Publication Mar 20, 2018 Telegram Loses Bid to Stop Russia From Getting Encryption Keys (Bloomberg) – Telegram, the encrypted messaging app that’s prized by those seeking privacy, lost a bid before Russia’s Supreme Court to block security services from getting access to users’ data,…
Publication Mar 20, 2018 Putin Rigs Another Presidential Election NEW YORK (March 19, 2018) — On Sunday, March 18, Russian president Vladimir Putin secured a fourth presidential term in a rigged election that was neither free nor fair. The…
Publication Mar 19, 2018 Sisi’s only challenger lays low ahead of Egyptian election (Reuters) – Days ahead of Egypt’s presidential election, Moussa Mostafa Moussa, the only candidate standing against incumbent Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, is avoiding the limelight. Moussa’s presidential bid seemed to come…
Publication Mar 13, 2018 ‘Freedom!’: the movement that brought Ethiopia to a standstill (The Guardian) – Today, Desalegn is a banker. But once he was a Qeerroo: a young, energetic and unmarried man from Ethiopia’s largest ethnic group, the Oromo, bound by what…
Publication Mar 12, 2018 Russia tries to entice voters to polls to prop up Putin’s legitimacy In the Siberian region of Krasnoyarsk, political activists are raffling a car, while in the southern Russian city of Krasnodar, the prize is an iPhone X. In Berdsk, the best…
Publication Mar 12, 2018 In Egypt, a strongman’s only challenger is barely campaigning (The Washington Post) –The election billboards of President Abdel Fatah al-Sissi are everywhere in this bustling capital. They read: “Yalla Sissi” — “Go Sissi” in Arabic — urging him on…
Publication Mar 9, 2018 Turkey’s highest court rules Dundar should get stiffer sentence (Reuters)–Turkey’s highest court overruled a five-year jail sentence against prominent journalist Can Dundar on Friday, saying he should face up to 20 years in prison on espionage charges, the state-run…
Publication Mar 8, 2018 Congo presidential election on course for December (Reuters) – An election in the Democratic Republic of Congo to replace President Joseph Kabila remains on course for late December, the central African country’s Prime Minister, Bruno Tshibala, has…
Publication Mar 8, 2018 Egyptian prosecutors seek death sentence for photographer Shawkan (IFEX) –Prosecutors have requested a death sentence for Mahmoud Abou Zeid, an Egyptian photojournalist known as Shawkan who has been held for four and a half years. Reporters Without Borders…
Publication Mar 6, 2018 ‘Oh My God’ Turns to ‘Yay Me’ as Saudi Women Practice Driving (The New York Times)–“O.K. Come drive now,” said the trainer. “Oh my God,” the architecture student replied. She climbed into the driver’s seat, put on her seatbelt, found the pedals,…
Publication Mar 5, 2018 Protests as Myanmar parliament debates new curbs on demonstrations (Reuters)– Hundreds of people marched through Myanmar’s largest city Yangon on Monday to oppose changes to a protest law being discussed in parliament which activists warn would limit free speech….
Publication Mar 5, 2018 Russians forced to attend Putin’s star-studded election rally Vladimir Putin, flanked by cheering supporters, strode on to a stage in the centre of Moscow’s colossal Luzhniki Stadium and urged a crowd of tens of thousands of flag-waving Russians…
Publication Mar 5, 2018 UN begins aid distribution in Syria’s Ghouta area amid shelling (The Washington Post) – A United Nations convoy carrying lifesaving assistance entered the besieged Syrian enclave of Eastern Ghouta on Monday, reaching civilians for the first time in weeks amid…
Publication Mar 2, 2018 Egypt’s Sherine sentenced to prison over Nile joke (BBC) – Egyptian singer Sherine Abdel Wahab has been sentenced to six months in prison for joking about the cleanliness of the River Nile. Sherine, one of the country’s most…
Publication Mar 1, 2018 Can Venezuela Be Saved? There’s a page in a book in a stack on the floor at the house of Leopoldo López that I think about sometimes. It’s a page that López revisits often;…
Publication Feb 28, 2018 Report: China Bans Letter ‘N’ From the Internet to Stop Xi Dissent (Daily Beast) – You can’t spell dissent without an N—and that was literally the case in China, which temporarily banned the letter from internet searches in a mysterious move to…
Publication Feb 21, 2018 Bahrain Sentences Prominent Activist to 5 Years in Prison (U.S. News & World Report) – A prominent human rights activist in Bahrain was sentenced Wednesday to five years in prison over tweets alleging prison torture in his country and…
Publication Feb 27, 2018 Russians Commemorate Anniversary of Boris Nemtsov’s Death (Deutsche Welle) – Nemtsov’s murder three years ago outside the Kremlin sent shockwaves across Russia and the world. The Russian politician had built up his profile under President Boris Yeltsin,…
Publication Feb 26, 2018 Chlorine gas symptoms reported in eastern Ghouta, Syria (NBC News) – In recent weeks, the United States has accused Syria of repeatedly using chlorine gas as a weapon. Rebel-held areas of the Ghouta region were hit in a…
Publication Feb 23, 2018 Cambodia’s ruling party set to sweep Senate election (Reuters) – The ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) of Hun Sen is poised to sweep a Senate election at the weekend, helping to consolidate the prime minister’s rule of more…
