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Migration barely came up at the recent G-7 summit in France—a far cry from just two years ago, when Italy hosted the G-7 in Sicily, which has seen an influx of migrants and asylum-seekers given its proximity to North Africa. The most prominent mention of migration in Biarritz took place on the sidelines of the summit, when President Donald Trump’s adviser, Stephen Miller—the architect of the administration’s restrictionist immigration policies—defended Trump’s efforts to make migrating to the United States even more onerous than it already is. Yet even if migration has fallen off the front pages, each member of the […]

President Donald Trump holds up a chart documenting land lost by the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria as he delivers remarks in Lima, Ohio, March 20, 2019 (AP photo by Evan Vucci).

In this week’s editors’ discussion on Trend Lines, WPR’s Judah Grunstein, Frederick Deknatel and Laura Weiss talk about a recent Pentagon report documenting the Islamic State’s resurgence in Iraq and Syria. They also discuss a controversial abortion case in El Salvador, and prospects for the G-7 summit in France. 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 inbox. The newsletter offers a free preview article every day of the week, plus three more complimentary articles in […]

A worker restores the Al Sarreha Mosque in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, March 8, 2018 (AP photo by Amr Nabil).

Editor’s Note: This article is part of an ongoing series on immigration and integration policy around the world. The kingdom is looking to address high youth unemployment by pushing for the "Saudization" of certain industries, particularly in the private sector. Saudi Arabia announced plans late last month to ban foreign workers from certain jobs in the hospitality sector. The move is the latest in a series of policy shifts designed to tackle the kingdom’s high unemployment rate by boosting private sector hiring for Saudi citizens, after many years of relying on cheap foreign labor. But many analysts are skeptical that […]

Fighters from Libya’s U.N.-backed Government of National Accord clash with forces of the self-styled Libyan National Army at the Salah al-Din frontline, Tripoli, Libya, July 29, 2019 (Photo by Amru Salahuddien for dpa via AP Images).

Editor’s Note: Every Friday, Andrew Green curates the top news and analysis from and about the African continent. After a two-day truce to observe the Eid al-Adha holiday, fighting has resumed in Libya. Any hope that the brief pause might signal a path to the resolution of a conflict that erupted in April, when military strongman Khalifa Haftar began his campaign to conquer the capital, Tripoli, quickly evaporated. Since Haftar launched his assault on Tripoli, 1,100 people have been killed and more than 100,000 displaced. Even as the truce was announced, a car bomb exploded in the eastern city of […]

Chad’s president, Idriss Deby, with French President Emmanuel Macron at the Elysee Palace in Paris, France, Aug. 28, 2017 (AP photo by Francois Mori).

Even longtime observers of Sudan didn’t predict the collapse of President Omar al-Bashir’s government when protests against his economic policies began late last year. Widespread discontent and a crumbling economy, though, eventually proved to be too much for his entrenched but beleaguered regime. Since Bashir was forced out of power in April, the Transitional Military Council running the country has presided over a massacre of civilian protesters in Khartoum. Despite some recent progress in negotiations between the generals and protest leaders who are eager to begin a democratic transition, the situation remains fraught and exposed to the meddling of outside […]

A man watches a TV showing an image of a North Korean missile launch during a news program at the Seoul Railway Station in Seoul, South Korea, Aug. 6, 2019 (AP photo by Ahn Young-joon).

In this week’s editors’ discussion on Trend Lines, WPR’s managing editor, Frederick Deknatel, and associate editor, Elliot Waldman, talk about North Korea’s recent string of short-range ballistic missile tests, the Trump administration’s less-than-forceful response, and what that says about the broader dysfunction plaguing the U.S. intelligence and foreign policy communities. They also discuss the ongoing pro-democracy protests in Algeria, which are now in their 25th week. As Francisco Serrano notes in his in-depth report for WPR this week, the outlook for the country’s protest movement remains unclear, given the risks that Algeria’s military leaders could still revert to form and […]

Thousands of protesters take part in a march against the Algerian regime on the country's Independence Day, Algiers, July 5, 2019 (Photo by Farouk Batiche for dpa via AP).

ALGIERS—The chanting groups of protesters quickly swelled into a massive stream, moving downwards along Rue Didouche Mourad, one of the city’s main boulevards. In the summer heat, they wore Algerian flags as cloaks and carried hats and water bottles. Some walked with children on their shoulders, their young faces painted the green, white and red of the national flag. Homemade protest signs written in Arabic and French appeared to float above the slow-moving crowd. The signs and rallying cries called for a civilian state instead of a military one, and for the liberation of political prisoners. They praised the country’s […]

People take part in a protest in Khartoum, Sudan, July 18, 2019 (AP photo by Mahmoud Hjaj).

A cast of foreign actors is seeking to shape Sudan’s incomplete political transition after the fall of longtime President Omar al-Bashir, each nudging it in the direction they favor. Their competing agendas are complicating negotiations between the ruling Transitional Military Council and civilians in the pro-democracy movement represented by the Forces for Freedom and Change. The two sides reached a major agreement on July 5 to jointly manage a three-year transition to civilian rule, and there was a recent breakthrough on Aug. 4, as they finalized that July deal and thrashed out its details. Yet the transition remains fragile and […]

Tunisian President Beji Caid Essebsi, the country’s first democratically elected president, signs a decree a few weeks before his passing in Tunis, July 5, 2019 (Photo by Slim Abid/Tunisian Presidency via AP Images)

On July 25, less than a month after an initial weeklong hospitalization, Tunisian President Beji Caid Essebsi died in a military hospital in the capital, Tunis. A critical bridge between Tunisia’s past autocracies and its current democracy, Essebsi’s earlier hospitalization understandably raised fears about the country’s ever-tenuous transition. Paradoxically, his death gave it a push forward. On the same day that Essebsi was first hospitalized, June 27, two separate suicide bombings in Tunis killed one policeman and injured several people. With both presidential and parliamentary elections scheduled for later in the year and the country’s peak tourism season around the […]