Fighting between the Myanmar military and the Arakan Army (AA) has escalated in the western state of Rakhine in recent days, putting thousands of mostly Muslim Rohingya who live in the area at increased risk.

Based on interviews with Rohingya activists who have spoken to witnesses in Buthidaung, there have been huge fires across the town in the last few days. They accuse the AA of being behind the arson campaign, but the AA has rejected the allegations saying the fires were started by the Myanmar military in air attacks.

Venezuelan opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez said on May 18 that he will ensure all political parties are free to operate if he unseats President Nicolas Maduro in a July vote, and he urged the military to uphold the country's institutions as intended by the constitution.

Gonzalez, a former ambassador to Algeria and Argentina, was named by the Unitary Platform opposition coalition in April as its candidate after a ban against landslide primary winner Maria Corina Machado's holding office was upheld by the Supreme Court.

Tunisian authorities have arrested at least nine people amid escalating government actions in recent weeks to muzzle free speech, prosecute dissent, and crack down on migrants and asylum seekers, Human Rights Watch said on May 17. Tunisian authorities should respect and protect space for independent civil society to operate fully and freely.

ICTJ acknowledges and welcomes the decisive action undertaken by the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, requesting the arrest of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, and three Hamas leaders – Yahya Sinwar, Mohammed Diab Ibrahim Al-Masri, and Ismail Haniyeh – for war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Palestinians are marking 76 years of dispossession on May 15, commemorating their mass expulsion from what is today Israel, as a potentially larger catastrophe unfolds in Gaza where over a quarter of the population has been displaced by fighting in the last few days alone.

A prominent Tunisian lawyer and two journalists have been arrested in the latest move of a presidential administration that has shown little tolerance for criticism.

The arrest of lawyer and commentator Sonia Dahmani on the night of May 11 was caught on camera as she was bundled out of the Lawyers’ House, part of the legal union, where she had been sheltering.

A controversial media bill passed this week by Georgia’s parliament is “unacceptable” and will be vetoed, President Salome Zourabichvili said on May 16, reaffirming her opposition to a measure that critics describe as a threat to free speech.

In an interview with The Associated Press, Zourabichvili harshly criticized the ruling Georgian Dream party for pushing the bill that also is widely seen setting back Georgia’s aspirations to join the European Union.

Anti-Islam firebrand Geert Wilders and three other party leaders agreed on a coalition deal early May 16 that veers the Netherlands toward the hard right, capping a half year of tumultuous negotiations that still left it unclear who would become prime minister.

The “Hope, courage, and pride” agreement introduces strict measures on asylum seekers, scraps family reunification for refugees and seeks to reduce the number of international students studying in the country. “Deport people without a valid residence permit as much as possible, even forcibly,” the 26-page document says.

Authorities in Belarus on May 16 announced raids and the seizure of property belonging to 104 opposition activists who have fled the country, the latest step in a crackdown on dissent that has continued unabated for nearly four years.

Belarus’ authoritarian president, Alexander Lukashenko, unleashed the crackdown in August 2020, when mass protests erupted against his rule following his disputed reelection that the opposition and the West have denounced as rigged.

A leading international human rights organization on May 16 urged the Thai government to stop forcing political dissidents who fled to Thailand for safety to return to authoritarian home countries, where they may face torture, persecution, or death.

In a new report, Human Rights Watch said Thai authorities repeatedly violated international law by expelling the dissidents, many of whom were registered with the United Nations as refugees and were awaiting resettlement in third countries.