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Human rights

Human rights
Latest news, features and analysis on human rights, with a focus on civil liberties in Hong Kong, mainland China and Asia.
Workers produce pyjamas for export at a clothing factory in Lianyungang, in eastern China’s Jiangsu province, on April 21. Photo: AFP
US-China relations

Opinion | US tariffs a wake-up call for China to improve labour standards

If China’s export competitiveness remains reliant on lowering its labour standards, the US and others will continue their trade-restrictive policies.

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China-EU relations

Deal or no deal? EU engages US, China on high-wire bargaining act

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Donald Trump

US judge bars Trump’s use of wartime law to deport Venezuelans

Thailand

Thai prosecutors drop royal insult charge against US academic

The long-time Southeast Asia politics scholar in Thailand was arrested last month under the kingdom’s strict lèse-majesté laws.

US political science lecturer Paul Chambers (left) of Thailand’s Naresuan University, stands outside the police station in Phitsanulok, Thailand, where he was arrested on April 8, 2025, on charges of insulting the monarchy. Photo: AP
India

India probes snake in school lunch after 100 children fall sick

The food was served to children after the cook removed a dead snake from it, according to a rights commission’s report.

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US-China relations

Opinion | US-China trade war has left ordinary people stuck in the middle

The implication that Chinese people’s aspirations for prosperity must be curtailed to preserve American primacy is deeply problematic.

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Middle East

Iran hangs man as ‘high ranking’ Israeli spy after trial

Mohsen Langarneshin was implicated in the killing of Guards colonel Sayyad Khodaei, who was gunned down in May 2022.

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Iranians celebrate a missile and drone attack on Israel, on April 15, 2024, at Palestine square in central Tehran. Photo: TNS
Israel-Gaza war

Amnesty accuses Israel of ‘live-streamed genocide’ against Gaza Palestinians

Israel has rejected accusations of genocide from Amnesty International, other rights groups and some states in its war in Gaza.

Britain

UK to stop foreign sex offenders receiving refugee protections

‘Sex offenders who pose a risk to the community should not be allowed to benefit from refugee protections in the UK,’ interior ministry said.

US immigration

US Republicans propose charging asylum seekers US$1,000 per application

Republicans also want to impose a giant fee of US$8,500 for anyone wanting to sponsor a child to get them out of federal custody.

Migrants make their way to a Border Patrol van after crossing illegally and waiting to apply for asylum, in San Diego, California, US. Republicans on Monday proposed charging asylum seekers US$1,000 per application. Photo: AP
US-China relations

Trump’s immigration crackdown chills speech of foreign students, scholars in US

Critics say ‘America is shooting itself in the foot’ as many of the country’s brightest minds rethink their long-term investment.

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Illustration: Henry Wong
US immigration

More than 100 immigrants detained at Colorado nightclub

President Trump’s administration has launched a widespread crackdown on immigration into the US.

US-Asean relations

The Southeast Asians facing exile from the US to a land they’ve never known

After surviving a CIA-led war and building lives in America, Laotian migrants are now being detained and deported with little warning.

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Israel-Gaza war

Hamas says open to releasing all hostages for 5-year Gaza truce

The militants have consistently demanded that a deal must lead to the war’s end, full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and a surge in aid.

Palestinian children play on destroyed cars outside a UNRWA school housing refugees in Gaza City on Saturday. Photo: AFP
United States

ICE deports 2-year-old US citizen and mother of 1-year-old infant

The cases come amid a court battle over whether Trump’s immigration crackdown has gone too far at the expense of fundamental rights.

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A deportation officer with Enforcement and Removal Operations in US Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s New York City field office conducts a brief before an early morning operation in New York in December. Photo: AP
Israel-Gaza war

UN’s WFP says all Gaza food stocks depleted amid Israel’s aid block

The World Food Programme says its kitchens are expected to ‘fully run out of food in the coming days’.

Bangladesh

Exclusive | Bangladesh’s new leader dreams big, with a little help from China

A popular revolt that ousted the kleptocratic Sheikh Hasina thrust Muhammad Yunus, 84, into power. Now he’s looking to China for help.

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Africa

‘We’re suffering’: UN to reduce food help to Sudan over huge cash shortfall

Seven million people are at risk, with the agency saying it has a shortfall of US$698 million out of the nearly US$800 million it needed to cover May to September.

Huge numbers of Sudanese children are among millions caught up in their nation’s two-year conflict between the army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF). Photo: EPA-EFE
China-EU relations

EU stays the course on Xinjiang sanctions as China eases up on bloc’s lawmakers

European Union’s diplomatic arm says no plans to reciprocate Beijing’s overture as it has not observed improvements in far western region.

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Vietnam

Southeast Asians in Los Angeles detained, deported at routine ICE check-ins

Cambodian, Laotian, and Vietnamese immigrants are now facing enforcement of long-stayed deportation orders as the Trump administration boosts deportations.

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United States

US opposition to Trump has mobilised, but is it enough to slow his agenda down?

Anger has led to massive marches and confrontations with Republicans, but analysts question whether the movement poses a serious challenge.

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Illustration: Lau Ka-kuen
Vietnam

Vietnam targets social media users in ‘crackdown’ on dissent: rights group

Human Rights Watch reports ordinary social media users now face jail for criticising the state under Article 331.

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A man uses his smartphone as he sits on the pavement in Ho Chi Minh City. Vietnam’s crackdown on dissent now targets ordinary social media users, Human Rights Watch reports. Photo: AFP
El Salvador

El Salvadore’s Bukele suggests prisoner swap with Maduro for Venezuela deportees

Proposal comes as El Salvador has come under international scrutiny for accepting Venezuelans and Salvadorans deported by the US.

Israel

15 Gaza paramedics were shot and killed in ‘misunderstanding’, Israel finds

Israeli troops opened fire on a convoy of ambulances and a UN car because an officer felt they were a threat, the investigation found.

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Myanmar

Ethnic Karen people flee Myanmar for Thailand amid bombing, unrest

Fighting has been raging in Myanmar’s Kayin state on the Thai border, with local ethnic militias battling the junta that seized power in 2021.

People extinguish a fire in a building that destroyed in a bombardment carried out by Myanmar’s military in Thabeikkyin Township in Mandalay Region of Myanmar on Saturday. Photo: AFP
Pakistan

Mob in Pakistan beats to death man from persecuted minority

The minority Ahmadiyya community are considered heretics by the Pakistani government and have been persecuted for decades.

Supporters of Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) shout slogans during a demonstration against Pakistan’s minority Ahmadi community in Karachi, Pakistan, on Friday. Photo: EPA-EFE
United States

US Supreme Court hits pause on deportations of Venezuelan migrants

Lawyers had filed urgent requests saying the men were at imminent risk of removal without the judicial review previously mandated by the court.

Donald Trump

Man wrongly deported from US says he’s been moved from El Salvador mega-prison

The update came from Senator Chris Van Hollen after he met Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the man at the centre of a debate on rights and immigration.

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