(Reuters) – McDonald’s Corp has been sued by 52 Black former franchise owners who accused the fast-food giant of racial discrimination by steering them to depressed, crime-ridden neighborhoods and setting them up for failure. In a complaint seeking up to $1 bi... More »
SYDNEY (Reuters) – Australia does not know why Chinese authorities have detained Australian citizen and television anchor Cheng Lei, Trade Minister Simon Birmingham said on Tuesday, adding to the mystery why the journalist has been taken into custody. The Aust... More »
BANGKOK (Reuters) – Thai police arrested a student leader on Tuesday as part of a continued crackdown against political activists who helped organize an anti-government protest in July, a police officer told Reuters. Jutatip Sirikhan, 21, the president of the ... More »
SYDNEY (Reuters) – Australia’s trade minister, Simon Birmingham, said Canberra didn’t know why Chinese authorities had detained Australian citizen Cheng Lei, as he warned that the risks for Australian businesses engaged with China had changed. The Australian g... More »
(Reuters) – McDonald’s Corp (MCD.N) has been sued by 52 Black former franchise owners who accuse the fast-food giant of racial discrimination by steering them to depressed, crime-ridden neighborhoods and setting them up for failure. In a complaint seeking up t... More »
(Reuters) – Facebook Inc said on Tuesday that it was preparing for Myanmar’s general election in November by improving the detection and removal of hate speech and content that incites violence and preventing the spread of misinformation. The company said in a... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Departments of Justice and Homeland Security are setting up a joint operations center to investigate “left-wing civil unrest,” President Donald Trump said on Monday, as he accused Democrat Joe Biden of giving moral aid to vandal... More »
PITTSBURGH (Reuters) – Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden on Monday called for rioters and looters to be prosecuted, and slammed President Donald Trump for stoking violence in American cities gripped by protests over police brutality and racial inequa... More »
DUBLIN (Reuters) – Irish President Michael D. Higgins joined a virtual celebration of Van Morrison’s 75th birthday on Monday, namechecking U.S. civil rights champion John Lewis and author James Baldwin in a spoken-word rendition of one of the Northern Irishman... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Amazon.com relies on extensive worker surveillance to boost employee output and potentially limit unionization efforts around the United States, says a research paper issued on Monday by the Open Markets Institute. The Washington-based r... More »
BUDAPEST (Reuters) – The management of Hungary’s prestigious University of Theatre and Film Arts resigned on Monday in protest over the imposition of a government-appointed board which they say will undermine the school’s autonomy. Prime Minister Viktor Orban’... More »
WELLINGTON (Reuters) – The gunman who killed 51 Muslim worshippers in New Zealand’s worst mass shooting faces a life prison term, possibly without parole, with multi-day sentencing hearings taking place this week. Brenton Tarrant, an Australian, has pleaded gu... More »
(Reuters) – Former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley may have fired up speculation about a 2024 presidential bid on Monday, delivering a speech at the Republican National Convention that praised President Donald Trump while touting her own accomplishments and life s... More »
LAGOS (Reuters) – Two young women fill the screen, reclining on a bed, talking about their hope of having children. They are protagonists in a new Nigerian film called “Ife” depicting their love story. The topic is controversial in Nigeria, where same-sex rela... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump said on Saturday he is considering a pardon for Edward Snowden, the former U.S. National Security Agency contractor – now living in Russia – whose spectacular leaks shook the U.S. intelligence community in 201... More »
BERLIN (Reuters) – Unilever’s (ULVR.L) German food company Knorr will rename its popular “Zigeuner” – or gypsy – sauce as Hungarian-style paprika sauce after complaints that the name is offensive, becoming the latest brand to shift after a wave of protests ove... More »
MINSK (Reuters) – Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko won a landslide re-election victory, the central election commission said on Monday, after bloody clashes between riot police and thousands of protesters who said the poll was rigged. Figures from the... More »
(Reuters) – U.S. Attorney General William Barr mounted a partisan attack on the Democratic Party in an interview that aired Sunday, claiming the left believes in “tearing down the system” and pursues absolute victory as “a substitute for religion.” Barr also t... More »
(Reuters) – After failing to reach a deal with the U.S. Congress for a fresh round of coronavirus pandemic relief, President Donald Trump signed a series of executive orders aimed at pumping up America’s pandemic-hit economy. The orders are likely to face some... More »
(Reuters) – Barclays Plc (BARC.L) is being probed by the United Kingdom’s privacy watchdog, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), over allegations that the British bank spied on its staff, the agency said on Sunday. Earlier this year, Barclays said it w... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – The location of TikTok owner ByteDance’s headquarters is a commercial decision for the company to make, a spokesman for British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Monday, responding to a report that the firm could move to London. “It would... More »
SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Visitors to Universal Studios in Singapore will now have to pass through facial recognition scanners to enter the park, in the city-state’s latest foray with a technology that has stoked privacy concerns. Resorts World Sentosa (RWS), whic... More »
WELLINGTON (Reuters) – New Zealand’s Sports Minister Grant Robertson has called allegations of psychological and physical abuse in gymnastics in the country “deeply concerning” and urged any athletes affected and their parents to come forward. New Zealand’s tw... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – After failing to secure a Senate confirmation hearing, U.S. President Donald Trump’s most divisive nominee for a Pentagon position so far has taken a different, less-senior policy role at the Defense Department, a spokeswoman said on Sun... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Republican U.S. Senator Tom Cotton described slavery as “a necessary evil” in a published attack on a New York Times initiative to make slavery the focal point of American history for U.S. schools. “As the Founding Fathers said, it was t... More »
SHANGHAI/BEIJING (Reuters) – Huawei Technologies’ founder Ren Zhengfei’s global ambitions are marked in bricks and mortar at a new company campus in southern China, where the buildings are replicas from European cities. Zhang Yiming, founder of ByteDance, the ... More »
SEATTLE (Reuters) – Dozens were arrested and many police injured in clashes around Seattle’s biggest Black Lives Matter protest in weeks on Saturday, police said, with a renewed energy sparked by violent clashes between activists and federal agents in nearby P... More »
(Reuters) – U.S. prosecutors on Friday unveiled charges against 18 Portland, Oregon protesters ranging from assaulting police to arson and trespassing, a day after the Trump administration expanded the deployment of tactical police to Seattle. The arrests came... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – British rap artist Wiley is facing a police investigation after a string of anti-Semitic comments appeared on his social media accounts, prompting his management to drop him. The rapper’s Twitter account, which has half a million followers, ... More »
CHICAGO (Reuters) – The idea of using investments to promote environmental and social causes has grown quickly in recent years, and retirement plans looked like the next frontier – until the Trump administration weighed in last month. The U.S. Department of La... More »
BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Signs emerged that leaders of northern European Union countries were willing to compromise on a 1.8 trillion euro ($2 trillion) coronavirus stimulus plan on Monday as talks in Brussels extended to a fourth day. Divided and slow to respond ... More »
BEIJING (Reuters) – China on Monday urged Britain to avoid making further steps down wrong path after reports that it was poised to suspend an extradition treaty for Chinese-ruled Hong Kong. Foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin made the remark during a daily... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump declined to say the Confederate flag was an offensive symbol in an interview broadcast on Sunday, saying it is a source of pride for people who love the South. The Republican president was asked on “Fox News S... More »
(Reuters) – Six times world champion Lewis Hamilton criticised Formula One’s leaders after what he called a “rushed” anti-racism gesture by some drivers before the start of Sunday’s Hungarian Grand Prix. Hamilton, who won from pole position to take the champio... More »
(Reuters) – Walt Disney (DIS.N) has become the latest company to slash its advertising spending on Facebook Inc (FB.O) as the social media giant faces an ad boycott over its handling of hate speech and controversial content, the Wall Street Journal reported on... More »
(Reuters) – U.S. flags were flown at half-staff on Saturday at the White House, federal properties and several states as politicians and activists voiced an outpouring of grief and appreciation for civil rights career of U.S. Representative John Lewis, who die... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday rebuffed a bid by voting rights advocates to block a Republican-backed Florida law mandating that people with past felony convictions pay court fines and fees before being able to register to vote. The ... More »
(Reuters) – Twice Olympic triple jump champion Christian Taylor has joined calls to allow athletes to protest peacefully during the Games as anti-racism stances are increasingly seen at sports events in the wake of George Floyd’s death in U.S. police custody. ... More »
(Reuters) – The NFL’s Washington team announced on Monday it will retire its Redskins name and logo in a decision made after sponsors stepped up pressure to scrap a name that the franchise has used since 1933 but long has been criticized as racist by Native Am... More »
MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia charged former military journalist Ivan Safronov with state treason on Monday, his lawyer said, accusations that have sent a chill through Russia’s media community which has protested over what it says is his unfair treatment. Securit... More »
PARIS (Reuters) – Ubisoft (UBIP.PA) shares dropped 9% on Monday after the French video games group said over the weekend that three senior managers were leaving the company following a review into allegations of inappropriate behaviour. Ubisoft, which makes ga... More »
(Reuters) – Six times Formula One world champion Lewis Hamilton praised his Mercedes team for taking a stance against racism but said after winning Sunday’s Styrian Grand Prix that Ferrari and others should do more. The Briton took a knee with 11 drivers befor... More »
(Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump’s planned executive order on immigration will not include amnesty for migrants who are in the United States illegally but arrived in the country as children, a White House spokesman said on Friday. “This does not include... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Faced with sliding poll numbers and multiple national crises, President Donald Trump has leaned into a familiar campaign strategy of divisive rhetoric and raucous rallies ahead of the November election. But a lot has changed in America s... More »
ISTANBUL (Reuters) – A Turkish court on Friday annulled a 1934 government decree that had turned Istanbul’s Hagia Sophia into a museum, opening the way for the sixth-century building to be converted back into a mosque. President Tayyip Erdogan, whose ruling AK... More »
TAIPEI (Reuters) – Taiwan would welcome a visit by exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, its foreign ministry said on Monday, a trip that would infuriate Beijing which views him as a dangerous separatist. The Dalai Lama has not visited the Chinese-cl... More »
MOUNT RUSHMORE NATIONAL MEMORIAL, S.D. (Reuters) – President Donald Trump on Friday accused “angry mobs” of trying to erase history with efforts to remove or rethink monuments to U.S. historical figures and used a speech at Mount Rushmore to paint himself as a... More »
TORONTO (Reuters) – Canada’s biggest lenders confirmed on Friday they had joined a widespread boycott of Facebook Inc (FB.O) begun by U.S. civil rights groups seeking to pressure the world’s largest social media platform to take concrete steps to block hate sp... More »
(Reuters) – The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday blocked a lower-court ruling that would have relaxed voting restrictions in Alabama state during the coronavirus pandemic. Alabama requires voters to submit a photo identification when they apply for an absentee b... More »
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Two of the biggest Harry Potter fan sites on Thursday distanced themselves from author J.K. Rowling because of her beliefs on transgender issues, calling them at odds with the message of empowerment in her best-selling books. Websites T... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – More than 75 U.S. senators and House members on Thursday urged the Trump administration to take a tougher stance on China over its crackdown in that country’s Xinjiang province and make a formal determination whether its treatment of Mus... More »
(Reuters) – Hollywood came under intense scrutiny for a lack of diversity in 2015 when the #OscarsSoWhite movement spotlighted the dearth of Black nominees for the film industry’s highest honors. Following the mass protests after the death of African American ... More »
ROME (Reuters) – Italy’s Uffizi gallery said on Thursday it was planning to pick out nine of its masterpieces for a project to highlight the part that Black people and culture played in the Renaissance. Under the “Black Presence” initiative, images of works in... More »
KOBLENZ, Germany (Reuters) – Forty-nine faceless figures stand on the lawn outside a German courthouse, facing the windows of a courtroom behind which two suspected members of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s security services are standing trial for torture ... More »
HONG KONG/BEIJING (Reuters) – China’s parliament passed national security legislation for Hong Kong on Tuesday, setting the stage for the most radical changes to the former British colony’s way of life since it returned to Chinese rule 23 years ago. Details of... More »
ISTANBUL (Reuters) – Thousands of Turkish lawyers protested outside Istanbul’s main courthouse on Tuesday against a government plan to reform bar associations, saying it aims to silence dissent and will lead to politicization of their profession. Under a draft... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – Britain urgently needs to see the legislation China passed regarding Hong Kong to determine whether it has breached the joint declaration and then will set out its next steps, a spokesman for Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Tuesday. “De... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Tuesday that Britain needed to protect its critical national infrastructure from “hostile state vendors” when deciding what role China’s Huawei should play in the country’s 5G network. Britain is taking a... More »
NEW YORK (Reuters) – “This is white supremacy. This is institutionalized racism,” Aaisha Joseph, an executive assistant in New York City, posted on Microsoft Corp’s (MSFT.O) LinkedIn in early June, calling out the Black leadership vacuum at tech giants. In ano... More »
KINSHASA (Reuters) – In central Kinshasa, freshly painted murals show traditional idols wearing medical masks or applying hand sanitiser, part of an art initiative to counter public disbelief in the face of the coronavirus pandemic sweeping Democratic Republic... More »
(Reuters) – Social media site Reddit on Monday shut down r/The_Donald, a forum which long served as a popular online home base for fans of President Donald Trump, saying it violated the site’s hate speech rules. Other sites also conducted high-profile sweeps: ... More »
(Reuters) – Black power, suffering and the fight for justice took center stage at the BET awards on Sunday, the first Black celebrity event in the United States since nationwide mass protests broke out this month over systemic racism. The show, which celebrate... More »
JORDAN VALLEY, West Bank (Reuters) – Amid the barren hills of the Jordan Valley, Palestinian artist Khadeeja Bisharat paints scenes of bulldozers and demolitions, a reflection of fears of what may happen to her isolated Bedouin community if Israel annexes land... More »
MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russian prosecutors asked a court in Moscow on Monday to sentence prominent film and theatre director Kirill Serebrennikov to six years in jail on embezzlement charges, the RIA news agency reported. The prosecution of Serebrennikov, an award... More »
(Reuters) – NASCAR has launched an investigation after a noose was found in a garage stall at Talladega belonging to Bubba Wallace, the only Black driver competing in its top Cup series. “Late this afternoon, NASCAR was made aware that a noose was found in the... More »
(Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump said on Monday he opposed removing the towering statue of Theodore Roosevelt from outside New York City’s American Museum of Natural History. The move was announced by the museum on Sunday and comes amid anti-racism prot... More »
(Reuters) – TikTok users and fans of Korean pop music took partial credit for inflating attendance expectations at a less-than-full arena at President Donald Trump’s first political rally in months, held in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on Saturday. Social media users on p... More »
(Reuters) – LA Lakers owner Jeannie Buss said on Friday, the Juneteenth holiday, that she is no longer willing to ignore hate and called on white people to come together and acknowledge the racism that exists in the United States. Juneteenth commemorates the U... More »
(Reuters) – Tom Petty’s family slammed President Donald Trump for using the late rock star’s hit “I Won’t Back Down” at his sparsely attended rally in Tulsa, sending the campaign a cease and desist warning. “Trump was in no way authorized to use this song to f... More »
TULSA, Okla. (Reuters) – President Donald Trump, addressing a less-than-full arena for his first political rally in months, blasted anti-racism protests and defended his handling of the coronavirus on Saturday in a bid to reinvigorate his re-election campaign.... More »
AMSTERDAM (Reuters) – The Dutch men’s and women’s national football team players said on Friday they would no longer grant interviews to a popular TV show due to remarks made by a commentator mocking an anti-racism protester. In a statement first published on ... More »
BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Brussels added to its large collection of murals on Thursday with a newly commissioned work in memory of African-American George Floyd, whose killing by police has sparked global protests against racism and police violence. Belgian-Congole... More »
KHARTOUM (Reuters) – Sudan’s public prosecutor on Monday announced the discovery of a mass grave east of Khartoum suspected to contain the remains of students killed in 1998 as they tried escaping military service at a training camp. An investigation had been ... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday handed President Donald Trump a defeat in his legal showdown with the most-populous U.S. state, declining to hear his administration’s challenge to “sanctuary” laws in California that protect immigrants f... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Days into nationwide protests over the killing of George Floyd, demonstrators began to fill a tall fence in front of the White House with posters, flowers, paintings and photos in honor of black men, women and children who have lost thei... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – People attending U.S. President Donald Trump’s campaign rally in Oklahoma this week should wear masks, a White House adviser said on Sunday, as health experts cautioned against large gatherings such as political rallies during the corona... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services issued a rule on Friday that would lift anti-discrimination protections under Obamacare for transgender people and women seeking abortions, drawing condemnation from Democratic lawmakers. ... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Donald Trump has bowed to pressure over an election rally scheduled to take place in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on the “Juneteenth” anniversary that commemorates the end of U.S. slavery, and said he was pushing the event back by a day. T... More »
CAMDEN, N.J. (Reuters) – Zsakhiem James, a police captain in Camden, New Jersey – once considered the most dangerous city in the United States – sees every encounter with a resident as an opportunity to build “social currency” to prevent or solve a future crim... More »
(Reuters) – Protests against racism triggered by the death of African American George Floyd have inspired art around the world, from murals in Syria and Pakistan to graffiti in Nairobi. At the Berlin Wall, a large portrait of Floyd is seen alongside yellow blo... More »
KABUL (Reuters) – A group of artists climbed ladders up one of the many blast walls snaking through the Afghan capital Kabul this week to paint a mural of George Floyd in solidarity with the anti-racism protests kindled by his death in police custody. Floyd, a... More »
LONDON (Reuters) – Scientists have used human embryonic stem cells to create an embryo-like research model to help them study some of the earliest stages of human development. The model overcomes some of the ethical restrictions on using human embryos for rese... More »
GENEVA (Reuters) – A United Nations human rights expert voiced alarm on Tuesday at what he called “widespread food shortages and malnutrition” in North Korea, made worse by a nearly five-month border closure with China and strict quarantine measures against CO... More »
MOSCOW (Reuters) – A Russian court on Tuesday sentenced a Jehovah’s Witness to six and a half years in prison after finding him guilty of organising the activities of a banned extremist organisation, his lawyer said. The ruling at the Pskov City Court, handed ... More »
BERLIN (Reuters) – Germany’s Constitutional Court ruled on Tuesday that Interior Minister Horst Seehofer had breached neutrality rules when his ministry published on its website comments in which he accused the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) of subver... More »
KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) – Malaysia will ask Bangladesh to take back about 300 Rohingya refugees detained after a boat carrying them entered its waters this week, the southeast Asian nation’s defence minister said on Tuesday. Malaysia does not recognise refugee ... More »
HOUSTON (Reuters) – Thousands of mourners braved sweltering Texas heat on Monday to view the casket of George Floyd, whose death after a police officer knelt on his neck ignited worldwide protests against racism and calls for reforms of U.S. law enforcement. A... More »
SYDNEY (Reuters) – As Australia moves ahead with relaxing a lockdown to curb the spread of the coronavirus, a state government gave the all clear for more than 2,000 fans to attend an Australian Rules Football game at a stadium in Adelaide this weekend. “Footb... More »
(Reuters) – The U.S. women’s national team has called on the United States Soccer Federation (USSF) to repeal a policy forbidding players from kneeling during the national anthem and issue an apology to black players and fans. The USSF will hold a special meet... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – International Business Machines Corp (IBM.N) disclosed Monday it will no longer offer facial recognition or analysis software in a letter to Congress calling for new efforts to pursue justice and racial equity, new Chief Executive Office... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. congressional Democrats unveiled sweeping legislation on Monday to combat police violence and racial injustice through transformative change, two weeks after George Floyd’s death in Minneapolis police custody led to nationwide prote... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Congressional Democrats on Monday introduced a sweeping bill intended to address longstanding complaints about racial injustice in U.S. policing, following two weeks of protests over the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis police custod... More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Donald Trump on Monday pledged to maintain funding for police departments in the United States amid growing calls for sweeping cuts to law enforcement budgets as protesters clamored for an end to police brutality following the ... More »
(Reuters) – Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden showed compassion that “meant the world” to George Floyd’s family on Monday, according to a lawyer for relatives of the black man who died in police custody. Biden met with Floyd’s relatives in Houston fo... More »
STOCKHOLM (Reuters) – “The world is full of idiots,” said ABBA’s Bjorn Ulvaeus, as he condemned critics of the Black Lives Matter movement and voiced his support of the worldwide protests against racism and police brutality. “The solidarity that we see in the ... More »
SEOUL (Reuters) – Fans of the popular South Korean boy band BTS matched its $1 million donation to Black Lives Matter (BLM) in support of U.S. protests against police brutality, an organisation that runs fundraisers for the fans said on Monday. The K-pop group... More »
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – From “White Fragility” to “The New Jim Crow,” literature about the history of racial discrimination in the United States is selling out as white Americans seek to educate themselves as nationwide protests grow over the killing of unarme... More »
KARLSRUHE, Germany (Reuters) – Germany’s Constitutional Court ruled on Tuesday that monitoring the internet traffic of foreign nationals abroad by the BND intelligence agency partly breaches the constitution. The long-awaited ruling stated that internet survei... More »
BEIJING (Reuters) – After a 78-day delay, China’s parliament begins its annual session this week and is expected to unveil stimulus measures to spur an economy battered by the coronavirus as leaders grapple with problems from surging unemployment to worsening ... More »
COPENHAGEN (Reuters) – A new work by Chinese dissident artist Badiucao in support of Hong Kong pro-democracy protesters shows the image of a lone man standing in the path of a tank taken on Tiananmen Square in 1989. But in Badiucao’s version of the photograph,... More »
