Report Aug 28, 2025 Financial Freedom Report #87 In Russia, Vladimir Putin signed a new law allowing police to freeze citizens’ bank accounts for up to 10 days without a court order. While framed as an anti-fraud measure, the law gives police a fast and…
Report Aug 21, 2025 Financial Freedom Report #86 In Cuba, the peso’s parallel market rate increased to 400 pesos per US dollar, a record low reflecting a 94% devaluation in just a few years. High inflation, stagnant wages
Blog Post Aug 14, 2025 HRF’s Weekly Financial Freedom Report #85 In Bolivia, 25% inflation has sent trust in the boliviano falling and pushed more individuals toward Bitcoin for daily transactions and savings. Since unbanning digital assets…
Blog Post Aug 7, 2025 HRF’s Weekly Financial Freedom Report #84 Last week, El Salvador’s Congress approved constitutional changes allowing unlimited presidential reelections that would allow for President Nayib Bukele to run indefinitely….
Blog Post Jul 31, 2025 Tracking CBDCs before they track you Nicholas Anthony Policymakers around the world have become consumed with the idea of launching central bank digital currencies, or CBDCs. Prior to 2019, only a small handful of central banks were exploring this idea. Yet, today,…
Blog Post Jul 31, 2025 HRF’s Weekly Financial Freedom Report #83 A Russian court sentenced Dmitry Marsov, a father of five, to three years in prison for donating merely $20 to Alexei Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation, an act now considered terrorism…
Blog Post Jul 10, 2025 HRF’s Weekly Financial Freedom Report #80 In the wake of the latest conflict with Israel, Iran has orchestrated a domestic crackdown, detaining more than 1,000 people, killing dozens, and targeting minority communities and activists.
Blog Post Jun 6, 2025 Bitcoin Development Fund 5 year Report The Bitcoin Development Fund 5 Year Report marks five years of impact through the Bitcoin Development Fund (BDF), which has awarded over $8.5 million in BTC to nearly 300 projects across 62 countries.
Press Release May 15, 2025 HRF grants 800 million satoshis to 22 freedom tech projects worldwide The Human Rights Foundation (HRF) is pleased to announce 800 million satoshis of gifts from its Bitcoin Development Fund.
Blog Post May 15, 2025 HRF’s Weekly Financial Freedom Report #74 We bring news from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), where the Rwanda-backed M23 rebel group is imposing immense taxes on the local economy, merchants, and aid groups to fund its insurgency as it seeks to govern seized regions of the Eastern Congo.
Op-Ed May 9, 2025 Why is Saudi Arabia at the Gold Cup? It’s the latest in the Kingdom’s soft power campaign Last month, the Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football (Concacaf) held an official draw in Miami, Florida for the 2025 Gold Cup, the premier biennial tournament for men’s football on the continent.
Blog Post May 1, 2025 HRF’s Weekly Financial Freedom Report #72 This week, we bring pressing news from Belarus, where the regime’s central bank is preparing to launch its central bank digital currency in close collaboration with Russia by the end of 2026.
Press Release Apr 1, 2025 HRF Bitcoin Development Fund Supports 20+ Projects Worldwide The Human Rights Foundation (HRF) is pleased to announce 1 billion satoshis of gifts from its Bitcoin Development Fund.
Op-Ed Mar 19, 2025 Kirsty Coventry—the Soft Face of Zimbabwe’s Dictatorship—Could Be the Next President of the IOC | Opinion The International Olympic Committee (IOC) is set to select a new president this week to succeed Thomas Bach. In a field of seven candidates, Zimbabwe’s Kirsty Coventry, Africa’s most decorated Olympian, could make history as the first woman to head the IOC.
Blog Post Mar 11, 2025 The Playbook: How Syria’s brutal Assad regime used football to maintain power Welcome to The Playbook, an explainer series from HRF’s Sports & Dictators program that explores the intersection of sports and politics in authoritarian regimes and decodes the disturbing narratives behind the games we love.
Publication Feb 24, 2025 John Legend’s Kigali Concert: A Night of Music Amidst Regional Tensions Grammy award-winning artist John Legend delivered a mesmerizing performance in Kigali, Rwanda, on February 21, 2025, despite mounting pressure to cancel the show..
Blog Post Feb 10, 2025 The Playbook: How Saudi Arabia uses tennis to present a facade of women’s reforms When Saudi Arabia hosted one of the most important events in professional women’s tennis, the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) Finals, in November, it wasn’t, of course, without controversy. The New York Times put it this way:
Blog Post Nov 21, 2024 HRF’s Weekly Financial Freedom Report #50 This week, we celebrate a special milestone: the 50th edition of our newsletter and the 1-year anniversary of the Financial Freedom Report.
Blog Post Oct 18, 2024 A History of Sports & Dictators, Part 4: Soviet Sports propaganda When Tsar Peter I — better known as Peter the Great — visited England in 1689, he arranged what has been called the “first international boxing match” in the garden of the nobleman’s home.
Blog Post Sep 6, 2024 A History of Sports & Dictators, Part 3: Post-WWII Soft Power Long before the inception of the Olympic Games in Ancient Greece, sports have been used to distract the masses, test foreign policies, thaw diplomatic tensions, and broadcast political and social messaging.
