September 26th, 2017
CHINA China Blocks WhatsApp Messages The Daily Telegraph Chinese authorities appear to have severely disrupted the WhatsApp messaging app in the latest step to tighten censorship as they prepare for a major Communist Party congress next month. Users in China have reported widespread disruptions in recent days to the Facebook-owned service, which...
September 25th, 2017
CHINA China Fines Social-Media Giants for Hosting Banned Content Josh Chin, The Wall Street Journal Chinese internet regulators said they have hit operators of three of the country’s biggest social-media platforms with the maximum fine allowable under a new cybersecurity law for hosting fake news, pornography and other forms of banned...
September 21st, 2017
CHINA China’s “Fallen” Officials Leave Gaps, Silenced Voices in Communist Party Ranks RFA As the ruling Chinese Communist Party gears up for a crucial, five-yearly congress next month, President Xi Jinping is taking far-reaching steps to ensure that no critical voices are raised against him, analysts said. A popular chat show on the Hong...
Energy analyst: Russian proposals to use Ukrainian pipelines a ‘joke’
If Russia’s gas supply to Europe is to remain reliable, the Ukrainian system must run parallel to Nord Stream 2, Oleksandr Sukhodolia told EURACTIV Slovakia. …read more Source:...
Moving message of solidarity from Kremlin hostage Roman Sushchenko on sentence of Crimean Tatar leader Ilmi Umerov
There has been widespread condemnation of Russia’s two-year prison sentence on Crimean Tatar leader lmi Umerov “for voicing dissent against the illegal annexation of the Crimean peninsula”. The most poignant was from Roman Sushchenko, the Ukrainian journalist seized by the Russian FSB almost exactly a year ago …read more Source:...
Ukraine’s more accessible and independent Constitutional Court
A critical overview of changes to Ukraine’s Constitutional Court …read more Source: Kharkiv Human Rights Protection...
Kleptocracy Daily: September 22, 2017
China: A major new research paper by Anne-Marie Brady delves into Beijing’s aggressive political influence operations worldwide, using New Zealand as a particularly troubling case study. (Summary here). (Wilson Center, NZ Herald) Bannon in Beijing: Steve Bannon secretly met with Wang Qishan, China’s anti-graft chief and the...
More than javelins, Ukraine needs change
I remember Ukraine as a friendlier place. But my country’s recent uptick of expelling foreigners it considers inconvenient belies a less hospitable, darker trend. The government that grew out of Ukraine’s 2014 “Revolution of Peoples’ Dignity” now has some Ukrainians reminiscing about the more tolerant, less corrupt government it...
North Korea [What Think Tanks are thinking]
Written by Marcin Grajewski, © Onur / Fotolia North Korea has stepped up its nuclear plans with the underground detonation of a hydrogen bomb and tests of its first suspected Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (ICBMs), moves perceived as a major threat to global security. Speaking at the United Nations General Assembly on 19 September, U.S....
Lopaskino is a conditionally Ukrainian settlement along the delimitation line
During the pre-conflict period the village of Lopaskino belonged to Slavyanoserbsky district and was a part of Slavyanoserbsky settlement council. On October 7, 2014 the Verkhovna Rada has changed the administrative-territorial device of the Luhansk region by the resolution No. 1692-VII, having established new borders of Novoaydarsky and...
