Colombian President Gustavo Petro announced Sunday that he suspended a ceasefire with the Clan del Golfo, Colombia’s largest drug trafficking cartel. Petro’s decision was triggered by allegations of rifle attacks by the organization against police forces. The Colombian government unveiled a bilateral ceasefire with the organization on December 31, 2022. However, the government already had [...]

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa was cleared of wrongdoing in a preliminary corruption investigation, according to a Saturday statement from his spokesperson Vincent Magwenya. Magwenya confirmed that Ramaphosa’s office received a preliminary report from South African Public Protector Kholeka Gcaleka on Friday which clears Ramaphosa of any wrongdoing in relation to the theft of large [...]

President of France Emmanuel Macron Wednesday called for a law to include the right to abortion into the French Constitution. Macron made this announcement at an event to honour the late Gisèle Halimi, a renowned French-Tunisian lawyer, politician and tireless defender of women’s rights. The French National Assembly voted to add the right to abortion to [...]

Prime Minister of Spain Pedro Sánchez Saturday announced new equality legislation that will require equal representation between men and women in decision-making spaces within politics and business. This equality law would make Spain one of the only European countries with a statutory gender quota system. Sánchez supports this progressive approach, noting that Spain is putting [...]

The Manchester Arena Inquiry Thursday published the third and final volume of its report into the suicide bombing at an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester in May 2017, revealing that MI5, Britain’s security services, missed an opportunity to take actions which may have prevented the attack. Retired High Court Judge Sir John Saunders chaired the [...]

Israel Sunday agreed to halt new settlement construction projects in the West Bank, according to a joint statement issued after a summit in Aqaba. The agreement is significant, as Israel’s recent retroactive approval of further construction and expansion in the West Bank has been widely criticised. However, senior Israeli government officials interpreted the agreement differently. [...]

The European Commission Thursday banned the use of TikTok, a video-sharing app owned by the Beijing-headquartered ByteDance, on all official devices used by staff. Commission personnel also cannot use the app on personal devices that have corporate apps downloaded on them, such as Commission email or Skype. The Commission maintains that the ban is a [...]

Estonia’s Prime Minister Kaja Kallas Sunday asserted that Russia must be prosecuted for crimes of aggression when the war in Ukraine comes to an end. In an interview with the Associated Press, Kallas rejected the idea of ending the conflict with a peace deal and insisted that Moscow be held accountable for war crimes. At [...]

The Emergency Relief Coordinator of the UN Martin Griffiths Sunday declared that there has been a failure in the delivery of international aid to the people of northwest Syria. Griffith urgently calls for international support in the wake of a series of earthquakes that hit Türkiye, Syria, and the surrounding region. Two UN convoys with [...]

Prominent Tibetan Buddhist monk Geshe Phende Gyaltsen died in Chinese prison on January 26, according to Thursday reports from Radio Free Asia. Chinese authorities arrested Geshe Phende in March 2022. The Chinese Communist Party exercises predominant authority over Tibetan areas. In 2018, the Ministry of Public Security issued a notice declaring a wide range of [...]