East Asia
China targeting human rights defenders
A new report finds that human rights defenders in China are being criminalized as "national security" threats, and increasingly face detention and torture.
Mexico
Trump threatens to invade Mexico: reports
Amid deteriorating relations between the US and Mexico, reports emerge that President Trump threatened military intervention in a phone call with his counterpart Peña Nieto.
Europe
Trump-Putin breach portends global catastrophe
The Flynn resignation has been followed by a fast and dramatic escalation of US-Russia tensions, with Pentagon troops deployed to Romania and a near-skirmish in the Black Sea.
Palestine
Trump renounces two-state solution, equivocates on anti-Semitism
Speaking alongside Netanyahu, Trump became the first president to renounce commitment to a two-state solution—while fumbling a question about anti-Semites in his administration.
Southeast Asia
Philippines: Duterte blinks in deadly drug war?
The Philippines' ultra-hardline President Rodrigo Duterte pledged to dismantle his deadly anti-drug units after police kidnapped and killed a South Korean executive.
North America
Fall of Flynn: hope or peril?
Mike Flynn’s resignation as National Security Advisor could be the beginning of the collapse of the administration—or the start of a Trump-Putin breach, which holds dangers of its own.
Afghanistan
Pakistan forcibly removing Afghan refugees
Pakistani authorities have illegally driven nearly 600,000 Afghan refugees back into Afghanistan since July 2016, with the complicity of the UN, Human Rights Watch charges.
Syria
Syria: chemical attacks on Aleppo claimed
Syrian regime forces carried out chemical attacks in opposition-controlled parts of Aleppo during the final month of the battle for the city, Human Rights Watch charges.
Syria
Syria: Idlib between jihadis and imperial air-raids
Idlib governorate, where evacuees from Aleppo were forced to flee, is dominated by jihadist factions that both threaten secularists and draw air-strikes from the US and Russia alike.
Syria
Bashar Assad: Trump’s Syria policy is ‘promising’
Dictator Bashar Assad told reporters he found Trump’s stance on Syria to be “promising,” and broached inviting in US troops to fight ISIS in a “rapprochement” with Russia.
Greater Middle East
Turkish president approves constitutional overhaul
President Erdogan approved a bill clearing the way for a referendum on constitutional changes that opponents charge could lead to "one-man rule" in Turkey.
Africa
Somali refugees stranded by Trump travel ban
At least 100 Somali refugees previously cleared for resettlement in the US are stranded in Kenya in the wake of President Trump's travel ban.