Category Archives: Protest

Violent protests erupt in Martinique over high cost of living with 14 injured

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French Caribbean island sees scenes of vehicles engulfed in flames and gutted buildings as officials impose curfew

Officials in the French Caribbean island of Martinique have imposed a 9pm to 5am curfew in parts of its capital to quell escalating violent protests over the high cost of living.

According to Radio France International (RFI), at least 14 people, including 11 police, have been injured – some by firearms – as alarming scenes on social media showed vehicles engulfed in flames, gutted buildings and heavily geared riot police marching towards the protests.

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Amnesty calls for release of peaceful protesters in Angola

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Health of three of four detained a year ago has deteriorated sharply after medical care withheld, charity says

Amnesty International has urged authorities in Angola to free four activists who were detained a year ago for planning a peaceful protest, and an influencer who criticised the president in a TikTok video.

The four activists were arrested in September last year before a protest against restrictions on motorcycle taxi drivers. They were sentenced to two years and five months in prison for “disobedience and resisting orders”. The health of three of the four activists has deteriorated sharply in prison, Amnesty said.

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Pro-Palestine protester cleared of racial offence over ‘coconut’ placard

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Marieha Hussain had denied her placard depicting Rishi Sunak and Suella Braverman was racially abusive

A teacher who held a placard depicting Rishi Sunak and Suella Braverman as coconuts has been found not guilty of a racially aggravated public order offence.

Marieha Hussain, 37, had denied the prosecution’s allegation that the placard she held at a pro-Palestine protest was “racially abusive”.

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Hundreds gather on a Seattle beach to remember US activist killed by Israeli military

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Ayşenur Ezgi Eygi was killed while protesting against West Bank settlements, though a witness says she posed no threat

For her 26th birthday in July, human rights activist Ayşenur Ezgi Eygi gathered friends for a bonfire at one of her favorite places, a sandy beach in Seattle where green-and-white ferries cruise across the dark, flat water and ospreys fish overhead.

On Wednesday night, hundreds of people gathered on the same beach in grief, love and anger to mourn her. Eygi was shot and killed by Israeli soldiers last Friday in the occupied West Bank, where she had gone to protest and bear witness to Palestinian suffering.

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Injuries and arrests in Melbourne as anti-war protesters and police clash in fiery scenes

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Police accuse some protesters of throwing acid and other objects amid criticism of officers’ tactics outside Land Forces weapons expo

Dozens of police and protesters have been injured and 39 people arrested amid a series of confrontations at an anti-war protest in the Melbourne CBD in which pepper spray was deployed and horse faeces was thrown at officers.

Fires broke out while police responded to a rally outside the Land Forces exposition – an international military conference – at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre on Wednesday.

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Sunak and Braverman wrong to lambast Met over Palestine demos, report says

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HM Inspectorate of Constabulary report gives police largely clean bill of health on impartiality after accusations of bias

The former prime minister Rishi Sunak and his home secretary Suella Braverman have been criticised in an official report for wrongly lambasting the Metropolitan police’s handling of pro-Palestinian protests.

The report from HM Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services gives police a largely clean bill of health about its impartiality.

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Thousands of anti-war activists to disrupt weapons expo as Melbourne braces for biggest protest in decades

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Victoria police erect ring of steel around event, which is expected to attract up to 25,000 activists

As many as 25,000 protesters are set to cause chaos ahead of a weapons expo to be held in Melbourne on Wednesday, with some already vandalising hotels and blocking traffic.

Interstate police have been called in to bolster law and order ahead of what could be Victoria’s biggest protest since the chaos surrounding the World Economic Forum in 2000.

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Thousands of leftwing protesters show anger as Michel Barnier made PM

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Demonstrators accuse Emmanuel Macron of perpetrating ‘denial of democracy’ by choosing conservative politician

Thousands of angry leftwing protesters took to French streets on Saturday two days after Emmanuel Macron appointed a conservative prime minister.

Demonstrators accused the president of a “denial of democracy” after his decision to name the former EU Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier, 73, as leader of the government.

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Protests in Israel and strike called amid eruption of outrage over Gaza war

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Tens of thousands take to streets as anger rises at Netanyahu government after deaths of six hostages

Tens of thousands of Israelis took to the streets on Sunday night and a general strike was called amid an eruption of public outrage over the government’s handling of the war in Gaza after the deaths of six hostages being held deep underground by Hamas.

The discovery of the hostages’ bodies in Gaza over the weekend threatened to bring deep divisions over the war to breaking point. An estimated 100,000 protested in Tel Aviv, while others demonstrated in Jerusalem as pressure on the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, to reach a ceasefire deal to bring the remaining hostages home reached a new peak.

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Maduro regime accused of kidnapping lawyer as Venezuela braces for protests

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A month on from disputed election, Perkins Rocha detained in crackdown that opposition fears will intensify

The Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado has accused Nicolás Maduro’s regime of “kidnapping” one of her key allies as protesters took to the streets to mark one month since the allegedly stolen presidential election and a cabinet reshuffle left government opponents fearing an upsurge in repression.

Activists say more than 1,600 people have been detained during the post-election crackdown ordered by Venezuela’s authoritarian president. On Tuesday, one of the opposition’s most important figures, the lawyer and spokesperson Perkins Rocha joined their ranks after being captured on the streets of Caracas, seemingly by Maduro’s secret police.

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Police acting as ‘private security’ for Drax power station, say climate activists

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Greenpeace among 150 groups expressing outrage after preemptive arrests led to cancellation of protest camp

Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth have accused police of acting as “private security” for the UK’s biggest carbon emitter after dozens of pre-emptive arrests forced the cancellation of a climate protest camp near Drax power station.

In a statement signed by almost 150 groups, they called the operation against activists who had spent months planning the camp near the wood-burning power station “an unreasonable restriction of free speech”.

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Fears grow for women’s rights activists jailed in Iran after 87 executions in one month

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Prisoners including Nobel prize winner Narges Mohammadi were reportedly beaten for protesting against a recent execution

There are fears for the fates of women’s rights activists imprisoned in Iran after a surge in executions since the election of Iran’s new president, Masoud Pezeshkian, in July.

At least 87 people were reportedly executed in July, with another 29 executed on one day this month. The mass executions included Reza Rasaei, a young man sentenced to death for his participation in the Woman, Life, Freedom protests.

Human rights organisations fear further executions in the lead-up the second anniversary of Mahsa Amini’s death in custody and the unprecedented nationwide protests that followed. Amini, who was 22, had been arrested for allegedly violating Iran’s strict dress code before she died in September 2022.

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Stand Up to Racism plans counter-protest to Glasgow anti-immigrant rally

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Campaigners warn against ‘false sense of security’ and say asylum seekers in Scotland are fearful of the far right

Anti-racism campaigners have vowed to show the far right they are not welcome in Scotland after an anti-immigration rally was organised in Glasgow.

But they warned against a “false sense of security” as the disorder witnessed across England and Northern Ireland earlier in the month has not been seen in Scotland.

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Uncommitted holds sit-in outside Democratic convention after Palestinians denied a speaker

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Movement launched protest after party rejected requests for Palestinian American to speak on the main stage

A sit-in that began Wednesday evening in protest of the Democratic convention’s denial of a Palestinian American speaker on the main stage continued on Thursday.

Uncommitted, a national movement that began in Michigan, won 30 delegates to the convention and has tried to use the party process to pressure Joe Biden and Kamala Harris to broker an end to the war in Gaza. The sit-in has been taking place outside the United Center, where Harris will speak this evening, is the latest attempt to get the Democratic party to allow greater prominence for the anti-war movement at this week’s convention in Chicago. Organizers were expected to remain in place until or unless the party changes course.

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‘A revolution is building’: can young people force change across Africa?

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Africa has the youngest population of any continent, and recent protests in Kenya, Nigeria and Uganda suggest growing youth disillusionment. Will they be able to turn discontent into action?

The youth-led protests that have broken out in several African countries over the past weeks should, say observers, serve as warnings that a disillusioned generation blame the elders of the ruling political classes for missed economic opportunities.

From mid-June to early August, young people in Kenya hit the streets protesting against what they described as runaway corruption and high taxes levied by President William Ruto’s regime. In Uganda, what was shaping up as protests against the government in July were nipped in the bud by police after President Yoweri Museveni’s warning that those thinking of such protests “were playing with fire”. Nigeria saw short-lived protests against the poor handling of the economy by President Bola Tinubu’s government.

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‘A police state’: US universities impose rules to avoid repeat of Gaza protests

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Students, faculty and advocates warn of chilling effect on free speech as schools across US introduce restrictions

Universities across the US are planning tougher rules to restrict protests when students return from summer vacation, an effort to avoid the chaos of last semester when demonstrations against Israel’s war in Gaza led to police crackdowns on campuses nationwide.

Columbia University students, who were at the vanguard of the movement, may encounter the most changes. The university president, Minouche Shafik, resigned this week in the wake of criticism for her handling of the protests, but not before overseeing the installation of fencing around the lawns of the school’s quad – the heart of campus life and the site of large protest encampments.

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Eggs and water balloons thrown as protesters face off at Women Will Speak rally in Melbourne

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Victoria police said 20 protesters were outnumbered by 150 from another group, which hurled ‘water balloons at the speakers’

Projectiles were thrown at speakers and one person arrested as protesters and counter-protesters faced off outside Parliament House in Melbourne on Saturday.

About 20 people initially attended the planned #WomenWILLSpeak rally that commenced at about 11am, Victoria police said in a statement.

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Anti-whaling activist to stay in Greenland jail while extradition decided

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Paul Watson fighting efforts byJapan to have him stand trial there for 2010 confrontation with whalers

A Greenland court has ordered the anti-whaling activist Paul Watson to remain in custody until 5 September pending a decision on his possible extradition to Japan.

Watson, an American-Canadian who has been detained since his arrest in Nuuk in July, had appealed against the court’s decision, the statement on Thursday added.

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German climate activists stop air traffic after breaking into four airport sites

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Police arrest Letzte Generation protesters who cut holes in fences and glued themselves to asphalt

Climate activists have broken into four German airport sites, briefly bringing air traffic to a halt at two of those before police made arrests.

Protesters from Letzte Generation – Germany’s equivalent to Just Stop Oil – gained access on Thursday to airfields in areas near the takeoff and landing strips of Cologne-Bonn, Nuremberg, Berlin Brandenburg and Stuttgart airports at dawn. Air traffic was suspended for a short time at Nuremberg and Cologne-Bonn due to police operations.

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‘Enforced disappearances’ send a chill through Kenya’s protests

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Dozens are reported as having gone missing since demonstrations began, and some have turned up dead

One mid-morning in June, Emmanuel Kamau prepared to leave his home for work as a bus conductor in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi.

It was the second week of nationwide protests against proposed tax increases, and demonstrations were expected to disrupt the transport network. But as a casual worker who got jobs on an irregular basis, the 24-year-old decided to take a chance to try to earn some money to put food on the table.

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