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Virus surge fears, UK leader's quarantine, mar 'Freedom Day'
Read full article: Virus surge fears, UK leader's quarantine, mar 'Freedom Day'Englandโs nightclubs have reopened as the country lifted most remaining restrictions after more than a year of lockdowns, mask mandates and other pandemic-related curbs on freedom.
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Hundreds arrested in Belarus 'Freedom Day' protest
Read full article: Hundreds arrested in Belarus 'Freedom Day' protestPeople carry a giant historical flag of Belarus during a celebration 103rd anniversary of the declaration of the Belarusian People's Respublic, in Vilnius, Lithuania, Thursday, March 25, 2021. Freedom Day is an unofficial holiday in Belarus celebrated on 25 March to commemorate the declaration of independence by the Belarusian Democratic Republic on that date in 1918. The Thursday protest marked the anniversary of the 1918 declaration of the Belarus People's Republic, an independent state that lasted only a few months before the Red Army moved in. The opposition traditionally observes the anniversary as the country's unofficial Freedom Day. The arrests came a day after their leader, Andลผelika Borys, was sentenced to 15 days in jail for holding unauthorized mass events.
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Asia Today: Melbourne lockdown to stay; 8 charged for rally
Read full article: Asia Today: Melbourne lockdown to stay; 8 charged for rallyPeople gather at a so-called "Freedom Day" protest in Melbourne, Saturday, Sept. 5, 2020. Police in Australia's hardest-hit Victoria state are urging people to stay away from rallies protesting the lockdown in Melbourne. (James Ross/AAP Image via AP)MELBOURNE The premier of Australia's Victoria state announced a slight easing of restrictions in Melbourne but the country's second-largest city will remain in lockdown until at least Oct. 26. State police charged a protester with assault after an officer suffered cuts to the head during an anti-lockdown rally in Melbourne on Saturday. Scuffles between protesters and police resulted in more than 160 fines for contravening lockdown measures or not wearing a mask.
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What is Juneteenth? It could become a state holiday in Virginia
Read full article: What is Juneteenth? It could become a state holiday in VirginiaRalph Northam announced he is looking to make Juneteenth a state holiday. Juneteenth, celebrated annually on June 19, commemorates June 19, 1865, when Union general Gordon Granger read federal orders in Galveston, Texas, that all slaves in Texas were free. The day is also known as Freedom Day or Emancipation Day. Four hours of additional holiday time are also granted to state employees on the day before Thanksgiving. 2020 was the final year Virginia recognized Lee-Jackson Day as a state holiday.

Charlottesville to no longer celebrate Thomas Jefferson's birthday
Read full article: Charlottesville to no longer celebrate Thomas Jefferson's birthdayRembrandt Peale, White House/Wikimedia CommonsCHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. - Charlottesville will no longer celebrate Thomas Jefferson's birthday as an official city holiday and instead will observe a day recognizing the emancipation of enslaved African-Americans. The city council voted Monday night to scrap the decades-old April 13 holiday honoring the slave-holding president and Founding Father. Charlottesville will now mark Liberation and Freedom Day on March 3, the day U.S. Army forces arrived in the city in 1865. Charlottesville has been grappling publicly for years with how to tell its history of race and discrimination. Those efforts intensified after white nationalists gathered in the city in 2017 for a rally that descended into deadly violence.

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