Multiple sources say a jailed Iranian labor union leader has had his five-year prison term extended for another year by Iran’s appellate court in retaliation for his pursuit of peaceful activism while in detention.One source, who is close to the jailed labor leader, told VOA Persian in a Monday interview that the court upheld his new 13-month sentence in an August 1 ruling and informed him about it on the same day. A lower Revolutionary Court had issued the sentence June 8, convicting Azimzadeh of spreading anti-government “propaganda” from inside Tehran’s Evin prison.Azimzadeh has been held at Evin since January 29, 2019, when he was rearrested to serve the remainder of a five-year prison term imposed on him by Iranian courts in 2015. He had begun serving that sentence at the same prison on November 8, 2015, and later secured an early release on June 30, 2016, after enduring a two-month hunger strike to protest his detention.Azimzadeh is a leading member of the Free Union of Iranian Workers, a group that formed in 2006 without government approval and advocates for better wages for workers.The group has said Iranian authorities filed the anti-government propaganda charge against Azimzadeh to punish him for several peaceful acts of protest at Evin last year. Those include his signing of a November letter with other dissidents highlighting the lack of medical treatment for sick prisoners in Iran, his recording of an audio message denouncing the arrests of labor activists who joined a May Day rally outside the Iranian parliament, and his criticism of the sentencing of workers demanding unpaid wages at Iran’s Haft-Tapeh Sugar Cane Company.The FIUW responded to the apparent upholding of Azimzadeh’s additional 13-month prison sentence with a Sunday statement on its Telegram channel, calling it a cruel move aimed at suppressing demands for workers’ rights. It said Azimzadeh has not committed any crime by defending the demands of Iranian workers.There has been no mention of the Iranian appellate court’s decision in Iranian state media.Azimzadeh received his initial five-year prison sentence for the offenses of spreading anti-government “propaganda” and “assembly and collusion against national security through organizing and operating an illegal group.”Days before the Iranian appellate court approved the extension of his prison term, Azimzadeh was assaulted in Evin prison by two fellow inmates, according an Instagram post by his wife Akram Rahimpour. View this post on Instagramشش ماه از آخرین ملاقات حضوری که با جعفر داشتیم میگذره اخرین بار ۱۶ بهمن سال ۹۸ قبل از شیوع بیماری کرونا بود شش ماهی که با دلشوره و نگرانی از ‌ شیوع بیماری واگیر دار کرونا در زندان گذشت . نه با مرخصی او موافقت کردند و نه با آزادی اش ، تا کمی از دلنگرانی و استرس خانواده کاهش یابد امروز هم که جعفر از دوبار حمله سازمان یافته به خودش در زندان خبر داد، یکی صبح توسط زندانی متهم به قاچاق مواد مخدر بدون هیچ گونه سابقه درگیری با این زندانی و یکی هم بعدازظهر در حالی که جعفر در حیاط زندان مشغول ورزش کردن بوده توسط زندانی دیگری که اعتیاد شدید به مواد مخدر داشته مورد حمله قرار میگیرد جعفر از درگیری با این دو شخص خودداری کرده و شکایتی از آنان نکرده است ولی به مسئولین زندان هر دو گزارش درگیری را داده است ‌ اما مسئولین که در چنین مواقعی فورا فرط خاطی را از مکانش جابه جا میکنند و یا رسیدگی لازم جهت ممانعت از تکرار درگیری انجام میدهند امروز برای جعفر هیچ کاری نکردند عدم تفکیک جرائم زندانیان، جان زندانیان سیاسی را به خطر انداخته است و هیچ مسئولی نیست که به این وضعیت رسیدگی کند و جان عزیزانمان در زندان به شدت در خطر است. زندانیان سیاسی هیج گونه امنیت جانی در زندان ندارند و هر لحظه ممکن است اتفاق ناخوشایند و جبران ناپذیری برای هر کدومشون بیافتد. #جانزندانیانسیاسیدرخطراست #زندانیسیاسیآزادبایدبگردد #جعفرعظیم_زاده #مرخصی #کروناA post shared by akram rahimpour (@rahimpour.akram) on Jul 26, 2020 at 10:12am PDTRahimpour wrote that her husband was assaulted on the morning of July 26 by an accused drug trafficker who had no prior history of confrontation with him. She said Azimzadeh was assaulted again that afternoon in the prison yard by another detainee who appeared high on drugs and also had not shown animosity toward him before.Rahimpour said prison authorities took no action against either of the alleged assailants, leaving Azimzadeh in danger. VOA could not independently verify the details of the alleged incidents.Iranian prosecutors summoned Rahimpour to Tehran’s Revolutionary Court on May 20 to question her about interviews she had given to news outlets regarding her husband.In a July 29 statement, Dublin-based human rights group Front Line Defenders said it was seriously concerned about the two reported prison assaults on Azimzadeh and Iran’s practice of detaining rights activists alongside dangerous prisoners convicted of serious crimes.It also expressed deep concern about what it called Iran’s judicial harassment of Azimzadeh’s wife and its refusal to grant him a temporary release to reduce his risk of contracting the coronavirus in prison.Front Line Defenders reported the upholding of Azimzadeh’s new 13-month prison term in a follow-up statement on August 7, without specifying its source for the information.This article originated in VOA’s Persian Service. Click here for the original Persian version of the story.
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Sri Lanka’s former president Mahinda Rajapaksa took the oath of office as the county’s prime minister for the fourth time on Sunday.President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, Mahinda’s younger brother, led the swearing-in ceremony at the prominent Buddhist temple of Kelaniya Raja Maha, on the outskirts of capital Colombo.The Sri Lanka People’s Front, led by the Rajapaksa brothers, secured a nearly two-thirds majority at the parliamentary elections held Wednesday, which would allow them to make constitutional changes and strengthen the family’s rule in the country.Mahinda served as Sri Lanka’s president from 2005 to 2015. He enjoys a strong support by the Sinhalese majority in the country for ending the 25-year civil war against Tamil rebels in 2009.He was first elected prime minister in 2004 and was appointed for brief periods to hold the post in 2018 and 2019.The Sri Lanka People’s Front now holds 145 seats in the 225-member parliament.The next largest party in parliament has 54 seats. A party representing the Tamil minority won 10 seats, and 12 smaller parties won 16 seats all together.
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Britain’s armed forces have been asked to help deal with boats carrying migrants across the Channel from France, the Defense Ministry said Saturday after a spate of arrivals on the southern English coast.Taking advantage of a spell of hot weather and calm seas, hundreds of people including children and pregnant women have made the dangerous 33-km (21-mile) crossing in recent days, many in overloaded rubber dinghies and other small vessels.The Defense Ministry said it had received a formal request from the Home Office, or interior ministry, to assist the UK Border Force with its operations in the Dover Straits.”We are assessing the requirements … and are working hard to identify how we can most effectively assist,” the Defense Ministry said in a statement.A Home Office spokeswoman declined to comment.300-plus arrivalsMore than 200 people arrived on the English coast on Thursday, followed by 130 on Friday, and media reported more arrivals on Saturday as the hot weather persisted.A junior Home Office minister in charge of immigration compliance, Chris Philp, called the rise in arrivals “shameful” and sought to put pressure on France ahead of a meeting with his French counterpart in Paris next week.”The French need to stop these illegal migrants from getting in the water in the first place,” he said in an opinion column published in Saturday’s Daily Telegraph newspaper, adding that Britain would seek to return to France those who made it across.France’s interior ministry said surveillance teams on the northern coast were intercepting migrants daily and it had mobilized extra resources. It said five times as many migrant boats had been caught between January and July as were caught during the same period in 2019.FILE – French gendarmes patrol the beach in Ambleteuse near Calais, northern France, Jan. 18, 2019, looking to halt migrants’ bid to cross the English Channel.”This is a joint problem … which needs a joint operational response,” a spokesman said.The Sunday Telegraph reported that France would ask Britain to pay 30 million pounds ($39.12 million) to police the English Channel and that the UK had not yet decided whether to accept that demand.’Not a crisis’Uncontrolled arrivals of asylum-seekers and migrants from Africa, the Middle East and Asia have long been a source of tension between European countries struggling to find an effective joint response.Britain left the European Union in January and a transition period during which most EU rules and accords are still in force will end December 31, which could further complicate cooperation with EU member France.Immigration has been an especially polarizing issue in Britain since the Brexit referendum in 2016 because “taking back control” of immigration and border policy was presented as one of the key advantages by pro-Brexit campaigners.Home Secretary Priti Patel, an enthusiastic Brexiteer, made the link in a tweet on Friday about the Channel crossings: “I know that when the British people say they want to take back control of our borders, this is exactly what they mean.”Critics such as groups campaigning for the rights of immigrants and refugees accuse the government of stoking some voters’ xenophobic fears by magnifying the issue.”Britain is better than this. The arrival of small numbers of people by boat is not a crisis,” said Stephen Hale, chief executive of Refugee Action, who urged the government to focus on the coronavirus pandemic and resulting economic crisis.The numbers crossing the Channel are tiny compared with the flows of people who try to reach EU countries such as Malta, Greece, Italy and Spain every year by crossing the Mediterranean from North Africa or Turkey, thousands of them dying on the way.
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Twitter Inc has approached TikTok’s Chinese owner ByteDance to express interest in acquiring the U.S. operations of the video-sharing app, two people familiar with the matter told Reuters, as experts raised doubts over Twitter’s ability to put together financing for a potential deal.It is far from certain that Twitter would be able to outbid Microsoft Corp and complete such a transformative deal in the 45 days that U.S. President Donald Trump has given ByteDance to agree to a sale, the sources said on Saturday.The news of Twitter and TikTok being in preliminary talks and Microsoft still being seen as the front-runner in bidding for the app’s U.S. operations was reported earlier by The Wall Street Journal.Twitter has a market capitalization of close to $30 billion, almost as much as the valuation of TikTok’s assets to be divested, and would need to raise additional capital to fund the deal, according to the sources.”Twitter will have a hard time putting together enough financing to acquire even the U.S. operations of TikTok. It doesn’t have enough borrowing capacity,” said Erik Gordon, a professor at the University of Michigan.”If it (Twitter) tries to put together an investor group, the terms will be tough. Twitter’s own shareholders might prefer that management focus on its existing business,” he added.One of Twitter’s shareholders, private equity firm Silver Lake, is interested in helping fund a potential deal, one of the sources added.Twitter has also privately made a case that its bid would face less regulatory scrutiny than Microsoft’s, and will not face any pressure from China given that it is not active in that country, the sources said.TikTok, ByteDance and Twitter declined to comment.TikTok has come under fire from U.S. lawmakers over national security concerns surrounding data collection.Earlier this week, Trump unveiled bans on U.S. transactions with the China-based owners of messaging app WeChat and TikTok, escalating tensions between the two countries.Trump said this week he would support Microsoft’s efforts to buy TikTok’s U.S. operations if the U.S. government got a “substantial portion” of the proceeds. He nevertheless said he will ban the popular app on September 15.Microsoft said on Sunday it was aiming to conclude negotiations for a deal by mid-September.  
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Eastman Kodak Co.’s $765 million loan agreement with the U.S. government to produce pharmaceutical ingredients has been put on hold because of “recent allegations of wrongdoing,” the U.S. International Development Finance Corp. (DFC) said.Earlier this week, senior Democratic lawmakers asked federal regulators to investigate securities transactions made by the company and its executives around the time it learned it could receive the government loan.”Recent allegations of wrongdoing raise serious concerns,” DFC said late Friday in a tweet.”We will not proceed any further unless these allegations are cleared,” the DFC said. It was referring to a letter of interest it signed on July 28 with Kodak.President Donald Trump on Tuesday said the government would investigate the circumstances surrounding the announcement of the loan, which will help the photographic equipment maker shift into making pharmaceuticals at its U.S. factories.Kodak shares surged more than 1,000% last week after the loan was announced, generating a windfall for executives, some of whom had received options one day earlier.Lawmakers said they had “serious concerns” about the transactions and asked the Securities and Exchange Commission to investigate the circumstances surrounding the matter. They cited growing concerns about insider trading.The company said it had appointed a special committee of independent directors of its board to conduct an internal review.”The internal review will be conducted for the committee by Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP,” Eastman Kodak said in a statement.
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Anxious residents of the Indian Ocean island nation of Mauritius stuffed fabric sacks with sugar cane leaves Saturday to create makeshift oil spill barriers as tons of fuel leaking from a grounded ship put endangered wildlife in further peril.The government has declared an environmental emergency and France said it was sending help from its nearby Reunion island. Satellite images showed a dark slick spreading in the turquoise waters near wetlands that the government called “very sensitive.””When biodiversity is in peril, there is urgency to act,” French President Emmanuel Macron tweeted Saturday.Wildlife workers and volunteers ferried dozens of baby tortoises and rare plants from an island near the spill, Ile aux Aigrettes, to the mainland as fears grew that worsening weather on Sunday could tear the Japanese-owned ship apart along its cracked hull.A French statement from Reunion on Saturday said a military transport aircraft was carrying pollution control equipment to Mauritius and a navy vessel with additional material would head for the island nation.Why the delay?Residents and environmentalists alike wondered why authorities didn’t act more quickly after the ship ran aground July 25 on a reef. Mauritius says the ship, the MV Wakashio, was carrying nearly 4,000 tons of fuel.”That’s the big question — why that ship has been sitting for long on that coral reef and nothing being done,” Jean Hugues Gardenne with the Mauritian Wildlife Foundation told The Associated Press.Bystanders look at the MV Wakashio bulk carrier that had run aground and from which oil was leaking, near Blue Bay Marine Park in southeast Mauritius, Aug. 6, 2020.This is the country’s first oil spill, he said, adding that perhaps no one expected the ship to break apart. For days, residents peered out at the precariously tilted ship as a salvage team arrived and began to work, but ocean waves kept battering the ship.”They just hit and hit and hit,” Gardenne said.Cracks in the hull were detected a few days ago and the salvage team was quickly evacuated. Some 400 sea booms were deployed to contain the spill, but they were not enough.Prime Minister Pravind Jugnauth says the spill “represents a danger” for the country of 1.3 million people that relies heavily on tourism and has been been hit hard by the effects of the coronavirus pandemic, which has restricted travel worldwide.”Our country doesn’t have the skills and expertise to refloat stranded ships,” he said Friday. Bad weather made it impossible to act, and “I worry what could happen Sunday when the weather deteriorates.”Rough seas expectedHeavy winds are expected to push the oil slick even farther along the mainland’s shore. A Mauritius Meteorological Services forecast for Sunday has advised that seas will be rough with swells beyond the reefs, and “ventures in the open seas are not advised.”Videos posted online have shown oily waters lapping at the mainland, and a man running a stick across the water’s surface then lifting it, dripping black goo. The Mauritian Wildlife Foundation is working to free trapped seabirds and turtles.Environmental group Greenpeace Africa warned that tons of diesel and oil were leaking into the water. It shared video showing Mauritius residents shoving the makeshift oil barriers into the sea, while crowds of children and adults hurried to make more.”Thousands of species around the pristine lagoons of Blue Bay, Pointe d’Esny and Mahebourg are at risk of drowning in a sea of pollution, with dire consequences for Mauritius’ economy, food security and health,” said Greenpeace’s climate and energy manager, Happy Khambule.The country also has appealed to the United Nations for urgent aid, including experts in containing oil spills and environmental protection.”We are in a situation of environmental crisis,” said the country’s environment minister, Kavy Ramano.InvestigationA police inquiry has been opened into possible negligence in the spill, the government said.Online ship trackers showed the Panama-flagged bulk carrier had been en route from China to Brazil. The ship’s owners are listed as the Japanese companies Okiyo Maritime Corp. and Nagashiki Shipping Co. Ltd.A statement by Nagashiki said “due to the bad weather and constant pounding over the past few days, the starboard side bunker tank of the vessel has been breached and an amount of fuel oil has escaped into the sea.”It added: “Nagashiki Shipping takes its environmental responsibilities extremely seriously and will take every effort with partner agencies and contractors to protect the marine environment and prevent further pollution.”The Mauritius Marine Conservation Society and other local groups warned that the cleanup could take much longer than expected.”The great urge for all of us is to ‘get on with it,’ ” the Mauritian Wildlife Foundation said. “But currently we understand that it may be a waste of time to ‘clean up’ an area where oil may continue to flow in.” 
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Уряд «зрушив» у реформі будівельного ринку, але натикається на спротив, сказав прем’єр-міністр Денис Шмигаль в інетрв’ю Радіо Свобода.

Про цю реформу він згадав у контексті роботи Національної ради реформ, виконком якої очолює Міхеїл Саакашвілі.

«Рада реформ представляє свою роботу, показує свої напрацювання. Ми залучаємося до деяких напрацювань… Ми вже зрушили у реформі будівельного ринку і ліквідації, на мою думку, найбільшого корупційного монстра в будівельному ринку – ДАБІ. Готовий законопроєкт поданий у Верховну Раду. Сподіваюся, що ми докладемо максимум зусиль разом з депутатський корпусом, щоб вже у вересні цей закон був ухвалений, і ми про цей будівельний жах забули», – сказав голова Кабінету міністрів.

Читайте також: Нова Держінспекція містобудування. Чи поменшає корупції в будівельній галузі після реформи?​

При цьому, за словами Шмигаля, реформа просувається повільніше, ніж планувалося, через «доволі великий спротив».

«Корумповані сфери завжди створюють певний спротив. І тому, коли є ідея зробити реформу, то завжди ставиш такі маячки часові так, як тобі це хотілося би зробити, в надії, що суспільство і всі люди будуть докладати до цього максимум зусиль. Всім же ж хочеться отримати якісну виправлену ситуацію, без корупції. Але, на жаль, не всім. Є моменти, коли є спротив на різних рівнях при підготовці документів, при їх просуванні, наприклад, у Верховну Раду, при юридичній експертизі», – зазначив прем’єр-міністр.

При цьому, за словами Шмигаля, до обговорення долучаються і представники будівельного ринку, які можуть внести свої побажання до законопроєкту про реформу.

«В 17 законодавчих актах передбачається внесення змін, передбачається персональна відповідальність суб’єктів діяльності на будівельному ринку. Чого не було досі, що давало змогу спричиняти ось такі порушення і породжувало корупцію», – каже він.

В липні 2020 року Кабінет міністрів України заявив про початок роботи нового Реєстру будівельної діяльності в рамках реформи містобудування. Навесні уряд вже повідомляв про ліквідацію Державної архітектурно-будівельної інспекції і створення нових органів, які мають розділити її функції.
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Lebanese security forces fired tear gas Saturday at thousands of demonstrators who gathered in Beirut’s main square to protest the government’s management of the recent explosion that devastated large parts of the city.At the beginning of a planned protest, a small group of men started throwing stones at security forces as they tried to jump over barriers that were blocking entry to the parliament building. Police responded by firing tear gas at the protesters.The demonstrators also stormed the foreign ministry building while others in Martyrs Square set up symbolic nooses for politicians and chanted, “The people want the fall of the regime!”The protesters later set fire to a truck that was reinforcing barriers on a street leading to the parliament building.The Lebanese Red Cross said more than a dozen protesters were hospitalized and scores of others received medical treatment on the scene.Anti-government protesters climb concrete wall that installed by security forces and throw stones against the army, as they try to reach the Parliament building, during a protest against the political elites and the government, Beirut, Aug. 8, 2020.The protest, the first significant demonstration since the explosion, occurred amid mounting anger at Lebanon’s political leadership.The country’s leaders have been accused of widespread corruption and incompetence that contributed to Tuesday’s devastating explosion, which killed at least 158 people and injured about 6,000 others.The head of the Kataeb Party, Sami Gemayal, told mourners at the funeral of party Secretary-General Nazar Najarian on Saturday that he was withdrawing three party members from parliament amid the fallout from the explosion.Progressive Socialist Party and Druze leader Walid Jumblatt told Arab media he was calling for early parliamentary elections and that protesters have the right to demand that political leaders resign.Jumblatt said, however, it is up to Christian protesters and Christian political parties to call for an end to the mandate of President Michel Aoun.Christian political leader Samir Geagea has also called for early parliamentary elections but stopped short of withdrawing his party’s members from parliament.The United States is delivering emergency aid to Lebanon, starting with food, water, and medical supplies, under the direction of President Donald Trump, national security adviser Robert O’Brien said Friday.US Delivering Critical Emergency Aid to Lebanon UN, French, Russian rescue workers searched the port area of Beirut for survivors from the blast, French and Russian rescue teams with dogs also searched the area on Friday. In addition, the U.S. will continue to work with authorities in Lebanon to identify further health and humanitarian needs and will provide further assistance. The U.S. Agency for International Development is deploying a disaster assistance response team to help with coordination and delivery of assistance, the statement said.The Trump administration has initially pledged more than $17 million in disaster aid for the country, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said, and “will continue to help the Lebanese people as they recover from this tragedy.”Russia flew in a mobile military hospital along with 50 medical workers. Qatar also was sending a field hospital, while Iraq was supplying a crew of medical workers and truckloads of supplies.Tunisia offered to take in patients for treatment, and Germany dispatched a team of rescue experts and search dogs.Cash pledges have came in from Australia, Britain, Hungary and other countries.In addition to providing aid, Pompeo said, the U.S. is joining other nations in the call for “a thorough and transparent investigation” into the cause of the explosion.In Lebanon, Shock Turns to FuryMassive blast at Beirut’s port Tuesday likely to have as enduring impact on impoverished Mediterranean country as 2005 assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, diplomats sayHuman Rights Watch was the first to call for an independent investigation of the explosion. The group said international experts should be allowed into Lebanon to “determine the causes and responsibility for the explosion and recommend measures to ensure it cannot happen again.”Lebanese authorities believe that 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrite stored in warehouses for the last six years fed the explosion this week.Officials said they expected the death toll to go up as they picked through the wreckage. Initial damage estimates were as high as $15 billion.U.N. rescue workers searched the wreckage for survivors Friday. French and Russian rescue teams with dogs also searched the area.Health officials also feared the disaster would aggravate the coronavirus outbreak as victims packed hospitals and the homeless sought shelter.
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Thousands of demonstrators gathered again Saturday in Russia’s Far East city of Khabarovsk to denounce the arrest of the region’s governor a month ago, protests that are posing a direct challenge to the Kremlin.Sergei Furgal was arrested on July 9 on suspicion of involvement in murders and taken to jail in Moscow. The estimated 3,000 demonstrators on Saturday protested the charges, believing them to be politically motivated, and want him returned to the city for trial. Furgal has denied the charges.Furgal, who has been removed from his post, is a popular figure in the region bordering China about 6,100 kilometers (3,800 miles) east of Moscow. Since his arrest, daily demonstrations have been held in the city, with attendance peaking on weekends.Demonstrations in support of the Khabarovsk protesters were held in at least seven other cities in Russia. The OVD-Info organization that monitors political arrests said at least 10 people were arrested in those demonstrations.No arrests were reported in Khabarovsk, where authorities have not interfered with the demonstrations, apparently hoping they will fizzle out. 
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At least nine people were killed and nearly 20 others injured Saturday in a car bomb blast at the front gate of a Somali military base in Mogadishu, witnesses and security officials said.  Government security officials contacted by VOA have confirmed that eight of those killed were government soldiers and other casualties included members of the solders’ families, who were at the base at the time.  “A suicide bomber driving an explosive-laden vehicle sped toward the front gate of the camp but the guards opened fire to stop it before it detonated,” Aden Mohamed, a police officer among the first responders, told VOA’s Somali Service.    Analysts Hope Elections Do Not Slow Somalia-Somaliland Talks The two sides disagree on the status of Somaliland, which declared independence from Mogadishu in 1991 The blast was heard throughout the area and sent a plume of black smoke into the air.  “I saw the dead bodies of at least eight soldiers and ambulances rushed to the scene to carry away the wounded,” a witness told VOA on condition of anonymity.  Hospital sources have confirmed that around 20 wounded people, mainly soldiers, were wounded in the blast. “We have taken at least 15 injured people [to hospitals], some of them in critical condition,” the city’s emergency medical responders told local media. The military camp is located near the city’s newly reopened main sports stadium in the Warta-nabadda district. The blast comes days after a suicide bombing killed at least four people, including the bomber at a Mogadishu restaurant that is popular with security forces and government workers.  Al-Shabab militants have claimed responsibility for the Saturday explosion, claiming they killed dozens of government soldiers.
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More protests are expected in Portland, Oregon, throughout the weekend following violent demonstrations this week that have brought more unrest to the Northwest city.Since George Floyd was killed in Minneapolis protests have occurred nightly for 70 days. Friday night, Portland police declared an unlawful assembly at the Penumbra Kelly public safety building, ordering everyone in the area to leave. Authorities had previously warned people not to trespass on the property.  
 Portland Protesters Refocus on Black Lives Matter MessageRecent protests on the streets of Portland, Oregon featured confrontations between demonstrators and federal agents deployed to the city by the Trump administration. Deborah Bloom reports, the departure of federal forces has de-escalated tensions and allowed protesters to refocus their message on demanding racial justice in America.
Produced by: Deborah BloomProtesters remained for several hours before officers began to rush the crowd away from the building using crowd control munitions early Saturday. Several people were arrested, police said.
 
The crowd was dispersed because items including rocks, frozen or hard-boiled eggs and commercial-grade fireworks had been thrown or launched toward officers, police said in a statement. Oregon State Police worked with Portland officers to clear the protesters.
 
Some demonstrators also filled pool noodles with nails and placed them in the road, causing extensive damage to a patrol vehicle, police stated.
 
Democratic Mayor Ted Wheeler said this week the violent protesters are also serving as political “props” for President Donald Trump in a divisive election season where the president is hammering on a law-and-order message. Trump has tried to portray the protesters as “sick and dangerous anarchists” running wild in the city’s streets.
 Demonstrators gathered at Floyd Light City Park, Aug. 6, 2020 in Portland, Ore.The chaos that started Thursday night and lasted into Friday morning in a residential neighborhood about 6 miles (10 kilometers) from downtown. The demonstrations this week had been noticeably smaller than the crowds of thousands who turned out nightly for about two weeks in July to protest the presence of U.S. agents sent by the Trump administration to protect a federal courthouse that had become a target of nightly violence.
 
This week’s clashes have, however, ramped up tensions after an agreement last week between state and federal officials seemed to offer a brief reprieve.  
 
The deal brokered by Democratic Gov. Kate Brown called for agents from the U.S. Customs and Border Protection, U.S. Marshals Service and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to pull back from their defense of the Mark O. Hatfield Federal Courthouse starting July 30.
 
Early Friday, as peaceful demonstrations proceeded elsewhere in the city, a group of people gathered at a park in eastern Portland and marched to the local police precinct, where authorities say they spray-painted the building, popped the tires of police cars, splashed paint on the walls, vandalized security cameras and set a fire in a barrel outside the building. One officer was severely injured by a rock, police said, but no additional details were provided.
 Portland Police Declare Unlawful Assembly during ProtestThe Portland Police Bureau declares an unlawful assembly Saturday night when people gathered outside a police precinct in Oregon’s largest city and threw bottles towards officers, police sayTear gas was used by police on protesters Wednesday for the first time since the U.S. agents pulled back their presence in the city, but officers did not use it Thursday despite declaring the demonstration an unlawful assembly.
 
Portland police have arrested more than 400 people at protests since late May. U.S. agents arrested at least an additional 94 people during protests at the federal courthouse in July.
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For decades, thousands of vendors have fanned out along roadsides from Alabama to Michigan each summer to haggle over the prices of old Coca-Cola bottles, clothes, toys, knives and more at The World’s Longest Yard Sale.And though the coronavirus pandemic has canceled events around the globe, the six-state yard sale is happening this weekend for the 34th straight year.Beginning Thursday and ending Sunday, thousands of people will mingle, chat and bargain across a 1,110 kilometer stretch of Middle America. Organizers say they might not get the usual crowd, estimated at 200,000 people, but they could.“We feel like there’s a lot of pent-up demand,” said Hugh Stump III, executive director of tourism in Gadsden, at the southernmost end of the sale.The crowd was predominantly older on the first day in Gadsden, and many people wore face masks and visibly tried to keep away from others. COVID-19, the illness caused by the coronavirus, can be particularly dangerous for the elderly and people with other health problems.But many others didn’t wear facial coverings, and it wasn’t uncommon to see people standing shoulder to shoulder as they looked through racks of clothes or tables full of shoes set up outside.Promoters considered canceling the event because of the pandemic, which has killed more than 160,000 Americans and infected nearly 5 million more, but they decided to go ahead with precautions including reminders about masks, social distancing and handwashing.“The fact that it’s a mostly outdoor event was a large determining factor in going forward. There’s plenty of space for social distancing and the other guidelines can be followed as well. In addition, because this event is critical to many people’s livelihood it’s very important,” sale spokesperson Josh Randall said in an email.Vendors set up days early at Cumberland Mountain General Store in Clarkrange, Tennessee, where as many as 100 booths will be open though the weekend.A crowd looks through items at the World’s Longest Yard Sale, which stretches from Alabama to Michigan, at its southernmost point in Gadsden, Ala., on Aug. 6, 2020.“It’s usually packed here,” store clerk June Walker said.Other places opted out this year because of the virus. The Darke County Steam Threshers Association in Ansonia, Ohio, decided against allowing vendors on its 12 hectares of land, President Jo Stuck said.“To keep up with all the health mandates … we just do not have the volunteers to do it this year,” she said. “The two of us who can be there all the time have compromised immune systems, and that puts our health at risk plus the health of our visitors and our vendors.”The loss of rental income will hurt the group, which stages events featuring old farm machines, but members didn’t want to be put in the position of dealing with people who willfully defy Ohio’s mandatory mask rule, Stuck said.“There are a lot of people around here that have an issue with it and don’t want to follow it,” she said. “It’s a big problem.”The yard sale began in 1987 as a way to lure visitors off interstate highways to a small town in Tennessee. No one owns the event, Randall said, but it’s promoted on a website that includes tips for vendors, maps and, for 2020, pandemic health guidelines.Also known as the 127 Yard Sale, the event follows U.S. 127 from near Addison, Michigan, to Chattanooga, Tennessee, through Ohio and Kentucky. From there, it meanders through northwest Georgia to Noccalula Falls, a 100-hectare public park in Gadsden.Patricia Gurley piled into a car with two friends and drove about 275 kilometers to the Gadsden end of the sale from her home in Corinth, Mississippi. With a yellow mask pulled down under her chin, she was excited about visiting the sale for the first time and wasn’t concerned about the pandemic.“I don’t worry about that. If you’re gonna get it, you’re gonna get it,” she said.A crowd looks through items at the World’s Longest Yard Sale, which stretches from Alabama to Michigan, at its southernmost point in Gadsden, Ala., on Aug. 6, 2020.Nicole Gerle came even farther: She drove 3,340 kilometers from her home in San Diego and planned to travel the route at least to Ohio, maybe even all the way to Michigan.Wearing a mask, Gerle said she wasn’t fretting over the coronavirus: “If other people aren’t going to be smart, I’m going to be smart on my side.” But Gerle was worried about getting good deals on items including a metal basket she planned to take home, repurpose into other goods and sell.“The purchasing is livelihood for me and the selling is livelihood for them,” she said, pointing toward sales tables. “People make their income; they count on this.”Vendor Ann Sullins has set up shop at the past five sales and was thankful this year’s wasn’t called off. But realistically, she said, the yard sale is just too big to cancel.“People are going to do just like they do,” said Sullins, who wasn’t wearing a mask but tried to keep her distance from others and had hand sanitizer. “When something like this comes up, they’re going to go out and do it just because it gives them a break from home.” 
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