Hong Kong’s District Court sentenced a Hong Kong woman, Lee Yan-yan, to five and a half years in prison on Wednesday, according to Hong Kong Free Press. She was previously convicted in October of rioting, wounding with intent, and perverting the course of justice for engaging in a “vigilante” incident on September 21, 2019, the [...]

The UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative of the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) Nicholas Haysom stressed that South Sudan must secure public confidence to ensure that its first post-independence elections in December 2024 will be held peacefully. Haysom suggested Thursday that South Sudan improve gender and political representation in the country by reconstituting government [...]

Amnesty International released a report on Friday urging authorities to protect abortion rights defenders, including healthcare workers, more effectively. The group interviewed 48 abortion rights defenders globally and found that these defenders have experienced increasing difficulty in their work as they have been subject to stigmatization and unjust prosecutions. According to Amnesty International, legal criminalization [...]

Human rights group Afghan Witness released a report on Monday saying that abusive online posts and hate speech targeting politically engaged women in Afghanistan have tripled since the Taliban returned to power in August 2021. The group analyzed more than 78,000 abusive posts between June to December in 2021 and 2022 and interviewed Afghan women [...]

Bangladesh’s Chief Election Commissioner Kazi Habibul Awal announced on Wednesday that Bangladesh will hold its twelfth parliamentary election on January 7, 2024, according to local media outlet New Age. The Election Commission did not reach consensus on the election schedule with opposition parties before announcing the date. Bangladesh’s ruling party Awami League has viewed the [...]

Hong Kong lawyer Jimmy Siu on Friday filed a writ to Hong Kong’s High Court in a petition for the court to order the arrest of five US lawmakers that introduced the Hong Kong Sanctions Act, according to Hong Kong Free Press on Monday. In his writ, Siu requested that the court permit all individuals [...]

The Hong Kong government rejected on Thursday a petition from ten overseas Catholic Church leaders that called for the immediate and unconditional release of pro-democracy activist and media entrepreneur Jimmy Lai from prison. The government stated that the Catholic leaders made slanderous statements about Hong Kong and inappropriately intervened in Hong Kong’s internal affairs. The [...]

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni on Sunday advised Ugandans not to be overly concerned about US President Joe Biden removing Uganda from the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA). He stated that Africa has the capacity to grow without Western aid and that Western actors overestimate themselves. The AGOA is a major trade agreement that provides [...]

The Canada Energy Regulator (CER) ordered Trans Mountain Corporation to cease its Trans Mountain oil pipeline expansion work in a wetland area near Abbotsford, British Columbia, on Thursday. This comes after CER inspectors found environmental and safety non-compliance during a verification activity. The CER wrote in its Inspection Officer Order that Trans Mountain violated section [...]

Hong Kong’s District Court on Monday sentenced four former student leaders of the University of Hong Kong’s student union to two years in prison over incitement to wound with intent, according to the Hong Kong Free Press. The four former student leaders—Kinson Cheung, Chris Todorovski, Charles Kwok and Anthony Yung—pleaded guilty to the charge on [...]