Against right ws thousands
demonstrators, who he said “came out to share the message of love, not hate.”
“To fight back on the white supremacists and the Nazis that were coming to our city, I want to thank everyone who came,” he said.
Meanwhile the organisers of the rally said that “misinformation in the media” was “likening our organisation to those that ran the Charlottesville rally”.
“While we maintain that every individual is entitled to their freedom of speech and defend that basic human right, we will not be offering our platform to racism or bigotry,” the group wrote on a Facebook page dedicated to the event. “We denounce the politics of supremacy and violence.”
Chris Hood, an 18-year-old Boston resident standing among others planning to join the “Free Speech” rally, told Reuters news agency: “The point of this is to have political speech from across the spectrum, conservative, libertarian, centrist.”
The list of speakers for the event changed a number of times in the days ahead of the gathering. At times it included speakers who have been associated with the far right.
The violence in Charlottesville began with a protest and counter-protest over the planned removal of a statue of Confederate commander General Robert E Lee.
In the aftermath, Confederate statues across America have come under renewed scrutiny.
Duke University in North Carolina removed a statue of Robert E Lee from its chapel entrance in the early hours of Saturday morning, following vandalism earlier in the week.
University President Vincent Price said the decision was made for safety reasons and “above all to express the deep and abiding values of our university”.
Grace Mugabe back in Zimbabwe amid SA assault claims
The wife of the Zimbabwean leader, Robert Mugabe, has returned home from South Africa, despite allegations of an assault at a hotel in Johannesburg. Grace Mugabe, 52, landed at Harare early yesterday, Zimbabwean radio said. She had intended to appear at a summit on Saturday but failed to show. She also applied for diplomatic immunity but it was unclear if this was granted.Mrs Mugabe had been accused of hitting a 20-year-old woman over the head with an extension cord. Zimbabwe’s ZBC state broadcaster said: “President Robert Mugabe, accompanied by the first lady, arrived on board an Air Zimbabwe flight early on Sunday morning.” It showed pictures of her greeting officials at Harare airport. Mrs Mugabe had been due to take part on Saturday in the first ladies’ programme at the Southern African Development Community heads of state summit in Pretoria, which Mr Mugabe, 93, was attending. South African police had said they wanted to interview Mrs Mugabe and set up a “red alert” at the country’s borders to try to ensure she did not flee the country. It remains unclear whether South Africa’s government granted Mrs Mugabe’s plea for diplomatic immunity. She has not commented on the allegation. Lawyers for Gabriella Engels, the woman who accused Mrs Mugabe of hitting her, say their client was offered money to drop the case but she refused. Ms Engels appeared at a press conference on Thursday with a large plaster on her forehead. She said: “She hit me with the plug and the extension cord. And I just remember being curled down on the floor with blood rushing down my face and down my neck.” The South African Broadcasting Corporation said the Mugabes were scheduled to attend a funeral for a state minister at Harare’s Heroes Acre on Sunday.