Rallies in US, Europe show support for Iran anti-regime protests
WASHINGTON — Chanting crowds marched in the streets of Berlin, Washington and Los Angeles on Saturday in a show of international support for demonstrators facing a violent government crackdown in Iran, sparked by the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in the custody of that country’s morality police.
On the U.S. National Mall, thousands of women and men of all ages — donning the green, white and red colors of Iran’s flag — chanted. “Be scared. Be scared. We are one in this,” some shouted, ahead of the group’s march to the White House. “Say her name! Mahsa!”
The demonstrations, put together by grassroots organizers from around the United States, drew Iranians from across the Washington area, with some traveling from Toronto to join the crowd.
In Los Angeles, home to the biggest population of Iranians outside Iran, a throng of protesters formed a slow-moving procession along blocks of a closed downtown street. They chanted for the fall of Iran’s government and waved hundreds of Iranian flags that turned the horizon into a undulating wave of red, white and green.
“We want freedom,” they thundered in unison.
In Tehran, more anti-government protests took place Saturday at several universities. The nationwide movement in Iran first focused on the country’s mandatory hijab covering for women following Amiri’s death on Sept. 16.
The Iranian protests have since transformed into the greatest challenge to the Islamic Republic since the 2009 Green Movement over disputed elections.
Iran’s security forces have dispersedgatheringsinthat country with live ammunition and tear gas, killing over 200 people, including teenage girls, according to rights groups.
In Berlin, nearly 40,000 people turned out to show solidarity for the women and activists leading the movement for the past few weeks in Iran.
The protests in Germany’s capital began at the Victory Column in Berlin’s Tiergarten park and continued as a march through the central part of the city.
Some demonstrators there said they had come from elsewhere in Germany and other European countries to show their support.
China party congress:
China’s ruling Communist Party reaffirmed President Xi Jinping’s continued dominance in running the nation Saturday, one day ahead of giving him a widely expected third five-year term as leader.
The party congress also effectively removed Premier Li Keqiang from senior leadership. Li, the nation’s No. 2 official, is a proponent of market-oriented reforms, which are in contrast to Xi’s moves to expand state control over the economy.
The weeklong meeting, as it wrapped up Saturday, also wrote Xi’s major policy initiatives on the economy and the military into the party’s constitution, as well as his push to rebuild and strengthen the party’s position by declaring it absolutely central to China’s development and future.
CDC head tests positive:
The director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has tested positive for COVID-19.
Dr. Rochelle Walensky,
who is up to date on her vaccinations, tested positive Friday night and had mild symptoms, the CDC said in a statement.
“Consistent with CDC guidelines, she is isolating at home and will participate in her planned meetings virtually,” the agency said. Senior staff and close contacts have been informed and are monitoring their health.
Walensky, who took over the CDC in January 2021 after being appointed by President Joe Biden, is the latest U.S. health official to test positive for COVID-19 this year.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the face of America’s pandemic response, and U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra both tested positive in June.
Costa Rica plane crash: Six people, a group that apparently includes the German businessman behind Gold’s Gym, were feared dead Saturday after a small plane crashed into the Caribbean
just off the Costa Rican coast.
All five passengers were believed to be German citizens, Security Minister Jorge Torres said. The plane’s pilot was Swiss.
Costa Rican authorities said pieces of the twinengine turboprop were found in the water Saturday, after the flight went missing Friday.
A flight plan filed listed Rainer Schaller as a passenger. A man by the same name runs international chains of fitness and gym outlets, including Gold’s Gym and McFit. At least one other person aboard the plane was apparently a relative of Schaller, but the relation was not immediately confirmed by authorities.
Martin Arias, Costa Rica’s assistant security minister, said no bodies had been found yet at the site, about 17 miles off the coast from the Limon airport.
Hurricane Roslyn: Hurricane Roslyn grew to Category
4 force on Saturday as it headed for a collision with Mexico’s Pacific coast, likely north of the resort of Puerto Vallarta.
The U.S. National Hurricane Center said Roslyn’s maximum sustained winds stood at 130 mph Saturday evening.
The storm was centered about 90 miles southwest of Cabo Corrientes — the point of land jutting into the Pacific south of Puerto Vallarta — and moving north at 10 mph.
The forecast called for Roslyn to begin shifting northeast, putting it on path that could take it close to Cabo Corrientes and the Puerto Vallarta region late Saturday before making landfall in Nayarit state early Sunday.
East Jerusalem violence:
Israeli police on Saturday shot a Palestinian suspected of carrying out a stabbing attack in Jerusalem, and Palestinian officials said the teenager was critically
wounded.
It was the latest in a wave of deadly violence in east Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank since the spring.
Police said the Palestinian seriously wounded an Israeli pedestrian before fleeing to east Jerusalem. They said police identified the attacker and shot him when he turned toward an officer with an “object” in his hand.
The statement did not say how police identified him, what he was holding or how close he was to the officer.
The official Palestinian news agency Wafa reported that the alleged suspect was 16 and was seriously wounded.
It did not provide his name or further details. Israeli medics evacuated him to a Jerusalem hospital.
Separately, the Palestinian Health Ministry said a 32-year-old man died at a hospital Saturday after being wounded by Israeli gunfire near a checkpoint in the northern West Bank.