#autocracy-concerns

#autocracy-concerns

The investigation found Plahotniuc received more than $43 million from companies controlled by another oligarch, Ilan Shor, who had previously fled to Russia and was sentenced in absentia to 15 years in prison.

"It brings the Vietnamese political system closer to the Chinese one, which is dominated by [China's President] Xi Jinping. Given his concentration of power, To Lam may be able to implement his ambitious reforms more quickly, but there is a risk that the established checks and balances will cease to function and that dissenting opinions within the party will be heard less and less."

The Supreme Court's ruling stated that Memorial and its supporters are 'clearly anti-Russian in nature and are aimed at destroying the basic foundations of Russian statehood, violating its territorial integrity, and eroding historical, cultural, spiritual, and moral values.'

The court on April 13 found all defendants guilty of inciting inter-ethnic discord following a protest in which participants demanded the release of an ethnic Kazakh detained in Xinjiang.

In 2024 alone, authorities imposed 304 internet shutdowns across 54 countries - the highest number ever recorded. This reflects a growing trend of governments treating connectivity as a weapon.

The defeat of Viktor Orbán required not just an ordinary election campaign but the construction of a broad, diverse, and patriotic grassroots social movement, changing politics around the world.

The film follows Talankin in his job at a school in the poor mining town of Karabash in the Chelyabinsk region, showing how the Russian government indoctrinates students with pro-war messages.

Once upon a time, adding official to an announcement served a purpose. It distinguished fact from rumour, press release from pub chat. Sensible. Helpful. Civilised. But in recent years, the word has gone rogue. Nothing can simply happen anymore. It must be officially announced.

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko ordered the release of 250 political prisoners on Thursday in exchange for easing sanctions from Washington, according to the US embassy in nearby Lithuania. It is reportedly the largest one-time release of its kind so far, as Belarus is ramping up efforts to normalize ties with the United States.

Videos shared on social media show the protesters ransacking the office, removing documents, equipment and furniture, and burning everything in the street. A smaller group also threw stones. What began peacefully, after an exchange with the authorities in the area, degenerated into vandalism against the headquarters of municipal committee of the Communist party.

Iranian security forces have arrested several figures from the country's reformist movement, local media reported on Monday, as Tehran's crackdown on dissent continues to widen. Those arrested include Azar Mansouri, the head of the Reformist Front, which represents several factions, former diplomat Mohsen Aminzadeh and Ebrahim Asgharzadeh, who was part of the group that stormed the US Embassy in Tehran in 1979.

As recent demonstrations showed, a sizable segment of the Iranian people already opposes the regime. But when President Trump told them to 'take over your government,' it seems unlikely he considered how the regime responded to those protests, or other movements for a more open Iranian society.

Sir Keir Starmer is only one of the middle power leaders trekking to Beijing to renew relations. No one has forgotten China's increasing international forcefulness, its handling of the pandemic and its closer relations with Russia as war engulfed Ukraine. But the wildness of Donald Trump's first year back in power is spurring Canada, France and others to hedge their bets. This, not whisky tariff cuts, is what the British prime minister sought.