Category Archives: Protest

Jillian Segal’s office hand-picked candidate to assess controversial university antisemitism report card

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Greg Craven, a former vice-chancellor of Australian Catholic University, chosen after no other bids made for the tender

Australia’s antisemitism envoy hand-picked Greg Craven to lead her controversial university report card process after receiving no response from five firms approached during an open tender process.

Documents released under freedom of information laws showed Jillian Segal’s office initially approached three independent consulting firms and two law firms to potentially conduct the assessment of Australian universities and how well they were dealing with antisemitism on campus, but all of them declined to bid on the tender.

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Palestinian solidarity in Britain ‘being silenced and criminalised’

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‘Index of repression’ includes smears, disinformation and harassment, according to advocacy group

Palestinian solidarity is being “silenced, criminalised and sanctioned”, according to an advocacy group that says it has recorded more than 900 examples of repression across Britain in the last six years.

People who have been targeted have suffered smears, disinformation, harassment, doxing (having private or identifying information published online), visa cancellations, financial blacklisting, loss of employment and arrest, according to the European Legal Support Center, which along with the research group Forensic Architecture has created the “index of repression”.

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Minns government undermined own goal with NSW protest restrictions, constitutional challenge hears

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Lawyer for protest groups argues state needs to prove it was ‘rational to prevent all protests’ to achieve social cohesion

Lawyers for three protest groups have argued a Minns government law which effectively banned marches in Sydney’s CBD made its own objective of enhancing social cohesion “worse”.

On Thursday the NSW court of appeal heard the constitutional challenge against the anti-protest law, which was passed in the wake of the Bondi terror.

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‘Our classrooms are empty because the graveyards are full’: Iran’s students on why they are protesting again

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As details of the death toll for January’s protests continue to emerge, three students explain why they are resisting a return to normality

More than 45 days after a brutal January crackdown that left thousands of Iranian protesters dead, students across several universities are protesting again. As Iran’s new academic term began on Saturday, students in Tehran gathered on campus, chanting anti-government slogans, despite a heavy security presence and plainclothes officers stationed outside university gates.

The Guardian spoke to protesting students about why they were rallying despite the fact that thousands had been killed and tens of thousands arrested in the January demonstrations.

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NHS doctor suspended over alleged antisemitic social media posts

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Rahmeh Aladwan barred from practising for 15 months pending inquiry amid claims she ‘celebrated terrorist acts’

An NHS doctor accused of antisemitism has been suspended for 15 months pending an investigation, the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service (MPTS) in the UK has ruled.

The General Medical Council (GMC) is investigating Dr Rahmeh Aladwan over posts and comments made across various social media platforms after several complaints, including from the Jewish Medical Association UK and the Campaign Against Antisemitism.

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Protests erupt in China’s Guizhou province over cremation mandate

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Villagers demonstrate against drive for alternative funeral practices instead of burial to preserve land resources

Protests have erupted in China’s southern Guizhou province, the latest in a string of rural demonstrations that have seen incidents of unrest increase by 70% compared with last year.

The protests in Shidong town started over the weekend in response to a directive from local authorities that people should be cremated rather than buried after their death.

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Police detonated a ‘stinger’ grenade at a Melbourne protest. Now two activists may sue over their injuries

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Grenades filled with rubber pellets and other so-called ‘less lethal’ munitions have been increasingly deployed, despite being linked to serious injuries and even deaths

Scout* barely realised that something round and hard, with smoke coming from it, had landed in front of them before it exploded.

Pain suddenly shot through their leg and arm. Scout fell to their knees before someone nearby helped them rush out of the area.

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Ed Miliband urges Labour to move on after Starmer apologises to Streeting for hostile briefings from No 10 – UK politics live

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Fallout from extraordinary briefing operation against Wes Streeting continues as calls grow for Starmer to sack his chief of staff Morgan McSweeney

Haroon Siddique is the Guardian’s legal affairs correspondent.

Five UN experts have written to ministers criticising the ban on Palestine Action as something that would be expected in an authoritarian regime rather than a liberal democracy.

In the work of UN experts in monitoring counter-terrorism laws globally, abuse of laws to proscribe organisations as terrorist that are not genuinely so has more commonly occurred in states that are authoritarian and lack legal and political cultures of respect for human rights, legality, due process and independent judicial safeguards, in order to target civil society organisations, human rights defenders, political dissidents and minorities.

It is deeply concerning that such practices appear to have spread to a number of liberal democracies. Organisations must never be listed as terrorist for engaging in protected speech or legitimate activities in defence of human rights.

We are concerned that proscription and its consequences result in unnecessary and disproportionate restrictions on the rights to freedom of expression, peaceful assembly and association, and the rights to take part in public affairs and to liberty.

The Scottish government’s tax decisions enable us to deliver higher investment in the NHS and policies like free tuition not available anywhere else in the UK.

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Olympians call on Iran to halt execution of boxing champion

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Sports personalities including Martina Navratilova and the swimmer Sharron Davies sign letter condemning Mohammad Javad Vafaei Sani’s death sentence

More than 20 Olympic medallists, coaches and other international athletes, including the tennis player Martina Navratilova and the swimmer Sharron Davies, have signed a letter calling for a halt to the execution of a boxing champion and coach, who is on death row in Iran.

Amid growing international outrage over Iran’s escalating use of capital punishment as a tool of oppression, the strongly worded letter condemns the Iranian regime’s decision to uphold the death sentence of Mohammad Javad Vafaei Sani.

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Protesters target major new Nigerian museum embroiled in looted artefacts row

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Protest at Mowaa comes amid dispute over ownership of Benin bronzes looted by British colonial forces

Protesters have disrupted a preview event at a major new museum in the Nigerian city of Benin that has become embroiled in a row over the restitution of artefacts looted by British colonial forces.

The demonstrators asserted that the opening of the Museum of West African Art (Mowaa) is a violation of Benin City’s cultural heritage, which falls under the authority of its traditional ruler, the Oba of Benin, Ewuare II.

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Tanzania police arrest opposition party official after deadly election protests

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Chadema party says deputy secretary general arrested and calls election of incumbent president fraudulent

Tanzanian authorities have detained a senior official from the main opposition party, Chadema, amid a spate of arrests in connection to deadly protests during elections last week.

More than 1,000 people were killed by security forces during the demonstrations, according to Chadema and human rights bodies. The Tanzanian government has said these figures were exaggerated but did not give its own figures.

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Death of Iranian activist who burned picture of supreme leader causes outcry

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Iran’s police say Omid Sarlak, 22, shot himself, but fellow activists suspect he may have been killed for his views

The death of a young Iranian man who had filmed himself burning a photograph of the country’s supreme leader has sparked a war of words between state media and activists over how he died.

Government-sanctioned news websites reported that Omid Sarlak, who was in his 20s, had been found in his car on Saturday in western Iran with a gunshot wound to his head and traces of gunpowder on his hands. Iranian police said Sarlak had “died by suicide”.

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Jailed UK climate protesters facing conditions reserved for extremists on release

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Exclusive: Just Stop Oil activist was banned from attending gatherings, including meeting a friend in a cafe, without permission

Environmental protesters are being given licence conditions on release from jail that are supposed to be limited to extremism cases.

Ella Ward, 22, was banned from going to any meetings or gatherings, except for worship, without permission from her probation officer, although the Ministry of Justice dropped the condition after she brought a legal challenge.

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About 700 killed in Tanzania election protests, opposition says

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Demonstrators took to streets after president’s main challengers were excluded from ballot

About 700 people have been killed during three days of election protests in Tanzania, the main opposition party has said.

Protests erupted on election day on Wednesday over what demonstrators said was the stifling of the opposition after the exclusion of key candidates from the presidential ballot.

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Greek police increase security after protests against Israeli cruise ship

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Measures are being taken at the harbours of Patras and Katakolo after demonstrations earlier this week

Greek authorities have stepped up security in two harbours in an attempt to keep protesters away from a cruise liner carrying Israeli tourists on an 11-day tour around the Mediterranean.

The measures taken at Patras and Katakolo in the Peloponnese followed demonstrations when the MS Crown Iris docked at Kalamata earlier this week. In July passengers on the same ship were prevented from disembarking and it was forced to divert to Cyprus after local people staged a protest in support of Palestine on the Cycladic isle of Syros.

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‘Still angry’: more than 50,000 protest in Valencia on first anniversary of floods

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Demonstrators call on regional leader to resign over handling of one of Europe’s deadliest natural disasters in decades

More than 50,000 people took to the streets of Spain’s eastern city of Valencia on Saturday to mark the first anniversary of last year’s deadly floods and denounce the authorities’ handling of the disaster.

Demonstrators, many carrying photos of the victims, called on the regional leader, Carlos Mazón, to resign over what they say was the slow response to one of Europe’s deadliest natural disasters in decades.

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Irish police brace for more unrest at Dublin hotel housing asylum seekers

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Gardaí deployed at Citywest facility as police issue statement urging people to stay away from violent standoff

Irish police are bracing for fresh disturbances outside a Dublin hotel that houses asylum seekers and has become a flashpoint for anti-immigration activists.

Gardaí deployed near the Citywest facility on Thursday in anticipation of another possible standoff with mobs that on Tuesday and Wednesday night threw fireworks and missiles and set a police vehicle on fire.

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Third night of unrest in Dublin as protesters target asylum hotel

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Officers pelted with stones and fireworks near Citywest facility after man charged over alleged assault on 10-year-old

Twenty-three people were arrested after an hours-long standoff with Irish police, whose members were directly struck with fireworks, stones and other debris on a third consecutive night of disorder in Dublin.

Two members of the Irish police service, An Garda Síochána, were taken to hospital with injuries sustained during clashes with protesters. One garda was struck on the head by a bottle while the other sustained a shoulder injury.

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October heat records broken in WA; police use pepper spray on Melbourne protesters – as it happened

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This blog is now closed

Asked about the hundreds of Palestinians from Gaza approved for visas in Australia and whether the ceasefire changes anything, Tony Burke said he’s not sure all of those approved for visas are still alive.

He says some will choose to stay in Australia, and others may end up with other options they might take up.

And there will be some people who we don’t hear from again. And there’s some on that case list that we haven’t heard from for a very long time. A significant number of them are part of split family groups, where some of the family is, in fact, here in Australia and they’re wanting to join.

You need to remember, our humanitarian program that we run around the world isn’t limited to places where there’s an active war. There is decency that Australia shows to people from around the world … there are Israelis who have been approved for humanitarian visas as well. I’ve got no intention of cancelling those either. We’re a decent country. We are talking about people where all the checks have been made. And some of them won’t choose to come here, some of them won’t be alive any more …

Probably the most significant change in response these days is the majority of people now get sent straight back to their country of origin. So, you used to really only see people going back to Indonesia or off to Nauru for processing. But the majority of cases now are going straight back to country of origin.

We had one very recently where, within 72 hours, we had everybody back to their country of origin. There was one in May, for example, where it was a mixed boatload of people from different countries and we had to, you know, from three different sorts of citizenships that people had come from. It was more complex but we still made sure we returned people directly straight back to the countries of origin.

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Republicans mostly silent as millions of Americans protest Trump on No Kings day

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Outside of typical remarks from Donald Trump, JD Vance and Mike Johnson and a Fox News report, party stayed mum

Republican voices were mostly silent as No Kings rallies and marches against Trump administration policies unfurled on Saturday, many in the spirit of a street party that countered the “hate America” depiction advanced by senior members of the party.

Instead of provocation, there were marching bands, huge banners with “we the people” references to the US constitution, and protesters wearing inflatable costumes, particularly frogs, which have emerged as a sign of resistance.

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