Protests and demonstrations

Relatives hug after being released from a detention center where protesters were detained during a mass rally following presidential election in Minsk, Belarus, Friday, Aug. 14, 2020. Nearly 7,000 people have been detained and hundreds injured in the clampdown on demonstrators protesting the official results that said Lukashenko won 80% of the vote and his top opposition challenger got only 10%. Police have broken up protests with stun grenades, tear gas, rubber bullets and severe beatings. (AP Photo)

Belarus authorities free detainees amid protesters' pressure

Aug. 14, 2020 4:02 AM EDT

MINSK, Belarus (AP) — Belarusian authorities have released dozens of people detained amid demonstrations contesting the results of the presidential election, in an attempt to assuage public anger against a brutal crackdown on peaceful protests. Around midnight, scores of detainees were seen walking out of...

A symbol installed for the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020 on a barge is moved away from its usual spot by tugboats off the Odaiba Marine Park in Tokyo Thursday, Aug. 6, 2020. The five Olympic rings floating on a barge in Tokyo Bay were removed for what is being called “maintenance,” and officials says they will return to greet next year's Games. The Tokyo Olympics have been postponed for a year because of the coronavirus pandemic and are to open on July 23, 2021. The Paralympics follow on Aug. 24. (AP Photo/Hiro Komae)

Australian survey: younger Olympians more willing to protest

Aug. 14, 2020 3:34 AM EDT

BRISBANE, Australia (AP) — An Australian survey shows a higher proportion of younger Olympians would be prepared to use games venues or medal podiums as a platform for demonstrations. The International Olympic Committee’s Rule 50.2, which forbids demonstrations or political, religious or racial...

FILE - In this Tuesday, Aug. 11, 2020 file photo, Lithuania's Minister of Foreign Affairs Linas Linkevicius answers questions during a meeting with the press in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Vilnius, Lithuania. Lithuania is playing an outsized role among European Union nations amid a major crisis in neighboring Belarus. The EU's foreign ministers are meeting Friday Aug. 14, 2020 to discuss the brutal law enforcement crackdown on protesters who insist the Belarusian presidential election was rigged to keep the country's long-time authoritarian leader in power. (AP Photo/Mindaugas Kulbis, File)

Tiny Lithuania has outsized role as EU faces Belarus crisis

Aug. 14, 2020 3:30 AM EDT

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Lithuania is relatively small by European Union measures, but it is playing an outsized role as protesters in neighboring Belarus face a brutal law enforcement crackdown following a presidential election they say was rigged. As the EU’s foreign ministers meet Friday to discuss...

Democratic presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden's running mate Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., and her husband Douglas Emhoff look to each other at the end of a campaign event at Alexis Dupont High School in Wilmington, Del., Wednesday, Aug. 12, 2020. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

For Harris, memories of mother guide bid for vice president

Aug. 14, 2020 12:55 AM EDT

NEW YORK (AP) — Speaking from the Senate floor for the first time, Kamala Harris expressed gratitude for a woman on whose shoulders she said she stood. In her autobiography, Harris interspersed the well-worn details of her resume with an extended ode to the one she calls “the reason for...

Portland protests return downtown as police use tear gas early Thursday, Aug. 13, 2020. Officers used tear gas to break up the crowd of several hundred people who gathered near the Mark O. Hatfield U.S. Courthouse, the neighboring Multnomah County Justice Center and a nearby police precinct station. (Sean Meagher/The Oregonian via AP)

State police exit Portland after 2 weeks of protest duty

Aug. 13, 2020 10:03 PM EDT

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Oregon State Police are leaving Portland after a two-week assignment to help protect a federal courthouse that’s been a target of protesters during months of conflict in Oregon’s largest city. The state police are “continually reassessing our resources and the...

Gus Juarez tells the crowd the names of two men detained by federal immigration officials on Wednesday, Aug. 12, 2020, in Bend, Ore. Protesters surrounded two unmarked buses outside Crane Shed Commons to prevent officials from taking the men. (Ryan Brennecke/The Bulletin via AP)

Protesters hold up US detention of 2 in Oregon for 12 hours

Aug. 13, 2020 7:54 PM EDT

SALEM, Ore. (AP) — U.S. Border Patrol officers late Wednesday used pepper spray on demonstrators in Bend, Oregon, as they pushed their way through a crowd to get to two men detained by immigration agents inside a bus that could not move for about 12 hours because of the protesters. The next day, people...

A nurse attends to a newborn baby in the intensive care unit of the Women's Hospital maternity ward in La Paz, Bolivia, Thursday, Aug. 13, 2020. Doctors say the supply of oxygen for the babies is becoming scarce, the result of nationwide blockades by supporters of the party of former President Evo Morales who object to the recent postponement of elections. Bolivia's political and social crisis is coinciding with the continued spread of the new coronavirus across one of Latin America's poorest countries. (AP Photo/Juan Karita)

Bolivia's political crisis threatens hospitals and patients

Aug. 13, 2020 6:48 PM EDT

LA PAZ, Bolivia (AP) — Hooked up to ventilators, 11 prematurely born infants struggled for survival Thursday in the intensive care ward of a Bolivian maternity hospital. The babies' supply of oxygen is in peril, doctors say, because of nationwide blockades by supporters of the party of former President Evo...

People with flowers and old Belarusian national flags gather to protest against the results of the country's presidential election in Minsk, Belarus, Thursday, Aug. 13, 2020. Crowds of protesters in Belarus swarmed the streets and thousands of workers rallied outside industrial plants to denounce a police crackdown on demonstrations over a disputed election that extended the 26-year rule of authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko. (AP Photo/Sergei Grits)

Thousands in Belarus form 'lines of solidarity' in protest

Aug. 13, 2020 2:55 PM EDT

MINSK, Belarus (AP) — Crowds of protesters in Belarus swarmed the streets and thousands of workers rallied outside industrial plants Thursday to denounce a police crackdown on demonstrations over a disputed election that extended the 26-year rule of authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko. Beginning...

ACLU sues Boston police for use of force, surveillance docs

Aug. 13, 2020 1:12 PM EDT

BOSTON (AP) — The American Civil Liberties Union has sued the Boston Police Department for withholding records related to recent Black Lives Matter demonstrations and other policing issues. The civil rights group's Massachusetts chapter said Wednesday that it has filed nine public records requests with the...

U.S. Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs David Hale, right, listens to an NGO volunteer during his visit to a main gathering point for volunteers, near the site of last week's explosion that hit the seaport of Beirut, Lebanon, Thursday, Aug. 13, 2020. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla, Pool)

US official says FBI joining Beirut explosion investigation

Aug. 13, 2020 12:23 PM EDT

BEIRUT (AP) — The FBI will join Lebanese and other international investigators in the probe of the massive explosion at Beirut's port that killed more than 170 people, injured thousands and caused widespread destruction, a U.S. diplomat said Thursday. Lebanese authorities had invited the FBI to take part,...

Latest Protests and demonstrations News