Protests around the world are heating up.. First up, American Occupy news, which will be followed by protest news from around the globe.
-- Roughly 70 Occupiers are sleeping outside City Hall in Portland (OR), in order to protest the city's anti-camping laws and demand change to city policies concerning the homeless. One man has been on a hunger strike for over 30 days, and says he will now be switching from liquid-only to water-only. The protesters say there is no end in sight to their demonstration, and the city's administration doesn't seem to be budging wither, stating that their policies towards the homeless are already "beyond lenient."
-- Now that a judge has ordered Twitter to release tweets from Occupier Malcolm Harris, stemming from his arrest last fall on the Brooklyn Bridge march, Twitter is coming forward with reports of who is attempting to obtain your Twitter information. The numbers are drastic when compared to each other, with US police requesting 849 times (80% used for criminal investigations), Japan requesting 98, and 11 each from Canada and the UK.
-- OWS Maui joined up with multiple other organizations and concerned citizens to protest Monsanto on June 28, demanding the GMO giant leave Hawaii and label their GM foods. Monsanto set Hawaii as the center of their open-air field testings, but no impact studies have been conducted. Monsanto reacted by closing their plant early and allowing most workers to leave, but placed barricades and security at the entrances.
The world is in an uproar.
-- Residents of the town of Shifang, in the Sichuan Province, are fighting back against the government's construction of a copper refinery, terrified for their health amid the pollution that it would bring. The crowd initially began as roughly a dozen, but quickly grew to the thousands, with one report stating that tens of thousands had joined. Riot police fired tear gas and stun grenades into the crowd, injuring many. The refinery's construction has now officially been halted, but protesters remain in the streets to demand the release of those arrested during the scuffles.
-- Protests in Sudan have led to the arrests of some 1,000 Sudanese demonstrators, many of which are students. The Sudanese troops are also clashing with rebels, known as the People's Liberation Movement. Reports indicate that troops have caused heavy casualties to the rebel movement. It is unknown how many have been injured in the protests.
-- Residents have protested and legally challenged London's officials concerning the ground-based air defense missiles that will be placed at multiple locations, including atop apartment buildings with families living inside. Attorneys for the government say that they will fight the legal challenges with ease, and that they believe all the missiles will be in place by the end of July.
-- Almost 200,000 Japanese came out in protest of the reactivation of the nuclear reactors this Sunday, but it didn't stop government officials from starting it up anyway. The protest is officially the largest protest in recent years. Police, in a blatant attempt to downplay the movement, quoted the attendance at 17,000. In other cities across the nation, protests sprung up with numbers anywhere between the hundreds and thousands. One woman, who had previously been "a silent observer," as she said, brought her children to the event. "The government never cares about our lives," she stated.
-- Mexico's new president is celebrating, but not everyone is on his side. Tens of thousands of people have taken to the streets with claims of election fraud in Mexico City alone. Mexico's election process has long been one of turmoil, with illegal campaigning, threats of violence, and other tactics often shaping turnout at the polls.
-- The sovereignty claims of Vietnam overlap those of China's in the South China Sea, leading to large protests in Vietnam. This argument between the two countries has been ongoing for years, but recently Vietnam passed legislature officially claiming the areas, which are also claimed by the Chinese government. China responded to the law's passing by saying it was illegal, then inviting foreign firms to bid on energy exploration in the overlapping properties. Police in Vietnam apparently blocked prominent bloggers from attending the protests, and prevented those demonstrating from nearing the Chinese embassy, further aggravating the crowd.
-- Some armed protesters in Libya want a federal government, and have ransacked electoral commission offices in protest of upcoming elections. They destroyed ballot boxes, ballots, and computers in large fires outside the offices, and carried signs calling the interim leader a traitor. There are multiple regional differences causing small uprisings throughout the county, with many saying an election is the only way forward, and others claiming that reform on a federal level is needed.
***Solidarity***
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