Somali officials announced Sunday that the country would institute a direct one-person-one-vote democracy by 2024. This comes after years of attempts to implement direct universal suffrage, first mandated by the Somali legislature in 2019, failed due to political divisions and internal conflict.  The announcement came along with several other reforms to the current Somali electoral structure, including the [...]

On Friday, police in the northern Kosovo city of Zvecan fired tear gas at protests opposing the appointment of ethnic-Albanian mayors. The action injured 10 people as local Serbs gathered in front of the Zvecan municipal administration building, according to Serbian state TV. Footage also reported a police vehicle set on fire and the use [...]

The International Bar Association (IBA) adopted a resolution on Saturday calling for the creation of a Special Tribunal to try Russia for crimes of aggression in Ukraine. The IBA resolution condemns Russia’s war of aggression, affirms the IBA’s support for Ukrainian sovereignty, and urges UN member states to establish and international criminal tribunal for Russian leaders. The Prosecutor General of Ukraine [...]

Japan’s government announced new sanctions Friday against Russia for its ongoing invasion of Ukraine and recent agreement to deploy nuclear weapons in Belarus. The sanctions include measures meant to freeze the assets of 17 Russian individuals and 78 entities. According to a statement from the Japanese Foreign Ministry, the sanctioned individuals are “considered to be [...]

European Commissioner Thierry Breton stated Friday that Twitter is pulling out of the European Union’s (EU) 2022 Code of Practice on Disinformation. Breton went on to remind the platform that they still have an obligation to follow the Digital Service Act (DSA) taking effect in August. The Code of Practice is a voluntary agreement with [...]

Médecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), also known as Doctors Without Borders, has raised alarms about the worsening conditions for internally displaced persons in South Sudan across Twic County, Warrap State.  MSF moved from the city of Agok to Twic County in 2022 to better support camps of internally displaced persons in the region. MSF reports that [...]

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Belarusian Defense Minister Viktor Khrenin signed documents Thursday allowing Russian tactical nuclear weapons to be deployed on Belarusian territory. Russia will maintain control of the weapons in Belarus. Shoigu and Khrenin emphasised that the collective West is “escalating threats” against them and that NATO’s military presence and activities have [...]

Two Pakistani journalists remain missing Saturday following a call for their release from the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) on Thursday. Unidentified men allegedly seized the first journalist, BOL News anchor and president Sami Abraham on May 24 following the airing of several segments supporting former Prime Minister Imran Khan. The second journalist, Imran Riaz [...]

The Australian Senate’s Community Affairs Committee released a report Friday calling for the Australian Government to improve access to reproductive healthcare following the Senate’s referral of an inquiry into the nation’s contraception and abortion services to the committee on September 28, 2022. The accessibility issues identified arise due to Australia’s national drug scheduling system, administered [...]

The Supreme Court of Russia ordered the liquidation of the People’s Freedom Party (PARNAS) as requested by the country’s justice ministry, according to Russian state news agency TASS. The Russian Ministry of Justice argued that the number of PARNAS’ regional offices dropped by 7, from 47 to 40, and law requires parties to have representative [...]