Cato Institute: Hong Kong under Beijing down in freedom index

Today's news: more and more children in Gaza suffer from dizziness due to lack of food. Bangkok blocks the granting of new gun licences for a year. Burmese women fleeing war imprisoned, beaten and forgotten in Indian prisons. Katholikos Karekin II, Patriarch of the Armenian Apostolic Church, against peace talks with Azerbaijan.

HONG KONG
Hong Kong has fallen in the human freedom index of the Cato Institute's 2023 report, according to which it has "sinked into tyranny" with the transition to Chinese rule. Once among the top 10 territories in the world, it has fallen to 46th out of 165 in 2021. The study, released in the days of Jimmy Lai's trial, finds a "remarkable deterioration" in almost all types of freedom, but above all in the state of law, freedom of expression and freedom of association and in assembly assessments.

GAZA
Washington speaks of "serious negotiations" on a new truce in Gaza and the release of Israeli hostages, although the UN Security Council postponed the vote yesterday for the third time. The prospects remain uncertain with the Hamas leader having rejected the hypothesis of a temporary pause during the talks in Cairo. Meanwhile, more and more children in Gaza are starting to suffer from dizziness caused by hunger, while the war hinders deliveries of the (little) food available.

SOUTH KOREA - JAPAN
Seoul and Tokyo will hold high-level talks on the economy today, the first in eight years. This was reported by the South Korean Foreign Minister, confirming a further improvement in relations between the two countries united in the last period by the common Chinese and North Korean "threat". The talks, which began in 1999, stalled in 2016 over disputes over wartime employment.

THAILAND
The granting of new weapons licenses has been blocked for a year after a series of fatal accidents. The rule takes effect immediately. One of the latest cases concerns a 14-year-old boy who shot up in a shopping center in Bangkok, killing three. Thailand has one of the highest ownership rates in the region, with 10 million handguns and rifles, equivalent to one gun for every seven Thais.

CHINA
Chinese activist Li Qiaochu is on trial for "subversion" against state power, in an emblematic case of the repression of dissent. The judges prevented the lawyer from attending the hearing (behind closed doors) in the court in Linyi, Shandong. If guilty he faces up to 5 years (or more). He had protested against the prison regime of his comrade and activist Xu Zhiyong.

INDIA - MYANMAR
Burmese women fleeing the war between the military junta and ethnic militias are beng locked up, beaten and forgotten in Indian prisons. So much so that they launched a hunger strike to demand rights and freedoms. The complaint comes from the activist NGO India For Myanmar, which assists refugee women. They are currently locked up in a prison in Manipur, which borders Sagaing and Chin in Myanmar.

RUSSIA
After eliminating his books from publishing houses and bookstores, the Rosfinmonitoring control agency declared the writer Boris Akunin a "terrorist and extremist" for having spread "false information about the activities of the Armed Forces of Russia". Every Russian has a book by him, whether fictional or historical, and now arrests are feared simply for reading them on the subway.

ARMENIA - AZERBAIJAN
Katholikos Karekin II, patriarch of the Armenian Apostolic Church, has spoken out against peace negotiations with Azerbaijan. He is supported by several other ecclesiastical leaders such as the bishop of Tavuš, Bagrat (Galstanyan), who during a homily defined himself as a "revanchist", against any attempt to "steal the soul and territory from the Armenians".

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