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  • RFA closes Hong Kong bureau after passage of new security law

    Radio Free Asia on Friday announced it has closed its Hong Kong bureau, saying the city’s recently enacted national security law, also known as “Article 23,” has raised safety concerns for its reporters and staff members.

    RFA will no longer have full-time personnel in Hong Kong but will retain its official media registration there, the organization’s president and chief executive, Bay Fang, said in a statement.

    “We recognize RFA’s frontline status – as it is among the last independent news organizations reporting on events happening in Hong Kong in Cantonese and Mandarin,” she said.

    “For our audiences in Hong Kong and mainland China, who rely on RFA’s timely, uncensored journalism: Rest assured, our programming and content will continue without disruption,” Fang said.

    Hong Kong was once a bastion of free media and expression in Asia, qualities that helped make it an international financial center and a regional hub for journalism.

    But demonstrations in 2019 led to the passage of a national security law in 2020 that stifled dissent. Soon after, The New York Times announced it would relocate its digital news operations to Seoul. 

    In 2021, the pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily was forced to shut down amid an investigation conducted under the 2020 law.

    Sweeping new powers

    Last week’s enactment of the Safeguarding National Security Ordinance, also referred to as Article 23 based on a clause in Hong Kong’s mini-constitution, the Basic Law, has intensified uncertainties among Hong Kong journalists.

    It has created new offenses, increased punishment for offenders and granted the government sweeping new powers to crack down on all forms of dissent. 

    It includes a reference to “external threats” and uses China’s expansive definition of “national security,” which journalists and critics say is vague. 

    In February, Hong Kong security chief Chris Tang accused RFA of reporting what he described as “false” criticism that the new law would target media organizations. He called the media outlet a “foreign force” that was misleading the people of Hong Kong. 

    “Actions by Hong Kong authorities, including referring to RFA as a ‘foreign force,’ raise serious questions about our ability to operate in safety with the enactment of Article 23,” Fang said in Friday’s statement.

    Opened in 1996

    RFA opened its Hong Kong office – its first overseas bureau – in 1996. The organization is funded by the U.S. Congress but operates as an editorially independent private news organization. Its mission is to provide news in languages and regions where authorities censor news and stymie the freedom of expression and the press.

    The ranking Democratic member on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Rep. Gregory Meeks, representing New York, said he was “deeply concerned” by the decision, calling RFA “a longstanding beacon of independent journalism” in Hong Kong.

    “Since the passage of Hong Kong’s National Security Law in 2020, RFA has been a rare source of independent news coming out of Hong Kong despite facing unrelenting pressure and harassment,” he said in a statement. 

    “The closure of RFA’s bureau in Hong Kong, after 28 years, is a stark reminder of how brazenly Beijing has extinguished Hong Kong’s autonomy.” 

    RFA’s restructuring of its on-the-ground operations means that staff members will be relocated to the United States, Taiwan and elsewhere amid the closure of the physical bureau, the organization said.

    “RFA will shift to using a different journalistic model reserved for closed media environments,” Fang said. “I commend RFA’s journalists and staff for making this difficult transition possible.”

    Edited by Malcolm Foster.


    This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Matt Reed for RFA.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Uzbek Man Says Tajiks Beaten After Moscow Police Rounded Up Central Asians


    This content originally appeared on Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and was authored by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.

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  • ‘They Are Afraid’: Tajik Migrant Travel To Russia Plummets After Moscow Attack


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  • Six people are missing and presumed dead after a 984-foot cargo ship hit #Baltimore’s Key Bridge.


    This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.

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  • Public Officials Absent from Investigations After Defective Buildings Collapsed During Earthquakes


    This content originally appeared on Human Rights Watch and was authored by Human Rights Watch.

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  • The Pacifica Evening News, Weekdays – March 26, 2024 Baltimore bridge collapses after collision with cargo ship, six people missing.

    Comprehensive coverage of the day’s news with a focus on war and peace; social, environmental and economic justice.

    The post The Pacifica Evening News, Weekdays – March 26, 2024 Baltimore bridge collapses after collision with cargo ship, six people missing. appeared first on KPFA.


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  • After fifth detention extension, CPJ renews call for Russia to release US journalist Evan Gershkovich

    New York, March 26, 2024—The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on Russia to immediately release U.S. journalist Evan Gershkovich following Tuesday’s court decision to extend his pretrial detention until June 30, 2024.

    “CPJ strongly condemns the three-month extension of Evan Gershkovich’s detention, just days before the one-year anniversary of his arrest on fabricated charges. Today’s ruling is yet another cynical affront to press freedom by the Russian authorities,” said Gulnoza Said, CPJ’s Europe and Central Asia program coordinator. “Russian authorities must immediately release Gershkovich, drop all charges against him, and stop prosecuting reporters for their work.”

    The Moscow court’s decision to approve the Federal Security Service’s (FSB) request marks the fifth extension of The Wall Street Journal reporter’s detention since his arrest on March 29, 2023, on espionage charges. Tuesday’s session was closed to the media.

    Gershkovich faces up to 20 years in prison, according to the Russian criminal code, and is the first American journalist to face such accusations by Russia since the end of the Cold War. Gershkovich, The Wall Street Journal, and the U.S. government have all denied the espionage allegations.

    “It’s a ruling that ensures Evan will sit in a Russian prison well past one year. It was also Evan’s 12th court appearance, baseless proceedings that falsely portray him as something other than what he is—a journalist who was doing his job,” The Wall Street Journal said in a statement.

    The U.S. ambassador to Russia, Lynne Tracy, called the ruling “particularly painful,” as Friday will mark the journalist’s one-year detention.

    “As we cross the one-year mark, the Russian government has yet to present any evidence to substantiate its accusations, no justification for Evan’s continued detention, and no explanation as to why Evan doing his job as a journalist constituted a crime,” Tracy said.

    On April 11, 2023, the U.S. State Department designated Gershkovich as “wrongfully detained,” which unlocked a broad government effort to free him. 

    Russia was the world’s fourth worst jailer of journalists with at least 22, including Gershkovich and Alsu Kurmasheva, a U.S.-Russian journalist, behind bars when CPJ conducted its most recent annual prison census on December 1, 2023.


    This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • ISIS-K Claims Credit After 137 Killed in Moscow Concert Attack; Russia Tries to Blame Ukraine


    This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.

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  • ISIS-K Claims Credit After 137 Killed in Moscow Concert Attack; Russia Tries to Blame Ukraine

    Seg1 putin crocus 2

    ISIS-K, an affiliate of the Islamic State, has claimed responsibility for an attack on a popular concert hall in Moscow that killed at least 137. Authorities say gunmen opened fire inside the Crocus City Hall building during a sold-out rock concert and then set part of the venue on fire. More than 100 people were injured in the attack, and many remain in critical condition. Authorities have detained 11 suspects, four of whom, all reportedly citizens of Tajikistan, are charged with terrorism and face life sentences. As more details emerge about the attack, we speak with professor of international affairs at The New School Nina Khrushcheva about the history of Muslim fundamentalist attacks in Russia and Putin’s “unfortunate” decision to ignore Western intelligence warnings about terrorist attacks. We’re also joined by longtime Moscow correspondent for The New Yorker Joshua Yaffa, who details possible motivations for ISIS-K and how Putin is attempting to fit this attack into his narrative opposing Ukraine and the West. “First and foremost, he cares about preserving his own power and the continued stability of his ruling system,” says Yaffa, who explains how Putin tries to control political blowback by equating ISIS-K with any group he opposes, including Alexei Navalny’s anti-corruption network and the so-called worldwide LGBT movement. “This is important to understand both in trying to determine how this attack happened in the first place and also what might Putin’s response be moving forward.”


    This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.

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  • What’s next for Vietnam after the resignation of President Thuong? | Radio Free Asia (RFA)


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  • Pro-junta editor charged with defamation after criticizing ministry

    The editor-in-chief of People Media was charged with defamation following critical comments he made in a livestream video – the first time an employee of a pro-junta news outlet has faced legal action by the military since the 2021 coup d’etat.

    Kyaw Soe Oo’s comments on Tuesday found fault with the Ministry of Home Affairs for not sending any senior police officials to attend the funeral of an officer who was recently killed in Kachin state. 

    Nay Pyi Taw police arrested Kyaw Soe Oo the same day, family members told Radio Free Asia. 

    The ruling military junta, which seized power in a February 2021 coup, has cracked down on independent media outlets in Myanmar to silence them from reporting about the coup and its violent aftermath. 

    In 2021, the junta shut down five media outlets that provided independent coverage of the protests against military rule. 

    Last year, the regime threatened legal action against Democratic Voice of Burma TV and Mizzima TV, demanding that the shuttered independent news broadcasters pay thousands of dollars in transmission fees, Voice of America reported.

    People Media is known for its pro-military views. Kyaw Soe Oo regularly broadcasts his video commentaries on Telegram and YouTube. 

    In Tuesday’s livestream, Kyaw Soe Oo noted that police officers who have ties to high-ranking officials are typically never assigned to dangerous frontier posts. It’s only the officers with no money or connections who are transferred to those areas, he said.

    He also invited viewers to send him information on possible bribery involving military and police officers and gambling businesses. 

    After his arrest, Kyaw Soe Oo underwent two days of interrogation before he was formally charged under Section 505(a) of the penal code, relatives said. That provision of the law was added by junta authorities after the coup to punish comments or implications that the coup or the military is illegitimate.

    Kyaw Soe Oo was sent to Nay Pyi Taw prison on Thursday, relatives said.

    Police raided People Media’s office in Nay Pyi Taw on Thursday morning and confiscated computers, phones and cameras, according to sources close to Kyaw Soe Oo.

    There has been no official statement from the military junta regarding the arrest.

    Translated by Kalyar Lwin. Edited by Matt Reed.


    This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Radio Free Asia.

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  • Difference between Israeli army & settlers in West Bank “virtually disappeared” after October 7th


    This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.

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  • Islamic State Claims Deadly Attack After Moscow Concert Hall Shooting


    This content originally appeared on Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and was authored by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.

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  • Dozens Dead After Gunmen Storm Moscow Concert Hall; Islamic State Claims Responsibility

    Russian authorities said at least 40 people were killed and more than 100 injured after gunmen opened fire at the Crocus City Hall concert venue in Krasnogorsk, near Moscow, on March 22 in an attack reportedly claimed by the Islamic State militant group.

    The Baza website quoted unnamed sources as saying the number of dead was at least 62 and could rise, although that report could not be independently confirmed.

    The Moscow Regional Health Ministry published a list of names of 145 victims who’d been taken to hospitals. The list includes children.

    Hours after the incident began and with Russian media warning the perpetrators were still thought to be at large, Reuters and other agencies said Islamic State had claimed responsibility via its affiliated Telegram channels.

    The IS statement said the attackers had “retreated to their bases safely.”

    President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said the Kremlin leader had been informed “in the first minutes” of the attack and was “constantly receiving information about what’s happening and about measures being taken through all relevant services.”

    RIA Novosti has reported that at least three gunmen were involved, while Interfax reported there were at least five attackers. The whereabouts or fate of the attackers was still unclear.

    The Investigative Committee of Russia announced it had opened a criminal case.

    The New York Times quoted unnamed officials as saying that U.S. intelligence gatherers received information in March that an Afghanistan-based branch of IS known as Islamic State-Khorasan, or ISIS-K, was planning an attack in Moscow.

    Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova called on the international community “to condemn this bloody terrorist attack.”

    Shared videos showed attackers storming into the venue before the start of a concert by the musical group Piknik, with at least one firing an assault weapon as they moved through the building.

    Russian law enforcement officers stand guard near the burning Crocus City Hall concert venue late on March 22.
    Russian law enforcement officers stand guard near the burning Crocus City Hall concert venue late on March 22.

    “According to preliminary information, 40 people were killed and more than 100 were injured as a result of a terrorist attack in the Crocus City Hall,” the Federal Security Service (FSB) said.

    Later, Russian media said 28 of the injured were in the Sklifosovsky Institute of Emergency Care in the capital.

    An assistant to the head of the Russian Health Ministry said at one point that more than 50 ambulance teams and disaster medicine services were working at the scene.

    Interfax reported that the blaze had spread to 12,900 square meters of the building. The roof of the building is said to have partially collapsed.

    Shared video showed massive flames and smoke visible from a distance as it poured from the upper floors of the building, which is a popular concert venue in a high-end district on the edge of Moscow.

    “A terrible tragedy occurred in the shopping center Crocus City today,” Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said on Telegram. “I am sorry for the loved ones of the victims.”

    Some Telegram and other social media accounts shared accounts of purported eyewitnesses, one of whom reported “shooting from all sides.”

    A senior adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said late on March 22 that Kyiv was not involved and had “never used terrorist methods” as it continues to fight a 2-year-old full-scale Russian invasion. But Mykhaylo Podolyak warned the deadly incident would “contribute to a sharp increase in military propaganda, accelerated militarization, expanded mobilization, and, ultimately, the scaling up of the war.”

    The Main Intelligence Directorate of the Defense Ministry of Ukraine, which has been fighting a full-scale Russian invasion for nearly 25 months, quickly alleged — without providing any evidence — that Russia’s own special services had orchestrated it as “a deliberate provocation of the Putin regime” that foreign governments had warned about.

    It alleged that the aim was to “further escalate and expand the war.”

    Foreign governments were said to have warned Russia in recent weeks of the risk of an incident.

    The Crocus City Hall concert venue is seen burning following the attack on March 22.
    The Crocus City Hall concert venue is seen burning following the attack on March 22.

    The U.S. Embassy said on March 7 that it was “monitoring reports that extremists have imminent plans to target large gatherings in Moscow, to include concerts, and U.S. citizens should be advised to avoid large gatherings over the next 48 hours.”

    “The U.S. Embassy in Moscow is horrified by reports coming from the terrorist attack at the Crocus City Hall in Moscow,” the U.S. Mission said in a statement. “We offer our sincere condolences to the Russian people for the lives lost and to those injured in tonight’s attack.”

    UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said through a spokesperson that he condemns the attack “in the strongest possible terms.” The United States, France, Turkey, Italy, and other countries also condemned the incident.

    The European Union said through a spokesman that it was “shocked and appalled by the reports” and that it “condemns any attacks against civilians,” adding, “Our thoughts are with all those Russian citizens affected.”

    France’s Foreign Ministry called the images from Moscow “horrifying.”

    “Our thoughts go to the victims and to those injured as well as to the Russian people,” the ministry said, addingthat “all effort” must be made to “determine the causes of these heinous acts.”

    Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni condemned the March 22 attack as an “odious act of terrorism.”

    With reporting by Reuters


    This content originally appeared on News – Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty and was authored by News – Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Dozens Dead After Gunmen Storm Moscow Concert Hall; Islamic State Claims Responsibility

    Russian authorities said at least 40 people were killed and more than 100 injured after gunmen opened fire at the Crocus City Hall concert venue in Krasnogorsk, near Moscow, on March 22 in an attack reportedly claimed by the Islamic State militant group.

    The Baza website quoted unnamed sources as saying the number of dead was at least 62 and could rise, although that report could not be independently confirmed.

    The Moscow Regional Health Ministry published a list of names of 145 victims who’d been taken to hospitals. The list includes children.

    Hours after the incident began and with Russian media warning the perpetrators were still thought to be at large, Reuters and other agencies said Islamic State had claimed responsibility via its affiliated Telegram channels.

    The IS statement said the attackers had “retreated to their bases safely.”

    President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said the Kremlin leader had been informed “in the first minutes” of the attack and was “constantly receiving information about what’s happening and about measures being taken through all relevant services.”

    RIA Novosti has reported that at least three gunmen were involved, while Interfax reported there were at least five attackers. The whereabouts or fate of the attackers was still unclear.

    The Investigative Committee of Russia announced it had opened a criminal case.

    The New York Times quoted unnamed officials as saying that U.S. intelligence gatherers received information in March that an Afghanistan-based branch of IS known as Islamic State-Khorasan, or ISIS-K, was planning an attack in Moscow.

    Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova called on the international community “to condemn this bloody terrorist attack.”

    Shared videos showed attackers storming into the venue before the start of a concert by the musical group Piknik, with at least one firing an assault weapon as they moved through the building.

    Russian law enforcement officers stand guard near the burning Crocus City Hall concert venue late on March 22.
    Russian law enforcement officers stand guard near the burning Crocus City Hall concert venue late on March 22.

    “According to preliminary information, 40 people were killed and more than 100 were injured as a result of a terrorist attack in the Crocus City Hall,” the Federal Security Service (FSB) said.

    Later, Russian media said 28 of the injured were in the Sklifosovsky Institute of Emergency Care in the capital.

    An assistant to the head of the Russian Health Ministry said at one point that more than 50 ambulance teams and disaster medicine services were working at the scene.

    Interfax reported that the blaze had spread to 12,900 square meters of the building. The roof of the building is said to have partially collapsed.

    Shared video showed massive flames and smoke visible from a distance as it poured from the upper floors of the building, which is a popular concert venue in a high-end district on the edge of Moscow.

    “A terrible tragedy occurred in the shopping center Crocus City today,” Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said on Telegram. “I am sorry for the loved ones of the victims.”

    Some Telegram and other social media accounts shared accounts of purported eyewitnesses, one of whom reported “shooting from all sides.”

    A senior adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said late on March 22 that Kyiv was not involved and had “never used terrorist methods” as it continues to fight a 2-year-old full-scale Russian invasion. But Mykhaylo Podolyak warned the deadly incident would “contribute to a sharp increase in military propaganda, accelerated militarization, expanded mobilization, and, ultimately, the scaling up of the war.”

    The Main Intelligence Directorate of the Defense Ministry of Ukraine, which has been fighting a full-scale Russian invasion for nearly 25 months, quickly alleged — without providing any evidence — that Russia’s own special services had orchestrated it as “a deliberate provocation of the Putin regime” that foreign governments had warned about.

    It alleged that the aim was to “further escalate and expand the war.”

    Foreign governments were said to have warned Russia in recent weeks of the risk of an incident.

    The Crocus City Hall concert venue is seen burning following the attack on March 22.
    The Crocus City Hall concert venue is seen burning following the attack on March 22.

    The U.S. Embassy said on March 7 that it was “monitoring reports that extremists have imminent plans to target large gatherings in Moscow, to include concerts, and U.S. citizens should be advised to avoid large gatherings over the next 48 hours.”

    “The U.S. Embassy in Moscow is horrified by reports coming from the terrorist attack at the Crocus City Hall in Moscow,” the U.S. Mission said in a statement. “We offer our sincere condolences to the Russian people for the lives lost and to those injured in tonight’s attack.”

    UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said through a spokesperson that he condemns the attack “in the strongest possible terms.” The United States, France, Turkey, Italy, and other countries also condemned the incident.

    The European Union said through a spokesman that it was “shocked and appalled by the reports” and that it “condemns any attacks against civilians,” adding, “Our thoughts are with all those Russian citizens affected.”

    France’s Foreign Ministry called the images from Moscow “horrifying.”

    “Our thoughts go to the victims and to those injured as well as to the Russian people,” the ministry said, addingthat “all effort” must be made to “determine the causes of these heinous acts.”

    Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni condemned the March 22 attack as an “odious act of terrorism.”

    With reporting by Reuters


    This content originally appeared on News – Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty and was authored by News – Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Fearing arrest, Cambodian villagers hide in forest after clash with authorities | Radio Free Asia


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  • Russia Evacuates Children In Belgorod After Attacks


    This content originally appeared on Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and was authored by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.

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  • Nearly 30 years after closing, a mine in Zambia continues to violate human rights #Kabwe


    This content originally appeared on Human Rights Watch and was authored by Human Rights Watch.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Putin Talks About World War III In Speech After Elections Which West Says Weren’t Free And Fair


    This content originally appeared on Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and was authored by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.

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  • Kyrgyz Activist Under Investigation After Airing Video Critical Of Government

    Vladimir Putin has claimed a fifth presidential term with a landslide victory in a tightly controlled election that has been condemned by the West as neither free nor fair as the Russian leader seeks to prove overwhelming popular support for his full-scale invasion of Ukraine and increasingly repressive policies.

    With 99.75 percent of ballots counted, Putin won another six-year term with a post-Soviet record of 87.29 percent of the vote, the Central Elections Committee (TsIK) said on March 18, adding that turnout was also at a “record” level, with 77.44 percent of eligible voters casting ballots.

    The 71-year old Putin — who has ruled as either president or prime minister since 2000 — is now set to surpass Soviet dictator Josef Stalin’s nearly 30-year reign to become the longest-serving Russian leader in more than two centuries.

    “This election has been based on repression and intimidation,” the European Union’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell told journalists in Brussels on March 18 as the bloc’s foreign ministers gathered to discuss the election, among other issues.

    The March 15-17 vote is the first for Putin since he launched his invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 that has killed tens of thousands of Russians and led to a clear break in relations with the West. In holding what has widely been viewed as faux elections, Putin wants to show that he has the nation’s full support, experts said.

    The vote was also held in Russian-occupied territories of Ukraine, where hundreds of thousands of Russian soldiers are located. Moscow illegally annexed the regions since launching the invasion, though it remains unclear how much of the territory it controls.

    The Kremlin’s goal “is to get as many people as possible to sign off on Russia’s war against Ukraine. The idea is to get millions of Russian citizens to retroactively approve the decision Putin single-handedly made two years ago,” Maksim Trudolyubov, a senior fellow at the Kennan Institute, wrote in a note ahead of the vote.

    In remarks shortly after he was declared the winner, Putin said the election showed that the nation was “one team.”

    But Western leaders condemned the vote, with the White House National Security Council spokesperson saying they “are obviously not free nor fair given how Mr. Putin has imprisoned political opponents and prevented others from running against him.”

    British Foreign Secretary David Cameron said “this is not what free and fair elections look like,” adding in his message on X, formerly Twitter, that illegal elections have also been held on occupied Ukrainian territory.

    The French Foreign Ministry said Putin’s reelection came amid a wave of repression against civil society. It also praised in a statement the courage of “the many Russian citizens who peacefully protested against this attack on their fundamental political rights.”

    Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Putin has become “sick with power” and he is just “simulating” elections.

    “This imitation of ‘elections’ has no legitimacy and cannot have any. This person must end up in the dock in The Hague [at the International UN Tribunal for War Crimes],” Zelenskiy said on X.

    Putin’s allies were quick to heap praise on the Russian leader for his election success.

    China, one of Russia’s most importants allies, congratulated Putin, with Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian saying President Xi Jinping and the Russian leader “will continue to maintain close exchanges, lead the two countries to continue to uphold long-standing good-neighborly friendship, deepen comprehensive strategic coordination.”

    Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi called Putin’s victory “decisive,” the state news agency IRNA reported.

    WATCH: Leading psychiatrists discuss how excessive power can impact brain functioning and what the impulse for total control reveals about the mind and personality traits of authority figures.

    Putin was opposed by three relatively unknown, Kremlin-friendly politicians whose campaign was barely noticeable. The main intrigue was whether Russians would heed opposition calls to gather at polling stations at noon on March 17 to silently protest against Putin’s rule.

    Russian media had reported in the months leading up to the election that the Kremlin was determined to engineer a victory for Putin that would surpass the 2018 results, when he won 77.5 percent of the vote with a turnout of 67.5 percent.

    The Kremlin banned anti-war politician Boris Nadezhdin from the ballot after tens of thousands of voters lined up in the cold to support his candidacy. Nadezhdin threatened to undermine the narrative of overwhelming support for Putin and his war, experts said.

    Independent election observers were barred from working at this year’s presidential election for the first time in post-Soviet history, experts said. Russian elections have been notorious for ballot stuffing and other irregularities.

    The vote was also held in Russian-occupied territories of Ukraine, where hundreds of thousands of Russian soldiers are located.

    The United States called the elections neither fair nor free.

    ‘Noon Against Putin’

    With options to express resistance severely limited by the lack of competition and repressive laws, opposition leaders called on voters opposed to Putin to gather near polls at noon to show the Kremlin and the country that they were still a force.

    Russia’s opposition movement suffered a serious blow last month when Aleksei Navalny, Putin’s fiercest and most popular critic, died in unclear circumstances in a maximum-security prison in the Arctic where he was serving a 19-year sentence on charges of extremism widely seen as politically motivated.

    Long lines formed at polling stations across Russia’s 11 time zones at the designated time for the “Noon Against Putin” protest, including in Novosibirsk, Chita, Yekaterinburg, Perm, and Moscow among other Russian cities.

    “We’re not really expecting anything, but I’d somehow like to make a record of this election for myself, tick the box for myself, so, when talking about it later, I could say that I didn’t just sit at home, but came and tried to do something,” said one Russian who came to vote at noon.

    “The action has achieved its goals,” Ivan Zhdanov, the head the Anti-Corruption Foundation formerly headed by Navalny, said in a YouTube video. “The action has shown that there is another Russia, there are people who stand against Putin.”

    The Moscow prosecutor’s office had earlier warned of criminal prosecution against those who interfered with the vote, a step it said was necessary due to social-media posts “containing calls for an unlimited number of people to simultaneously arrive to participate in uncoordinated mass public events at polling stations in Moscow [at noon on March 17] in order to violate electoral legislation.”

    Lawyer Valeria Vetoshkina, who has left the country, told Current Time that if people do not bring posters and do not announce why they came to the polling station at that hour, it would be hard for the authorities to legitimately declare it a “violation.”

    But she warned that there were “some basic safety rules that you can follow if you’re worried. The first is not to discuss why you came, just to vote. And secondly, it is better to come without any visual means of agitation: without posters, flags, and so on.”

    Ella Pamfilova, head of Russia’s Central Election Commission (TsIK), on March 16 said there had been 20 cases of people attempting to destroy voting sheets by pouring liquids into ballot boxes and eight incidents of people trying to destroy ballots by setting them on fire or by using smoke bombs.

    Russians living abroad also took part in the “Noon Against Putin” campaign, with hundreds of people lining up at 12 p.m. outside the Russian embassies in Sidney, Tokyo, Phuket, Dubai, Istanbul, Berlin, Paris, and Yerevan among other capitals.

    “It’s not an election. It’s just a fake. And so we’re here to show that not Russians elect the current leader of Russia, that we [are] against him very severely, and that lots of people had to flee their country to be free,” said Anna, a Russian citizen living in Berlin and who gathered outside the embassy in the German capital.

    Putin was challenged by Liberal Democratic Party leader Leonid Slutsky, State Duma deputy speaker Vladislav Davankov of the New People party, and State Duma lawmaker Nikolai Kharitonov of the Communist Party, none of whom opposed the war.

    The Russian leader had the full resources of the state behind him, including the media, police, state-owned companies, and election officials.


    This content originally appeared on News – Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty and was authored by News – Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Baku Said To Be Preparing To Reopen Tehran Embassy After Attack

    The Iranian government “bears responsibility” for the physical violence that led to the death of Mahsa Amini, the 22-year-old Iranian-Kurdish woman who died in police custody in 2022, and for the brutal crackdown on largely peaceful street protests that followed, a report by a United Nations fact-finding mission says.

    The report, issued on March 8 by the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on the Islamic Republic of Iran, said the mission “has established the existence of evidence of trauma to Ms. Amini’s body, inflicted while in the custody of the morality police.”

    It said the mission found the “physical violence in custody led to Ms. Amini’s unlawful death…. On that basis, the state bears responsibility for her unlawful death.”

    Amini was arrested in Tehran on September 13, 2022, while visiting the Iranian capital with her family. She was detained by Iran’s so-called “morality police” for allegedly improperly wearing her hijab, or hair-covering head scarf. Within hours of her detention, she was hospitalized in a coma and died on September 16.

    Her family has denied that Amini suffered from a preexisting health condition that may have contributed to her death, as claimed by the Iranian authorities, and her father has cited eyewitnesses as saying she was beaten while en route to a detention facility.

    The fact-finding report said the action “emphasizes the arbitrary character of Ms. Amini’s arrest and detention, which were based on laws and policies governing the mandatory hijab, which fundamentally discriminate against women and girls and are not permissible under international human rights law.”

    “Those laws and policies violate the rights to freedom of expression, freedom of religion or belief, and the autonomy of women and girls. Ms. Amini’s arrest and detention, preceding her death in custody, constituted a violation of her right to liberty of person,” it said.

    The New York-based Center for Human Rights in Iran hailed the findings and said they represented clear signs of “crimes against humanity.”

    “The Islamic republic’s violent repression of peaceful dissent and severe discrimination against women and girls in Iran has been confirmed as constituting nothing short of crimes against humanity,” said Hadi Ghaemi, executive director of the center.

    “The government’s brutal crackdown on the Women, Life, Freedom protests has seen a litany of atrocities that include extrajudicial killings, torture, and rape. These violations disproportionately affect the most vulnerable in society, women, children, and minority groups,” he added.

    The report also said the Iranian government failed to “comply with its duty” to investigate the woman’s death promptly.

    “Most notably, judicial harassment and intimidation were aimed at her family in order to silence them and preempt them from seeking legal redress. Some family members faced arbitrary arrest, while the family’s lawyer, Saleh Nikbaht, and three journalists, Niloofar Hamedi, Elahe Mohammadi, and Nazila Maroufian, who reported on Ms. Amini’s death were arrested, prosecuted, and sentenced to imprisonment,” it added.

    Amini’s death sparked mass protests, beginning in her home town of Saghez, then spreading around the country, and ultimately posed one of the biggest threats to Iran’s clerical establishment since the foundation of the Islamic republic in 1979. At least 500 people were reported killed in the government’s crackdown on demonstrators.

    The UN report said “violations and crimes” under international law committed in the context of the Women, Life, Freedom protests include “extrajudicial and unlawful killings and murder, unnecessary and disproportionate use of force, arbitrary deprivation of liberty, torture, rape, enforced disappearances, and gender persecution.

    “The violent repression of peaceful protests and pervasive institutional discrimination against women and girls has led to serious human rights violations by the government of Iran, many amounting to crimes against humanity,” the report said.

    The UN mission acknowledged that some state security forces were killed and injured during the demonstrations, but said it found that the majority of protests were peaceful.

    The mission stems from the UN Human Rights Council’s mandate to the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on the Islamic Republic of Iran on November 24, 2022, to investigate alleged human rights violations in Iran related to the protests that followed Amini’s death.


    This content originally appeared on News – Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty and was authored by News – Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • ‘Piles of corpses’ left after Myanmar junta attacks village

    A junta aerial bombardment killed and injured dozens in western Myanmar, locals told Radio Free Asia. 

    Most residents in Thar Dar, a predominantly Rohingya village in Myanmar’s Rakhine state, were sleeping when a fighter jet dropped a bomb around 1 a.m. Friday, a local said. 

    “Twenty-three people died on the spot and more than 30 were injured. There are piles of corpses in the village,” said the man who didn’t want to be named for safety reasons. “Children and elderly are among the dead, covered with tarpaulin and everything. Most of those who died and were injured lost their limbs.”

    Thar Dar village, nearly five kilometers (three miles) north of Minbya city, was captured by the Arakan Army on Feb. 26. The rebel group has also seized six other townships in Rakhine state, including most recently Kyaukphyu, where a large Chinese mega-project is located. The army also controls Pauktaw township in neighboring Chin state to the north.

    While the Arakan Army has announced its intentions to control the state’s capital of Sittwe, junta troops have focused their resources on both small and large-scale attacks against civilians, which villagers have labeled a pattern of indiscriminate killings. Thar Dar village has little more than 300 houses and a population of under 2,000, residents said.

    While there was no battle in the area to warrant an attack, residents told RFA the village had become a brief refuge for Rohingya fleeing nearby Sin Gyi Pyin village after it was also targeted. Rakhine state has also seen other attacks on the ethnically persecuted group, including an attack that killed an entire Rohingya family in Sittwe. 

    RFA contacted Rakhine state’s junta spokesperson U Hla Thein for more information on Thar Dar’s aerial bombardment, but he did not pick up the phone.

    Junta columns regularly shell and drop bombs on villages in Minbya, Mrauk-U, Pauktaw and Ponnagyun townships where they have already lost control, residents said. 

    As of March 3, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reported more than 170 civilians had been killed and over 400 injured since the fighting in Rakhine state began again on Nov. 11, 2023.

    Translated by RFA Burmese. Edited by Kiana Duncan and Mike Firn. 


    This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Burmese.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Cambodian activist disavows ruling party after finding asylum

    A Cambodian opposition activist released from prison last year after apologizing to then-Prime Minister Hun Sen and joining his ruling party has repudiated his defection after arriving in a “safe” third country.

    Voeun Veasna, a forestry activist and former broadcaster for the online television station of the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party, was released in May 2023 after joining the ruling Cambodian People’s Party and apologizing to Hun Sen for a derisive poem he wrote about him.

    The activist then fled to neighboring Thailand – where he was initially arrested in November 2021 following a request from Hun Sen – and filed a claim with the U.N. refugee agency as an asylum seeker.

    He told Radio Free Asia in an interview that he could repudiate the decision to defect to the ruling CPP now that he was in a “safe” third country, which he declined to disclose for security reasons.

    “I can’t live with communist leaders, and I can’t betray my conscience. I must resign,” Voeun Veasna said, referring to the CPP’s origins as the sole party of Cambodia’s 1980s revolutionary communist regime. 

    Voeun Veasna added that he had only exercised his freedom of speech and should not have been jailed in the first place.

    “I was talking about how Cambodians’ living standards are not getting better like neighboring countries,” he said. “I was imprisoned unjustly.”

    CPP spokesman Sok Eysan said he didn’t care about Voeun Veasna’s decision to repudiate his defection after fleeing from Cambodia.

    “The CPP doesn’t need convicts to join the ruling party in order to evade prison terms,” the ruling party spokesman said.

    Voeun Veasna’s announcement follows the arrest last month of prominent opposition activist Kong Raiya, who also publicly defected to the ruling party to avoid political persecution but then reneged. 

    Unlike Voeun Veasna, Kong Raiya revealed his decision to leave the CPP while in Thailand, and was arrested there last month before a visit by Prime Minister Hun Manet, who succeeded his father last year.

    Another arrest

    Separately, the Nation Power Party, a new opposition party founded in the wake of the barring of the Candlelight Party – itself a successor to the banned CNRP – from last year’s national election released a statement slamming the arrest of one of its electoral candidates, Meu Seanghor.

    Meu Seanghor, also known as Kea Visal, had planned to be a candidate for the upcoming elections for Cambodia’s provincial and district administrative councils, according to the party, but was arrested on Friday in Kampong Cham province on charges of “incitement.”

    The opposition party said his arrest was “an act of intimidation” and would “provoke a gloomy environment” for the May 26 council elections, in which only those already directly elected by the public to Cambodia’s 1,652 commune councils are allowed to vote.

    Meu Seanghor’s wife said he was “pushed into a car” and taken away by police, and said she believed the arrest was politically motivated.

    RFA reached out to Chhun Srun, the chief of Kampong Cham’s Baray commune, where he was arrested, but he could not be reached.

    Translated by Yun Samean for RFA Khmer. Edited by Alex Willemyns and Malcolm Foster. 


    This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Khmer.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • “Abolish Zionism”: Palestinian Academic Speaks Out After Suspension from Israeli University


    This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • “Abolish Zionism”: Palestinian Academic Speaks Out After Suspension from Israeli University


    This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • China stiffens regulation after recent stock market collapse

    China’s top securities regulator has released new guidelines to strengthen regulation after the collapse of Chinese stock markets in the first two months of the year, wiping off billions of dollars as the economy teeters.

    The draft guidelines will see the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) increase its oversight and supervision of listed companies, brokerages and public fund companies, and accelerate the building of “first-class” investment banks, the regulatory agency’s vice chairman Li Chao said in a press conference Friday in Beijing.

    By raising the entry bar for public listings, Li said it will be improving the quality of the companies from the “source”.

    “We will strictly prohibit companies from blindly listing to make money, overfinance, fabricate financial reports or report false or fudge information. Such behaviors will be seriously and legally dealt with,” he said.

    According to Yan Bojin, head of the CSRC’s public offering supervision, the increased regulations were a response to the findings that listing candidates have unsound internal control mechanisms, irregular corporate governance, and financial fraud in some companies.

    Similarly, supervision of gatekeeper responsibilities of intermediaries like the stock exchanges will be strengthened, as will regulation of securities firms and public funds, Yan added.

    The stock market has been roiled by frequent turmoil in the past few years, weighed down by a real estate crisis characterized by defaults along with Beijing’s crackdown on sectors like technology and private tuition services. While it isn’t the economy, it is a barometer of investors’ expectations and confidence level of China’s prospects.

    Between December and early February, the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index fell nearly 11%. It only began to rebound, helped by Beijing’s recent measures to put a floor under share prices. 

    It did so by pushing state-owned funds to invest in stocks, curb short selling that bets on price declines, and cracked down on trades by quant funds, which use computer algorithms to catch investment opportunities. 

    Wu Qing, the newly appointed CSRC chairman also known as the “broker butcher,” has taken aim at quant funds that were blamed for worsening the slump in a stock market made up of mostly retail investors. The quant fund industry is estimated to have doubled in value in the past three years as punishing losses spread across the broader market.

    Edited by Mike Firn and Taejun Kang.


    This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Staff.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Lithuania Says Hammer Attack On Navalny Aide ‘Well-Planned’ After Blaming Putin


    This content originally appeared on Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and was authored by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • ‘I fight so that my son is remembered’ Brett Cross on life in Uvalde before and after the shooting


    This content originally appeared on The Real News Network and was authored by The Real News Network.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.