Chinese construction workers building a fuel-production unit at a Rosneft refinery in Far East Russia's Khabarovsk krai took to the streets on April 12 to protest unpaid wages, regional authorities said. At least 200 employees of the Russian-Chinese contractor Petro-Hehua marched through the city of Komsomolsk-na-Amure demanding back payments and help from both the Russian government and Rosneft in returning to China. After the march, some workers staged a sit-in at a nearby park. Following the protest, the Komsomolsk-on-Amur prosecutor's office said it had opened an inquiry into possible labor law violations, but at least four protesters were fined for illegal assembly. (Novaya Gazeta, The Moscow Times, UA News)

Panama Ports Company SA (PPC), a subsidiary of the Hong Kong-based conglomerate CK Hutchison, commenced arbitration proceedings against Danish shipping firm Maersk A/S on April 7 over the planned takeover by Maersk of PPC's port terminals in Panama.

After five weeks of war, the US and Iran on April 8 agreed to a two-week ceasefire brokered by Pakistan. Its basic details, however, and to what extent it will be implemented, are surrounded by uncertainty. A main sticking point is the question of whether Lebanon was included in the deal. Iranian and Pakistani officials are insisting it was, but the US and Israel say that it wasn't. Meanwhile, Israel has continued to carry out devastating attacks on Beirut and other parts of Lebanon.

Violence has once again broken out between Afghanistan and Pakistan, with Islamabad declaring "open war" on Kabul. Late on Feb. 26, Afghan forces fired on military bases across the border in Pakistan, reportedly using drones. Pakistan retaliated early overnight on Feb. 27, bombing what it said were military and infrastructure targets in Kabul and several border provinces. Afghanistan's Islamic Emirate government said its attacks were a response to Pakistani airstrikes on Feb. 21 and 22 that reportedly killed at least 13 civilians in Nangarhar province. Pakistan accuses the Taliban-led government of harboring fighters from the Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan (TTP)—accused of being behind recent attacks in Islamabad and Peshawar. Afghan Minister of Interior Sirajuddin Haqqani said the "doors for dialogue" remain open but insisted that if Afghanistan continues to be attacked, it will respond. Iran, a mutual neighbor, has offered to mediate between the two sides. Türkiye and Qatar helped to forge a fragile ceasefire after a previous flare-up in October.

The UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) on Feb. 20 released a report warning that the rapid expansion of cyber-fraud compounds in Southeast Asia has resulted in widespread human rights abuses. The OHCHR described the phenomenon as a "wicked problem" requiring coordinated, human rights-based responses rather than enforcement-only crackdowns.

Plans by Trump's fascist tech bros as well as Putin and Xi to build AI-run nuclear reactors on the Moon open jurisdictional dilemmas that far outpace the modest UN efforts to put a regulation regime in place for artificial intelligence. These plans are unveiled just as the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists moves the symbolic hands

The Science & Security Board of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists on Jan. 27 moved the symbolic hands of the Doomsday Clock to an unprecedented 85 seconds to midnight. The decision came a year after the clock was set to an also unprecedented 89 seconds to midnight—and three years after it was moved to 90 seconds to midnight. Each increment since 2017, when it was set at 2.5 minutes of midnight, has brought the Clock closer to doomsday than ever before. This year's statement reads: "A year ago, we warned that the world was perilously close to global disaster and that any delay in reversing course increased the probability of catastrophe. Rather than heed this warning, Russia, China, the United States, and other major countries have instead become increasingly aggressive, adversarial, and nationalistic. Hard-won global understandings are collapsing, accelerating a winner-takes-all great power competition and undermining the international cooperation critical to reducing the risks of nuclear war, climate change, the misuse of biotechnology, the potential threat of artificial intelligence, and other apocalyptic dangers." (BAS, NYT, The Guardian)

Amnesty International on Jan. 22 called on Kazakhstan to immediately drop criminal charges against 19 activists affiliated with the local Atajurt human rights movement who face up to 10 years in prison for participating in a peaceful protest near the nation's border with China. Marie Struthers, Eastern Europe & Central Asia director at Amnesty International, condemned the case as a misuse of criminal law to silence dissent, stating: