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This is VOA news. I'm David Byrd in Washington.
Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren has formally announced her candidacy for president. As AP's Ben Thomas reports, Warren called for change in a political system that she said is rigged in favor of the rich. Elizabeth Warren chose the middle class Massachusetts city of Lawrence to formally launcher her campaign for president pledging to promote "an America that works for everyone." The populist senator from Massachusetts says President Trump "is not the cause," just "the most extreme symptom of what's gone wrong in America" - "a product of a rigged system that props up the rich and powerful and kicks dirt on everyone else." And she makes this promise: "I will fight my heart out so that every kid in America can have the same opportunity I had - a fighting chance to build something real." I'm Ben Thomas. Thousands of French "yellow vest" demonstrators marched on Saturday across France with scuffles in Paris on the 13th week of demonstrations. Reuters Lauren Anthony reports. Some protesters were visibly injured during scuffles with police who let out tear gas in an attempt to disperse the crowds. Other marchers tried to set up a barricade on the Boulevard Saint-Germain. Police said that around 14 people had been arrested by early afternoon. The movement has been a political thorn in Macron's side since last November when the group named after the fluorescent vests French motorists are required to keep in their cars took to the streets in hordes over his reform agenda. Yellow vest protesters said the national debate initiated by President Macron as a response to the movement's grievances did not sufficiently address them, especially their demand for a referendum tabled by citizens. Reuters Lauren Anthony. For more, visit our website. This is VOA news. Several thousand people marched in Serbia's capital of Belgrade to protest populist President Aleksandar Vucic, who is showing signs of nervousness after 10 consecutive weeks of anti-government demonstrations. The demonstrators on Saturday jeered in front of the state TV and Politika newspaper headquarters, which are firmly under Vucic's control. The protests, which have spread outside of Belgrade, accuse Vucic of stifling free media and democracy in the Balkan country. He denies the accusations and media under his control have called the protesters Western stooges. Vucic is a former extreme pro-Russian nationalist who now says he wants Serbia to join the European Union. Flamengo chief executive Reinaldo Belotti said on Saturday the Brazilian football club is working closely with authorities to establish what caused a deadly fire at a training ground that left 10 young players dead. Speaking at a news conference in Rio, Belotti said the club is working with several groups to find out why the fire happened. He said, "We are in contact with a number of authorities, governmental [juridic...] juridical, that is, legal and police, and we are facilitating all their operations. But we want clear clarification as to what happened in this incident." The blazed ripped through the sleeping quarters of the Ninho de Urubu complex in western Rio de Janeiro on Friday. Ten young men were killed and three others seriously injured. Turkey's Foreign Ministry has called China's treatment of its minority Uighurs "a great cause of shame for humanity." In a statement Saturday, a Foreign Ministry spokesman said it is "no longer a secret" that China has arbitrarily detained more than a million Uighurs in "concentration camps." He said the Turkic Muslim population faced pressure and a "systematic assimilation" in western China. China has intensified a security crackdown on Uighurs that was put in place after a bloody riot 10 years ago. Droves of Uighurs have fled, many of them to Turkey. U.S.-backed and Kurdish-led Syrian forces said Saturday that they have launched a final push to defeat the Islamic State group in the last tiny enclave the extremists hold in in eastern Syria. Syrian Democratic Forces backed by U.S. air power have driven Islamic State from large swaths of territory it once controlled in northern and eastern Syria, confining the extremists to [a spo...] a small pocket of land, that is, near the border with Iraq. For more, long on to our website voanews.com. I'm David Byrd, VOA news. |