Protesters stage a “die-in” near the Presidential Palace to protest extrajudicial killings occurring  as part of President Rodrigo Duterte’s so-called war on drugs, Manila, Philippines, May 8, 2017 (AP photo by Bullit Marquez).

In this week’s Trend Lines podcast, WPR’s editor-in-chief, Judah Grunstein, and managing editor, Frederick Deknatel, discuss U.S. President Donald Trump’s just-announced summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin and the implications for U.S.-Russia and trans-Atlantic relations. For the Report, Ana Santos talks with WPR’s senior editor, Robbie Corey-Boulet, about efforts to hold Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte accountable for abuses committed in his bloody crackdown on drugs and petty crime. If you like what you hear on Trend Lines and what you’ve read on WPR, you can sign up for our free newsletter to get our uncompromising analysis delivered straight to your […]

A Venezuelan raises a sign denouncing the separation of families during U.S. Vice President Mike Pence’s visit to the Santa Catarina migrant shelter, Manaus, Brazil, June 27, 2018 (AP photo by Marcio Melo).

In the midst of a raging political battle in the United States over President Donald Trump’s unprecedented measures against migrants and asylum-seekers along the southern border, Vice President Mike Pence set out on a tour of Latin America this week. The trip was planned and announced before Trump’s so-called zero tolerance policy against illegal immigration, including forcibly separating children from their parents, turned into a major international news story. Trump has since moved to rescind the family separation policy with an executive order, although his administration, characteristically, is still sending out mixed messages about whether the policy is still in […]

Former Chadian dictator Hissene Habre leaves a courthouse in Dakar, Senegal, Nov. 25, 2005 (AP photo by Schalk van Zuydam).

Since it was formally established in 2002, the International Criminal Court has been far more active in Africa than in any other region of the world. The court currently has investigations open in nine countries on the continent, and is conducting “preliminary examinations” in three others. As demonstrated this month when the ICC overturned its 2016 conviction of Jean-Pierre Bemba, the former vice president of Democratic Republic of the Congo, the court’s activities can have major political consequences in all these places. Yet when it comes to transitional justice, the ICC is hardly the only game in town in Africa. […]

A protester displays a mock target with an image of an alleged victim of extrajudicial killings during a rally in Manila, Philippines, Dec. 10, 2017 (AP photo by Bullit Marquez).

CALOOCAN, Philippines—The battlefield of this war looks like any other bustling urban district in the Philippines. The sidewalks are crammed with street vendors selling everything from food to underwear. Pedestrians zigzag through the roads, avoiding motorized rickshaws known as tricycles and careening jeepneys, the colorful converted jeeps that are the country’s most common form of public transportation. The air is thick with smog and heavy with the sound of blaring horns and screeching tires. Set back from the streets are rows of makeshift homes stitched together by pieces of wood, corrugated steel and tarpaulin. This is Bagong Silang, an informal […]

Women watch on a big screen lawmakers vote on a bill that would legalize abortion, Buenos Aires, Argentina, June 14, 2018 (AP photo by Jorge Saenz).

On June 13, members of the lower house of Argentina’s Congress held an all-night debate on a decisive bill that would legalize voluntary abortion through the first 14 weeks of a pregnancy. Over 11 hours into the debate, lawmaker Fernando Iglesias held up a world map color-coded with each country’s stance on abortion. It showed the United States, Australia and most of Europe and Asia in green, signifying pro-choice legislation. South America and Africa were mostly in red, or orange, representing a complete ban or tight restrictions on abortion. “Think about just one other country you want Argentina to look […]

Oxfam activists wearing masks of the leaders of the Group of Seven participate in a demonstration in Giardini Naxos, Italy, May 26, 2017 (AP photo by Paolo Santalucia).

When Donald Trump won the U.S. presidency, nervous commentators warned that he would pursue transactional relations with foreign powers, eschewing America’s traditional values and alliances. To the extent that he has disdained many of the principles that guided U.S. engagement with the world after 1945, they were correct. But the Trump administration has also proved strikingly averse to genuinely transactional diplomacy, if you define that term as making and delivering concrete bargains that all sides can afford. Foreign diplomats, not least among U.S. allies, have made strenuous efforts to satisfy the president’s widely publicized love of deal-making. Rather than simply […]

Pakistani journalists gather for a rally to mark World Press Freedom Day, Karachi, Pakistan, May 3, 2018 (AP photo by Fareed Khan).

Editor’s note: This article is part of an ongoing series about press freedom and safety in various countries around the world. Last week, the Pakistani daily Dawn reported that its distributors and vendors were experiencing harassment and intimidation in several cities to prevent them from delivering the paper to subscribers. That followed an incident in April, in which the country’s largest television channel, Geo, was blocked by its cable operators across 80 percent of the country. Many in Pakistan saw the hand of the military behind the incidents. In an email interview, Michael Kugelman, deputy director of the Asia Program […]

The empty U.S. seat on the U.N. Human Rights Council, one day after Washington announced its withdrawal, Geneva, Switzerland, June 20, 2018 (Keystone photo by Martial Trezzini via AP).

For months, the Trump administration has threatened to withdraw from the United Nations Human Rights Council. Finally, on June 19, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and the U.S. ambassador to the U.N., Nikki Haley, jointly announced that the United States was leaving the body, charging that it was a “protector of human rights abusers, and a cesspool of political bias” against Israel. On one level, it should not come as a surprise that President Donald Trump chose to exit yet another U.N. organization—last year, he ditched UNESCO, the U.N.’s cultural body, over what his administration also called its “anti-Israel bias.” […]

People taken into custody for illegal entry into the U.S. sit in one of the cages at a detention facility in McAllen, Texas, June 17, 2018 (U.S. Customs and Border Protection's Rio Grande Valley Sector photo via AP).

In Europe and the U.S. this week, callous government treatment of asylum-seekers triggered public outrage and political tensions, which may be enough to soften policy in the short term. Unfortunately, that will not meaningfully address the underlying causes of the migration crises that have become the new political ground zero on both sides of the Atlantic. Long-simmering tensions within the European Union boiled over when Italy’s new populist government refused to allow the Aquarius, a ship carrying rescued asylum-seekers from North Africa, to dock at an Italian port last week. The Aquarius was left stranded in the Mediterranean for days […]

Zimbabwe’s president, Emmerson Mnangagwa, greets the crowd upon his arrival at the National Sports Stadium for celebrations marking the country’s independence anniversary, Harare, Zimbabwe, April 18, 2018 (AP photo by Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi).

Since his elevation to the presidency following the November 2017 military intervention that removed Zimbabwe’s longtime ruler Robert Mugabe from power, Emmerson Mnangagwa has embarked upon a global charm offensive. This has been designed to restore the country’s reputation, which was badly battered by the turmoil triggered by Mugabe’s violent land seizures; repression of the main opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change, or MDC; and a series of rigged elections. In stark contrast to the belligerent anti-imperialist rhetoric of Mugabe, Mnangagwa has adopted the vocabulary of “reform” while seeking to build bridges to previous adversaries such as Britain and […]

Zeid Raad al-Hussein, the outgoing U.N. high commissioner for human rights, gestures as he speaks to the media during a press conference in Jakarta, Indonesia, Feb. 7, 2018 (AP photo by Dita Alangkara).

Who can speak for the United Nations on human rights with any credibility these days? Last week, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres announced that he wants an open competition to determine who will become the new U.N. high commissioner for human rights when the position becomes vacant this summer. This is an explosively sensitive portfolio. The high commissioner is historically one of the most recognizable U.N. officials after the secretary-general. The media treat whoever holds the post as a sort of modern-day moral oracle. The outgoing incumbent, Prince Zeid Raad al-Hussein of Jordan, has not shied away from this vocation. He has […]

Demonstrators light the torches of their smartphones during an anti-government rally, Bratislava, Slovakia, April 15, 2018 (AP photo by Ronald Zak).

Editor’s note: This article is part of an ongoing series about press freedom and safety in various countries around the world. On May 31, 12 reporters from Slovakia’s public television and radio broadcaster, RTVS, resigned to protest what they called the politicization of news coverage under recently appointed management. The mass resignation followed the March murder of investigative journalist Jan Kuciak, which triggered protests that ultimately brought down the government of then-Prime Minister Robert Fico. In an email interview, Andrej Školkay, director of the School of Communication and Media in Bratislava, discusses the charges of politicization of Slovakia’s public media, […]

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen greets garment workers on the outskirts of Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Aug. 23, 2017 (AP photo by Heng Sinith).

In the run-up to Cambodia’s national elections next month, long-ruling Prime Minister Hun Sen, in power since 1985, has taken no chances of a political shocker similar to the opposition win in nearby Malaysia in early May. To ensure that he and his party triumph again, Hun Sen has in the past year overseen the dissolution of the major opposition party, the Cambodia National Rescue Party, or CNRP; harassed many opposition politicians into exile or tossed them in jail; and torn apart a vibrant and independent Cambodian media. Hun Sen and the ruling Cambodian People’s Party, or CPP, will now […]