Why have democracies failed in curtailing Xi Jinping’s human rights abuses? And how can they better insulate themselves from Beijing’s transnational threats? CDDRL Visiting Scholar and former China Director at Human Rights Watch Sophie Richardson presented her research on the Chinese government’s deteriorating human rights record. Why have democracies failed in curtailing Xi Jinping’s human...
North Korean Workers Abroad Can’t Escape the Regime’s Human Rights Abuses
The world must expand its channels of communication with North Koreans working overseas to prevent human rights abuse. In mid-November 2023, Daily NK posted a banner ad on our website that said, “We want to hear from North Koreans living overseas.” A number of North Korean workers who saw the banner emailed us directly about...
How Our Electric Grids are Blocking a Climate Revolution
The biggest and dirtiest secret of the energy market is that most of it is lost in generating, transmitting, distributing, and using it. Solving this problem would be revolutionary, reducing competition for resources that contributes to conflict as well as climate change. Energy is one of the most valuable businesses in the world, worth trillions...
Ban on foreign state ownership of UK newspapers effectively halts UAE takeover of Telegraph
Foreign state control of British newspapers is to be outlawed, effectively blocking the UAE’s attempted takeover of The Telegraph. Ministers revealed plans on Wednesday “explicitly to rule out newspaper and periodical news magazine mergers involving ownership, influence or control by foreign states”. The move, announced by Lord Parkinson, the culture minister, was made to see off a...
Europe is not prepared for rapidly growing climate risks
Extreme heat, drought, wildfires, and flooding, as experienced in recent years, will worsen in Europe even under optimistic global warming scenarios and affect living conditions throughout the continent. The EEA has published the first ever European Climate Risk Assessment (EUCRA) to help identify policy priorities for climate change adaptation and for climate-sensitive sectors. According to the assessment,...
Why Russia Has Been So Resilient to Western Export Controls
Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the United States imposed an unprecedented package of sanctions intended to make Russia pay a high economic cost for its aggression and to constrain the Russian military. U.S. President Joe Biden declared that Russia would “bear the consequences” for the invasion and emphasized that sanctions were designed to reverse Russia’s military modernization,...
The Future of Russian Energy Exports under Sanctions
Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the European Union (EU) has pursued policies aimed at shifting its energy sources away from Russia. This has resulted in a decline in the bloc’s dependence on Russian energy. Meanwhile, Russia has focused on exporting oil and natural gas to regions outside the EU to maintain...
Deep-sea mining could cause $500bn in environmental damage – report
The undertaking is proving not to be financially or environmentally viable. Deep-sea mining could cause up to 25-times more damage to the world’s biodiversity than land-based mining, resulting in $500bn of lost value, according to a new study published on Thursday. Many of the critical minerals needed in the production of electric vehicles (EV) can...
Dirty Money Is Destroying Sudan
A humanitarian and human rights catastrophe is unfolding in Sudan. With nearly 11 million people already displaced—three million of them children—the country is now home to the most people rendered homeless by conflict worldwide, and its populace sits poised on the brink of a major famine. A collapsing medical system renders the war’s true death...
SpaceX rocket launches pioneering methane-tracking satellite to orbit
A new satellite that will track climate-heating methane emissions from oil and gas companies around the world launched this week from California’s Vandenberg Space Force Base. The washing-machine-sized satellite, named MethaneSAT, lifted off Monday (March 4) atop a Falcon 9 rocket, one of 53 payloads on SpaceX’s Transporter-10 rideshare mission. MethaneSAT is designed to ultimately help policymakers...