The State Department is offering potential refugee status to new categories of Afghans who assisted the United States during the war in Afghanistan, including those who worked for news media and nongovernmental organizations.
More from WPR: The ‘Forever War’ Is Over. Let the Reckoning Begin
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United States
News
August 2, 2021The United States imposed sanctions on the Cuban police force and two of its leaders Friday in response to the Havana government’s crackdown on protesters, and President Joe Biden promised Cuban-American leaders more actions were coming.
More from WPR: Cuba’s Protests Put Diaz-Canel—and Biden—in a Bind
The U.S. official who wrote a Pulitzer Prize-winning book on genocide landed Saturday in Sudan, aiming to support the country’s fragile transition to democracy before travelling to Ethiopia to press the government there to allow humanitarian aid to the war-torn Tigray region.
More from WPR: Sudan’s Democratic Transition Needs a Jumpstart
Opinion
August 2, 2021Nearly 50 years after the end of the last space race, the competition is back. America’s well-known economic and military dependence on open access to space is being challenged. As stated in the 2020 U.S. Defense Space Strategy, “China and Russia each have weaponized space as a means to reduce U.S. and allied military effectiveness and challenge our freedom of operation in space.” But even putting geopolitics aside, the complexity of a more crowded space environment increases the chances of collisions and miscalculations.
More from WPR: Small States Can Play a Big Role in Space
Africa
News
August 2, 2021Doctors in Nigeria’s state-run hospitals have began a strike over pay, insurance benefits and poor facilities as the country faces a third wave of coronavirus.
Fifteen soldiers were killed as a result of an ambush in southwestern Niger on Saturday, the country's defense ministry said, blaming the attack on “armed terrorist groups.”
The United Nations peacekeeping mission in the Central African Republic says six civilians were killed in a rebel attack in the country’s northeast.
Zambia deployed the military to curb escalating political violence ahead of elections on Aug. 12, President Edgar Lungu said Sunday.
He is famous in Nigeria for catching notorious criminals—killers, kidnappers, bank robbers and Boko Haram extremists. Years of high-profile arrests won him acclaim and an enduring nickname: “super cop.” Now Abba Alhaji Kyari, deputy commissioner for the Nigeria Police Force, stands accused of abusing his power to support a global fraud ring.
Opinion
August 2, 2021Eighteen years after African leaders adopted the Maputo Protocol, a progressive initiative by and for Africans, it is still yet to be fully implemented.
The Americas
News
August 2, 2021Peru’s new president, Pedro Castillo, has appointed a moderate leftist as his finance minister in a move that might go some way to calming markets after a turbulent couple of days.
More from WPR: Peru Doesn’t Necessarily Want What Castillo Is Promising
A referendum in Mexico on Sunday cost the country about $25 million, but drew only a fraction of the voters needed to make it binding.
Colombia’s attorney general’s office will charge former army commander General Mario Montoya for responsibility of 104 extrajudicial executions, as part of the “false positives” scandal, it said Sunday.
More from WPR: Colombia’s Shaky Peace Deal Needs Biden’s Support
Haitian police Friday outlined fresh accusations against a former Supreme Court judge over her links to the assassination of President Jovenel Moise earlier this month, saying she had met with some Colombian mercenaries accused of killing him.
More from WPR: Haiti’s Crisis Is Familiar. Its History, Less So
Opinion
August 2, 2021With his Cabinet appointments, Peru’s new president may have planted the seeds of his own failure.
Asia-Pacific
News
August 2, 2021Six months to the day after Myanmar’s military staged a coup and imposed a reign of terror over the country, the junta’s leader, Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, said Sunday that a national state of emergency would be extended for another two years.
More from WPR: Myanmar’s Anti-Coup Resistance Is Running Out of Options
The Taliban is ramping up pressure on some of Afghanistan’s largest cities, striking busy transit hubs and pushing front lines deep into urban areas for the first time since the militants were overthrown nearly two decades ago.
More than 300 people died in recent flooding in central China, authorities said Monday, three times the previously announced toll.
The body of Danish Siddiqui, a Pulitzer Prize-winning Reuters photojournalist who was killed in Afghanistan this month, was badly mutilated while in the custody of the Taliban, officials said this week.
Police blocked opposition lawmakers from marching Monday to protest a two-week lockdown of Malaysia’s Parliament, which they consider another ploy for the embattled prime minister to dodge a no-confidence vote.
More from WPR: Malaysia’s Political Crisis Is Dooming Its COVID-19 Response
Europe
News
August 2, 2021European Union officials Monday pledged millions of euros to Lithuania to help it tackle a migrant crisis that it blames on the government of neighboring Belarus and its authoritarian president, Alexander Lukashenko.
Kristina Timanovskaya, the Belarusian Olympic sprinter who sought protection at a Tokyo airport as her nation tried to forcibly send her home from the Summer Games, has been offered asylum in Poland.
A 100-year-old man who allegedly served as a guard at a Nazi concentration camp during World War II will stand trial in October for alleged complicity in the killings of more than 3,500 people during the conflict, German media reported Sunday.
The European Union on Monday slapped sanctions on Nicaraguan first lady and Vice-President Rosario Murillo and seven other senior officials accused of serious human rights violations or undermining democracy, amid a crackdown on opposition politicians in the Central American country.
More from WPR: As Ortega Tightens His Grip, Nicaragua Braces for Volatile Elections
Middle East & North Africa
News
August 2, 2021The United States, Britain and Israel on Sunday all accused Iran of carrying out a drone attack last week on an oil tanker in the Arabian Sea that killed two people on board, raising fears of an escalating maritime war in the Middle East, as Tehran denied responsibility for the strike.
A Tunisian judge who has been accused by human rights groups of hiding terrorism-related files has been placed under house arrest for 40 days, local radio and a security source said Saturday.
More from WPR: Tunisia’s Democrats Need U.S. Support Now More Than Ever
Syrian troops stepped up shelling of an opposition enclave in the southern city of Deraa in a bid to assert control over an area that has defied state authority since it was retaken three years ago, witnesses, the army and residents said.
“‘Why do you think that, at 67, I would start a career as a dictator?’” President Kais Saied said in a meeting with The New York Times, quoting Charles de Gaulle. He vowed to preserve hard-fought rights.
Authorities said Saturday that 10 suspects have been detained over the killing of seven people from an ethnic Kurdish family in Turkey’s central Konya province. Family members say the attack was ethnically motivated, while authorities blame a long-running feud between two families.
Opinion
August 2, 2021This week, a 3,500-year-old clay tablet containing a portion of the “Epic of Gilgamesh”—one of the world’s oldest surviving pieces of literature—was forfeited by Hobby Lobby to the Justice Department. The tablet constitutes one of more than 17,000 artifacts and treasures that are said to be returning to Iraq soon. This is refreshing news for those of us who have documented and pursued Iraq’s lost heritage. Unfortunately, this rare incident should not obscure the fact that Iraq was, and continues to be, looted and stolen from with few, if any, consequences.
United States
News
August 2, 2021The State Department is offering potential refugee status to new categories of Afghans who assisted the United States during the war in Afghanistan, including those who worked for news media and nongovernmental organizations.
More from WPR: The ‘Forever War’ Is Over. Let the Reckoning Begin
The United States imposed sanctions on the Cuban police force and two of its leaders Friday in response to the Havana government’s crackdown on protesters, and President Joe Biden promised Cuban-American leaders more actions were coming.
More from WPR: Cuba’s Protests Put Diaz-Canel—and Biden—in a Bind
The U.S. official who wrote a Pulitzer Prize-winning book on genocide landed Saturday in Sudan, aiming to support the country’s fragile transition to democracy before travelling to Ethiopia to press the government there to allow humanitarian aid to the war-torn Tigray region.
More from WPR: Sudan’s Democratic Transition Needs a Jumpstart
He is famous in Nigeria for catching notorious criminals—killers, kidnappers, bank robbers and Boko Haram extremists. Years of high-profile arrests won him acclaim and an enduring nickname: “super cop.” Now Abba Alhaji Kyari, deputy commissioner for the Nigeria Police Force, stands accused of abusing his power to support a global fraud ring.
The United States, Britain and Israel on Sunday all accused Iran of carrying out a drone attack last week on an oil tanker in the Arabian Sea that killed two people on board, raising fears of an escalating maritime war in the Middle East, as Tehran denied responsibility for the strike.
Opinion
August 2, 2021Nearly 50 years after the end of the last space race, the competition is back. America’s well-known economic and military dependence on open access to space is being challenged. As stated in the 2020 U.S. Defense Space Strategy, “China and Russia each have weaponized space as a means to reduce U.S. and allied military effectiveness and challenge our freedom of operation in space.” But even putting geopolitics aside, the complexity of a more crowded space environment increases the chances of collisions and miscalculations.
More from WPR: Small States Can Play a Big Role in Space
The Americas
News
August 2, 2021The United States imposed sanctions on the Cuban police force and two of its leaders Friday in response to the Havana government’s crackdown on protesters, and President Joe Biden promised Cuban-American leaders more actions were coming.
More from WPR: Cuba’s Protests Put Diaz-Canel—and Biden—in a Bind
Peru’s new president, Pedro Castillo, has appointed a moderate leftist as his finance minister in a move that might go some way to calming markets after a turbulent couple of days.
More from WPR: Peru Doesn’t Necessarily Want What Castillo Is Promising
A referendum in Mexico on Sunday cost the country about $25 million, but drew only a fraction of the voters needed to make it binding.
Colombia’s attorney general’s office will charge former army commander General Mario Montoya for responsibility of 104 extrajudicial executions, as part of the “false positives” scandal, it said Sunday.
More from WPR: Colombia’s Shaky Peace Deal Needs Biden’s Support
Haitian police Friday outlined fresh accusations against a former Supreme Court judge over her links to the assassination of President Jovenel Moise earlier this month, saying she had met with some Colombian mercenaries accused of killing him.
More from WPR: Haiti’s Crisis Is Familiar. Its History, Less So
The European Union on Monday slapped sanctions on Nicaraguan first lady and Vice-President Rosario Murillo and seven other senior officials accused of serious human rights violations or undermining democracy, amid a crackdown on opposition politicians in the Central American country.
More from WPR: As Ortega Tightens His Grip, Nicaragua Braces for Volatile Elections
Opinion
August 2, 2021With his Cabinet appointments, Peru’s new president may have planted the seeds of his own failure.
Europe
News
August 2, 2021European Union officials Monday pledged millions of euros to Lithuania to help it tackle a migrant crisis that it blames on the government of neighboring Belarus and its authoritarian president, Alexander Lukashenko.
Kristina Timanovskaya, the Belarusian Olympic sprinter who sought protection at a Tokyo airport as her nation tried to forcibly send her home from the Summer Games, has been offered asylum in Poland.
A 100-year-old man who allegedly served as a guard at a Nazi concentration camp during World War II will stand trial in October for alleged complicity in the killings of more than 3,500 people during the conflict, German media reported Sunday.
The European Union on Monday slapped sanctions on Nicaraguan first lady and Vice-President Rosario Murillo and seven other senior officials accused of serious human rights violations or undermining democracy, amid a crackdown on opposition politicians in the Central American country.
More from WPR: As Ortega Tightens His Grip, Nicaragua Braces for Volatile Elections
Africa
News
August 2, 2021The U.S. official who wrote a Pulitzer Prize-winning book on genocide landed Saturday in Sudan, aiming to support the country’s fragile transition to democracy before travelling to Ethiopia to press the government there to allow humanitarian aid to the war-torn Tigray region.
More from WPR: Sudan’s Democratic Transition Needs a Jumpstart
Doctors in Nigeria’s state-run hospitals have began a strike over pay, insurance benefits and poor facilities as the country faces a third wave of coronavirus.
Fifteen soldiers were killed as a result of an ambush in southwestern Niger on Saturday, the country's defense ministry said, blaming the attack on “armed terrorist groups.”
The United Nations peacekeeping mission in the Central African Republic says six civilians were killed in a rebel attack in the country’s northeast.
Zambia deployed the military to curb escalating political violence ahead of elections on Aug. 12, President Edgar Lungu said Sunday.
He is famous in Nigeria for catching notorious criminals—killers, kidnappers, bank robbers and Boko Haram extremists. Years of high-profile arrests won him acclaim and an enduring nickname: “super cop.” Now Abba Alhaji Kyari, deputy commissioner for the Nigeria Police Force, stands accused of abusing his power to support a global fraud ring.
Opinion
August 2, 2021Eighteen years after African leaders adopted the Maputo Protocol, a progressive initiative by and for Africans, it is still yet to be fully implemented.
Middle East & North Africa
News
August 2, 2021The United States, Britain and Israel on Sunday all accused Iran of carrying out a drone attack last week on an oil tanker in the Arabian Sea that killed two people on board, raising fears of an escalating maritime war in the Middle East, as Tehran denied responsibility for the strike.
A Tunisian judge who has been accused by human rights groups of hiding terrorism-related files has been placed under house arrest for 40 days, local radio and a security source said Saturday.
More from WPR: Tunisia’s Democrats Need U.S. Support Now More Than Ever
Syrian troops stepped up shelling of an opposition enclave in the southern city of Deraa in a bid to assert control over an area that has defied state authority since it was retaken three years ago, witnesses, the army and residents said.
“‘Why do you think that, at 67, I would start a career as a dictator?’” President Kais Saied said in a meeting with The New York Times, quoting Charles de Gaulle. He vowed to preserve hard-fought rights.
Authorities said Saturday that 10 suspects have been detained over the killing of seven people from an ethnic Kurdish family in Turkey’s central Konya province. Family members say the attack was ethnically motivated, while authorities blame a long-running feud between two families.
Opinion
August 2, 2021This week, a 3,500-year-old clay tablet containing a portion of the “Epic of Gilgamesh”—one of the world’s oldest surviving pieces of literature—was forfeited by Hobby Lobby to the Justice Department. The tablet constitutes one of more than 17,000 artifacts and treasures that are said to be returning to Iraq soon. This is refreshing news for those of us who have documented and pursued Iraq’s lost heritage. Unfortunately, this rare incident should not obscure the fact that Iraq was, and continues to be, looted and stolen from with few, if any, consequences.
Asia-Pacific
News
August 2, 2021The State Department is offering potential refugee status to new categories of Afghans who assisted the United States during the war in Afghanistan, including those who worked for news media and nongovernmental organizations.
More from WPR: The ‘Forever War’ Is Over. Let the Reckoning Begin
Six months to the day after Myanmar’s military staged a coup and imposed a reign of terror over the country, the junta’s leader, Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, said Sunday that a national state of emergency would be extended for another two years.
More from WPR: Myanmar’s Anti-Coup Resistance Is Running Out of Options
The Taliban is ramping up pressure on some of Afghanistan’s largest cities, striking busy transit hubs and pushing front lines deep into urban areas for the first time since the militants were overthrown nearly two decades ago.
More than 300 people died in recent flooding in central China, authorities said Monday, three times the previously announced toll.
The body of Danish Siddiqui, a Pulitzer Prize-winning Reuters photojournalist who was killed in Afghanistan this month, was badly mutilated while in the custody of the Taliban, officials said this week.
Police blocked opposition lawmakers from marching Monday to protest a two-week lockdown of Malaysia’s Parliament, which they consider another ploy for the embattled prime minister to dodge a no-confidence vote.
More from WPR: Malaysia’s Political Crisis Is Dooming Its COVID-19 Response