Protests

Washington, DC – Requests for legal support related to pro-Palestine advocacy remained high in the United States last year, as President Donald Trump threatened activists and universities with penalties.

In an annual report released on Tuesday, Palestine Legal, an organisation that “supports the movement for Palestinian freedom in the US”, said it received 1,131 queries for legal support in 2025.

The figure is below the record 2,184 requests the group received in 2024, when pro-Palestine protests swept US campuses — and were regularly met with crackdowns from both school administrators and law enforcement.

Despite universities enacting new restrictions on protests across the country, the figures from 2025 show that pro-Palestine advocacy has persisted, according to Dima Khalidi, the executive director of Palestine Legal.

“Our 2025 year-end report shows that while universities have largely cowered and caved to coercive pressure from the Trump administration and its pro-Israel supporters, student activists for Palestinian and collective freedom remain a model of moral conviction and courage,” Khalidi said.

“Even when facing punitive consequences for speaking out, they are holding the line of dissent against injustice from the US to Palestine, because they understand the cost of surrender for all of us.”

Palestine Legal said that the “overwhelming majority of requests” for legal support came from university students and faculty in 2025, but a growing number, 122, were categorised as “immigration and border-related”.

The group received 851 requests from people or organisations targeted for their Palestine-related advocacy, as well as 280 more asking for legal guidance on conducting advocacy.

Despite the drop from 2024, the rate of complaints last year remained 300 percent higher than in 2022, the year before Israel began its genocidal war in Gaza on October 7, 2023.

Since then, at least 72,560 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza.

Pressure campaigns

In 2024, Trump campaigned for a second term in the White House in part on a pledge to crack down on the pro-Palestinian protest movement, which sought to shine a light on the human rights abuses unfolding during the war.

He has framed such protests as anti-Semitic, and since his inauguration in 2025, he has led a campaign to penalise schools that played host to pro-Palestinian activism.

To date, five universities have struck deals with Trump after he threatened to withhold billions in federal funding. They include Columbia University, where a pro-Palestine encampment and resulting police crackdown drew international attention.

Columbia eventually reached a $200m settlement with the Trump administration and moved to make several policy changes it said were aimed at combatting anti-Semitism.

Rights groups have condemned such policies as conflating pro-Palestine advocacy with anti-Jewish sentiment. They also warn that Trump’s actions risk dampening free speech, a protected right under the First Amendment of the US Constitution.

All told, nearly 80 of the students who took part in Columbia’s protests faced serious academic discipline, including expulsions, suspensions, and degree revocations, as of July 2025.

Meanwhile, the Trump administration used immigration enforcement to target pro-Palestine protesters and advocates, including scholars like Rumeysa Ozturk, Mohsen Mahdawi, Badar Khan Suri and Mahmoud Khalil.

To date, the deportation proceedings against Ozturk, who was in the US on a student visa, and Mahdawi, a US permanent resident detained at his citizenship hearing, have been abandoned.

Ozturk has since voluntarily returned to her native Turkiye after completing her doctoral studies at Tufts University.

The government is still proceeding with deportation efforts against Khan Suri, a Georgetown University researcher, and Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia University graduate and permanent US resident.

Separately, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) raided five homes connected to pro-Palestine activists at the University of Michigan in April 2025, sparking outrage. Federal authorities seized properties, but no arrests were made.

Legal victories

Despite the restrictive climate across the country, Palestine Legal hailed a string of legal victories in 2025 that upheld the right to pro-Palestinian protest.

Last August, for instance, a federal court dismissed a complaint that sought to penalise UNRWA USA, a non-profit that supports the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), under the Antiterrorism Act of 1990.

A separate lawsuit launched by Palestine Legal and the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) charged that the University of Maryland had tread on the free speech rights of students by banning Students for Justice in Palestine (UMD SJP). That case resulted in a $100,000 settlement.

Meanwhile, federal judges have sided with Harvard University and the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), in their challenges to the Trump administration’s defunding efforts.

“The fights that Palestine Legal and our partners have waged affirm that the Trump administration, universities, and Israel advocacy groups cannot, without consequence, run roughshod over growing demands to respect and protect Palestinian rights,” Palestine Legal said at the conclusion of its report.

“The developments throughout 2025 made crystal clear that if we allow our right to stand for Palestinian freedom to be trampled, all of our fundamental rights will be in jeopardy in the face of an authoritarian slide.”

Dozens of US veterans and family members of military personnel have been arrested while staging a protest in the US Capitol building in opposition to the war on Iran.

The EU’s election observer said the vote met democratic standards despite fraud allegations.

Peru’s presidential election result will not be finalised until mid-May, with challenged ballots from last Sunday’s vote still being reviewed, says the electoral authority.

With 93 percent of ballots counted, right-wing candidate Keiko Fujimori leads with 17 percent, according to officials.

Under Peru’s electoral system, the top two candidates advance to a second-round runoff. A close contest has emerged for second spot between left-wing candidate, Roberto Sanchez on 12 percent, and ultra-conservative Rafael Lopez Aliaga close behind on 11.9 percent.

The margin between the two widened slightly on Saturday to about 13,600 votes.

Yessica Clavijo, secretary general of the National Jury of Elections (JNE), said the delay was due to the review of more than 15,000 challenged ballots. About 30 percent concern the presidential race, the rest relate to legislative elections.

Lopez Aliaga, a former mayor of the capital Lima, has been the most vocal critic of the delay. He has alleged fraud without presenting evidence and called for the election to be annulled. He urged supporters of his Popular Renewal Party to protest on Sunday.

Sanchez also criticised the election process, telling reporters: “These serious organisational issues must be investigated and there must be appropriate sanctions”.

A record 35 candidates ran for president in Peru, a country that has faced years of political instability. Four of its last eight presidents have been impeached by Congress.

Voting was disrupted by delays in the delivery of election materials, forcing authorities to extend polling into Monday in parts of Lima.

Despite the setbacks, the European Union’s election observer mission said the vote met democratic standards. On Friday, prosecutors raided a warehouse belonging to the National Office of Electoral Processes (ONPE), the body responsible for organising the election. Four officials have been reported to the JNE over alleged offences linked to voting rights.

Hundreds of far-right “Britain First” supporters marched in the streets of Manchester to celebrate Saint George, seemingly not realising the patron saint of England has a special connection to Palestine. Al Jazeera’s Nils Adler and Nida Ibrahim explain.

There is anger directed at Rosenior, but many Chelsea supporters also point the finger at Eghbali, Boehly and the rest of the BlueCo ownership.

The latest protest saw supporters march from The Wolfpack Inn pub to Stamford Bridge before kick-off, having grown from a turnout of about 200 before the Brentford match to more than 500 before Saturday’s tie.

There were flares, banners and chants directed at the owners, as well as calls in support of former owner Abramovich.

Under the terms of the takeover agreement in 2022, the current ownership group cannot sell the club until at least 2032. However, there are signs they are willing to listen to some of the criticism, including calls to recruit more experienced players.

“We recognise we need balance. You tweak a model, you improve and you learn from mistakes,” Eghbali said. “We have a strong core, but we need to add experience to take the team to the next level and achieve consistency. That is not lost on us.”

However, failure to qualify for the Champions League would undermine any rebuild. Chelsea have already spent about £1.5bn on signings under the current ownership and, despite recouping approximately £750m in sales, they remain under financial scrutiny from Uefa, having faced fines for breaching their regulations.

The club has announced Premier League record pre-tax losses in its latest accounts and – without the additional revenue generated by Europe’s premier competition through broadcasting, sponsorship and ticket sales – questions remain over whether Chelsea can recruit effectively in the summer.

Before kick-off, Cole Palmer told TNT Sports: “If we’re not in the Champions League, everything changes.”

Asked about Palmer’s comments and the potential financial implications, Rosenior replied: “The honest answer is I don’t know. We’re still fighting and we’ll address that situation at the end of the season, whatever the situation is.”

Meanwhile, Enzo Fernandez’s agent, Javier Pastore, has said his client would view missing out on Champions League football as an issue, despite the midfielder’s two-match internal ban – imposed following comments linking him with a move to Real Madrid – coming to an end on Saturday.

While the protest movement has largely been driven by younger supporters, there are signs of apathy among older match-going fans. Boos were heard at full-time, with the atmosphere inside Stamford Bridge growing quieter with each game.

Police in France have arrested students at Sorbonne University, Sciences Po and Paris-Saclay University during a sit-in against a controversial anti-Semitism bill that could outlaw criticism of Israel. Lawmakers are set to vote on the ‘Yadan law’, named after a pro-Israel French MP who sponsored the bill, on April 16.

Thousands gathered at Barcelona’s port as the largest ever Global Sumud Flotilla prepared to depart for Gaza, aiming to break Israel’s blockade. Al Jazeera’s @Mohammadfff_ reports, as organisers and volunteers insist they will sail to Gaza despite the risks.

Police said the suspect targeted Altman’s San Francisco residence before dawn and fled the scene on foot.

A 20-year-old man has been arrested by San Francisco Police Department (SFPD) after a Molotov cocktail was thrown at the home of OpenAI CEO Sam Altman early on Friday morning.

Police in the United States said the suspect targeted the property at about 4am local time (11:00 GMT), allegedly throwing an improvised incendiary device that ignited part of an exterior gate before fleeing the scene on foot.

Authorities did not publicly identify the suspect or confirm the address where the attack took place.

Instead, in a post on the social media platform X, the police department said that a residence in the North Beach neighbourhood was affected.

However, a spokesperson for OpenAI confirmed the incident took place at Altman’s residence.

“Thankfully, no one was hurt. We deeply appreciate how quickly SFPD responded and the support from the city in helping keep our employees safe,” an OpenAI spokesperson said.

Police have not indicated a possible motive behind the attack. The suspect was ultimately located about an hour later near OpenAI’s headquarters, roughly 4.8 kilometres (three miles) away, where he was allegedly threatening to set the building on fire.

OpenAI said it is cooperating with law enforcement as the investigation continues.

Security concerns around OpenAI

The incident comes amid heightened security concerns around OpenAI’s offices, which have faced threats and protests in recent months.

Just last November, a man making violent threats to its San Francisco headquarters briefly prompted an office lockdown.

Altman and the company have increasingly become targets for activists who warn about the risks artificial intelligence could pose to society.

Critics have also raised alarm over OpenAI’s decision to collaborate with the US Department of Defense, a move that has intensified scrutiny of the company’s role in military technology.

Public sentiment towards AI remains mixed. A recent NBC News poll found that the technology is viewed even less favourably than US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), a federal agency responsible for violent immigration raids under President Donald Trump.

Despite the criticism, OpenAI’s growth has accelerated rapidly. The company said last month it was valued at $852bn, following a major funding round that raised $122bn.

Companies like OpenAI, however, face lingering questions about whether they can generate sufficient revenue to cover their high expenses.

One of OpenAI’s signature products, ChatGPT, continues to dominate the consumer AI market, with more than 900 million weekly active users and about 50 million subscribers.

The company also said usage of its search features has tripled over the past year.

Police pushed back protesters in Venezuela’s capital as they demanded an increase to the minimum wage of 130 bolivars ($0.27) per month. Earlier this week, Venezuela’s interim president, Delcy Rodriguez, promised ‘a responsible increase’ in salaries by May 1, but didn’t disclose the amount.

Hundreds of vehicles have driven through Istanbul to condemn the ‘lawless aggression’ of the US and Israel. The convoy, carrying Palestinian and Turkish flags, is calling for international accountability in light of relentless attacks on Lebanon, Iran and Gaza.

Protesters have blocked roads outside the Israeli embassy in London, condemning Israel’s violent strikes on Lebanon which killed hundreds across the country on the day the US-Iran ceasefire was announced. Many demonstrators also expressed solidarity with Iranians and Palestinians who have all suffered under Israeli bombardment.

The activists were protesting the alleged use of the RAF base as a departure point for US aircraft involved in the US-Israel war on Iran.

British police have arrested seven people on suspicion of supporting the banned group Palestine Action at a protest near a Royal Air Force (RAF) air base in eastern England used by United States forces.

The five men and two women arrested at a peace encampment just outside the Lakenheath airbase had gathered with other activists on Sunday to protest the alleged use of the base as a departure point for US aircraft involved in the US-Israeli war on Iran.

The Lakenheath Alliance for Peace, which organised the protest, said the seven had been arrested wearing clothing with the message: “We oppose genocide, we support Palestine Action.”

Police said the protesters had been arrested “on suspicion of supporting a proscribed organisation”.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labour government banned Palestine Action as a “terrorist” organisation last year, making it a criminal offence to belong to or support the group.

In February, a court ruled the ban was “disproportionate” and interfered with the right to free speech. But the government has appealed, and the ban remains in effect in the meantime.

More than 2,700 people have been arrested and hundreds charged over rallies in support of the group, according to protest organisers Defend Our Juries.

Police said in a statement on the latest arrests that they had a duty to enforce the law “as it currently stands, not as it might be in the future”.

Two protesters were also arrested on Saturday at Lakenheath and charged with obstructing public thoroughfares, police said.

US President Donald Trump has railed against Starmer for what he calls insufficient support in the US-Israel war on Iran, straining the countries’ longtime alliance.

The United Kingdom has authorised the US to use British military bases to carry out “defensive” operations against Iran and protect the vital Strait of Hormuz, through which about 20 percent of the world’s oil passes in peacetime.

Ten Muslim civil rights groups have issued a joint letter denouncing the arrest of a Palestinian American community leader in Wisconsin, Salah Sarsour.

The president of the Islamic Society of Milwaukee and a vocal Palestinian advocate, Sarsour was reportedly pulled over by 10 federal agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) while driving on March 30.

The joint letter explains that Sarsour was transferred to a detention facility in Illinois, then to Indiana, leaving his family “scrambling to determine his whereabouts”.

A lawful permanent resident, he had lived in the US for 32 years, according to the letter, and his wife and children are all US citizens. Sarsour has been in immigration detention ever since his arrest.

“We must be clear that Salah is being targeted on the basis of his Palestinian and Muslim background,” the letter, issued Thursday, said.

It was co-signed by organisations including the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the Muslim Legal Fund of America, and the US Council of Muslim Organizations.

The groups noted that, under President Donald Trump, a number of immigrant activists, scholars and foreign students had been targeted for deportation based on their pro-Palestinian solidarity.

“His detention reflects a troubling trend we’ve seen with Mahmoud Khalil, Leqaa Kordia, Mohsen Mahdawi and other voices critical of Israeli oppression,” the groups wrote.

“This administration is weaponizing the U.S. justice system to advance the interests of a foreign state, Israel, at a time when it is carrying out a genocide in Gaza.”

The groups have launched an online campaign for Sarsour’s legal defence. By Thursday afternoon, it had earned over $35,500 in donations.

While the Trump administration has yet to issue a statement about Sarsour’s arrest, it has taken a hardline approach to pro-Palestinian activism.

When running for re-election in 2024, Trump pledged to crack down on protesters denouncing human rights abuses during Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza.

According to statements obtained by the Washington Post in May 2024, Trump reportedly called the protest movement a “radical revolution” and said that, if he were elected, he planned “to set that movement back 25 or 30 years”.

Within months of taking office in January 2025, Trump proceeded to take action.

Starting in March 2025, his administration moved to strip hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funds from universities that saw protests unfold on their campuses, citing claims of anti-Semitism.

Federal agents also arrested legal permanent residents like Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian student leader, stripping him of his green card.

One scholar, Rumeysa Ozturk of Turkiye, saw her student visa revoked for co-signing a pro-Palestinian opinion piece in her school’s student newspaper.

The arrests and subsequent efforts to rapidly deport the activists and scholars have prompted widespread condemnation as a violation of the Constitution’s First Amendment right to free speech and protest.

Officials in Wisconsin have been among the leaders to denounce Sarsour’s arrest as the latest in a series of efforts to stifle free speech. Two local alderpersons, JoCasta Zamarripa and Alex Bower, called the situation a “nightmare”.

“This is an illegal detention of a longtime permanent U.S. resident, as Mr Sarsour is a Milwaukeean who is lawfully present in our community,” they wrote in a joint statement on Thursday.

“The unacceptable activities by ICE — and especially illegally detaining citizens without due process — must stop immediately. How dare federal ICE agents come into our community and unlawfully detain a grandfather, a faith leader, a Wisconsinite!”

State Senator Chris Larson, meanwhile, underscored that the federal government has yet to offer any reasons publicly for Sarsour’s arrest.

“We have already seen numerous Muslim activists unfairly and unlawfully targeted by the Trump Administration for their beliefs and their speech,” Larson wrote.

“These Unconstitutional assaults on our freedoms should alarm all of us. When any individual or group is targeted by the government for their speech, all of our freedoms are threatened.”

Tehran, Iran – Government supporters have taken to the streets in Iran to celebrate the anniversary of a referendum nearly half a century ago that solidified the Islamic Republic’s hold on power, even as the United States and Israel continued their attacks on the country.

President Masoud Pezeshkian and Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi were among officials who joined pro-establishment rallies on the streets of Tehran on Tuesday night to mark Islamic Republic Day, when the nascent theocratic system in 1979 announced it had garnered 98.2 percent of the popular vote shortly after an Islamic revolution.

Shortly after and in the early hours of Wednesday morning, Washington bombed the site of the former US embassy in Tehran, in an apparent move tied to the symbolism of Islamic Republic Day. Footage from state media showed destruction and debris and smoke in the area, which is guarded by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

On Wednesday afternoon, authorities hoisted what they said was Iran’s tallest and heaviest flag at 150 metres (492 feet) and 300kg (660 pounds) in an area of downtown Tehran.

Festivities began on Tuesday night, and more gatherings are expected on Wednesday night, as political, military and religious leaders say followers must ensure security on the streets, backed by armed forces, to fend off any local dissent and incitement towards regime change from opponents.

Araghchi, Tehran’s top diplomat, who told Al Jazeera in an interview on Tuesday that he has been exchanging messages with Washington but has not responded to requests for negotiations, told state television that he joined supporters to “gain spirit” and encouragement. The president was seen taking selfie photos with people on the streets while flanked by masked bodyguards.

Hassan Khomeini, the son of Ruhollah Khomeini, who led the 1979 revolution and became the first supreme leader before his death in 1989, said it was incumbent upon them from an Islamic standpoint to remain on the streets every night until the war is over, no matter how long it takes.

“The enemy might make a thousand plots in order to cut off our communication, but our trenches are the mosques, alleys, squares and streets,” he said.

People shown by state media in various cities chanted “Death to America” and “Death to Israel” in addition to a series of religious slogans.

The authorities issued calls to action for people to participate in group marches while waving flags. Religious singers and eulogists also performed religious songs that drew on the influence of revered figures in Shia Islam.

The paramilitary Basij forces of the IRGC, as well as other armed forces, patrolled the streets and set up checkpoints and roadblocks across the city.

But they were not the only forces present.

Hamid al-Hosseini, a senior clerical and paramilitary figure affiliated with the IRGC and Iraq’s Hashd al-Shaabi, also known as the Popular Mobilisation Forces (PMF) of Iran-aligned fighters, confirmed that Iraqi nationals were widely situated on the streets of the Iranian capital.

While surrounded by those attending state-run festivities in downtown Tehran, he told the IRGC-linked Tasnim news agency that Iraqi “mokebs” or religious food and services stations are now located around “various squares” in order to “offer a little help to the Iranian people and learn resilience from them”.

This comes days after Hashd al-Shaabi fighters, while wearing military attire and in some cases, clerical turbans, proudly marched the streets of cities in southwestern Iran’s Khuzestan in dozens of pick-up trucks while delivering what they called “humanitarian assistance”. Pezeshkian later thanked them in a post online.

There were reports that they had already been spotted in Tehran, but there was no official confirmation from Iranian authorities. Opponents and human rights organisations have for years accused the Islamic Republic of systematically using fighters from Iraq and other aligned armed forces to crack down against local dissent, a claim the authorities have rejected.

‘We are waiting for you’

The Iranian state has remained defiant as Washington signals that it may soon deploy thousands of soldiers to the country.

Amid speculation that a ground fight could be aimed at occupying parts of Iran’s southern islands on the Strait of Hormuz, taking over oil and gas facilities, or even extracting highly enriched uranium from bombed nuclear facilities, Tehran says its defences are prepared.

Ahmad Reza Pourdastan, the head of the Iranian army’s research centre, said the armed forces have been drilling for the scenario of a US invasion since 2001, so any aggression will be met with “heavy casualties”.

The general staff of the Iranian armed forces and the Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters of the IRGC, which manage the war, said Islamic Republic Day represents “fighting arrogance in order to realise the goals of independence, freedom and religious democracy”.

The armed forces will “make the enemies of the glorious nation of our dear country regret what they have done and be humiliated,” they said.

The police force added in a separate statement that the Islamic Republic “is on the verge of securing ultimate victory for the forces of good versus evil”.

Tasnim released a video that said, “Come close,” and “We are waiting for you,” in Farsi, English, Hebrew, and Arabic. The IRGC-linked Fars news agency showed footage of pro-state demonstrators calling for more missile strikes across the region.

The US and Israel again targeted Iran’s top steel manufacturing companies in a move that could cost thousands of jobs and deal another major blow to civilians living under economic malaise caused by a mix of local mismanagement and harsh US sanctions. Other attacks this week hit civilian nuclear sites, a university, and military installations, while also impacting a number of civilian homes.

Surviving the blackout

Iranians continue to be concerned about a highly uncertain future while battling an unprecedented near-total internet shutdown that has left them in the dark for over a month, aside from the news disseminated by state media.

“I simply cannot afford to buy VPNs [virtual private networks] any more,” said a resident of Tehran, who said they had so far spent nearly $300 for VPN access, more than two-months salary for minimum wage workers, while being squeezed by an inflation rate of more than 70 percent.

“I’ve purchased many proxies since the start of the war, and most of the connections were cut within hours or days. I’m tired of overspending money that I need for meat and eggs on something that should be available as a basic human right,” he said.

He told Al Jazeera that two of the anonymous online vendors he had paid money to for VPN access turned out to be scammers, with the lengthy digital blackout creating a profitable black market.

Some of the vendors have been apprehended and their servers taken offline by Iranian authorities, who have also said that they are actively pursuing anyone using contraband Starlink satellite internet in connection with national security charges. State television said on Wednesday that Starlink infrastructure in the region is among Tehran’s “legitimate”.

National security and espionage charges are also being levied against anyone who is found to have committed acts of dissent, including taking videos of missile impact sites. That could entail confiscation of assets and execution, the judiciary has warned.

The Fars news agency on Wednesday released footage of “confessions” from more arrested Iranians, including a young sobbing girl with a blurred-out face, who said she had cheered US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for attacking Iran in a clip released online, as she believed the war would help overthrow the Islamic Republic.

Amid the state-imposed information blackout, some Iranians have devised their own early warning systems, which include phone calls and text messages from people in the northern or western provinces.

“They hear the jets flying over first, so they warn us, and in many cases, we take cover and hear those jets completing their bombing runs over Tehran within minutes,” another resident of the capital said.

On April 1, a British court is set to rule in an important trial that could define the limits of mass protest in Britain. Ben Jamal, director of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, and Chris Nineham, vice chair of Stop the War Coalition, were both charged with breaching the Public Order Act 1986 for organising a pro-Palestine demonstration in London on January 18, 2025, on which the police had imposed conditions.

Last week, Judge Daniel Sternberg refused to dismiss the case, despite evidence provided by defence barrister Mark Summers that protesters did not break the conditions, nor had any intention to do so. The trial is seen as yet another indication of the rapidly shrinking space for the free expression of dissent in Britain.

Politicised policing

The proceedings in the trial against Jamal and Nineham have revealed the extraordinarily close relationship between the Metropolitan Police and Zionist groups. This includes the police accepting recommendations from these groups about the Palestine movement’s demonstration routes.

In negotiations between protest leaders and the police ahead of the January 18 demonstration, the police had agreed in principle to a demonstration forming up outside the BBC headquarters in central London, which is close to the Central Synagogue. Protesters had assembled there before and were keen to do so again in order to highlight the BBC’s pro-Israel bias.

During the trial, it was revealed that police commander Adam Slonecki received a letter from the Jewish Leadership Council (JLC), which threatened a judicial review if he failed to impose conditions on the protest. Slonecki had also had a series of meetings with various pro-Israeli groups after receiving the letter.

On December 20, he met with protest organisers and explained – without offering evidence or mentioning the meetings that had taken place – that the demonstrations were producing a “cumulative impact” in the form of serious disruption to the Jewish way of life, and that protesters were to be banned from marching in the vicinity of the BBC.

Ultimately, the police allowed only a static protest on January 18, at Whitehall. In a carefully worded speech on the day, Jamal announced from the stage that a small delegation of protesters would walk towards the BBC to lay flowers in memory of those killed in Gaza. If prevented, they would lay the flowers at the feet of the police and disperse. The police allege that Jamal’s speech constituted incitement to breach the conditions.

In fact, as protesters waited for the police to decide where the flowers could be laid, Nineham was violently arrested.

The defence argued that the police were unduly influenced by pro-Israeli pressure in the run-up to the demonstration and failed to facilitate the right to protest. That the police commander did not make any effort to meet with sections of the Jewish community that are pro-Palestine validates the suggestion of police bias.

Growing restrictions on protest

The trial of Jamal and Nineham should be seen within the context of growing efforts by successive British governments to limit the rights to freedom of expression and assembly.

In 2022, the British Parliament approved the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act, which expanded police powers to impose conditions based on the location and size of protests, and noise levels. It has been considered an affront to civil liberties, in part because it follows a logic that relies on police perception of risk rather than actual harm.

In 2023, the Conservatives introduced amendments to strengthen Public Order Act 1986, which remains the primary legislation for policing protests in the country. Public Order Act 2023 provides police with greater powers to prevent protests that are deemed disruptive – with vague definitions of what constitutes disruption – and includes pre-emptive restrictions around freedoms of assembly and association.

Both acts are widely criticised for having a chilling effect on people seeking to exercise the legitimate democratic right to protest.

Also in 2023, then-Home Secretary Suella Braverman attempted to push through regulations to lower the threshold for what is considered “serious disruption”, but this was struck down by the Court of Appeal in 2025, which ruled that the government had exceeded its powers.

Now the Labour government – in lockstep with the Conservatives – is seeking to further expand police discretion over the regulation of protest through the Crime and Policing Bill, one element of which is managing “cumulative impact”.

Over 100 MPs have expressed opposition to it, in addition to campaigning groups, because it would restrict protests based on frequency, not behaviour, and make protests more conditional and subject to police discretion.

In parallel, the government is trying to push through a bill that would cut in half the number of trials that go to jury. If this legislation passes, fewer protest-related cases may reach juries, reducing resistance to unpopular laws.

This is on top of the amendments made last year to The Terrorism Act 2000 to proscribe Palestine Action, making it a criminal offence to belong to or support the organisation, punishable by up to 14 years in prison. These came after a group of Palestine Action activists – known as the Filton 24 – broke into the Elbit Systems drone factory in Bristol to protest Israel’s genocide in Gaza. They were arrested and held on remand, many for over 18 months.

Although they were recently cleared of the most serious charges, and the organisation was successful in pleading for a judicial review that ruled that the home secretary’s decision to proscribe Palestine Action as a “terrorist” organisation was unlawful, the police have already made 2,700 arrests and will continue arrests pending the outcome of an appeal.

Already, one of the Filton 24, Qesser Zuhrah, was rearrested on March 30 for a social media post calling for “direct action”.

Cumulative impact

The imposition of tougher legislation was introduced in response to climate protesters and anti-monarchy protesters. Now it is being reinforced over Palestine protest. But it is clear that it won’t stop there.

If implemented, the proposed legislation around cumulative impact could be used against any group of people exercising democratic rights, whether trade unionists or anti-war campaigners, curbing their ability to organise freely.

It could also serve to reinforce division in society, as measures are increasingly deployed at police discretion. Recently, for example, the police have not given protest organisers permission to march on their proposed route for the annual Nakba Day demonstration on May 16, while they have granted Tommy Robinson, a notorious fascist, the whole of central London to do its far-right march.

Whatever the outcome of Jamal and Nineham’s trial on April 1, there needs to be a society-wide mobilisation to defend the rights to free speech and assembly. This is no longer just about the Palestinian cause, but about British democracy.

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.

March 29 (UPI) — Participants in the thousands of No Kings demonstrations across the United States said they came out to protest President Donald Trump for his crackdown on immigration, his decision to go to war in Iran, and even his decisions to put his name on federal property and money.

The organizers behind the No Kings movement estimated that about 8 million people turned out for Saturday’s protests, which took place across at least 3,000 individual locations in every single congressional district in the country. The New York Times reported, though, that the estimate could be off because organizers’ figures in some cases were higher than those reported by local public safety officials.

The marquee event at the Minnesota State Capitol in St. Paul drew more than 200,000, people, organizers said. Among them were Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., singer Joan Baez, actor Jane Fonda and Gov. Tim Walz. Rocker Bruce Springsteen performed his original song, “Streets of Minneapolis, inspired by civilian deaths at the hands of federal immigration officials during an enforcement crackdown earlier this year.

The Minnesota Star Tribune reported that the St. Paul demonstration had a dual purpose — condemning the Trump administration while also celebrating the those in the state who stood against the federal immigration enforcement surge.

Speaking at the St. Paul event, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison called on attendees to “look past Trump and into the society we dream about.”

“Every right we fought for and won is under attack right now,” he said. “In part, we got ourselves into this mess because of an election, and we’re going to get out of this mess with an election.”

At the University of Iowa, organizers Katy Gates told The Times many college-age attendees were inspired to protest in response to the war in Iran. Trump authorized attacks on Iran in conjunction with Israel beginning Feb. 28. Some have taken issue with the now-monthlong involvement in a war without congressional approval.

“Our generation has grown up with this idea of endless war in the Middle East,” she said. “And the idea of getting into yet another is something that people are rightfully angry about.”

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., went beyond protesting Saturday, announcing a bill to ban sitting presidents from putting their names on federal property and currency.

“In America, we do not bow to kings,” she said. “Our president should be focused on bringing down grocery prices, making healthcare affordable and ensuring every family can get ahead, not using their position to boost their own personal brand.

“It is time that we institute this ban and make sure that our government serves the people, not one person’s ego.”

Inspired by the addition of Trump’s name to the John F. Kennedy Performing Arts Center in Washington, D.C., and his plans to add his own signature to currency, the legislation would also ban banners with the president’s face on the side of federal buildings, naming a class of warships after a sitting president and putting their image on commemorative coins.

Police in Tel Aviv dispersed hundreds of protesters on Saturday opposing Israel’s operation with the US against Iran, now in its second month. Up to 18 people have been arrested so far, according to local media, as wartime restrictions on gatherings remain in place.

Demonstrators are hitting the streets of cities across the United States for the first “No Kings” protest since the joint US and Israeli war against Iran began one month ago.

Saturday’s marches and rallies mark the third round of nationwide “No Kings” protests since President Donald Trump took office for a second term.

According to the “No Kings” website, more than 3,300 events are planned across all 50 states, with large crowds expected in cities such as New York, Los Angeles and Washington, DC. Parallel events are happening internationally in cities such as Rome, Paris, and Berlin.

Organisers, however, are aiming to rally voters outside of the US’s major metropolises, in areas that tend to skew conservative. They say that roughly two-thirds of participants are expected to take part in events outside of major city centres.

“The defining story of this Saturday’s mobilisation is not just how many people are protesting, but where they are protesting,” said Leah Greenberg, cofounder of the progressive nonprofit Indivisible, which started the “No Kings” movement last year.

The main event, however, is set to take place in the Minneapolis-St Paul area of Minnesota, known as the Twin Cities.

The midwestern state became a focal point for Trump’s hardline immigration crackdown in December, when he launched Operation Metro Surge.

That operation saw more than 3,000 of federal immigration agents descend on the Twin Cities, where they were accused of using excessive force to conduct deportation raids.

In January, agents shot and killed two US citizens, Alex Pretti and Renee Nicole Good, prompting nationwide outrage and calls for reform. Dozens of lawsuits have been filed as a result of the operation, which was wound down in February.

Saturday’s protest will commemorate those deaths in Minnesota, with speeches, concerts and appearances from activists, labour leaders and politicians.

Progressive Senator Bernie Sanders is expected to address attendees, and rock icon Bruce Springsteen will perform at the event, along with folk singer Joan Baez.

Already, early on Saturday, marchers in Washington, DC, gathered around landmarks such as the Lincoln Memorial and the Washington Monument, holding signs and waving papier-mache effigies of the Trump administration.

The previous two “No Kings” marches took place in June and October and drew millions of people. Trump responded to the October protest by posting an AI-generated video depicting himself dumping faeces on the protesters.

The US is currently in the midst of campaigns for its pivotal midterm elections in November, which will see Trump’s Republican Party seek to defend its majorities in both chambers of Congress.

Protesters in Yemen took to the streets to voice support for Iran, Palestine, and Lebanon amid ongoing US and Israeli attacks. Houthi representatives expressed their readiness to intervene militarily.

MONTCLAIR, N.J. — A few years ago, Allison Posner was barely involved in politics.

Now the 42-year-old mother of two from Maplewood, New Jersey, hands out food and diapers to immigrant families outside a nearby detention facility. She waves signs on a highway overpass between school pickups and orthodontist appointments. And this weekend, she’ll lead a No Kings protest march across this affluent town alongside her husband, her children and thousands of others who are convinced President Trump represents a direct threat to American democracy.

“The people in the suburbs are definitely radicalizing,” said Posner, a freelance actor.

A growing faction of concerned citizens living in suburban communities across the United States — places once known for political moderation or even conservatism — are increasingly positioned on the front lines of the anti-Trump resistance. More than a year into the Republican president’s second term, the soccer moms are becoming bona fide activists taking to their well-manicured streets to fight Trump and his allies.

The leftward lurch could cost Republicans control of Congress for the president’s final two years in office. It could also reshape the Democratic Party by elevating a fresh crop of fiery progressive candidates emboldened to push back against the Trump administration more aggressively than the establishment may prefer.

Indivisible, the activist organization spearheading the third round of No Kings protests this weekend, said roughly two-thirds of more than 3,000 planned demonstrations will be held outside urban areas. Overall, more than 9 million people are expected to turn out nationwide for what leaders predict will be the largest day of protesting in U.S. history.

“We’re going to be everywhere,” Indivisible co-founder Ezra Levin said.

Organizers said sign-ups have been especially enthusiastic in suburban areas with high-profile congressional races like Scottsdale, Arizona; Langhorne, Pennsylvania; East Cobb, Georgia; and here in northern New Jersey’s 11th District, which holds a special election April 16.

Democratic voters last month chose Analilia Mejia, a former political director for Vermont independent Sen. Bernie Sanders, as their candidate to replace Mikie Sherrill, the more moderate Democrat who was recently elected as New Jersey’s governor.

Posner said she’s excited to have a fighter represent her district, someone who can channel the outrage she sees every day.

“I’m seeing people from the PTA or the neighborhood who would have never joined a protest in the past, who are now asking how they can get involved,” Posner said. “This is not some other people’s fight. This is our fight.”

‘Our hair is on fire’

For decades, affluent suburbs like those in northern New Jersey helped elect Republicans who fit the districts they represented: business-oriented, culturally moderate and disinterested in ideological fights.

That began to change in the Trump era.

Across the country, college-educated suburban voters recoiled from Trump’s brand of politics. They shifted sharply toward Democrats in the 2018 midterms and in the presidential elections that followed. Districts like New Jersey’s 11th, once a Republican stronghold, have since become part of a new liberal coalition rooted in places that were, until very recently, politically competitive.

Even in Summit, New Jersey, one of the nation’s wealthiest suburbs, Jeff Naiman feels as if he’s living in an “authoritarian nightmare” of Trump’s making.

“It’s like our hair is on fire,” says Naiman, a 59-year-old radiologist who leads his local chapter of Indivisible. “Our country’s being torn apart.”

He’s supporting Mejia, and he has no doubt she’ll win next month’s special election — and again in November’s general election.

“In this environment,” Naiman said, “I think the chances of her losing the general election are basically zero.”

Mejia, an outspoken progressive activist endorsed by Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., emerged from the crowded Democratic primary last month, beating more moderate candidates like former congressman Tom Malinowski.

She’s critical of Israel’s war in Gaza, calls for the abolition of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and backs Medicare for All. She’s also eager to raise concerns about what she describes as Trump’s dictatorial tendencies and will be one of the featured speakers at a No Kings protest this weekend.

“A ZIP code does not protect anyone from rising violent authoritarianism,” she said in an interview.

Mejia still describes herself as a soccer mom, even as her Republican critics accuse her of trying to soften her activist image ahead of Election Day.

“My youngest plays baseball and soccer, my oldest lacrosse and basketball,” she said. “And when I take my children to activities, to games, and I speak to other parents, I know that we’re all experiencing this economy and this political moment very similarly.”

Mejia defended herself against accusations of antisemitism for her position on Israel, which she accused of committing genocide in the war in Gaza, a topic that emerged as a key issue in the race.

“When I say Palestinians have rights, like Jewish people and Israelis have rights, that is not antisemitism, that is humanism,” she said while acknowledging there is antisemitism within the Republican and Democratic parties. “I am an Afro Latina raising two Black sons in America. I know othering kills. I know how dangerous it is when we dehumanize communities.”

A Republican balancing act

New Jersey’s 11th District was represented by a Republican until Sherrill was elected during the 2018 midterm elections that served as a harsh verdict at the halfway mark of Trump’s first term.

Joe Hathaway, the Republican nominee in next month’s special election and a town councilman from Randolph Township, hopes to convince voters that Mejia is too radical for them. Republican strategists in Washington, too, believe a surge of far-left Democratic candidates nationwide like Mejia in otherwise moderate districts might help their party maintain its razor-thin House majority this fall.

Yet suburban Republicans are facing serious political headwinds from the leader of their own party in the White House. Hathaway, for example, initially declined to say whether he voted for Trump.

“I don’t think it’s important,” he said in an interview, before acknowledging that he cast his ballot for the president three times. “This job is representing the district. NJ-11 comes first, before a president, before your party.”

Hathaway backs the president’s war in Iran and many of the economic policies in Trump’s big tax and spending cuts bill. But he was also quick to highlight areas of disagreement.

The Republican said he supports most of the Democrats’ demands in the Department of Homeland Security shutdown fight, including proposals to require federal immigration agents to wear body cameras, clearly identify themselves, take off face masks and receive better training.

He also wants Republicans who lead Congress to stand up to Trump, whose use of executive authority Hathaway said is “pressure testing” the checks and balances outlined in the Constitution.

“Congress needs to reassert that it is the first branch of government and take more of a leadership role than it’s been doing,” he said.

Inside the suburban shift

Suburban Americans have been slowly moving away from the Republicans over the past 15 years, according to Gallup polling that tracks party affiliation over time.

Trump was unable to stop the shift despite warnings that Democrats would “destroy” the suburbs with low-income housing.

In 2020, Democrat Joe Biden won 54% of voters who said they lived in the suburbs while Trump won only 44%, according to AP VoteCast. That was a substantial improvement on Democrat Hillary Clinton’s performance in a smaller survey of validated 2016 voters conducted by the Pew Research Center, which found that Clinton and Trump split the group about evenly.

The suburbs have also grown more diverse and educated over the past few decades, demographic shifts that may make Democrats more confident. In both of the past two presidential elections, AP VoteCast found that college-educated and non-white suburban voters were much likelier to support the Democratic candidate.

Naiman, the Summit radiologist, said he’s witnessed a transformation in his town, which was represented by Republicans at the state and federal level for decades until Trump took over.

“I don’t think that Summit is going to be swinging towards Republicans anytime soon — at least not as long as Trumpism is around,” he said.

Peoples writes for the Associated Press. AP polling editor Amelia Thomson DeVeaux in Washington contributed to this report.

Videos show large demonstrations in Tehran, where crowds waved Iranian flags and chanted in support of the government. The rallies come as Iranian media highlights public backing amid the US-Israeli war on the country.