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Tag: Protests and demonstrations

  • LA police fired over a thousand projectiles at protesters in a single day

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    LOS ANGELES — Los Angeles police officers fired over 1,000 projectiles at protesters on a single day in June as demonstrators pushed back against the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown and decision to deploy the National Guard to the nation’s second largest city.

    The police department released a state-mandated report Monday on use of force against protesters that included numbers on bean bags, rubber and foam rounds, and tear gas deployed during days of protests in Los Angeles.

    On June 6, police fired 34 rounds at about 100 people. On June 8, police fired 1,040 projectiles at about 6,000 people, including 20 rounds of CS gas, a type of tear gas. Six injuries were reported as a result of those projectiles.

    There were 584 police officers responding that day, the department said. Protesters had blocked off a major freeway and set self-driving cars on fire.

    The report was concerning to Josh Parker, deputy director of policy at the New York University School of Law Policing Project.

    “The sense that I got from that data is that if that’s how you police a protest, then you’re policing it wrong,” Parker said.

    The protests have put the use of these types of munitions by law enforcement under scrutiny. After journalists were shot, a federal judge granted a temporary restraining order that blocked LA police from using rubber projectiles and other munitions against reporters.

    A protester who was hit and lost a finger filed a civil rights lawsuit against the city of LA and county sheriff’s department.

    California in 2021 restricted the use of less lethal munitions until alternatives to force have been tried to control a crowd. Police cannot aim “indiscriminately” into a crowd or at the head, neck or any other vital organs. They also cannot fire solely for a curfew violation, verbal threats toward officers, or not complying with directions given by law enforcement, such as when they order an unlawful assembly to disperse.

    “To see such a high number of projectiles discharged in a relatively short time period gives me grave concern that the law and those best practices were violated,” Parker said.

    A spokesperson for the Los Angeles Police Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment. LAPD was planning a “comprehensive evaluation of each use-of-force incident,” said Chief Jim McDonnell in a statement reported June 23 by the Los Angeles Times.

    The days of protests in “dangerous, fluid and ultimately violent conditions” left 52 officers with injuries that required medical treatment, McDonnell said. Officers were justified in their actions to prevent further harm, he said.

    Tensions escalated in downtown Los Angeles on June 8 as National Guard troops arrived to patrol federal buildings.

    “Agitators in the crowd vandalized buildings, threw rocks, broken pieces of concrete, Molotov cocktails, and other objects toward law enforcement officers,” the report said.

    Many protesters left by evening, but some formed a barricade of chairs on one street and threw objects at police on the other side. Others standing above the closed southbound 101 Freeway threw chunks of concrete, rocks, electric scooters and fireworks at California Highway Patrol officers and their vehicles parked on the highway.

    Police issued multiple unlawful assembly orders shutting down demonstrations in several blocks of downtown Los Angeles but the crowd remained and munitions were used to bring the situation under control, the report said.

    A box that read, “Other de-escalation techniques or other alternatives to force attempted,” was blank.

    Parker said departments should plan for when a crowd begins throwing objects or being unruly, drawing on crowd management techniques.

    “It’s important that law enforcement agencies not needlessly provoke the crowd” with aggressive language or weapons on display, he said.

    Los Angeles sheriff’s deputies far outpaced the LAPD’s use of projectiles. With more than 80 deputies responding, the department deployed over 2,500 projectiles on June 8, the agency reported last week. It also said there were “hundreds to thousands” of people.

    The California Highway Patrol, whose 153 officers responded to protesters blocking a major downtown freeway, estimated a crowd of about 2,000 people and used 271 rounds.

    The tallies reported by LA police and deputies are high, especially considering the small number of deputies sent by the sheriff’s department, said retired LAPD Lt. Jeff Wenninger, who provides expert testimony for court cases.

    “I don’t believe law enforcement officers or commanders truly understand the extent of this law, the restriction it provides,” he said. “And they just default back to old practices.”

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  • Equatorial Guinea enforces yearlong internet outage for island that protested construction company

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    LAGOS, Nigeria — When residents of Equatorial Guinea’s Annobón island wrote to the government in Malabo in July last year complaining about the dynamite explosions by a Moroccan construction company, they didn’t expect the swift end to their internet access.

    Dozens of the signatories and residents were imprisoned for nearly a year, while internet access to the small island has been cut off since then, according to several residents and rights groups.

    Local residents interviewed by The Associated Press left the island in the past months, citing fear for their lives and the difficulty of life without internet.

    Banking services have shut down, hospital services for emergencies have been brought to a halt and residents say they rack up phone bills they can’t afford because cellphone calls are the only way to communicate.

    When governments shut down the internet, they often instruct telecom providers to cut connections to designated locations or access to designated websites, although it’s unclear exactly how the shutdown works in Annobón.

    The internet shutdown remains in effect, residents confirmed alongside activists, at a moment when the Trump administration has considered loosening corruption sanctions on the country’s vice president.

    The Moroccan company Somagec, which activists allege is linked to the president, confirmed the outage but denied having a hand in it. The AP could not confirm a link.

    “The current situation is extremely serious and worrying,” one of the signatories who spent 11 months in prison said, speaking anonymously for fear of being targeted by the government.

    In addition to the internet shutdown, “phone calls are heavily monitored, and speaking freely can pose a risk,” said Macus Menejolea Taxijad, a resident who recently began living in exile.

    It is only the latest of repressive measures that the country has deployed to crush criticisms, including mass surveillance, according to a 2024 Amnesty International report.

    Equatorial Guinea, a former Spanish colony, is run by Africa’s longest-serving president, Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, who, at 83, has served as president for more than half his life. His son serves as the vice president and is accused of spending state funds on a lavish lifestyle. He was convicted of money laundering and embezzlement in France and sanctioned by the U.K.

    Despite the country’s oil and gas wealth, at least 57% of its nearly 2 million people live in poverty, according to the World Bank. Officials, their families and their inner circle, meanwhile, live a life of luxury.

    The Equatorial Guinea government did not respond to the AP’s inquiry about the island, its condition and internet access.

    Located in the Atlantic Ocean about 315 miles (507 kilometers) from Equatorial Guinea’s coast, Annobón is one of the country’s poorest islands and one often at conflict with the central government. With a population of around 5,000 people, the island has been seeking independence from the country for years as it accuses the government of disregarding its residents.

    The internet shutdown is the latest in a long history of Malabo’s repressive responses to the island’s political and economic demands, activists say, citing regular arrests and the absence of adequate social amenities like schools and hospitals.

    “Their marginalization is not only from a political perspective, but from a cultural, societal and economic perspective,” said Mercè Monje Cano, secretary-general of the Unrepresented Peoples and Nations Organization global advocacy group.

    A new airport that opened in Annobón in 2013, which was built by Somagec, promised to connect the island to the rest of the country. But not much has improved, locals and activists say. The internet shutdown has instead worsened living conditions there, collapsing key infrastructure, including health care and banking services.

    In 2007, Equatorial Guinea entered into a business deal with Somagec, a Moroccan construction company that develops ports and electricity transmission systems across West and Central Africa.

    Annobón’s geological formation and volcanic past make the island rich in rocks and expands Malabo’s influence in the Gulf of Guinea, which is abundantly rich in oil. Somagec has also built a port and, according to activists, explored mineral extraction in Annobón since it began operations on the island.

    Residents and activists said the company’s dynamite explosions in open quarries and construction activities have been polluting their farmlands and water supply. The company’s work on the island continues.

    Residents hoped to pressure authorities to improve the situation with their complaint in July last year. Instead, Obiang then deployed a repressive tactic now common in Africa to cut off access to internet to clamp down on protests and criticisms.

    This was different from past cases when Malabo restricted the internet during an election.

    “This is the first time the government cut off the internet because a community has a complaint,” said Tutu Alicante, an Annobon-born activist who runs the EG Justice human rights organization.

    The power of the internet to enable people to challenge their leaders threatens authorities, according to Felicia Anthonio of Access Now, an internet rights advocacy group. “So, the first thing they do during a protest is to go after the internet,” Anthonio said.

    Somagec’s CEO, Roger Sahyoun, denied having a hand in the shutdown and said the company itself has been forced to rely on a private satellite. He defended the dynamite blasting as critical for its construction projects, saying all necessary assessments had been done.

    “After having undertaken geotechnical and environmental impact studies, the current site where the quarry was opened was confirmed as the best place to meet all the criteria,” Sahyoun said in an email.

    The residents, meanwhile, continue to suffer the internet shutdown, unable to use even the private satellite deployed by the company.

    “Annobón is very remote and far from the capital and the (rest of) continent,” said Alicante, the activist from the island. “So you’re leaving people there without access to the rest of the continent … and incommunicado.”

    ___

    For more on Africa and development: https://apnews.com/hub/africa-pulse

    The Associated Press receives financial support for global health and development coverage in Africa from the Gates Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content. Find the AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

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  • Netherlands is latest to threaten to boycott Eurovision if Israel participates

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    LONDON — The Netherlands added itself Friday to a number of countries pressuring organizers of the Eurovision Song Contest to drop Israel from the contest because of its war in the Gaza Strip.

    Dutch broadcaster AVROTROS, one of dozens of public broadcasters that collectively fund and broadcast the contest, said it would not take part in next year’s competition in Vienna if Israel participates “given the ongoing and severe human suffering in Gaza.”

    “The broadcaster also expresses deep concern about the serious erosion of press freedom: the deliberate exclusion of independent international reporting and the many casualties among journalists,” it said in a statement.

    Irish broadcaster RTE released a similar statement Thursday, following a path already taken by Slovenia. Iceland said it may withdraw from the contest and Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has called for Israel to be booted from the competition.

    The boycott threat is part of a pressure campaign by arts organizations and figures to ostracize Israel and press for peace.

    Earlier this week, Hollywood stars including Emma Stone, Ayo Edebiri, Ava DuVernay, Olivia Colman, Yorgos Lanthimos, Riz Ahmed, Rob Delaney, Javier Bardem, and Tilda Swinton joined 3,000 other industry figures to sign a pledge to boycott Israeli film institutions — including festivals, broadcasters and production companies — that are “implicated in genocide and apartheid against the Palestinian people,” according to the group Film Workers for Palestine.

    Russia was banned from Eurovision after its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 but Israel has continued to compete the past two years despite disputes over its participation.

    Dozens of former participants, including 2024 winner Nemo of Switzerland, have called for Israel to be excluded over its conduct in the war against Hamas in Gaza. Pro-Palestinian and pro-Israel protests took place around this year’s contest in Basel, Switzerland, though on a much smaller scale than the 2024 event in Sweden.

    With politics from the war casting a shadow over the contest, Israeli singer Yuval Raphael finished second this year to Austria’s JJ in the exuberant celebration of pop music.

    The European Broadcasting Union has given countries until mid-December to decide if they want to participate.

    The Dutch broadcaster said it will continue preparing for the contest until it receives a decision from organizers about whether it will include Israel.

    Eurovision’s finale is scheduled for May 16 after semi-finals on May 12 and 14, 2026.

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  • Trump threatened Portland with troops to quell protests. The mayor says it’s not needed

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    PORTLAND, Ore. — A gas mask dangled from Deidra Watts’s backpack as she joined a couple dozen others outside the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement building in Portland, just as she has many nights since July.

    The protesters toed a blue line painted across the building’s driveway. “GOVERNMENT PROPERTY DO NOT BLOCK,” read its white, stenciled letters. When they lingered too close, what appeared to be pepper balls rained down on them from officers posted on the building’s roof.

    No one was injured Wednesday, and some of the crowd began to dissipate by about midnight.

    While disruptive to nearby residents — a charter school relocated this summer to get away from the crowd-control devices — the nightly demonstrations are a far cry from the unrest that gripped the city following the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police in 2020.

    They nevertheless have drawn the attention of President Donald Trump, who often sparred with the city’s mayor back then.

    Last week, Trump described living in Portland as “like living in hell” and said he was considering sending in federal troops, as he has recently threatened to do to combat crime in other cities, including Chicago and Baltimore. He deployed the National Guard to Los Angeles over the summer and as part of his law enforcement takeover in Washington, D.C.

    Most violent crime around the country has actually declined in recent years, including in Portland, where a recent report from the Major Cities Chiefs Association found that homicides from January through June decreased by 51% this year compared to the same period in 2024.

    “There’s a propaganda campaign to make it look like Portland is a hellscape,” said Casey Leger, 61, who often sits outside the ICE building trying to observe immigration detainee transfers. “Two blocks away you can just go to the river and sit and sip a soda and watch the birds.”

    The building is off a busy road leading into Portland from the suburbs, and next to an affordable housing complex. During the day, Leger and a few other advocates mill about and offer copies of “know your rights” flyers featuring a hotline number for reporting ICE arrests.

    At night, Watts and other protesters, many dressed in black and wearing helmets or masks, arrive. She called ICE a callous and cruel machine.

    “In the face of that, there has to be people who will stand up and make it known that that’s not gonna fly, that that’s not something the people agree with,” Watts said.

    The agency did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

    The nighttime protests peaked in June after the nationwide “No Kings” marches, when Portland police declared one demonstration a riot. Since then, at least 26 protesters have been charged with federal offenses tied to the ICE building, including assaulting federal officers, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Oregon.

    “Like other mayors across the country, I have not asked for – and do not need – federal intervention,” Portland Mayor Keith Wilson said in a statement following Trump’s threat. The city has protected freedom of expression while “addressing occasional violence and property destruction,” he said.

    There have been smaller clashes since June. On Labor Day, some demonstrators brought a prop guillotine — a display the Department of Homeland Security blasted as “unhinged behavior.”

    Wilson expects protests to stay focused on the area by the building, he said.

    Some residents of the adjacent apartments are upset about that. One sued to try to make the city enforce noise ordinances. She said she believed noise from bullhorns, speakers and “piercing whistle-type sounds” akin to air-raid sirens had caused her eardrum to burst, and gas that entered her apartment made her ill. The judge who heard the case sided with the city.

    Rick Stype, who has lived there for 10 years, said he accompanies some neighbors outside because they fear being harassed by protesters.

    “I just want them to leave us alone,” he said. “I want them to be gone.”

    A charter school next to the ICE building, the Cottonwood School of Civics and Science, relocated over the summer, saying that chemical agents and crowd-control projectiles put student safety at risk.

    Many parents and students were regular customers at Chris Johnson’s nearby coffee shop, he said. He lamented the school’s move and the national narrative that the protests were a bigger deal than they are.

    “I think people are very, very opinionated on either side of it,” he said. “It just creates a divide, which is unfortunate.”

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  • 200 arrested in France as protesters clash with police, as Macron installs new PM

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    PARIS — Protesters blocked roads, set blazes and were met with volleys of police tear gas on Wednesday in Paris and elsewhere in France, seeking to heap pressure on President Emmanuel Macron by attempting to give his new prime minister a baptism of fire.

    The interior minister announced nearly 200 arrests in the first hours of the planned day of nationwide demonstrations.

    Although falling short of its self-declared intention to “Block Everything,” the protest movement that started online over the summer caused widespread hot spots of disruption, defying an exceptional deployment of 80,000 police who broke up barricades and swiftly made arrests.

    Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau said that a bus was set on fire in the western city of Rennes and that damage to a power line blocked trains on a line in the southwest. He alleged that protesters were attempting to create “a climate of insurrection.”

    Still, the initial protests appeared less intense than previous bouts of unrest that have sporadically rocked Macron’s leadership. They included months of nationwide so-called yellow vest demonstrations that roiled his first term as president. After his reelection in 2022, Macron faced firestorms of anger over unpopular pension reforms and nationwide unrest and rioting in 2023 after the deadly police shooting of a teenager on Paris’ outskirts.

    Nevertheless, groups of protesters repeatedly tried to block Paris’ beltway during the morning rush hour on Wednesday. They erected barricades and hurled objects at police officers, blocked and slowed traffic and carried out other protest actions. It added to the sense of crisis that has again gripped France following its latest government collapse on Monday, when Prime Minister François Bayrou lost a parliamentary confidence vote.

    Macron was installing a new prime minister, Sébastien Lecornu, on Tuesday, and the protests immediately presented him with a challenge.

    The “Bloquons Tout,” or “Block Everything,” movement gathered momentum over the summer on social media and in encrypted chats, calling for a day of blockades, strikes, demonstrations and other acts of protests.

    The movement, which has grown virally with no clear identified leadership, has a broad array of demands — many targeting contested belt-tightening budget plans that Bayrou championed before his demise — as well as broader complaints about inequality.

    The spontaneity of “Block Everything” is reminiscent of the yellow vests. That movement started with workers camping out at traffic circles to protest a hike in fuel taxes, sporting high-visibility vests. It quickly spread to people across political, regional, social and generational divides angry at economic injustice and Macron’s leadership.

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  • Army tries to restore order in Nepal after protest violence intensifies

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    KATHMANDU, Nepal — Armed soldiers guarded the streets of Nepal’s capital Wednesday, ordering people to stay home in an attempt to restore order after tens of thousands of protesters stormed and set fire to government buildings and attacked politicians.

    Soldiers with weapons guarding the main areas of Kathmandu appeared to give some sense of control returning to the city that was overtaken by violence and chaos in previous days.

    The army warned in an announcement late Tuesday that the security forces were committed to preserving law and order. The army is rarely mobilized and so far had stayed in its barracks, but police have failed to control the situation.

    Soldiers told people in Kathmandu that the curfew was valid and checked vehicles and people. The army in a statement said 21 suspected looters had been arrested.

    The protests had grown increasingly violent Tuesday as demonstrators set fire to government buildings and politicians’ homes and attacked some leaders. The prime minister resigned amid widening criticism of the country’s political elite, though it appeared to have little effect on the unrest.

    Tens of thousands of protesters remained on the streets late in the day, blocking roads and storming government facilities. Army helicopters ferried some ministers to safe places.

    On Monday, demonstrations led by young people angry about the blocking of several social media sites gripped the capital, and police opened fire on the crowds, killing 19 people.

    The social media ban was lifted Tuesday, but the protests continued, fueled by rage over the deaths and accusations of political corruption.

    President Ram Chandra Poudel, the ceremonial head of state, appealed to the protesters to pursue a peaceful resolution and stop further escalation. He accepted the resignation of Prime Minister Khadga Prasad Oli and appointed Oli to lead a caretaker government until a new one is in place — though it was unclear what power he would wield or even where he was.

    The demonstrations — called the protest of Gen Z — began after the government blocked social media platforms, including Facebook, X and YouTube, saying the companies had failed to register and submit to government oversight.

    But the protests spiraled to reflect broader discontent. In particular, many young people are angry that the children of political leaders — so-called nepo kids — seem to enjoy luxury lifestyles and numerous advantages while most youth struggle to find work. With youth unemployment running at about 20% last year, according to the World Bank, the government estimates that more than 2,000 young people leave the country every day to seek work in the Middle East or Southeast Asia.

    Videos shared on social media showed protesters beating up Nepali Congress party leader Sher Bahadur Deuba and his wife, Arzu Rana Deuba, the current foreign minister. Both appeared to be bleeding, while one video showed the party leader being helped to safety. The party is the country’s largest and is part of the governing coalition.

    Smoke was still coming out of the parliament building, presidential house, the central secretariat that has the offices of the prime minister and key ministries, and the prime minister’s official residence Wednesday.

    The building of Kantipur publication, the biggest media outlet in Nepal, was torched and damaged. Car showrooms were also torched. Burned-out vehicles dotted the streets.

    Protesters had attacked government buildings and the residences of the top political leaders throughout Tuesday, blaming the government for the police opening fire on the protesters.

    In addition to the 19 fatalities, scores of people were wounded. Oli has ordered an investigation report on the shootings and promised compensation to the families.

    The violence unfolded as Nepal’s government pursues a broader attempt to regulate social media with a bill aimed at ensuring the platforms are “properly managed, responsible and accountable.” The proposal has been widely criticized as a tool for censorship and for punishing government opponents who voice their protests online.

    The bill would require companies to appoint a liaison office or a point of contact in the country. Rights groups have called it an attempt by the government to curb freedom of expression and fundamental rights.

    The registration requirement applied to about two dozen social networks widely used in Nepal. Those that didn’t comply were blocked last week, though TikTok, Viber and three other platforms that registered were operating without interruption.

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  • Anger over corruption and nepotism fuel Nepal’s deadly protests over social media ban

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    KATHMANDU, Nepal — KATHMANDU, Nepal (AP) — Nepal’s government responded to escalating violent protests over a ban on popular social media platforms with deadly force. The public outrage over the ban and the deaths of 19 protesters on Monday led to the resignation of the prime minister and exposed deep discontent over corruption.

    Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli also rolled backed the short-lived ban after protesters turned their anger on politicians by setting fire to homes of some of the country’s top leaders.

    Led by mostly teenagers and young adults, the protests revealed a broader resentment in Nepal, where many people have increasingly become angry with the government over a range of issues, mostly to do with corruption and frustration over nepotism in the country’s politics.

    “Protests over the social media ban were just a catalyst. Frustrations over how the country is being run have long been simmering under the surface. People are very angry and Nepal finds itself in a very precarious situation,” said Prateek Pradhan, editor of Baahrakhari, a Nepalese independent news website.

    Demonstrations in Nepal have been called the protest of Gen Z, which generally refers to people born between 1995 and 2010. They were largely in response to the ban that went into effect last week and government’s larger attempt to regulate social media through a bill that requires platforms to register and submit to local oversight and regulations.

    The bill, which has not yet been fully debated in parliament, has been widely criticized as a tool for censorship and punishing opponents who voice their protests online. Rights groups have called it an attempt by the government to curb freedom of expression and violate fundamental rights.

    At the same time, the protests were also a tipping point of a longstanding sentiment against politicians, their families and concerns over corruption.

    In the weeks before the ban, a social media campaign — particularly on video-sharing platform TikTok — spotlighted the lavish lifestyles of politicians’ children, highlighting disparities between Nepal’s rich and poor. Protesters criticized them of flaunting their luxury possessions in a country where the per capita income is $1,400 a year.

    Widespread criticism over government’s failure to pursue some major corruption cases and create more economic opportunities for the youth also added to the anger. The youth unemployment rate in Nepal was 20% last year, according to the World Bank.

    “All these issues have made the youth of Nepal dissatisfied. They saw no other option but to take to the streets,” said Pradhan.

    The unrest is the worst in decades in the Himalayan nation that is wedged between India and China. It is also far violent than the one in 2006, when an uprising forced Nepal’s former king to give up his authoritarian rule. At least 18 people were killed in the violence. Two years later the parliament voted to abolish the monarchy.

    Over the years, many Nepalis have grown frustrated with the republic, saying it has failed to bring about political stability.

    Earlier in March, two people were killed when supporters of Nepal’s former king clashed with police during a rally in Kathmandu to demand the restoration of the monarchy.

    Even though Oli resigned on Tuesday, it is unclear if the protesters would stop, as many of them have also been calling for the government to dissolve. Such a move could create further instability in Nepal, which has had 13 governments since 2008.

    “A transitional arrangement will now need to be charted out swiftly and include figures who still retain credibility with Nepalis, especially the country’s youth,” said Ashish Pradhan, a senior adviser with the International Crisis Group.

    The security forces’ violent response appears to have further exacerbated tensions. On Tuesday, protests spread to other parts of Nepal, including suburbs of Kathmandu.

    Protester Nima Tendi Sherpa, 19, was shot in the arm by police on Monday. He said the protests began peacefully but turned violent when security forces started firing at the protesters who were trying to break the police barricades.

    “I don’t have any harsh feelings toward the policemen. They were just doing their duty by following orders. But I am angry and enraged at the ones who gave those orders,” Sherpa said. “Now that the fire has already started, I believe it must continue until we achieve true freedom.”

    Pradhan, the news editor, said the latest protests seem to have a larger purpose and are mirroring youth-led uprisings in neighboring Bangladesh and Sri Lanka that toppled both the governments.

    “It appears people are just done with how things have been going on. They want a change,” he said.

    ——

    Saaliq reported from New Delhi.

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  • Georgia judge to toss landmark racketeering charges against ‘Cop City’ protesters

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    ATLANTA — A Georgia judge on Tuesday said he will toss the racketeering charges against all 61 defendants accused of a yearslong conspiracy to halt the construction of a police and firefighter training facility that critics pejoratively call “Cop City.”

    Fulton County Judge Kevin Farmer said he does not believe Republican Attorney General Chris Carr had the authority to secure the 2023 indictments under Georgia’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations law, or RICO. Experts believe it was the largest criminal racketeering case ever filed against protesters in U.S. history.

    Farmer said during a hearing that Carr needed Gov. Brian Kemp ‘s permission to pursue the case instead of the local district attorney. Prosecutors earlier conceded to the judge that they did not obtain any such order.

    “It would have been real easy to just ask the governor, ‘Let me do this, give me a letter,’” Farmer said. “The steps just weren’t followed.”

    Five of the 61 defendants were also indicted on charges of domestic terrorism and first-degree arson. Farmer said Carr also didn’t have the authority to pursue the arson charge, though he believes the domestic terrorism charge can stand.

    Farmer said he plans to file a formal order soon and is not sure whether he would quash the entire indictment or let the domestic terrorism charge stand, though he said he expects the prosecution to appeal regardless.

    Deputy Attorney General John Fowler told Farmer that he believes the judge’s decision is “wholly incorrect.”

    The long-brewing controversy over the training center erupted in January 2023 after state troopers who were part of a sweep of the South River Forest that killed an activist who authorities said had fired at them. Numerous protests ensued, with masked vandals sometimes attacking police vehicles and construction equipment to stall the project and intimidate contractors into backing out.

    The defendants faced a wide variety of allegations — everything from throwing Molotov cocktails at police officers, to supplying food to protesters who were camped in the woods and passing out fliers against a state trooper who had fatally shot the protester known as “Tortuguita.” Each defendant faced up to 20 years in prison on the RICO charge.

    Carr, who is running for governor, had pursued the case, with Kemp hailing it as an important step to combat “out-of-state radicals that threaten the safety of our citizens and law enforcement.”

    But critics had decried the indictment as a politically motivated, heavy-handed attempt to quash the movement.

    Emerging in the wake of the 2020 racial justice protests, the “Stop Cop City” movement gained nationwide recognition as it united anarchists, environmental activists and anti-police protesters against the sprawling training center, which was being built in a wooded area that was ultimately razed in DeKalb County.

    Activists argued that uprooting acres of trees for the facility would exacerbate environmental damage in a flood-prone, majority-Black area while serving as an expensive staging ground for militarized officers to be trained in quelling social movements.

    The training center, a priority of Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens, opened earlier this year, despite years of protests and millions in cost overruns, some of which was due to the damage protesters caused, and police officials’ needs to bolster 24/7 security around the facility.

    But over the past two years, the case had been bogged down in procedural issues, with none of the defendants going to trial. Farmer and the case’s previous judge, Fulton County Judge Kimberly Esmond Adams, had earlier been critical of prosecutors’ approach to the case, with Adams saying the prosecution had committed “gross negligence” by allowing privileged attorney-client emails to be included among a giant cache of evidence that was shared between investigators and dozens of defense attorneys.

    Prosecutors had repeatedly apologized for the delays and missteps, but lamented the difficulty of handling such a sprawling case, though Farmer pointed out that it was prosecutors who decided to bring this “61-person elephant” to court in the first place.

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  • Nepal internet crackdown part of global trend toward suppressing online freedom

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    Nepal’s crackdown on social media companies, which led to protests and police killing at least 19 people, is part of a yearslong decline of internet freedoms around the world as even democracies seek to curtail online speech.

    The Himalayan country’s government said last week it was blocking several social media platforms including Facebook, X and YouTube because the companies failed to comply with a requirement that they register with the government. The ban was lifted Tuesday a day after the deadly protests.

    What’s happening in Nepal mirrors “this broader pattern of controlling the narrative and controlling of stories emerging from the ground,” said Aditya Vashistha, an assistant professor of information science at Cornell University. “This has happened several times in the neighboring countries India, Pakistan, Bangladesh. So this is nothing new — in fact, I would say this is taken from the playbook, which is now very established, of trying to control social media narratives.”

    Like neighboring countries, Nepal’s government have been asking the companies to appoint a liaison in the country. Officials are calling for laws to to monitor social media and ensure both the users and operators are responsible and accountable for what they share. But the move has been criticized as a tool for censorship and punishing opponents who voice their protests online.

    “Governments absolutely have a valid interest in seeking to regulate social media platforms. This is such a daily part of our lives and in our business. And it is certainly reasonable for authorities to sit down and say we want to develop rules for the road,” said Kian Vesteinsson, senior research analyst for technology and democracy at the Washington-based nonprofit Freedom House.

    “But what we see in Nepal is that wholesale blocks as a means of enforcing a set of rules for social media companies results in wildly disproportionate harms. These measures that were put in place in Nepal (cut) tens of millions of people off from platforms that they used to express themselves, to conduct daily business, to speak with their families, to go to school, to get healthcare information.”

    It’s not just Nepal. Freedom House has found that global internet freedom has declined for the 14th consecutive year in 2024, as governments crack down on dissent and people face arrest for expressing political, social or religious views online. While China consistently tops the list as the “world’s worst environment” for internet freedom, last year Myanmar shared this designation as well. The organization did not track Nepal.

    India passed a telecommunications law in 2023 that gave its government “broad powers to restrict online communications and intercept communications,” according to Freedom House. Three years earlier, a sweeping internet law put digital platforms like Facebook under direct government oversight. Officials say the rules are needed to quell misinformation and hate speech and to give users more power to flag objectionable content. But critics cautioned it would lead to censorship in a country where digital freedoms have already been shrinking.

    In January, meanwhile, Pakistan’s lower house of parliament passed a bill that gives the government sweeping controls on social media, including sending users to prison for spreading disinformation.

    Calling internet freedom a “pillar of modern democracy,” Freedom House said a healthy 21st-century democracy cannot function without a trustworthy online environment, where people can access information and express themselves freely.

    Increasingly, though, governments are putting up roadblocks.

    Often, regulations are in the name of child safety, cyber crime or fraud, Vesteinsson said, “but unfortunately, a lot of this regulation comes hand in hand with restrictive measures.”

    In the Nepali law, for instance, “the same provision of this law, directs social media platforms to restrict content relating to child trafficking and human trafficking and labor, a really important issue,” he added. “Two bullet points above that, it orders platforms to restrict people from posting anonymously.”

    The Committee to Protect Journalists said Monday that the protests “underscore the widespread concerns over Nepal’s ban on social media and the pressing need for the government to drop its order. Such a sweeping ban not only restricts freedom of expression, it also severely hinders journalists’ work and the public’s right to know.”

    The crackdown appears to have spurred a surge in use of virtual private networks, or VPNs, according to Proton, which provides encrypted services. Signups for Proton’s VPN service in Nepal have jumped by 8,000% since Sept. 3, according to data the company posted online. A VPN is a service that allows users to mask their location in order to circumvent censorship or geography-based online viewing restrictions.

    But experts caution that VPNs are not an end-all solution to government internet blocks. They can be expensive and out of reach for many people, Vashistha noted, and they can be slow and lead to lower-quality experiences when people try to access blocked social platforms.

    Google, Meta, X and TikTok (which registered and continues to operate) didn’t respond to requests for comment.

    Vesteinsson said companies can take important steps to safeguard privacy of their users — particularly human rights defenders and activists who might be a specific target for government repression in their countries.

    “It’s enormously important for social media platforms to be responsible to their users in that way,” he said.

    ___

    AP Business Writer Kelvin Chan and AP Technology Writer Matt O’Brien contributed to this report.

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  • Nepal internet crackdown part of global trend toward suppressing online freedom

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    Nepal’s crackdown on social media companies, which led to protests and police killing at least 19 people, is part of a yearslong decline of internet freedoms around the world as even democracies seek to curtail online speech.

    The Himalayan country’s government said last week it was blocking several social media platforms including Facebook, X and YouTube because the companies failed to comply with a requirement that they register with the government. The ban was lifted Tuesday a day after the deadly protests.

    What’s happening in Nepal mirrors “this broader pattern of controlling the narrative and controlling of stories emerging from the ground,” said Aditya Vashistha, an assistant professor of information science at Cornell University. “This has happened several times in the neighboring countries India, Pakistan, Bangladesh. So this is nothing new — in fact, I would say this is taken from the playbook, which is now very established, of trying to control social media narratives.”

    Like neighboring countries, Nepal’s government have been asking the companies to appoint a liaison in the country. Officials are calling for laws to to monitor social media and ensure both the users and operators are responsible and accountable for what they share. But the move has been criticized as a tool for censorship and punishing opponents who voice their protests online.

    “Governments absolutely have a valid interest in seeking to regulate social media platforms. This is such a daily part of our lives and in our business. And it is certainly reasonable for authorities to sit down and say we want to develop rules for the road,” said Kian Vesteinsson, senior research analyst for technology and democracy at the Washington-based nonprofit Freedom House.

    “But what we see in Nepal is that wholesale blocks as a means of enforcing a set of rules for social media companies results in wildly disproportionate harms. These measures that were put in place in Nepal (cut) tens of millions of people off from platforms that they used to express themselves, to conduct daily business, to speak with their families, to go to school, to get healthcare information.”

    It’s not just Nepal. Freedom House has found that global internet freedom has declined for the 14th consecutive year in 2024, as governments crack down on dissent and people face arrest for expressing political, social or religious views online. While China consistently tops the list as the “world’s worst environment” for internet freedom, last year Myanmar shared this designation as well. The organization did not track Nepal.

    India passed a telecommunications law in 2023 that gave its government “broad powers to restrict online communications and intercept communications,” according to Freedom House. Three years earlier, a sweeping internet law put digital platforms like Facebook under direct government oversight. Officials say the rules are needed to quell misinformation and hate speech and to give users more power to flag objectionable content. But critics cautioned it would lead to censorship in a country where digital freedoms have already been shrinking.

    In January, meanwhile, Pakistan’s lower house of parliament passed a bill that gives the government sweeping controls on social media, including sending users to prison for spreading disinformation.

    Calling internet freedom a “pillar of modern democracy,” Freedom House said a healthy 21st-century democracy cannot function without a trustworthy online environment, where people can access information and express themselves freely.

    Increasingly, though, governments are putting up roadblocks.

    Often, regulations are in the name of child safety, cyber crime or fraud, Vesteinsson said, “but unfortunately, a lot of this regulation comes hand in hand with restrictive measures.”

    In the Nepali law, for instance, “the same provision of this law, directs social media platforms to restrict content relating to child trafficking and human trafficking and labor, a really important issue,” he added. “Two bullet points above that, it orders platforms to restrict people from posting anonymously.”

    The Committee to Protect Journalists said Monday that the protests “underscore the widespread concerns over Nepal’s ban on social media and the pressing need for the government to drop its order. Such a sweeping ban not only restricts freedom of expression, it also severely hinders journalists’ work and the public’s right to know.”

    The crackdown appears to have spurred a surge in use of virtual private networks, or VPNs, according to Proton, which provides encrypted services. Signups for Proton’s VPN service in Nepal have jumped by 8,000% since Sept. 3, according to data the company posted online. A VPN is a service that allows users to mask their location in order to circumvent censorship or geography-based online viewing restrictions.

    But experts caution that VPNs are not an end-all solution to government internet blocks. They can be expensive and out of reach for many people, Vashistha noted, and they can be slow and lead to lower-quality experiences when people try to access blocked social platforms.

    Google, Meta, X and TikTok (which registered and continues to operate) didn’t respond to requests for comment.

    Vesteinsson said companies can take important steps to safeguard privacy of their users — particularly human rights defenders and activists who might be a specific target for government repression in their countries.

    “It’s enormously important for social media platforms to be responsible to their users in that way,” he said.

    ___

    AP Business Writer Kelvin Chan and AP Technology Writer Matt O’Brien contributed to this report.

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  • Police in Kathmandu open fire on anti-government protesters, killing 8 and injuring several more, Nepal’s media report

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    Police in Kathmandu open fire on anti-government protesters, killing 8 and injuring several more, Nepal’s media report

    KATHMANDU, Nepal — Police in Kathmandu open fire on anti-government protesters, killing 8 and injuring several more, Nepal’s media report.

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  • President Donald Trump’s policies spark protests in multiple US cities on Labor Day

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    CHICAGO — Protesters took to the streets in multiple U.S. cities on Labor Day to criticize President Donald Trump and demand a living wage for workers.

    Demonstrations in Chicago and New York were organized by One Fair Wage to draw attention to the struggles laborers face in the U.S., where the federal minimum wage is $7.25 an hour. Chants of “Trump must go now!” echoed outside the president’s former home in New York, while protesters gathered outside a different Trump Tower in Chicago, yelling “No National Guard” and “Lock him up!” Large crowds also gathered in Washington D.C. and San Francisco.

    In New York, people gathered outside Trump Tower, which has become a magnet for protests and remains a prominent symbol of the president’s wealth, even though the president hasn’t lived in the Manhattan skyscraper for years. Demonstrators waved signs and banners calling for an end to what they said is a fascist regime.

    In Washington, a large crowd gathered with signs saying “Stop the ICE invasion” and an umbrella painted with “Free D.C. No masked thugs.” Hundreds more gathered at protests along the West Coast to fight for the rights of immigrants and workers.

    Multiple groups joined together at the protests in Chicago to listen to speeches and lend their voices to the chants.

    “We’re here because we’re under attack. We’re here because our core values and our democracy is under attack. We are here because they are threatening to send the military into our streets,” Daniel Biss, the mayor of Evanston, Illinois, told the crowd in Chicago as he urged them to stand up for workers.

    At one point, a woman got out of a vehicle with Iowa plates in Chicago to shout “Long live Donald Trump” over and over again, resulting in a brief confrontation as the protesters responded with shouts of their own until the woman left a few minutes later.

    In the crowd, Ziri Marquez said she came out because she’s concerned about overlapping issues in the U.S. and around the world, decrying anti-migrant attitudes in the U.S. and the deaths of Palestinians in Gaza.

    “I think especially, you know, when we’re dealing with low wages and we’re dealing with a stagnant economy, immigrants are largely used as a scapegoat,” said Marquez, 25.

    Along the West Coast from San Diego up to Seattle, hundreds gathered at rallies to call for a stop to the “billionaire takeover.”

    Groups supporting federal workers and unions marched in Los Angeles; San Francisco; and Portland, Oregon, in support of workers rights. Rally organizer May Day Strong said on its website that “billionaires are stealing from working families, destroying our democracy and building private armies to attack our towns and cities.”

    They called on people to take collective action to stop the takeover.

    Portland protester Lynda Oakley of Beaverton told Oregolive.com that her frustrations with health care, immigration and Social Security inspired her to join the march.

    “I am done with what’s happening in our country,” she said.

    King County Councilmember Teresa Mosqueda, who took part in a demonstration at Seattle’s Cascade Playground, told KOMO News that they wanted to send a message of workers above billionaires.

    “Workers should be more powerful than the small billionaire class,” she said.

    ___

    Associated Press Writers Michael Sisak contributed to this report from New York and Martha Bellisle contributed from Seattle

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  • Former Columbia University president Minouche Shafik tapped as UK economic adviser

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    LONDON — British Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Monday appointed economist and former Columbia University president Minouche Shafik as his chief economic adviser. It’s part of a staff shakeup aimed at strengthening the government’s response to a sluggish economy and a heated political debate over immigration.

    Starmer’s center-left Labour Party government has struggled to boost economic growth and curb inflation, leaving Treasury chief Rachel Reeves facing unpalatable choices about taxes and spending in her budget this fall.

    Shafik, a former deputy governor of the Bank of England, has held senior academic and civil service roles in Britain, and served a brief, tempestuous term as Columbia president. The British-U.S. national left her job leading the New York university in August 2024 after just over a year following scrutiny of her handling of protests and campus divisions over the Israel-Hamas war.

    Like other U.S. university leaders, Shafik faced criticism from many corners: Some students groups blasted her decision to invite police in to arrest protesters. Republicans in Congress and others called on her to do more to call out antisemitism.

    Starmer spokesman Dave Pares said the prime minister was delighted to have Shafik bring her “exceptional record when it comes to economic expertise” to the government.

    Starmer also shook up his communications team and appointed Darren Jones, formerly a minister in the Treasury, to the new post of chief secretary to the prime minister, tasked with coordinating work on policy priorities.

    The moves came as lawmakers returned to Parliament after a summer break that saw dozens of small but heated protests outside hotels housing asylum-seekers. The Labour government, which was elected in July 2024, has struggled to curb unauthorized migration and fulfill its responsibility to accommodate those seeking refuge.

    The hard-right Reform UK party led by Nigel Farage has sought to capitalize on concern about thousands of migrants crossing the English Channel in small boats. Painting the asylum-seekers as a threat, Farage has pledged to deport everyone who enters the country without authorization should Reform win power in a future election.

    Reform has only a handful of lawmakers in the House of Commons but regularly leads both Labour and the main opposition Conservative Party in opinion polls.

    Starmer’s government says it is fixing an asylum system broken after 14 years of Conservative government and is working with other countries to tackle the people-smuggling gangs that organize the cross-channel journeys.

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  • A Chinese student was questioned for hours in the US, then sent back even as Trump policies shift

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    WASHINGTON — The 22-year-old philosophy student from China did not expect any problems after his 29-hour flight arrived at a Texas airport this month as he was on his way to study at the University of Houston.

    His paperwork was in order. He was going to study humanities — not a tech field that might raise suspicions. He had a full scholarship from the U.S. school and had previously spent a semester at Cornell University for an exchange program with no issues.

    But the student, who asked to be identified only by his family name, Gu, because of the political sensitivities of the matter, was stopped, interrogated and 36 hours later, put on a plane back to China.

    He also was banned from coming back for five years, abruptly halting his dream for an academic career in the United States.

    “There is no opportunity for the life I had expected,” Gu said.

    He is one of an unknown number of Chinese students with permission to enter the United States who have been sent back to China or faced intense questioning after their arrival, drawing strong protests from Beijing and showing the uncertainty from President Donald Trump’s shifting policies.

    His administration has quickly pivoted from a plan to revoke visas for Chinese students to Trump himself saying he would welcome hundreds of thousands of them, partly to help keep some American schools afloat.

    Even so, some officials and lawmakers have expressed suspicions about Chinese students, especially those who study advanced technologies such as quantum computing and artificial intelligence, and their possible links to the Chinese government and military. Some lawmakers want to ban Chinese students altogether.

    There’s no immediate data available on how many Chinese students with valid visas have been interrogated and repatriated from U.S. airports in recent weeks. U.S. Customs and Border Protection did not respond to a request for that data or for comment on Chinese students being questioned or sent back.

    In recent days, Trump said he told Chinese President Xi Jinping that “we’re honored to have their students here.” But he also added, “Now, with that, we check and we’re careful, we see who is there.”

    The Chinese Embassy said it has received reports involving more than 10 Chinese students and scholars being interrogated, harassed and repatriated when entering the U.S.

    “The U.S. side has frequently carried out discriminatory, politically driven and selective law enforcement against Chinese students and scholars, inflicting physical and mental harm, financial losses, and disruptions to their careers,” the Chinese Embassy said in a statement.

    They were repatriated under the pretext of “so-called ‘visa issues’ or ‘might endanger U.S. national security,’” the embassy said.

    The students and scholars were taken into small rooms for extended interrogation, repeatedly questioned on issues unrelated to their academic work, and forced to wait long hours in cold rooms without blankets or quilts, the embassy said. Some relied on aluminum foil to keep warm, and some were detained for more than 80 hours, it said.

    Such acts by the U.S. side “run counter to the statements” made by Trump, the embassy said, accusing some U.S. departments and law enforcement personnel of not “faithfully acting on the president’s commitment.” The White House didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

    Gu told AP that he liked his Cornell experience so much that he applied for a master’s program to study philosophy in the U.S.

    Despite reports of stricter policies by the Trump administration, Gu said he wasn’t too worried, not even when he was first stopped and taken to a room for questioning by a customs officer after landing at George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston. His belongings were searched, and his electronics were taken away, he said.

    After the officer went through the devices, he started interrogating Gu, focusing on his ties to the Chinese Communist Party, Gu said.

    He said his parents are party members, but he has never joined, though he — like nearly all Chinese teens and young people — is a member of the party’s youth arm, the Communist Youth League.

    The customs officer also grilled him on his connections to the governmental China Scholarship Council, which popped up in his chat history. Gu said it came up in his chats with his schoolmates, but he did not receive money from the Chinese government.

    Three rounds of interrogation lasted 10 hours, before Gu was told he was to be deported. No specific reason was given, he said, and the removal paperwork he provided to AP indicated inadequate documentation.

    By then, he had hardly slept for 40 hours. The waiting room where he was kept was lit around the clock, its room temperature set low.

    “I was so nervous I was shaking, due to both being freezing cold and also the nerves,” Gu said. “So many things were going through my head now that I was being deported. What should I do in the future?”

    It would be another day before he was put on a flight. Now, Gu is considering appealing the decision, but that might take years and cost thousands of dollars.

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  • China protests Taiwan foreign minister’s visit to the Philippines

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    MANILA, Philippines — Taiwan’s foreign minister has flown to the Philippines as head of a high-level delegation of investors, two senior Philippine officials said Saturday, prompting a protest from China and a warning to Manila “not to play with fire.”

    Relations between China and the Philippines have been strained as their coast guards and other forces spar in increasingly tense confrontations over the ownership of islands and fishing grounds in the disputed South China Sea. Taiwanese Foreign Minister Lin Chia-lung’s visit earlier this week to Manila and the Clark Freeport Zone, an industrial hub north of the capital, has exacerbated the tensions.

    Philippine officials have publicly neither confirmed nor denied news reports of Lin’s visit, but two members of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s Cabinet told The Associated Press that Taiwan’s top diplomat flew to the country “in his private capacity” to lead a major delegation of Taiwanese investors and business executives in the semiconductor and other key industries.

    Lin did not have any official engagements with political and security officials while in the Philippines for two or three days, said the two officials, who did not elaborate and spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.

    Under a “One China” policy, the Philippines does not recognize Taiwan as a sovereign state. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory, which could be annexed by force if necessary, and opposes the self-governing island having official interactions with other countries, particularly the United States.

    The Department of Foreign Affairs in Manila said Friday that the Philippines has “consistently upheld” that policy, which is “clear and unwavering.” It added, however, that “the Philippines maintains economic and people-to-people engagements with Taiwan, particularly in the areas of trade, investment, and tourism. These interactions are conducted within the bounds of our One China Policy.”

    The department said that “no official from Taiwan (was) recognized as a member of the business delegation that recently visited the Philippines,” suggesting that Lin came as a private business representative.

    The Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Beijing issued a strongly worded protest in Manila and Beijing and said that by allowing Lin to visit, the Philippines has provided a platform for “’Taiwan independence’ separatists to engage in anti-China activities” and has “severely violated its own commitment on Taiwan-related issues.”

    It urged the Philippines to “stop pursuing the wrong course and return to the right track at once, stop playing with fire on issues concerning China’s core interests.” It warned the Philippines not to “underestimate the firm resolve of the Chinese people to safeguard our sovereignty and territorial integrity.”

    “There is a price to pay for trampling on China’s red line, and all consequences arising therefrom will be borne by the Philippines,” the Chinese foreign ministry said.

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  • Al Sharpton to lead pro-DEI march through Wall Street on anniversary of the 1963 March on Washington

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    NEW YORK — The Rev. Al Sharpton will lead a protest march on Wall Street to urge corporate America to resist the Trump administration’s campaign to roll back diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.

    The New York civil rights leader will join clergy, labor and community leaders Thursday in a demonstration through Manhattan’s Financial District that’s timed with the anniversary of the Civil Rights-era March on Washington in 1963.

    Sharpton, in a statement, called DEI the “civil rights fight of our generation.”

    Since returning to the White House in January, President Donald Trump has moved to end DEI programswithin the federal government and warned schools to do the same, or risk losing federal money.

    In response, Sharpton’s civil rights group, the National Action Network, has encouraged consumers to avoid U.S. retailers that scaled backed policies and programs aimed at bolstering diversity among their employees and reducing discrimination against members of minority groups, women and LGBTQ+ people.

    Earlier this year, Sharpton met with Target’s CEO as groups called for a boycott of the retail giant, which joined Amazon, Walmart and other major retailers in foregoing DEI initiatives.

    The civil rights leader has also called for “buy-cotts” in support of companies such as Costco that have stuck by their DEI principles despite the conservative backlash.

    “Corporate America wants to walk away from Black communities, so we are marching to them to bring this fight to their doorstep,” Sharpton said in a statement ahead of Thursday’s march.

    The march is expected to start around 10 a.m. in Foley Square, located in downtown Manhattan near the African Burial Ground that’s the largest known resting place of enslaved and freed Africans in the country.

    The square is also near 26 Federal Plaza, the federal government building that’s become a symbol of Trump’s nationwide immigration crackdown.

    U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents have been detaining migrants during their routine appearances at the immigration court located there. A federal judge earlier this month also ordered the Trump administration to improve conditions for migrants jailed there.

    Marchers are expected to make their way past Wall Street’s famous Charging Bull statue before the event ends with a speaking program.

    New York City mayoral candidates, including incumbent Mayor Eric Adams, state Assembly Member Zohran Mamdani, and former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, are among those expected to join the demonstration.

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  • Microsoft employee protests lead to 18 arrests as company reviews its work with Israel’s military

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    Police officers arrested 18 people at worker-led protests at Microsoft headquarters Wednesday as the tech company promises an “urgent” review of the Israeli military’s use of its technology during the ongoing war in Gaza.

    Two consecutive days of protest at the Microsoft campus in Redmond, Washington called for the tech giant to immediately cut its business ties with Israel.

    But unlike Tuesday, when about 35 protesters occupying a plaza between office buildings left after Microsoft asked them to leave, the protesters on Wednesday “resisted and became aggressive” after the company told police they were trespassing, according to the Redmond Police Department.

    The protesters also splattered red paint resembling the color of blood over a landmark sign that bears the company logo and spells Microsoft in big gray letters.

    “We said, ‘Please leave or you will be arrested,’ and they chose not to leave so they were detained,” said police spokesperson Jill Green.

    Microsoft late last week said it was tapping a law firm to investigate allegations reported by British newspaper The Guardian that the Israeli Defense Forces used Microsoft’s Azure cloud computing platform to store phone call data obtained through the mass surveillance of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank.

    “Microsoft’s standard terms of service prohibit this type of usage,” the company said in a statement posted Friday, adding that the report raises “precise allegations that merit a full and urgent review.”

    In February, The Associated Press revealed previously unreported details about the tech giant’s close partnership with the Israeli Ministry of Defense, with military use of commercial artificial intelligence products skyrocketing by nearly 200 times after the deadly Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack. The AP reported that the Israeli military uses Azure to transcribe, translate and process intelligence gathered through mass surveillance, which can then be cross-checked with Israel’s in-house AI-enabled targeting systems.

    Following The AP’s report, Microsoft acknowledged the military applications but said a review it commissioned found no evidence that its Azure platform and artificial intelligence technologies were used to target or harm people in Gaza. Microsoft did not share a copy of that review or say who conducted it.

    Microsoft said it will share the latest review’s findings after it’s completed by law firm Covington & Burling.

    The promise of a second review was insufficient for the employee-led No Azure for Apartheid group, which for months has protested Microsoft’s supplying the Israeli military with technology used for its war against Hamas in Gaza. The group said Wednesday the technology is “being used to surveil, starve and kill Palestinians.”

    Microsoft in May fired an employee who interrupted a speech by CEO Satya Nadella to protest the contracts, and in April, fired two others who interrupted the company’s 50th anniversary celebration.

    On Tuesday, the protesters posted online a call for what they called a “worker intifada,” using language evoking the Palestinian uprisings against Israeli military occupation that began in 1987.

    On Wednesday, the police department said it took 18 people into custody “for multiple charges, including trespassing, malicious mischief, resisting arrest, and obstruction.” It wasn’t clear how many were Microsoft employees. No injuries were reported.

    Microsoft said in a statement after the arrests that it “will continue to do the hard work needed to uphold its human rights standards in the Middle East, while supporting and taking clear steps to address unlawful actions that damage property, disrupt business or that threaten and harm others.”

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  • Microsoft employee protests lead to 18 arrests as company reviews its work with Israel’s military

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    Police officers arrested 18 people at worker-led protests at Microsoft headquarters Wednesday as the tech company promises an “urgent” review of the Israeli military’s use of its technology during the ongoing war in Gaza.

    Two consecutive days of protest at the Microsoft campus in Redmond, Washington called for the tech giant to immediately cut its business ties with Israel.

    But unlike Tuesday, when about 35 protesters occupying a plaza between office buildings left after Microsoft asked them to leave, the protesters on Wednesday “resisted and became aggressive” after the company told police they were trespassing, according to the Redmond Police Department.

    The protesters also splattered red paint resembling the color of blood over a landmark sign that bears the company logo and spells Microsoft in big gray letters.

    “We said, ‘Please leave or you will be arrested,’ and they chose not to leave so they were detained,” said police spokesperson Jill Green.

    Microsoft late last week said it was tapping a law firm to investigate allegations reported by British newspaper The Guardian that the Israeli Defense Forces used Microsoft’s Azure cloud computing platform to store phone call data obtained through the mass surveillance of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank.

    “Microsoft’s standard terms of service prohibit this type of usage,” the company said in a statement posted Friday, adding that the report raises “precise allegations that merit a full and urgent review.”

    In February, The Associated Press revealed previously unreported details about the tech giant’s close partnership with the Israeli Ministry of Defense, with military use of commercial artificial intelligence products skyrocketing by nearly 200 times after the deadly Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack. The AP reported that the Israeli military uses Azure to transcribe, translate and process intelligence gathered through mass surveillance, which can then be cross-checked with Israel’s in-house AI-enabled targeting systems.

    Following The AP’s report, Microsoft acknowledged the military applications but said a review it commissioned found no evidence that its Azure platform and artificial intelligence technologies were used to target or harm people in Gaza. Microsoft did not share a copy of that review or say who conducted it.

    Microsoft said it will share the latest review’s findings after it’s completed by law firm Covington & Burling.

    The promise of a second review was insufficient for the employee-led No Azure for Apartheid group, which for months has protested Microsoft’s supplying the Israeli military with technology used for its war against Hamas in Gaza. The group said Wednesday the technology is “being used to surveil, starve and kill Palestinians.”

    Microsoft in May fired an employee who interrupted a speech by CEO Satya Nadella to protest the contracts, and in April, fired two others who interrupted the company’s 50th anniversary celebration.

    On Tuesday, the protesters posted online a call for what they called a “worker intifada,” using language evoking the Palestinian uprisings against Israeli military occupation that began in 1987.

    On Wednesday, the police department said it took 18 people into custody “for multiple charges, including trespassing, malicious mischief, resisting arrest, and obstruction.” It wasn’t clear how many were Microsoft employees. No injuries were reported.

    Microsoft said in a statement after the arrests that it “will continue to do the hard work needed to uphold its human rights standards in the Middle East, while supporting and taking clear steps to address unlawful actions that damage property, disrupt business or that threaten and harm others.”

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  • First domino in national redistricting fight likely to fall; Texas GOP poised to vote

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    AUSTIN, Texas — The first domino in a growing national redistricting battle is likely to fall Wednesday as the Republican-controlled Texas legislature is expected to pass a new congressional map creating five new winnable seats for the GOP.

    The vote follows prodding by President Donald Trump, eager to stave off a midterm defeat that would deprive his party of control of the House of Representatives, and weeks of delays after dozens of Texas Democratic state lawmakers fled the state in protest. Some Democrats returned Monday, only to be assigned round-the-clock police escorts to ensure their attendance at Wednesday’s session. Those who refused to be monitored were confined to the House floor, where they protested on a livestream Tuesday night.

    Furious national Democrats have vowed payback for the Texas map, with California’s legislature poised to approve new maps adding more Democratic-friendly seats later this week. The map would still need to be approved by that state’s voters in November.

    Normally, states redraw maps once a decade with new census figures. But Trump is lobbying other conservative-controlled states like Indiana and Missouri to also try to squeeze new GOP-friendly seats out of their maps as his party prepares for a difficult midterm election next year.

    In Texas, Democrats spent the day before the vote continuing to draw attention to the extraordinary lengths the Republicans who run the legislature were going to ensure it takes place. Democratic state Rep. Nicole Collier started it when she refused to sign what Democrats called the “permission slip” needed to leave the House chamber, a half-page form allowing Department of Public Safety troopers to follow them. She spent Monday night and Tuesday on the House floor, where she set up a livestream while her Democratic colleagues outside had plainclothes officers following them to their offices and homes.

    Dallas-area Rep. Linda Garcia said she drove three hours home from Austin with an officer following her. When she went grocery shopping, he went down every aisle with her, pretending to shop, she said. As she spoke to The Associated Press by phone, two unmarked cars with officers inside were parked outside her home.

    “It’s a weird feeling,” she said. “The only way to explain the entire process is: It’s like I’m in a movie.”

    The trooper assignments, ordered by Republican House Speaker Dustin Burrows, was another escalation of a redistricting battle that has widened across the country. Trump is pushing GOP state officials to tilt the map for the 2026 midterms more in his favor to preserve the GOP’s slim House majority, and Democrats nationally have rallied around efforts to retaliate.

    House Minority Leader Gene Wu, from Houston, and state Rep. Vince Perez, of El Paso, stayed overnight with Collier, who represents a minority-majority district in Fort Worth.

    On Tuesday, more Democrats returned to the Capitol to tear up the slips they had signed and stay on the House floor, which has a lounge and restrooms for members.

    Dallas-area Rep. Cassandra Garcia Hernandez called their protest a “slumber party for democracy,” and she said Democrats were holding strategy sessions on the floor.

    “We are not criminals,” Houston Rep. Penny Morales Shaw said.

    Collier said having officers shadow her was an attack on her dignity and an attempt to control her movements.

    Burrows brushed off Collier’s protest, saying he was focused on important issues, such as providing property tax relief and responding to last month’s deadly floods. His statement Tuesday morning did not mention redistricting, and his office did not immediately respond to other Democrats joining Collier.

    “Rep. Collier’s choice to stay and not sign the permission slip is well within her rights under the House Rules,” Burrows said.

    Under those rules, until Wednesday’s scheduled vote, the chamber’s doors are locked, and no member can leave “without the written permission of the speaker.”

    To do business Wednesday, 100 of 150 House members must be present.

    The GOP plan is designed to send five additional Republicans from Texas to the U.S. House. Texas Democrats returned to Austin after Democrats in California launched an effort to redraw their state’s districts to take five seats from Republicans.

    Democrats also said they were returning because they expect to challenge the new maps in court.

    Republicans issued civil arrest warrants to bring the Democrats back after they left the state Aug. 3, and Republican Gov. Greg Abbott asked the state Supreme Court to oust Wu and several other Democrats from office. The lawmakers also face a fine of $500 for every day they were absent.

    Democrats reported different levels of monitoring. Houston Rep. Armando Walle said he wasn’t sure where his police escort was, but there was still a heightened police presence in the Capitol, so he felt he was being monitored closely.

    Some Democrats said the officers watching them were friendly. But Austin Rep. Sheryl Cole said in a social media post that when she went on her morning walk Tuesday, the officer following her lost her on the trail, got angry and threatened to arrest her.

    Garcia said her 9-year-old son was with her as she drove home, and each time she looked in the rearview mirror, she could see the officer close behind. He came inside a grocery store where she shopped with her son.

    “I would imagine that this is the way it feels when you’re potentially shoplifting and someone is assessing whether you’re going to steal,” she said.

    ___

    Riccardi reported from Denver. John Hanna in Topeka, Kansas, and Sara Cline in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, contributed to this report.

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  • Germany recalls ambassador from Iran as it protests the execution of an Iranian German prisoner

    Germany recalls ambassador from Iran as it protests the execution of an Iranian German prisoner

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    BERLIN — Germany protested to Iran on Tuesday over the execution of Iranian German prisoner Jamshid Sharmahd, who lived in the U.S. and was kidnapped in Dubai in 2020 by Iranian security forces, and recalled its ambassador to Berlin for consultations.

    The Foreign Ministry wrote on the social network X that Iran’s charge d’affaires in Berlin was summoned to hear “our sharp protest” against Tehran’s action and added that it reserves the right to take “further measures.” It didn’t elaborate.

    At the same time, German Ambassador Markus Potzel “protested in the strongest terms against the murder of Jamshid Sharmahd” to the Iranian foreign minister, it said. German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock then recalled him to Berlin for consultations.

    Sharmahd, 69, was put to death in Iran on Monday on terrorism charges, the country’s judiciary said. That followed a 2023 trial that Germany, the U.S. and international rights groups dismissed as a sham.

    He was one of several Iranian dissidents abroad in recent years either tricked or kidnapped back to Iran as Tehran began lashing out after the collapse of its 2015 nuclear deal with world powers including Germany.

    Iran accused Sharmahd, who lived in Glendora, California, of planning a 2008 attack on a mosque that killed 14 people — including five women and a child — and wounded over 200 others, as well as plotting other assaults through the little-known Kingdom Assembly of Iran and its Tondar militant wing.

    Iran also accused Sharmahd of “disclosing classified information” on missile sites of Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard during a television program in 2017.

    His family disputed the allegations and had worked for years to see him freed.

    Sharmahd had been in Dubai in 2020, trying to travel to India for a business deal involving his software company. He hoped to get a connecting flight despite the coronavirus pandemic disrupting global travel.

    Sharmahd’s family received their last message from him on July 28, 2020. It’s unclear how the abduction happened. But tracking data showed that Sharmahd’s mobile phone traveled south from Dubai to the city of Al Ain on July 29, crossing the border into Oman. On July 30, tracking data showed the mobile phone traveled to the Omani port city of Sohar, where the signal stopped.

    Two days later, Iran announced it had captured Sharmahd in a “complex operation.” The Intelligence Ministry published a photograph of him blindfolded.

    Germany expelled two Iranian diplomats in 2023 over Sharmahd’s death sentence.

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