Women and children related to fighters of the Islamic State group wait to board buses and trucks to leave the al-Hol detention camp, Hasakeh province, Syria, June 3, 2019 (AP photo by Baderkhan Ahmad).

ISTANBUL—A German woman suspected of supporting the Islamic State was repatriated from Syria along with her three children last month, in the first case of an adult European ISIS member brought home through official channels. On Nov. 22, the family was released from the overcrowded detention camp in northern Syria where they’d lived for almost a year and transferred to the Iraqi city of Erbil, where they boarded a Lufthansa flight to Frankfurt. The mother, known only as Laura H., had her passport confiscated upon arrival. She cannot leave Germany, as she is being investigated for belonging to a terrorist […]

Indonesian President Joko Widodo, center, and his wife Iriana, walk with his new Cabinet ministers and their spouses after the swearing-in ceremony of the new Cabinet at Merdeka Palace in Jakarta, Indonesia, Oct. 23, 2019 (AP photo by Dita Alangkara).

Two months into his second term, Indonesian President Joko Widodo, widely known as Jokowi, has announced some bold new economic plans. He has vowed to push through major legislation on deregulation—modeled on the Trump administration’s agenda in Washington—and launch a staggering number of new infrastructure projects. It is all part of a push to attract foreign investment, which has provoked backlashes in Indonesia before, but which he said “no one should be allergic to” in a speech after winning reelection. Whether Jokowi can implement this economic agenda remains unclear. He has built a vast, 50-member Cabinet, including vice ministers, from […]

1

Like many classic mystery stories, the Povl Bang-Jensen affair involved an agitated dog. The name and breed of the animal are not recorded. But we know that at roughly 8 a.m. on Thanksgiving Day, Nov. 26, 1959, Paul Carahalios of Bayside, Queens, took his dog for its regular morning walk. Temperature records suggest that it was chilly but tolerable as they made their way as usual through Alley Pond Park, a stretch of reclaimed marshland on the north shore of Long Island where New York City meets the suburbs. Yet it soon became clear that something was amiss. The dog, […]

Gambian President Adama Barrow greets a crowd after arriving at Banjul airport in Gambia, Jan. 26, 2017 (AP photo by Jerome Delay).

Editor’s Note: Every Friday, Andrew Green curates the top news and analysis from and about the African continent. Gambians are not going to let President Adama Barrow forget his promise. When Barrow, then largely a political unknown, challenged longtime autocrat Yahya Jammeh in the 2016 presidential race, he pledged that, if he won, he would run a three-year provisional government before calling new elections. But backing off that promise, Barrow recently said he will serve a full five-year term until 2021, sparking protests. Gambians took to the streets of the capital, Banjul, this week in outrage over his decision. Though […]

An antigovernment protester chants during a demonstration in Bogota, Colombia, Nov. 27, 2019 (AP photo by Ivan Valencia).

Demonstrators have taken to the streets over the past three weeks in a series of massive antigovernment rallies in Colombia, making it the latest Latin American country to be convulsed by protests. While the ongoing unrest has not yet reached the scale of other recent crises elsewhere in the region, such as Bolivia or Chile, it nonetheless poses a stiff challenge to conservative President Ivan Duque, who has come under criticism in recent months for his unpopular economic and security policies. The demonstrations began with a general strike on Nov. 21, with hundreds of thousands of people gathering in cities […]

Sri Lanka's new president, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, right, greets his brother Mahinda after appointing him prime minister at the presidential secretariat in Colombo, Nov. 21, 2019 (AP photo by Eranga Jayawardena).

Sri Lanka has a tendency to flow in and out of global headlines in one of two ways. After a decades-long civil war between the government and ethnic Tamil separatists ended in 2009, it has periodically burst into the news, usually as a result of a paroxysm of violence. The rest of the time, during periods of calm, Sri Lanka datelines tend to arrive with glossy stories about tourism to an island nation rich in natural beauty. Which Sri Lanka appears in headlines in the years to come will depend to a large degree on the ramifications of the recent […]

Farmers opposed to the Tia Maria open-pit mine, which they fear will contaminate irrigation water in the farming-rich Tambo valley, march in Cocachacra, Peru, May 15, 2015 (AP photo by Martin Mejia).

In mid-October, Peruvian authorities declared a 30-day state of emergency in the copper-rich province of Chumbivilcas, where anti-mining protesters had blocked a stretch of a vital highway called the Southern Runway for almost a month. The blockade, led by indigenous farmers and laborers known as comuneros, caused major disruptions to local commerce and large-scale mining efforts nearby, and nearly forced a halt in operations at Las Bambas, one of Peru’s largest copper mines. It was just the latest in a series of anti-mining protests by comuneros in Peru this year, which have held up hundreds of millions of dollars in […]

Demonstrators take to the streets to protest against the government and reject the upcoming presidential elections, in Algiers, Algeria, Dec. 11, 2019 (AP photo by Toufik Doudou).

For 10 months, weekly mass protests have rocked Algeria, as demonstrators have taken to the streets with sweeping demands that the country’s entire entrenched regime step aside. This standoff between protesters and Algeria’s generals is about to enter a new phase with Thursday’s presidential election. Rather than a genuine chance to elect a new government, the vote, forced through by the generals over popular objections, is an attempt to rebuild the political structure that Algerians have been trying to bring down since their protest movement erupted in February: a military dictatorship with a civilian façade. The results of the election […]

People stroll in a park along the Caspian Sea in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, Sept. 17, 2019 (Kyodo photo via AP Images).

Azerbaijan’s parliament voted to dissolve itself last week, triggering legislative elections on Feb. 9. Some observers speculate that the move sets the stage for President Ilham Aliyev to eventually hand over power to his wife, First Vice President Mehriban Aliyeva. She has assumed a much higher profile on policy issues in the past few years, most recently highlighted by a six-day solo diplomatic mission to Moscow in late November. It is unclear why Aliyev would want to transfer power, but he has been in office for more than 15 years, and the opposition has peddled unsubstantiated rumors about his health. […]

Father Edwin Roman attempts to convince the police to allow relatives of imprisoned and dead anti-government demonstrators to enter the San Miguel Arcangel Church in Masaya, Nicaragua, Nov. 14, 2019 (AP photo by Alfredo Zuniga).

A string of recent attacks on churches in Nicaragua, where anti-government protesters have held hunger strikes to demand the release of political prisoners, shows how President Daniel Ortega continues to violently suppress dissent, more than a year after putting down a popular uprising. Catholic churches and cathedrals have become new sites of protest for Nicaraguans still pushing for their political rights despite a government crackdown that has included outlawing public demonstrations. On Nov. 18, an armed mob of pro-government supporters stormed the main cathedral in Managua, the capital, where seven mothers of political prisoners were waging a hunger strike to […]

Chinese President Xi Jinping, right, and Vice Premier Liu He attend a meeting with delegates from the 2019 New Economy Forum at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, Nov. 22, 2019 (pool photo by Jason Lee of Reuters via AP Images).

Editor’s Note: Every Wednesday, WPR Newsletter and Engagement Editor Benjamin Wilhelm curates the week’s top news and expert analysis on China. As U.S. and Chinese negotiators scramble to finalize a “phase one” trade agreement, uncertainty is rising over whether a deal can actually be reached. Beijing has responded angrily to recently passed legislation in the U.S. that targets China for human rights violations, and President Donald Trump suggested Tuesday that he could wait until after the 2020 U.S. presidential election to complete a trade deal with China. Some observers on both sides of the Pacific see these developments as impediments […]