tag

A US judge has restricted federal agents from interfering with peaceful protesters in Minnesota, after President Donald Trump said there was no immediate need to invoke the Insurrection Act over the demonstrations.US District Judge Katherine Menendez ordered immigration agents to dial back their aggressive tactics, barring the detention or arrest of peaceful protesters and drivers and the use of pepper-spray against demonstrators.The court case was brought on behalf of six protesters and observers who claimed that their constitutional rights had been infringed by the actions of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents.**media[405612]**The 83-page order gives the Department of Homeland Security (DHS)’s current operation in the northern US city 72 hours to come into compliance, and follows two incidents where federal agents opened fire, killing one person and wounding another in the span of a week.The ruling comes nearly two weeks after the Trump administration announced that it was sending 2,000 immigration agents to the Minneapolis area, bolstering an earlier deployment in what the DHS called its largest such operation in history.The surge in heavily armed officers from the ICE agency and Border Patrol has since grown to nearly 3,000, dwarfing the ranks of local police officers in the Twin Cities metropolitan area of Minneapolis and St Paul.In a separate legal move that could inflame the standoff between the White House and Minnesota elected officials, CBS News reported that the Justice Department (DOJ) was investigating Minnesota Governor Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey for impeding federal officers.Both have called for peaceful protests against immigration sweeps in their state."This is an obvious attempt to intimidate me for standing up for Minneapolis, local law enforcement, and residents against the chaos and danger this Administration has brought to our city," Frey wrote on X on Friday.Walz said the Trump administration has moved to investigate other Democrats who have spoken out against the president's policies and mentioned the 37-year-old woman who was fatally shot by an ICE officer in Minneapolis on January 7."The only person not being investigated for the shooting of Renee Good is the federal agent who shot her," Walz wrote on X.**media[405613]**The DOJ did not respond to a request for comment.However, Attorney-General Pam Bondi wrote on X on Friday: "A reminder to all those in Minnesota: No one is above the law."Trump threatened the drastic measure of invoking the Insurrection Act, which would allow him to deploy the military to police the protests, as the row escalated this week."If I needed it, I would use it. I don't think there is any reason right now to use it," Trump told reporters at the White House when asked about the move.The Insurrection Act allows a president to sidestep the Posse Comitatus Act to suppress "armed rebellion" or "domestic violence" and deploy soldiers on US soil "as he considers necessary" to enforce the 19th-century law.Crowds of protesters have clashed with immigration officers across Minneapolis, opposing their efforts to target undocumented migrants.Some officers have responded with violence.Demonstrations grew dramatically following Good's killing as the Trump administration pressed operations to catch undocumented migrants.Federal agents fired their weapons in two separate incidents, wounding a man from Venezuela on Wednesday and in Good's killing last week.In a separate incident, the DHS confirmed on Friday that Heber Sanchez Dominguez, a 34-year-old Mexican national, died while detained in ICE custody two days earlier.At least four people have died in ICE detention so far this year, according to agency data.Trump backers have also begun to face off with protesters who oppose the ICE's actions in the state, leading to tense encounters.The *Minnesota Star Tribune newspaper reported that divisions within the anti-ICE movement were beginning to emerge over how aggressively to resist the enforcement efforts.Activists have also become increasingly wary of "far-right provocateurs trying to bait demonstrators into rioting", it said.Minnesota's American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) chapter has reported an uptick in complaints against ICE officers.Walz accused federal agents of waging "a campaign of organised brutality against the people of Minnesota" in a video posted to X Wednesday night.Good's family announced on Wednesday that they had retained a top law firm to probe the killing ahead of launching possible legal action against the officer and the government.The lawyers demanded on Thursday that federal officials – including the officer who shot Good – preserve records and evidence relating to the incident. 

Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei Saturday acknowledged the economic demands of protesters in Iran, where demonstrations have spread to more than two dozen cities, even as he warned there would be no quarter for “rioters”. The protests began last Sunday as an expression of discontent over high prices and economic stagnation, but have since expanded to include political demands.Iranian media have reported localised violence and vandalism in the west of the country in recent days. “During clashes in Malekshahi, Latif Karimi, a member of the IRGC, was killed while defending the country’s security,” Mehr news agency said. Malekshahi is a county of about 20,000 residents with a large Kurdish population, where “rioters attempted to enter a police station”, according to separate news agency Fars, which added that “two assailants were killed”. Mehr earlier reported a member of the Basij paramilitary force was also killed during another protest in western Iran after being “stabbed and shot” by “armed rioters”. The protests have affected, to varying degrees, at least 30 different cities, mostly medium-sized, according to an AFP tally based on official announcements and media reports. At least 12 people have been killed since Wednesday in clashes, including members of the security forces, according to a toll based on official reports. Speaking to worshippers gathered in Tehran for a religious holiday, Khamenei said the protesters’ economic demands in the sanctions-hit country were “just”. “The shopkeepers have protested against this situation and that is completely fair,” he added. But Khamenei nonetheless warned that while “authorities must have dialogue with protesters, it is useless to have dialogue with rioters. Those must be put in their place.”The first deaths were reported on Thursday as demonstrators clashed with authorities. The Tasnim news agency, citing a local official, also reported a man was killed on Friday in the holy city of Qom, south of Tehran, when a grenade he was trying to use exploded “in his hands”. 

Dozens of protesters rallied in New Delhi Sunday to demand government action on toxic air, as a thick haze containing dangerous microparticles shrouded the Indian capital. Parents in the crowd brought their children, who wore masks and waved placards, with one reading: "I miss breathing".New Delhi with its sprawling metropolitan region of 30mn residents is regularly ranked among the world's most polluted capitals.Acrid smog blankets the skyline each winter, when cooler air traps pollutants close to the ground, creating a deadly mix of emissions from crop burning, factories and heavy traffic.Levels of PM2.5 - cancer-causing microparticles small enough to enter the bloodstream - sometimes rise to as much as 60 times the UN's daily health limits."Today I am here just as a mother," said protester Namrata Yadav, who came with her son."I am here because I don't want to become a climate refugee."Sunday, PM2.5 levels around India Gate, the iconic war memorial where protesters had assembled, were more than 13 times the World Health Organisation's recommended daily maximum.**media[379467]**"Year after year, it is the same story but there is no solution," said Tanvi Kusum, a lawyer who said she had come because she was "frustrated"."We have to build pressure so that the government at least takes up the issue seriously."Piecemeal government initiatives have failed to make a noticeable impact.These included partial restrictions on fossil fuel-powered transport and water trucks spraying mist to clear particulate matter from the air."Pollution is cutting our lives," said a young woman who claimed to be "speaking for Delhi" and refused to share her name.**media[379459]**A study in The Lancet Planetary Health last year estimated that 3.8mn deaths in India between 2009 and 2019 were linked to air pollution.The United Nations children's agency warns that polluted air puts children at heightened risk of acute respiratory infections.As the sun set into the smog-covered skyline, the crowd of protesters appeared to swell before police bundled several activists into a bus, seizing their placards and banners, arguing they did not have a permission to protest there.One of them, half-torn, read: "I just want to breathe".

Nepal's prime minister resigned on Tuesday, a day after one of the deadliest crackdowns on protesters in years saw at least 19 people killed. "I have resigned from the post of prime minister with effect from today in order to take further steps towards a political solution and resolution of the problems," KP Sharma Oli said in a letter to the president. The protests, which began on Monday with demands that the government lifts a ban on social media and tackles corruption, reignited despite the apps going back online. At least 19 people were killed on Monday, and Amnesty International said live ammunition had been used against protesters. Oli, 73, began his fourth term last year after his Communist Party forged a coalition government with the centre-left Nepali Congress in the often-volatile parliament. Dissatisfaction has grown with political instability, corruption, and slow economic development in the Himalayan nation of 30 million people. People aged 15-40 make up nearly 43 percent of the population, according to government statistics while unemployment hovers around 10 percent and GDP per capita is just $1,447, according to the World Bank. The country became a federal republic in 2008 after a decade-long civil war and a peace deal that saw the Maoists brought into government, and the abolishment of the monarchy. Since then, a revolving door of ageing prime ministers and a culture of horse-trading have fuelled public perceptions that the government is out of touch. Since Friday, videos contrasting the struggles of ordinary Nepalis with the children of politicians flaunting luxury goods and expensive vacations have gone viral on TikTok, which was not blocked.