Weekly News Wrap: Monday, August 1, 2016

Here’s your weekly selection of international law and international relations headlines from around the world:

Africa

• United Nations children’s agency UNICEF said it is continuing its aid work in northeastern Nigeria, a former stronghold of Islamist militant group Boko Haram, despite an attack on a humanitarian convoy earlier this week.
• Several people have been killed in an assault on a police base in the Somali capital, Mogadishu.
• An aircraft wing part found in Tanzania is “highly likely” to be part of missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, an Australian government minister said on Friday, in what would be the second confirmed piece of the jetliner.

Middle East and Northern Africa

• A Syrian maternity hospital in a rebel-held area of Idlib province was extensively damaged on Friday after a direct hit, international charity Save the Children, which supports the hospital, said.
• Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has lashed out at Western leaders for failing to show solidarity with Ankara over a failed coup attempt, saying countries who worry more about the fate of the perpetrators than democracy cannot be Turkey’s friends.
• Up to one million Iraqis risk facing displacement in the coming weeks as fighting intensifies ahead of a government offensive to retake the northern city of Mosul from ISIL, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).
• Islamic State called on its group members to carry out jihad in Russia in a nine-minute YouTube video on Sunday. Islamic State, losing territory and on the retreat in Iraq and Syria, has claimed credit for a surge in global attacks this summer, most of them in France and Germany.

Asia

• British Prime Minister Theresa May was concerned about the security implications of a planned Chinese investment in the new Hinkley Point nuclear plant and intervened personally to delay the project, a former colleague and a source said on Saturday.
• Nepal’s Maithil women break traditional gender roles.
• The United States military said on Friday it was preparing for the biggest land return in Okinawa since 1972, as it faces a surge in opposition to its presence following the arrest of one its civilian contractors for the murder of a local woman.

Europe

• Almost as many Europe-bound asylum seekers and irregular migrants have died on desperate journeys so far this year than in all of 2015, the deadliest year on record for refugees.
• Belgium charged a man with planning to commit murder in a terrorist attack and released his brother after a series of house searches on Friday evening, federal prosecutors said.

Americas

• Brazilian authorities on Saturday arrested a man wanted since 1992 for allegedly committing war crimes during fighting that raged in the former Yugoslavia.
• U.S.-backed forces have now seized control of almost 70 percent of Manbij in northern Syria from Islamic State after making rapid advances over the past two days, a spokesman said on Sunday.

Oceania

• The head of an Australian inquiry into the abuse of children in detention resigned on Monday, four days after being appointed to investigate prison video of aboriginal boys being abused, citing his lack of support from the country’s indigenous leaders.
• Australians have rallied against the alleged mistreatment of young people in detention, including the hooding and physical restraint of teens, amid calls for an inquiry into the abuse to be expanded and the United Nation High Commission on Human Rights called on Australia on Friday to compensate children abused in prison.

UN/World

• The U.N. Deputy Special Envoy for Syria on Sunday held talks with Syrian officials in Damascus to sound out their position on how to break an impasse hindering the proposed resumption of peace talks around the end of August.