Akhbar: read the news, then talk it through

• Several stories this week concern press freedom and journalists under pressure. Egypt has convicted the editor-in-chief of the independent outlet Mada Masr, Lina Attalah, and ordered the site closed, weeks after the platform Mtsadktsh was arrested as a whole 4. Reporting on Gaza is described as the deadliest conflict for journalists ever recorded, with the continuing Israeli attack described as tragically making it the most lethal conflict yet for reporters 8.
• Macau has recorded its first conviction under the city's national security law: former lawmaker Au Kam San, 69, was sentenced to 12.5 years in prison on 6 November 2026. Observers quoted in the report call the closed-door trial unfair and a sham 7.
• Gabon has restored social media access after more than eight months without it, though the report says the restoration has come at a cost, without detailing what that cost is 3.
• Concerns about digital surveillance recur across several regions. One piece argues that authoritarian digital surveillance grows through international exchange of technologies, standards and practices 10. Another examines how Big Tech and AI may expand data collection in Nigeria beyond what people reasonably expect or understand 11.
• In Haiti, the Kenscoff district has moved from peaceful life to being held to ransom by armed gangs after two deadly attacks this year, a pattern the report says is shared by many other regions of the country 9.
• A Rohingya young man describes how being classed as stateless and forcibly displaced has created major barriers to formal education and work, in an account of his journey from genocide to survival 6.
• The Dominican Republic has entered the global debate over deep-sea mining, with the report noting its wish for science to advance and for the International Seabed Authority to finish the regulatory framework the UN Convention required it to build 15.

Written by AI from the stories it cites; it can be wrong. Ask the desk a question