The United Arab Emirates (UAE) approved a diplomatic agreement with Israel that was signed in Washington last month, just ahead of the UAE government’s official visit to Israel on Tuesday. The UAE and Bahrain are the first Persian Gulf States to formalize ties with Israel over Iran fears concerning the regime and extremist groups in the country. [...]

Burundi’s top court sentenced former president Pierre Buyoya to life in prison on Tuesday for the 1993 murder of Melchior Ndadaye, the man who had defeated Buyoya in the presidential elections to become the central African country’s first freely elected president. The killing of Ndadaye, which occurred four months after he had won election, triggered [...]

Thousands of students took to the streets in Indonesia on Tuesday, continuing protests of the passage of a sweeping omnibus labor law earlier this month. The bill, passed October 5, makes changes to a large number of laws regarding business and employment, especially regarding foreign business investment in Indonesia. The law’s stated goals include empowering [...]

The Government Sponsored Enterprises (GSE) patch is likely to expire in January 2021. This change poses concerns to many individuals, as it would make access to mortgages more challenging for less qualified, but still worthy candidates. For background, the GSE patch overrides the 2013 Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) rules intended to reduce the risk [...]

Several separate lawsuits have been filed in opposition to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) rule and Department of Labor (DOL) rule on H-IB visas, both announced by the Trump administration on October 8. The DHS rule, set to become effective December 7, sets out revisions and clarifications to the regulatory definition and standards of [...]

The US Department of Justice (DOJ) on Wednesday announced a global resolution of both criminal and civil investigations into opioid manufacturer Purdue Pharma, and civil investigations into the Sackler family. In the press release, the DOJ announced that “Purdue Pharma has agreed to plead guilty in federal court in New Jersey to a three-count felony [...]

The US Department of Justice (DOJ) announced on Tuesday that a former fundraiser for President Donald Trump has pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to violate the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA). Elliott Broidy was a fundraiser for Trump’s 2016 campaign and part of his inaugural committee. Broidy made the guilty plea before federal [...]

“Hic Sunt Dracones” – the Hunt-Lenox Globe, 1504 “Friction is the difference between war on paper, and war as it actually is.” – Carl von Clausewitz, On War Once again, on October 9, 2020, with immodest displays of tangible hardware, North Korea mocked Donald Trump’s lingering expectations of “denuclearization.” Here, in Pyongyang, President Kim Jong [...]

Slain Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi’s fiancee Hatice Cengiz and Democracy for the Arab World Now, Inc. (DAWN) filed a lawsuit Tuesday in a US district court against Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) and a couple dozen others. The complaint alleges that key elements of the conspiracy to murder Khashoggi took place at the Saudi embassy in [...]

The European Commission Tuesday announced an investigation into the “golden passport” schemes of EU member states Cyprus and Malta for “selling” EU citizenship. The schemes enable investors to obtain EU citizenship by making pre-determined payments to the member states. The European Commission characterized the schemes as inconsistent with the purpose of Article 4(3) of the [...]