Artificial Democracy: The Impact of Big Data on Politics, Policy, and Polity - Biancalana, Cecilia; Montigny, Eric (University of British Columbia Press, 2026)
A look into the political consequences of big data and artificial intelligence. Democracy and data have a complicated relationship. Under the influence of big data and artificial intelligence, some democracies are being transformed as relations between citizens, political parties, governments, and corporations are gradually redrawn.Artificial Democracy explores the ways in which data collection and analytics and their application are changing political practices, government policies, and even democratic policies themselves. With an international roster of multidisciplinary contributors, this topical collection takes a comprehensive approach to big data’s effect on democracy, from the use of micro-targeting in electoral campaigns to the clash between privacy and surveillance in the name of protecting society. The book tackles both the dangers and the potentially desirable changes made possible by the symbiosis of big data and artificial intelligence. It explores shifts in how we conceptualize the citizen-government relationship and asks important questions about where we could be heading.

ICA SAHR Tuesday Talks - Filming trials for crimes against humanity in France: between the fight against impunity and memorial issues - ICA International Council on Archives; Martine Sin Blima-Barru (2025)

Harass Human Rights Watch Staff Member - . (Human Rights Watch, 2025)
The Kenyan police should end its apparent harassment of Otsieno Namwaya, associate Africa director at Human Rights Watch, over his work documenting serious rights abuses in Kenya.

Invisible, Silenced, and All but Abandoned: Two Decades of the Guatemalan Police Archive - . (Sri Lanka Guardian, 2025)
Twenty years ago, a team of human rights investigators in Guatemala made a discovery that would change the course of the country’s reckoning with its violent past.

What Brazil’s digital fight means for free expression in the Global South - . (Global Voices, 2025)
Brazil’s push to regulate Big Tech and protect digital rights is reshaping global debates and provoking backlash from powerful actors opposed to its rights-based, democratic model of internet governance.

Pentagon Warns Microsoft: Company’s Use of China-Based Engineers Was a “Breach of Trust” - Dudley, Renee (ProPublica, 2025)
The Defense Department is opening an investigation to determine if the tech giant’s use of overseas engineers to maintain sensitive U.S. government computer systems compromised national security.

Pentagon Warns Microsoft: Company’s Use of China-Based Engineers Was a “Breach of Trust” - Dudley, Renee (ProPublica, 2025)
The Defense Department is opening an investigation to determine if the tech giant’s use of overseas engineers to maintain sensitive U.S. government computer systems compromised national security.

Hurricane Katrina victim identified 20 years later: ‘finally where she belongs’ - Vargas, Ramon Antonio (The Guardian, 2025)
Guardian US partner WWL Louisiana called in Ray Theriot, who used utility bills, driver’s licenses and property records
Keywords: Hurricane Katrina; Louisiana; New Orleans; US news

‘Social, peripheral and photographic justice for whom?’: A Brazilian photographer asks questions - Agência Mural (Global Voices, 2025)
Works that highlight the violence against Black bodies, exalt beauty in the midst of chaos, [show] the exotic, are still common representations of poverty, and what translates into saleable art.

‘Omada Alithias’ and the rise of Greece’s propaganda machine - Elvis Takahashi Mantello (Global Voices, 2025)
Despite their name, Omada Alithias, the so-called Truth Team, has done more to distort than defend the truth, reflecting the normalization of digital authoritarianism in democratic states.

Israel destruye último banco de semillas sobreviviente, haciéndose eco del legado colonial de borrado. - Walid El Houri (Global Voices en Español, 2025)
La destrucción por parte de Israel del banco de semillas de Hebrón repite siglos de tácticas coloniales de asentamiento en todo el mundo: borrar los sistemas alimentarios autóctonos para dominar la tierra, el conocimiento y la memoria colectiva.

Israel destruye último banco de semillas sobreviviente, haciéndose eco del legado colonial de borrado. - Walid El Houri (Global Voices en Español, 2025)
La destrucción por parte de Israel del banco de semillas de Hebrón repite siglos de tácticas coloniales de asentamiento en todo el mundo: borrar los sistemas alimentarios autóctonos para dominar la tierra, el conocimiento y la memoria colectiva.

ICJ and human rights defenders from Southeast Asia urge a Rights-Based Approach to Countering Harmful Online Content - . (International Commission of Jurists, 2025)
On 24–26 August 2025, the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ), together with the Centre for Independent Journalism, Malaysia (CIJ), and the Numun Fund, gathered human rights defenders and experts to discuss the need for Southeast Asian States to adopt and implement a human rights-based approach in efforts to tackle the growing spread of harmful content in digital spaces.

National Identification and Registration Authority says NIDS remains safe, no security breach - . (Jamaica Gleaner, 2025)
The National Identification and Registration Authority (NIRA), which oversees the National Identification System (NIDS), is reporting that there has been no evidence of a breach or compromise of the national identification system.

When the government can see everything: How one company – Palantir – is mapping the nation’s data - Bennett, Nicole M. (The Conversation, 2025)
Government agencies are contracting with Palantir to correlate disparate pieces of data, promising efficiency but raising civil liberties concerns.

Two alphabets, one struggle: How Kurdish communities are building a digital future - Eduardo Avila (Global Voices, 2025)
Kurdish Wikimedian Mohammed Sardar shares why he creates digital content to preserve his native language.

Brazil One Step Away from Protecting Children Online - Hye Jung Han (Human Rights Watch, 2025)
Brazil’s Senate has passed a long-awaited bill to protect children’s rights online. The bill now heads for President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s signature into law.

The Digital Rights in Asia-Pacific Assembly (DRAPAC) 2025 - . (Access Now, 2025)
AICB Centre for Excellence, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia The Digital Rights in Asia-Pacific Assembly (DRAPAC) 2025 is a pivotal gathering of digital rights

Privacy in peril: safeguarding digital data in humanitarian blockchain initiatives - Alex Bornstein; Elise Hamdon (Humanitarian Practice Network, 2025)
Exploring the risks of blockchain in aid delivery and why protecting digital privacy is essential for refugees and crisis-affected communities.

Devastated families may take legal action over museum that kept body parts - Lohberger, Loretta (ABC News, 2025)
A University of Tasmania pathology museum retained and displayed body parts without consent from coronial autopsies. The specimens are from more than 100 people who died in Tasmania between 1953 and 1985. The Coroner's Office is investigating and has spent years reconciling their records with the museum's records.
Keywords: Medical Ethics; autopsy; body parts; coroners office; pathology

Elon Musk’s Doge put sensitive social security data at risk, whistleblower says - Robins-Early, Nick (The Guardian, 2025)
SSA official alleges that Doge staff uploaded personal data of hundreds of millions of Americans to vulnerable cloud server
Keywords: Data protection; Elon Musk; Privacy; Technology; Trump administration; US news; US politics; US social security

Germany charges US citizen with spying for China - Chris Lunday (POLITICO, 2025)
An American defense contractor is accused of offering military secrets to Beijing.

Germany charges US citizen with spying for China - Chris Lunday (POLITICO, 2025)
An American defense contractor is accused of offering military secrets to Beijing.

Germany charges US citizen with spying for China - Chris Lunday (POLITICO, 2025)
An American defense contractor is accused of offering military secrets to Beijing.

Privacy at a cost: the dark web’s main browser helps pedophile networks flourish, experts say - McQue, Katie (The Guardian, 2025)
The Tor network’s privacy architecture creates a safe haven for predators to share child sexual abuse material
Keywords: Child protection; Children; Rape and sexual assault; Technology; Tor

Addressing Inequitable Openness in Licences for Sharing African Data and Datasets Through the Nwulite Obodo Open Data Licence - Okorie, Chijioke I.; Omino, Melissa (Law, Technology and Humans, 2025)
Standard Public Open Licences (SPOLs) may unintentionally reinforce exclusion and enable extractive data practices that disadvantage communities contributing valuable datasets that they have preserved and curated through historically challenging conditions.
Keywords: datasets

Denialist appointed at rights center that oversees ESMA museum - Herald, Buenos Aires (Buenos Aires Herald, 2025)
The center operates in the memorial site at the notorious former Navy School of Mechanics, where nearly 5,000 people were kidnapped and disappeared by Argentina’s dictatorship

A living archive: 42 Indigenous languages in Bangladesh preserved under one online portal - Nurunnaby Chowdhury (Global Voices, 2025)
A new digital repository preserves Bangladesh’s linguistic heritage, featuring words, phrases, and IPA transcriptions from 42 indigenous languages, aiming to promote understanding and celebrate the nation’s cultural diversity.

Indigenous digital activists in Mexico assert their self-determination with regard to artificial intelligence - Mercedes Caso (Global Voices, 2025)
What does artificial intelligence mean for Mexico's Indigenous languages? For two days, digital activists reflected on how these technologies can revitalize or threaten their languages and cultures.

Donor crisis prompts rethink on humanitarian data partnership rules - Geneva Solutions - Paula Dupraz-Dobias (Geneva Solutions, 2025)
Under pressure from aid cuts, humanitarian groups may be exposing themselves and people they serve to privacy risks as they seek support from the private sector to improve efficiency. As artificial intelligence gains ground, experts say the rules of the game are due for a rethink.

White House Lists Smithsonian Exhibits It Finds Objectionable - Small, Zachary (The New York Times, 2025)
The Trump administration highlighted material dealing with topics like sexuality, slavery and immigration.
Keywords: Art; Bunch, Lonnie G III; Museums; Smithsonian Institution; Trump, Donald J; United States Politics and Government

Invisible Displacement: The Unregistered and Uncounted - Thematic Analysis - . (ReliefWeb, 2025)
Invisible displacement is a growing yet under-recognized phenomenon in humanitarian settings. This report explores the structural, operational, and political factors that obscure the presence of displaced persons who remain outside formal tracking systems, such as IDPs living outside camps, unregistered returnees, nomadic groups, or those who deliberately avoid institutional engagement due to protection concerns. Their invisibility skews humanitarian planning, which can lead to inaccurate data, underfunded programs, and systemic exclusion from life-saving services.

Trump administration to review all 55m US visa holders for potential rule violations - Campbell, Lucy (The Guardian, 2025)
State department says all people who hold valid US visas are subject to ‘continuous vetting’, including of social media
Keywords: Marco Rubio; Trump administration; US immigration; US news; US politics

Open Data and Equity: Naming the Issues, Blaming the Causes, and Claiming Solutions. An Exploratory and Interdisciplinary Systematic Literature Review - Santoro, Caterina; Flores, Cesar Casiano; Zuiderwijk, Anneke; Crompvoets, Joep (Information Polity, 2025)
Open data fall short of their goal to empower all social groups equally. Although the literature examines this issue through the concept of inclusion, substantial gaps remain in defining and understanding the implications of open data for equity in public administration, with research on this topic scattered across disciplines. This fragmentation hinders the possibility of evaluating public policies.

The Emotional Textures of the Archive – AHA - Alisa Kuzmina (Historians.org, 2025)
Alisa Kuzmina reflects on the overlap between her marriage green card experience and her research on Cold War–era immigration.

Huawei's reach in Spain sparks widespread concern over state infiltration - Fernández-Pontes, Inés (Euractiv, 2025)
Magistrates and law enforcement are particularly worried about the Chinese firm handling highly sensitive police wiretap data

Huawei's reach in Spain sparks widespread concern over state infiltration - Fernández-Pontes, Inés (Euractiv, 2025)
Magistrates and law enforcement are particularly worried about the Chinese firm handling highly sensitive police wiretap data

In Bolivia, Indigenous radio stations are at the mercy of cyberhacks - Nicaela León Coico (Global Voices, 2025)
The Facebook page of a major Quechua-speaking community radio station in Bolivia was hacked and it lost tens of thousands of followers.

The Guardian view on Britain’s AI strategy: the risk is that it is dependency dressed up in digital hype - Editorial (The Guardian, 2025)
Editorial: The UK’s plans seem to outsource sovereignty for phantom efficiency. Public services provide the data and power while US tech giants reap the rewards
Keywords: Artificial intelligence (AI); Business; Cloud computing; Computing; Economics; Global economy; NHS; Open source; Peter Kyle; Politics; Society; Technology; UK news

Cyber-attack on MoD-linked contractor exposes data of Afghans in resettlement scheme - Ali, Faisal (The Guardian, 2025)
Breach at Inflite The Jet Centre is latest in series of leaks involving private information of Afghan refugees
Keywords: Afghanistan; Cybercrime; Hacking; Immigration and asylum; Ministry of Defence; Refugees; UK news

Cyber-attack on MoD-linked contractor exposes data of Afghans in resettlement scheme - Ali, Faisal (The Guardian, 2025)
Breach at Inflite The Jet Centre is latest in series of leaks involving private information of Afghan refugees
Keywords: Afghanistan; Cybercrime; Hacking; Immigration and asylum; Ministry of Defence; Refugees; UK news

NHS to trial AI tool that speeds up hospital discharges - Grierson, Jamie (The Guardian, 2025)
Pilot at Chelsea and Westminster trust aims to reduce paperwork and free up doctors, as the UK moves to improve public services via AI
Keywords: Artificial intelligence (AI); Computing; Health; Hospitals; Labour; London; NHS; Technology; UK news; Wes Streeting

FBI returns stolen document signed by conquistador Hernán Cortés to Mexico - . (The Guardian, 2025)
US officials did not say who had the 16th-century page that was missing from Mexico’s archives for decades
Keywords: Americas; Mexico; US crime; US news; World news

FBI returns stolen document signed by conquistador Hernán Cortés to Mexico - . (The Guardian, 2025)
US officials did not say who had the 16th-century page that was missing from Mexico’s archives for decades
Keywords: Americas; Mexico; US crime; US news; World news

London museum tells forgotten story of African and Indian troops in second world war - Bakare, Lanre; Arts, Lanre Bakare; correspondent, culture (The Guardian, 2025)
National Army Museum’s Beyond Burma exhibition examines stories of soldiers from Britain’s colonies
Keywords: British army; Culture; Exhibitions; Myanmar; Second world war; South and central Asia; UK news

Russia restricts WhatsApp and Telegram, alleging apps used for fraud and terrorism - . (The Guardian, 2025)
Calls via foreign-owned platforms curbed as critics say Kremlin is pushing for greater control over Russia’s internet
Keywords: Censorship; Digital media; Europe; Internet; Russia; Social media; Technology; Telegram; Vladimir Putin; WhatsApp; World news

Working to Improve Access to Compensation for Iraqi victims of War and Terrorism - . (ReliefWeb, 2025)
No one should be excluded from rebuilding their life due to missing documentation or inefficient mechanism. This principle guided a high-level roundtable held in Baghdad with the participation of members of the Iraqi Parliament, including representatives from the Legal, Finance, and Displacement Committees, alongside the judiciary and the General Secretariat of the Council of Ministers.

U.K. Secretly Spent $3.2 Million to Stop Journalists From Reporting on Data Breach - Dearden, Lizzie (The New York Times, 2025)
After British authorities accidentally exposed information about 19,000 Afghans, the government sought a legal order preventing disclosure of the breach.
Keywords: Afghanistan; Decisions and Verdicts; Freedom of Speech and Expression; Freedom of the Press; Great Britain; London (England); News and News Media; Politics and Government

France acknowledges role in repression of Cameroon independence movements - Egbejule, Eromo; correspondent, Eromo Egbejule West Africa (The Guardian, 2025)
Emmanuel Macron writes to Cameroonian president with findings of joint commission on country’s colonial past
Keywords: Africa; Cameroon; Colonialism; Europe; France; World news

Israel is wiping out Gaza’s journalists – and it’s no longer even hiding it - Ginsberg, Jodie (The Guardian, 2025)
The laws of war are clear: journalists are civilians. To target them deliberately in war is to commit a war crime
Keywords: Gaza; Israel; Israel-Gaza war; Journalist safety; Media; Middle East and north Africa; Newspapers & magazines; Press freedom; US news

Israel is wiping out Gaza’s journalists – and it’s no longer even hiding it - Ginsberg, Jodie (The Guardian, 2025)
The laws of war are clear: journalists are civilians. To target them deliberately in war is to commit a war crime
Keywords: Gaza; Israel; Israel-Gaza war; Journalist safety; Media; Middle East and north Africa; Newspapers & magazines; Press freedom; US news

The Open Source Tool That Has Preserved 150,000 Pieces of Online Evidence - Roberston, Miguel Ramalho, Erin Clark, Paddy (bellingcat, 2025)
Bellingcat’s Auto Archiver is a tool aimed at preserving online digital content before it can be modified, deleted or taken down

Police should disclose ethnicity of suspects in certain cases, new guidance says - Syal, Rajeev (The Guardian, 2025)
Releasing nationality and ethnicity details could help keep peace ‘where there are high levels of disinformation’
Keywords: Crime; Police; UK criminal justice; UK news

Slaying and Censoring the Journalists: The Murder of Anas al-Sharif - Kampmark, Binoy (International Policy Digest, 2025)
Israel’s killing of Al Jazeera journalist Anas al-Sharif in Gaza exemplifies a deliberate campaign of silencing journalists.

Appeals Court Allows DOGE Access to Sensitive Data at Several Agencies - Montague, Zach (The New York Times, 2025)
The decision cited a Supreme Court order in June granting DOGE analysts sweeping access to other data stored at the Social Security Administration.
Keywords: Data Storage; Decisions and Verdicts; Federal Courts (US); Privacy; Richardson, Julius N; Trump, Donald J; United States Politics and Government

Are Undersea Cables a “Backdoor for Espionage” Against the U.S.? - Tom Nagorski (The Cipher Brief, 2025)
Chinese companies leading in the production and maintenance of undersea cables could be a national security threat to this critical undersea infrastructure.

Are Undersea Cables a “Backdoor for Espionage” Against the U.S.? - Tom Nagorski (The Cipher Brief, 2025)
Chinese companies leading in the production and maintenance of undersea cables could be a national security threat to this critical undersea infrastructure.

Saved from militants, Timbuktu's famed manuscripts return home after 13 years in Mali's capital - . (CityNews Halifax, 2025)
The Malian military government started returning home the historic manuscripts of Timbuktu, which were spirited out of their fabled northern city when it was occupied by al-Qaida-linked militants more than a decade ago. Islamic radicals destroyed more than 4,000 manuscripts, some dating back to the 13th century.

The Palestinian Museum Announces the Release of Over 6,000 New Archival Items on its Digital Archive - . (Palestinian Museum, 2025)
The Palestinian Museum has announced the release of over 6,000 archival items on its website as part of the third phase of its Digital Archive Project, through which more than 19,000 items have been digitized, as part of its ongoing efforts to preserve and document Palestinian social history.

‘Restoring humanity’: Paris exhibition showcases 5,000 years of history in Gaza - Chrisafis, Angelique (The Guardian, 2025)
Saved Treasures of Gaza aims to preserve territory’s historical identity against backdrop of war and famine
Keywords: Art and design; Ceramics; Culture; Europe; Exhibitions; France; Gaza; Israel-Gaza war; Middle East and north Africa; Palestinian territories; Paris; World news

‘Restoring humanity’: Paris exhibition showcases 5,000 years of history in Gaza - Chrisafis, Angelique (The Guardian, 2025)
Saved Treasures of Gaza aims to preserve territory’s historical identity against backdrop of war and famine
Keywords: Art and design; Ceramics; Culture; Europe; Exhibitions; France; Gaza; Israel-Gaza war; Middle East and north Africa; Palestinian territories; Paris; World news

‘Restoring humanity’: Paris exhibition showcases 5,000 years of history in Gaza - Chrisafis, Angelique (The Guardian, 2025)
Saved Treasures of Gaza aims to preserve territory’s historical identity against backdrop of war and famine
Keywords: Art and design; Ceramics; Culture; Europe; Exhibitions; France; Gaza; Israel-Gaza war; Middle East and north Africa; Palestinian territories; Paris; World news

The UK’s Online Safety Act is a licence for censorship – and the rest of the world is following suit - Lorenz, Taylor (The Guardian, 2025)
From the US and Australia to France and Italy, those seeking to obliterate privacy and restrict content are on the move, says technology journalist Taylor Lorenz
Keywords: Child protection; Internet; Internet safety; Technology; UK news; US news

When Brussels’ Watchdog Eats Its Homework - Walker, Gerald (International Policy Digest, 2025)
A whistleblower alleges that European Public Prosecutor Laura Codruța Kövesi and her deputy destroyed evidence to shield political allies, undermining the EU’s anti-corruption mission.

Tyap Wikimedia User Group: Revitalizing Nigeria's Tyap language with digital tools and platforms - Abdulrosheed Fadipe (Global Voices, 2025)
"I dream about a future where children grow up speaking Tyap because their parents speak the language to them during childhood."

Cash Working Group Legal Task Force Presentation on Data Protection - Dobra Fabryka Ukraina (ReliefWeb, 2025)
The protection of personal data is not merely a technical requirement—it is a core principle of humanitarian action, aligned with both humanitarian standards and legal obligations. Ensuring robust data protection helps prevent these risks, safeguarding the lives of beneficiaries and upholding their right to safety and dignity. It also helps prevent discrimination and exploitation by ensuring fair and respectful humanitarian response that upholds beneficiary confidentiality and adheres to humanitarian principles.

Documenting humanity - Nappier, Terri (The Source, 2025)
For nearly 60 years, Chicago-based Kartemquin Films has been reeling viewers in by spotlighting difficult social and political issues, including immigration, labor issues, stem-cell research and women’s rights. After four years of intensive work, WashU’s Film & Media Archive is making the company’s extensive archive of materials, dating from 1966 to 2008, accessible to scholars and the public.

India’s war on books attempts to erase the violent atrocities committed on Kashmir - Nasir Qadri (TRT Global, 2025)
The Modi-led government’s ban on 25 books related to the Muslim-majority region is aimed at burying the tortured history of a land under occupation.

Digital spaces for the Quechua language: safety and inclusion online - Rising Voices (Global Voices, 2025)
As digital content in the Quechua language continues to become increasingly available, Quechua-speaking communities are gaining more opportunities to better represent themselves online and connect across geographic divides. However, as this content grows, so do the challenges in ensuring that these digital spaces are inclusive, safe, and representative, including through content moderation on social media.

Cambodia takes control of its war crimes legacy - Andre Kwok (Lowy Institute, 2025)
The transformation of a hybrid court into a domestic institution offers lessons for localising international justice.

Arundhati Roy works among dozens of books banned in Indian-administered Kashmir - Ellis-Petersen, Hannah (The Guardian, 2025)
Censorship order accuses books of promoting ‘false narrative and secessionism’ in disputed territory
Keywords: Arundhati Roy; Books; Censorship; Culture; Freedom of speech; India; Kashmir; Narendra Modi; South and central Asia; World news

How Burkina Faso’s strongman became the Indo-Pacific’s unlikely hero – and other tales of disinformation - Jennifer Williams, Nava Nuraniyah, Jordon Borg, Julian Droogan (Lowy Institute, 2025)
Digital disciples are spreading false narratives in an effort to exploit anti-Western sentiment across the region.

Israel destroys Palestine’s last surviving seed bank, echoing a colonial legacy of erasure - Walid El Houri (Global Voices, 2025)
Israel’s destruction of the Hebron seed bank echoes centuries of settler-colonial tactics worldwide: erasing Indigenous food systems to dominate land, knowledge, and collective memory.

Israel destroys Palestine’s last surviving seed bank, echoing a colonial legacy of erasure - Walid El Houri (Global Voices, 2025)
Israel’s destruction of the Hebron seed bank echoes centuries of settler-colonial tactics worldwide: erasing Indigenous food systems to dominate land, knowledge, and collective memory.

‘I must document everything’: the film about the Palestinian photographer killed by Israeli missiles in Gaza - Borger, Julian (The Guardian, 2025)
Fatma Hassona used poetry and photography to record the death and devastation she saw daily. Was she targeted by the IDF?
Keywords: Culture; Documentary films; Edinburgh festival 2025; Edinburgh film festival; Film; Gaza; Israel; Israel-Gaza war; Journalist safety; Media; Palestinian territories; Photography; War reporting; World news

‘I must document everything’: the film about the Palestinian photographer killed by Israeli missiles in Gaza - Borger, Julian (The Guardian, 2025)
Fatma Hassona used poetry and photography to record the death and devastation she saw daily. Was she targeted by the IDF?
Keywords: Culture; Documentary films; Edinburgh festival 2025; Edinburgh film festival; Film; Gaza; Israel; Israel-Gaza war; Journalist safety; Media; Palestinian territories; Photography; War reporting; World news

China Turns to A.I. in Information Warfare - Julian E. Barnes (The New York Times, 2025)
Documents examined by researchers show how one company in China has collected data on members of Congress and other influential Americans.
Keywords: Artificial Intelligence; China; Cyberwarfare and Defense; Espionage and Intelligence Services; GoLaxy; Propaganda; Research; Social Media; Trump, Donald J; United States Defense and Military Forces; United States International Relations; United States Politics and Government; Vanderbilt University

‘Women’s bodies exploited at an unprecedented scale’: Chinese censors failing to deal with deepfakes and hidden cameras, say activists - Lau, Jessie (The Guardian, 2025)
Secretly filmed images of women are spreading online, yet the authorities seem more focused on censorship than punishing the perpetrators, critics say
Keywords: Asia Pacific; China; Global development; Surveillance; World news

Secret plan to liberate Channel Islands found in dusty box - Silver, Jack (BBC, 2025)
A copy of the plan sets out the successful British plan to liberate the Channel Islands during WW2.

Charleston’s Climate Lawsuit Against Oil Giants Is Dismissed - Zraick, Karen (The New York Times, 2025)
The legal claim, one of a raft of lawsuits across the country, had accused companies of a yearslong disinformation campaign about climate change.
Keywords: Charleston (SC); Compensation for Damages (Law); Decisions and Verdicts; Federal-State Relations (US); Global Warming; Greenhouse Gas Emissions; Oil (Petroleum) and Gasoline; South Carolina

ICA SAHR Tuesday Talks - An overview of the Brazilian truth commissions and the contributions of archives to investigations into human rights violations during the military dictatorship - ICA International Council on Archives; Mônica Tenaglia (2025)

#IPIArchive: The Road to a Press Freedom AI Commons - . (ipi.media, 2025)
Opening the IPI's archive is not just for preservation, but the first step toward creating a digital press freedom commons for the public good.

Building India-Pakistan Cross-Border Solidarity by using alternate media tools - Patel, Dipa (LSE International Development, 2025)
MSc Health and International Development candidate, Anzal Abbas explores how digital and alternative media platforms can enable ordinary citizens of India and Pakistan to bypass nationalist narratives, build cross-border solidarity, and foster peace through dialogue, cultural exchange, and collective action, despite longstanding political tensions.

Building India-Pakistan Cross-Border Solidarity by using alternate media tools - Patel, Dipa (LSE International Development, 2025)
MSc Health and International Development candidate, Anzal Abbas explores how digital and alternative media platforms can enable ordinary citizens of India and Pakistan to bypass nationalist narratives, build cross-border solidarity, and foster peace through dialogue, cultural exchange, and collective action, despite longstanding political tensions.

The killing code: strange symbols in a WA settler’s diaries lay bare frontier atrocities - Allam, Lorena; Collard, Sarah; Archibald-Binge, Ella (The Guardian, 2025)
Stories of murders passed down by Yamatji elders are confirmed by a code hidden in the 1850s journals of prominent Western Australian pastoralist Major Logue.
Keywords: Australia; Colonialism; Frontier wars; Indigenous Australians; Murder; Rural Australia; Western Australia

A Bid to Undo a Colonial-Era Wrong Touches a People’s Old Wounds - Dimapur, Pragati K. B. Reporting from; Nagaland; India, in (The New York Times, 2025)
An Oxford museum’s collection of objects taken from the Naga people includes human remains. What to do with them now is not a simple matter.
Keywords: Arts and Antiquities Looting; Human Rights and Human Rights Violations; India; Indigenous People; Museums; Nagaland (India); Pitt Rivers Museum; Secession and Independence Movements

Spain to Declassify Secret Archives: Morocco Awaits Revelations on Western Sahara - Faouzi, Adil (Morocco World News, 2025)
Spain’s government has approved a groundbreaking draft law on Classified Information that will replace the Franco-era Official Secrets law of 1968.

Spain to Declassify Secret Archives: Morocco Awaits Revelations on Western Sahara - Faouzi, Adil (Morocco World News, 2025)
Spain’s government has approved a groundbreaking draft law on Classified Information that will replace the Franco-era Official Secrets law of 1968.

Israel closes down or leaves unresolved 88% of cases of alleged war crimes or abuse – report - Sabbagh, Dan (The Guardian, 2025)
Conflict monitoring group Action on Armed Violence says Israel is seeking to create a ‘pattern of impunity’
Keywords: Human rights; International law; Israel; Israel-Gaza war; Law; Middle East and north Africa; Palestinian territories; War crimes; West Bank; World news

Israel closes down or leaves unresolved 88% of cases of alleged war crimes or abuse – report - Sabbagh, Dan (The Guardian, 2025)
Conflict monitoring group Action on Armed Violence says Israel is seeking to create a ‘pattern of impunity’
Keywords: Human rights; International law; Israel; Israel-Gaza war; Law; Middle East and north Africa; Palestinian territories; War crimes; West Bank; World news

Scientists slam Trump administration climate report as a ‘farce’ full of misinformation - Noor, Dharna; Milman, Oliver (The Guardian, 2025)
Experts say the report being used to justify the mass rollback of climate regulations has many claims based on long-debunked research
Keywords: Climate crisis; Environment; Science; Trump administration; US news; US politics

Historian uncovers evidence of second mass grave of Irish immigrant railroaders in Pennsylvania who suffered from cholera, violence and xenophobia - Watson, William E. (The Conversation, 2025)
Researchers have discovered a second mass grave of Irish immigrant railroaders in Chester County, Pa.

Russian photographer gets a draconian sentence for sending open source materials abroad - Daria Dergacheva (Global Voices, 2025)
Who is Grigory Skvortsov, sentenced to 16 years in prison for treason, and why any Russian citizen could easily end up in his place

Smithsonian removes Trump from impeachment exhibit in American history museum - Kingsberry, Janay (The Washington Post, 2025)
A temporary placard, on display since 2021, described the president's historic impeachments. Officials said the exhibit was restored to an earlier version following a review of legacy content.

Mass rape, forced pregnancy and sexual torture in Tigray amount to crimes against humanity - McClure, Tess (The Guardian, 2025)
Research documents ‘horrific and extreme’ attacks by Ethiopian and Eritrean forces and warns that impunity has meant such atrocities are expanding to new regions
Keywords: Africa; Eritrea; Ethiopia; Global development; Human rights; Sexual violence; Society; Violence against women and girls; War crimes; Women's rights and gender equality; World news

Mass rape, forced pregnancy and sexual torture in Tigray amount to crimes against humanity - McClure, Tess (The Guardian, 2025)
Research documents ‘horrific and extreme’ attacks by Ethiopian and Eritrean forces and warns that impunity has meant such atrocities are expanding to new regions
Keywords: Africa; Eritrea; Ethiopia; Global development; Human rights; Sexual violence; Society; Violence against women and girls; War crimes; Women's rights and gender equality; World news

Foreign spies are targeting defence employees working on Aukus, Asio boss reveals - McIlroy, Tom (The Guardian, 2025)
Public servants and private contractors with access to sensitive national security information are making it easy for spies, including by posting on LinkedIn.
Keywords: Aukus; Australia news; Australian intelligence agencies; Australian military; Australian universities; Espionage; Labor party

Romania offers cybersecurity support to Moldova ahead of September vote - Mihai, Catalina (Euractiv, 2025)
Amid warnings of Russian interference, Moldova has been offered Romanian technical expertise to counter cyber and disinformation threats ahead of its 28 September election.

Romania offers cybersecurity support to Moldova ahead of September vote - Mihai, Catalina (Euractiv, 2025)
Amid warnings of Russian interference, Moldova has been offered Romanian technical expertise to counter cyber and disinformation threats ahead of its 28 September election.

Houthi Video of False Confessions an Apparent War Crime - Niku Jafarnia (Human Rights Watch, 2025)
Videos released by the Houthis on July 27, 2025, showing several crew members from a sunken ship who apparently have been detained for weeks is an outrage on their personal dignity, an apparent war crime.

In Argentina, a Bold Step for Global Justice: Holding the Chinese Government Accountable for Atrocities Against Uyghurs - Rayhan Asat and Sophie Richardson (Just Security, 2025)
A recent court decision in Argentina offers a source of hope to Uyghur victims seeking justice for Beijing's alleged atrocities in Xinjiang.

In Argentina, a Bold Step for Global Justice: Holding the Chinese Government Accountable for Atrocities Against Uyghurs - Rayhan Asat and Sophie Richardson (Just Security, 2025)
A recent court decision in Argentina offers a source of hope to Uyghur victims seeking justice for Beijing's alleged atrocities in Xinjiang.

There are no secrets on the internet. Just ask the women who entrusted their data to Tea - Mahdawi, Arwa (The Guardian, 2025)
An app designed to protect its users from dodgy men has been hacked by dodgy men.
Keywords: 4chan; Apps; Data protection; Dating; Life and style; Online abuse; Social networking; Society; Technology; Women

In a Reversal, Key Hurricane-Monitoring Data Will Stay Online - Mulkey, Sachi Kitajima (The New York Times, 2025)
The Department of Defense said it no longer planned to shut down a program that makes satellite data publicly available to researchers and forecasters.
Keywords: Arctic Regions; Defense Department; Global Warming; Ice; National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration; Research; Satellites; Sensors; Space and Astronomy; United States; United States Defense and Military Forces; United States Navy; United States Space Force; Weather

Housing, Land, and Property Documentation in the South of Lebanon: A Rapid Needs Assessment - UNHCR (ReliefWeb, 2025)
The escalation of hostilities in Lebanon during and after September 2024 led to severe destruction, affecting approximately 100,000 housing units and resulting in an estimated USD 3.2 billion in damages, according to the World Bank. This research assesses the impact of the renewed conflict on housing, land and property (HLP) documentation—specifically, the ownership and condition of these records. It examines whether these records were lost or destroyed, and how this loss affects internally displaced persons’ (IDPs) ability to rebuild their lives. The study also explores stakeholder perspectives on the role of the humanitarian community in addressing these challenges, and the potential risks to social stability arising from unclear property boundaries in areas that were completely destroyed.

#KeepItOn: Nepal’s Telegram ban is a dangerous escalation of digital censorship (Access Now, 2025)
Access Now and the #KeepItOn coalition are alarmed by the Government of Nepal’s decision to ban the popular messaging application Telegram.

Margot K: “What began as a modest bookshelf has grown into a LGBTIQ+ library with over 400 titles” (Amnesty International, 2025)
Growing up in Lebanon as an LGBTIQ+ person was like trying to solve a Rubik’s Cube blindfolded or reading a book in a language I didn’t understand.  Around the age of 12, I realized I didn’t fit the usual expectations around sexuality and identity, but I didn’t even have the words for what I was.

‘Lumumba everlasting’: Belgium marks Congo’s slain leader’s 100th birthday with exhibition – and possible trial - Rankin, Jennifer (The Guardian, 2025)
Surprise move towards trial of veteran diplomat over Patrice Lumumba’s 1961 assassination coincides with show seeking to widen focus on his life and fight
Keywords: Africa; Art; Art and design; Belgium; Colonialism; Culture; Democratic Republic of the Congo; Europe; Patrice Lumumba; World news

Uruguay and Chile strengthen cooperation regarding human rights violations (MercoPress, 2025)
Uruguay and Chile advanced their collaboration on policies related to memory, truth, and justice regarding past human rights violations.

Uruguay and Chile strengthen cooperation regarding human rights violations (MercoPress, 2025)
Uruguay and Chile advanced their collaboration on policies related to memory, truth, and justice regarding past human rights violations.

Russia Counters Ukrainian Drones by Turning Off Russians’ Mobile Internet - Vasilyeva, Nataliya; Lobzina, Alina (The New York Times, 2025)
The same data networks that enable phone apps and web surfing help drones navigate, so officials are imposing daily, patchwork shutdowns. The actions can be very disruptive to daily life.
Keywords: Communications and Media Blackouts; Computer Network Outages; Drones (Pilotless Planes); E-Commerce; Mobile Applications; Putin, Vladimir V; Russia; Wireless Communications

Internet shutdowns in Russia hit new record - Zhyrmont, Anastasiya (Access Now, 2025)
Internet shutdowns in Russia have been breaking records, with authorities cutting connectivity and blocking apps across the country.

Russia has also declared war on literature. Look at what’s happening and be warned - Aslanyan, Anna (The Guardian, 2025)
Books – on LGBT themes or Ukraine – are Moscow’s target this time. And there as elsewhere, self-censorship is amplifying oppressors’ work.
Keywords: Books; Censorship; Culture; Publishing; Russia; World news

Business as usual for racism in schools - Alam-Simmons, Ara (E-Tangata, 2025)
“There’s a bitter irony when those who benefit most from a racist education system are the ones deciding whether we count the data — and how we talk about it.”

Pride, Preservation, and the Power of Archives (International Council of Museums, 2025)
In this episode we speak with Daniel Payne, Reference Archivist at The ArQuives, Canada’s LGBTQ2+ Archives. The ArQuives, founded in 1973, are now among the largest independent LGBTQ2+ archives in the world, with vast collections ranging from personal papers to photographs and memorabilia, all preserving the diverse story of queer and trans lives across Canada and beyond.

In the US, a factual National Archive still exists — but for how long? - Anna Nemzer (The Hill, 2025)
If access were restricted or content altered or erased, as is already happening on numerous government websites, truth, as in Russia, begins to disappear.

Microsoft Used China-Based Support for Multiple U.S. Agencies, Potentially Exposing Sensitive Data - Burke, Renee Dudley, Doris (ProPublica, 2025)
Microsoft says it will no longer use China-based engineers to support the Pentagon. But ProPublica found that the tech giant has relied on its global workforce for years to support other federal clients, including the Justice Department.

Microsoft Used China-Based Support for Multiple U.S. Agencies, Potentially Exposing Sensitive Data - Burke, Renee Dudley, Doris (ProPublica, 2025)
Microsoft says it will no longer use China-based engineers to support the Pentagon. But ProPublica found that the tech giant has relied on its global workforce for years to support other federal clients, including the Justice Department.

Immigration agents told a teenage US citizen: ‘You’ve got no rights.’ He secretly recorded his brutal arrest - Considine, Clare (The Guardian, 2025)
Video from Kenny Laynez-Ambrosio, 18, puts fresh scrutiny on the harsh tactics used to reach the Trump administration’s ambitious enforcement targets
Keywords: Florida; Trump administration; US immigration; US news; US policing; US politics

Defending lives and data amid crises and disasters - ESCAP (ReliefWeb, 2025)
Home to more disasters than any other regions, Asia and the Pacific faces rising risks as extreme environmental events grow in both frequency and intensity. At the heart of disaster preparedness, lies a crucial yet often overlooked system: Civil Registration and Vital Statistics (CRVS). Not only are these systems essential for ensuring that everyone has access to a legal identity, as outlined in Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) target 16.9, they provide critical and accurate population data, which enable effective disaster planning, response, resource allocation, and recovery efforts.

Maroon scholar calls for digitisation of the Maroon story - Paul H. Williams (Jamaica Gleaner, 2025)
The story of the Jamaican Maroons is the story of the beginning of the evolution of the Jamaican nation. They were the first people of African descent in the Western Hemisphere to free themselves from European enslavers.

France’s top court annuls arrest warrant for Bashar al-Assad - Willsher, Kim (The Guardian, 2025)
Judges rule document invalid as former Syrian leader had immunity as head of state
Keywords: Bashar al-Assad; Chemical weapons; Europe; France; Human rights; International law; Law; Middle East and north Africa; Syria; World news

France’s top court annuls arrest warrant for Bashar al-Assad - Willsher, Kim (The Guardian, 2025)
Judges rule document invalid as former Syrian leader had immunity as head of state
Keywords: Bashar al-Assad; Chemical weapons; Europe; France; Human rights; International law; Law; Middle East and north Africa; Syria; World news

hūmānus and ARSPHR Launch Groundbreaking Rohingya Atrocities Archive, Continuing Mohibullah's Sacrificial Fight for Truth and Justice (PR Newswire, 2025)
hūmānus and the Arakan Rohingya Society for Peace & Human Rights (ARSPHR) announced the pivotal launch of the Rohingya Atrocities Archive, a groundbreaking digital repository. This powerful, meticulously curated platform stands as a testament to ARSPHR's tireless, community-driven documentation, initially gathered on handwritten notes and often precariously stored. In 2020, hūmānus initiated a critical project to painstakingly digitalise these vital records for safekeeping and in-depth analysis, supporting ARSPHR in cleaning the data, filling information gaps, and developing robust investigation strategies.

International media groups urge Israel to allow access to Gaza (Euractiv, 2025)
Since the war started following the unprecedented October 7, 2023 attack on Israel by Palestinian militant group Hamas, journalists have been able to enter Gaza only with the Israeli army and with strict military censorship rules

International media groups urge Israel to allow access to Gaza (Euractiv, 2025)
Since the war started following the unprecedented October 7, 2023 attack on Israel by Palestinian militant group Hamas, journalists have been able to enter Gaza only with the Israeli army and with strict military censorship rules

Russia Clamps Down on Online Searches - Anastasiia Kruope (Human Rights Watch, 2025)
This week, Russia’s State Duma, the lower chamber of parliament, adopted a draft law that imposes fines on ordinary citizens for “intentionally” searching for “extremist” content on the internet, including via censorship circumvention tools like Virtual Private Networks (VPNs).

Undelivered farewell letters from victims of Nazi persecution - Arolsen archives (Arolsen Archives, 2025)
The Bavarian State Archives and the Arolsen Archives start a cooperation on execution files from Munich-Stadelheim. The Munich-Stadelheim prison was a “central execution center” under National Socialism, making it one of the main sites of Nazi injustice in Munich. Over 1,000 people were executed there up to 1945. Touching documents from there are undelivered farewell.

Central African Republic: ICC Convicts Two Anti-Balaka Leaders - Human Rights Watch (Human Rights Watch, 2025)
The International Criminal Court (ICC) conviction of two anti-balaka militia leaders for serious crimes in the Central African Republic is an important step toward justice in the country.
Keywords: The Netherlands

Artist Amy Sherald cancels Smithsonian show over censorship - Lee, Benjamin (The Guardian, 2025)
Portraitist withdrew her National Portrait Gallery show over reports that a transgender Statue of Liberty painting could offend Trump
Keywords: Art; Art and design; Culture; Donald Trump; Painting; US news

Gathering the Red Record: Linking Racial Violence Archives - Northeastern Law’s Civil Rights and Restorative Justice Project (School of Law, 2025)
Northeastern Law’s Civil Rights and Restorative Justice Project (CRRJ) will host a two-day conference in July to mark the launch of the Burnham-Nobles Digital Archive 2.0.

Gathering the Red Record: Linking Racial Violence Archives - Northeastern Law’s Civil Rights and Restorative Justice Project (School of Law, 2025)
Northeastern Law’s Civil Rights and Restorative Justice Project (CRRJ) will host a two-day conference in July to mark the launch of the Burnham-Nobles Digital Archive 2.0.

Trump signs executive orders targeting ‘woke’ AI models and regulation - Robins-Early, Nick; Gambino, Lauren (The Guardian, 2025)
Crackdown would streamline the building of datacentres and remove environmental protections
Keywords: Artificial intelligence (AI); Donald Trump; Technology; Trump administration; US news; US politics; World news

Africa Sets Course to Strengthen and Harmonise Health Data Governance (Africa CDC, 2025)
The Africa Centre for Disease Control (Africa CDC) is set to kick off action towards strengthening and harmonising the framework of policies, procedures, and practices that ensure healthcare data is managed, protected, and used responsibly throughout its lifecycle — health data governance — across the continent.

Albanese government worse than Morrison era at producing documents for public scrutiny, report finds - Belot, Henry (The Guardian, 2025)
A Centre for Public Integrity report found in 2022-23, for the first time, more FOI requests were refused than fully granted to applicants. The report also found the number of FOI documents granted in full had fallen by more than half in just over a decade.
Keywords: Australia news; Australian politics; Freedom of information

The Huawei Dilemma: Why Europe Needs Strong Intelligence Guardrails - Dave Venable; Mykola Volkivskyi (The Cipher Brief, 2025)
Spain's decision to award Huawei with a contract to manage a wiretap system shows the lack of security standards across European intelligence.

China's Disinformation Offensive in Taiwan - Hollie McKay (The Cipher Brief, 2025)
Every day, social media feeds in Taiwan are flooded with a mix of sensational and carefully-crafted, more subdued claims. They range from fear-mongering about a potential cross-strait conflict to narratives portraying the Republic of China as grappling with racism and food safety issues, to casting doubt on its relationship with Washington.

Do You Have Information About the CECOT Deportations? Help ProPublica Report. - Jameel, Perla Trevizo,Melissa Sanchez,Mica Rosenberg,Maryam (ProPublica, 2025)
If you have information about the deportation operation or the immigrants who were deported, we want to hear from you.

¿Lo enviaron a usted o a alguien que conozca al CECOT? - Jameel, Perla Trevizo,Melissa Sanchez,Mica Rosenberg,Maryam (ProPublica, 2025)
Si tiene información sobre los venezolanos que Trump mandó a una cárcel salvadoreña, queremos hablar con usted.

‘Women are the guardians of our culture’: why Kihnu is Estonia’s island of true equality - Lewis, Sian (The Guardian, 2025)
They wear traditional dress, play ancient melodies on violins and accordions, but the women of this island outpost ensure that it is more than just a living museum.
Keywords: Cultural trips; Estonia holidays; Europe holidays; Life and style; Society; Travel; Women

“Under the Microscope”: Activists Opposing a Nevada Lithium Mine Were Surveilled for Years, Records Show - Olalde, Mark (ProPublica, 2025)
Law enforcement agencies, including the FBI, have collaborated with private security to surveil largely peaceful protesters opposed to the Thacker Pass mine, according to a ProPublica review of thousands of pages of law enforcement communications.

Guard at U.S. Embassy in Norway Charged With Spying for Russia and Iran - Pranav Baskar; Henrik Pryser Libell (The New York Times, 2025)
A Norwegian man has been accused of leaking sensitive information about U.S. embassy staff members and threatening Norway’s national interests, according to prosecutors.
Keywords: Classified Information and State Secrets; Diplomatic Service, Embassies and Consulates; Espionage and Intelligence Services; Iran; Mohamed Orahhou; Norway; Russia; United States International Relations

Ministers urged to help students trapped in Gaza with places at UK universities - Weale, Sally (The Guardian, 2025)
Forty people who have been offered scholarships unable to travel without biometric data they have no way of getting.
Keywords: Education; Gaza; Higher education; Home Office; Israel-Gaza war; Middle East and north Africa; Palestinian territories; Students; UK news; Universities; World news

Ministers urged to help students trapped in Gaza with places at UK universities - Weale, Sally (The Guardian, 2025)
Forty people who have been offered scholarships unable to travel without biometric data they have no way of getting.
Keywords: Education; Gaza; Higher education; Home Office; Israel-Gaza war; Middle East and north Africa; Palestinian territories; Students; UK news; Universities; World news

UK government urged to offer more transparency over OpenAI deal - Booth, Robert (The Guardian, 2025)
Select committee chair says public need to be reassured about the use of their data after ‘major failures’ in the past
Keywords: Amazon; Artificial intelligence (AI); Computing; Google; Labour; Microsoft; OpenAI; Palantir; Peter Kyle; Politics; Sam Altman; Silicon Valley; Technology; UK news

Irish Museum of Modern Art rejects censorship claims after Derek Jarman film cancellation - Campbell, Sinéad (The Guardian, 2025)
IMMA says it plans to reinstate screenings of The Angelic Conversation, following a complaint against the showing of a gay kiss on the museum’s outdoor screen
Keywords: Censorship; Culture; Derek Jarman; Europe; Film; Ireland; LGBTQ+ rights; World news

From Gaza to Amman, how UNRWA's family archives were rescued under fire - Laure Stephan (Le Monde, 2025)
Documents attesting to the refugee status of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were taken out of Gaza in the early months of the war and stored safely in Jordan. Le Monde tells the story of this previously unreported secret operation.

From Gaza to Amman, how UNRWA's family archives were rescued under fire - Laure Stephan (Le Monde, 2025)
Documents attesting to the refugee status of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were taken out of Gaza in the early months of the war and stored safely in Jordan. Le Monde tells the story of this previously unreported secret operation.

Trump officials release FBI records on MLK Jr despite his family’s opposition (The Guardian, 2025)
About 200,000 pages of surveillance records released despite objection from slain civil rights leader’s family
Keywords: FBI; Martin Luther King; Trump administration; US news

UNRWA and Health Insight Asia Take Key Step in Improving Digital Health Records for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA, 2025)
UNRWA and Health Insight Asia have taken a key step in improving healthcare for millions of Palestine Refugees by taking the Agency’s use of electronic medical records to a new level.

UK may back down on demand for backdoor access to Apple users’ encrypted data - Booth, Robert; Syal, Rajeev (The Guardian, 2025)
Government sources say pressure from Washington, including JD Vance, could lead to Home Office climbdown, according to reports
Keywords: Apple; Business; Computing; Encryption; Home Office; JD Vance; Law; Politics; Privacy; Surveillance; Technology; UK news; US news; World news

UK may back down on demand for backdoor access to Apple users’ encrypted data - Booth, Robert; Syal, Rajeev (The Guardian, 2025)
Government sources say pressure from Washington, including JD Vance, could lead to Home Office climbdown, according to reports
Keywords: Apple; Business; Computing; Encryption; Home Office; JD Vance; Law; Politics; Privacy; Surveillance; Technology; UK news; US news; World news

‘The Lesson from Gaza Is Clear: When Ai-powered Machines Control Who Lives, Human Rights Die’ - CIVICUS (Inter Press Service, 2025)
CIVICUS discusses the military use of artificial intelligence (AI) in Gaza with Dima Samaro, a Palestinian lawyer and researcher, and director of Skyline International for Human Rights, a civil society organisation (CSO) that defends digital freedoms and human rights in the Middle East and North Africa.

Australia pressed Tony Blair to avoid meeting ‘troublemaker’ 1999 Indigenous delegation, archives reveal - Quinn, Ben; Davies, Caroline (The Guardian, 2025)
Representatives led by Patrick Dodson met Queen but memo reveals PM advised to plead ‘diary problems’
Keywords: Australia news; Australian foreign policy; Australian politics; Cricket; Foreign policy; Indigenous Australians; Indigenous recognition; John Howard; National Archives; Pat Dodson; Politics; Tony Blair; UK news; World news

Australia pressed Tony Blair to avoid meeting ‘troublemaker’ 1999 Indigenous delegation, archives reveal - Quinn, Ben; Davies, Caroline (The Guardian, 2025)
Representatives led by Patrick Dodson met Queen but memo reveals PM advised to plead ‘diary problems’
Keywords: Australia news; Australian foreign policy; Australian politics; Cricket; Foreign policy; Indigenous Australians; Indigenous recognition; John Howard; National Archives; Pat Dodson; Politics; Tony Blair; UK news; World news

Trump Releases Thousands of Martin Luther King Jr. Files - Rojas, Rick (The New York Times, 2025)
Historians said they saw little of note in the assassination records that President Trump disclosed despite opposition from most of Dr. King’s family.
Keywords: Archives and Records; Classified Information and State Secrets; Federal Bureau of Investigation; Justice Department; National Archives and Records Administration; Trump, Donald J; United States Politics and Government

Routine health information system and health facility data for neglected tropical diseases: general guidance for national programme managers and data clerks (World Health Organisation, 2025)
Given the heterogeneity of NTDs, information pathways and data management practices supporting programmes to eradicate, eliminate and control these diseases have tended to be equally diverse. This situation has created an uneven, complex information pathway beset by duplication and dispersion of effort, inefficiencies and missed opportunities. The WHO-led development of the RHIS provides a unique opportunity to address several of these challenges and harness investments in systems by several stakeholders to strengthen national health information systems. In response, the Global NTD Programme has collaborated with the corporate WHO RHIS toolkit initiative by developing programme-specific guidance.

Submission to the Universal Periodic Review of Rwanda (Human Rights Watch, 2025)
In 2021, the Rwandan delegation expressed support for 160 out of 284 human rights recommendations, including relating to access to justice and remedy, prison and detention conditions, and the rights to freedom of speech and association.

CFP: Colonial Objects: Material Culture of Italian Colonialism - Cheryl (Publishing in the Archives Profession, 2025)
DUE 5 September. We welcome critical analyses of objects that propose unexpected, alternative, or conflicting narratives of Italian colonialism. Possible case studies can pertain to the fields of art history, military history, economics, industry, education, fashion, design, media, consumption, and tourism, as well as everyday artifacts and utensils.

Memories of Movement - Shaeera Kalla; Tsogo Kupa (Africa is a Country, 2025)
An experimental reimagining of protest memory — unsettling the archive and inviting viewers to ask what movements leave behind.

Tech conglomerate Tencent reportedly requests removal of anti-censorship archive FreeWeChat - Khunsha Dar, Hong (Business & Human Rights Resource Centre, 2025)
Chinese tech giant Tencent is seeking the removal of FreeWeChat.com, an archive developed by GreatFire. The website specialises in surfacing deleted or blocked WeChat posts on politically sensitive topics.

Meta argues its AI needs personal information from social media posts to learn ‘Australian concepts’ - Taylor, Josh; reporter, Josh Taylor Technology (The Guardian, 2025)
Tech giant says posts from Australian Facebook and Instagram users are ‘vital learning’ about ‘concepts, realities, and figures’
Keywords: Artificial intelligence (AI); Australia news; Meta; Privacy; Technology

Archiving for Justice, Truth, and Memory: Unpacking the Baggage of What Went Before - Jackson, Rachel (UConn Today, 2025)
Reflections on the importance of the newest addition to ICTY Digital Archives, the Srebrenica Genocide Archives Collection.

Texas Officials Say They Didn’t See the Flood Coming. Oral Histories Show Residents Have Long Warned of Risks. - Jaffe, Logan (ProPublica, 2025)
After a tragedy, records from local archives can help us understand how a community understands itself. Here’s some of what we learned following the devastating July 4 flooding in Texas.

Senate Must Consider Security Risks in Judicial Confirmations - Noah Bookbinder, Christie Wentworth and Danielle DeVillier (Just Security, 2025)
A vote to confirm a judicial nominee is a vote to grant that individual a lifetime security clearance and access to some of the country’s most closely held secrets.

The IRS Is Building a Vast System to Share Millions of Taxpayers’ Data With ICE - Asher-Schapiro, William Turton,Christopher Bing,Avi (ProPublica, 2025)
ProPublica has obtained the blueprint for the Trump administration’s unprecedented plan to turn over IRS records to Homeland Security in order to speed up the agency’s mass deportation efforts.

U.K. Secretly Resettled 4,500 Afghans in Britain After Huge Data Breach - Castle, Stephen; London, Mark Landler Reporting from (The New York Times, 2025)
The government said that information about 18,000 Afghans was accidentally revealed in 2022. A legal order had prevented any reporting on the subject.
Keywords: Afghanistan; Asylum, Right of; Classified Information and State Secrets; Defense and Military Forces; Great Britain; Healey, John (1960- ); Politics and Government; Taliban

Israel and Iran Usher In New Era of Psychological Warfare - Odenheimer, Steven Lee MyersNatan; Solomon, Erika (The New York Times, 2025)
The 12-day conflict was marked by a flurry of propaganda, disinformation and covert operations aided by artificial intelligence and spread by social media.
Keywords: Artificial Intelligence; Defense and Military Forces; International Relations; Mossad; NewsGuard Technologies Inc; Propaganda; Rumors and Misinformation; Social Media; Video Recordings, Downloads and Streaming

Israel and Iran Usher In New Era of Psychological Warfare - Odenheimer, Steven Lee MyersNatan; Solomon, Erika (The New York Times, 2025)
The 12-day conflict was marked by a flurry of propaganda, disinformation and covert operations aided by artificial intelligence and spread by social media.
Keywords: Artificial Intelligence; Defense and Military Forces; International Relations; Mossad; NewsGuard Technologies Inc; Propaganda; Rumors and Misinformation; Social Media; Video Recordings, Downloads and Streaming

Understanding challenges in detention through Health Information System (International Committee of the Red Cross, 2025)
Overcrowing in detention causes many health issues. Addressing these issues is another problem. Prior to 2024, there was no standard medical recording in place in BJMP jails. Detainees’ health records were disorganized. Information from consultations were written in loose sheets of papers; these were stored in places where they could easily be accessed, destroyed or lost. The lack of a standard recording system also meant that reliable health data was unavailable, making it hard for the authorities to make decisions in connection to the delivery of basic healthcare to detainees.

Kosovo Ex-PM Among 10 Convicted of Falsifying War Veterans’ Lists - Ferati, Krenare (Balkan Insight, 2025)
Former Prime Minister Agim Ceku and nine others were found guilty of falsifying war veterans’ lists to enable people to claim welfare benefits, and sentenced to a year in prison each.

Lost archives of Idi Amin preserved and protected - The University of Wesern Australia (2025)
The “lost archive” of former Ugandan dictator Idi Amin and materials documenting the country’s history between 1947 and 1986 has been registered by UNESCO.

A Bayard Rustin archive aims to preserve his legacy as a queer Civil Rights activist - Jayleen Green (Los Angeles Sentinel, 2025)
Social justice advocates are creating a queer history archive that celebrates Bayard Rustin, a major organizer in the Civil Rights Movement and key architect of the March on Washington. The Bayard Rustin Center for Social Justice will launch a digital archive this fall featuring articles, photos, videos, telegrams, speeches, and more tied to Rustin’s work. Sourced from museums, archives, and personal accounts, it’s designed as a central space where others can add their own stories, creating a living historical record.

‘The voices of our dead have not faded away’: the fight for the memory of genocide in Srebrenica - Borger, Julian (The Guardian, 2025)
Three decades on, as leaders deny what happened, remains of the thousands killed continue to be identified and buried
Keywords: Bosnia and Herzegovina; Europe; Islam; Ratko Mladić; Religion; War crimes; World news

Bangladesh’s ousted Sheikh Hasina charged with crimes against humanity - Ellis-Petersen, Hannah (The Guardian, 2025)
Former leader, who is in hiding in India, indicted over deadly crackdown on anti-government protests last year
Keywords: Bangladesh; Protest; Sheikh Hasina; South and central Asia; World news

Justice Dept. Demands Patient Details From Trans Medicine Providers - Ghorayshi, Azeen; Thrush, Glenn (The New York Times, 2025)
Doctors and hospitals were subpoenaed for private information on gender-related care for minors, the latest move by the Trump administration to stop the treatments.
Keywords: Discrimination; Doctors; Hospitals; Justice Department; Medicine and Health; Regulation and Deregulation of Industry; Subpoenas; Teenagers and Adolescence; Transgender; Trump, Donald J; United States Politics and Government

Axon’s Draft One is Designed to Defy Transparency - Maass, Matthew Guariglia and Dave (Electronic Frontier Foundation, 2025)
Axon Enterprise’s Draft One — a generative artificial intelligence product that writes police reports based on audio from officers’ body-worn cameras — seems deliberately designed to avoid audits that could provide any accountability to the public.

No Face, No Case: California’s S.B. 627 Demands Cops Show Their Faces - Martinez, José (Electronic Frontier Foundation, 2025)
California has introduced S.B. 627 to prohibit law enforcement from covering their faces during encounters with the public, in response to masked ICE agent actions.

Why 18th century European kids were designing their idea of Australia - McGillivray, Mary (ABC News, 2025)
Why, 200 years ago, was a five-year-old girl in Scotland painstakingly embroidering her idea of Australia, and what lessons are hidden in her work?
Keywords: botany bay; colonial girls history; colonial history; embroidery; laura cook; lorinda cramer; margret begbie; national museum of australia; needlework; samplers

Human rights tribunal rejects worker’s request to ban publication of medical records (Human Rights Law Canada, 2025)
The Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario has denied a former student union executive's request to limit public disclosure of her medical information in a discrimination case, ruling that privacy concerns do not outweigh the principle of open court proceedings.

Why Big Tech is threatened by a global push for data sovereignty - Dosunmu, Damilare (Rest of World, 2025)
Countries are forcing tech giants to store citizen data locally, challenging the standard business model of harvesting data abroad while keeping profits at home.

France Should Follow WWII Rejection of Head of State Immunity - Kostas, Dan Plesch, Steve (Just Security, 2025)
Newly revealed historical records of European States' criminal indictments of Hitler should shape how courts think of "head of state immunity"

Working Group on Data Governance (Broadband Commission, 2025)
How can governments promote sustainable development through effective, inclusive, and future-proof data governance? The Broadband Commission Working Group on Data Governance in the Digital Age was launched to advance inclusive, interoperable, and future-ready data governance frameworks that respond to the challenges and opportunities of today.

ICC issues warrant for Taliban’s supreme leader for persecution of women - Ahmed, Kaamil; Joya, Zahra (The Guardian, 2025)
Rights activists hail move to arrest Haibatullah Akhundzada and Afghan chief justice Abdul Hakim Haqqani for crimes against humanity
Keywords: Afghanistan; Global development; International criminal court; International criminal justice; International law; Law; Society; South and central Asia; Taliban; Violence against women and girls; Women under the Taliban; Women's rights and gender equality; World news

Human rights documentation is dead. Long live human rights documentation! - Benedict “Bono” Salazar Olgado (OpenGlobalRights, 2025)
Once the backbone of human rights work, documentation is now in crisis. Formal investigations, curated archives, and legal evidence are losing ground amid shifting approaches to philanthropy, NGO precarity, and shrinking civic spaces. Even as established documentation methods utilize new technologies, skepticism toward name-and-shame strategies and legal instruments has left documentation struggling for relevance, particularly in crisis-driven contexts that demand rapid responses.

‘Women were grabbed and dragged away like sacks’ – a history of British protest in pictures - Campbell, Duncan (The Guardian, 2025)
Since 1963, when he photographed a fellow student being arrested, David Hoffman has turned his camera on rebels and rioters. His archive tells an alternative story of Britain, from Greenham Common to students marching on Whitehall
Keywords: Activism; Feminism; Human rights; Law; Life and style; News photography; Protest; Race

The disappearances of Christians under the Assad regime (Syriac Press, 2025)
In 2024, following the collapse of the Assad regime, investigative journalists and human rights groups gained access to intelligence archives once guarded with absolute secrecy. Among the files was a June 2012 memo detailing prisoner’s deaths in custody. The documents confirmed that bodies were routinely transferred to military hospitals and buried without notifying families. Names were redacted, but cross-referencing with witness accounts and hospital records pointed to at least dozens of Christians among the victims.

South Africa's one million invisible children without birth certificates - France 24 (France 24, 2025)
An NGO has taken the South African government to court over a backlog of hundreds of thousands of applications for late birth registration, with some people waiting for seven years for a response from…

Lesbian archive preserves LGBTQ+ history in the face of erasure - Amanda Becker (Good Good Good, 2025)
As programs recognizing LGBTQ+ people are cut, an Ohio archive is doing what queer Americans always have: preserving their own history.

The Human Cost of Javier Milei’s Assault on Science and History - Gilliland, Haley Cohen (The New York Times, 2025)
Genetics reunited the families of Argentina’s disappeared. President Javier Milei’s government is imperiling that.
Keywords: Ancestry.com; Argentina; Buenos Aires (Argentina); Genealogy; Genetics and Heredity; Human Rights and Human Rights Violations; King, Mary-Claire; Milei, Javier; Politics and Government

A new platform future-proofs governance for the intelligent age - Kelly Ommundsen (World Economic Forum, 2025)
Emerging technologies such as AI are accelerating change across industries, but regulation often remains at a standstill. A new platform seeks to address this gap.

The Story of a Storm Part II: Visualising Conflict and Displacement Data - Scholz, Cornelia (bellingcat, 2025)
Extreme weather events are increasingly forcing millions of people from their homes. In this guide we will focus on visualising conflict, climate and displacement data.

When Soviets sent Jewish comrades to rally S.F. - Freedman, Howard (J Weekly, 2025)
The Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee was formed in the USSR in 1942 to solicit international Jewish support for the forces battling Nazi Germany.

50 Years of Déjà-Vu: Archiving the Gaps of Lebanon’s Unresolved Conflict - Amaya-Akkermans, Arie (DAWN, 2025)
The events of April 13, 1975—commonly referred to as the Beirut Bus Massacre—marked the start of brief but deadly armed clashes between Christian Phalangist and Palestinian militants.

Putting data to work: using evidence in forced displacement (UNHCR, 2025)
This report highlights how governments, UNHCR and partners are leveraging socioeconomic data and evidence to guide policy, shape programming and inform advocacy. In places where data gaps remain, UNHCR is investing in efforts – developed with national statistics offices – to lay the groundwork for better planning with development partners.

Truth-telling inquiry recommends redress for Aboriginal Victorians, calls for redress and transfer of power - Ashton, Kate (ABC News, 2025)
One hundred recommendations are handed down as Australia's first truth-telling inquiry finds crimes against humanity and genocide were committed against Aboriginal people in Victoria. The Yoorrook Justice Commission also published an "official public record" of the history of Victoria since colonisation as told to the inquiry.
Keywords: Aboriginal-led royal commision; Genocide; Victoria; Yoorrook Justice Commission; evidence; treaty; truth-telling inquiry

Yoorook: truth be told - Yoorrook Justice Commission (Yoorrook Justice Commission, 2025)
This final report is not a typical Royal Commission report because it answers a different call. When Yoorrook was established in May 2021 by the State Government and the First Peoples Assembly of Victoria, it was given a unique and important mandate. Beyond the normal inquiry functions of a Royal Commission, Yoorrook was also tasked with creating an official public record based on First Peoples’ experiences of systemic injustice since the start of colonisation. This has never been done before.
Keywords: Aboriginal-led royal commision; Genocide

Pioneering project releases more lost Irish records spanning 700 years - Carroll, Rory; correspondent, Rory Carroll Ireland (The Guardian, 2025)
Newly restored material from vast archive destroyed in civil war takes in Anglo-Norman conquest and 1798 rebellion
Keywords: Culture; Europe; Heritage; Ireland; World news

Universities in every state care for congressional papers that document US political history − federal cuts put their work at risk - Gregory, Katherine (The Conversation, 2025)
Libraries and archives at universities across the nation catalog and steward the donated papers of members of Congress. But that historically significant work is now in jeopardy.

UN expert urges criminalizing fossil fuel disinformation, banning lobbying - Lakhani, Nina (The Guardian, 2025)
Rapporteur calls for defossilization of economies and urgent reparations to avert ‘catastrophic’ rights and climate harms
Keywords: Climate aid; Climate crisis; Environment; Fossil fuels; United Nations; World news