Search Results for: national security

Australia and Tuvalu released a joint statement Thursday announcing new commitments to improve security relations and remove the veto power Australia previously had over the tiny island nation’s security relations with other countries. The announcement addressed the implementation and interpretation of the Falepili Union, a bilateral treaty which was entered into on November 9, 2023 [...]

Attacks by Islamist armed groups and ethnic militias in Mali violate international humanitarian law and are apparent war crimes, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in a report released Wednesday. One such attack in January 2024, by an Al-Qaeda-linked Islamist armed group, killed at least 32 civilians, including 3 children and setting fire to over 350 [...]

Human Rights Watch (HRW) reported on Thursday that ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity are occurring in El Geneina, Sudan. The events are labeled as “among the worst atrocities against civilians so far in the current conflict in Sudan.” The Rapid Support Forces (RSF) are responsible for the attacks committed against the Massalit ethnic minority. [...]

The Ukrainian parliament (Verkhovna Rada) passed a bill on Wednesday that allows some convicts to enlist in the army and be eligible for conditional release from serving their sentences, MP Yaroslav Zheleznyak said. The bill still needs to be signed by president Zelensky to become law. Draft law 11079-1 amends the Criminal, Criminal Procedure, Criminal [...]

Syrian and international human rights groups and victims’ associations called upon the French government to support the independent investigation against Bashar Al-Assad on the 2013 Syrian chemical attack in a joint statement published on Wednesday. The 39 organisations, among which the Syrian Center for Media and Freedom of Expression and Amnesty International, saluted international efforts [...]

The UK Home Secretary James Cleverly announced on Wednesday that the country will expel an “undeclared” Russian military intelligence officer, accusing the defence attaché of espionage. Alongside the expulsion, a wave of sanctions against Russia will be introduced to “dismantle Russian intelligence gathering operations in the UK.”  The other sanctions to be imposed will include [...]

The Hong Kong Court of Appeal granted an interlocutory injunction Wednesday to restrain any activities associated with the protest song “Glory to Hong Kong”. The Secretary for Justice Paul Lam highlighted that the injunction balanced the interest of national security and freedom of speech by narrowing the scope to activities with seditious intent and providing exemptions [...]

US District Judge Aileen Cannon indefinitely postponed the classified documents criminal trial of former president Donald Trump on Tuesday, moving the trial date back at least two months. Cannon vacated the previous May 20 trial date, finding that various pre-trial motions and issues regarding the Classified Information Procedures Act (CIPA) need to be addressed first. She [...]

The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) announced Tuesday that they had thwarted a Russian plot to assassinate President Volodymyr Zelensky. They said that the plans had been devised by a network of agents and there were plans to also eliminate other representatives of the country’s top military and political leadership. In their statement, the SBU [...]

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) expressed alarm Monday about a request from South Africa’s State Security Agency (SSA) to subject South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) editor-in-chief, Moshoeshoe Monare, to additional security screening, including a polygraph test. The situation unfolded following a leaked audio recording of President Cyril Ramaphosa expressing dissatisfaction with media coverage of [...]