Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro at his swearing-in ceremony at the Supreme Court in Caracas, Venezuela, Thursday, Jan. 10, 2019.
AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos
Maduro, who was sworn in for his second term on Jan. 10, has rigged elections, jailed rivals and plunged Venezuela into crisis. But Trump’s proposed ‘military option’ to remove him remains unpopular.
President Trump says an alliance with Saudi Arabia is necessary, despite evidence the country’s crown prince ordered the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
‘It’s really difficult to live as a rock musician in Bangladesh,“ says Samir Hafiz, a guitarist in the heavy metal band Warfaze.
Facebook
For decades, Bangladesh had a very vibrant – and highly political – rock scene. But the genre is struggling to survive the country’s crackdown on dissent and increasing Islamic conservatism.
Trump, like Obama before him, has enjoyed a close relationship with Saudi Arabia’s royal family.
AP Photo/Evan Vucci
Jeffrey Fields, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences
Critics say Trump’s defense of Saudi Arabia in the Khashoggi affair betrays American values. But many presidents have cozied up to dictators, ignoring human rights abuses to serve US interests.
Costa Ricans held a march in solidarity with Nicaraguan refugees on Aug. 25, 2018. An estimated 500,000 Nicaraguans live in Costa Rica, with more arriving daily as crisis in the country deepens.
Reuters/Juan Carlos Ulate
Nicaraguan migrants send over US$1 billion home each year. This money has played a changing role in domestic politics – first boosting the Ortega regime and, now, sustaining the uprising against him.
Cameroonian President Paul Biya votes in the presidential elections in the capital Yaounde. He has been in power for 36 years.
EFE/EPA/Nic Bothma
President Paul Biya’s credibility and legitimacy are increasingly being tarnished, amid growing support for opposition candidates.
Mexican soldiers killed up to 300 student protesters and arrested 1,000 more on Oct. 3, 1968, in an event that’s come to be known as the Tlatelolco massacre.
AP Photo
Fifty years ago, soldiers gunned down hundreds of student protesters in a Mexico City plaza. It was neither the first nor the last time Mexico’s army would be deployed against its own citizens.
The financial crisis provoked by the lira’s fall isn’t the true drama in Turkey. The real drama is a democratic transformation threatens the increasingly authoritarian president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
FIFA president Gianni Infantino and Russian president Vladimir Putin.
Kremlin
With its attempt to purge the country’s courts of 40 percent of its judges, Poland’s right-wing ruling party passed another milestone on the path towards establishment of a one-party state.
A man reads a newspaper the day after the presidential and parliamentary elections in Istanbul, June 25, 2018.
Aris Messinis/AFP
The Turkish election highlights the growing strength of Turkish opposition despite the defeat and approves of a president who could be weaker than he would like to appear.
Venezuela has freed 79 political prisoners in recent months, to global plaudits. But the hard-line regime has also charged 100 military officials with conspiracy. Does President Maduro fear overthrow?
Fewer than 20 countries worldwide have recognized the re-election of Nicolás Maduro as Venezuela’s president.
Reuters/Carlos Garcia Rawlins
Maduro’s landslide May 20 re-election marks the official death of democracy in Venezuela. Dozens of nations worldwide have declared the vote illegitimate, and the US imposed new sanctions.
Despite his 20 percent approval rate, President Nicolas Maduro is almost assured a win in Venezuela’s May 20 election. The opposition says the vote is a “farce.”
REUTERS/Carlos Garcia Rawlins
The Venezuelan opposition is asking people not to vote in the country’s May 20 election, which they call a ‘farce.’ President Maduro regime has jailed or blacklisted most of his competitors.
A sign at a candlelit vigil tells the story of a country sliding further into authoritarianism.
DAI KUROKAWA/EPA
If the referendum goes President Pierre Nkrunziza’s way, it will also be a further blow to ordinary Burundians, who live in a state of hardship and adversity.
Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on March 1, 2014. Is he headed for another election victory?
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Turkey’s June 24 elections are the first in 16 years that could be politically meaningful. Opposition parties seem revitalised and could launch anti-Erdoğan coalition into the second round.