Category Archives: Protest

At least 140 Cubans reportedly detained or disappeared after historic protests

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Activists, protesters and journalists, including a reporter for one of Spain’s leading newspapers, reportedly in custody

Scores of Cuban activists, protesters and journalists, including a reporter for one of Spain’s leading newspapers, have reportedly been detained as Communist party security forces seek to smother Sunday’s historic flare-up of dissent.

Erika Guevara-Rosas, Amnesty International’s Americas director, said at least 140 Cubans were believed to have been detained or had disappeared in the aftermath of Cuba’s largest demonstrations in decades.

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Thousands join rare anti-government protests in Cuba – video

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The biggest mass demonstrations for three decades have rippled through Cuba, as thousands took to the streets in cities throughout the island, demonstrating against food shortages, high prices and communist rule. President Miguel Díaz-Canel blamed the unrest on foreign influence and said that ‘destabilisation in our country’ would be met with a ‘revolutionary response’. Cubans are living through the gravest economic crisis the country has known for 30 years

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Troops called violence looting jailing Zuma south africa

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South Africa’s highest court to rule on Monday on whether former president’s sentence is upheld

South Africa’s army has said it is deploying troops to two provinces, including its economic hub of Johannesburg, to help crush mob violence and looting as unrest sparked by the jailing of ex-president Jacob Zuma entered a fourth day.

“The South African National Defence Force (SANDF) has commenced with pre-deployment processes and procedures in line with a request for assistance,” the military said in a statement.

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South Africa violence spreads after jailing of Jacob Zuma

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Looting in former president’s home province of KwaZulu-Natal spreads to economic hub of Johannesburg

Shops were looted overnight and a section of the M2 highway was closed in Johannesburg on Sunday as violence following the jailing of the former South African president Jacob Zuma spread to the country’s main economic hub.

Violence had mainly been concentrated in Zuma’s home province of KwaZulu-Natal (KZN), where on Wednesday night he began a 15-month sentence for contempt of court.

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‘Growing risks’: Hong Kong pro-democracy group scales down

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Organisation known for annual Tiananmen vigil lets go of all paid staff and halves its steering committee

One of Hong Kong’s most established pro-democracy civic organisations has said it is letting go its paid staff and halving the size of its steering committee after Beijing stepped up its crackdown on opposition activity.

The Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China is best known for its annual rally and candlelight vigil remembering those killed in the bloody 1989 crackdown on pro-democracy protests in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square.

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Charlottesville removes Confederate statues at center of deadly 2017 protest – video

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Statues of Confederate generals Robert E Lee and Thomas 'Stonewall' Jackson were taken down in the city of Charlottesville, Virginia, on Saturday, nearly four years after white supremacist protests over plans to remove them led to clashes in which a woman was run down by a car and killed. A small crowd of onlookers cheered as the statue of Lee was hoisted away first, lifted by crane from its stone pedestal and taken away on a flat-bed truck.

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Hong Kong trial of 47 pro-democracy activists delayed for 11 weeks

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Prosecutors granted more time to prepare cases against those arrested under sweeping national security law

Prosecutors have been granted another months-long delay to the trial of 47 pro-democracy politicians, activists, and campaigners in Hong Kong who held pre-election primaries declared illegal under its sweeping national security law.

A court on Thursday was originally expected to hear an application to transfer the case to a higher court with powers to order longer jail sentences, but prosecutors instead requested an 11-week adjournment, saying they needed more time to prepare, local media reported.

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Three arrested after gay man beaten to death in Galicia

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Protests across Spain after 24-year-old nursing assistant Samuel Luiz dies following attack outside nightclub

Spanish police have arrested three people in connection with the killing of a young gay man whose death in a possible homophobic attack over the weekend shocked the country and sparked nationwide protests.

Samuel Luiz, a 24-year-old nursing assistant, was out with friends in the Galician city of A Coruña in the early hours of Saturday when an argument started outside a nightclub.

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The low-desire life: why people in China are rejecting high-pressure jobs in favour of ‘lying flat’

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It’s been dubbed ‘tangping’ – shunning tough careers to chill out instead. But how is the Communist party taking the birth of this new counterculture?

Name: Low-desire life.

Age: People – young ones especially – have been rebelling, dropping out, rejecting the rat race for pretty much ever, since the rat race began. But in China, it’s becoming more common. On trend, you might say.

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Malawi Pride and press freedoms in Palestine: human rights this fortnight – in pictures

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A roundup of the coverage on struggles for human rights and freedoms, from Chile to Cambodia

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‘I can’t give up on my leg’: the Gaza protesters resisting amputation at all costs

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Despite chronic pain and deadly infections, Palestinians wounded in protests three years ago still hope to recover without surgery

Sitting on his hospital bed, with external fixators screwed into his right leg, Mohammed al-Mughari has been in pain and on medication since he was shot in the leg more than three years ago.

He lives with a chronic bone infection – from bacteria now resistant to most antibiotics. Doctors, including in Jordan and Egypt where he sought treatment previously, have all recommended that an amputation could end his long-term suffering, but he has steadfastly refused.

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The Brazilian protest leader determined to bring Bolsonaro’s ‘genocidal’ government down – video

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The Guardian follows Guilherme Boulos, who ran against Bolsonaro in the last elections, as he leads thousands through the streets of São Paulo, calling for the country’s president to be impeached. 

The pressure is mounting on Bolsonaro as he faces a scandal over allegedly corrupt Covid vaccine deals and public rage over his handling of a pandemic that has killed more than half a million people. 

Boulos has helped lead and organise two mass demonstrations already in the past month and will be at the forefront of a third protest this Saturday. Tens of thousands of people are expected to turn out. 


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Fears for Chilean indigenous leader’s safety after police shooting

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Alberto Curamil, an award-winning environmental activist, was seriously injured during a protest against the burning of a Mapuche home

Former recipients of a prestigious environmental award, together with Amnesty International and the lawyer of indigenous land rights defender Alberto Curamil, have launched an appeal for Curamil’s safety after he was seriously injured in a shooting by police.

Curamil, an indigenous Mapuche leader who in 2019 won the Goldman Environmental Prize (GEP), also known as the “green Nobel”, was left with 18 riot shotgun pellets embedded in his body after police chased his truck and opened fire after a protest against an arson attack on a Mapuche home on contested land in southern Chile.

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Armed forces open fire in crackdown on anti-monarchy protests in Eswatini

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Teargas used against protesters in African kingdom with an overnight curfew imposed

Government forces in the southern African kingdom of Eswatini fired gunshots and teargas on Tuesday to break up protests calling for reforms to its system of absolute monarchy, witnesses said. A dusk-till-dawn curfew was also imposed.

The acting prime minister, Themba Masuku, denied media reports that King Mswati III had fled the violence to neighbouring South Africa.

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Met police brace for ‘busy weekend’ of major London protests

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Dance music acts along with anti-lockdown, anti-austerity and climate activists will all converge on capital

Some of the UK’s leading dance music acts are expected to join a protest march in London calling for the government to scrap Covid restrictions on nightclubs, as the capital gears up for a weekend of mass demonstrations.

Anti-lockdown protesters, anti-austerity campaigners and environmentalists will also stage protests in London on Saturday and Sunday, and the Metropolitan police said they were preparing for “a busy weekend”.

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Hungary’s LGBT protests and Juneteenth Day: human rights this fortnight – in pictures

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A roundup of the coverage on struggles for human rights and freedoms from China to Colombia

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United Nations condemns coup in Myanmar and calls for arms embargo

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Rare move by general assembly demonstrates widespread global opposition to military junta

In a rare move, the UN general assembly has condemned Myanmar’s military coup and called for an arms embargo against the country in a resolution demonstrating widespread global opposition to the junta and demanding the restoration of the country’s democratic transition.

Related: Trial of Aung San Suu Kyi begins in closed courtoom in Myanmar

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‘They beat him’: fear and anger at latest police killing in Tunis

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Protests erupt again in Tunisian capital after man ‘beaten to death’ amid claims of police impunity

Almost everyone in the streets around Ahmed Ben Ammar’s house in the Tunis district of Sidi Hassine claims to have known him or his family. Nearly everyone also has a slightly different account of his death in police custody on Tuesday. Details vary but all agree that the 32-year-old was beaten to death by police this week.

Sidi Hassine is to the west of Tunisia’s capital, on the far side of the Sebkha Sijoumi wetlands and the hulking landfill at Borj Chakir, already years past its scheduled closure date. The smell and the mosquitoes fill the air. At one end of the road is a thriving market, at the other – near where Ben Ammar lived – cafes and shops line the dusty street.

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Why brutal protests have been sweeping across Colombia – video explainer

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From the Amazon to the Caribbean coast, several weeks of protests have swept Colombia – dozens have died as demonstrators have faced sometimes deadly retaliation from police. 

The catalyst was a proposed tax hike, since withdrawn, in response to the coronavirus crisis. Demands expanded to calls to end inequality, economic disparity and police violence in Colombia – in almost two months, demonstrations have caused food and goods shortages.

Protest leaders have temporarily suspended in-person demonstrations due to a rise in Covid cases, but Joe Parkin Daniels, reporting for the Guardian, explains why this widespread discontent is unlikely to end


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Greenpeace Euro 2020 parachutist lucky not to be shot down, says politician

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Bavarian minister says activist could have ‘paid with life’ for stunt before Germany v France game in Munich

A Greenpeace protester who parachuted into the stadium before Germany’s Euro 2020 match against France in Munich was lucky not to have been shot down by anti-terror marksmen enforcing a no-fly zone, a state minister has said.

Two people were injured when the activist lost control of his powered paraglider, which had a motor attached to his back, and hit overhead camera wires attached to the stadium roof. Fans ducked as he careered towards the spectator area, narrowly missing the stands and demolishing technical equipment before crashing in front of the German penalty area.

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