protesters

Sept. 20 (UPI) — Three protesters were arrested after U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement agents clashed with more than “100 rioters” outside a processing center in west suburban Chicago, the Department of Homeland Security said.

The incident occurred on Friday morning outside the Broadview processing facility, in which “rioters assaulted law enforcement, threw tear gas cans, slashed tires of cars, blocked the entrance of the building, and trespassed on private property,” the agency said in a news release.

The situation at the facility, located 13 miles west of downtown Chicago, escalated during the day.

During the morning, vans picked up and dropped off rioters “as an organized effort to obstruct ICE law enforcement,” the agency said.

On Friday afternoon, one woman appeared to be shot with a paintball gun at close range, WLS-TV reported. She was placed in handcuffs.

Just before 8 p.m., agents launched tear gas into the crowd outside the detention facility.

“Our ICE enforcement officers are facing a more than 1000% increase in assaults against them,” HHS said. “Disturbingly, in recent days, two ICE officers’ have had cars used as weapons against them.”

ICE has stepped up enforcement in Chicago as part of “Operation Midway Blitz,” which began Sept. 8. Border Patrol Commander Gregory Bovino, who led an immigration crackdown in Los Angeles, was on hand at the facility.

Since personnel were added last week, the operation has “resulted in the arrest of hundreds of criminal illegal aliens, including Tren de Aragua gang members,” whom DHS said “prior criminal histories of” murder, sexual assault, drug trafficking, robbery and other offenses.

Chicago is a sanctuary city, meaning local, county or state law enforcement doesn’t need to cooperate with federal authorities to protect undocumented immigrants.

“Police under JB Pritzker’s sanctuary jurisdiction refused to answer multiple calls for assistance,” HHS said. “These rioters and sanctuary politicians are choosing to side with criminals over American victims.”

Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Johnson are Democrats.

“The violent targeting of law enforcement in Illinois by lawless rioters is despicable and Governor JB Pritzker and Mayor Brandon Johnson must call for it to end,” Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement. “The men and women of ICE put their lives on the line to protect the people of Illinois and all Americans.

“From comparisons to the modern-day Nazi Gestapo to glorifying rioters, the violent rhetoric of these sanctuary politicians is going to get law enforcement killed. This violence against ICE must end.”

On Friday, two demonstrators were seen being detained by agents, WLS-TV reported. Agents were attempting to move vehicles, with the demonstrators in the way and not moving.

“We have here a federal government that is actively working against its people, that is doing everything possible to divide them,” Alderman Andre Vasquez said. “They are building the same system that they are going to use for everyone else.”

U.S. Rep. Robin Kelly was among several elected officials outside the detention center.

“I had to come over, talk to some people and see for myself,” Kelly, who serves the 2nd Congressional District, which serves southern Chicago and suburbs. “People are being treated like animals. What ICE is doing is unconscionable. I know that they are doing what they are told to do. But they are treating people like animals not people. It’s a Gestapo-type action.”

Protesters have a right to make their voices heard, official with the American Civil Liberties Union said.

“What isn’t protested is the attempt to obstruct or to you know limit the building or the government employees from entering or leaving that building,” Ed Yhonka, ACLU of Illinois director of communications and public policy, told WLS. “Someone attempting to puncture the tire of a vehicle, that’s not speech. That’s an action, and that isn’t protected by the Constitution.”

An Illinois Democratic congressional candidate was shown in a video being shoved to the ground during an anti-ICE protest outside the location.

“This is what it looks like when ICE violates our First Amendment rights,” Kat Abughazaleh, a former reporter and Democratic candidate for Congress, posted the video to her X account on Friday.

She is running in the 9th Congressional District, which serves north suburban Chicago.

She later posted Friday that “Once last week, twice today, ICE has picked me up and thrown me on the ground. Honestly, it doesn’t compare to what our neighbors who are trapped inside the Broadview processing facility.”

McLaughlin accused Abughazaleh of seeking attention for her campaign by attempting to “obstruct justice.”

“This fame-hungry, cable TV candidate is so desperate for her 15 minutes of fame that she will go so far as to put our law enforcement at risk and obstruct justice,” she told Fox News Digital.

At Elgin Community College, federal agents allegedly took an undocumented student into custody in a parking lot outside a building on the main campus.

There are at least 150,000 undocumented immigrants living in Chicago, Rob Paral, a demographer at the Great Cities Institute of the University of Illinois Chicago, told The New York Times earlier this month. There are 2.7 million residents in Chicago and 9.26 million in the Chicago metro area.

Pew Research reported in August that there are about 550,000 unauthorized immigrants living in the state of Illinois, with a population of 12.8 million, according to 2023 data.

Dutch police deployed water cannons and tear gas to disperse a protest in The Hague. The protesters were rallying for immigration restrictions and stricter policies for asylum seekers.

Demonstrators offer counterbalance to royal grandeur and flattery of US president at Windsor Castle.

Demonstrators have taken to the streets of London and Windsor to protest Donald Trump’s unprecedented second state visit to the United Kingdom, which human rights groups have condemned over US support for “the continuing genocide of the Palestinian people”.

Hundreds of protesters gathered at Portland Place in central London, near the BBC’s Broadcasting House, carrying banners reading “No to racism, no to Trump,” alongside smaller versions of the “Trump baby blimp” that became an icon of mass demonstrations against his first state visit in 2019. The protesters were also marching towards Whitehall and Parliament Square.

Other anti-Trump protests were also reported on Wednesday around Windsor Castle, located 40 kilometres (25 miles) west of central London.

Meanwhile, the UK government has rolled out the royal red carpet for the US president, holding meetings with US business executives and staging ceremonies designed to win favour from Trump on trade matters.

According to Al Jazeera’s Milena Veselinovic, official events were deliberately kept away from central London demonstrations “to spare Donald Trump the embarrassment of encountering a protest”.

Stop the War, one of the main organisers, said on X: “Genocide deniers not welcome! All out against Trump’s state visit! Demand US and UK stop arming the Israeli genocidal state!”

The Palestine Solidarity Campaign also encouraged Brits to speak up. “Trump’s deportations confirm he is a racist authoritarian at home and a warmongerer abroad. These are not things we should be honouring. Join us to demand our government cancel this visit.”

Al Jazeera’s Rory Challands, reporting from the protests, described them as “the counterpoint to all that flattery and pomp and grandeur that’s going on in Windsor at the moment”.

“There are no royal carriages here. There are no military parades. This is a very different England. This is the England of the left. It’s the England of Trades Unions. It’s the England of environmental groups and the Palestine solidarity campaign. And they say that Donald Trump is not welcome in this country.”

Challands said demonstrators accused the British government of honouring “a man who they say has basically been destroying human rights in the United States, destroying human rights around the world, denying climate change and enabling a genocide in Gaza”.

“They also point to him as basically the spiritual figurehead of a global far-right movement that is authoritarian and rolling back democracy,” he noted.

Despite efforts to cocoon Trump from demonstrations, hundreds of protesters from the Stop Trump Coalition gathered outside Windsor Castle. Thames Valley Police said four people were arrested on suspicion of malicious communications after they projected images of Trump and child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein onto the 1,000-year-old fortress.

Officers also spoke with the driver of a van carrying an advert that showed Trump alongside Epstein, who died by suicide in a New York jail in 2019. “No arrests were made, and no vehicles were seized,” police said of that encounter.

Trump’s visit comes as UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer faces political difficulties at home after he recently dismissed the UK’s ambassador to Washington, Peter Mandelson, following a backlash over the diplomat’s connection to Epstein.

Trump’s friendship with Epstein has also exposed him to damaging headlines in recent weeks.

Antifascist campaign group Hope Not Hate condemns speeches at Saturday’s rally in London as ‘extremely disturbing’.

Britain will “never surrender” to far-right protesters who use the national flag as cover for violence and intimidation, United Kingdom Prime Minister Keir Starmer says after violent scenes at one of the country’s largest far-right demonstrations in decades.

More than 110,000 people marched through central London on Saturday in a protest against immigration led by far-right activist Tommy Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon. Some attending the Unite the Kingdom rally clashed with police. Twenty-six officers were injured, and at least 24 people were arrested, according to the Metropolitan Police.

In his first public comments since the rally, Starmer said on Sunday that peaceful protest was a fundamental value in Britain, but he condemned assaults on police officers and intimidation against marginalised communities.

“People have a right to peaceful protest. It is core to our country’s values,” he said. “But we will not stand for assaults on police officers doing their job or for people feeling intimidated on our streets because of their background or the colour of their skin.”

He added: “Britain is a nation proudly built on tolerance, diversity and respect. Our flag represents our diverse country, and we will never surrender it to those that use it as a symbol of violence, fear and division.”

Islam is the ‘real enemy’

Saturday’s protest was marked by nationalist symbols, scuffles and inflammatory speeches. Footage showed police on horseback pelted with bottles while baton charges were used to push back Robinson supporters and allow about 5,000 counterdemonstrators to leave the Whitehall area of central London safely.

A stage was erected for speeches from a lineup of far-right figures. Leading the charge was Robinson, who told the crowd: “It’s not just Britain that is being invaded. It’s not just Britain that is being raped.”

“Every single Western nation faces the same problem: An orchestrated, organised invasion and replacement of European citizens is happening,” he added.

International speakers included French politician Eric Zemmour, who echoed the views put forward by Robinson. “We are both subject to the same process of the great replacement of our European peoples by peoples coming from the south and of Muslim culture,” he said, citing the great replacement conspiracy theory that white Europeans are being deliberately replaced by people from other ethnicities.

“You and we are being colonised by our former colonies,” Zemmour added.

Similarly, Belgian far-right politician Filip Dewinter declared: “It has to be clear that Islam is our real enemy. We have to get rid of Islam. Islam does not belong in Europe, and Islam does not belong in the UK.”

Other speakers included Danish People’s Party leader Morten Messerschmidt, German Alternative for Germany MP Petr Bystron and Polish politician Dominik Tarczynski.

Tesla CEO and X Chairman Elon Musk also made an appearance by videolink, telling protesters the UK needed an “urgent change in government” and warning them to “fight back” or “die”.

Police, government and antifascist groups condemn violence

The rally came amid a wave of far-right violence in recent months, including arson attacks on hotels housing asylum seekers.

Experts said these incidents, fuelled by conspiracy theories, xenophobia and online disinformation, have intensified concerns over the rise of far-right movements across Britain and Europe, which often spill over into rioting and violence.

Assistant Metropolitan Police Commissioner Matt Twist said the violence directed at officers was “wholly unacceptable”. He added: “There is no doubt that many came to exercise their lawful right to protest, but there were many who came intent on violence.”

British Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood also condemned the violence, warning that anyone taking part in criminal acts would “face the full force of the law”.

Starmer’s remarks followed calls from the antifascist group Hope Not Hate and several MPs urging the government to act against the surge in far-right mobilisation. Hope Not Hate described the protest as “extremely disturbing”.

“While the turnout was significantly smaller than the millions claimed by Lennon and his supporters, it appears to be the largest far-right demonstration ever seen in Britain,” the group said.

“For anyone worried about the rise of far-right activism and the normalisation of viciously anti-migrant, anti-Muslim sentiment, it could be a sign of dark times to come,” it added.

After 10 months of dissent, protests show no signs of dying down as fury at alleged government corruption grows.

Serbia’s police have fired tear gas and stun grenades at antigovernment protesters in the city of Novi Sad who are demanding snap elections and an end to President Aleksandar Vucic’s 12-year government.

Thousands gathered on Friday at the city’s state university campus for yet another demonstration after 10 months of persistent dissent prompted by the fatal collapse of the Novi Sad train station roof last November, which killed 16 people.

The tragedy became a flashpoint for frustrations with the government, with many Serbians saying it had been caused by alleged corruption and negligence in state infrastructure projects and calling for Vucic’s departure.

“Vucic leave,” the crowds chanted, repeating their calls for early elections as they marched towards the campus, where police attempted to disperse them with tear gas and stun grenades.

The Beta news agency reported that protesters had earlier thrown flares and bottles at the police.

In an address late on Friday evening, President Vucic said that 11 policemen were injured. There was no information on how many protesters have been injured.

“We are not going to allow destruction of the state institutions,” Vucic told reporters. “Serbia is a strong and responsible state.”

He accused foreign security services of being behind antigovernment protesters and said his supporters would hold rallies in cities across Serbia on Sunday.

The months of nationwide protests have largely passed off peacefully, but took a more violent turn on August 13, when dozens of civilians and police officers were injured in clashes in a number of locations.

The violence, which protesters blamed on heavy-handed tactics by government loyalists and police, was repeated on Monday at a march in Novi Sad to mark the 10-month anniversary of the tragedy.

Authorities have rejected allegations of brutality, despite videos showing officers beating unarmed protesters, and accusations that activists were assaulted while in custody.

Students, opposition groups and anticorruption watchdogs accuse Vucic and his allies of ties to organised crime, using violence against political rivals and suppressing media freedoms.

Vucic denies the allegations and has remained defiantly in office at the helm of a reshuffled administration. His nationalist Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) has responded to protests by staging its own rallies around the country.

THREE protesters have been arrested after a police officer was punched in a busy shopping centre.

Masked demonstrators became “aggressive” as a peaceful protest took place on the Isle of Dogs, central London, this afternoon.

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Police said that a small group made their way into the Canary Wharf shopping centre before becoming hostile towards officers.

Following the unrest, cops ordered crowds to remove their masks under Section 60 AA and called in reinforcements.

A Section 35 was also put in place, forcing demonstrators to leave the area.

Shocking footage on social media showed cops tackling protesters to the ground.

The Met confirmed arrests had been made for common assault, possession of drugs and assault on police.

In a statement, the force said: “We have been facilitating peaceful anti-asylum protest on the Isle of Dogs this afternoon.

“Protesters, including some masked, moved into the Canary Wharf shopping centre where a small group became aggressive towards cops.

“We are aware there are young children in the protest area.

“While we deal with any criminality our officers are ensuring the safety of them is paramount.

“One of our officers was punched in the face – luckily they have not suffered significant injury.”

Yesterday, five people were arrested after demonstrators tried to force their way into a migrant hotel in West Drayton, west London.

The Met said a group of masked men attempted to force their way into the Crowne Plaza hotel following peaceful protests.

Nationwide protests were sparked after the landmark ruling to boot migrants out of the Bell Hotel in Essex was overturned.

Epping Forest District Council last week won a bid at the High Court to block migrants from being housed at the hotel.

The temporary injunction meant that the building has to be cleared of its occupants by September 12.

But on Friday, the Court of Appeal overturned the injunction following an appeal by the Home Office and hotel owners Somani.

The latest ruling means the migrants can stay where they are for the time being.

And demonstrations have since continued to spread, with 19 councils vowing to take legal action to boot asylum seekers out of hotels.

The hotel in Essex, has been at the centre of protests after two of its guests were charged with sexual offences.

Angie Claire, 56, who has five grandchildren aged under seven, was protesting outside the building on Friday night.

She told the Sun: “I think it’s absolutely disgusting for the safety of the children in the area.

“I’ve got nothing against immigrants but when they’re causing trouble and problems with our children, they need to be moved on.

“I think they should go home. Why should our government be funding all of this? I think it’s disgusting.

“My children grew up here and they were safe. We never had a worry in the world.

“Now there’s a fear of our children even walking out the front doors so I think it’s best they go.”

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At least three people have been killed and several injured in a fire blamed on protesters in Sulawesi island.

At least three people have been killed and five were injured in a fire blamed on protesters at a regional parliament building in eastern Indonesia, as widespread demonstrations rock the Southeast Asian nation.

Indonesia’s disaster management agency, in a statement on Saturday, confirmed the deaths following the Friday evening fire in Makassar, the capital of South Sulawesi province, some 1,600km (994 miles) east of the capital, Jakarta.

“From last night’s incident, three people died. Two died at the scene, and one died at the hospital. They were trapped in the burning building,” the secretary of Makassar city council, Rahmat Mappatoba, told the AFP news agency on Saturday.

He accused protesters of storming the office to set the building on fire.

Indonesia’s official Antara news agency also said the victims were reported to have been trapped in the burning building, while the disaster agency said two of the injured were hurt while jumping out of the building.

Several people injured in the fire are being treated in hospital, officials said.

The fire has since been extinguished.

Indonesia has been rocked by protests across major cities, including Jakarta, since Friday, after footage spread of a motorcycle delivery driver being run over and killed by a police tactical vehicle in earlier rallies over low wages and perceived lavish perks for government officials.

In West Java’s capital city of Bandung, commercial buildings, including a bank and a restaurant, were also reportedly burned on Friday during demonstrations.

In Jakarta, hundreds of demonstrators massed outside the headquarters of the elite Mobile Brigade Corp (Brimob) paramilitary police unit that was blamed for running over motorcycle delivery driver Affan Kuniawan.

Protesters threw stones and firecrackers, and police responded with tear gas as a group tried to tear down the gates of the unit, which is notorious for its heavy-handed tactics.

On Saturday, a local online news site reported that young protesters had massed in Jakarta and were heading to the Brimob headquarters before they were stopped by a barricade.

Police said they had detained seven officers for questioning in connection with the driver’s death. The number of protesters injured in the violence is reported to be more than 200, according to the Tempo news site.

The protests are the biggest and most violent of Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto’s tenure, and are a key test less than a year into his presidency.

Prabowo has urged calm, ordered an investigation into the unrest, visited the family of the slain delivery driver, while also warning that the demonstrations “were leading to anarchic actions”.

The Milei government is weathering a bribery scandal as a pair of important elections approach in September and October.

Argentina’s President Javier Milei has been forced to leave a campaign rally in Lomas de Zamora, a suburb of Buenos Aires, after protesters pelted his vehicle with small rocks, bottles and other objects.

On Wednesday, Milei and members of his libertarian party, La Libertad Avanza, held a rally for voters ahead of two key upcoming elections.

On September 7, the province of Buenos Aires is expected to hold local races. And on October 26, the country faces midterm elections, which will see half of the 257-seat Chamber of Deputies up for grabs, as well as a third of the Senate.

The elections are seen as major tests for Milei as he reaches the midpoint of his four-year term as president.

But Milei, whose dark-horse election victory in 2023 upset Argentina’s political establishment, has faced backlash for the dramatic “shock treatment” he has attempted to undertake with the country’s economy.

His administration has also been rocked by a bribery scandal involving his sister, Karina Milei.

As Milei and Karina stood on the bed of an open pick-up truck on Wednesday, waving to supporters and signing autographs, witnesses reported seeing objects flying in their direction as protesters attempted to approach the vehicle.

Presidential spokesperson Manuel Adorni shared a picture on the social media platform X, with a circle highlighting what appeared to be a rock thrown in the president’s direction.

“They could have killed anyone,” Adorni said of the protesters. “They don’t care about human life, and they’ll care even less about the country. The end.”

Video captured the pick-up truck accelerating to escape the crowd. One protester held aloft a mock suitcase with Karina Milei’s face on it and dollar bills sticking out in odd places. Others chanted, “Out with Milei!”

The news agency AFP reported that one Milei supporter had to be transported by ambulance for medical care after clashes with protesters resulted in rib injuries. But no officials in the Milei pick-up truck were injured.

Milei himself used the incident to campaign on social media against “Kirchnerism”, a left-wing political movement.

“The empty-headed nutters throwing rocks resorted to violence again,” he wrote in one post. “On September 7 and October 26, let’s say at the polls: KIRCHNERISM NEVER AGAIN.”

In another, Milei put the choice more starkly: “Civilisation or barbarity.”

Milei has taken dramatic action to regulate Argentina’s spiralling inflation, but his austerity campaign has included cuts to social safety-net services, widespread government layoffs and sweeping deregulation.

He famously campaigned with a chainsaw to symbolise his approach to government bureaucracy. But critics warn that his efforts have left Argentina’s poorest citizens more vulnerable. While official statistics indicate inflation has dropped, unemployment and poverty have risen.

The bribery allegations have heightened the backlash against his administration.

Karina Milei occupies a high-level position in Milei’s government, as a general secretary to the president.

But audio recordings have captured Diego Spagnuolo, the head of the National Disability Agency and a close ally of Milei, claiming that Karina took a cut from government contracts intended to help those with disabilities.

Milei has since fired Spagnuolo, and in his public appearances on Wednesday, he repudiated the recordings.

“Everything he says is a lie,” Milei told reporters in Lomas de Zamora. “We are going to bring him to justice and prove he lied.”

Milei put on a united front with his sister at Wednesday’s rally, appearing side by side with her in the pick-up truck.

In Britain, citizens protesting against the war in Gaza are being arrested and detained under “terrorism” laws. Activists and legal experts warn that “public safety” is being used as a pretext to silence dissent, curb free speech and criminalise legitimate political activism.

Presenter: Stefanie Dekker

Guests:
Clare Hinchcliffe – mother of imprisoned activist
Laura O’Brien – head of protest team
Matt Kennard – investigative journalist and author

‘Shame!’
A group of protesters confronted Israel’s far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, accusing him of pursuing war at the expense of a deal with Hamas to free captives in Gaza. They called him a draft dodger, referencing the ban on him serving in Israel’s army due to his extremist background.

Opposition party dismisses possibility of talks as President Aleksandar Vucic urges debate after nine months of angry protests.

Serbia’s populist president has called for dialogue with antigovernment protesters in the Balkan country following more than nine months of demonstrations that have challenged his rule.

“Serbia has to solve its problems with democratic dialogue, not with violence,” President Aleksandar Vucic wrote in a post accompanied by a video that he shared on Instagram on Friday.

“I invite the representatives of the blockade movement to a conversation and a public debate about visions, to discuss our plans and programmes for the future and all together condemn the violence on our streets,” he added.

In the video address from his office in Belgrade, Vucic said he was ready to speak with the representatives of students and other antigovernment protesters, including in TV debates.

“I propose … discussion and debate on all our televisions, on all our [internet] portals with legitimate representatives, that is, those they choose,” Vucic said.

The months of protests across Serbia were prompted by the deaths of 16 people when a roof on a renovated railway station in Novi Sad collapsed last November.

Protesters have blamed corruption for the station disaster and are demanding early elections in the hope of ousting Vucic and his party.

They also accuse the government of using violence against political rivals and suppressing media freedoms. The government denies all the allegations.

The protests were mainly peaceful until earlier this month, when dozens of police officers and civilians were injured in clashes, and hundreds were detained.

‘You don’t make a fire department with an arsonist’

“I want us to confront visions … to solve that through dialogue and conversation … no conflict, no violence. To rebuild the country again, to get it back on track where it was nine months ago,” Vucic said.

Savo Manojlovic, the head of the centrist opposition Move-Change party, dismissed the possibility of talks.

“A president who resorts to violence is not someone with whom you can debate about political issues, this is a … corrupt government that tramples on … democracy and human rights,” Manojlovic said.

“You don’t make a fire department with an arsonist.”

Vucic’s second and final five-year presidential term ends in 2027, when parliamentary elections are also due.

Representatives of the students said they would debate with Vucic only during an election campaign.

“He [Vucic] has no answer to the popular rebellion … We will debate … during the campaign, after the elections are announced,” students from the Belgrade-based Faculty of Philosophy said in a statement.

Aug. 20 (UPI) — As protesters chanted nearby, U.S. Vice President JD Vance, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller visited National Guardsmen in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday amid what the Trump administration says is a crime crackdown.

The three Trump administration officials greeted National Guard troops at the capital’s Union Station while positioned near a table containing hamburgers for the troops, PBS News reported.

“In just the past nine days, we’ve seen a 35% reduction in violent crime,” Vance told those in attendance.

“We’ve seen over a 50% reduction in robberies,” he added. “We’re seeing really substantial effects because these guys are busting their a*****.”

Vance said he wanted to thank the National Guard troops in person and hand out some hamburgers to show his appreciation for their efforts.

Hegseth said the National Guard deployments in Washington are needed to ensure residents, visitors and those who work in the capital are safe.

“The American people, the residents of D.C., deserve a safe and beautiful city,” Hegseth said. “That’s our mission.”

He called the National Guard troops “patriots who serve the country” and want to make Washington a “beautiful, safe capital.”

The National Guard troops are “proud of this mission” and making sure “law and order is established here in the capital,” Hegseth added.

He said the Defense Department is providing the resources that the troops need and working with law enforcement partners to ensure safety in Washington.

Pro-Palestinian protesters gathered and chanted near Union Station, which drew a rebuke from Vance.

He said the protesters “hate the idea that Americans can enjoy their communities,” according to PBS News.

Vance said he went to Union Station with Hegseth and Miller because criminal activity was very high there, which local officials deny.

Miller added to Vance’s criticism of the protesters by calling them “stupid white hippies” and said they do not represent Washington, D.C.’s residents, The Hill reported.

“We are not going to let the communists destroy a great American city, let alone the nation’s capital,” Miller said.

“All these demonstrators you’ve seen out here in recent days, all these elderly white hippies, they’re not part of the city and never have been,” Miller said.

“We’re going to ignore these stupid white hippies that all need to go home and take a nap because they’re all over 90 years old,” he added.

Trump last week put the federal government in control of Washington’s Metropolitan Police Department, which has been accused of falsifying crime data. Though Trump administration officials have characterized crime in the city as out of control, in actuality, crime in the district has fallen in recent years or remained flat.

An agreement on Friday put the police department under local control, but Trump sought and received National Guard deployments from West Virginia, South Carolina, Mississippi, Ohio, Tennessee and Louisiana.

About 1,200 National Guard troops are slated for deployment in the capital, in addition to 800 Washington National Guard troops who already are there, according to The Washington Post.

Aug. 17 (UPI) — Anti-corruption protesters in Serbia set fire to the Valjevo offices of the country’s ruling political party, city leaders said, amid clashes sparked by the deadly collapse of a rail station in November.

Saturday was the eighth night of unrest in the country, this time mostly centered in the western Serbian city, Balkan Insight reported Sunday. Protests also took place in the capital of Belgrade.

Demonstrations began peacefully in Valjevo on Saturday night before protesters broke windows and set fire to the facilities of the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS), the BBC reported. President Aleksandar Vučić was a founding member of the SNS.

Balkan Insight reported that protesters also broke windows at Valjevo City Hall, the local court building and the prosecutor’s offices. Police allegedly used stun grenades and tear gas on the Valjevo protesters and used violence against those in Belgrade and Novi Sad, the BBC reported. The interior ministry denied the allegations.

Ivan Manic, an opposition leader in the Valjevo city assembly, told N1 he’d never seen the anti-corruption protests escalate to this level.

“The past few days have been the most dramatic in our history,” he said in a translation provided by Balkan Insight. “Nothing like this has ever been seen on our streets. The direct responsibility lies with the mayor, the city administration, the ruling SNS, as well as the police department.”

The protests were were originally organized by students after a railway station collapse in Novi Sad in November killed 16 people. Protesters blame the tragedy on government corruption and infrastructure negligence.

Serbian Prime Minister Miloš Vučević, also a member of the SNS Party, resigned in January after members of his party allegedly attacked student protesters who were spray-painting anti-government slogans outside the party’s Novi Sad offices.

Anti-government protests in Serbia turned violent as riot police clashed with demonstrators in several cities, including Belgrade and Valjevo. Protesters vandalised offices of the ruling Serbian Progressive Party (SNS), marking a major escalation in the nine-month-long movement against government corruption.

Protesters have clashed with riot police in Serbia’s capital, Belgrade, and other cities, on the fifth consecutive night of demonstrations against the government of right-wing President Aleksandar Vucic.

Clashes also broke out in Belgrade late on Saturday after police stopped demonstrators heading for the governing Serbian Progressive Party’s (SNS) headquarters.

Late on Saturday, thousands gathered in the central city of Valjevo to show their growing anger against the government, while a small group of masked young men attacked the empty offices of the governing SNS party, setting them alight.

They subsequently clashed with riot police, with protesters throwing fireworks and rocks as the officers responded with stun grenades and tear gas.

Some clashes were also reported in the northern city of Novi Sad, the country’s second largest.

Almost daily protests have gripped Serbia since November, following the collapse of a railway station roof that killed 16 people.

The tragedy became a symbol of deep-rooted corruption in the Balkan nation, with demands for a transparent investigation growing into calls for early elections.

At their height, the protests drew hundreds of thousands onto the streets.

However, the mostly peaceful demonstrations deteriorated earlier this week when large groups of pro-government supporters – many masked and some armed with batons and fireworks – attacked protesters.

That has led to violent clashes for several nights, leaving many injured on both sides.

Protests were further heightened after several videos shared online showed police striking unarmed demonstrators with batons.

Police have denied allegations of brutality, accusing demonstrators of attacking officers.

While the protests have so far led to the resignation of the prime minister and the collapse of the government, President Vucic has remained defiant.

He has repeatedly rejected calls for early elections and denounced the demonstrations as part of a foreign plot to overthrow him.

Washington, DC – The news was met with jeers.

United States President Donald Trump on Monday invoked a “crime emergency” in the US capital, allowing his Department of Justice to take control of Washington, DC’s local law enforcement. He simultaneously announced the Pentagon would deploy US National Guard forces to the city of more than 700,000.

Gathered just blocks away, with the White House looming in the background, protesters erupted in a chorus of “boos”.

The Pentagon later said 800 soldiers were activated on Monday, with 100-200 of them supporting law enforcement.

Trump’s latest move, said Keya Chatterjee, the executive director of Free DC, was not just another salvo against the long marginalised rights of the residents of the city, but a “major escalation”.

“This goes beyond the sort of words people have been using, like ‘unprecedented and ‘unusual,’” said Chatterjee, whose group advocates for DC self-determination.

“This is just authoritarianism,” she told Al Jazeera, over the chants from the crowd.

‘Represent ourselves’

The rights of the hundreds of thousands of residents of Washington, DC have been the subject of debate since it was established by Congress in 1790 with land from Maryland and Virginia.

The district continues to fall under the direct auspices of the federal government, having never been granted statehood. However, it maintains a level of local autonomy per the Home Rule Act of 1973, which allows residents to elect some local officials. Congress still reviews all legislation passed by those elected officials and approves the district’s budget.

The city’s superlative as the first Black majority city in the US, and its current status as a Black plurality city, has further added a racial dynamic to what advocates have long decried as the systematic disenfranchisement of its residents.

Civil rights leader Reverend Al Sharpton called the move the “ultimate affront to justice and civil rights,” in a statement.

“Donald Trump was inspired to take this disgusting, dangerous, and derogatory action solely out of self interest,” Sharpton said in a statement. “Let’s call the inspiration for this assault on a majority Black city for what it is: another bid to distract his angry, frustrated base over his administration’s handling of the Epstein files.”

In March, DC Mayor Muriel Bowser agreed to rename the Black Lives Matter Plaza near the White House, where Monday’s protest was held, amid pressure from Trump and concerns that federal funding could be withheld.

Bowser said Monday that the deployment of the National Guard was “unsettling”, but not without precedent.

“My message to residents is this,” Bowser said. “We know that access to our democracy is tenuous. That is why you have heard me and many Washingtonians before me advocate for full statehood.”

For many gathered on Monday, Trump’s move again underscored how little power they had in directly influencing the policies of the local law enforcement that directly oversees their community.

Amari Jack, a 20-year-old college student, described what he saw as “the first step” in a wider consolidation of power over the city, noting Trump has for years floated the idea of taking more full control of the metropolis surrounding the White House. Such a move would likely require Congress overturning the Home Rule Act.

“I came out today because I was really scared about the potential that DC could lose any autonomy it has,” Jack told Al Jazeera.

“I feel like as DC natives, born and raised, we need to be able to represent ourselves and enrich our communities. We can’t just have a president come in and rule over our home.”

Crime as a pretext?

For his part, in an order declaring the “emergency”, Trump decried what he called the “city government’s failure to maintain public order and safety”, claiming crime rates posed “intolerable risks to the vital Federal functions that take place in the District of Columbia”.

Speaking to reporters from the White House, Trump vowed to “take our capital back”, outlining what he described as “massive enforcement operations targeting known gangs, drug dealers and criminal networks to get them the hell off the street”.

Trump further claimed he was “getting rid of the slums”, and would clear homeless people from the city, without offering further details of his plans.

Among those pushing back on the characterisation was the District of Columbia Attorney General Brian Schwalb, who called the move “unprecedented, unnecessary, and unlawful.”

“There is no crime emergency in the District of Columbia,” he said.

While DC crime rates are typically higher than the national average, violent crime rates have dropped significantly in recent years, plummeting 35 percent from 2023 to 2024 and another 26 percent this year compared to the same period last year, according to Metropolitan Police data.

Early this year, the Justice Department announced that violent crime in DC had hit a 30-year low.

Groups like the Center for American Progress have attributed the decline to both local law enforcement strategies, as well as “investments in crime prevention and resources such as housing and education and employment supports”.

Twenty-year-old Radha Tanner, like many gathered, saw Trump as using the pretext of crime to enact a wider political mission, one that paints Democrat-dominated cities like DC as “unsafe and riddled with crime”.

Over 90 percent of DC voters supported Trump’s Democratic opponent, Kamala Harris, in the 2024 election. Trump, in turn, won about 6.5 percent of the vote.

Tanner saw Monday’s moves as in line with Trump’s deployment of the National Guard and Marines to Los Angeles, California to aid in immigration crackdowns and the protests they spurred.

“He’s doing this to make an example out of a city full of Democrats that is vulnerable because we don’t have representation,” Tanner said.

‘Best place for us to resist’

Maurice Carney, 60, saw a similar goal in Trump’s actions, arguing that long-term investment, not a short-term commandeering of local law enforcement or the deployment of the National Guard, would actually show a real commitment to addressing crime.

“When you see this increase in militarisation, whether it’s in DC or on the African continent or anywhere else in the world, you always see an increase in violence, either from resistance or from creating an environment that’s unstable,” said Carney, who works with a DC-based group that advocates for citizens of the Democratic Republic of Congo.

“Like it or not, DC is seen as the capital of the empire, the capital of the world,” Carney told Al Jazeera. “So if Trump wants to show he’s this ‘law and order’ guy, DC is the best place for him to do that.”

“It’s also the best place for us to resist,” he said, “for us to stand up and let the rest of the world know that even right in the heart of the empire, the people – local residents of DC – resisted.”

Protesters in major cities around the world have marched to oppose Israel’s plan to occupy Gaza City, its campaign of starvation, and its genocide of Palestinians. Demonstrators say the 22-month war of extermination must end.