When Gabon's media regulator indefinitely suspended major social media platforms in February, citing security concerns during anti-government protests, it became the talk of town literally. Within weeks of the announcement, use of Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) to bypass the restrictions surged in the central African country. When gendarmerie began stopping young men at road checkpoints in the capital Libreville and other urban centres to confiscate mobile phones with VPNs installed or detain the owners, warnings spread by word of mouth.
Osama Khalid was just twelve years old when he began contributing to Wikipedia Arabic. In the height of the blogging era, he became a prolific blogger, publishing writings on his home country of Saudi Arabia, meetups he attended, and his opinions and observations about open source technology and freedom of expression. He advocated for internet freedom, contributed time and translations to various projects-including EFF's HTTPS Everywhere -and was a thoughtful presence at the conferences he attended around the world...all while training to become a pediatrician.
“Growth at any cost leaves us all poorer.” Those were the words of United Nations secretary-general António Guterres last week at the launch of a landmark report, Counting What Counts, which he commissioned from a team of researchers and policymakers ( www.un.org/beyondgdp). It proposes how countries can move beyond gross domestic product (GDP), the world's main indicator for the health of economies.
Israeli lawmakers have approved setting up a livestreamed special tribunal with the power to sentence to death Palestinians convicted of taking part in the Hamas attack on 7 October 2023 that triggered the war in Gaza. The measure was passed by 93 votes to none in the 120-seat Knesset, Israel's parliament, reflecting widespread support among Israel's Jewish majority for punishing those found responsible for the deadliest single attack in Israel's history. The remaining 27 lawmakers were absent or abstained from voting.
Arbour is one of the country's most famous legal minds. A former justice of the Supreme Court of Canada, she served as chief prosecutor for the international criminal tribunals for Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia, where she pursued cases against political and military leaders accused of atrocities. She was later appointed the United Nations' high commissioner for human rights. In Canada, she led major public inquiries, including a landmark review into sexual violence within the Canadian Armed Forces.
Around 42.5 million refugees worldwide have been forced to flee their own states and are unable to return because of severe threats to their lives, human rights, or basic needs. Having fled these threats, the vast majority have by no means found protection. Instead, most refugees live either in squalid refugee camps or face destitution in urban areas in regions close to their own states in the Global South. A small minority risk their lives on journeys to reach asylum in the Global North; many thousands lose them.
Shireen's killing was meant to scare Palestinians into silence. Instead, it has inspired many young Palestinians to speak up. I can't remember a time in my childhood when I didn't hear Shireen Abu Akleh's voice. She was one of the few constants in our ever-shifting landscape, an icon that anchored the Palestinian cause firmly in the Arab conscience.
Her transfer comes after days of pleading by her family and others who described her condition as critical. Her foundation said she has been granted a prison sentence suspension on bail. It was not clear for how long her sentence is suspended, the foundation said. Mohammadi had been imprisoned since December in Zanjan prison. She lost consciousness twice and was transferred to a local hospital on May 1.
The International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), the Ukrainian NGO Truth Hounds, which documents and investigates war crimes, and France's Human Rights League (LDH) first told the authorities Yevhen Brazhnikov was in France four years ago. France's National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor's Office (PNAT) announced on Friday that the suspect, whom they only identified partially as Yevhen B., had been taken into police custody on April 7th, then charged and placed in pre-trial detention.
An 80-year-old Palestinian man, Hussein Asasa, died of natural causes on Friday and was buried shortly after in a cemetery in Asasa village near Jenin. His son, Mohammed, said the burial had been coordinated in advance with Israeli security forces, which provided all necessary permits. However, shortly after the burial, settlers threatened the Asasa family, ordering them to exhume the body, claiming it had been buried on land that formed part of an Israeli settlement.
Families in Colombia and Trinidad and Tobago have spoken out after past attacks, insisting those targeted were not narco-terrorists as the Trump administration has claimed, but fishermen and informal workers making routine journeys between the Caribbean and South America.
Public responsibility also brings with it a moral obligation not to look the other way. It is an honour to bestow the Order of Civil Merit on a voice that upholds the conscience of the world.
Atiana Serge Oulon was abducted from his home on June 24, 2024, by approximately 10 armed men in civilian clothing, contradicting the authorities' claims of his conscription into the military.
The US Southern Command posted about the strike on social media Tuesday evening, alleging that the vessel struck on Tuesday was operated by Designated Terrorist Organizations that it did not identify.
Avi Bluth, head of the Israeli military's Central Command, stated that Israeli soldiers can now shoot Palestinians on or below the knees when they approach the seam line, creating a deterrent effect he termed 'barrier consciousness.'
Lyle Prijoles, a 40-year-old human rights activist from Hayward, was among 19 people fatally shot by the Philippine armed forces on the island of Negros, located south of Manila, on April 19, as KTVU reports.
The Transnational Justice Working Group found that 153 people were condemned to death in North Korea between January 2020 and mid-December 2024 on various charges, marking a jump of nearly 250% compared to the equivalent time period before the January 2020 closure.
Zack Schofield alleged the protesters were subjected to violence by the Israeli forces, despite claims from Israel's foreign minister that they were taken off unharmed. They took people into the fourth shipping container and beat them with the butts of their rifles and batons, and with their fists and their feet.
