The US government notified the UN on Monday of its intent to withdraw from the Paris Agreement. In remarks made in June 2017, President Donald Trump announced the decision to withdraw from the Paris Agreement due to the “unfair economic burden” imposed upon American workers and businesses. In the press statement released on Monday, Secretary [...]

Human Rights Watch said on Thursday that United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)-backed Afghan forces committed summary executions and grave offenses without accountability. Afghan paramilitary forces belong to the Afghan National Directorate of Security (NDS), but they have been recruited, trained, equipped and overseen by the CIA. The US provides logistical support, as well as [...]

The US Department of Justice (DOJ) reached a settlement Wednesday in the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) fraud case in which Malaysian government officials allegedly siphoned money from the development bank for personal gain. The DOJ’s Kleptocracy Asset Recovery Initiative department finalized a settlement agreement that recovered $700 million from Low Taek Jho, who was the [...]

Senators Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Tom Cotton (R-AR) introduced a resolution on Wednesday calling for the US to withdraw from the Open Skies Treaty with Russia, which allows Russia and the United States to fly observation flights over each others’ territory. The resolution called for withdrawal on the grounds that the treaty allows Russia to [...]

Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vindman, who serves as a director on the National Security Council (NSC), testified on Tuesday before the House committees overseeing the impeachment hearings about President Trump’s dealings with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. In his prepared remarks, Vindman expressed concern that the president and members of his administration were risking US national security [...]

A new report commissioned by Korea Peace Now and produced by an international panel of experts, titled “The Human Costs and Gendered Impact of Sanctions on North Korea,” outlines the gendered and humanitarian cost of UN-backed and unilateral sanctions against North Korea. According to the report, sanctions exacerbate an already troubled economy and women shoulder [...]

The United Nations (UN) Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) called on India to restore rights to India-administered Kashmir on Wednesday. On August 5, India’s government introduced a bill that revoked the special constitutional status of Jammu and Kashmir. The government decided to divide the state into two federally-administered territories, which will [...]

The European Union agreed on Monday to extend the deadline for Britain to ratify an exit agreement until January 31, 2020, giving the United Kingdom three months to approve a deal for their withdrawal from the EU. In response, the House of Commons voted to hold a general election on December 12 to elect a [...]

German federal public prosecutors charged two suspected former Syrian intelligence officers with “more than 4000 alleged cases of torture” in the Higher Regional Court in Koblenz in October. The case, which is anticipated to start in 2020, will be the “first criminal trial worldwide” over alleged crimes against humanity in Syria. The defendants are Anwar R [...]

Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch (HRW) made separate allegations Friday that Turkey has been illegally deporting refugees back into Syria since January. These allegations stem from investigations performed by each organization in which they conducted interviews with refugees possessing evidence that Turkey has violated international non-refoulement laws. Amnesty found 20 definitive cases where refugees [...]