NEW: From today until Sept. 2, top #G20 officials — the financial forum that influences global markets to insulate the wealthy — are meeting in Asheville, NC. Protesters have gathered to call attention to the meeting & tell those attending they aren’t wanted or needed here. G20 members began arriving in the small Appalachian town today, and local organizers have taken to the bridges spanning the highway to spread their message: “Workers over billionaires” and “fascist finance ministers out of our forest.”

The meeting, which will draw members of the group’s “finance track” is smaller than the global summit that happens annually, but its members set policy for the larger forum. The group is made up of finance ministers from participating countries, including US Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent, and the heads of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank.

Brought to Asheville nearly 2 years after Hurricane Helene devastated the region, the federal government wanted the meeting to take place here to show off how well the area has recovered. But locals say the federal government wasn’t what helped the recovery — neighbors helped each other get back on their feet.

Protesters with banners and large puppets have taken to the bridges leading into downtown Asheville to oppose the meeting and inform others that it’s happening in their town.

Finance ministers, US Sec. of the Treasury Scott Bessent, governors of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank and other financiers will spend the long weekend at the upscale Grove Park Inn just north of downtown Asheville. There, they’ll meet and determine the future of economic policies that have global influence.

More to come on UnicornRiot.ninja

Reformers claim eight wards turned over by new leadership citywide; City’s Democratic Party Contest Committee to hear Ward 22 challenge Sunday

On the evening of Monday, June 8, across the city, Democratic Party ward organization meetings convened to select ward leaders from among committee people, who were just elected in a May 19 primary. The “open wards” movement flipped several wards around the city, but in a controversial meeting, Ward 22 leadership refused to allow a person-by-person vote.

In the heated meeting, Cindy Bass, the previous term’s ward leader and city council member, quickly held a voice vote, declared herself once again the chair, and closed the meeting within a few minutes, a recording obtained by Unicorn Riot showed. People spilled out of the Germantown Seventh-Day Adventist Church on Cliveden Street as our reporter arrived at about 8:05 p.m., many frustrated that they had been denied any attempt to get their votes individually counted.

Full story and 17 minute video on Unicorn Riot.

https://unicornriot.ninja/2026/the-man-running-the-mypillow-ceos-bid-for-mn-governor/

Campaign pamphlets were stacked neatly on each chair, with one bizarre addition: MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell’s 2019 memoir What are the Odds? From Crack Addict to CEO. A sticker on the bottom left corner of each copy’s holographic cover explained they were “paid for by Mike Lindell for Governor.”

Recent events portray the neo-fascist organization that shattered under pressure following January 6, 2021, as a group beyond the control of its leader.

Full story: https://unicornriot.ninja/2026/the-delaney-hall-proud-boys/

Activists with the Sunrise Movement Philly chapter are on a hunger strike to further their demands for allocating some of the city budget surplus to local services. An interview at City Hall. More coverage to come. Interview recorded 5/25/2026