scientists could never have ethically undertaken: Do massive outside gatherings — including singing, chanting, screaming and coughing — spread covid-19, or not?
  • Unfortunately, it’s also grimly plausible that in a few weeks we’ll see new outbreaks that will soon surge out of control, taking many American lives. Because we’ll never be able to lock down our cities again; once you’ve let the cat out of the bag, kitty won’t allow himself to be stuffed back in.
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  • One hears a great deal of magical thinking on this point: Public health experts who believe covid-19 will spread among protesters but assert that, on net, they’ll save lives, because systemic racism already cuts short so many black lives.
  • The less fanciful experts acknowledge this, then add that the cause is worth it, unlike the earlier activities public health officials shut down. This, now, is a real argument: Some things are worth dying for. The equality of every American before the law certainly sounds like one of them to me.
  • But there are reasonable counterarguments: First, as was pointed out when red states were protesting, you may have every right to risk your own death, but with infectious disease, protesters also risk killing other people,
  • the second caveat: In a diverse and highly pluralistic society, authorities don’t get to declare some causes worthy and others worthless.
  • I’m quite positive that courts won’t let governments distinguish between assembling to protest police brutality and assembling to protest public health policy.
  • One can, of course, argue that there’s a moral difference. But moral distinctions have no force outside the community that makes them.
  • if it turns out that covid-19 can spread outside, if enough people gather close together, it will be too late to do anything about it. Public health officials will have forfeited their legal authority; media outlets and cultural leaders who have been much more sympathetic to protests than other sorts of gatherings will never persuade anyone who differs to go back inside. The disease will spread unhindered by anything except private, prudential decisions to avoid other people.
  • I have every hope that this won’t matter, and that in a few weeks we’ll find out that covid-19 simply doesn’t spread much outdoors. But I also have lots of fear that we won’t, and that private, prudential decisions won’t be enough to stop the resultant outbreak. Because, as a society, we’ve now got nothing else left.
brookegoodman

George Floyd protests: Another night of chaos and fury as protesters come out despite c... - 0 views

  • (CNN)Several cities across the US resembled war zones as crowds defied curfews to protest the death of George Floyd, who spent his last moments pinned under an officer's knee on his neck, begging for his life.
  • Some were peaceful, denouncing the violence caused by instigators who hijacked civil protests and overshadowed their calls for justice.
  • In Florida, 40 Tampa businesses were burglarized or looted, including five that were set on fire, police said.
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  • Across the US, a familiar chant echoed during a fifth day of protests: "No justice, no peace."
  • Outside groups are behind some of the violence, officials say
  • On Sunday, President Donald Trump announced the US will designate Antifa as a terrorist organization.
  • Antifa positions can be hard to define, but many members support oppressed populations and protest the amassing of wealth by corporations and elites. Some employ radical or militant tactics to get their message across.
  • Garner's daughter said it's "heartbreaking" that the Floyd family must endure what her family has suffered.
  • About four dozen police vehicles were damaged or destroyed, and more than 340 people were arrested, the official said.
  • "Nothing we do to provide justice for George Floyd ... matter(s) to any of these people who are out here firing upon National Guard, burning businesses of our communities," Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz told reporters on Saturday.
  • Hundreds arrested across the US
  • Cities set curfews and deploy National Guard
  • In Nashville, where a 10 p.m. curfew was set and Mayor John Cooper declared a state of civil emergency, officers used tear gas to disperse a crowd that turned violent.
  • At least 13 states and the District of Columbia have activated the National Guard to respond to the unrest, a defense official told CNN.
  • In Atlanta, which saw widespread destruction, looting and large blazes Friday night, Kemp authorized at least 3,000 National Guard troops ahead of protests expected Sunday.
criscimagnael

Jerusalem, Israel: Violence erupts during controversial flag march - CNN - 0 views

  • Crowds waving Israeli flags set off from Damascus Gate -- the main entry to the Muslim Quarter of Jerusalem's Old City -- dancing and chanting "the nation of Israel lives" and "death to Arabs."
  • Seventy-nine Palestinians were injured in Jerusalem by rubber bullets, sound grenades and pepper spray, he Palestinian Red Crescent Society said, and one protester was shot with live fire.
  • More than 50 people have been arrested and detained for involvement in incidents of riots and assaulting police officers, Israel's police said in a statement Sunday.
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  • The flag march is an annual parade where mostly nationalist Jewish groups celebrate Israel gaining control of the Western Wall during the 1967 Six-Day War and capturing East Jerusalem, placing the entire city under Israeli control.
grayton downing

Angry Protests Grow in Turkey as Police Continue Crackdown - NYTimes.com - 0 views

  • a plan to remake a city park in Taksim Square into a replica Ottoman-era army barracks and mall,
  • By evening, no police officers were in sight, and most of the protesters were gathered on the lawns of the square, some drinking beer, others chanting antigovernment slogans.
  • The widening chaos here and the images it produces threaten to tarnish Turkey’s image, which Mr. Erdogan has carefully cultivated
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  • “He’s crazy. No one knows what he’s doing or thinking. He’s completely crazy. Whatever he says today, he will say something different tomorrow.”
  • In Istanbul, the protests turned violent on Saturday as police forces tried to disperse people with tear gas and some protesters pelted them with rocks, calling them “murderers” and “fascists.”
  • An older man standing nearby, overhearing the conversation, yelled, “Dictator!”
  • When he first came to power, he was a good persuader and a good speaker
  • Many of the protesters complained about the lack of coverage on Turkish television, and said the silence of much of the local news media would help the protest movement grow because people, unable to see events on television, would want to see them for themselves. Some newspapers also were largely silent on the protests: on Saturday morning, the lead story in Sabah, a major pro-government newspaper
katyshannon

Haryana State in India Proposes New Caste Status in Bid to Quell Protests - The New Yor... - 0 views

  • A state government in India promised to introduce a bill to grant coveted “backward” status to a relatively prosperous caste group, officials said Monday, in an effort to quell protests that have raged for the past four days.
  • The protesters, members of the Jat caste group, had blocked roads around the capital, set fire to railway stations and cars, and temporarily shut down a crucial canal that is a major source of the city’s water. Nineteen people were killed in the violence in surrounding Haryana State, and fears of water shortages led New Delhi to close its schools to conserve its supply.
  • The main thoroughfare in the area, Grand Trunk Road, which had been reopened on Sunday, was blocked again by fighting on Monday morning, the police said. Still, a state official said, 80 percent of the roads that had been closed were open again on Monday morning.
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  • Roshan Shankar, an adviser to the Delhi government, said the authorities had regained control of a canal that supplied water to New Delhi, though the canal was badly damaged. For now, he said, the government was using existing reserves and other water bodies to meet the need. He said severe, widespread shortages had not been reported so far.
  • Nevertheless, he added, officials were “trying to get people to ration.”
  • A Jat leader, Satpal Singh Sangwan, a retired government official, said in an interview that officials had assured him that the Jat group would be added to a list of more than 2,000 other groups considered “backward,” making their members eligible for quotas in government jobs and university admissions.
  • A year ago, another relatively prosperous caste group, in the state of Gujarat, also demanded, unsuccessfully, to be part of the “backward classes.” Yet the latest caste protests are only the most violent and visible in what has been a steady stream of requests from different caste groups claiming to be “backward.”
  • It is one of the country’s major paradoxes that a population that has been trying for decades to rid itself of the caste system finds so many groups demanding to be ranked lower on the socioeconomic ladder in order to advance themselves economically.
  • Experts say the trend is being driven by increasing numbers of Indians who fear being left behind in the rapidly modernizing economy and who see government quotas as the only tangible way they can gain influence to help better themselves economically.
  • Vast numbers of Indians now “feel totally helpless with regard to the economy and private capital,” said Satish Deshpande, a sociology professor at Delhi University.
  • Despite the economic liberalization that began here in the 1990s, many people still lack jobs and educational opportunities, intensifying the competition for the age-old staple of government jobs.
  • Almost half of government jobs and university seats in the country are reserved for members of special groups.
  • India’s Constitution guarantees equality to all, but it also enshrines caste-based affirmative action for the lowest social group, the Dalits, known in legal terms as scheduled castes, and for indigenous forest-dwellers, known as scheduled tribes. In time, the government created a third group, the Other Backward Classes.
  • In many cases, groups flex their electoral muscles to induce the government to add them to the list of groups considered backward.The Jats started on that path. In 2014, as national elections approached, the incumbent Congress party agreed to their demand for backward status. But the Supreme Court struck down the decision last year, noting that a commission set up to review the program had refused to recommend such a step for the group.
  • The Jat protests became so out of hand over the weekend that the Indian Army had to be called in. Mr. Das said several protesters were killed in clashes with another caste group whose property was being burned. Other people were killed when law enforcement officials fired at protesters who had turned violent, he said. At least 19 people in all have been killed, Mr. Das said.
  • The riots also disrupted businesses. Maruti Suzuki India, the country’s biggest car manufacturer, said over the weekend that it had suspended manufacturing at two area factories.
oliviaodon

Donald Trump Doesn't Understand What's Happening in Iran - The Atlantic - 0 views

  • The protests that have rattled Iran this weekend are in many ways an echo of the near past. In the summer of 2009, millions of Iranians took to the streets to protest the reelection of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, whose rhetoric and policies had isolated their country for four years.
  • Now, Iran is experiencing the first large-scale unrests since the Green Movement faded.
  • Now that frustrations have spilled into the streets, the scene is reminiscent of what took place in Iran nine years ago. Some of the slogans chanted by protesters are identical. “Bullets, tanks, and Basijis are no longer effective,” “referendum, referendum, this is the people’s slogan,” and “death to the dictator” are among those recycled chants. Young protesters are again covering their faces to bring down and burn effigies of Khamenei. And just like in 2009, both protesters and security forces are attempting to leverage social media for their benefit. The apps Telegram and Instagram have been temporarily restricted by the Iranian government amid this week’s protests, the BBC reported.
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  • Iranians aren’t “finally” waking up and “getting wise,” as Trump suggests. Instead, Iran has a dynamic and active civil society, which has created and embraced opportunities for reformation and progress for decades. From active participation in elections to various reform and protest movements, Iranians have tried to make their voices heard.
  • But far from empowering the Iranian people, the Trump administration’s response to the protests serves to undermine their efforts. In 2009, upon request from the U.S. government, Twitter delayed a temporary shutdown to allow Iranians to use the platform for organization and communication. Today, the Trump administration should similarly work with social media platforms and media outlets to facilitate the flow of communication into and out of the country.
  • And if Washington is viewed as actively interfering in Iranian affairs, it’ll at best deter Iranians from joining the movement and making their voices heard, and will at worst help the hardliners, undermine the protesters, and facilitate the crackdown against them.  
anonymous

'I will shoot whoever I see': Myanmar soldiers use TikTok to threaten protesters | Reuters - 0 views

  • Armed Myanmar soldiers and police are using TikTok to deliver death threats to protesters against last month’s coup, researchers said, leading the Chinese video-sharing app to announce it was removing content that incites violence.
  • more than 800 pro-military videos that menaced protesters at a time of increasing bloodshed - with 38 protesters killed on Wednesday alone according to the United Nations.
  • Some videos had tens of thousands of views. Those reviewed by Reuters were taken down this week. Some used hashtags relating to U.S celebrities.Already growing fast in Myanmar, TikTok saw a strong rise in downloads after the military banned Facebook last month. It is in the top 20 most downloaded apps in Myanmar, according to industry data. It also became popular with young activists, with the protest hashtag #SaveMyanmar reaching 805 million views.
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  • the military is now attempting to grow its presence on other platforms. Readability mode is unavailable for this webpage. Please visit cache page or original page Top - A + ==== Serif ====PT SerifMerriweatherMartelNoto SerifSlabo 27pxAndadaLoraRoboto Slab== Sans Serif ==Source Sans ProOpen SansLato
  • U.S. tech giant Facebook has now banned all pages linked to Myanmar’s army - and has itself been banned.
tsainten

Myanmar police who fled to India say they refused orders to shoot protesters - CNN - 0 views

shared by tsainten on 12 Mar 21 - No Cached
  • Tha Peng said he and six colleagues all disobeyed the February 27 order from a superior officer, whom he did not name.Read More
  • police in Mizoram on March 1 by another Myanmar police lance corporal and three constables who crossed into India, according to a classified internal police document seen by Reuters.
  • "As the Civil disobedience movement is gaining momentum and protest(s) held by anti-coup protesters at different places we are instructed to shoot at the protesters," they said in a joint statement to Mizoram police.
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  • Myanmar's military junta, which staged a coup on February 1 and deposed the country's civilian government, did not respond to a Reuters request for comment.
  • Around 100 people from Myanmar, mostly policemen and their families, have crossed over a porous border into India since the protests began, according to a senior Indian official.
  • rotesters should either be stopped by rubber bullets or shot below the knees. Reuters could not verify police policies.
  • "shoot till they are dead,"
  • Fearing imprisonment for siding with the protesters and their civil disobedience movement, she said she decided to flee Myanmar.
  • All three said there was substantial support for the protesters within Myanmar's police force."Inside the police station, 90% support the protesters but there is no leader to unite them," said Tha Peng, who left behind his wife and two young daughters, one six months old.
hannahcarter11

Protesters Gather Across The World For May Day : NPR - 0 views

  • Protests surged in cities around the world for May Day as demonstrators called for better working protections and other causes. They come as COVID-19 and a stumbling economy continues to disrupt the world.
  • May 1 marks International Labor Day which commemorates laborers and the working class. Marches and demonstrations typically occur every year in many countries, but took on a new meaning after a year of lockdowns affecting many workers' livelihoods.
  • In Paris, at least 17,000 people gathered, many of them to oppose a change in government unemployment benefits.
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  • Video and images of the protests saw some demonstrators clashing with police, breaking windows and starting fires. In response, police fired tear gas and made 34 arrests.
  • A French pensioner who only gave her name as Patricia to AFP spoke about the protests, saying, "There are so many motivations for a revolt that are building up — the management of COVID, the so-called reforms that are going to take away people's ability to live, job-seekers who are going to lose their benefits."
  • In Berlin, at least 5,000 people protested against social inequality. Demonstrators clashed with police and some people threw fireworks, bottles and rocks, Reuters reported.
  • According to Reuters witnesses, demonstrators and union leaders were pushed to the ground and detained by police, some of whom were in plainclothes.
anniina03

Chile protests Santiago: At least 11 dead as violent protests rage - CBS News - 0 views

  • Protesters defied an emergency decree and confronted police in Chile's capital Monday, continuing violent clashes, arson and looting that have left at least 11 dead and led the president to say the country is "at war."
  • The unrest was triggered by a relatively minor increase in subway fares of less than 4% — but analysts have said the protests are fed by frustration from a long-building sense among many Chileans
  • Officials said it could take weeks or months to fully restore service.
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  • Conservative President Sebastián Piñera said Sunday night that the country is "at war with a powerful, relentless enemy that respects nothing or anyone and is willing to use violence and crime without any limits." He did not identify a specific enemy.
  • the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, Bachelet called for an investigation into all acts, by government or protesters, that have led to injuries and death.
  • "I'm protesting for my daughter, for my wife, for my mother, not just for the 30 pesos of the Metro — for the low salaries, for the privileges of the political class, for their millionaire salaries,"
  • The nation of 18 million people has won worldwide acclaim for its low poverty, inflation and unemployment, rarities in a region still struggling to leave behind economic dysfunction. But Chile's rate of inequality is among the worst in Latin America.
johnsonel7

7 More Killed in Iraq as Anti-Government Protests Continue | Time - 0 views

  • At least seven more Iraqi protesters were killed Saturday in clashes with security forces in Baghdad and the southern town of Nasiriyah, as thousands took part in nationwide anti-government protests, officials said.
  • “I want change. I want to remove those corrupt people who sleep in the Green Zone and who fired tear gas and rubber bullets at us,” said protester Fares Mukhaled, 19, who sat barefoot on the ground at the square, where some had erected tents.
  • The protests against the Shiite-dominated government have been largely concentrated in Shiite areas. Some have also criticized Iran’s influence over the country. “Iraq is free. Iran out, out!” some protesters chanted in Tahrir Square.
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  • The rallies have mainly been by young, unemployed men who are demanding jobs and better services. Young women appeared among the crowd in Baghdad for the first time Saturday, some handing out water to the protesters
brickol

Protests rage around the world - but what comes next? | World news | The Guardian - 0 views

  • In Lebanon they are against a tax on WhatsApp and endemic corruption. In Chile, a hike in the metro fare and rampant inequality. In Hong Kong, an extradition bill and creeping authoritarianism. In Algeria, a fifth term for an ageing president and decades of military rule.
  • The protests raging today and in the past months on the streets of cities around the world have varying triggers. But the fuel is familiar: stagnating middle classes, stifled democracy and the bone-deep conviction that things can be different – even if the alternative is not always clear.
  • “The data shows that the amount of protests is increasing and is as high as the roaring 60s, and has been since about 2009,” says Jacquelien van Stekelenburg, a professor who studies social change and conflict at Vrije University in Amsterdam.
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  • Not all the protests are driven by economic complaints, but widening gulfs between the haves and have-nots are radicalising many young people in particular.
  • Oxfam said in January that the world’s 26 richest individuals owned as much wealth as the poorest half of the global population.
  • The internet is not a determining factor – there was no social media in the 1960s – but is clearly important. Social media and the explosion of access to information is reordering hierarchies of knowledge and communication. Authorities can fight back with extensive surveillance regimes or with digital blackouts of the kind India recently imposed in disputed Kashmir, but 20th-century power structures are under enormous pressure, analysts say.
  • The proliferation of protests is no guarantee that things will change.
  • It is also easier, in a digital, globalised world, to know how the other half (or the 1%) live.
  • “The traditional system of enforcing power from top to bottom is increasingly being challenged,” says Thierry de Montbrial, of the French Institute of International Relations. “There is a social revolution with a growing demand for participatory democracy.”
  • “The problem is what to do after the protests, how to make your point and achieve the goals you’re protesting for. That proves to be the most difficult part.”
  • Protests and revolutions are defined by idealised slogans, he says, but systematic change is harder work. “You can break off part of a system, but it’s very hard to break the whole structure, which is formed of institutions and networks that are difficult to break.”
  • The leadership question is central and that is the thing we haven’t figured out yet: how do we actually find leadership in these inchoate displays of anger?
ethanshilling

Why Charges Against Protesters Are Being Dismissed by the Thousands - The New York Times - 0 views

  • Prosecutors declined to pursue many of the cases because they concluded the protesters were exercising their basic civil rights.
  • An English teacher at Marion C. Moore School at that time, Mr. Kaufmann was among more than 800 people swept up by the police in Louisville during the many months of demonstrations prompted by the police killings of George Floyd in Minneapolis and Breonna Taylor in Louisville.
  • Now, more than five months later, as Mr. Kaufmann’s case and those of thousands of others finally land in courts across the United States, a vast majority of cases against protesters are being dismissed. Only cases involving more substantial charges like property destruction or other violence remain.
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  • Prosecutors called the scale of both the mass arrests and mass dismissals within a few short months unrivaled, at least since the civil rights protests of the early 1960s.
  • There was also the recognition that law enforcement officers often use mass arrests as a technique to help clear the streets, not to confront illegal behavior.
  • “This is the hangover from months of protests,” said Ted Shouse, a criminal defense attorney in Louisville who helped to organize more than 100 volunteer defense attorneys.
  • Defense attorneys working on cases in numerous cities said more people of color than white people were charged, but it was not a universal pattern.
  • A recent study by The Louisville Courier-Journal found that Black people constituted 53 percent of those arrested there during the four months starting May 29, but that they faced 69 percent of the felony charges.
  • “Seventy to 80 percent would not survive constitutional challenges,” said Mr. Schmidt, who added that the costs far outweighed any benefit to public safety.
  • In Louisville, those cases are referred to as being in the “parking lot.” There are some 22,000 such cases over all, with just four of 10 trial courts functioning in the Jefferson County Courthouse. Across two days in late October, 300 protest case arraignments were jammed onto the calendar, about 10 times the normal rate.
  • “We were dumbfounded, we were shocked,” Mr. Kaufmann said. “The country does not live up to the values that we have been teaching in class.”
  • “My young Black male and female friends who I met through the protests were in greater danger than I was and some of them are still dealing with these charges,” he said. “It is not fair, it is not consistent and we have to do better.”
hannahcarter11

Teaching Children About Freedom Of Speech - 1 views

  • freedom to protest
  • Meanwhile, government leaders both around the globe and right here in the U.S. are threatening to limit freedom of speech, with everything from legislation to litigation to violent force. 
    • hannahcarter11
       
      To limit free speech is to silence all of those who may not have a voice in any other venue. It is incredibly disrespectful to try and limit the rights of your electors. These citizens deserve fair leaders who will engage in civil discourse with them instead of trying to completely shut them down or hurt them due to a difference in opinion.
  • Individuals can exercise their First Amendment rights in various ways—from writing a letter to a government or community leader, to marching in a protest, putting a sign on their lawn or kneeling for the national anthem. 
    • hannahcarter11
       
      Protesting comes in many forms. Whatever action that you take is okay as long as you take some action. It is important that people begin to understand the importance of local government as well as federal. People often overlook taking issues to their community leaders though they are the ones who have the most direct effect on local politics.
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  • Malala, a 2014 Nobel Peace Prize winner (at 17, she was the youngest recipient to receive the prize), began using her voice at the age of 10, standing up to the Taliban in Pakistan and advocating for the rights of girls to receive a safe, free quality education.
    • hannahcarter11
       
      Malala is such an inspiration not only because she stood up for herself and others in the face of danger, but also because she continued to do so even when she became safe. She now uses the privilege that she has to uplift other young girls.
chrispink7

International reaction to George Floyd killing | News | Al Jazeera - 0 views

  • Demonstrators from Australia to Europe identified with the cause of US protests and urged their own governments to address racism and police violence. Opponents of the United States's foreign policy under President Donald Trump, meanwhile, took the opportunity to pour scorn on the violence that has engulfed the country after the killing of George Floyd, an unarmed Black man, by police officers in the city of Minneapolis last week.  
  • Thousands of protesters marched through downtown Sydney, Australia, on Tuesday, voicing their solidarity with Americans demonstrating against Floyd's killing.
  • Protesters in Australia's largest city chanted, "I can’t breathe" - some of the final words of both Floyd and David Dungay, a 26-year-old Aboriginal man who died in a Sydney prison in 2015 while being restrained by five guards. Demonstrators carried placards reading, "Black Lives Matter", "Aboriginal Lives Matter", and "White Silence is Violence."
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  • Linda Burney, an opposition spokeswoman on Indigenous Australians, said more than 430 Indigenous people had died in Australian police custody since 1991. While Indigenous adults make up only 2 percent of the Australian population, they account for 27 percent of the prison population. "I think we should be using it as an opportunity," Burney told Australian Broadcasting Corp, referring to Floyd's death. "Whether we like it or not, it doesn't take much for racism to come out of the underbelly of this country."
  • Some have seen the US unrest as a chance to highlight what they see as American hypocrisy on protest movements at home versus abroad.  China's foreign ministry spokesperson called out US racism as "a chronic disease of American society". China's comments come at a time when relations with the US are particularly strained. Chinese state media is giving extensive coverage to the violent protests roiling American cities, while the unrest has also featured widely in Chinese social media.
  • In Europe, thousands spilled across streets in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, to denounce police brutality, and those demonstrating in Paris urged the French government to take police violence more seriously and held up signs including "Racism is suffocating us". The EU's diplomatic chief Josep Borrell condemned the "abuse of power", saying Europe is "shocked and appalled" by the police killing of Floyd. He urged US authorities to rein in the "excessive use of force" as Trump ordered the military to intervene. Germany announced its support for the demonstrations. "The peaceful protests that we see in the US ... are understandable and more than legitimate. I hope that these peaceful protests won't slide further into violence, but even more than that I hope that they will make a difference in the United States," Foreign Minister Heiko Maas told reporters.
  • Iran's foreign ministry called on the US to "stop violence" against its own people. "To the American people: the world has heard your outcry over the state of oppression. The world is standing with you," foreign ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi said at a news conference in Tehran. "And to the American officials and police: Stop violence against your people and let them breathe," he told reporters in English. Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam, meanwhile, questioned foreign criticism of China, including from the US, over an imminent national security law being imposed in the Chinese territory. "They take their own country's national security very seriously, but for the security of our country, especially the situation in Hong Kong, they are looking at it through tinted glasses," she said.
  • Ghana's President Nana Akufo-Addo said Black people across the world are "shocked and distraught" by Floyd's killing. "Black people, the world over, are shocked and distraught by the killing of an unarmed Black man, George Floyd, by a white police officer in the United States of America," Akufo-Addo said in a statement. "We stand with our kith and kin in America in these difficult and trying times." Kenyan opposition leader and former prime minister Raila Odinga offered a prayer for the US "that there be justice and freedom for all human beings who call America their country". Like some in Africa who have spoken out, Odinga also noted troubles at home, saying the judging of people by character instead of skin colour "is a dream we in Africa, too, owe our citizens". And South Africa's finance minister, Tito Mboweni, recalled leading a small protest outside the US Embassy several years ago over the apparent systemic killings of Blacks. Mboweni said the US ambassador at the time, Patrick Gaspard, "invited me to his office and said: 'What you see is nothing, it is much worse'." Zimbabwe summoned the ambassador of the United States to the country over remarks by a senior US official accusing it of stirring anti-racism protests following Floyd's death.  In an interview with ABC News, US national security adviser Robert O'Brien referred to Zimbabwe and China as "foreign adversaries" using social media to stoke unrest and "sow discord" after the killing. Zimbabwe's foreign ministry spokesman James Manzou said US Ambassador Brian Nichols was called in to explain O'Brien's remarks. Government spokesman Nick Mangwana said Zimbabwe did not consider itself "America's adversary".   "We prefer having friends and allies to having unhelpful adversity with any other nation including the USA," Mangwana said.
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