Amnesty International report details ‘harrowing’ testimonies of survivors at hands of security forces following nationwide protests

Iranian security forces used rape and sexual violence to torture, punish and inflict lasting physical and psychological damage on protesters as young as 12 during the country’s nationwide protests last year, a report says.

The report by Amnesty International is based on the testimonies of 12 women, 26 men, one girl and six boys who survived rape or other forms of sexual violence. Six survivors of rape were subjected to gang rapes by up to 10 male state agents, according to Amnesty.

Pro-Palestine protester held sign that read ‘Shame Albo’ at event in Sydney’s west and reportedly interjected during prime minister’s speech

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New South Wales police have attempted to move on a pro-Palestine protester holding a baby and a sign saying “Shame Albo” when the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, was speaking at the opening of a Sydney park.

The incident at Ashfield’s Lewis Herman Reserve on Monday evening was filmed by multiple people including Inner West Greens councillor Dylan Griffiths who claimed the woman chanted “Shame, Albo, shame” when Albanese began to speak.

‘We need you,’ says Scientist Rebellion, which includes authors of IPCC reports on climate breakdown, as diplomats meet for Cop28

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Wolfgang Cramer’s first involvement with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change was in the 90s. He worked on the second assessment report, delivered in 1995, which affirmed the science of anthropogenic climate breakdown. At that point, no one could say they did not know what was happening.

Almost three decades on, Cramer was part of the international scientific team that prepared the sixth IPCC report. Its conclusion, delivered in March, issued human civilisation a bleak “final warning” – the biosphere stands on the brink of irrevocable damage.

Liberty condemns ‘staggering and shocking’ statistic as anti-protest legislation is enacted

Police have made at least 630 arrests of peaceful protesters campaigning against new oil and gas production in the past month, as the authorities exploit new powers under the government’s anti-protest legislation.

The mass arrests of more than 470 people – some individuals were arrested more than once – was condemned by civil rights group Liberty as “staggering and shocking”.

Demonstration is first time abductees’ families have come together with other activists

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Dozens of people attended a noisy fringe protest in Tel Aviv on Saturday night outside the Israeli military’s headquarters, protesting against the renewed bombardment on Gaza that they blame for the halt in the release of the estimated 130 hostages still held by Hamas.

The group gathered after the regular weekly rally demanding the release of all the hostages held by Hamas, and marched around the Israel Defense Force’s Kirya military base demanding an urgent meeting with the country’s war cabinet and pressing for a ceasefire.

Thousands of activists attending climate conference in UAE, which has a poor record for demonstrations

Cop28 organisers and the UN body that oversees the annual climate conference have failed to clarify whether activists in Dubai are safe to demonstrate outside the conference area, putting civil society at risk in a country where protest is normally prohibited.

At least 80,000 people are registered to attend the conference, including thousands of activists and members of civil society, who normally hold protests around the conference area.

Local rallies and vigils organised as alternative to centralised marches that have seen hundreds of thousands out in London

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Pro-Palestine demonstrations in the UK continued into their eighth successive weekend on Saturday, as protesters gathered in cities and towns across the country to demand a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war.

The protests were part of a day of smaller, local actions organised by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC), an alternative to the larger marches seen in previous weeks. Last Saturday, hundreds of thousands of people marched through central London in protest at the Israeli bombing of Gaza.

Human rights groups record alarming rise in number of prisoners put to death by Tehran regime since 7 October

The Iranian regime has executed more than 127 people, including women and children, since the Hamas attacks of 7 October, according to human rights groups.

According to data collected by Iran Human Rights (IHR) and the Norway-based organisation Hengaw, which have been cross-referenced by the Observer, there has been an alarming rise in executions since the beginning of the war between Israel and Hamas.

Protesters have been using canoes and dinghies to obstruct deep sea mining exploration vessel between Mexico and Hawaii

Deep sea miners have turned water hoses on Greenpeace activists attempting to block their prospecting in the Pacific ocean, according to footage released by the NGO.

For the past week, an international team of Greenpeace activists have been using canoes and dinghies to obstruct the Coco, a deep sea mining exploration vessel, as it collects data to file for a mining permit for waters between Mexico and Hawaii.

Smaller marches will take place instead of single larger event and will be policed locally

Police said protests are expected “in around 13 boroughs” in London on Saturday after the seven-day Israel-Hamas ceasefire ended.

There are no plans for any major central London demonstrations of the sort that have been seen over the past two months, but a number of smaller events are planned, the Metropolitan police said.

Palestine Action’s Richard Barnard and co-defendants say alleged actions against Elbit Systems were aimed at stopping bombings

A co-founder of Palestine Action on trial with others for damaging an Israeli arms manufacturer’s UK sites has said they were justified because they were trying to stop people being bombed.

Richard Barnard, 51, and seven other defendants are accused of charges relating to actions against Elbit Systems Limited, which he said Palestine Action aims to “shut down”.

After recovering from being shot by police in 1983, Toumi Djaïdja led a protest historians say must be written into the nation’s narrative

When Toumi Djaïdja, a 20-year-old youth worker, was shot by police as he helped a teenager who had been bitten by a dog, he did not know it would change the course of French history.

It was 1983, when France was plagued by numerous racist murders of people of north African background, amid anger on housing estates and allegations of police violence. Already, Djaïdja, from an Algerian family on the Minguettes housing estate in Vénissieux outside Lyon, had held a sit-in and a hunger-strike for equal rights and an end to clashes between police and youths.

Demonstrators say they are using event as ‘educational moment for our fellow New Yorkers’

Hundreds gathered around Manhattan on Wednesday night, outside iconic locales like the Rockefeller Center, in support of the people of Palestine amid a truce between Israel and Hamas.

Outside the News Corp Building, there was an interfaith protest organized by Within Our Lifetime, a Palestinian-led community organization. A few blocks away, at Rockefeller Center, a starkly different scene was playing out: the 90th tree lighting ceremony where scores of people gather each year to witness the illumination of the 80ft-tall Norway spruce.

STC says actors’ demonstration ‘hurt many in our community’ while longtime board member resigns

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Wednesday night’s performance of the Sydney Theatre Company production of Chekhov’s The Seagull was cancelled at the last minute, just hours after the company issued a statement of apology over the actions of three cast members on opening night.

The apology and cancellation came in the wake of the resignation of one of the STC’s longstanding foundation board members, Judi Hausmann, the founder and chair of the Sydney public relations company the Haus.

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It’s obscene that the super-rich can criminalise protest, while they burn the world’s resources and remain untouched by the law

Don’t they have children? Don’t they have grandchildren? Don’t rich and powerful people care about the world they will leave to their descendants? These are questions I’m asked every week, and they are not easy to answer. How can we explain a mindset that would sacrifice the habitable planet for a little more power or a little more wealth, when they have so much already?

There are many ways in which extreme wealth impoverishes us. The most obvious is money-spreading across our common ecological space. The recent reporting by Oxfam, the Stockholm Environment Institute and the Guardian gives us a glimpse of how much of the planet the very wealthy now sprawl across. The richest 1% of the world’s people burn more carbon than the poorest 66%, while multibillionaires, running their yachts, private jets and multiple homes, each consume thousands of times the global average. You could see it as another colonial land grab: a powerful elite has captured the resources on which everyone depends.

George Monbiot is a Guardian columnist

Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.

National Council for Civil Liberties brings civil case to quash ‘back-door’ regulations making it easier for police to stop protests

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A new law making it easier for the police to put conditions on peaceful protests is “constitutionally unprecedented” and unlawful, according to a claim filed at the high court in London.

The legal challenge from the National Council for Civil Liberties, also known as Liberty, is seeking to have the controversial regulations quashed, given what the advocacy group describes as the draconian consequences for fundamental rights.

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Police promise arrests in coming weeks as government seeks to expand use of facial recognition technology

Irish police are expected to make sweeping arrests of suspected ringleaders of Thursday’s riot in Dublin and to obtain wider rights to use facial recognition technology to help identify suspects in any future disorder.

The moves come amid mounting pressure on the government and police chiefs over the mayhem on 24 November when an estimated 500 anti-immigrant activists and gangs of youths looted shops, burned vehicles and attacked police, leaving swathes of Ireland’s capital resembling a war zone.

Police arrested 109 climate protesters taking part in a blockade at Newcastle port on Sunday, including Alan Stuart, a 97-year-old Uniting Church reverend. NSW police say protesters continued blocking the port beyond the 30-hour agreed deadline

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• Newcastle port: more than 100 arrested after climate protesters continue blockade past agreed deadline

Thousands of demonstrators against antisemitism marched in London on Sunday to protest against a rise in hate crimes against Jewish people since the Middle East was plunged into crisis after the attack in southern Israel by Hamas on 7 October. Protesters carried placards, some bearing the message: ‘Zero tolerance for antisemites.’ Other placards showed the faces of Israeli hostages held by Hamas. Organisers said up to 60,000 people attended the march in central London, making it the biggest stand against antisemitism since 1936, when protesters confronted Oswald Mosley’s blackshirts at Cable Street in east London

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• Tommy Robinson arrested at march against antisemitism in London