Syria has sentenced former President Bashar al-Assad to death in absentia, alongside his brother Maher, while his cousin and former Daraa security chief Atef Najib also received a death sentence. The ruling is a landmark moment for a country still dealing with the consequences of the 2011 uprising and the war that followed. But the…
Reports of a missile attack on a Saudi-linked commercial vessel in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, reportedly killing three crew members, two Pakistanis and one Indonesian, are the latest warning that the Red Sea shipping crisis is becoming harder for commercial operators to ignore. The details of the reported incident are still developing, and there has…
A deadly shooting at a school near Bangkok has renewed difficult questions about how Thailand can protect students from gun violence, particularly when a young person is able to access a firearm. A 14-year-old student opened fire at Debsirin Nonthaburi School in Nonthaburi province on Friday, August 7. Initial reports said three teachers and three…
Nigeria and Canada have taken a major step towards direct air travel, signing an expanded Air Transport Agreement that allows airlines from both countries to operate scheduled flights between the two countries for the first time. The agreement provides for up to 14 passenger flights and 10 cargo flights per week in each direction, with…
The Trump administration has launched another attempt to narrow who can receive U.S. citizenship at birth, signaling that becoming American could become significantly harder for some families if the policy survives the legal challenges expected to follow. On August 6, President Donald Trump signed two executive actions targeting birthright citizenship and so-called “birth tourism”. The…
The latest developments around the Strait of Hormuz are exposing a bigger problem than whether commercial ships can return to the waterway: international rules are struggling to keep pace with a geopolitical crisis. Iran and Oman are reportedly close to an arrangement that would create separate routes for ships travelling through the strait, with discussions…
The continuing conflict involving Iran is creating a strange situation in the global energy market: oil companies are making much more money at the same time that higher energy prices are putting pressure on consumers and businesses. Saudi Aramco, ExxonMobil and Chevron are among the major energy companies benefiting from the sharp changes in oil…
North Korea launched a suspected short-range ballistic missile towards waters off its east coast on Thursday, according to South Korean officials. The projectile fell into the sea and did not pose a reported threat to Japanese territory. On its own, another North Korean missile test might look routine. Pyongyang has conducted repeated launches this year…
The U.S. State Department has apologized after a map of Africa shown during a presentation at the AIDS 2026 conference in Rio de Janeiro incorrectly labelled every African country featured on it, including Nigeria, which was mistakenly placed as a landlocked country in the Sahara. The mistake would have been embarrassing enough as an ordinary…
China has retaliated against the United States with sanctions on American entities and tighter controls on drone exports and related technologies, escalating a technology dispute that is increasingly moving beyond smartphones and semiconductors. Beijing’s latest measures come days after the United States restricted imports of new foreign-made humanoid robots, robot dogs and power inverters, citing…
