Blog Post Mar 28, 2024 HRF’s Weekly Financial Freedom Report #17 In Hong Kong, lawmakers have passed a new national security law aimed at suppressing dissent among citizens. Meanwhile, the ruling Indian government has frozen the bank accounts of the Indian National Congress, the largest political opposition group in the country, further raising concerns over the erosion of freedom and democracy.
Blog Post Mar 27, 2024 Beyond Borders: China’s Grip on Global Media Controlling the public narrative is the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) modus operandi. It relies on narrative and revisionist storytelling to coerce its subjects into ideological adherence.
Blog Post Mar 21, 2024 HRF’s Weekly Financial Freedom Report #16 We’re thrilled to announce that this week HRF granted $500,000 to 14 projects worldwide as part of its Bitcoin Development Fund.
Blog Post Mar 14, 2024 HRF’s Weekly Financial Freedom Report #15 This past week, BRICS — an intergovernmental organization led by the Russian and Chinese dictatorships — explored the development of an independent payment system that aims to use digital currencies and potentially central bank digital currencies.
Blog Post Mar 12, 2024 Early Presidential Elections in Azerbaijan: Elections Without a Choice On Feb. 17, Azerbaijani dictator Ilham Aliyev, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz held a meeting on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference.
Blog Post Mar 11, 2024 Venezuela expelled the UN: Why it matters By the end of this year, three of Latin America’s worst authoritarian regimes will undergo mandatory reviews of their country’s human rights record.
Blog Post Mar 8, 2024 Election Watch: Pakistan’s Contentious Elections On Thursday, Feb. 8, Pakistan, a country of 250 million people — the fifth most populous globally — hit the polls for its 12th general election. It came amid growing political and economic instability and a security crisis.
Blog Post Mar 7, 2024 HRF’s Weekly Financial Freedom Report #14 This week’s news focuses on the growing interest in central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) from governments. Turkey concluded its initial research phase, while Ghana revealed ambitious plans to launch its own CBDC.
Blog Post Feb 29, 2024 HRF’s Weekly Financial Freedom Report #13 This week, we witnessed a rise in state-level censorship in finance and communications. Honduran regulators banned the country’s financial institutions from trading in cryptocurrency; Nigerian officials restricted access to global cryptocurrency exchanges in a desperate attempt to stabilize its currency, the Naira; and Pakistan blocked access to the X platform for eight days straight amid political unrest.
Blog Post Feb 28, 2024 The Legacy of the EDSA People Power Revolution Philippines President “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. has been busy lately cozying up to the West, much to the chagrin of his pro-Beijing predecessor, Rodrigo Duterte.
Blog Post Feb 23, 2024 HRF’s Weekly Financial Freedom Report #12 Over the last week, we mourned the murder of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny by Vladimir Putin’s regime.
Blog Post Feb 16, 2024 HRF’s Weekly Financial Freedom Report #11 In the past week, we’ve seen Kosovo’s ban on the Serbian currency, a cross-border CBDC transaction between regimes in the United Arab Emirates and China, Bitcoin claim all-time highs against a variety of different fiat currencies, and a long-awaited breakthrough in the Lightning Network that promises to significantly boost user privacy.
Blog Post Feb 9, 2024 A History of Sports and Dictators, Part 1: From Ramses II to Rome’s Bread & Circuses In the Olympic Games of 416, Athenian statesman and military general Alcibiades fielded seven teams in one of the most prestigious Olympic events, the four-horse chariot race known as the quadriga.
Blog Post Feb 8, 2024 HRF’s Weekly Financial Freedom Report #10 This week we continue to witness Chinese citizens using creative new methods to use bitcoin, Burmese citizens suffering from a post-coup economic crisis, and severe currency devaluation in Nigeria and Egypt, the largest countries in Africa and in the Arab world.
Blog Post Feb 1, 2024 HRF’s Weekly Financial Freedom Report #9 This past week, Egyptians were told to put up with soaring inflation, while we saw Kazakhstan’s financial suppression of journalists and Pakistan’s continued rise in Bitcoin adoption.
Blog Post Feb 1, 2024 Burma’s Third Coup Anniversary Three years ago today, the Burmese military junta, led by Min Aung Hlaing, seized power from the democratically elected government in a coup.
Blog Post Jan 29, 2024 Bloody January Remembered In January 2022, citizens in the Central Asian country of Kazakhstan experienced the most violent event in their recent history.
Blog Post Jan 25, 2024 The Aliyev Regime’s Role in the Ethnic Cleansing of Nagorno-Karabakh Armenians On Sept. 19, Stepanakert, the capital of the unrecognized Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, came under a barrage of bombs and artillery fire. Azerbaijan announced the beginning of an “anti-terrorist campaign,” signifying Baku’s final attempt to push ethnic Armenians out of the enclave and reclaim control over its territory.
Blog Post Jan 25, 2024 HRF’s Weekly Financial Freedom Report #8 Today we bring you news of Chinese citizens trading cryptocurrency despite a state-imposed ban, Russia’s recent blockage of VPN services and privacy protocols ahead of next month’s presidential elections, and Venezuela’s attempt to pass legislation that takes aim at the funding of civil society organizations and human rights defenders.
Blog Post Jan 19, 2024 Shadows of Support: Japan’s Ties with Burma’s Military Junta In February 2021, the Burmese military junta staged a coup against the democratically elected government of the National League for Democracy Party (NLD) and invalidated the results of the November 2020 general election.
