A Rohingya Muslim refugee at a camp in Bangladesh shows a mobile video of a massacre in the village of Gu Dar Pyin in Myanmar, Jan. 14, 2018 (AP photo by Manish Swarup).

As Americans have risen up in protest against police brutality, attention has understandably focused on the racist incidents of police killing Black Americans and their implications. How these outrages have come to light, however, remains underappreciated. They might never have been exposed without new technologies like smart phones and social media, whose use for accountability is transforming human rights. Until recently, documenting human rights abuses was a time-consuming and often imprecise activity. As a law student in the early 1990s, I worked on a United Nations project, led by the international legal scholar M. Cherif Bassiouni, to document war crimes […]

Protesters demanding President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita’s resignation in Bamako, Mali, June 19, 2020 (AP photo by Baba Ahmed).

Editor’s Note: Every Friday, Andrew Green curates the top news and analysis from and about the African continent. President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita’s hold on power in Mali appears to be slipping as he struggles to quell rising protests over perceived corruption, contested parliamentary elections and his administration’s failure to suppress a years-long jihadist insurgency. A new coalition of the political opposition and civil society groups, led by an influential Muslim cleric, Mahmoud Dicko, began organizing the demonstrations last month in the capital, Bamako. The protests have grown increasingly violent, culminating in three days of clashes between demonstrators and security forces […]

A building damaged by a fire at the Natanz uranium enrichment facility, some 200 miles south of Tehran, Iran, July 2, 2020 (Atomic Energy Organization of Iran photo via AP).

This week on Trend Lines, WPR’s Judah Grunstein, Freddy Deknatel and Prachi Vidwans talk about the mysterious series of explosions that have rattled Iran, and their implications if they do turn out to be a campaign of sabotage by the U.S. and/or Israel. They also discuss reports that the Trump administration granted the CIA sweeping authorization in 2018 to conduct offensive cyber operations against Iran, Russia, China and North Korea, among other targets. Listen: Download: MP3Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS | Spotify Relevant Articles on WPR:RIP JCPOA: Why the Iran Nuclear Deal Won’t Be RevivedCan New Norms of Behavior Extend […]

Surinamese President Desi Bouterse observes a military parade after being sworn in for his second term, in Paramaribo, Suriname, Aug. 12, 2015 (AP photo by Ertugrul Kilic).

Any doubt that the coronavirus pandemic can transform political realities was erased Monday when one of the world’s most entrenched strongmen was formally swept out of power in the tiny South American nation of Suriname. The National Assembly, Suriname’s legislature, officially named Chan Santokhi, a former police chief who prevailed in elections in May, to replace longtime President Desi Bouterse. Grounds for removing Bouterse, who was convicted of murder last year, have never been in short supply. But it took the pandemic and Bouterse’s spectacular mismanagement to bring an end to his rule. Until the coronavirus arrived, Bouterse withstood challenge […]

People wade through a flooded street in Beledweyne, central Somalia, May 17, 2020 (AP photo).

This time last year, countries in East Africa were leading the continent in economic growth. Now, much of that progress is at risk as the region faces a dangerous triple threat: torrential rain and flooding, voracious swarms of locusts and the coronavirus pandemic. The three crises are compounding each other’s impacts. Border closures that were put in place to slow the spread of COVID-19 have strained the supply of pesticides and other equipment to fight the locusts that have ravaged the region for months now. Food supplies that were already under siege from the pests have been further devastated by […]

A worker speaks on the phone in a Huawei store in Beijing, July 15, 2020 (AP photo by Ng Han Guan).

Editor’s Note: Every Wednesday, WPR Newsletter and Engagement Editor Benjamin Wilhelm curates the week’s top news and expert analysis on China. The “tech war” between the United States and China has shifted to Europe, where the United Kingdom this week announced, in an abrupt reversal, that it would ban the use of equipment from Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei in its high-speed wireless network. The British government’s decision is a major victory for the Trump administration, which has been campaigning to steer countries away from China as they develop their 5G infrastructure. Europe has been one of Huawei’s key markets as […]

A lab technician puts labels on test tubes during research on COVID-19 at Janssen Pharmaceutical, a Johnson & Johnson subsidiary, in Beerse, Belgium, June 17, 2020 (AP photo by Virginia Mayo).

The coronavirus pandemic has inspired a great deal of scientific research into developing a vaccine for COVID-19. The process is moving much faster than normal, with more than 155 vaccine candidates currently being developed, 23 of which are already in human trials. Vaccines can take years or even decades to develop and distribute, but the Trump administration is pushing to have one ready by early next year. Developing a vaccine is one thing, but making it available to people is another issue altogether—one that involves thorny questions of ethics, intellectual property rights, global trade and recouping research costs. This is […]

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani speaks behind a screen showing portraits of the late Gen. Qassem Soleimani, the late revolutionary founder Ayatollah Khomeini, and Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Tehran, Iran, May, 27, 2020 (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi).

A series of mysterious explosions have rocked Iran over the past several weeks, including in two locations known to be military and nuclear sites. Although it remains unclear what—or who—is causing the blasts, it is becoming increasingly reasonable to assume they are not mere coincidences. Meanwhile, a leaked document this week purportedly revealed the outlines of a 25-year strategic partnership agreement being negotiated by Iran and China, by which Beijing would provide Tehran with much-needed investment and great-power patronage in return for heavily discounted oil. Both developments highlight the wisdom of the now-teetering Iran nuclear deal, officially known as the […]

President Donald Trump and Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador during an event in the Rose Garden at the White House, Washington, July 8, 2020 (AP photo by Evan Vucci).

Editor’s Note: Guest columnist Edward Alden is filling in for Kimberly Ann Elliott. Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador went to Washington last week to meet with U.S. President Donald Trump and celebrate this month’s official launch of the updated and rebranded North American Free Trade Agreement, now the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, or USMCA. Critics of Lopez Obrador, including former Mexican Ambassador to the U.S. Arturo Sarukhan, called the visit “a colossal error, electorally, diplomatically and strategically.” His supporters said Mexico has little choice but to curry favor with Trump despite the insults he has hurled at the country and […]

Armed police officers wearing face masks block an area in Almaty, Kazakhstan, March 19, 2020 (AP photo by Vladimir Tretyakov).

In April, the Kyrgyz news outlet Kloop posted a video on YouTube showing a new app called STOP COVID-19. Developed by the government of Kyrgyzstan, it allows the authorities to follow the whereabouts of those exposed to the coronavirus. The video shows the movements of two individuals being tracked by combining their digital profiles and phone locations with their government-issued IDs. In theory, STOP COVID-19 is a valuable tool in the government’s efforts to track and trace confirmed or suspected coronavirus patients. But the app goes much further than most Kyrgyz citizens would likely be comfortable with. In addition to […]

A Kashmiri man waits for customers behind a half-closed shutter during a nationwide lockdown to control the spread of the coronavirus, in Srinagar, Kashmir, May 16, 2020 (AP photo by Mukhtar Khan).

The coronavirus pandemic has thrown a harsh light on the long-standing structural weaknesses of global labor markets and of the protections available for workers. The estimated 2 billion people worldwide toiling away in the informal sector—in jobs that are not backed by contracts or institutions, and that are not monitored or taxed by governments—are the new economically vulnerable. Across the globe, in developing and developed economies alike, these often-overlooked workers are bearing the brunt of COVID-19 and its accompanying economic depression, and will continue to even when economies start to recover. Because many of these employees work off the books […]

Police officers enveloped by teargas in Portland, Oregon, March 29, 2020 (photo by Dave Killen for The Oregonian via AP Images).

Shelby Rose, a correspondent for KATV news, was in the middle of a live broadcast in Little Rock, Arkansas, when someone in the crowd smashed an object on her head. It was May 30, less than a week after the killing of George Floyd by a white police officer in Minneapolis, and the first night of protests against the incident in Little Rock. Rose and her crew had set up near the state capitol. She recounted that they were swarmed by angry people who screamed at them. “I didn’t understand,” Rose said. “It was the first night of protests, so […]

A sign directs people to a COVID-19 testing center in Port St. Lucie, Florida, June 5, 2020 (AP photo by NewsBase).

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo formally notified the United Nations last week that the United States would withdraw from the World Health Organization. This imprudent step, taken in the midst of a rapidly accelerating pandemic, weakens global health at the precise moment it needs to be bolstered. It will endanger lives around the world while further shredding America’s tattered reputation as an enlightened global leader. Rather than abandoning the WHO and scapegoating it for its own failures, the United States ought to be reinforcing the U.N. agency’s central role in global health governance. That won’t happen while Donald Trump remains […]

A cargo ship prepares to dock in Oakland, California, April 16, 2020 (AP photo by Ben Margot).

Since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, the Trump administration’s trade policy has been shifting from an inclination to punish to a yearning for retreat. After imposing tariffs on trading partners that cost U.S. consumers $12 billion last year, the White House has been looking for ways to repatriate industrial activity from China and launch a new state-led industrial policy. But cutting the economic cord with China will not magically halt its geopolitical rise, and imitating its state-led approach to the economy would make America both less secure and less prosperous. Instead, the next U.S. administration should launch a “Safe […]

Police stand guard during a march marking the anniversary of the Hong Kong handover from Britain to China, Hong Kong, July 1, 2020 (AP photo by Vincent Yu).

In this week’s editors’ discussion on Trend Lines, WPR’s Judah Grunstein, Freddy Deknatel and Prachi Vidwans talk about the new national security law that China imposed on Hong Kong, and the chilling effect it has already had on dissent and speech there. They also discuss a new proposal for a one-state solution for Israel and Palestine based on equal citizenship rights for all, and how the debate over ways forward in that conflict has broadened recently, in part due to Israeli plans to annex parts of the West Bank. Listen: Download: MP3Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS | Spotify Relevant Articles […]

Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, center, arrives for the opening session of the 33rd African Union Summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Feb. 9, 2020 (AP photo).

Editor’s Note: Every Friday, Andrew Green curates the top news and analysis from and about the African continent. The violent demonstrations that followed the killing of popular Ethiopian singer Hachalu Hundessa in Addis Ababa last week have left at least 239 people dead and led to thousands of political arrests. Hachalu’s Oromo community, Ethiopia’s largest ethnic group, is now bracing for a broader political crackdown as Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s administration attempts to forestall additional violence. Hachalu gained fame for his protest songs, which gave voice to the feelings of political and economic marginalization among the Oromo, and he helped […]

American forces and Afghan commandos patrol Pandola village, near the site of a U.S. bombing, in Jalalabad, Afghanistan, April 2014 (AP photo by Rahmat Gul).

With public pressure growing on the Trump administration to take action in response to the reported Russian scheme to pay bounties to Taliban-linked militants to kill American troops in Afghanistan, a natural question to ask is, “What is to be done?” Much of the congressional attention for now will inevitably focus on who in the White House knew what and when about intelligence on the Russian plot. But the reality is that Washington has a limited range of policy options to manage an escalation of tensions with Moscow, and this Congress isn’t likely to do much months before an election. […]

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