By Human Rights Watch
Click to expand Image European Humanities University, Vilnius, Lithuania, 2019. © 2019 Elis Bodnar/Wikimedia Belarusian authorities are systematically using vaguely defined “extremism” laws to target dissent, including Belarusians in exile.Most recently, on April 14, the Belarusian Supreme Court designated the Lithuania-based European Humanities University an “extremist organization,” claiming it was “destabilizing the sociopolitical situation in the country.” This exposes thousands of current and former students and professors, the majority of them Belarusian, to criminal prosecution…
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Friday, April 17, 2026
The war in Gaza has inflicted a far higher toll on women and girls than in previous conflicts in the Palestinian enclave, with more than 38,000 killed by Israeli air bombardment and land military operations since Hamas-led terror attacks in Israel sparked the war in October 2023, UN Women said on Friday.
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By Subhashish Panigrahi
Taukeer Alam, a writer of Van Gujjari, a vulnerable dialect with low documentation, shares the need for audio-visual documentation and safeguards to protect against AI and other exploitations
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By Human Rights Watch
(Paris, April 17, 2026) – France has refused to grant an entry visa to Shawan Jabarin, the director of Al-Haq, one of the leading and oldest Palestinian human rights organizations, based in the occupied West Bank. Jabarin was due to travel to France to appear before the European Parliament’s Human Rights Committee in Strasbourg, alongside representatives from other Palestinian organizations. This is the second time Jabarin has been denied entry into France; in October 2025, French authorities rejected his application to renew his Schengen visa, reportedly citing “threats to public order or…
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By Mara Fischer, PhD Candidate, School of Environment, University of Exeter
Ruth H. Thurstan, Associate Professor in Marine and Historical Ecology, University of Exeter
Diners may soon need to rethink a staple of the classic English fish supper. The Marine Conservation Society, an environmental charity in the UK, recently downgraded all UK cod stocks and removed them from its list of sustainable seafood.
The Marine Conservation Society’s Good Fish Guide, a tool designed to help consumers make sustainable seafood choices, now lists Atlantic cod from the Arctic, northern shelf, and British seas with the worst possible rating: “avoid”.…
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By Jacob Parakilas, Research Leader, Defence, Security, and Justice Group, RAND Europe
Robots have a growing role on the battlefield – but for the immediate future, they are more likely to support the fight than lead it.
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By Danielle Reid, Postgraduate Researcher, Women, Ageing, and Machine Learning on Screen, University of Leeds
The Blue Trail is a thoroughly original story in which two older women are capable of newness, independence and transformation against all odds.
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By Austin Sarat, William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Jurisprudence and Political Science, Amherst College
Hampshire College’s studen-driven, unorthodox approach to education has roots in the early 1900s and a belief that students should be active, engaged learners.
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By Human Rights Watch
Click to expand Image Social media apps on a mobile phone. © 2018 AP Photo (New York) – The Indian government should immediately withdraw rules that would allow greater executive control over online content and further undermine privacy in the country, Human Rights Watch said today.The Draft Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Second Amendment Rules, 2026, would allow the government to treat ordinary social media users who comment on news and current affairs on par with registered news publishers, threatening to chill free expression and cause…
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Friday, April 17, 2026
In 2025, nearly 900 Rohingya refugees were reported missing or dead in the Andaman Sea and Bay of Bengal, making it the deadliest year on record in South and Southeast Asia, the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, said on Friday.
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