At least 30 people have been detained over pot-banging protests against a military coup as demonstrations gather pace
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Turkey student protests: teargas, pepper spray and pot-banging – video
Escalating protests over the appointment of a state-approved rector at a prestigious Istanbul university have become an unexpected catalyst for Turkey’s disillusioned and underemployed youth to vent their frustrations at President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s government.
Demonstrations by both staff and students erupted last month after the former political candidate Melih Bulu was appointed. The decision was denounced as undemocratic
Continue reading...‘People are dying at hospital doors’: the Brazilian volunteer delivering oxygen to Manaus – video
When Thalita Rocha's mother-in-law died due to a lack of available oxygen on a Manaus hospital's Covid ward, she vowed to raise money to deliver oxygen tanks and other lifesaving equipment to the Amazonian city's homes. Jair Bolsonaro's coronavirus policies have led to more than 226,000 deaths in Brazil, and as anger rises on the streets and protesters call for his impeachment, Rocha and other volunteers drive around Manaus offering medical kit and hope
Student protests grow as Turkey’s young people turn against Erdoğan
President’s appointment of political ally as university rector becomes catalyst for disillusioned youth to vent frustrations
Escalating protests over the appointment of a state-approved rector at a prestigious Istanbul university have become an unexpected catalyst for Turkey’s disillusioned and underemployed youth to vent their frustrations at President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s government.
Demonstrations by both staff and students erupted last month over the installation of Melih Bulu, a business figure who stood as a ruling Justice and Development party (AKP) parliamentary candidate in 2015, as rector of Boğaziçi University, arguably the most acclaimed higher education institution in the country.
Continue reading...Myanmar rings with pots and pans against military coup – video
Yangon’s streets were filled with the din of clashing metal as scores protested the military coup against the country’s elected government. The first public rejection of the coup went on for 10 minutes across the city in a massive show of solidarity. Health workers in 70 hospitals across Myanmar have pledged not to work under the military regime
- The nights of pots and pans are back, on Myanmar’s fearful streets
- Aung San Suu Kyi could face two years in jail over ‘illegal’ walkie-talkies
Rihanna angers Indian government with tweet about farmers’ protests
Singer’s message had made reference to news report about heavy-handed measures against protesters
The pop singer Rihanna has provoked the ire of the Indian government after wading into the debate over protests by farmers in the country, just as heavy police security and “war-like” barricades continue to be built up at demonstration sites around Delhi.
This week authorities began cracking down on the hundreds of thousands of farmers camped out on the Delhi border since November. Police embarked on a heavy fortification of three camps in Ghazipur, Tikri and Singhu, erecting layers of concrete barriers, digging trenches, putting up barbed-wire fences and cementing iron nails in the roads, in effect cutting off entry and exit to the sites.
Continue reading...Fears army will tighten grip in Myanmar after Aung San Suu Kyi detained
Civilian leader urges the public to protest against any return to a military dictatorship
Myanmar has been placed on knife edge, with activists fearing a further clampdown after the military detained Aung San Suu Kyi and other civilian leaders in early morning raids and took direct control of the country in a coup.
A statement attributed to Aung San Suu Kyi said the military, which directly ruled Myanmar for more than 50 years, was trying to reimpose a dictatorship. “I urge people not to accept this, to respond and wholeheartedly to protest against the coup by the military,” it said. It is not possible to verify the message.
Continue reading...The free Hong Kong that made me an overnight popstar? That city has vanished
It’s hard to believe just how quickly the vibrant city has changed since I first arrived in 2013 to perform a song at a protest. A blanket of fear covers it now
My first experience of Hong Kong was, I must admit, unusual. It was 2013, I was 30 years old, and I’d just flown 6,000 miles to perform a song at a huge protest.
I’d written the song six years earlier. It was called This Is My Dream, and it was a defiant song about not giving up. At the time, I was a struggling singer-songwriter living in the small English retirement town of Worthing; I posted the song on a website for unsigned musicians, and then mostly forgot about it.
Continue reading...Russian police arrest protesters demanding Navalny’s release – video
More than 4,000 people, including Alexei Navalny’s wife, Yulia Navalnaya, were detained at rallies across Russia as supporters of the Kremlin critic took to the streets to protest against his imprisonment. Security measures, riot police and national guards troops shut down metro stations in Moscow and blocked off streets to prevent a repeat of last week’s record protests, some of the largest since 2012
Alexei Navalny protests: Moscow in lockdown as police detain thousands
Riot police and national guard troops close central metro stations and block off streets
Police have paralysed the centres of Russia’s largest cities, including Moscow, as the Kremlin sought to beat back rallies in support of jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny, the country’s most significant protests in a decade.
Supporters of the Kremlin critic took to the streets to protest against his jailing, despite the biting cold and threat of arrest. At least 4,700 people, including Navalny’s wife, Yulia Navalnaya, were detained as the rallies across the country entered a second week.
Continue reading...Tens of thousands protest against new French security bill
Demonstrators, including gilet jaunes activists, also protested against Covid restrictions
Tens of thousands of protesters turned out in dozens of French cities on Saturday to oppose a security bill they say will restrict the filming and publicising of images of police brutality.
Demonstrators also protested against the restrictions imposed to halt the spread of coronavirus and to stand up for the cultural sector, which has been especially hard-hit by the measures.
Continue reading...Police and gilets jaunes scuffle during Paris protest over new security bill – video
Demonstrators marched through Paris on Saturday to protest against a proposed security bill. Police and marchers clashed during the protests against the controversial bill.
Continue reading...‘Things are getting worse’: Tunisia protests rage on as latest victim named
Police brutality and unemployment worsened by the pandemic continues to drive young protesters onto streets to demand reform
The latest victim of Tunisia’s current unrest has been named as Haykel Rachdi, from Sbeitla in Kasserine, near the Algerian border. He died of his injuries on Monday night after reportedly being struck on the head by a police teargas canister.
Protests were continuing on Wednesday, with police pushing back hundreds of mainly young demonstrators outside the country’s parliament in the capital, Tunis. One group had marched there from the working-class district of Hay Ettadhamen, in the north of the city. The protesters chanted refrains from the revolution of the winter of 2010–11 and anti-police slogans, while inside, politicians continued to debate whether to accept or reject a proposed new government, the fifth since 2019’s inconclusive elections.
Continue reading...HSBC denies taking political stance over China’s crackdown in Hong Kong
Bank’s chief executive, Noel Quinn, claims business not in position to question police requests
HSBC’s chief executive has denied taking a political stance on China’s crackdown in Hong Kong, claiming the bank was not in a position to question police requests when it agreed to freeze accounts of pro-democracy activists.
Questioned by MPs on the foreign affairs committee on Tuesday, Noel Quinn ruled out exiting the Hong Kong market in light of Beijing’s controversial new security laws, saying it “would only harm” local customers.
Continue reading...Netherlands shaken by third night of riots over coronavirus curfew – video
A third night of rioting has shaken the Netherlands as protesters rampaged through towns and cities around the country after government introduced a night-time curfew.
More than 180 people were arrested on Monday in Amsterdam and Rotterdam, where shops were vandalised and looted
Continue reading...Violent clashes as Indian farmers storm Delhi’s Red Fort
Farmers protesting against new agriculture laws enter grounds of historic fort as violence breaks out
Farmers protesting against new agriculture laws in India broke through police barricades around the capital and entered the grounds of Delhi’s historic Red Fort on Tuesday, in chaotic and violent scenes that overshadowed the country’s Republic Day celebrations.
Police hit protesters with batons and fired teargas to try to disperse the crowds after hundreds of thousands of farmers, many on tractors or horses, marched on the capital. One protester was confirmed to have died in the clashes and dozens of police and protesters were injured.
Continue reading...Invasion Day protests across Australia – in pictures
Amid debates about abolishing the holiday, Australia Day honours and whether protests should go ahead at all, people have rallied in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Canberra to mark the day
Continue reading...‘I’ll never forget that sound’: Egypt’s lost revolution
25 January 2011 marked the start of Hosni Mubarak’s fall but also moves by the military to take over
In the centre of the place where it all began, Mansour Mohammed manned a tarpaulin-covered stall on the only green grass among miles of concrete and asphalt. For 10 days he ate and slept huddled with strangers bound together by burgeoning rage and revolt all around. Enormous crowds heaved and surged – roaring their demands for change in a call that resounded through Tahrir Square in Cairo. “I’ll never forget that sound,” he said. “It was the most powerful noise I’ve ever heard. It was louder than 10 jumbo jets. It was the release of six decades of fear.”
A decade on, the launchpad of Egypt’s revolution – a seminal part of the uprisings which became known as the Arab spring – is a very different place, as is the country. The strip of grass has been concreted over and on it stands a newly erected obelisk, pointing skywards in a trenchant reminder of times of staid certainty. Traffic moves sedately around a roundabout now free of protesters or attempts at defiance. Secret police are positioned, not so secretly, nearby. There is little talk of revolution, and attempts to stir the ghosts of Tahrir Square are met with the heavy hand of the invigorated military state that entrenched itself in the revolution’s wake.
Continue reading...Protesters demonstrate across Russia in support of Alexei Navalny – in pictures
Russian police arrested more than 3,400 people on Saturday during nationwide protests demanding the release of opposition leader
Continue reading...‘The problem is Putin’: protesters throng Russia’s streets to support jailed Navalny
More than 2,500 are arrested at rallies across the country as cities see huge turnouts in support of opposition leader
As riot police surged to retake Moscow’s Pushkin square on Saturday, all you could see of them from the crowd were their truncheons raised high, ready to strike. Then their black helmets came into view, and finally they pushed forward, driving waves of panicked Russians out on to the boulevards and side streets of the capital. “Respected citizens, the current event is illegal. We are doing everything to ensure your safety,” an officer repeated over a loudspeaker, despite all the evidence to the contrary.
For more than a decade, the Kremlin has used every tool at its disposal to keep Russians off the streets, wielding fear and boredom to make protesting against Vladimir Putin seem pointless. And yet in defiant scenes on Saturday in cities across Russia, from St Petersburg to Vladivostok and even in Yakutsk, where protesters braved temperatures below -50C, tens of thousands of Russians sent a message to a Kremlin that has squeezed out all opposition in Russia: enough is enough.
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