News Snapshot:
Michael Abramowitz, President, Freedom House The expansive Indo-Pacific region features some of the world’s worst dictatorships and several of its best and brightest democracies. Most notable in the first category is China, which has grown more repressive in recent years, but there is also the dynastic totalitarian state in North Korea, which consistently ranks near the bottom of the Freedom in the World report’s 100-point scale. And last year, the return of Taliban rule in Afghanistan and the military coup in Myanmar caused those countries to register the report’s steepest annual declines—17 points and 18 points, respectively. In contrast with...
