Category Archives: Protest

Macron opens Paris agricultural fair to protests from farmers

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French president greeted by whistles from hundreds of demonstrators as some clash with police

Hundreds of protesting farmers clashed with police in Paris as Emmanuel Macron toured the annual agricultural fair on Saturday. The French president had opened the fair as angry farmers blew whistles and shouted insults.

Riot police initially kept the protesters at a safe distance as he toured the fair, tasting honey from Normandy and cheeses from the Alps, and shaking hands with exhibitors. But as he entered the fair’s livestock area, hundreds of demonstrators crashed the gates and clashed with police.

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‘More deaths are coming’: fears over fate of other Russian political prisoners after Navalny’s death

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Critics of Ukraine war among dozens who may be at risk in penal system, say campaigners and journalists

Just days after the death of opposition leader Alexei Navalny in a prison colony, human rights activists and journalists are warning that dozens of other political prisoners may be at risk of death from deliberate abuse of ill convicts in the Russian prison system.

Dmitry Muratov, the Nobel-prize winning editor of Novaya Gazeta, told the Observer that Navalny’s death had sent a clarion call for the world to save the Russian political prisoners who could die next.

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‘Virile’ exchanges expected as Macron heads to annual French farming show

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President faces uncertain reception at Salon d’Agriculture after weeks of protests by furious farmers

Most politicians kiss babies; French leaders pat cows and make a fuss of lambs.

The Salon d’Agriculture, the country’s annual farm show which opens on Saturday, is a date presidents cannot afford to miss.

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Removing UK climate protesters’ defence ‘could erode right to trial by jury’

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Attorney general’s attempt to end climate protesters’ use of consent defence is slippery slope, says KC

A UK government attempt to remove one of the last remaining defences for climate protesters would be a slippery slope to the erosion of the constitutional right to trial by jury, the court of appeal was told on Wednesday.

The attorney general, Victoria Prentis KC, is arguing that one of the last available defences being used by environmental protesters should be removed. Prentis is making the appeal in the case of a defendant known as C, after a string of acquittals by juries of defendants for acts of criminal damage involving daubing paint on buildings.

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UK minister rules out swap for Briton Vladimir Kara-Murza jailed in Russia

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Foreign Office says it will not trade Putin opponent for spies in jail in Britain, despite fears for his life after Navalny’s death

A Foreign Office minister has ruled out a prisoner swap for the imprisoned Russian opposition figure Vladimir Kara-Murza, a British citizen, who MPs have expressed concern about after the death of Alexei Navalny.

Kara-Murza’s wife was now adamant that she wanted everything to be done to get her her husband out of Russia, said the Conservative backbencher Bob Seely, who urged the government to countenance swapping imprisoned spies for the pro-democracy activist who was now the most high-profile Russian political prisoner.

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Mahsa Amini’s uncle sentenced to five years in jail over Iran protests, rights groups say

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Safa Aeli was charged with taking part in protests that erupted following death of 22-year-old after her arrest for allegedly flouting strict dress rules for women

The uncle of Mahsa Amini, the young Iranian-Kurdish woman whose death in custody sparked months of protests, has been sentenced to more than five years in jail for his criticism of the government in 2022, rights groups have said.

Safa Aeli, 30, was sentenced to five years and four months in prison by the revolutionary court in the family’s home town of Saqez in north-western Iran, the Norway-based Hengaw group and US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) said.

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‘They’re treating us like thieves’: Rio de Janeiro traders rage as historic flea market shuts

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Feira de Acari is closed down by the mayor after claims that gangsters used it to sell stolen goods

Manoel Ribeiro has never known a world without Rio de Janeiro’s best-known flea market, the Feira de Acari.

The swarming suburban bazaar was founded outside his home in 1970, the year of his birth. It existed in 1993 when the market trader was shot nearby during an armed robbery and lost the use of his legs.

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UK farmers vow to mount more blockades over cheap post-Brexit imports

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Inspired by French action, British campaigners say they will continue slow tractor protests after Dover roads were blocked

Farmers say there will be further French-style blockades following a slow tractor protest at Dover against low supermarket prices and cheap food imports from post-Brexit trade deals.

Around 40 tractors and other farm vehicles blocked roads around the Kent port for several hours on Friday evening by driving slowly and carrying signs with slogans such as “No More Cheap Imports”.

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Beijing accused of using spying, threats and blackmail against Tibetan exiles

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China ‘threatens relatives in Tibet’ to exert control over activists in exile, with greater transnational repression at Tibetan new year

Thousands of Tibetans around the world have been subjected to spying, blackmail and threats against family members still living in Tibet, according to a new report.

The Chinese government’s repressive policies in Tibet continue to be documented, but the new report by the Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD) is the first to investigate the widespread targeting of exiles in countries including the US, India, France, Australia and Canada, researchers say.

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Masked protesters could soon face arrest, says Home Office

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Rights groups say proposed police powers for England and Wales are pandering to ‘culture war nonsense’

Protesters who wear masks could face arrest, up to a month in jail and a £1,000 fine under proposed measures that human rights campaigners claim are pandering to “culture war nonsense”.

Police in England and Wales will be given the power to arrest people if they are wearing face coverings at specific demonstrations, the Home Office has said.

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About 200,000 people protest across Germany against far-right AfD party

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Chancellor says protests are ‘strong sign in favour of democracy’ as demonstrators gather in Berlin, Dresden, Hanover and other cities

About 200,000 people have taken to the streets of Germany in further protests against the far-right party Alternative for Germany (AfD).

Protests on Saturday also took place in Dresden, Mainz and Hanover in a sign of growing alarm at strong public support for AfD.

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Judge throws out case against Greta Thunberg and other London protesters

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Court rules not enough evidence provided to prove defendants failed to comply with section 14 order at anti-fossil fuel rally

Greta Thunberg and four others charged with public order offences over a protest in London have been cleared after a judge ruled that they had no case to answer.

Thunberg was charged alongside Christofer Kebbon, Joshua James Unwin, Jeff Rice and Peter Barker with “failing to comply with a condition imposed under section 14 of the Public Order Act”.

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Pro-Palestine march in London will end near Downing Street, say police

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Met had previously refused to allow expected 300,000 demonstrators to hold rally on Whitehall on Saturday

The latest pro-Palestine march of hundreds of thousands of protesters through central London will end with a rally near Downing Street after a climbdown from the Metropolitan police.

Following a meeting late on Thursday afternoon, organisers of the march said they had been given permission for the end stage of Saturday’s demonstration to take place on Whitehall.

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‘It’s unfathomable’: speed hump saboteurs join Italy’s pro-car vandals

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First cameras were torn down by someone calling themselves Fleximan – now traffic calming measures are being targeted

Renzo Bergamini, the mayor of Gualtieri, was on his way to buy the newspapers on Tuesday morning when he noticed something was amiss with one of the two speed humps positioned on the town’s ring road.

“I saw that the sections of the hump were slightly misaligned,” he said. “The bolts had been unscrewed.”

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Macron calls for farming reform as food producers hurl eggs at European parliament

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Demonstrations calling for help with taxes, costs and environmental rules overshadow EU leaders’ summit

Europe’s farming sector is facing a big crisis and must “profoundly” change its rules, Emmanuel Macron has said after a European Union leaders’ summit in Brussels was overshadowed by protesting farmers hurling eggs, dumping manure and lighting fires.

Speaking as hundreds of farmers from Belgium, the Netherlands and elsewhere blocked streets around the European parliament with tractors, the French president said there should be a joint EU mechanism to guarantee fair prices paid to farmers by food giants and supermarkets. He said regulations should be simplified, after weeks of farmer protests across Europe have blockaded motorways.

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Myanmar at standstill as silent strike marks third anniversary of coup

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Towns and cities empty during protest on anniversary of military takeover and arrest of Aung San Suu Kyi

Cities and towns across Myanmar have come to a standstill as people took part in a silent strike to signal defiance against the military junta on the anniversary of the 2021 coup.

Three years since the military detained political leaders including Aung San Suu Kyi, its grip on power is more uncertain than at any point in the last six decades, according to analysts. The UN says two-thirds of the country is experiencing conflict.

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‘Hypocritical’ European politicians weaken climate policies amid farmer protests

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Under pressure from the far right in upcoming elections, environmental concessions being made across continent

Exhausted by an energy crisis, burdened by bureaucracy and angry at efforts to curb their pollution, Europe’s farmers say people are not listening to their plight.

“Over the last few years we’ve spoken out vigorously, but we haven’t been heard,” Europe’s biggest farming lobby, Copa Cogeca, said on Wednesday in an open letter to the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen. “The survival of European family farming as it is known today is in danger.”

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Belgian port blockaded as farmer protests spread across Europe

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Roads around Zeebrugge could be obstructed until midnight on Wednesday, hitting commercial trade

The Belgian port of Zeebrugge was blockaded on Tuesday, causing gridlock on surrounding roads as a wave of farmer protests spread across Europe.

Authorities at the North Sea port, one of the biggest in Europe, said all access roads were blocked by 5pm (1600 GMT) on Tuesday, in a demonstration that will hit commercial trade, including imports and exports of food to and from the UK, Ireland and Scandinavia.

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France warns farmers that blocking Paris market will be red line in protest

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Farmers promise to ‘besiege’ capital in dispute over regulations, pay and taxes they say are destroying rural life

France has told its farmers that any action to block access to Paris’s main market for fresh food would be crossing a red line as a tractor protest made good on a threat to blockade the city for an indefinite period, stopping traffic on eight main motorways into the capital in a row over regulations, pay and taxes.

As it became clear the farmers planned to encircle the city, the French president, Emmanuel Macron, held a crisis meeting with key cabinet ministers on what was being called “Operation Paris Siege”. Prisca Thevenot, a government spokesperson, said announcements would be made on Tuesday. “The whole government and the president are mobilised,” she said.

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Protesters throw soup at Mona Lisa in Paris

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Visitors at Louvre look on in shock as Leonardo da Vinci masterpiece attacked by environmental protesters

Two environmental protesters have hurled soup at the Mona Lisa at the Louvre in Paris, calling for “healthy and sustainable food”. The painting, which was behind bulletproof glass, appeared to be undamaged.

Gallery visitors looked on in shock as two women threw the yellow-coloured soup before climbing under the barrier in front of the work and flanking the splattered painting, their right hands held up in a salute-like gesture.

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