All posts tagged: demonstrations

Caught Flat-Footed, a City Races to Catch Up With Ebola

Caught Flat-Footed, a City Races to Catch Up With Ebola

Published by Sam Flores

Since an Ebola outbreak was declared in Bunia, a bustling city in northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo, global alarms have gone off. Borders have slammed shut, flights have been diverted as far as the United States and the Congolese World Cup team is currently in quarantine in Belgium. Yet here in Bunia, at the heart of the crisis, the usual signs of an organized response — large medical tents, medics in sealed white suits and goggles and patients lying in strict isolation — are not yet in place. Instead, the incipient aid effort is only getting set up. Outside Bunia’s main hospital on Saturday, workers hammered nails and pushed up tents a few yards from the main door, in a frantic scramble to erect a handful of isolation wards where patients can be triaged, isolated and treated. “The virus is far ahead of us,” said Ahmed Mahat, a manager with International Medical Corps, which is building two of the isolation wards. “And it’s spreading fast.” The world is playing catch-up in Congo. Caught flat-footed by …

Calls for Met Gala boycott after Bezos foots the bill: ‘Brought to you by worker exploitation’

Calls for Met Gala boycott after Bezos foots the bill: ‘Brought to you by worker exploitation’

Published by Daniella Wilson

Stay ahead of the curve with our weekly guide to the latest trends, fashion, relationships and more Stay ahead of the curve with our weekly guide to the latest trends, fashion, relationships and more Stay ahead of the curve with our weekly guide to the latest trends, fashion, relationships and more A group of guerrilla activists are urging people to boycott this year’s Met Gala over the involvement of Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos. At various locations near the Metropolitan Museum in New York City, posters have popped up with the words: “Bezos Met Gala: Brought to you by the firm that powers ICE” and “Boycott the Bezos Met Gala.” In November, the Met announced that this year’s biggest night in fashion would be “made possible” by the world’s third-richest man and his wife, Lauren Sánchez Bezos, who were named as lead sponsors, alongside secondary donors, Condé Nast and Saint Laurent. The role is understood to give the couple influence over everything from invites to the overall presentation of the event. The sponsorship by the tech …

Anti-Trump ‘No Kings’ rallies pop up in thousands of US cities

Anti-Trump ‘No Kings’ rallies pop up in thousands of US cities

Published by Sam Flores

TRUMP POSES “EXISTENTIAL THREAT”, ACTOR DE NIRO SAYS In Minnesota, a flashpoint in Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration, a massive rally was held outside the state capitol in Saint Paul. Many held aloft posters bearing photos of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, US citizens fatally shot by federal immigration officers in Minneapolis this year. Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, the Democratic vice presidential nominee in 2024, told the crowd that their resistance to Trump and his policies makes them “the heart and soul” of everything good about the US. “They call us radicals,” Walz said. “You’re damn right we’ve been radicalised – radicalised by compassion, radicalised by decency, radicalised by due process, radicalised by democracy, and radicalised to do all we can to oppose authoritarianism.” US Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, a Trump critic who sought the Democratic presidential nomination in 2016 and 2020, also addressed the event in Minnesota. Musician Bruce Springsteen performed his song “Streets of Minneapolis” – a ballad criticising Trump’s immigration crackdown and lamenting the deaths of Good and Pretti. “We will …

Supreme Court revives suit from evangelical Christian challenging restrictions on demonstrations

Supreme Court revives suit from evangelical Christian challenging restrictions on demonstrations

Published by Sam Flores

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Friday revived a lawsuit from an evangelical Christian barred from demonstrating in Mississippi after authorities say he shouted insults at people over a loudspeaker. The high court unanimously ruled in the case of Gabriel Olivier, who says his religious and free speech rights were violated when he was arrested for refusing to move his preaching away from a suburban amphitheater. The city said he had shouted insults like “whores,” “Jezebel” and “nasty” at people, sometimes holding signs showing aborted fetuses. Olivier wanted to challenge the law as an unconstitutional restriction on free speech, but lower courts stopped him from suing because he’d been convicted of breaking it. A Supreme Court case from the 1990s found people can’t use civil lawsuits to undermine criminal convictions. But the justices found that doesn’t stop Olivier from suing because he only wants to block future enforcement. “Given that Olivier asked for only a forward-looking remedy — an injunction stopping officials from enforcing the city ordinance in the future — his suit can …

Scale of protests and violence in Iran echoes chaos around its 1979 Islamic Revolution

Scale of protests and violence in Iran echoes chaos around its 1979 Islamic Revolution

Published by Sam Flores

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — In a matter of days, nationwide protests challenging Iran’s theocracy exploded into a crackdown and bloodshed that blew past reported casualty figures of decades of past demonstrations in the country. This new level of mayhem summons the chaotic days surrounding the birth of the Islamic Republic in 1979. That poses perhaps the greatest risk to Iran’s theocracy in the time since that revolution: It now faces a populace increasingly willing to defy a government long willing to use violence to suppress dissent. In the run-up to revolution in 1978, Iran witnessed running street battles between forces loyal to the U.S.-backed Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and demonstrators. Also part of that movement: attacks that targeted cinemas, nightclubs, U.S. interests, Iranian officials and minorities. Each fresh mourning for slain protesters expanded into a cycle of demonstrations. That ultimately ballooned to millions on the streets and pushed the monarch, fatally ill with cancer, to flee. Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, in exile in France, returned to Iran and soon seized all levers of power …

Who is Reza Pahlavi, the exiled crown prince encouraging demonstrations in Iran? : NPR

Who is Reza Pahlavi, the exiled crown prince encouraging demonstrations in Iran? : NPR

Published by Sam Flores

Reza Pahlavi, the son of Iran’s toppled Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, speaks during a press conference, Monday, June 23, 2025 in Paris. Thomas Padilla/AP hide caption toggle caption Thomas Padilla/AP As the Islamic Republic of Iran nears two weeks of nationwide demonstrations, the government in Tehran has acknowledged the protests while continuing with a crackdown. The death toll from clashes between protestors and government security forces had reached 116 as of early Sunday, with more than 2,600 people detained, according to the U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA). Among the most prominent cheerleaders for continued action against the government is Reza Pahlavi, son of the former Shah of Iran, who has issued frequent messages encouraging protesters. Iran’s attorney general, Mohammad Movahedi Azad, announced Saturday that participants in the unrest would be considered an “enemy of God,” A statement, carried by Iranian state television, said even those who “helped rioters” would face that charge, which carries the death penalty. The current wave of protests began on Dec. 28, following a collapse in the national currency, …