(How) Do the LA protests compare to the 1992 riots?
In the press today: We start with the protests in LA over increasing ICE arrests. The Australian press are headlining on this. The conserative Melbourne daily Herald Sun headlines "hell reigns in city of angels" and notes that rubber bullets and tear gas were used. The Guardian Australia headlines on a viral video of Australian journalist Lauren Tomasi for Channel 9 being shot with a rubber bullet during a live cross showing a guard appearing to deliberately aim in her direction. Channel 9 says the video serves as stark reminder of the inherent dangers journalists can face while reporting. Another Melbourne-based paper The Age reports that LA simmers as Donald Trump threatens to send troops everywhere. The paper's international editor Peter Hartcher writes that the confrontations we're seeing in LA are not quote episodic or random. They are likely the opening scenes of a new phase in US history. He adds that the problem is not the principle of deporting illegal immigrants but the manner in which Trump is doing it – with an enthusiasm verging on bloodlust. The San Francisco Chronicle publishes exclusive photos showing the deployment of troops as being "wildly underprepared." The photos show dozens of National Guard troops sleeping on the floor after Trump's rush to deploy them to LA, without the approval of California governor Gavin Newsom.
This excellent cartoon from British illustrator Ben Jennings – Straight INTO Compton he says.
The previous deployments of the National Guard also garnered a lot of attention in the press. The Associated Press notes that the deployment of National Guard troops are typically reserved for civil rights protests. It reminds us that the last time the National Guard were deployed to LA was in 2020 during the height of protests against the death of George Floyd. Some has compared the protests to the 1992 LA riots, after the acquittal of white police officers for the beating death of black man Rodney King. Time magazine explains the two are not the same notably because Trump invoked a section of the US code that allows the President to call in the National Guard when regular forces are not enough. But he did so without the approval of the governor, which is mandated in the code. Fruthermore, the damage in 1992 was extensive when the troops were called in In LA right now, it's much less.
In France, Politico focusing the plight of Franco-Algerian writer Boualem Sansal. The acclaimed novelist, vocal critic of the Algerian regime and dual citizen was arrested in Algiers last November accused of undermining national unity. He's been sentenced to five years in prison. His case has garnered a lot of attention in France, which accused Algeria of using him as a political pawn. Relations between France and Algeria deteriorated last year after France's recognition of Morocco's sovereignty of Western Sahara. Supporters of the writer have now turned to Europe for help. Sansal has been in and out of hospital since his arrest – he's suffering from cancer and his supporters are concerned about his medical care. So far efforts to lobby the Algerian government to release Sansal have been ignored…his support group also filed a complaint with the EU ombudsman in the hopes of putting pressure.
Staying in France, authorities are planning to use the hit Netflix series Adolescence to teach students about toxic masculinity. The series has been viewed 140 million times and garnered critical acclaim. Now the Guardian reports France will follow in the footsteps of the UK, Netherlands and the Flanders region in Belgium. The French education ministry will offer schools five classes based on excerpts from the mini series which sparked a global debate about misogynistic content online and its impact on teens.
Finally, a zoo in Belgium was forced to close a zone this weekend after a fight broke out between two seals! Le Parisien reports that the fight erupted after the male seal, who wanted to mate with a female, was rebuffed. Given how big these seals can be – up to 270kg - it's a good thing the zone was closed so the sparring seals could cool off a bit…as they say, make love not war!
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Euronews
an hour ago
- Euronews
Meeting between top EU diplomats and Iran's FM yields hope of talks
A meeting between top European diplomats and Iran's foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, on Friday yielded hopes of further talks but no indication of any immediate or concrete breakthrough, a week after Israel attacked Iran over Tehran's nuclear program, erupting into war between both sides. Foreign ministers from Britain, France, and Germany and the European Union's foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, emerged from the talks at a Geneva hotel nearly four hours after Iran's Araghchi arrived for the meeting. It was the first face-to-face meeting between Western and Iranian officials since the start of the conflict. In a joint written statement issued after the talks ended, the three European nations and the EU said that they 'discussed avenues towards a negotiated solution to Iran's nuclear programme.' They reiterated their concerns about the 'expansion' of the nuclear program, adding that it has 'no credible civilian purpose.' EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said, 'We agreed that we will discuss nuclear but also broader issues that we have and keep the discussions open." 'The good result today is that we leave the room with the impression that the Iranian side is fundamentally ready to continue talking about all important issues,' German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul said, adding both sides had held 'very serious talks.' While France's Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot told reporters, military operations can slow Iran's nuclear program, but in no way can they eliminate it. 'We know well—after having seen what happened in Afghanistan, in Iraq, and in Libya—how illusory and dangerous it is to want to impose regime change from outside.' Barrot also said that European nations 'invited the Iranian minister to envisage negotiations with all parties, including the United States, and without waiting for the end of the strikes." However promising, Iran ruled out new nuclear talks until attacks from Israel stop. According to Araghchi, Iran was ready to consider diplomacy only if Israel's "aggression is stopped." "I make it crystal clear that Iran's defence capabilities are non-negotiable," the Iranian foreign minister stressed after the Geneva talks. He expressed support for 'a continuation of discussions with the E3 and the EU and expressed his readiness to meet again in the near future.' He also denounced Israel's attacks against nuclear facilities in Iran and expressed 'grave concern' about what he called 'non-condemnation' by European nations. For his part, British Foreign Secretary David Lammy urged Tehran to continue its talks with the United States. Lammy said, 'We are keen to continue ongoing discussions and negotiations with Iran, and we urge Iran to continue their talks with the United States.' He added that 'we were clear: Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon.' He added there is 'a window of within two weeks where we can see a diplomatic solution' and urged Iran 'to take that off-ramp.' Trump delays decision Meanwhile, it remains unclear how that will happen as US President Donald Trump continues to weigh whether to attack Iran by striking its well-defended Fordo uranium enrichment facility, which is buried under a mountain and widely considered to be out of reach of all but America's 'bunker-buster' bombs. Trump said on Wednesday that he'll decide within two weeks whether the US military will get directly involved in the war, given the 'substantial chance' for renewed negotiations over Tehran's nuclear program. Israel says it launched its airstrike campaign to stop Iran from getting closer to being able to build a nuclear weapon. Iran and the United States had been negotiating over the possibility of a new diplomatic deal over Tehran's programme, though Trump has said Israel's campaign came after a 60-day window he set for the talks. 'We are entitled … to defend our territorial integrity' - Iran In light of the possibility of US involvement, Iran's supreme leader rejected Trump's calls for surrender Wednesday and warned that any military involvement by the Americans would cause 'irreparable damage to them.' Just before meeting the European diplomats on Friday, Foreign Minister Araghchi made a brief appearance before the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva, telling the council that Israel's 'attacks on nuclear facilities are grave war crimes'. Araghchi insisted that Iran is "entitled … and determined to defend our territorial integrity, national sovereignty, and security with all force.' Tehran has long insisted its nuclear programme is peaceful, though it was the only non-nuclear-armed state to enrich uranium up to 60%, a short, technical step away from weapons-grade levels of 90%. The initial 2015 nuclear agreement between Iran and the world powers was negotiated in large part by the three European nations. However, Iran has been found wanting in its cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N. nuclear watchdog, leading to warnings by the EU states to reimpose sanctions that were suspended under the agreement.
AFP
4 hours ago
- AFP
Altered Trump video spreads amid Iran-Israel war
"We need to avoid getting involved in this conflict #trump #maga #israel #iran #middleeast #wwiii," says a June 15, 2025 post sharing the video on Instagram. The clip -- also shared to X, TikTok and YouTube -- claims to show Trump saying the United States should stay out of the conflict between the two arch enemies, which began when Israel targeted Iranian military bases and nuclear sites in a June 13 attack and has seen Iran respond with barrages of missiles and drones. "I think we should skip it," Trump appears to say in the video. "I don't know. I'm just not really feeling it. World War III folks, hard pass." Image Screenshot from Instagram taken June 20, 2025 Referencing nationwide protests against his agenda, Trump supposedly continued: "We've got enough going on stateside. We've got the 'No Kings' riots set to kick off this weekend. 'No Kings.' We like kings, actually, folks. We like one king in particular, quite frankly. The king of kings, our lord and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been working to draw elevated support from Trump, but the Republican US president said June 20 that Iran had a "maximum" of two weeks to avoid possible US air strikes, indicating he could take a decision before the fortnight deadline he set a day earlier. He had spent weeks before the attack pursuing a diplomatic path towards a deal to replace the nuclear deal with Iran that he tore up in his first term in 2018. The video purporting to show him saying the United States "should skip it," meanwhile, is altered. Reverse image searches reveal the footage was lifted from a May 28, 2025 event -- more than two weeks prior to Israel's strikes on Iran (archived here). Former Fox News host Jeanine Pirro, who was sworn in at the ceremony as the interim US attorney for the District of Columbia, can be seen standing behind Trump throughout. The video and transcript show the president mentioned Israel's war on the Palestinian militant group Hamas and the US efforts to reach a deal with Iran, but he did not call for the United States to stay out of a conflict between the two Middle Eastern nations (archived here and here). He was asked at one point whether he warned Netanyahu against taking any action that could disrupt his talks with Iran, but he said he was pushing to follow the diplomatic path. The president made no mention of the "No Kings" protests. The manipulated video appears to lift footage from around the 18:36 mark of the May 28 footage, based on Trump's hand movements. In that moment, the president was talking about inflation. The voice cloning detection tool in the Verification Plugin, also known as InVID-WeVerify, found that the audio on the altered version is "very likely AI-generated." Some of the earliest posts sharing the clip included disclaimers saying it was a parody generated by artificial intelligence. AFP has debunked other misinformation about the Iran-Israel war here.
France 24
5 hours ago
- France 24
Trump says two weeks is 'maximum' for Iran decision
Trump added that Iran "doesn't want to talk to Europe," dismissing the chance of success in talks between European powers and Iran in Geneva on resolving the conflict between Israel and Iran. Trump also played down the possibility of asking Israel to halt its attacks, after Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Tehran would not resume talks with the United States until Israel relented. "I'm giving them a period of time, and I would say two weeks would be the maximum," Trump told reporters when asked if he could decide to strike Iran before that. He added that the aim was to "see whether or not people come to their senses." Trump had said in a statement on Thursday that he would "make my decision whether or not to go within the next two weeks" because there was a "substantial chance of negotiations" with Iran. Those comments had been widely seen as opening a two-week window for negotiations to end the war between Israel and Iran, with the European powers rushing to talks with Tehran. But his latest remarks indicated that Trump could still make his decision before that if he feels that there has been no progress towards dismantling Iran's nuclear program. Trump dismissed the chances of Europe making a difference, saying the talks between Britain, France, Germany and EU diplomats and Tehran's foreign minister "didn't help." "Iran doesn't want to speak to Europe. They want to speak to us. Europe is not going to be able to help in this," Trump told reporters as he arrived in Morristown, New Jersey. Asked if he would ask Israel to stop its attacks as Iran had asked, Trump said it was "very hard to make that request right now." "If somebody's winning, it's a little bit harder to do than if somebody's losing, but we're ready, willing and able, and we've been speaking to Iran, and we'll see what happens."
