Captain of national men’s team among those posting apparently coordinated social media messages
Leading players in Georgia’s national men’s football team have backed mass protests sparked by a “foreign influence” bill criticised for mirroring a repressive Russian law.
Riot police have clashed in recent nights with large rallies of people protesting outside the parliament building in Tbilisi against the bill, which is viewed in Brussels as a threat to future EU membership.
Continue reading...Curators protesting against Gaza conflict say ‘art can wait but women, children and people living though hell cannot’
The artists and curators of the Israeli national pavilion at the Venice Biennale have announced their decision not to open until “a ceasefire and hostage release agreement is reached” in the conflict in Gaza, on the opening preview day of the largest and most prominent global gathering in the art world.
A sign on the front of the Israel pavilion in the Giardini, or public gardens, in Venice, one of the main venues for the Biennale, conveyed the team’s decision – while the pavilion itself is guarded by three armed Italian military personnel.
Continue reading...Flights delayed and traffic disrupted as protesters in major US cities intensify call for ceasefire in Gaza
Thousands of people held protests across the US on Monday condemning Israel’s attack on Gaza, shutting down airports and disrupting traffic in major cities from New York to San Francisco.
A portion of the Kennedy Expressway into Chicago O’Hare international airport, one of the US’s busiest, was blocked off by protesters calling for an end to the violence.
Continue reading...Former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn gives jam as swathe of film and TV celebrities add support, including Zone of Interest’s Jonathan Glazer and Thor’s Tessa Thompson
A host of film directors and stars, including Susan Sarandon, Paul Mescal and Olivia Colman, have added their names to those offering time and memorabilia to a Cinema for Gaza auction that is raising funds for humanitarian relief in Palestine.
Joining the celebrities is the former Labour party leader Jeremy Corbyn – billed as the star of Sumotherhood, thanks to his cameo in last year’s Adam Deacon urban thriller – who is donating a Zoom poetry reading and a selection of homemade jam.
Continue reading...Let Women Speak leader says rally aimed to test Scotland’s new hate crime legislation, Telegraph reports
Gender-critical activists and counter-protesters clashed in Edinburgh in a dispute over transgender rights.
Let Women Speak (LWS), an organisation described by supporters as a “gender-critical feminist” campaign, led a rally outside the Royal Scottish Academy in the Scottish capital on Saturday.
Continue reading...Former ruling party insider Péter Magyar leads march to parliament building in Budapest
Tens of thousands of people have turned out in downtown Budapest to protest against the government of Viktor Orbán.
Protesters marched to parliament in the unusually warm spring weather, some of them shouting “We are not scared” and “Orbán, resign”.
Continue reading...University of Michigan president Santa J Ono proposes ‘disruptive activity policy’ after pro-Palestinian group cuts his speech short
The University of Michigan is facing backlash from students, faculty and civil rights attorneys following a proposal to significantly restrict the right to protest on campus.
The “disruptive activity policy”, announced last week in a campus-wide email from the university president, Santa J Ono, would create strict punishments for anyone who interrupts official university events, including speeches, classes, athletic events, field trips, performances, graduation and award ceremonies.
Continue reading...Exclusive: YouGov survey indicates loss of support among people in Britain for Israel’s war in Gaza
A majority of voters in Britain back a ban on arms sales to Israel, according to a YouGov poll.
One of the first up-to-date assessments of whether Israel is losing public support in key allied states, the research also suggests most people believe the Israeli government is violating human rights in Gaza.
Continue reading...A cabinet split over military service for ultra-Orthodox Jews and large street protests demanding the release of hostages are threatening the prime minister’s grip on power. Bethan McKernan reports from Jerusalem
As the war in Gaza approaches its seventh month, tens of thousands of protesters in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and other cities in Israel have demanded the release of hostages held in Gaza and called for new elections.
The Guardian’s Jerusalem correspondent, Bethan McKernan, tells Michael Safi it is a moment of political danger for the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, who also faces pressure from within his ruling coalition over the issue of exemption from military service granted to the ultra-Orthodox Jewish community. Israel’s allies, including the US, are piling pressure on Netanyahu to urgently allow aid into Gaza, which faces a famine, and to spell out how he will address the aftermath of the conflict.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Max Hill KC says it is imperative to protect free speech when setting limits on protesting
The former director of public prosecutions for England and Wales has warned against the risk of creating “thought crimes” amid the recent clampdown on protesters and demonisation of demonstrators by politicians.
In an interview with the Guardian, Max Hill KC, who was head of the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) from 2018 until November last year, said it was imperative to protect free speech when setting limits on protest.
Continue reading...Beijing dismisses chorus of concern from western governments over punitive new law as slander
China has accused western governments and the United Nations of slander after they criticised Hong Kong’s new national security law, which was rushed through the city’s pro-Beijing parliament this week.
The law, known as Article 23, covers newly defined acts of treason, espionage, theft of state secrets, sedition and foreign interference. Critics said it was ushering in a “new era of authoritarianism”, would further erode the rights and freedoms of residents, and would scare off international business and investment.
Continue reading...Voters told to swamp polling stations all at once and spoil ballots, after two days of dye attacks, fires and Ukrainian cross-border strikes
Critics of Vladimir Putin and his Kremlin regime have called for massive protests at Russian polling stations on Sunday, the final day of a presidential election that is guaranteed to cement his hardline rule.
The three-day vote has already been hit by Ukrainian bombardments and a series of incursions into Russian territory by anti-Putin sabotage groups. Early on Sunday, a drone attack caused a fire at a refinery at Slavyansk in the Krasnodar region of southern Russia, where officials said one person died of a heart attack, while two people died after drone strikes in the Russian city of Belgorod on Saturday, according to officials.
Continue reading...Blockades at facilities in Germany, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden, with protests in Scotland and action expected in Denmark
Climate activists in four countries are blocking access to North Sea oil infrastructure as part of a coordinated pan-European civil disobedience protest.
Blockades have been taking place at oil and gas terminals, refineries and ports in Germany, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden, in protest at the continued exploitation of North Sea fossil fuel deposits.
Continue reading...Deputy Labour leader says party must follow procedures but says she would personally like MP to have Labour whip restored. This live blog is closed
In his speech Keir Starmer has just confirmed that Labour would stop ticket touts buying up tickets for events and re-selling them at rip-off prices.
This is what Labour said about the plan in a news release this morning.
Reselling tickets for profit has already been banned in many countries, but under the Tories, fans have been let down.
Too often, genuine fans are missing out on getting tickets only to see those same tickets on secondary ticketing websites at far higher prices, making them unaffordable and putting them out of reach.
My first ever trip abroad was to Malta with the Croydon youth Philharmonic Orchestra. You will know that excitement you feel when you have an encounter with the arts that changes your life. Everyone in the room will know that the sense, I suppose, of being drawn into something that seems bigger than ourselves, of being truly moved by a piece of music, or painting, or a play …
Even now even now, listening to Beethoven or Brahms as I read the Sunday papers, takes the edge off some of the more uncomfortable stories.
Continue reading...New extremism definition to be published by Michael Gove is already being challenged by Muslim groups and experts
Ministers and civil servants will be banned from talking to or funding organisations that undermine “the UK’s system of liberal parliamentary democracy”, under a new definition of extremism criticised by the government’s terror watchdog and Muslim community groups.
Michael Gove, the communities secretary, will tell MPs on Thursday that officials should consider whether a group maintains “public confidence in government” before working with it.
Continue reading...Jennifer Edmunds sued police, which have now settled after dropping charges relating to 2021 gathering on Clapham Common
The Metropolitan police has agreed to pay £10,000 in damages to a woman arrested at the Sarah Everard vigil in Clapham, her solicitors have said.
Jennifer Edmunds was detained overnight and charged with breaching Covid restrictions at the Clapham Common gathering on 13 March 2021, said Bhatt Murphy Solicitors.
Continue reading...Clerics say Michael Gove’s anti-extremism strategy risks targeting Muslims and may threaten freedom of speech and peaceful protest
The archbishops of Canterbury and York have joined the growing list of critics of the government’s new extremism definition, which they have warned risks “disproportionately targeting Muslim communities” and “driving us apart”.
Michael Gove will present his new counter-extremism strategy on Thursday, which he says will target organisations that undermine British democracy.
Continue reading...Thunberg and other activists dragged away from doorway they were obstructing in climate protest
Swedish police have forcibly removed Greta Thunberg and other climate activists after they blocked the entrance to the Swedish parliament for a second day.
Two officers lifted Thunberg and dragged her away before putting her down on the ground about 20 metres away from the door she had been obstructing.
Continue reading...Aaron Bushnell, who died last month, ‘sacrificed everything’ for Palestinians, says mayor of Jericho
The Palestinian town of Jericho has named a street after Aaron Bushnell, the US air force member who set himself on fire outside the Israeli embassy in Washington to protest against the war in Gaza.
The 25-year-old, who died on 25 February, “sacrificed everything” for Palestinians, said the mayor of Jericho, Abdul Karim Sidr, as the street sign was unveiled on Sunday.
Continue reading...Marchers on Saturday came from wide range of backgrounds as rightwing press characterises city as ‘no-go zone for Jews’
As on previous Saturdays in the past six months, there were two marches taking place in London yesterday. The first, a gathering of tens of thousands of full-throated, flag-waving supporters of an immediate ceasefire in Gaza gathered at Hyde Park Corner at noon, and shuffled peaceably and patiently in the sunshine in the direction of the American embassy at Vauxhall, over the river.
The second march was taking place mostly in the imaginations of right-wing commentators and politicians who increasingly choose to see these displays of solidarity with the Palestinian cause only as a provocation and a threat. Following the prime minister’s Downing Street address on 1 March which represented these gatherings as representative of “forces trying to tear apart” our democracy, the latest figure to loud-hailer that version of reality was the government-appointed commissioner for countering extremism, Robin Simcox, who argued on Friday the marches were “a permissive environment for radicalisation”, leading to a hysterical Daily Telegraph front-page headline that read: “London is now a no-go zone for Jews”.
Continue reading...