Putin spent more than four hours on Thursday chatting with journalists and constituents about matters ranging from Moscow’s endgame in Ukraine to Putin’s favorite Russian salad. Talk of Russia’s nuanced interpretations of international law featured prominently in the discussion and offered insights into the calculus driving Putin’s continued aggression in Ukraine. Below, we outline key [...]

Yemen’s Houthi rebels seized an Israeli-linked cargo ship in the Red Sea on Sunday, taking 25 crew members hostage. The rebels claimed the hijacking was in response to the ship’s connection to Israel, and declared an intention to target ships linked to or owned by Israelis in international waters until the end of Israel’s campaign [...]

Driven by a broadly maligned interpretation of Islamic law, the Taliban has waged a violent campaign against girls’ education.  Driven by the belief that education is a human right — and the more broadly accepted view across the Muslim world that contrary to Taliban beliefs, women and girls are obligated to receive an education — [...]

Driven by a broadly maligned interpretation of Islamic law, the Taliban has waged a violent campaign against girls’ education. Driven by the belief that education is a human right — and the more broadly accepted view across the Muslim world that contrary to Taliban beliefs, women and girls are obligated to receive an education — [...]

“The conflict is long. The conflict is brutal. The conflict is intense,” said David M. Crane, formerly a chief war crimes prosecutor with the UN. Global Accountability Network , an organization Crane founded to monitor atrocities around the globe, has been following the war since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022. GAN has meticulously documented [...]

In recent months, more than a dozen American states have sought to restrict or ban drag performances, with many framing these legislative moves as aimed at protecting minors. In this explainer, JURIST unpacks the trend and highlights its worrying implications for free speech. What is drag? Drag is an art form, wherein individuals dressed in [...]

American basketball star Britney Griner was transferred to a Russian penal colony this week to serve out her nine-year sentence for possession of vape cartridges containing cannabis oil. The transfer — which comes nearly nine months after she was detained in a Moscow airport in the days leading up to Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine [...]

Seven months into Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, amid mounting evidence of Russian battlefield losses, Putin announced his country’s latest annexation of four territories. In a rambling speech that alternately sought legitimacy for the annexations in the UN Charter and railed against Western colonialism and transgender rights, the enigmatic Russian leader revealed a great deal about [...]

“This is not a bluff,” Russian President Vladimir Putin said of Moscow’s willingness to deploy nuclear weapons in Ukraine during a meandering speech on Wednesday, in which he also laid the groundwork for Russia’s annexation of several Ukrainian regions, and announced a partial military mobilization. Hours after Putin’s address, US President Joe Biden referred to [...]

Following last week’s discovery of a mass grave containing some 450 bodies in the Ukrainian town of Izium, questions of international criminal culpability loom heavily. “Russia left behind mass graves of hundreds of shot and tortured people in the Izium area. In the 21st century, such attacks against the civilian population are unthinkable and abhorrent. [...]