Who is Alaa Abd el-Fattah and why are British diplomats trying to obtain his release? Patrick Wintour reports
Laila Soueif, 69, has been on hunger strike in London for more than 250 days in an effort to secure the release of her son, the activist Alaa Abd el-Fattah, from jail in Egypt. As diplomatic pressure mounts, she is now in a critical condition.
Alaa’s sister Mona Seif describes to Michael Safi the toll that imprisonment has taken on her brother, her mother’s determination to do whatever she can to secure his release, and the difficulty of coming to terms with her mother’s decision to risk her life.
Labour dismisses Kemi Badenoch speech on European convention on human rights as an attempt to appease Reform UK and Robert Jenrick. This live blog is closed
As Jessica Elgot and Amelia Gentleman report, Downing Street is exploring new proposals for a digital ID card to crack down on illegal migration, rogue landlords and exploitative work, set out in a policy paper authored by a centre-left thinktank.
Steve Reed, the environment secretary, was the government voice on the media this morning and he confirmed that the government is interested in this idea. He told Times Radio:
It’s absolutely something that we are looking at, and that we should be looking at.
We know we need to look at all the actions we can take to stop the levels of illegal migration that we were seeing particularly under the last government.
Akua Reindorf said law never permitted self-ID, but trans campaigners call remarks ‘profoundly unhelpful’
Transgender people must accept a reduction in their rights after the supreme court decision on gender because they “have been lied to over many years” about what their rights actually were, one of the commissioners drawing up the official post-ruling guidance has said.
Alain Berset acknowledged growing criticism of the 75-year-old treaty, but said any changes must also respect ‘our core values’
The European convention on human rights (ECHR) must adapt while continuing to uphold its core values, the head of a European rights council has said.
Alain Berset, the secretary general of the Council of Europe (CoE), acknowledged growing criticism of the 75-year-old treaty, but said reform should be approached with care and rooted in shared democratic principles.
A Hungarian law banning content about LGBTQ+ people from schools and primetime TV has been found to violate basic human rights and freedom of expression by a senior legal scholar at the European court of justice.
The non-binding opinion from the court’s advocate general, Tamara Ćapeta, issued on Thursday, represents a comprehensive demolition of the arguments made by the Hungarian government defending its so-called childprotection law, passed in 2021.
The UK government should impose sanctions on key figures in the Egyptian government in response to its refusal to release the British-Egyptian human rights activist Alaa Abd el-Fattah, Labour’s most prominent human rights lawyer has proposed.
Writing in the Guardian, Helena Kennedy called for the UK to take the case to the international court of justice, as France has recently done in the case of a national held by Iran.
Low respect for international law and human rights set worrying precedent, international development minister says
Israel is setting a dangerous precedent for international human rights law violations in Gaza that is making the whole world more dangerous, Norway’s international development minister has warned.
Norway has played a historical role in the region, including by facilitating the Oslo peace accords between Israel and the Palestinians that led to a celebrated breakthrough deal in 1993. Last year it recognised the Palestinian state, one of a minority of European countries to do so.
The Committee to Protect Journalists joined 21 other international and local press freedom organizations in a joint statement Friday rejecting laws approved in El Salvador and Nicaragua that could severely affect press freedom, freedom of expression, and access to information in those countries.
On May 16, Nicaraguan lawmakers approved a constitutional amendment that allows the government to strip Nicaraguan nationality fromcitizens who opt for a second nationality.
On May 20, El Salvador’s Legislative Assembly approved a “foreign agents” law mandating that any person or organization receiving funds from abroad register with the Ministry of Interior as a foreign agent.
Mexico City, May 30, 2025—The Committee to Protect Journalists on Friday called on El Salvador to repeal a newly enacted “foreign agents” law that poses a serious threat to press freedom by targeting media outlets, nonprofit organizations, and individual journalists who receive international funding.
“President Nayib Bukele’s foreign agents law is a blatant move to silence dissent and dismantle what remains of El Salvador’s independent press,” said Cristina Zahar, CPJ’s Latin America program coordinator, in São Paulo. “By forcing journalists and civil society organizations to register as foreign agents and taxing foreign support, the government is adopting the repressive tactics of authoritarian regimes like Nicaragua and Russia. This law must be repealed.”
Approved May 20 by Bukele’s Nuevas Ideas party-controlled legislature, the law mandates that any person or organization receiving funds from abroad register with the Ministry of Interior as a foreign agent. Those designated must pay a 30% tax on all foreign income and submit to extensive oversight, including sworn declarations. Violations of the law carry fines ranging from US$1,000 to US$150,000.
While the government claims the law is meant to promote transparency and protect national sovereignty, press freedom and human rights advocates warn it is intended to intimidate critics and financially cripple the independent press.
Óscar Martínez, editor-in-chief of El Faro, told CPJ the law’s vague language grants authorities sweeping discretion. It applies not only to organizations, but also to individuals, so freelance journalists, academics, and trainers who receive honoraria or stipends from abroad could be labeled foreign agents.
“This law is designed to suffocate the press,” said Martínez. “We rely on international donors because local advertisers are too afraid of government retaliation. Now the government wants to criminalize that support.”
Angélica Cárcamo, director of the Central American Journalists Network, called the measure “a tool of persecution.” She told CPJ the law is “intended to shut down NGOs, silence critical journalism, and tighten the government’s control over public discourse.”
CPJ emailed the office of the Salvadoran president for comment but did not immediately receive a response.
Nairobi, May 30, 2025—The Committee to Protect Journalists is dismayed by an Ethiopian regional court’s decision to sentence Jigjiga Television Network founder Ahmed Awga to two years in jail on charges of disseminating hateful information via a Facebook post he did not author.
On May 22, the Fafen Zone High Court in Jigjiga, the capital of Ethiopia’s eastern Somali Region, sentenced Ahmed, whose legal name is Ahmed Abdi Omar, to two years in prison. He had been detained since his April 23 arrest on incitement charges related to an interview he conducted with a man whose son died following an alleged police beating, as well as for commentary on Ahmed’s Facebook page. The charge was later changed to “propagation of disinformation and public incitement,” under the 2020 anti-hate speech law, according to the charge sheet, which was reviewed by CPJ.
“Ahmed Awga’s conviction and two-year prison sentence, based on a Facebook post he didn’t write, is outrageous and a stark illustration of Ethiopia’s escalating assault on press freedom,” said Angela Quintal, CPJ’s Africa regional director, from Durban. “Ethiopian authorities must cease using the legal system to silence critical voices.”
The charge sheet alleges that on April 17, Ahmed posted statements on his Facebook page, describing a regional election as a “so-called election,” accusing regional government officials of holding the population hostage, and claiming specific districts were seized by certain individuals. He was also accused of inciting residents by allegedly stating, “we have no justice — only killing and death.”
A CPJ review of the prosecution’s evidence, corroborated by an analysis by VOSS TV, an online media outlet, shows his conviction was primarily based on a post he didn’t write. His account was merely tagged in an April 20 post, which clearly originated from another Facebook page, not Ahmed’s. None of Ahmed’s April 17 posts appeared to reference the allegations in the charge sheet, according to CPJ’s review.
Ahmed’s conviction is part of a broader crackdown on media in Ethiopia. At least six other journalists were arrested in the month of April alone, as the government tightened its control over the media regulator, the Ethiopian Media Authority (EMA).
In a May 27 interview with BBC’s Somali service, Somali Region President Mustafa Mohammed Omar rejected suggestions that people were being jailed simply for what they posted online. The four people currently in custody — “a journalist, a former official, and two activists” — face charges of “harming the reputation of security agencies, spreading false information about jail conditions, and exploiting the death of an inmate to incite the public,” he said, adding that the regional judiciary is independent.
Badenoch and Farage seize on Richard Hermer’s ‘clumsy’ remark in speech made in defence of international law
The attorney general has apologised for a “clumsy” remark that compared Conservative and Reform calls to disregard international treaties and quit the European convention of human rights (ECHR) with the early days of Nazi Germany.
The UK faces “disintegration” and will become “less prosperous and secure” if it takes a pick-and-mix approach to international law, the attorney general has said.
In a speech on Thursday, Richard Hermer launched a defence of international law and multilateral frameworks which “have kept us safe since 1945”.
Report from Human Rights Watch criticises Museveni regime for arbitrary arrests and detentions, violence and extortion since draconian new law enacted
The Ugandan authorities have “unleashed abuse”, perpetrating widespread discrimination and violence against LGBTQ+ people in the two years since the world’s harshest anti-gay laws were enacted, according to a new report by Human Rights Watch (HRW).
The government’s policies in Uganda had encouraged attacks and harassment against people and organisations seen as being supportive of gay rights, said researchers from the rights group.
Alain Berset says no judiciary should face political pressure after nine countries make intervention over migration
Europe’s leading human rights body has criticised nine governments that have urged a rethink of the interpretation of the European convention on human rights on migration issues.
The Council of Europe secretary general, Alain Berset, spoke out against “politicising” the European court of human rights after nine European leaders signed a letter organised by Italy’s Giorgia Meloni and Denmark’s Mette Frederiksen, calling for an “open-minded conversation” about the interpretation of the convention.
We conclude that Israel’s treatment of Palestinians, including mass killing, arbitrary detention and torture, meets the legal threshold for the term
We are university professors and human rights advocates who teach and write about Palestine and Israel. We have collectively taught thousands of classes on human rights law, international law and government repression. We have defended death row prisoners in Malawi, documented forced labor in Brazil, helped women seeking gender equality in Burma, chronicled the struggle of the Sahrawi people for self-determination in Western Sahara, and advocated on behalf of families of disappeared immigrants in the United States. As human rights defenders, our job is to expose government abuses of power where we find them. And that includes Israel.
It has never been easy for scholars in the United States to publicly criticize Israel. Now, anyone who does so risks professional suicide. The Trump administration deliberately conflates criticism of the government of Israel with antisemitism and has pressured universities to discipline students and fire faculty who express concern over the slaughter of Palestinians. This has chilled speech on our campuses and is a direct assault on academic freedom. It is also an attempt to stamp out all opposition to US foreign policy with respect to Israel.
Sandra L Babcock is a clinical professor and director of the International Human Rights Clinic at Cornell Law School. Susan M Akram is clinical professor and director of the International Human Rights Clinic at Boston University School of Law. Thomas Becker is the legal and policy director at the University Network for Human Rights and teaches human rights at Columbia Law School. James Cavallaro is the executive director of the University Network for Human Rights and a visiting professor at the Yale Jackson School of Global Affairs
New York Times reporter Eric Lipton (Bluesky, 5/12/25) defended his reference to lobbyists giving the Trump family millions of dollars to buy access to the president as “potentially corrupt.”
“Corruption requires explicit quid pro quo,” Lipton maintained. “It is not corrupt to take an action that aligns with the interest of a person who gives you a gift, unless the official action was in direct response to that gift—a bribe.”
Lipton was Timesplaining the legal definition of “bribery,” which has indeed been narrowed by the Supreme Court to require an explicit quid pro quo. But the president is also bound by federal laws prohibiting the solicitation of gifts (CRS, 8/16/12), and the Constitution forbids him to accept any foreign payment (or “emolument”) without congressional approval.
Moreover, “corruption” is primarily an ethical, not a legal term (SCOTUSblog, 9/25/19). Trump’s access auction certainly meets Transparency International’s definition of corruption as “the abuse of entrusted power for private gain.”
Lipton got up on his highest horse: “Terms matter. Accuracy and fairness matters. Regardless of what social media wants.” It’s hard to say what social media want, but it would be nice to have elite reporters who didn’t redefine terms to provide cover for self-enriching politicians.
ACTION ALERT: You can send a message to the New York Times at letters@nytimes.com or via Bluesky: @NYTimes.com. Please remember that respectful communication is the most effective. Feel free to leave a copy of your message in the comments thread here.
This content originally appeared on FAIR and was authored by Jim Naureckas.
BANGKOK – The Trump administration plan to allow mining of deep sea metals in the Pacific Ocean would unequivocally violate international law, experts said, making any attempt to sell the minerals – used in batteries, weapons and smartphones – open to challenge by other nations.
President Donald Trump last month signed an executive order to speed development of the contentious deep sea mining industry, including in off-limits international waters governed by a treaty most nations are signatory to. The order said action is needed to “counter China’s growing influence over seabed mineral resources.”
Unilateral action on deep sea mining by the U.S., legal experts said, also has the potential to weaken its legitimacy in attempting to enforce international law generally, including freedom of navigation in flashpoint waters such as the South China Sea or in combating illegal fishing.
“It is hazardous for the U.S. to throw out the rule book,” said Duncan Currie, an international lawyer, who advises conservation groups and testified to Congress last month on the risks of deep sea mining.
Foreshadowing the executive order, Nasdaq-traded The Metals Company, or TMC, which has been at the forefront of ambitions to exploit the seabed, in March applied for exploration and mining permits under the U.S. umbrella for areas in the Pacific Ocean.
It is attempting to bypass the International Seabed Authority, or ISA, a U.N. organization mandated to set rules by consensus for deep sea mining in international waters. Under ISA jurisdiction, TMC has worked with Tonga and Nauru to explore their allocated areas in a vast swath of the Pacific, but now says the ISA has failed by not agreeing rules after several decades of effort.
The Metals Company CEO Gerard Barron (right) congratulates Leticia Carvalho on her election as International Seabed Authority secretary-general in Kingston, Jamaica, Aug. 2, 2024.(Stephen Wright/RFA)
Critics of the nascent industry say the copper, cobalt, manganese and nickel found in the potato-sized nodules that carpet parts of the seafloor is already abundant on land. They warn that hoovering the nodules up from depths of several kilometers will cause irreparable damage to an ocean environment still poorly understood by science.
Amid a general retreat by large corporations from commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, deep sea mining companies have recently emphasized defense uses and security of mineral supply. Previously the nodules were touted as a source of metals needed for green technologies, such as electric vehicles, that would reduce reliance on fossil fuels.
According to Currie’s congressional testimony, the arguments for deep sea mining rest on fallacies. China’s dominance in the cobalt and nickel markets is due to it processing those minerals imported from Congo and Indonesia and deep sea mining would not significantly change that equation. Also a growing proportion of batteries in electric vehicles no longer rely on cobalt and nickel
“TMC promised the people of Nauru jobs and prosperity,” said Shiva Gounden, head of Greenpeace’s Pacific chapter. “But it has taken the first chance it got to turn its back on Nauru and it will do the same to any other Pacific country,” Gounden said in a statement.
Gerard Barron, TMC‘s chief executive, said the company’s partnerships with Tonga and Nauru remain “rock solid.”
“They too have been let down by the lack of performance at the ISA,” he told Radio Free Asia.
The case made by Barron and the Trump administration is that deep sea mining is a legitimate freedom in waters beyond national jurisdiction – an idea that has become antiquated as international law evolved over decades.
The U.S. has not ratified the 1982 U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea, which governs international waters and also established the seabed authority, but in practice recognizes and attempts to enforce its principles.
The U.S. in 1970 also formally recognized that a law of the sea treaty accepted by most countries would establish the rules even for states not a party to it.
“For the last thirty years, the United States has engaged in acts that uphold the object and purpose” of the law of the sea treaty, said Coalter G. Lathrop, director of international law firm Sovereign Geographic, in a blog post this month for the European Journal of International Law.
Even so, the Trump executive order appears to be a new lease on life for The Metals Company.
At the end of March, it had only US$2.3 million cash in the bank and short-term debt of US$10 million. This week it announced a sale of shares in the company that will raise about US$37 million, according to a regulatory filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. TMC said the money would keep it afloat until it gets a U.S. license for commercial mining.
Its U.S. application has been criticized by France, China and other countries. A coalition of Pacific island civil society organizations called for TMC to be blacklisted by the seabed authority and for Nauru and Tonga to end their agreements with the company.
Deep sea mining is depicted in a mural at the International Seabed Authority office in Kingston, Jamaica, July 30, 2024.(Stephen Wright/RFA)
Currie said the U.N. treaty presents numerous obstacles to TMC realizing its ambitions.
“This casts doubt on whether any metals brought up by TMC under a unilateral permit could be sold,” he told Radio Free Asia.
TMC is a Canadian company while Allseas, the company that owns the ship and mining equipment used by TMC, is Swiss. Both countries, Currie told RFA, have obligations under the U.N. treaty to ensure their nationals don’t participate in breaches of it.
TMC also has an agreement for metals processing with a company based in another treaty signatory nation – Japan.
TMC‘s prospectus for its share sale acknowledges the possibility of legal consequences if it gets a U.S.-issued mining permit.
The ISA and many nations that are signatories to the law of the sea treaty “are likely to regard such a permit as a violation of international law,” it said.
This could “affect international perceptions of the project and could have implications for logistics, processing and market access” including legal challenges in the court systems of treaty member nations.
Attempting a unilateral route to mine the international seabed risks severe geopolitical repercussions “and it could be U.S. interests that get burnt,” said Greenpeace deep sea mining campaigner Louisa Casson.
“Going against the Law of the Sea could trigger impacts far beyond deep sea mining – for maritime boundaries, freedom of navigation and other security interests,” she told RFA.
Edited by Mike Firn and Taejun Kang.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Stephen Wright for RFA.
Deportees face inhumane treatment and torture, say lawyers contesting Labour’s migration policy
The UK government’s migration plans are facing an imminent challenge this week, with lawyers seeking to overturn deportations to Bulgaria due to allegations of brutal conditions faced by migrants and asylum seekers in the country.
Move to speed up appeals of people in government-funded hotels could be challenged on discrimination grounds, officials warn
A plan to fast-track the appeals of asylum seekers living in government-funded hotels could face multiple legal challenges on the grounds of discrimination, the government has said.
A 24-week legal deadline on appeal decisions for those staying in hotel rooms is being introduced in an attempt to fulfil a Labour manifesto promise to end a practice that costs the taxpayer billions of pounds a year.
Exclusive: Transgender activists worry that EHRC is taking an overly literal approach to supreme court ruling
A cross-party committee of MPs has written to the UK’s equalities watchdog to seek assurances that its guidance on how organisations interpret the landmark supreme court ruling on gender issues does not ignore the needs of transgender people.
The letter from the Commons women and equalities committee to Kishwer Falkner, the chair of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, also urged her to extend the two-week timetable for people to submit views on how the EHRC’s code of practice for organisations should work, saying this should be at least six weeks.
Doug Paulley and Kevin Jordan say their lives being ruined, and lack of effective strategy infringes their human rights
Two men who say they are being failed by the UK’s flawed response to climate breakdown are taking their case to Europe’s top human rights court.
Doug Paulley and Kevin Jordan say their lives have been ruined by the rising temperatures and extreme weather caused by the climate crisis, and that the government’s response fails to respect their human rights.
It would be wrong for Labour to collude in the attack on the European convention. It’s fuelled by myths and false narratives
Here’s a recent quote from a Downing Street source: “We have to be able to say something on this that isn’t just defending the status quo.”
The aide was discussing the European convention on human rights (ECHR), a postwar treaty to protect the freedoms of people in Europe, ratified by the UK in 1951. Although it was also central to Keir Starmer’s entire pre-political career, his government is looking to water down some of the key provisions.
Jamie Burton is a barrister at Doughty Street Chambers. Finnian Clarke, also a barrister at Doughty Street, co-authored
More than 130 women and children who fled Haiti to seek healthcare rounded up in hospitals and sent back
Pregnant women and new mothers are being rounded up in hospitals in the Dominican Republic and deported back to Haiti as part of what observers say is an openly cruel, racist and misogynist government policy.
World now in era of repressive regimes’ impunity, climate inaction and unchecked corporate power, says report
The first 100 days of Donald Trump’s presidency have “supercharged” a global rollback of human rights, pushing the world towards an authoritarian era defined by impunity and unchecked corporate power, Amnesty International warns today.
In its annual report on the state of human rights in 150 countries, the organisation said the immediate ramifications of Trump’s second term had been the undermining of decades of progress and the emboldening of authoritarian leaders.
The Committee to Protect Journalists joined six other international and local press freedom organizations in a joint report warning the UN Human Rights Council’s Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of systematic freedom of expression and press freedom violations in Honduras ahead of the country’s human rights record review.
The report, sent to the UPR on April 7, alerts of laws restricting freedom of expression and press freedom in Honduras; murders and attacks against journalists and indigenous media; threats to academic freedom and the limitation of equal participation of women journalists and authors in the media and publishing houses as well as violence against women journalists and historically marginalized communities.
Among 13 recommendations include the revision of the Protection Law and its regulations to strengthen the institutional protection mechanism; the repeal of crimes against honor to prevent further violations of the media and journalists; and the application of the necessary measures to ensure that an inclusive gender and diversity perspective is fully integrated into public and private cultural, journalistic and editorial programs.
Read the joint statement in English here and in Spanish here.
São Paulo, April 28, 2025—The Committee to Protect Journalists joined Peru’s independent media in a joint statement condemning a law enacted by President Dina Boluarte on April 14 that could negatively impact nonprofit media organizations and journalism operations funded by international cooperation.
The law requires such outlets to register their journalistic plans, projects and programs in a state-run registry, a violation of the right to professional secrecy, and puts disproportionate sanctions on activities described in vague terms.
More than 270 organizations and journalists have signed the statement, which rebukes the law as a mechanism of censorship and “the result of a political coalition that has seized control of nearly all branches of the state.”
