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CNN
6 hours ago
- Politics
- CNN
Live updates: Trump military parade, ‘No Kings' protests
Update: Date: Title: About 60 veterans and military families arrested last night at US Capitol protest after crossing police line Content: A group of roughly 60 individuals were arrested outside the US Capitol yesterday evening after breaching a police line of bike racks and moving toward steps leading to the Capitol Rotunda, according to the Capitol Police. The group, made up of veterans and military family members, planned a sit-in on the Capitol steps to protest President Donald Trump deploying the National Guard and active-duty Marines in Los Angeles, as well as a military parade today, according to a news release from organizers. A group of approximately 75 protesters were demonstrating peacefully at the Supreme Court, just across the street from the US Capitol, according to a statement from the Capitol Police. As the group was leaving the area, officers began establishing a perimeter of bike racks to keep the protesters away from the Capitol. 'A few people pushed the bike rack down and illegally crossed the police line while running towards the Rotunda Steps,' the Capitol Police said. 'Our officers immediately blocked the group and began making arrests.' Police said: 'All will be charged with unlawful demonstration and crossing a police line. Additional charges for some will include assault on a police officer and resisting arrest.' The protest was organized by two advocacy groups — About Face: Veterans Against the War and Veterans for Peace. The brief sit-in followed a rally and press conference, according to the organizers' news release. 'We want a future where we invest in care for veterans, in health care, and in education, not where we spend $50 million on a parade,' said Brittany Ramos DeBarros, an Army combat veteran and organizing director of About Face: Veterans Against the War, in a statement. Update: Date: Title: Here's where "No Kings" protests are expected to take place across the country today Content: Millions of Americans are expected to attend protests today in what organizers predict will be the strongest display of opposition to President Donald Trump's administration since he took office in January. More than 2,000 demonstrations across all 50 states have been planned through the 'No Kings' movement, which organizers say seeks to reject 'authoritarianism, billionaire-first politics, and the militarization of our democracy.' The mobilization is a direct response to Trump's military parade tonight celebrating the 250th anniversary of the US Army — which coincides with his 79th birthday. Update: Date: Title: Many GOP senators aren't attending Trump's military parade and one says he would've "recommended against" it Content: The Senate Armed Services Committee chairman said he would've advised against hosting a big military parade in Washington, DC — an unease with the event reflected by some of his fellow Senate Republicans. 'I would have recommended against the parade,' Sen. Roger Wicker of Mississippi told CNN when asked for his views on the event. Wicker, the chamber's top Republican with oversight of the military, said he would be out of town attending the Paris Air Show during the parade, which coincides with President Donald Trump's birthday. Most of the GOP senators surveyed by CNN this week said they did not plan to attend: • Senate Majority Leader John Thune won't be in DC for the parade. Asked about spending some $45 million on it at a time when many Republicans are demanding government austerity, he said: 'There are a lot of people who believe that's a cause worth celebrating.' • An aide to Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso said that after being at the White House twice this week, the senator would be back in Wyoming celebrating the Army's 250th birthday and Flag Day with his constituents. • Sen. Jim Risch of Idaho, Senate Foreign Relations chairman, said he would miss the parade. 'Come on guys, we have lot of stuff to do. We have lots of parades in Washington,' he said. • Sen. Jerry Moran of Kansas will also be at the air show in Paris, and Sen. Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma will be home celebrating his wedding anniversary, though he said he 'would love to see it.' • Sens. Kevin Cramer of North Dakota, James Lankford of Oklahoma, Josh Hawley of Missouri, John Curtis of Utah, John Kennedy of Louisianna and Chuck Grassley all won't be there. One Republican with whom CNN spoke — Kansas Sen. Roger Marshall — told reporters Thursday he plans to attend the parade.
CBS News
15 hours ago
- Politics
- CBS News
About 60 protesters demonstrating against military parade arrested outside U.S. Capitol
What to know about Trump's Army anniversary parade and "No Kings" protests Roughly 60 people who were protesting President Trump's Army anniversary parade and his deployment of National Guard troops in Los Angeles were arrested outside the U.S. Capitol Friday, authorities said. The situation unfolded with approximately 75 people protesting at the Supreme Court Friday evening, Capitol Police said in a statement. A short time later, 60 of those left the Supreme Court and made their way to the U.S. Capitol, where police started to establish a perimeter, authorities said. Capitol Police said the protesters then "crossed" a police line "while running" toward the building. "A few people pushed the bike rack down and illegally crossed the police line while running towards the Rotunda Steps," Capitol Police said. "Our officers immediately blocked the group and began making arrests." Protestors including veterans and military families gather at the U.S. Supreme Court to protest the upcoming parade for the Army's 250th About Face: Veterans Against the War Two of those arrested were taken to a local hospital for "further treatment," according to Capitol Police. The protest appeared to have been organized by the nonprofit group Veterans for Peace. All those arrested will be charged with unlawful demonstration and crossing a police line, while additional charges for some will include assault on a police officer and resisting arrest, police said. Veterans For Peace said in an Instagram post Friday night that "approximately 60 veterans and military family members staged a sit-in on the steps of the U.S. Capitol to demand the military get off our city streets from LA to DC, and taxpayer money be directed towards real investments in housing, health care, and food — not political stunts or militarism." "President Trump threatened Americans coming to exercise their first amendment rights would be met with 'great force,'" Michael T. McPhearson, director of Veterans For Peace, said in the post. "We are the actual people who put uniforms on because we believe in the freedoms this country is supposed to be about and we will not be intimidated into silence." The arrests come on the eve of the Trump administration's Washington, D.C., parade Saturday marking the 250th anniversary of the Army, the capital's first major military parade in more than three decades. The event, according to Army officials, is expected to include about 6,600 soldiers, as well as about 150 vehicles and over 50 aircraft in the celebration. The parade also falls on Mr. Trump's 79th birthday.
Washington Post
16 hours ago
- Politics
- Washington Post
About 60 arrested in veterans' protest ahead of Army parade
U.S. Capitol Police arrested about 60 veterans Friday evening during a protest of the appearance of troops in an Saturday's Army celebration in Washington and at immigration protests in Los Angeles. Capitol Police said the arrests came after a bicycle-rack barrier was pushed down and a police line was 'illegally crossed' while demonstrators ran toward the steps leading to the Capitol Rotunda. The demonstrators, wearing fatigue clothing, then sat on the steps of the Capitol, behind a sign that read 'Vets Say Military off our Streets.' The 60 were part of a larger group that had been demonstrating peacefully at the Supreme Court, Capitol Police said. After they broke away and ran toward the Capitol steps, officers 'began making arrests,' police said. The protest was organized by two veteran advocacy groups, About Face: Veterans Against the War, and Veterans for Peace, which held a news conference outside the Supreme Court building earlier in the evening. 'We're supposed to have a government with checks and balances, and we have a president who's clearly acting with a disregard for the rule of law and for the Constitution,' said Brittany Ramos DeBarros, the group's organizing director and a veteran of the Army. Veterans and supporters from around the country were in attendance, including ex-service members as young as 20 and as old as 80, DeBarros said. 'We think that it's important that the nation see that veterans are going to stand up to that, that our loyalty is to the values that this country says that it's about,' DeBarros said. Jeff Morris, a disabled veteran who relies on the government for disability checks and health care, flew from Melbourne, Florida, to Washington to participate in the news conference and watch the sit-in. 'It makes me proud that these service members have given so much and still willing to stand for what they think is right,' he said. Capitol Police said that all who were arrested will be charged with unlawful demonstration and crossing a police line. Additional charges for some will include assault on a police officer and resisting arrest, police said.
Boston Globe
26-05-2025
- Politics
- Boston Globe
On Memorial Day, rallies seek a different lens on veterans, wars
In each case, organizers and volunteers emphasized its connection to veterans and the impact, or perceived ignorance, to violence wrought by conflict. Advertisement 'We believe veterans are actually the key to kind of turning the tide on this and so we're using veterans holidays to draw attention to the fact that veterans — who tend to be quite conservative — are not okay with this,' Bryan Winter, a 45-year-old software engineer from Methuen and veterans representative for Mass 50501, the group behind the rally focusing on immigrants' constitutional rights. 'What the Trump administration is doing is so lawless and so dangerous that it just needs to be opposed,' said Winter, who said he is a Republican. The demonstration against President Trump moved down Tremont Street and to Liberty Mall, as drivers slammed on their car horns in support of the procession. 'No kings, no tyrants, we will not be silenced,' members of the rally chanted. Advertisement One attendee passed around small 'Know Your Rights' wallet cards in English and Spanish. A hodgepodge of hand-crafted signs dotted the crowd. One read 'Make Fascists Extinct' in black permanent marker, while another read 'Veterans Against Trump.' Mass 50501 has helped organize other rallies in the city, including in April for a 'I feel helpless. I feel like this is a thing I can do that's greater than zero, though it still feels not nearly enough,' said Susanna Brown, a Randolph resident who attended the event. She lamented that Democrats, while controlling the vast majority of elected offices in Massachusetts, have little control in Washington while Republicans hold both Congress and the White House. 'I feel like in Massachusetts, we're lucky to feel part of a majority, even if it feels like a powerless majority,' she said. About 40 people gathered in front of Faneuil Hall for a separate event organized by the group Veterans For Peace, meant to spotlight children's deaths amid Israel's 19-month campaign in Gaza. Some waved Palestinian flags. Others wore keffiyehs, traditional black-and-white Palestinian scarves. Advertisement 'After every war, children are ignored,' said organizer David Rothauser, a 91-year-old Army veteran who served in the Korean War. Several swaddled objects representing dead children lay on a folding table in front of the small crowd outside Faneuil. Pictures of children with the captions 'killed by Israeli air strike in Gaza' sat with them on the table. So did a sign that said: 'Your tax dollars at work $$' 'They're collateral damage,' Rothauser said, raising his voice to be heard over nearby performers dancing to the tune of George Michael's 'Careless Whisper.' Mentions of President Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio drew boos, but so did allusions to former President Joe Biden and Governor Maura Healey. Several speakers framed the conflict in Gaza as the latest in a line of wars from which few profit, as the saying goes, but many pay. 'I've been protesting wars since Contra,' said Joe Kebartas, a 76-year-old Vietnam veteran, referring to the Iran-Contra affair, an arms-for-hostages scandal under the Reagan administration. Kebartas, a former Army medic from South Boston, said too few people feel a connection to foreign affairs and the violent conflicts they involve. 'There's too much apathy,' he said. Members of the local ROTC program participates in the City of Quincy's Memorial Day parade on Monday. Brett Phelps for The Boston Globe Organizers scheduled the rallies on a day typically dominated by parades and more traditional events intended to honor fallen U.S. military members. Governor Maura Healey, for example, appeared in Agawam for a wreath-laying ceremony at the Massachusetts Veterans Memorial Cemetery. Mayor Michelle Wu spoke in West Roxbury at The Gardens Cemetery 57th annual event. In Quincy, a parade weaved through the city Monday, ending at Mount Wollaston Cemetery as part of a tribute to 'the men and women who have served and sacrificed so much,' according to city officials. Advertisement 'On Memorial Day, and every day, may we never take for granted the sacrifices made to secure our freedom,' Healey wrote in a Several people from this cohort of veterans who attended the Veterans For Peace rally in Boston said they're frustrated to see what they view as the same problems cycling over and over. The through-lines stretch between Desert Storm, Iraq, and Afghanistan, all conflicts that involved American troops, and the war in Gaza, which they see as only possible because of U.S. support and foreign aid. 'It's particularly painful for us to see in the last years of our lives,' said Doug Stuart, an 80-year-old Vietnam vet from Auburndale. What the U.S. needs, he said, is to 'learn how to be at peace.' Matt Stout can be reached at
The Guardian
22-05-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
Ten Maine residents to begin 40-day hunger strike in solidarity with Gaza
A group of Maine residents were set to begin a 40-day hunger strike on Thursday, joining a national wave of similar actions protesting Israel's blockade of Gaza and the skyrocketing levels of hunger in the territory. The Maine Coalition for Palestine announced this week that 25 people would strike to draw attention to the worsening humanitarian crisis in Gaza. 'For 19 months, we've done everything in our power to stop this genocide,' said Erin Kiley, one of the hunger strikers, in an email to the Guardian. 'Powerful people who can make a difference need to know that we're willing to starve for justice. There's no business as usual during a holocaust of children.' She said the group was calling for the resumption of unfettered humanitarian aid to Gaza and an end to US arms sales to Israel, among other demands, and that if they 'are not met within 40 days, we're committed to escalating pressure, but we haven't decided what that looks like yet'. The group says that some participants plan to limit their intake to 250 calories a day, which they say is 'in-line with the caloric intake of 90% of Gazans under the ongoing Israeli military blockade', while others plan to observe a Ramadan-style fast for 40 days, consuming nothing, or only water, from dawn until dusk. The Maine group said it was answering the call of Veterans for Peace, a non-profit organization that also begins a 40-day fast for Gaza on Thursday, demanding a 'resumption of humanitarian aid under UN authority to Gaza' and that the 'US stop arming Israel'. Their action is part of a broader wave of such actions across the United States in recent weeks. Israel has blocked the entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza, including food, water and medicine, for 11 weeks, while continuing to bomb the area. This week it began allowing a small trickle of aid to enter in response to international criticism, though humanitarian organizations say the amount is wholly insufficient and inadequate for the population's needs. The wave of hunger strikes began on US campuses, with student protesters who say the action is intended to show solidarity with the people in Gaza, and to demand that their schools divest from companies that they say are complicit in the war. Campuses have been quieter this year in the face of a protest crackdown by both universities and the Trump administration, but recent weeks have seen renewed actions before commencement season and as the situation in Gaza worsens. At Yale University, several students have been on hunger strike since 10 May. In California, more than 30 students from the California State University (CSU) system, Stanford University and the University of California at Los Angeles began hunger strikes earlier this month in 'solidarity with the two million Palestinians at risk of starvation in Gaza'. At Stanford, around two dozen students were on hunger strike as of Monday. The protesters are demanding that the university divest from companies 'that profit from Israel's siege of Gaza', drop the charges against students and alumni arrested during a protest last year and lift the university's 'post-encampment speech restrictions', among other demands. At the University of Oregon, a coalition primarily led by the university's chapter of Jewish Voice for Peace began a hunger strike there on 19 May, demanding the university divest from companies it says are complicit in genocide, fulfill its commitment to provide scholarships to five students from Gaza and lift restrictions relating to protest on campus. At San Francisco State University, students ended their hunger strike on 12 May after reaching an agreement with the university, which reportedly committed to 'expanding implementation of our divestment policy' and to working toward an academic partnership with Palestinian universities, among other concessions. The university last year said it would divest from companies that profit from weapons manufacturing in an agreement that 'is not region-specific', it told the Guardian. Meanwhile, students at CSU Long Beach recently concluded a 12-day hunger strike, saying in a statement that 'this is not a retreat but rather a recognition that our bodies must heal so that we can continue the shared struggle with renewed strength'. At UCLA, one student, Maya Abdullah, was hospitalized on the ninth day of her hunger strike, the Students for Justice in Palestine chapter there said on Monday. In a video posted to her Instagram on 20 May, Abdullah said that on the ninth day of her strike, she 'unexpectedly passed out at my school and had to be rushed to the hospital'. Abdullah said that the UCLA administration did not respond to notice of her hospitalization, which she said she found 'disheartening'. In a statement on Wednesday, a spokesperson for UCLA said: '[W]e have a long history of supporting the free expression of different points of view. We strongly urge all Bruins to peacefully express themselves and exercise their First Amendment Rights in ways that are safe. We will continue to make support available to all students through UCLA's Student Health Services and other campus offices.'
