Newsletter Apr 16, 2026 HRF’s Weekly Financial Freedom Report #117 We start in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where the country’s central bank has announced plans to ban cash transactions in US dollars and other foreign currencies starting in April 2027.
Newsletter Apr 9, 2026 HRF’s Weekly Financial Freedom Report #116 In China, officials have ordered the removal of Bitchat from Apple’s App Store. Officials cited violations of regulations governing “internet-based information services with attribute (sp) of public opinions or capable of social mobilization.”
Newsletter Apr 2, 2026 HRF’s Weekly Financial Freedom Report #115 India’s central bank is negotiating with up to five peers to expand its digital rupee, a central bank digital currency (CBDC), for cross-border institutional and retail transactions, urging fellow BRICS nations to connect their respective CBDCs.
Newsletter Mar 26, 2026 HRF’s Weekly Financial Freedom Report #114 In Uganda, the Museveni regime has frozen the bank accounts of several prominent human rights organizations.
Newsletter Mar 19, 2026 HRF’s Weekly Financial Freedom Report #113 This edition examines Venezuela’s first official inflation reading in more than a year after the regime halted public reporting and restricted independent estimates.
Newsletter Mar 12, 2026 HRF’s Weekly Financial Freedom Report #112 We begin this week’s edition in Cuba, where personal stories reveal the human toll of currency collapse under the communist regime.
Newsletter Mar 5, 2026 HRF’s Weekly Financial Freedom Report #111 In Nicaragua, the Ortega-Murillo regime is turning exile into economic erasure. Nicaraguans expelled since 2023 have reported that, within hours of deportation, the state stripped them of their nationality, canceled their pensions, and deleted decades of their contribution records.
Newsletter Feb 26, 2026 HRF’s Weekly Financial Freedom Report #110 In Gabon, officials have imposed an indefinite nationwide social media suspension.
Newsletter Feb 19, 2026 HRF’s Weekly Financial Freedom Report #109 In India, the government is piloting a new system that uses its central bank digital currency (CBDC) to distribute free food rations.
Newsletter Feb 12, 2026 HRF’s Weekly Financial Freedom Report #108 In Kenya, the central bank warned that making Valentine’s Day bouquets out of banknotes could carry prison sentences of up to seven years.
Newsletter Feb 5, 2026 HRF’s Weekly Financial Freedom Report #107 In Russia, physical bank branches are closing down at a record pace. The closures are placing renewed pressure on Russians living in rural areas and those contending with frequent Internet disruptions as a result of the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine.
Newsletter Jan 29, 2026 HRF’s Weekly Financial Freedom Report #106 This week, we investigate new developments surrounding China’s central bank digital currency (CBDC), as recent design changes show that the Chinese Communist Party is experimenting with new incentives to onboard people to this more tightly controlled kind of money.
Newsletter Jan 22, 2026 HRF’s Weekly Financial Freedom Report #105 In Nigeria, a tax law requires providers of digital assets to monitor transactions, collect personal information, and link payments to biometric national ID systems.
Newsletter Jan 15, 2026 HRF’s Weekly Financial Freedom Report #104 We begin this week in Iran, where currency collapse has turned into a call for political change.
Newsletter Dec 25, 2025 HRF’s Weekly Financial Freedom Report #103 We begin this week with a stark case of transnational financial repression. Russian dissident and financial director of Alexei Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation (ACF), Anna Chekhovich, reports that her US bank accounts were temporarily shut down after the Kremlin labeled her an “extremist.”
Newsletter Dec 18, 2025 HRF’s Weekly Financial Freedom Report #102 Last week, Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado was awarded the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize, an international recognition of her decades-long efforts for democracy, human dignity, and free elections in Venezuela.
Newsletter Dec 11, 2025 HRF’s Weekly Financial Freedom Report #101 In India, financial officials confirmed that the digital rupee, the country’s central bank digital currency (CBDC), is now live and complete with spending controls.
Newsletter Nov 27, 2025 HRF’s Weekly Financial Freedom Report #100 One hundred weeks ago, we set out to document how authoritarian regimes manipulate money and employ financial repression to restrict civil liberties, silence dissent, and undermine human rights – and how individuals are resisting with open-source software.
Newsletter Nov 27, 2025 HRF’s Weekly Financial Freedom Report #99 Today, we reflect on the financial repression so many face around the world, and how brave and creative minds are pushing back.
Newsletter Nov 20, 2025 HRF’s Weekly Financial Freedom Report #98 In Indonesia, the government introduced a bill to redenominate the rupiah currency following a sharp decline in purchasing power.
