Unicorn Riot

07/02/2025

Washington, DC — Through a mass mobilization effort by the Sunrise Movement, activists gathered in the U.S. Capitol on June 3, 2025, to execute a series of Senate disruptions. Multiple groups stormed the halls of the Philip A. Hart Senate Office Building, with actions focusing on senators who support President Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” including Senator Thom Tillis. Multiple arrests were made.

Arrests were made outside several senators’ offices during actions that involved people lying down with co**se shrouds or white sheets covering them with flowers while someone held a sign that read, “CAUSE OF DEATH: MEDICAID CUTS.”

“Which side are you on now, which side are you on?” was sung repetitively to illustrate that people will die if they lose their health care, according to activists.

On July 1, 2025, the U.S. Senate passed the bill narrowly with a 50-50 vote, with Vice President JD Vance casting the tie-breaking vote. It will head back to the House with a final vote before potentially landing on Trump’s desk by the July 4 deadline.

Trump's "Big Beautiful Bill" passed the Senate, but not without strong opposition from environmental and human rights groups.

07/02/2025

Washington, DC — Through a mass mobilization effort by the Sunrise Movement, activists gathered in the U.S. Capitol on June 3, 2025, to execute a series of Senate disruptions. Multiple groups stormed the halls of the Philip A. Hart Senate Office Building, with actions focusing on Senators who support President Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” including Senator Thom Tillis. Multiple arrests were made.

On July 1, 2025, the U.S. Senate passed the bill narrowly with a 50-50 vote, with Vice President JD Vance casting the tie-breaking vote. It will head back to the House with a final vote before potentially landing on President Trump’s desk by the July 4 deadline.

06/30/2025

After fifteen and a half years in prison for a crime he says he didn’t commit, a fresh burst of hope has worked its way into the cell of Mahdi Ali. His legal team has filed an application with Hennepin County’s new Conviction Integrity Unit and recently received assurance from the unit’s director, Andrew Markquart, that the office would give Ali’s case its “full attention.”

Hennepin County's Conviction Integrity Unit agreed to look into Mahdi Ali's life sentence case, which he maintains his innocence in.

06/27/2025

NEW: After fifteen and a half years in prison for a crime he says didn't commit, a fresh burst of hope has worked its way into the cell of Mahdi Ali. His legal team has filed an application with Hennepin County's new Conviction Integrity Unit and recently received assurance from the unit's director, Andrew Markquart, that the office would give Ali's case its "full attention."

Just two months after forming, The Coalition to Free Mahdi Ali continues to grow, with more teachers, organizers and community members committing to fight until Ali's free from his life sentence. On June 10, 2025, the coalition held a press conference at the Hennepin County Government Center.

"He was the perfect patsy," said Marcia Howard, Ali's former high school teacher and President of the Minneapolis Federation of Educators.

06/25/2025

Eugenics, Border Wars & Population Control: The Tanton Network

Blatant bigotry in immigration discourse is the culmination of decades of targeted influence by an assortment of largely unknown groups known as the Tanton network. [2022]

Nearly everything Americans hear about the U.S.-Mexico border is wrong, and it’s very likely because of one relatively small but extremely well-funded and influential group of American racists. On July 5, 2022, a group of officials in Texas held a curious press conference. It consisted of a handfu...

06/25/2025

Employees arriving for work at Day & Zimmermann's weapons manufacturing HQ on June 3 were greeted with banners reading “Day & Zimmermann Out Of Philly! – No Genocide Profiteers In Our Neighborhood” & “Day and Zimmermann Profits From Genocide in Gaza.“

The visit to Day & Zimmermann's offices highlighted the role of the "genocide profiteer" in the January 29, 2024 massacre in which Israeli soldiers killed 6-year-old Hind Rajab, six of her family members, and two paramedics. Link to story and shortened video in comments.

06/24/2025

Two winters ago, Maria Nolasco moved into a sprawling homeless encampment in Salem, Massachusetts for seven months. Though there wasn’t much order or respect — and many didn’t like the small, 45-year-old Dominican woman — she liked her little tent.

“We called it houses because that was home,” Maria said. When she first arrived, there had been just a couple houses. She had watched Tent City, as locals coined it, grow into a community. But it didn’t last long.

“We’re nobody,” she said, “The homeless people are nobody. Worse than a trash barrel. That’s how they see us.”

Like cities and towns across the nation, Salem had developed its very own homeless encampment problem. State and local officials have long held Massachusetts, just as much of the rest of the country, is in an affordable housing crisis (it is estimated about 440,000 units short). More than 30% of renter households in the state are estimated to be extremely low income, and Salem’s cost of living is estimated to be 1.5 times the national average.

State and local officials have long held Massachusetts, just as much of the rest of the country, is in an affordable housing crisis.

06/22/2025

Activists have been showing up to meetings since the start of the 2025 legislative session in an attempt to create legal protections for wild rice. Wild rice, often known by its Objiwe name, manoomin, has been a means of sustenance for Dakota/Lakota and Ojibwe peoples since time immemorial. It is the reason that Ojibwe people migrated to this region, “the land where food grows on water” – without it, people’s health and wellbeing would suffer from not being able to live their way of life and not getting essential nutrients from the rice.

Activists first introduced SF 1247, a bill to protect wild rice, at the start of session with Senator Mary Kunesh (DFL-39). The bill would require risk justification before issuing permits, restrict watercraft usage in wild rice waters, and modify pesticide provisions.

The bill has not moved forward but activists are still determined to protect manoomin. Activists from Rise and Repair plan on continuing to show up to relevant hearings in order to make their presence known and gain further protections for wild rice. Full story and video in comments.

06/21/2025

While open carrying his AR-15 rifle at last Saturday’s “No Kings” protest in downtown Salt Lake, two volunteer “peacekeepers” there on behalf of the event organizers approached 24-year-old musician Arturo Gamboa and opened fire, wounding him and killing an unrelated protester, Arthur “Afa” Ah Loo.

Salt Lake City, UT — When friends of Arturo Gamboa heard that he had been shot at a protest last Saturday, they were shocked. A fixture in the punk and activist scenes of Salt Lake, Gamboa is a known leftist and musician who regularly carries fi****ms at protests in the city. And though he’s sho...

06/20/2025

Salt Lake City, UT — When friends of Arturo Gamboa heard that he had been shot at a protest last Saturday, they were shocked.

A fixture in the punk and activist scenes of Salt Lake, Gamboa is a known leftist and musician who regularly carries fi****ms at protests in the city. And though he’s shown up to rallies armed for years, Saturday was the first time it resulted in violence.

While open carrying his AR-15 rifle at Saturday’s “No Kings” protest in downtown Salt Lake, two volunteer “peacekeepers” there on behalf of the event organizers approached Gamboa and opened fire, wounding him and killing an unrelated protester, Arthur “Afa” Ah Loo. Now, a family mourns the death of a father, and Gamboa’s friends are preparing for challenges ahead as they rally support for the young punk rocker.

Read the full story at unicornriot.ninja, at the link in our bio

06/20/2025

NEW: Three Palestinian women from the Gaza Strip recently spoke to Unicorn Riot about being forcibly displaced by violent Israeli forces and living through war crimes and genocidal acts.

06/19/2025

Juneteenth is celebrated on June 19 as the day of “emancipation” for enslaved Africans. It was started in 1865 when Union soldiers made their way to Galveston, Texas, and shared the news of emancipation, telling slaves they were free. This was two years after the Emancipation Proclamation was signed into law, ending chattel slavery in the confederate states.

Listen to the late-great master storyteller Nothando Zulu tell the origin story of Juneteenth during a celebration at Webber Park Library in North Minneapolis six years ago.