This is a desperately sad thread. But it should be widely shared.

The foreign rights manager for radical French publisher La Fabrique, Ernest Moret, was arrested by antiterrorism police on arrival at St Pancras yesterday. He was on his way to The London Book Fair, 11-13 March 2025. He is still in custody. Press release from La fabrique éditions & Verso Books:

“This is a big sacrifice, but a sacrifice they need to make for the sake of the country.”

A Russian defence lawyer explains why opposition figures are prepared to risk long prison sentences, on “Next Year in Moscow” econ.st/3MLAYDW

Chinese writer and activist Xu Zhiyong sentenced to 14 years in prison today on charges of 'subversion', one of the longest sentences handed down to a Han Chinese human rights activist recently. He wrote and yearned for a democratic China. #FreeXuZhiyong

The single father whose daughter’s anti-war drawing drew the wrath of Russian law enforcement has been arrested in Minsk. Yesterday, he fled just before a court in Tula sentenced him to 2 years in prison. meduza.io/en/news/2023/0…

omg a new light show

最新型の犬用乾燥機、初体験の柴犬あいたん

From baseball fans to environmentalists, just about everyone opposes a Tokyo redevelopment project that threatens to destroy 1,000 beloved ginkgo trees to make way for skyscrapers trib.al/QaGppHn

another major neon sign goes down in HK, this one from a knife shop in Sham Shui Po, as part of the govt's 'Tackling Hygiene Black Spots' campaign. Shawna Kwan wrote about it here bloomberg.com/news/features/…

the employee who narced on him: 'I heard the clicking sound too many times, which I thought was unnatural, and when I observed him, he was playing games.'

'When I hear snippets of Cantonese on the streets of Taipei, it feels like a small catastrophe.' A beautiful personal essay by Rhoda Kwan deals with the loss of Hong Kong and the experience of Hong Kongers in Taiwan.

shorturl.at/bdjz5

This is how young people lured by free housing revitalized Taiwan's dilapidated military villages trib.al/mwXS4qd

Protesters at Shinjuku Station. The tweeter Minetoshi Yasuda san is a journalist who wrote many good books and reportage stories on China. Among them, “Eight Nine Six Four” is a must-read. His series of interviews with Japanese who met Xi Jinping in person are also very good.

On Day 2 of the three-day national strikes in Iran aimed at disabling the economy, security forces attacked a subway station in Tehran, and even swarmed the train beating the people inside.
Ladies blinded the cameras inside the train by menstrual pads to prevent further bleeding