- Old Coast, New Coast: Victoria, British Columbia (hakaimagazine.com)
Ever since the Hudson’s Bay Company selected this sheltered bay for its fur-trading fort in 1842, Victoria Harbour, in what is now Victoria, British Columbia, has been a gathering point. Crowds once assembled to eagerly check out the single women arriving from the United Kingdom on “bride ships” in the 1860s; to greet the Victoria-based fleet of North Pacific sealing schooners, the workhorses of the fur-seal industry that peaked in the 1890s; or to say farewell to troops departing for the two world wars.
- World Report 2024: Malaysia (hrw.org)
In his first year as prime minister, Anwar Ibrahim, a former political prisoner, largely failed to uphold his pledges to address repression and corruption. The government’s abolition of the mandatory death penalty was a significant step, although capital punishment remains a sentencing option for some criminal offenses. Authorities continued to use broad and vaguely worded laws to criminalize free speech. Officials have targeted refugees and migrants as well as lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people with hateful rhetoric and crackdowns.
- Victoria, British Columbia (Wikipedia)
Victoria is the capital city of the Canadian province of British Columbia, on the southern tip of Vancouver Island off Canada’s Pacific coast. The city has a population of 91,867, and the Greater Victoria area has a population of 397,237. The city of Victoria is the seventh most densely populated city in Canada with 4,406 inhabitants per square kilometre (11,410/sq mi).