A letter signed by more than 40 world leaders, international business leaders and organisations including the Red Cross was published on Tuesday 26 May 2020, calling on the world’s governments to take immediate and decisive action to prevent and stop cyberattacks on healthcare and medical research facilities. … Read more →
Today, 22 May 2020, a proposal to impose national security laws in Hong Kong was unveiled which could see mainland intelligence agencies set up bases in the global financial hub, raising fears of direct enforcement by Chinese authorities in the city and the prospect of fresh protests. The proposal comes a day after Beijing proposed the new controversial national security legislation that critics see as an historical turning point for China’s freest city. … Read more →
On Monday 20 April the Immigration Bill returned to the British parliament for its Second Reading in the House of Commons – offering MPs their first chance to debate the bill. The bill had originally been scheduled to return in April, but was held back as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. It was very… … Read more →
Locust swarms are continuing to pose an enormous, immediate threat to food security and livelihoods in east Africa. In addition, the Indo-Pakistan border area, Sudan, and perhaps the Sahel of West Africa also face an impending invasion from spring breeding areas according to the latest update from the … Read more →
Iran has sentenced Fariba Adelkhah, a French-Iranian academic who has been detained in the country for almost a year, to a maximum of six years in prison on charges of “colluding with the aim of breaching national security” and spreading “propaganda against the system”. Fariba, 61, is an anthropologist and researcher at Sciences Po university… … Read more →
Since the World Health Organisation declared Covid-19 a pandemic, few countries have chosen to ignore social distancing recommendations. But, even among those states which have, the Belarusian official response to its epidemic remains unique. While Europe’s last dictator, President Alexander … Read more →
The United States government has cited limiting the spread of the coronavirus as justification for using an emergency declaration to expel young migrants and asylum seekers from the country – with 600 minors having been … Read more →
As many as 6,000 children around the world could die every day from preventable causes over the next six months due to the impact of coronavirus on routine health services, the UN has warned. This projected figure threatens to reverse nearly a decade of progress on ending preventable child deaths according to UNICEF. “This pandemic… … Read more →
At the end of April, national security officials in London and Washington said they believed China was underreporting the true levels of deaths from Covid-19. It followed after officials in Wuhan raised the death toll from Covid-19 by 50 per cent overnight on 17 April. They said the sharp increase reflected updated reporting and deaths… … Read more →
Nearly 300 Rohingya refugees have been sent to the island of Bhasan Char in the Bay of Bengal after they were found adrift in a small boat off the southern coast of Bangladesh. The decision by the Bangladesh government ignores warnings from the United Nations and human rights organisations about the island’s suitability to host… … Read more →