Pelting rain dampened the 98th annual Macy\u2019s Thanksgiving Day parade in the United States, as it cut across New York City on Thursday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But for a second year in a row, the giant balloons and party floats had to navigate another obstacle: protesters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As the procession made its way down West 55th Street, a group of pro-Palestinian demonstrators entered the parade route, briefly blocking a gigantic balloon representing McDonald\u2019s restaurant mascot, the red-headed clown Ronald McDonald.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
They sought to remind parade-goers of the human toll of Israel\u2019s ongoing war in Gaza, which has killed at least 44,330 Palestinians, many of them women and children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the middle of the street, the protesters unfurled a banner that read, \u201cDon\u2019t celebrate genocide! Arms embargo now. Free Palestine!\u201d Several sat cross-legged on the wet pavement, holding up small Palestinian flags.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
McDonald\u2019s, the fast-food chain whose balloon they blocked, has been the subject of an ongoing boycott after a subsidiary in Israel announced free meals for Israeli military members after the start of the war.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The chain, however, has distanced itself from that effort, pointing out that the decision was made by a local franchise, not by the company\u2019s global leadership.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Police quickly arrested 21 of the protesters on Thursday, dragging some out of the street in order to let the parade pass. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Last year, a similar demonstration occurred, resulting in the detention of 34 protesters, many of whom were clad in white jumpsuits splattered with fake blood.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As then, the protesters this year called for the U.S. to stop supplying Israel with arms. Media reports have indicated the U.S. is planning to greenlight a new $680 million arms sale to its Middle East ally, on top of its existing military aid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The parade contained 22 big balloons and 34 floats, according to organisers. It is televised live across the United States. Last year, the broadcast raked in 28.5 million viewers, a record for the event, according to the publication The Hollywood Reporter.
That made it one of the most watched non-sporting events of the year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Pelting rain dampened the 98th annual Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade in the United States, as it cut across New York City on Thursday. But for a second year in a… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6906,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"ppma_author":[42],"class_list":["post-6905","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"authors":[{"term_id":42,"user_id":0,"is_guest":1,"slug":"radio-habana-cuba","display_name":"Radio Habana Cuba","avatar_url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&r=g","0":null,"1":"","2":"","3":"","4":"","5":"","6":"","7":"","8":""}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.radiorebelde.cu\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6905","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.radiorebelde.cu\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.radiorebelde.cu\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.radiorebelde.cu\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.radiorebelde.cu\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6905"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.radiorebelde.cu\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6905\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6907,"href":"https:\/\/www.radiorebelde.cu\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6905\/revisions\/6907"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.radiorebelde.cu\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6906"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.radiorebelde.cu\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6905"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.radiorebelde.cu\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6905"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.radiorebelde.cu\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6905"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.radiorebelde.cu\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=6905"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}