Artificial intelligence (AI) conjures a range of images from the astonishing to the abominable. AI refers to a variety of technologies that are capable of analyzing large sets of data and using what they learn to inform decisions. Although machine learning technology has proved useful in the field of medicine to discover and develop new treatments—thereby saving lives—it is also apparent that AI is rife with dangers. AI has the potential to threaten citizens’ fundamental rights, with applications such as facial recognition in public spaces.  Aiming to channel the massive potential of AI to do good for society and limit its application where dangerous, on April 21 the European Union (EU) unveiled an array of proposed regulations to make Europe the “gold standard” for AI innovation and consumer protection. While the EU is eager to foster technological innovation and compete with global tech leaders China and the U.S., its sweeping […]

The European Union and the United Kingdom have engaged in seemingly interminable legal negotiations since 2016, when U.K. voters approved a motion to depart from the confederation in a “Brexit” referendum. Almost five years and three Prime Ministers later, the U.K. has yet to work out some of the details. Recently, the island of Ireland has become a cauldron of resentment between the two parties. Northern Ireland, which is part of the U.K., shares a long and unfortified border with the Republic of Ireland, an arrangement that both countries desire to maintain. Ensuring that a physical barrier would not separate the two countries required a provision of the Brexit agreement called the Northern Ireland Protocol. This Brexit fixture has been controversial among Unionist parties within Northern Ireland and its implementation would have dire consequences for trade between N.I. and the rest of the U.K. When Prime Minister Boris Johnson unilaterally […]

Little was initially known on November 4, when Ethiopian federal forces invaded their own region, as the events were transpiring. The country’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed shut off internet access to the people of Tigray, a region in northern Ethiopia along the border of Eritrea, and cut off their communication with the outside world as his troops engaged in conflict with the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (T.P.L.F), the region’s ruling faction. The intelligence that has come to light three months after the conflict began provides damning details about the suffering endured both by the residents of Tigray and by the swathes of Eritrean refugees present in the region. Horrifying as may be Ethiopia’s incursion against the people of Tigray, especially shocking is that the nation’s leaders invited Eritrean military forces to join them in the oppression of its own citizens. The seeds for Ethiopia’s invasion of the Tigray region were […]

In a stunning setback for Myanmar’s young democratic government and to the chagrin of international democracies, the country’s military performed a successful coup d’état on February 1, 2021. The de facto leader of Myanmar Aung San Suu Kyi and several members of her National League for Democracy Party were detained by the military, as the military’s top general Min Hlaing Aung then took over Kyi’s post. In response to the overthrow of a government with strong approval from the people, enraged protestors have flooded the streets of Yangon—Myanmar’s largest city—and various other major cities throughout the country. Suu Kyi’s NLD Party won 83% of the vote in a landslide election; however, the military claims that the election was tainted by voter fraud. Military officials took the dramatic step of a coup, therefore, out of a supposed concern for the integrity of the election. Although the country is racked with fury […]

Since China first hoisted its flag on the soil of Hong Kong in 1997, the former British colony has suffered a downward spiral away from autonomy; its citizens have been stripped of democratic rights and found themselves increasingly subject to the whims of the authoritarian mainland government. Prominent among a recent string of Beijing’s power displays was the mass arrest of 53 people by the Hong Kong police on January 6, 2021, an action taken under the authority of a relatively new national security law—officially named the Law of the People’s Republic of China on Safeguarding National Security in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region—that the Chinese government enacted last June. Police notably cited this controversial law last December when they charged the Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai with “colluding with foreign forces and endangering national security.” The foreign ministers of the United States, Canada, the UK, and Australia, […]

In a remarkable change in the Middle East, three countries — the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Sudan — have taken steps towards normalizing relations with the State of Israel in recent months. These are the first countries to do so since Jordan made peace with Israel in 1994. These countries, along with Egypt, are the only four in the Middle East that currently have diplomatic relations with Israel.    This decision marks a radical shift by Arab nations from the Arab Peace Initiative of 2002. The resolution, upheld by a unanimous vote and signed by both the UAE and Bahrain, established several demands that, until they were met, would prevent signatories from establishing diplomatic relations with Israel. Key conditions for peace included establishing a Palestinian state according to the Israel-Palestine borders as drawn in 1967 with East Jerusalem as a capital. Following the Six-Day War of 1967, Israel annexed […]