Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro speaks to reporters at United Nations headquarters, July 28, 2015 (AP photo by Seth Wenig).

Last month, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro formally requested that the U.N. mediate its long-standing border dispute with Guyana. In an email interview, Mark Kirton, senior lecturer at the University of the West Indies, discussed Guyana’s relations with Venezuela and the impact of the territorial dispute on bilateral ties. WPR: How extensive are Venezuela and Guyana’s political and economic relations, and what are the main areas of cooperation? Mark Kirton: Relations between the two countries are characterized by prolonged periods of controversy and tension, interspersed with short periods of economic and political cooperation. Tensions stem from Venezuela’s claim to the Essequibo […]

Then-French President Nicolas Sarkozy, left, shakes hand with Equatorial Guinean President Teodoro Obiang Ngeuma at the Elysee palace, Paris, Oct. 30, 2007 (AP photo by Jacques Brinon).

On July 30, Societe Generale, one of France’s biggest banks, was declared an “assisting witness”—somewhere between a suspect and a witness—in a money-laundering case against Teodorin Obiang, the son of Teodoro Obiang, Equatorial Guinea’s president who has been in power since 1979. Days later, Maixent Accrombessi, a close aide to Gabon’s president, Ali Bongo Ondimba, was held for questioning in a corruption probe in Paris hours before he was set to return to Libreville. His detention was part of an ongoing investigation into the French military-uniform company Marck—which signed a $7.6 million contract with Gabon in 2005—on suspicions of corruption […]

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon meets with U.S. President Barack Obama in the Oval Office, Washington, D.C., Aug. 4, 2015 (U.N. photo by Mark Garten).

Editor’s note: Guest columnist Neil Bhatiya is filling in for Michael Cohen, who will return next week. On Monday, President Barack Obama unveiled the final version of the Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean Power Plan (CPP) rules. The new regulations, a tweak to initial rules that had been released in June 2014, are meant to provide the framework for individual U.S. states in meeting emissions-reduction goals in their electricity sectors. In forecasting a 32 percent reduction in emissions by 2030 from 2005 levels, the plan relies on incentivizing the adoption of low-carbon energy sources nationwide, especially solar and wind power. As […]