Category Archives: Protest

Protests rage around the world – but what comes next?

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Unrest is seemingly everywhere. We look at the some of the reasons for and responses to it in Hong Kong, Lebanon, Chile, Catalonia and Iraq

In Lebanon they are against a tax on WhatsApp and endemic corruption. In Chile, a hike in the metro fare and rampant inequality. In Hong Kong, an extradition bill and creeping authoritarianism. In Algeria, a fifth term for an ageing president and decades of military rule.

The protests raging today and in the past months on the streets of cities around the world have varying triggers. But the fuel is familiar: stagnating middle classes, stifled democracy and the bone-deep conviction that things can be different – even if the alternative is not always clear.

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An explosion of protest, a howl of rage – but not a Latin American spring

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From Chile to Ecuador and Bolivia to Haiti police and protesters are clashing on the streets, but what are the common threads and will they lead to change?

Tanks on the streets in Chile. Barricades and bloodshed in Bolivia. Weeks of unrest that have pushed Haiti to the brink and forced Ecuador’s president to relocate his government.

“This is a social revolution,” said Andrea Lyn, a 61-year-old actor who took to the streets of Santiago this week. “It is us saying: ‘No more’.”

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Lebanon protests: key moments from a week of unrest – video

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The largest protests in Lebanon in 14 years have shut down the country as a revolt against a weak government, ailing services and a looming economic collapse continues to gain momentum. The demonstrations began last week amid anger over the government’s plan to impose new taxes, and have since widened into demands for resignations and a secular state

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Chilean leader tries to calm unrest with wage rises and taxes on rich

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Sebastián Piñera announces plans after riot police use teargas to disperse protesters

The Chilean president, Sebastián Piñera, has called for modest rises to low incomes and increased taxes on the rich after the fifth night of anger on the streets raised the death toll in the unrest to 15.

Rioting, arson attacks and violent clashes wracked Chile on Tuesday night. About half of the normally stable country’s 16 regions remained under an emergency decree and some were subject to a military curfew, the first since Chile returned to democracy in 1990, barring natural disasters.

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Chile on edge as worst unrest in three decades claims 11 lives

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More clashes likely after Piñera expands state of emergency following ‘weekend of rage’

Latin America’s most prosperous country is braced for fresh upheaval after Chile’s president expanded a state of emergency beyond the capital and the death toll from three days of violence rose to 11.

“We are at war with a powerful and uncompromising enemy that respects nothing and no one,” Sebastián Piñera declared in an unyielding late-night address on Sunday.

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US troops pelted with rotten fruit and stones as they leave Syria – video

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People have thrown rotten fruit and stones at US troops as they left Syria in armed vehicles, with one man appearing to shout: ‘You liars!’

Donald Trump’s decision to suddenly withdraw US forces from Syria, which prompted an incursion by Turkish forces, has also created concern on what to do about accused Isis fighters and their families

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Chile: protests rage on as president extends state of emergency

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Seven dead as protesters loot supermarkets one day after Sebastián Piñera suspends price hikes that sparked unrest

Protests and violence in Chile have spilled over into a new day and left at least seven people dead despite the president cancelling a subway fare increase that prompted the violent demonstrations.

Santiago and other Chilean cities have been engulfed by several days of riots, along with peaceful protests, after the increase in public transport costs. Authorities said seven people had been killed in incidents related to the protests, without giving further details.

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Hong Kong activist stabbed handing out pro-democracy leaflets at ‘Lennon Wall’

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A 19-year-old democracy activist was allegedly stabbed by a man shouting pro-China slogans

A man handing out leaflets for a Hong Kong pro-democracy protest was attacked by a knife-wielding assailant who slashed his neck and abdomen on Saturday, days after a leading activist was left bloodied in another street attack.

The injured 19-year-old, wearing black clothes and a black face mask, was knifed near one of the large “Lennon Walls” that have sprung up around the city during months of demonstrations, police said.

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March organisers hail ‘one of the greatest protest marches in British history’

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Led by mayor Sadiq Khan, around one million protesters gathered to demand a fresh referendum

In one of the largest public demonstrations in British history, a crowd estimated at around one million marched outside parliament to demand MPs grant them a fresh referendum on Brexit.

Organisers of the march said the turnout, buoyed by the dry weather and the promise of “super Saturday”, was comparable to the previous second referendum rally six months ago, when a million people gathered in central London.

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Catalonia protests: key moments from a week of unrest – video

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The jailing of nine pro-independence Catalan leaders over their roles in the failed push for secession two years ago has sparked five nights of violent unrest in Barcelona and other areas of Catalonia. The region's president, Quim Torra, has called for talks with the Spanish government after a peaceful march and general strike was followed by further clashes between protesters and police

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Chile protests: state of emergency declared in Santiago as violence escalates

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President announces order in televised address after fare-dodging protest by students in capital widens


A state of emergency has been declared in the Chilean capital after simmering protests against a rise in metro fares spilled out into widespread vandalism and violence fuelled by rising cost-of-living pressures.
As ordained by Chile’s dictatorship-era constitution, the state of emergency will apply to Santiago and can last for 15 days. It grants the government additional powers to restrict citizens’ freedom of movement and their right to assembly. Ominously, soldiers will return to the streets for the first time since an earthquake devastated parts of the country in 2010.

“The aim is to ensure public order and the safety of public and private property,” President Sebastián Piñera said in a televised address, “There will be no room for violence in a country with the rule of law at its core.”

On Friday evening, the palm trees in Santiago’s colonial Plaza de Armas were shrouded in plumes of tear gas thrown by police agents to disperse protesters, and the headquarters of Italian energy company Enel were engulfed in orange flames as the sounds of helicopters and wailing sirens filled the night sky.

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Violence erupts after pro-Catalan general strike in Barcelona

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Protesters set fire to bins and chant ‘The streets will always be ours’ in fifth night of rioting

Catalonia suffered a fifth consecutive night of rioting on Friday after violence erupted in Barcelona following a peaceful demonstration attended by more than 500,000 people in protest at the heavy sentences handed down to Catalan politicians and activists.

There were disturbances and police charges on Via Laietana near the headquarters of the Spanish national police during Friday afternoon but, no sooner had the demonstration begun to disperse at 6.30pm than rioting broke out around Plaça Urquinaona in the city centre.

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Violence flares in Lebanon as protesters tell their leaders to go

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Dozens wounded or held as warnings over economy spark biggest protests in decade

Security forces fired teargas and chased down protesters in Beirut on Friday after tens of thousands of people across Lebanon marched to demand the demise of a political elite they accuse of looting the economy to the point of collapse.

Riot police in vehicles and on foot rounded up protesters, according to Reuters. They fired rubber bullets and teargas canisters, dispersing demonstrators in Beirut’s commercial district. Dozens of people were wounded and detained.

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Hong Kong protesters in UK say they face pro-Beijing intimidation

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Police have had to intervene and separate groups at events in university cities

Supporters of Hong Kong’s pro-democracy protests say they are being intimidated and harassed by pro-Beijing Chinese students and others at their events around the UK, forcing police to step in to separate them from counter-demonstrations.

Below-the-radar tensions have boiled over into incidents that include the arrest of a 19-year-old Chinese student after bottles were thrown at a Sheffield event, while police and university security have intervened in other town centres and campuses.

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Clashes escalate in Barcelona as Catalan president blames ‘infiltrators’ for violent protests

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Quim Torra says people trying to damage reputation of independence movement as fourth night of violence rocks city

Barcelona suffered its fourth and worst night of violence on Thursday as pro-independence supporters clashed with police and right-wing groups in running battles well into the small hours of Friday morning.

The disturbances followed a now familiar pattern as a large demonstration called earlier in the evening dispersed and groups of protesters clashed with police in the city centre who say that a clothing shop was set on fire and a bank was vandalised.

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‘It has been polarising’: tube protest divides Extinction Rebellion

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Disrupting London trains was opposed by 72% of activists in poll, but has boosted coverage

The climate protests during which one activist was dragged from the roof of a London Underground train by angry commuters had been discussed within Extinction Rebellion [XR] for weeks.

But it was not until Wednesday morning, when a note was posted on the group’s website, that a decision appeared to have been taken.

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‘It’s barbarity’: clashes in Barcelona after Catalan separatists sentenced – video

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Police and protesters clashed in Barcelona and other Catalonia towns on Tuesday over the jail sentences handed to nine Catalan separatist leaders. A peaceful candlelit protest outside the offices of the Spanish government in Barcelona escalated and the central government warned that violent demonstrations would be met with a ‘firm, proportional and united’ response

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Police clash with Catalonia protesters in second night of violence

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Spanish government warns of ‘firm response’ to pro-independence unrest

The Spanish government has warned that violent protests in Catalonia will be met with a “firm, proportional and united” response after the jailing of nine pro-independence leaders triggered a second night of unrest in the region.

In Barcelona, peaceful, planned demonstrations erupted into running battles with the police on Tuesday.

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