borders

After more than two years, New Zealand is fully reopening its borders and welcoming back all international travelers.The country is reopening on July 31, some three months earlier than previously announced.Earlier this year, New Zealand's borders were opened to Australians and citizens of 60 places that do not need visas to enter, including Singapore, the United States and the United Kingdom.In 2021, New Zealand had some of the world's strictest pandemic restrictions, including lockdowns triggered by a single Covid case,…

Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain From joining different queues at airport security to holding different immigration status in their country of residence, the shift from a common status as EU citizens to family members having different rights to residence has evoked strong emotions. …

When US marshals shot and killed a 32-year-old Black man named Winston Boogie Smith Jr. in a parking garage in Minneapolis on June 3, 2021, the city was already in a full-blown policing crisis. George Floyd had been murdered by a member of the police force the previous May. As protests reignited all over the city, the cops couldn’t keep up.Into the void stepped private security groups, hired primarily to prevent damage to properties. But the organizations often ended up managing protest activity—a task usually reserved…

“Digital targeting has a serious impact on the well-being of victims, undermines their ability to engage in transnational advocacy work, violates fundamental rights such as the right to privacy, freedom of expression, and peaceful assembly, and increases the dangers faced by their family members and friends who remain within the country of origin,” the report concluded. The countries the Citizen Lab identified as some of the more common perpetrators of digital transnational repression include Yemen as well as…

Ukrainian government officials have begun storing sensitive data outside the country to protect it from Russian cyber and physical assault, and are negotiating with several European nations to move more databases abroad.Since the start of the war, around 150 registries from different government ministries and offices, or backup copies of them, have been moved abroad or are in discussions to be transferred, said George Dubinskiy, Ukraine’s deputy minister of digital transformation.…

As countries across Asia reopen to international travelers, Japan — one of the continent's most popular destinations — remains firmly closed.That may soon change. Prime Minister Fumio Kishida announced Thursday at a news conference in London that Japan will ease border controls in June.Locals often celebrate the easing of pandemic-related border restrictions, but some in Japan say they are fine keeping the measures in place.Even before the pandemic, many locals preferred to travel within the country, with domestic tourism…