Charity condemns ‘disgraceful’ intimidation and insists it will continue core purpose of saving lives at sea
The Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) has had a “significant” boost in donations since becoming a target of far-right agitators protesting over small boat crossings.
The charity’s staff and volunteers have been subjected to “online and physical abuse” after involvement in a rescue on Sunday in which a dingy carrying asylum seekers was brought into Portsmouth.
Continue reading...Hamza Chowdhury says he will challenge party leader and has received nominations from other Green councillors
Healey says Andy Burnham set out in his statement to MPs last week what he thought had gone wrong
The fundamentals of our economy [were] hollowed out through a series of past policy decisions, political power was centralised, weakening the relationships between the people, the businesses and the institutions who can make things happen beyond Whitehall. The economic enablers were privatised and outsourced, leaving accountability to a thicket of arm’s length bodies and regulators, too often without the predictability or the pace that underpins a thriving market economy. And our country was deindustrialised as the cost to make anything, to build anything here soared, and our dependence on unreliable sources grew, including in areas critical to our national security and sovereignty.
Let me be clear, I recognise that the costs of business, its energy bills, regulation, burdens, planning constraints, labour costs, have grown since Covid and I want to draw the line.
And whether it is the cost of business or the cost of living, the only way we deal with these in the long term is growth.
Continue reading...Taraneh Rahimi was told prison guards would rape her sister, Romina, if she did not sign a confession
The twins were 19 and still in high school when they were taken from their beds in the dead of night by masked men later identified as being sent by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps.
After four months of desperately seeking news from hospitals and state institutions, their mother, Marzieh Nourmohammadi, finally learned their fate. Taraneh and Romina Rahimi had been seized over their decision to join millions on the streets of Iranian cities during the January protests against the regime. The twins were unrecognisable by the time of their mother’s prison visit in May.
Continue reading...As photojournalist sentenced to 15 years, rights groups warn law would turn civic engagement into security crime
Iran has taken the first step towards criminalising contact with foreign media, in a move human rights groups have said attempts to “sever the entire Iranian society from the rest of the world”.
For journalists, researchers and even ordinary citizens, the proposed law being discussed by Iranian lawmakers this month could make speaking to international audiences and groups a potential criminal act and restrict coverage of events such as January’s mass anti-regime protests.
Continue reading...Beto Coral held up banners in Florida warning fellow Colombians to not vote for Abelardo de la Espriella
In the week before Colombia’s presidential election, Beto Coral, a well-known activist living in the United States, travelled to Florida to persuade fellow Colombians not to vote for the far-right candidate Abelardo de la Espriella.
Coral held banners outside polling stations in Miami warning that the millionaire lawyer, whose candidacy was endorsed by Donald Trump, would “help deport all of you”.
Continue reading...High schoolers join university walkouts in major cities and several smaller locations amid urge to ‘stand up against the far right’
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Calls for striking students to stay in school are unlikely to deter thousands across the country preparing to take part in a major walkout in protest against Pauline Hanson.
High schoolers have begun joining the coordinated university union protests taking place in every major city and several smaller locations across the country on Thursday afternoon.
Continue reading...People voice frustration with officials’ failure to engage with community over placement of asylum seekers in area
A smashed window pane and some broken eggshells on a footpath were some of the tell-tale signs of events that took place this week on a residential street at the edge of Thetford.
On Friday afternoon it was not hard to find local people with a sense of foreboding after the latest disorder in the Norfolk market town which has seen crowds attempt to break into properties believed to be housing asylum seekers.
Continue reading...Two members given ‘stern warnings’ after concert and barred from returning, with band also excluded from performing in Singapore again, say authorities
British trip-hop band Massive Attack has been barred from performing in Singapore after an investigation found two members unfurled a Palestinian flag during a concert, police said.
Singapore, known for its tough laws on public speech and assembly, bans the open display of all foreign flags, national emblems or banners without a permit.
Continue reading...Government fears social discontent on ‘most important battlefield’ of economy and livelihoods as war takes its toll amid anti-state dissent
Iran, in the middle of an escalating five-month war with the US, continues to stumble from one internal crisis to another – whether it is over public executions, the rising cost of living, the alleged bias of the state broadcaster or even the post-midnight destruction of pavements outside liberal-leaning Tehran cafes. Very little that happens in Iran, cultural or political, momentous or trivial, does so uncontested.
But there is now a growing threat of a long diplomatic deadlock, forged by mutual distrust in which neither side believes the other will stick to any agreement. That impasse has occurred as the war broadens, drawing in Yemen, Iraq and now Egypt. In Iran, at least, the advocates of escalation are winning. As a result, a convergence of Iran’s conflicts, internal and external, becomes more likely.
Continue reading...Local civil rights group alleges authorities removed evidence of killings amid communications blackout
At least 30 people are alleged to have been killed in Pakistan-administered Kashmir in the past two days as part of what has been claimed is a brutal state crackdown that has engulfed the disputed region for weeks.
According to a local civil society group, Joint Awami Action Committee (JAAC), the Pakistani security services fired on tens of thousands of peaceful protesters, killing 25 people on Monday and five more on Tuesday.
Continue reading...At least 1,500 protest after six men on drug-related charges put in solitary confinement before possible execution
Prisoners at Iran’s largest jail have sewn their lips shut as hundreds of them joined a mass hunger strike amid a surge in executions over drug offences and charges linked to anti-government protests.
The hunger strike, involving at least 1,500 death row prisoners at Ghezel Hesar prison near Tehran, began two weeks ago after six men convicted on drug-related charges were transferred to solitary confinement before their possible execution, according to Iranian rights groups.
Continue reading...Cockroach Janta party says government has broken promise, with detentions in Delhi, Assam, West Bengal and Bihar
India’s youth-led “Cockroach” movement, whose nationwide protests forced the resignation of the education minister, has accused the government of backtracking on its promise not to act against student protesters and has threatened to restart demonstrations.
The Cockroach Janta party (CJP), which organised mass protests over exam paper leaks and other irregularities, said it had received reports of hundreds of students being detained or “harassed” by police.
Continue reading...Dharmendra Pradhan steps down after demonstrations over exam leak scandal, prompting celebrations among thousands of protesters
India’s education minister, Dharmendra Pradhan, has resigned after a week of mass demonstrations, handing a major victory to a new youth movement that has posed an unprecedented challenge to Narendra Modi’s government.
In a statement on Saturday afternoon, Pradhan said he had submitted his letter of resignation to the prime minister after student pressure.
Continue reading...Bollywood stars accused of ‘cowardice’ as hundreds of thousands of young Indians take to the streets to challenge government
Bollywood stars and other Indian celebrities have faced fierce criticism for staying silent in the face of some of the biggest protests India has seen in years.
Hundreds of thousands of young Indians took to the streets this week as part of a new youth movement that calls itself the Cockroach Janata party (CJP), demanding accountability over exam paper leaks in an unprecedented challenge to prime minister Narendra Modi’s government. Many vented their anger against what they saw as “cowardice” from India’s biggest celebrities.
Continue reading...Sonam Wangchuk secures ‘hard bargain’ with Delhi but talks between government and movement leaders stall
The Cockroach activist Sonam Wangchuk has ended a 26-day hunger strike, as youth-led protests continued to erupt across India and leaders of the movement said there was no breakthrough in talks with the government.
Wangchuk had been fasting since June in solidarity with the Cockroach Janata party (CJP), a new youth-led movement that has been holding mass protests calling for government accountability and the resignation of the education minister, Dharmendra Pradhan, over exam paper leaks. The leaks affected 2 million students in May and have been linked to more than a dozen suicides.
Continue reading...PM says ‘those who try to harm the future of our youth will not be spared’ as scandal spirals into widespread anger
Narendra Modi has vowed to set up “fast-track courts” to speed up the punishment of officials accused of leaking examination papers, as the Indian prime minister seeks to quell a youth-led “cockroach” protest movement that has rocked Delhi and posed one of the biggest challenges to his government.
In his first public remarks on the movement, Modi posted on X: “Nothing is more important than the welfare and future of our youth … Those who try to harm the future of our youth will not be spared.”
Continue reading...Proceedings suspended as politicians call for Modi government to address police violence and education scandals
India’s opposition parties have shut down parliament in a protest calling for the resignation of the education minister, in solidarity with the new youth-led “cockroach” movement.
Opposition politicians, led by the Congress party leader Rahul Gandhi, gathered outside the parliament building in Delhi on Wednesday, many dressed in black and waving placards calling on Dharmendra Pradhan to quit.
Continue reading...Thousands of people again on the streets of Delhi calling for education reforms despite police violence on Monday
Taru had come to the protest prepared this time. In one hand was an anti-government poster and in the other was a bicycle helmet. “We need to have protection in case Delhi police beat us up again,” said the 25-year-old, who stood among her friends. “We are not scared of them and we won’t run away, no matter what they do. We’ll stay here till they listen.”
On Tuesday, central Delhi still thronged with thousands of protesters, as an unprecedented expression of dissent against the powerful ruling Narendra Modi government showed no sign of abating.
Continue reading...Kai Wegner admits poor communication in handling of power blackout overshadowed his other political work
Berlin’s embattled mayor has abandoned his campaign to stand for reelection after failing to recover from a row over his decision to play tennis while large parts of the German capital were hit by a power blackout in January.
Kai Wegner announced on Friday afternoon that he would not run in Berlin’s 20 September election after coming under huge pressure to step down from his party, the Christian Democrats (CDU). Some members wrote an open letter to Wegner this week in which they appealed to him to withdraw his candidacy.
Continue reading...Thousands of women are killed in dowry disputes each year, despite the practice being banned in 1961
Dowry deaths in India no longer provoke the public anger they once did, despite thousands of women’s lives still being lost every year, according to new research.
The killings – women who are murdered or driven to suicide following dowry disputes between families – have also faded from political debate, despite an increase in cases.
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