Weekly News Wrap: Monday, July 25, 2016

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

Africa

• Nigerian Muslims have welcomed a court ruling allowing girls to wear headscarves in government schools in Lagos state, hailing the decision as a victory for the rule of law.
• A faction of South Sudan’s armed opposition says it has temporarily replaced its leader Riek Machar, who is also the country’s first vice president, raising the prospect of more turmoil after weeks of unrest. South Sudan’s vice president and former rebel leader Riek Machar has no plans for an immediate return to Juba, his supporters said on Friday, accusing his rival President Salva Kiir of trying to oust or even kill him.
• Up to 20 people have been killed and at least 40 others wounded, according to health workers, in two days of fighting in northern Mali threatening a shaky year-old peace deal.

Middle East and Northern Africa

• Several people have been killed when a mortar bomb hit a restaurant in the government-controlled ancient quarter of the Syrian capital Damascus on Sunday, a monitor and a witness said.
• As the war rages on, Syrian children are starving to death.

Asia

• Southeast Asian nations failed to agree on maritime disputes in the South China Sea on Sunday after Cambodia blocked any mention to an international court ruling against Beijing in their statement, diplomats said.
• Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi has criticized South Korea’s move to deploy an advanced U.S. anti-missile defense system to counter threats from North Korea, saying it harmed the foundation of their mutual trust, news reports said on Monday.

Europe

• British police said on Friday there had been almost 6,200 hate crimes reported in the last month (an increase of 20% from the previous year) following the vote to leave the European Union in a referendum where immigration had been a key issue.
• France’s decision to extend a state of emergency for six months undermines human rights and the rule of law, Human Rights Watch said on Friday, joining the country’s top magistrate union in criticizing the legislation.
• Several attacks occurred in Germany over the past week: a shooting near a shopping center in Munich where the 18-year-old shooter had planned the attack for over a year; an apparent suicide bomb explosion in Ansbach injured 12; an attacker with a machete killed a pregnant woman in Reutlingen and injured five others, and a person used an axe in a train to injure four in Weurzberg.

Americas

• Authorities are building a new containment boom to fight an oil spill in a major western Canadian river, officials said on Saturday, after the spill breached a previous barrier and threatened the drinking water of several communities along the coast.
• The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation gave Brazil the tip that led to arrests this week of 11 suspected militants who had discussed a possible attack on the upcoming Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, according to a Brazilian prosecutor.

Oceania

• Australia will indefinitely detain people convicted of “terrorism-related” charges if it feels they pose an ongoing danger to society upon their release, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has said.

UN/World

• Global warming is accelerating, and its effects are being felt around the globe.
• The International Olympic Committee (IOC) says it will not impose a blanket ban on Russia for next month’s Rio Olympics over the nation’s doping record.
• The United Nations Security Council on Friday authorized U.N. countries to help eliminate Libya’s stockpile of chemicals that could be used to develop toxic weapons amid concern they could fall into the hands of militant groups.
• The United Nations hopes to convene a new round of intra-Syrian peace talks in Geneva in August, the UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura said on Friday.