activist

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Cops: Iran Likely Took Out Regime Critic Living in Canada

Police are probing Iran's possible link to activist Masood Masjoody's suspected homicide

(Newser) - Canadian police say an outspoken Iranian activist who vanished near Vancouver a month ago is probably dead, and possibly part of a wider pattern that has critics of Tehran on edge. Investigators in Burnaby, British Columbia, announced they're treating the disappearance of 45-year-old mathematician Masood Masjoody as a homicide,...

Family of Nobel Laureate: 'Narges Will Never Be Silenced'

Narges Mohammadi starts a new hunger strike in Iran prison over her detention, lack of medical care

(Newser) - Iran's most prominent jailed activist is again refusing food. Narges Mohammadi, the 2023 Nobel Peace Prize winner, has launched a new hunger strike in an Iranian prison to protest what she calls her illegal detention, harsh conditions, and isolation from family and lawyers, her relatives said in a statement...

Greta Thunberg Banned After Venice Canal Turns Neon Green
Venice Boots
Greta Thunberg
After Iconic Canal
Turns Neon Green
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
Nov 29, 2025 4:14 PM CST

Venice Boots Greta Thunberg After Iconic Canal Turns Neon Green

Activist, 22, banned and fined after Extinction Rebellion's protest colors city's Grand Canal

(Newser) - Greta Thunberg has been slapped with a 48-hour ban from Venice and fined $175 after she and nearly three dozen other Extinction Rebellion activists dyed the city's Grand Canal bright green. The protest, timed to sync with the end of the COP30 United Nations climate conference in Brazil, was...

Activist After Sentencing: 'They Couldn't Break Me'

2 alleged Russian mobsters get 25 years for hiring hit man to take out journalist Masih Alinejad in 2022

(Newser) - Two purported Russian mobsters said to have been working for an Iranian military higher-up were each sentenced to 25 years behind bars on Wednesday for hiring a hitman to kill Iranian-American journalist Masih Alinejad at her Brooklyn home three years ago on behalf of the Iranian government, reports the AP...

She Escaped From Jail, Hid Out in Cuba for Decades

Assata Shakur, Black activist and godmother to rapper Tupac, is dead at 78 after years in Cuba

(Newser) - Assata Shakur, a Black liberation activist who was given political asylum in Cuba after her 1979 escape from a US prison where she'd been serving a life sentence for killing a police officer, has died at the age of 78. She was also the godmother to the late rapper...

Egypt's President Pardons Prominent Political Prisoner

Alaa Abd el-Fattah freed after years in prison and global advocacy efforts

(Newser) - A pardon from Egypt's president has ended one of the country's most closely watched cases of political imprisonment. President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has granted a pardon to Alaa Abd el-Fattah, a high-profile Egyptian-British activist whose repeated detentions and hunger strikes made him a global symbol of opposition...

Judge: Mahmoud Khalil Must Be Deported

Columbia activist is accused of omissions on his green card application as his legal fight continues

(Newser) - A US immigration judge has ordered the deportation of Mahmoud Khalil, a pro-Palestine activist known for his leadership in campus protests at Columbia University against Israel's military actions in Gaza. The order, issued by Judge Jamee Comans in Louisiana on Friday, directs Khalil—a Palestinian originally from Syria...

After 104 Days, Khalil Walks Free: 'Justice Will Prevail'

Columbia protester was released Friday; Trump administration has appealed ruling on his release

(Newser) - Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil was released Friday from federal immigration detention, freed after 104 days by a judge's ruling after becoming a symbol of President Trump's clampdown on campus protests. The ex-Columbia University grad student left a federal facility in Louisiana on Friday, per the AP . He's...

Pushing for Son's Freedom, Mom Ends Up in Hospital Again

'We're losing her,' daughter says of Laila Soueif, on a hunger strike for activist son imprisoned in Egypt

(Newser) - The mother of a pro-democracy activist imprisoned in Egypt is seriously ill in a London hospital after resuming a monthslong hunger strike aimed at pressing for her son's release, her family said Friday. Laila Soueif was admitted to St. Thomas' Hospital on Thursday night with dangerously low blood-sugar levels,...

Protest Leader at Columbia Now Faces Deportation
Protest Leader at Columbia
Now Faces Deportation
THE RUNDOWN
Mar 10, 2025 11:57 AM CDT

Protest Leader at Columbia Now Faces Deportation

Mahmoud Khalil arrested by ICE agents under new crackdown

(Newser) - A former Columbia University grad student and Palestinian activist who helped organize anti-Israel protests at the school was arrested in his university-owned apartment over the weekend by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, reports the AP , which calls the move "a significant escalation in the Trump administration's pledge to...

Sentence Commuted, Activist Leaves Prison After 50 Years

Native American Leonard Peltier was given one of Biden's final commutations

(Newser) - Indigenous activist Leonard Peltier was released from a Florida prison on Tuesday, after former President Biden commuted his life sentence for the 1975 killings of two FBI agents, a decision that elated Peltier's supporters while angering law enforcement officials who believe he's guilty. For nearly 50 years, Peltier'...

Noam Chomsky Hospitalized After 'Massive' Stroke

Valeria Chomsky says husband is recuperating in Sao Paulo hospital after stroke in June of last year

(Newser) - Linguist, activist, and social critic Noam Chomsky is hospitalized in his wife's native country of Brazil, recovering from a massive stroke he had a year ago, she confirmed Tuesday. Valeria Chomsky said via email that her 95-year-old husband is in a Sao Paulo hospital, where she took him on...

Russian Activist Imprisoned, Says 'I Don't Regret Anything'

Oleg Orlov, 70, of human rights group Memorial is hit with 2.5 years behind bars in Russia

(Newser) - A veteran human rights campaigner who criticized the war in Ukraine was convicted Tuesday by a Moscow court of "repeatedly discrediting" the Russian military and sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison. Oleg Orlov, 70, co-chairman of the Nobel Peace Prize-winning human rights group Memorial, had rejected the case...

Shaun King: I've Been Booted From Instagram Over Palestine

Meta says activist's 'praise for designated entities' violated its policies, leading to ban

(Newser) - Social justice activist Shaun King says he was banned from Instagram, where he counted millions of followers, for expressing support for Palestinians. A Meta rep said King's account was disabled on Christmas Eve "due to multiple instances of praise for designated entities in violation of our policies,"...

Climate Activists Hit London's National Gallery

'Just Stop Oil' protesters smash glass protecting Diego Velazquez's 'Toilet of Venus' painting

(Newser) - Two climate change protesters smashed a protective glass panel covering a famous Diego Velazquez oil painting at London's National Gallery, the group Just Stop Oil said Monday. The two activists targeted Velazquez's The Toilet of Venus, also known as The Rokeby Venus, with small hammers. Photos showed the...

ExxonMobil Set to Square Off Against Activist Investors

Shareholder meeting at Chevron also promises to be contentious over emissions reduction plans

(Newser) - The fly on the wall at Wednesday's ExxonMobil shareholder meeting is likely to get quite an earful, notably on the topic of climate change. Quartz reports that the oil giant is expecting a battle with some of its more activist-leaning investors, including on multiple proposals regarding carbon emissions that...

'Epitome of a Celebrity Activist': Harry Belafonte Dies at 96

Former President Obama once asked him to cut him 'some slack'

(Newser) - Harry Belafonte, the civil rights and entertainment giant who began as a groundbreaking actor and singer and became an activist, humanitarian, and conscience of the world, has died. He was 96, reports the AP . Belafonte died Tuesday of congestive heart failure at his New York home, his wife, Pamela, by...

Pompeo Slams 'Faux Outrage' Over Khashoggi Murder

Ex-secretary of state says in new book that late 'WaPo' journo is no 'Saudi Arabian Bob Woodward'

(Newser) - In 2018, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo slammed the murder of Jamal Khashoggi , saying it violated "the norms of international law." That doesn't mean he was a fan of the Washington Post columnist, however, as clearly evidenced in his new book due out Tuesday, per the Guardian...

After Paralysis During Game, He's Credited With Naming ADA

Kent Waldrep, strong advocate for people with disabilities, dies at 67

(Newser) - Back in 1974, Kent Waldrep got tackled while running the ball for Texas Christian University and ended up paralyzed from the chest down for life, per AL.com . He died last month at age 67, and his obituaries are focused not so much on what happened during that game against...

She Wouldn't Give Up Her Seat. 65 Years Later, a Clean Record

Claudette Colvin, 82, has arrest wiped for making move as a teen that Rosa Parks did months later

(Newser) - Update: A judge in Montgomery, Ala., has finally granted an elderly great-grandmother her wish to have an arrest from her teen years scrubbed from her record. "I'm no longer a juvenile delinquent at 82," Claudette Colvin said Thursday on CBS Mornings . "My record was expunged."...

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