El Salvador marks the 40th anniversary this weekend of one of the worst massacres in Latin American history, amid renewed allegations that a U.S. military adviser witnessed the killings and fears that the related trial of Salvadoran military will be left by the wayside.
Why it matters: Nearly one thousand unarmed civilians, half of them children, were killed in El Mozote and nearby towns in 1981 by a Salvadoran army unit that had been trained by U.S. forces.
Italy's antitrust regulator fined Amazon $1.3 billion on Thursday, claiming an investigation unveiled that it abused its dominant position in the market by favoring third-party sellers that used its logistics services.
Why it matters: It comes amid a wave of antitrust law enforcement by European nations against Big Tech companies.
Congress on Wednesday sent the Biden administration and Corporate America an unequivocal message about the Chinese government's repression of Uyghur Muslims: If this is genocide, as the U.S has declared, the response can't be business as usual.
Driving the news: The House overwhelmingly passed a bill that would ban all imports from the Chinese region of Xinjiang unless the U.S. government determines with "clear and convincing evidence" the products were not made with forced labor.
New Zealand officials announced Thursday legislative plans to outlaw smoking by making it illegal to sell or supply tobacco products to the next generation as part of a lifetime ban.
Why it matters: "People aged 14 when the law comes into effect will never be able to legally purchase tobacco," Associate Health Minister Ayesha Verrall said in a statement announcing the proposed law, part of the Smokefree 2025 Action Plan.
Why it matters: Most of these soldiers sustained brain injuries, per the Army Times. Then-President Trump dismissed their injuries at the time as "headaches" and "not very serious," sparking backlash from some veterans groups.
The House voted 428-1 on Wednesday to pass a bill that would ban all imports from the Chinese region of Xinjiang unless the U.S. government determines that the products were not made with forced labor.
Why it matters: Both the Trump and Biden administrations, as well as several foreign parliaments, have recognized China's repression of Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in Xinjiang as genocide.
If the new round of nuclear talks beginning Thursday in Vienna fails to yield progress, the U.S. and its European allies are likely to take steps to increase the pressure on Iran.
State of play: The U.S. and the E3 — France, Germany and the U.K. — accused Iran of taking maximalist positions and failing to negotiate seriously in the last round, which ended on Friday.
A rare visit to Iran by UAE national security adviser Tahnoun bin Zayed Al Nahyan on Monday signaled a shift in relations between the two Gulf adversaries as the Emiratis seek to de-escalate tensions with Tehran.
Why it matters: The visit was part of a broader diplomatic push by the UAE, which has reached out to regional rivals like Turkey, Syria and Qatar in recent months in an attempt to stabilize relations.
ANKARA, Turkey — Turkey's deepening currency crisis could mark the definitive end of the country's economic success story and is making ordinary citizens poorer.
Driving the news: Turkey's currency is fluctuating on a daily basis and has lost 45% of its value against the dollar this year. Investors are abandoning Turkish assets due to concerns about the Central Bank’s ability to control inflation. Ordinary citizens are rushing to convert their savings to foreign currencies and gold.
Israeli Minister of Defense Benny Gantz will visit Washington Thursday as part of a renewed diplomatic push to influence the U.S. position on Iran amid the impasse in the nuclear talks.
The backstory: There is an internal debate inside the Israeli government about the best way to influence the U.S. position, with Gantz and Foreign Minister Yair Lapid growing concerned with Prime Minister Naftali Bennett's increasingly confrontational approach, Israeli officials say.
French prosecutors said Wednesday that a Saudi man arrested in Paris over suspected links to the 2018 murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi has been released, calling the arrest a case of mistaken identity, Reuters reports.
Driving the news: Prosecutors said that after "extensive checks on the identity" of the man being held, "the warrant did not apply to him."
Polite descriptions of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s economic policies go something along the lines of “unorthodox” or “going against the grain.”
Put more bluntly, his ideas appear to tap into the growing urge of unconventional leaders — and their followers — to challenge truisms long held by the global ruling elite.
Social Democrat Olaf Scholz was sworn in as chancellor of Germany on Wednesday, succeeding Angela Merkel after 16 years and launching a new era of German and European politics.
Why it matters: Scholz, a center-left pragmatist who served as finance minister and vice chancellor in Merkel's last government, will lead Europe's largest economy in a coalition with the environmentalist Greens and pro-business Free Democrats.
Australia is joining the U.S. in a diplomatic boycott of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympic Games in protest of human rights abuses committed by China's government, Prime Minister Scott Morrison confirmed Wednesday.
Driving the news: After the Biden administration's announcement that U.S. officials won't attend the Games due to the ongoing genocide of Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in the Xinjiang region of China, Morrison said at a Sydney briefing that Australia would follow suit as "it's the right thing to do."
Chile's Congress overwhelmingly passed a bill Tuesday to legalize same-sex marriage and allow same-sex couples to adopt children, per the New York Times.
Why it matters: It's a major, hardfought win for LGBTQ+ rights activists that highlights just how much politics and society has changed over the past 10 years in the majority-Catholic Latin American country with a reputation for being conservative, the NYT notes.
Opposition leaders from Belarus to Venezuela and Hong Kong will speak during the inaugural "Summit for Democracy" this week, according to an official schedule obtained by Axios.
Why it matters: The Biden administration has timed the summit with the rollout of a number of pro-democracy initiatives, including the first-ever U.S. government strategy for countering corruption.
