Trump's State Of Union Sows Division: Daily Brief
President Trump's State of Union address; jailed Amnesty chair freed in Turkey; still in prison in DR Congo; Kenya blocks media coverage of "inauguration"; UK should speak out in China; police beating protesters in Tunisia; too many kids still out of secondary education; & plans to repatriate Rohingya refugees to Burma...
Get the Daily Brief by email.
US President Donald Trump has delivered his maiden State of the Union speech to Congress. Mr Trump said he was "extending an open hand" to Democrats to work together, and cited economic progress made under his adminstration. But his speech also drew major criticism from many quarters, with his negative messages on immigration, insistence on building a wall with Mexico, and his annoucement that he will keep Guantanamo Bay open.
Breaking news from Istanbul, where a court has ordered the release of the head of Amnesty International in Turkey, Taner Kilic. Mr Kilic had been charged with membership of a terrorist organisation, an accusation described as "baseless", and had been held since last June.
A leading activist in DR Congo remains in prison, merely for making peaceful calls for fresh elections.
Kenyan authorities stopped news outlets from covering a planned public event by political opposition leader, Raila Odinga, earlier this week. The Communications Authority of Kenya switched off three television stations and their affiliated radio stations.
Domestic concerns about the UK's plan to exit the European Union mean that trade, not China's growing repression, with likely dominate Prime Minister Theresa May's visit to Beijing this week.
In trying to quell the social protests that gripped much of Tunisia this month, police have sometimes beaten those arrested and denied their right to a lawyer, HRW says.