Houthi rebels secure a road as Yemenis take part in a march denouncing plans by the Saudi-led coalition to attack the port of Hodeida, Sanaa, Yemen, April 19, 2017 (AP photo by Hani Mohammed).

As the fate of Yemen hangs in the balance, the military coalition led by Saudi Arabia that supports the government of Yemeni President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi is about to escalate its two-year-old war by launching a new offensive in the key Red Sea port of Hodeida. The move aims to throttle Hadi’s enemies, Houthi rebels aligned with former President Ali Abdullah Saleh, but it is more likely to choke the country’s population, tipping it from hunger and starvation into outright famine. Hodeida, the country’s busiest and most important port, is responsible for 80 percent of northern Yemen’s imports. If […]

Workers prepare elevation fixtures on a building in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Sept. 19, 2016 (AP photo by Kamran Jebreili).

Editor’s note: This article is part of an ongoing WPR series about workers’ rights in various countries around the world. Like in other Gulf countries, the United Arab Emirates’ small population leaves it dependent on migrant labor to execute an ambitious development program. In order to address criticism of how migrant laborers are treated there, authorities have adopted a series of reforms in recent years. In an email interview, Zahra Babar, associate director for research with the Center for International and Regional Studies at the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service in Qatar, explains the specific problems these reforms were […]

Activists outside the Russian Embassy protest against the treatment of suspected gay and bisexual men in Chechnya, London, April 12, 2017 (Rex Features photo via AP Images).

On April 1, the independent Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta broke the news that security officials in Chechnya had rounded up at least 100 men suspected of being gay or bisexual, and that several had been killed either in custody or in so-called “honor killings” carried out by their families. Last week, United Nations experts reported that men were being subjected to verbal abuse, beatings and electric shocks. In an email interview, Kyle Knight, a researcher with the LGBT Rights Program at Human Rights Watch, discusses possible reasons for the crackdown and options for an effective international response. WPR: What do […]

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan addresses supporters during a rally for the upcoming referendum, Istanbul, Turkey, March 11, 2017 (AP photo by Kayhan Ozer)

Over the past 18 months, terrorist attacks in Turkey have claimed over 400 lives, a dramatic increase that put pressure on authorities to take action. But the approach that Turkish authorities adopted has raised more concerns than it addressed: On Feb. 1, a month after a gunman affiliated with the so-called Islamic State killed 39 people in an Istanbul nightclub on New Year’s Eve, the Supreme Council of Radio and Television, or RTUK, issued a notice to stations that effectively banned reporting on domestic terror. News outlets can no longer mention where a terrorist attack took place or who might […]

The headquarters of the International Criminal Court in The Hague, Netherlands, Jan. 12, 2016 (AP photo by Mike Corder).

International justice has taken a reputational nosedive since the late 1990s, when the creation of the International Criminal Court signaled a new age of global accountability. Some of this has involved predictable pushback from political leaders who would rather not be called to account. But other complaints resonate more widely. Some say that the ICC’s focus on Africa and its inability to address atrocities from North Korea to Syria reflect the double standards of global power, not the impartiality of law. The worldwide resurgence of populism and nationalism, capped by the election of Donald Trump as U.S. president, appears to […]

Jason Greenblatt, Donald Trump's special representative for international negotiations, meets with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Ramallah, March 14, 2017 (AP Photo by Majdi Mohammed).

When Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi met with President Donald Trump in the Oval Office on Monday, the world heard a striking shift in tone in the relationship between the United States and one of its closest Middle East allies. President Barack Obama had kept el-Sisi at arms’ length, concerned about his human rights record and his authoritarian governing style. Trump, on the other hand, could not have been more deliberate in his embrace. “I just want to let everybody know in case there’s any doubt,” he declared, “that we are very much behind President el-Sisi. He’s done a fantastic job […]

A demonstrator holds up a sign that reads in Portuguese "CEDAE belongs to the people," during a protest against a move to privatize the state water and sewage company, CEDAE, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Feb. 20, 2017 (AP photo by Leo Correa).

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil — A resident in Rio de Janeiro’s largest favela, Rocinha, Jose Martins is worried. Earlier this year, Rio’s city council voted to sell the state-owned water and sanitation company, CEDAE, a move that Martins believes puts access to water and sanitation at risk for almost 50,000 residents in Rocinha alone. “The state has a social obligation, so many of us here pay a symbolic price,” he says. “I don’t imagine that a business will allow people to pay as little. If this happens, people won’t be able to pay. If they can’t pay, the company will […]

President Donald Trump greets Egypt’s president, Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, at the White House, Washington, April 3, 2017 (AP photo by Andrew Harnik).

Guest columnist Nikolas Gvosdev is filling in for Judah Grunstein this week. President Donald Trump’s meeting at the White House on Monday with Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi gave the clearest indication yet of how the Trump administration plans to conduct American foreign policy. One of the most striking elements of el-Sisi’s visit was how the Trump team, in contrast to its predecessors in the Obama administration, decided to pursue a very focused, prioritized agenda. President Barack Obama found himself caught amid the push and pull of contradictory impulses and interests when it came to the U.S. relationship with Egypt. El-Sisi […]

Nikki Haley, the U.S. ambassador to the U.N., speaks during a Security Council meeting on the peacekeeping mission in Democratic Republic of Congo, New York, March 31, 2017 (Albin Lohr-Jones for Sipa via AP Images).

Is it possible that I am a minor source of moral inspiration to the Trump administration? This may sound like a belated April Fool’s joke. The Trump team, with its emphasis on transactional politics, is not exactly a conclave of moralists. And as a liberal internationalist of European origin, I am not entirely in tune with the “America First” crowd. As I have noted, Trump supporters on right-wing websites have cheerfully dismissed me as a “hysterical” globalist or worse. They are unlikely to look to me for inspiration. Yet, tracking recent debates about American proposals to make severe cuts to […]