Category Archives: Protest

Mark Rylance joins criticism of police ban on pro-Palestine march in London

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Protesters planned to gather outside BBC HQ, which is near a synagogue, on the Jewish holy day

Mark Rylance, the star of the BBC’s Wolf Hall, has joined the singer Charlotte Church and actor Juliet Stevenson to condemn a decision by the police to ban a pro-Palestine protest outside the corporation’s Broadcasting House headquarters.

Protesters were planning to gather in Portland Place in central London on Saturday 18 January before marching to Whitehall. A ban was imposed on Thursday by the Met, with officers citing the risk of “serious disruption” to a nearby synagogue on the Jewish holy day, as congregants attend Shabbat services.

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Met bans pro-Palestine march from gathering outside BBC headquarters

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Scotland Yard imposes Public Order Act owing to proximity of Broadcasting House to a nearby synagogue

Scotland Yard has banned a pro-Palestine march from gathering outside the BBC’s London headquarters next week, owing to its proximity to a synagogue.

Protesters were planning to gather outside Broadcasting House in Portland Place on Saturday before marching to Whitehall. On Thursday evening, police said they had imposed the Public Order Act to prevent the rally from gathering in the area as it risked causing “serious disruption” to a nearby synagogue on the Jewish holy day, as congregants attend Shabbat services.

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Invasion Day marcher stripped of $800,000 compensation as police duty of care ruling overturned

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Laura Cullen was among 5,000 people at a 2017 Sydney protest when she was knocked down and injured as NSW police tried to arrest a man

A landmark legal ruling that set out the duty of care New South Wales police owe people attending protests has been overturned on appeal, stripping an Invasion Day marcher of an $800,000 compensation claim and forcing her to repay $103,00 in legal costs.

The NSW court of appeal handed down the decision shortly before Christmas, overturning an earlier ruling that found police had a duty of care to a woman who attended a protest where she was a bystander to an arrest, and who was knocked down and injured during the arrest.

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Thousands of rival protesters rally in Seoul after Yoon Suk Yeol avoids arrest

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Crowds gather outside South Korean presidential residence where suspended leader is protected by security officers

Thousands of rival South Korean protesters have rallied in the capital a day after a failed attempt to arrest the country’s suspended president, Yoon Suk Yeol, for imposing a short-lived martial law decree that led to his impeachment.

The country has been plunged into political chaos since last month, with Yoon defiantly holed up in the presidential residence surrounded by hundreds of loyal security officers who have so far resisted efforts by prosecutors to arrest him.

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Met police pays out after arrest of teenager wrongly linked to protest

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Exclusive: Force reaches out-of-court settlement with Xanthe Wells, who was accused of being at pro-Palestine demonstration

Scotland Yard has paid £5,000 in an out-of-court settlement after allegedly unlawfully imprisoning a 17-year-old who was wrongly accused of being at a pro-Palestine protest where a building was spray-painted.

The case is said by civil liberties campaigners to be compelling evidence of a heavy-handed approach by the Met to the policing of demonstrations over the last year.

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South Koreans stage mass rally to demand removal of Yoon Suk Yeol

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Hundreds of thousands gather in central Seoul to protest against president suspended over martial law declaration

Hundreds of thousands of South Koreans flooded central Seoul on Saturday in the latest wave of protests demanding the removal of the country’s suspended president, Yoon Suk Yeol, a day after parliament voted to impeach his acting replacement.

Organisers claimed that more than 500,000 people participated in the rally, which took place amid a large police presence.

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Hong Kong police issue bounties for six more overseas activists

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HK$1m rewards target people accused of national security crimes who fled after pro-democracy protests

Hong Kong police have announced bounties of HK$1m (about £105,000) for information leading to the arrest of six democracy advocates based overseas and accused of national security crimes.

Authorities also said they would cancel the passports of seven others for whom bounties had already been issued, including the former lawmakers Ted Hui and Dennis Kwok, local media said.

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Georgian police fire teargas at pro-EU protesters as political crisis deepens

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Tbilisi experiences fifth day of demonstrations amid anger over ruling party’s decision to shelve EU accession talks

Georgian police have fired teargas to try to disperse thousands of pro-EU demonstrators rallying in the centre of Tbilisi amid a deepening political crisis in the Black Sea nation.

The country’s prime minister hours earlier had vowed “no negotiations” with the opposition, enraged by the ruling Georgian Dream party’s decision to shelve EU accession talks after it claimed victory in an election they decried as fraudulent.

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Georgian opposition leader arrested after fourth night of protests

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Police detained Zurab Japaridze as he was leaving rally outside parliament against suspension of EU accession talks

Georgian police have arrested a prominent opposition leader after using water cannon and teargas to scatter anti-government protesters who rallied outside parliament for a fourth consecutive night.

The protests were sparked by the government’s announcement last week that it was suspending talks on joining the EU. Critics saw that as confirmation of a Russian-influenced shift away from pro-western policies, something the ruling party denies.

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Amazon workers in 20 countries to protest or strike on Black Friday

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Workers and their representatives to press US retailer to respect their rights and take action on the climate crisis

Thousands of Amazon workers are expected to protest or strike in more than 20 countries during Black Friday to press for better workers’ rights and climate action from the US retailer..

Workers and representatives from unions and workers’ groups intend to join protests against the Seattle-based company’s practices between Black Friday and Cyber Monday (29 November and 2 December), one of the biggest shopping weekends of the year.

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Greens say leaked pokies reform report ‘a huge concern’ – as it happened

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This blog is now closed

Heatwave conditions are building over parts of Victoria and New South Wales today.

According to the Bureau of Meteorology, much of Victoria will experience heatwave conditions, with maximum temperatures in the mid to high 30s.

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NSW government bid to prevent Rising Tide protest in Newcastle harbour invalid, court finds

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Four-day exclusion zone an improper use of Marine Safety Act, judge rules, despite ‘skilful’ submission from transport minister Jo Haylen

The New South Wales supreme court has set aside a Minns government decision to cut off access to Newcastle harbour to try to prevent a four-day climate protest.

The court found the notice was invalid after hearing an urgent application from climate activist organisation Rising Tide on Thursday.

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Jimmy Lai trial: key points from media mogul’s testimony on first day

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Detained pro-democracy activist spoke for first time about charges against him under Hong Kong national security law

Jimmy Lai, the detained pro-democracy activist and media mogul who is the target of Hong Kong’s most high-profile national security case, took the stand in court on Wednesday. For the first time since he was detained in December 2020, Lai spoke publicly about the charges against him, for which he faces spending the rest of his life behind bars.

Four years after his arrest, the 77-year-old seemed older and not as strong as he used to be. His first words – swearing an oath on the Bible – were delivered hoarsely.

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Starmer says most farmers won’t be affected by inheritance tax change as Clarkson tells rally it’s a ‘hammer blow’ – UK politics live

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Jeremy Clarkson tells Westminster protest that government should admit plans weren’t ‘thought out and are a mistake’

In an interview with the BBC, Steve Reed, the environment secretary, defended imposing inheritance tax on some farms when Labour said in opposition that it was not planning to do that. Asked why the government changed its mind, he replied:

After we won the election, we discovered that the Conservatives have left a £22bn black hole in the public finances. And if we want to fix our National Health Service, rebuild all schools, provide the affordable housing that rural communities and across the country rely on, then we’ve had to ask those with the broader shoulders to pay a little bit more.

I’m sure we all feel betrayed because of the state that the Conservatives left the economy in. A £22bn pound black hole isn’t a small problem. It’s massive, and fixing that is necessary if we want to stabilise the economy and rebuild our public services.

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International outrage over sentencing of 45 pro-democracy activists in Hong Kong

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Human rights groups concerned after handing down of sentences of up to 10 years

Governments and human rights groups have expressed concern and outrage at the sentencing of 45 pro-democracy activists in Hong Kong after the city’s largest national security trial.

On Tuesday, a court handed down sentences, ranging from four years and two months to 10 years, to activists, former legislators, councillors and academics, who with two people acquitted in May made up a group known as the Hong Kong 47.

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HK47: dozens of pro-democracy activists jailed in Hong Kong’s largest national security trial

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Members of ‘Hong Kong 47’ – charged in 2021 over involvement in pre-election primary – sentenced to between four and 10 years

Dozens of Hong Kong’s most prominent pro-democracy figures have been jailed – one for 10 years – in the territory’s largest national security trial, after a prosecution that has been widely criticised as politically motivated.

Those jailed are among 47 people, known as the “Hong Kong 47”, who were charged in 2021 under the punitive national security law (NSL) with conspiracy to commit subversion over their involvement in pre-election primaries held in 2020 before the Hong Kong general election. Most have already spent more than three years in jail, but none were released on Tuesday.

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Paint thrown over Georgia elections chief as ruling party victory confirmed

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US and EU have called for investigation into alleged irregularities in pro-Russia ruling party’s election victory

The head of Georgia’s election commission was splashed with paint as the body confirmed the ruling party’s victory in the parliamentary elections.

David Kirtadze, a member of the former president Mikheil Saakashvili’s United National Movement (UNM), splashed black paint on the central election commission chair, Giorgi Kalandarishvili, on Saturday, resulting in an eye injury, a video broadcast on local TV channels showed. Hundreds of opposition supporters staged a rally outside the commission’s headquarters during the session.

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United Utilities refuses to hand over data on sewage discharges into Windermere

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Water company claims information is not in the public interest despite widespread pollution of UK waters

• ‘It’s a national disgrace’: fury at sewage-filled Windermere over toxic algae and dead fish

One of the UK’s biggest water companies is fighting a legal battle to block public access to data on treated sewage it is discharging into Windermere in the Lake District.

United Utilities initially claimed that data from phosphorus monitors at sewage treatment works at the lake “was not environmental information”. It later claimed the information on phosphorus – which can pollute watercourses when at high levels – was “internal communication” and exempt from disclosure.

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Dutch authorities investigate alleged police violence after pro-Palestinian protest

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Amsterdam police say they are aware of footage that appears to show officers beating protesters after banned rally

Dutch authorities have said they are investigating reports of police violence against pro-Palestinian protesters after a banned rally on Wednesday evening had been broken up.

Amsterdam police said on X that they were aware of online footage, which seemed to show police officers beating protesters who had already been released after being taken away from the site of the protest.

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Amsterdam police detain pro-Palestine protesters defying ban

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Dozens held under emergency measures imposed after violence that erupted around football match

Police have detained pro-Palestinian protesters rallying in central Amsterdam in defiance of a ban imposed after violence stemming from a football match between Ajax and Israeli club Maccabi Tel Aviv.

Dozens of demonstrators, some with Palestinian flags, chanted “Amsterdam is saying no to genocide” and “Free Palestine”.

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