$20m public liability insurance to rally in a park: how council red tape hinders the right to protest 14. October 2026 (06:22) Public gatherings stymied by bureaucracy, Australian Democracy Network and Deakin University researchers findGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastCouncil red tape is stymieing the right to protest, a report has said, after a regional New South Wales council told a protest organiser they needed a $20m public liability insurance policy to hold a rally in a park.A report released on Wednesday, co-authored by Australian Democracy Network (ADN) and Deakin University’s Centre for Law as Protection, raised concerns about incidents in which councils have required protest organisers to obtain insurance when rallies are held on council land.
It also expressed concern about the power some regional and urban councils have to issue financial penalties if public gatherings are held without a council permit. Continue reading...(The Guardian)
Iranian woman handed death sentence for ‘blasphemy’ in social media post 14. October 2026 (06:00) Rights groups warn of Tehran regime’s increasing use of executions to suppress dissent, with at least 600 this yearHuman rights groups have raised the alarm over the growing number of death sentences and executions in Iran, after reports that a 23-year-old woman, Najmeh Amini, has been sentenced to death for blasphemy over a social-media post.Amini, an accounting student, is being held in Vakilabad prison in the north-east city of Mashhad. She has been sentenced to more than 12 years in prison and death in separate cases heard by a revolutionary and a criminal court. Continue reading...(The Guardian)
Ukraine is littered with landmines on a scale last seen in Vietnam. How can they be removed? 14. October 2026 (06:00) Faced with deadlier threats, demining groups are coming up with new ways of working using drones and AICrouched over on her hands and knees in a field of weeds, Olena Kabanova is digging into the ground. With a shovel and a steady hand, the 58-year-old digs out a neat square around the spot where a mine detector has sensed a suspicious object.Four years ago, this field in eastern Ukraine was occupied by Russian soldiers. Now back under Ukrainian control, it is littered with landmines. Civilians such as Kabanova are trying to make the land usable again. Continue reading...(The Guardian)
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