Russian rights activists on Thursday condemned draft legislation including a significant expansion of who can be labelled a “foreign agent” as a new clampdown on dissent, Agence France Presse reports…. Read more »
\ Venezuela’s parliamentary elections, scheduled for 6 December, will renew its National Assembly for a five-year term. But since 2015, the regime has become less evenhanded when it comes to… Read more »
A new bill introduced in Russia’s parliament on November 18, 2020 is a potentially very dangerous addition to a growing body of oppressive “foreign agents” laws, Human Rights Watch said:… Read more »
On Nov. 6, Denis Solís González (above), a young and rebellious Cuban rapper, dared to call a police officer who broke into his house to harass him a “chicken… Read more »
Russia has become a kleptocracy under President Vladimir Putin. As a consequence, Russia’s foreign policy has become more aggressive, argues analyst Anders Aslund. Putin has outsourced much of foreign policy… Read more »
The ousting of four pro-democracy lawmakers from the Hong Kong Legislative Council prompted bipartisan outrage on Capitol Hill today. “Democracy in Hong Kong is gasping for air,” said U.S. Senators… Read more »
China is ramping up its ‘sharp power’ efforts to discredit democracy, but brittle autocratic states are “Titanics,” supposedly unsinkable, yet essentially vulnerable, and are in any case unable to… Read more »
Chinese President Xi Jinping appears to be further consolidating his control of the ruling Communist Party, but Beijing’s overseas influence operations are looking a little ragged. The Central Committee’s just-concluded… Read more »
Factory workers, students and business owners in Belarus on Monday began a strike to demand that authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko resign after more than two months of continuing mass protests… Read more »
The four-day plenum of China’s Communist Party (CCP) is being held amid a deteriorating global economy, historically tense ties between China and the US, and an increasingly difficult international environment… Read more »