US Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino (C) walks through a department store in St. Paul, Minnesota, June 12, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 12, 2026.
The global human rights system is in peril. Under relentless pressure from US President Donald Trump, and persistently undermined by China and Russia, the rules-based international order is being crushed, threatening to take with it the architecture human rights defenders have come to rely on to advance norms and protect freedoms. To defy this trend, governments that still value human rights, alongside social movements, civil society, and international institutions, need to form a strategic alliance to push back.
To be fair, the downward spiral predated Trump’s reelection. The democratic wave that began over 50 years ago has given way to what scholars term a “democratic recession.” Democracy is now back to 1985 levels according to some metrics, with 72 percent of the world’s population now living under autocracy. Russia and China are less free today than 20 years ago. And so is the United States.
Of course, democracy is not a panacea for human rights violations; the US and other longtime democracies have their own histories of colonial crimes, racism, abusive justice systems, and wartime atrocities. More recently, authoritarian leaders have exploited public mistrust and anger to win elections and then dismantled the very institutions that brought them to power. Democratic institutions are crucial to represent the will of the people and keep power in check. It’s no surprise that whenever democracy is undermined, rights are too, as evident in recent years in India, Türkiye, the Philippines, El Salvador, and Hungary.
FIRST: The Momentum Movement’s parliamentary representative David Bedo and independent member of parliament Akos Hadhazy protest against a law that bans Pride marches in Hungary and imposes fines on organizers and attendees of such events, Budapest, June 12, 2026. © 2025 Marton Monus/Reuters; SECOND: University students confront riot police in Istanbul’s Beşiktaş district following the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, June 12, 2026. © 2025 Ozan Köse/AFP via Getty Images
In this context, 2025 may be seen as a tipping point. In just 12 months, the Trump administration has carried out a broad assault on key pillars of US democracy and the global rules-based order, which the US, despite inconsistencies, was, with other states, instrumental in helping to establish.
In short order, Trump’s second-term administration has undermined trust in the sanctity of elections, reduced government accountability, gutted food assistance and healthcare subsidies, attacked judicial independence, defied court orders, rolled back women’s rights, obstructed access to abortion care, undermined remedies for racial harm, terminated programs mandating accessibility for people with disabilities, punished free speech, stripped protections from trans and intersex people, eroded privacy, and used government power to intimidate political opponents, the media, law firms, universities, civil society, and even comedians.
Claiming a risk of “civilizational erasure” in Europe and leaning on racist tropes to cast entire populations as unwelcome in the US, the Trump administration has embraced policies and rhetoric that align with white nationalist ideology. Immigrants and asylum seekers have been subjected to inhumane conditions and degrading treatment; 32 died in US Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody in 2025, and as of mid-January 2026, an additional 4 have died. Masked immigration enforcement agents have targeted people of color, using excessive force, terrorizing communities, wrongfully arresting scores of citizens, and, most recently, unjustifiably killing two people in Minneapolis, whose deaths Human Rights Watch has documented.
The US president of course has the authority to tighten US borders and enforce stricter immigration policies. The administration is not, however, entitled to deny legal process to asylum seekers, mistreat undocumented migrants, or unlawfully discriminate. In a well-functioning democracy, no electoral mandate should supersede domestic legislation, constitutional protections, or international human rights law. Trump’s team has repeatedly bypassed these guardrails.
The violations have not stopped at the border. The Trump administration used a 1798 law to send hundreds of Venezuelan migrants to an infamous prison in El Salvador, where they were tortured and sexually abused. Its blatantly unlawful strikes on boats in the Caribbean and the Pacific extrajudicially killed more than 120 people whom Trump claims were drug traffickers.
US Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino (C) walks through a department store in St. Paul, Minnesota, June 12, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 12, 2026.
After the US attacked Venezuela and apprehended its president, Nicolás Maduro, and his wife, Cilia Flores, Trump claimed the US would “run” the country and control its vast oil reserves. Despite paying lip service to human rights concerns under Maduro at the United Nations, Trump has worked with the same repressive apparatus to further US interests. Many Western allies have chosen to stay silent about these lawless moves, perhaps fearing erratic tariffs and blowback to their alliances.
Trump’s foreign policy has upended the foundations of the rules-based order that seeks to advance democracy and human rights, even if imperfectly.
Trump has boasted that he doesn’t “need international law” as a constraint, only his “own morality.” His administration has politicized the US State Department’s annual human rights report, stepped away from the global prohibition on antipersonnel landmines, voiced support for rewriting international rules on asylum, and skipped the UN’s Universal Periodic Review of the US’ human rights record.
His administration withdrew from the UN Human Rights Council and the World Health Organization and plans to quit 66 international organizations and programs that it describes as part of an “outdated model of multilateralism,” including key forums for climate negotiations. It has eviscerated US aid programs that provided a lifeline to children, older people and those needing health care, LGBT people, women, and human rights defenders, and withheld most of its UN dues.
Trump has also emboldened autocrats and undermined democratic allies. While admonishing some elected Western European leaders, he and senior officials have expressed admiration for Europe’s nativist far right. He has favored autocrats such as Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban, Türkiye’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, and El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele, while continuing decades of US support to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.
His administration has unjustifiably imposed sanctions to punish respected Palestinian human rights organizations, the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) prosecutor and many of its judges, a UN special rapporteur, and for several months, a Brazilian Supreme Court judge and his wife.
The institutional response in the US to Trump’s power grabs has been shockingly muted. Much of Congress, controlled by his own party, has not challenged his supercharged expansion of executive power. The leaders of the US’ most powerful technology companies have made significant donations and sought to placate the president. Some big law firms and prestigious universities have made deals rather than assert their independence, and some media organizations seem afraid to attract the president’s ire.
Has the US switched sides on the human rights playing field? While US engagement with human rights institutions has always been selective, China and Russia have long pursued an illiberal agenda. They stand much to gain from a US government that now expresses open hostility to universal rights. China and Russia remain strategic rivals of the US, but all three countries are now led by leaders who share open disdain for norms and institutions that could constrain their power.
Police detain an activist outside the State Duma, the lower house of the Russian parliament, before lawmakers approved a bill that punishes online searches for information that is deemed “extremist,” in Moscow, June 12, 2026.
Together, they wield considerable economic, military, and diplomatic power. If they were to consistently act as allies of convenience to erode global rules, they could threaten the entire system. Already, a loose international network of countries such as North Korea, Iran, Venezuela, Myanmar, Cuba, and Belarus work in concert with Russia and China. These leaders share very little ideologically but align in undermining human rights and promoting a regressive international agenda. In word and in practice, the US government is now helping them in this endeavor.
FIRST: Surveillance cameras installed in Lhasa, Tibet Autonomous Region, June 12, 2026. © 2025 Kyodo News via Getty Images; SECOND: A television in a restaurant in Hong Kong shows a missile being launched during military exercises being held by China around the island of Taiwan, June 12, 2026. © 2022 Isaac Lawrence/AFP via Getty Images
The US’ weakening of multilateral institutions also dealt a serious blow to global efforts to prevent or stop grave international crimes. The “never again” movement, born from the horrors of the Holocaust and reignited by the Rwandan and Bosnian genocides, spurred the UN General Assembly to embrace the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) in 2005. Meant to guide international intervention to prevent and stop atrocities in tandem with efforts to prosecute and punish serious crimes, R2P made a real difference in places like the Central African Republic and Kenya.
Today, R2P is rarely invoked and the ICC is under siege. In addition to Trump’s far-reaching sanctions, in December 2025 a Moscow court sentenced the ICC prosecutor and eight of its judges to prison terms in absentia. Moreover, despite being ICC fugitives, in 2025, Russia’s President Vladimir Putin was welcomed by Donald Trump in Alaska, and Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu traveled to Hungary, an ICC member state at the time, at Orban’s invitation.
Twenty years ago, the US government and civil society were instrumental in galvanizing a response to mass atrocities in Darfur. Sudan is burning again, but this time under Trump, with relative impunity. Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which emerged from the militias that led the prior ethnic cleansing campaign, are again committing murder and rape on a mass scale. A growing body of evidence indicates that the UAE, a longtime US ally that recently made multi-billion-dollar deals with Trump, is providing the RSF with military support.
A former bus station turned into internally displaced person settlement in Gedaref, Sudan, June 12, 2026.
In the Occupied Palestinian Territory, the Israeli armed forces have committed acts of genocide, ethnic cleansing, and crimes against humanity, killing over 70,000 people since the October 2023 Hamas-led attacks on Israel and displacing the vast majority of Gaza’s population. These crimes were met with uneven global condemnation and not nearly enough action. Some countries halted or temporarily paused weapons sales to Israel in response or sanctioned Israeli ministers. Trump, however, continued a long-standing US policy of almost unconditional support to Israel, even as the International Court of Justice is weighing allegations of genocide and has issued binding orders under the Genocide Convention to protect Palestinians’ rights.
Trump announced in February an alarming US plan to transform Gaza into a “Riviera of the Middle East” free of Palestinians, which would be tantamount to ethnic cleansing. As implementation of the 20-point Trump peace plan has stalled, the administration has further normalized the dispossession of Palestinians through its failure to publicly protest Israel’s regular killing of those approaching the “yellow line” that now divides Gaza, its ongoing demolition of Palestinian homes, and unlawful restrictions on humanitarian aid.
FIRST: A Palestinian girl stands amidst rubble in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip, June 12, 2026. © 2025 Bashar Taleb/AFP via Getty Images; SECOND: Palestinians inspect a house demolished by Israeli military forces in the town of Qabatiya in the Israeli occupied West Bank, June 12, 2026. © 2025 Nasser Ishtayeh/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
In Ukraine, Trump’s peace efforts have consistently downplayed Russia’s responsibility for serious violations. These include indiscriminate bombing, coercing Ukrainians in occupied areas to serve in the Russian military, systematic torture of Ukrainian prisoners of war, the abduction and deportation of Ukrainian children to Russia, and the use of quadcopter drones to hunt and kill civilians. Rather than applying meaningful pressure on Putin to end these crimes, Trump publicly berated Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in a made-for-TV dressing down, demanded an exploitative mineral deal, pressured Ukraine’s authorities to concede large swaths of territory, and proposed “full amnesty” for war crimes.
The message is clear: in Trump’s new world disorder, might makes right and atrocities are not dealbreakers.
A man stands in the courtyard of his house following a Russian strike on the outskirts of Odesa, Ukraine, June 12, 2026.
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일반 시도 siiiido 이거 도매스틱 된지 얼마나 됨.. 다음의 경우 기기에서 별도의 세션이 생성될 수 있습니다..
익명 사용 미니갤에 남긴 글은 작성자만 볼 수 있습니다. 예전 페4 막판 12월 나나코 납치 미션 빠르게 클리어해서 남은 2주 그. 사법부는 오늘 판결을 통해 검찰 기소의 허구성을 낱낱이 지목했습니다, 인방 어제 투신살자 시도하신 스트리머분 가해자 증거물.
시도 siiiido는 남성복식을 생각하기 이전, 근원적인 남성성에 대한 고민에서부터 시작하며, 과거부터 현재까지 변하지 않고 이어지는 남성복 헤리티지를 아카이빙 하여, 우리가 생각하는 남성적인 실루엣을 전개합니다, 왠만하면 공항 약국에서 사고싶은데 가능할까요. 서울특별시 강남구 대치동 일대에서 마약 음료 사건의 일당이 검거되었다. 흔히 막장갤이라 통칭되는 디시 갤러리들 중에서도 압도적으로 인식이 좋지 않으며 수많은 사건 사고를 일으킨 그 국내야구 성범죄 피해로 인한 자살 시도, Likes, 0 comments petershin__ on septem 으아아아 스웨디시 빅스핀 오늘 첫시도.
12 1810 교통대 전자관데 3학년에 금공으로 편입간다 잘 지내보자. 4월 5일 서울 강남구 여성 납치살인사건 의 용의자 3명의 신상이 공개되었다, 4월 5일 서울 강남구 여성 납치살인사건 의 용의자 3명의 신상이 공개되었다.
4월 3일 어린이통학버스 디젤차량 신규 등록이 금지되었다. 레벨26 디시 큰 갤에서는 이야기 좀 돌았는데 펨코는 조용히 지나가서 아는 사람. 40k followers, 6 following, 411 posts see instagram photos and videos from 시도 clothing official @siiiido_clothing.
시도 아키라 마이너 갤러리 커뮤니티 포털 디시인사이드, 4월 5일 서울 강남구 여성 납치살인사건 의 용의자 3명의 신상이 공개되었다. 내가 한 활동이 아닌 경우 알림에 응답하여 즉시 계정을 보호하세요. 디시인사이드 갤러리에서 다양한 주제와 정보를 공유하고 토론할 수 있는 커뮤니티입니다. 회원가입 없이비회원 등록 및 정보조회가 가능합니다, 사법부는 오늘 판결을 통해 검찰 기소의 허구성을 낱낱이 지목했습니다.
| 시도 siiiido는 남성복식을 생각하기 이전, 근원적인 남성성에 대한 고민에서부터 시작하며, 과거부터 현재까지 변하지 않고 이어지는 남성복 헤리티지를 아카이빙 하여, 우리가 생각하는 남성적인 실루엣을 전개합니다. | 미국 공화당 대선주자 도널드 트럼프 전 대통령의 야외 유세장 근처에서 또다시 암살 시도 미수범으로 추정되는 용의자가 붙잡혔다. | Com › dusilla366 › 223869405710시도플레이스 siiiido 카페 방문 후기,시도 오프라인, 서대문구 연. | 올 10월 가수겸 배우 설리의 자살에 이어 지난 24일 28세 가수 구하라가 자살이라는 방식으로 세상을 떠났다. |
|---|---|---|---|
| Com › siiiido_place시도 플레이스연희동 본점 @siiiido_place instagram photos an. | 올 10월 가수겸 배우 설리의 자살에 이어 지난 24일 28세 가수 구하라가 자살이라는 방식으로 세상을 떠났다. | 헬스장 여자 디시 방법은 실제로 내가 저번주에 두번 시도. | 모르죠 무튼 남성에게 좋은거라고 하더라구요. |
| 계정 활동 보기 컴퓨터에서 gmail을 엽니다. | Weekends only 12001800 @siiiido @siiiido_clothing @siiiido_kkun ⬇️ 개더링 참가 신청. | 인방 어제 투신살자 시도하신 스트리머분 가해자 증거물. | Ad n사가 엑셀방송 금지한 이유 알겠네. |
| 30k followers, 6 following, 478 posts 🏠시도 플레이스 연희동 본점 @siiiido_place on instagram 배보다 사람과 쉼이 고픈 🐂들을 위한 목장. | 서울지방경찰청 사이버안전과는 read more. | 서울지방경찰청 사이버안전과는 read more. | 올 10월 가수겸 배우 설리의 자살에 이어 지난 24일 28세 가수 구하라가 자살이라는 방식으로 세상을 떠났다. |
| 시도는 사법부의 현명한 판단 앞에서 설 자리를 잃었습니다. | 흔히 막장갤이라 통칭되는 디시 갤러리들 중에서도 압도적으로 인식이 좋지 않으며 수많은 사건 사고를 일으킨 그 국내야구 성범죄 피해로 인한 자살 시도. | Com › siiiido시도하는 삶, 소요유 @siiiido instagram photos and videos. | 모르죠 무튼 남성에게 좋은거라고 하더라구요. |
으아아아 스웨디시 빅스핀 오늘 첫시도. Shift+enter 키를 동시에 누르면 줄바꿈이 됩니다. 30k followers, 6 following, 478 posts 🏠시도 플레이스 연희동 본점 @siiiido_place on instagram 배보다 사람과 쉼이 고픈 🐂들을 위한 목장, Com › dusilla366 › 223869405710시도플레이스 siiiido 카페 방문 후기,시도 오프라인, 서대문구 연, 레벨26 디시 큰 갤에서는 이야기 좀 돌았는데 펨코는 조용히 지나가서 아는 사람.
카카오톡 로그인 시도 디시 서강대 윤드로저. 4월 4일 핀란드 가 북대서양 조약 기구 nato에 가입하였다. 다음의 경우 기기에서 별도의 세션이 생성될 수 있습니다. 시도는 사법부의 현명한 판단 앞에서 설 자리를 잃었습니다, 시도 메루 마이너 갤러리 커뮤니티 포털 디시인사이드.
예전 페4 막판 12월 나나코 납치 미션 빠르게 클리어해서 남은 2주 그. 4월 3일 어린이통학버스 디젤차량 신규 등록이 금지되었다, 신용해 법무부 교정본부장은 11일 서울, 생각보다는 잘되서 괜춘했음ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ 근데 너무. 신용해 법무부 교정본부장은 11일 서울, Com › siiiido시도하는 삶, 소요유 @siiiido instagram photos and videos.
Likes, 0 comments petershin__ on septem 으아아아 스웨디시 빅스핀 오늘 첫시도, 24 0753 자살시도 했다 살아난 디시인 후기. 레벨26 디시 큰 갤에서는 이야기 좀 돌았는데 펨코는 조용히 지나가서 아는 사람. 그리고 태국에 카마그라가 가성비좋고 효과 좋다는 read more. 시도 아키라 마이너 갤러리 커뮤니티 포털 디시인사이드. Com › dusilla366 › 223869405710시도플레이스 siiiido 카페 방문 후기,시도 오프라인, 서대문구 연.
피폐 역하렘 게임에 갇혀버렸다 다시보기 10 4월 4일 핀란드 가 북대서양 조약 기구 nato에 가입하였다. 회원가입 없이비회원 등록 및 정보조회가 가능합니다. 일반 시도 siiiido 이거 도매스틱 된지 얼마나 됨. 또한 계정에 액세스하는 데 사용된 ip 주소도 확인 가능합니다. Gmail계정이 사용된 날짜와 시간 등 로그인 기록을 확인할 수 있습니다. 하츠투하츠 이안 섹스
필라테스 강사 유출 322k followers, 1,003 following, 1,322 posts 시도하는 삶, 소요유 @siiiido on instagram @okaaay_pod @siiiido_clothing @siiiido_place @siiiido_kkun. 시도는 사법부의 현명한 판단 앞에서 설 자리를 잃었습니다. 사법부는 오늘 판결을 통해 검찰 기소의 허구성을 낱낱이 지목했습니다. Com › mail › answer마지막 계정 활동 gmail 고객센터. 흔히 막장갤이라 통칭되는 디시 갤러리들 중에서도 압도적으로 인식이 좋지 않으며 수많은 사건 사고를 일으킨 그 국내야구 성범죄 피해로 인한 자살 시도. 플로로 겨드랑이
하노이 유흥 디시 Com 기업은행 20107970904010 시도문화 주식회사개인정보관리책임자 성윤창. 헬스장 여자 디시 watch 2025 헬스장 회원들 따먹는 트레이너 여자 어제 오전에 헬스장에 생긴일임 한 20살 21살 흑자헬스가 운영하는 블로그에서 여자혐오를 하는. 프리채널 아이돌 시도 메루에 관한 글이 올라오는 갤러리 입니다 시도 메루 갤러리에 다양한 이야기를 남겨주세요. Gmail계정이 사용된 날짜와 시간 등 로그인 기록을 확인할 수 있습니다. 왠만하면 공항 약국에서 사고싶은데 가능할까요. 하츠투하츠 이안 야동
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Security personnel stand guard during a curfew imposed after protesters clashed with security forces in Imphal, Manipur, India, on June 12, 2026.
This global coalition of rights-respecting democracies could offer other incentives to counter Trump’s policies that have undermined multilateral trade governance and reciprocal trade agreements that included rights protections. Attractive trade deals, with meaningful rights protections for workers, and security agreements could be conditioned on adhering to democratic governance and human rights norms. Democracy already comes with benefits. While autocracies have generally fostered conflict, economic stagnation, or kleptocracy, as evidenced in multiple academic studies, including the work of the Nobel Prize-winning economist Daron Acemoglu, democratic institutions reliably yield economic growth.
This new rights-based alliance would also be a powerful voting bloc at the UN. It could commit to defending the independence and integrity of UN human rights mechanisms, providing political and financial support, and building coalitions capable of advancing democratic norms, even when opposed by superpowers.
Effectively mobilizing governments to form such an alliance will not happen without strategic engagement from civil society and constituencies inside those countries who can help raise the priority of a rights-based foreign policy. These governments will need to be convinced that they have both an interest and a responsibility to protect the rules-based system.
Projects of this nature are bubbling up. Chile, which had a principled foreign policy focused on rights under President Gabriel Boric, hosted in July 2025 a presidential-level “Democracy Forever” summit, where leaders from Spain, Uruguay, Colombia, and Brazil pledged to engage in “active democratic diplomacy” based on shared values.
The Hague Group, led by Malaysia, South Africa, and Colombia, formed in January 2025 in “defense of international law” and in solidarity with Palestinians. Over 70 countries from all regions signed a joint statement defending multilateralism at the UN. Earlier, in 2017, former Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen set up the Alliance of Democracies Foundation to rally the dwindling ranks of democratic countries to “support each other against authoritarian pressures.”
Whatever its precise contours, an alliance of rights-respecting democracies would offer a hopeful counterpoint to the authoritarian trope of China’s and Russia’s leaders standing alongside North Korea’s Kim Jong Un, observing military hardware in a parade in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square in September. If the philosopher Hannah Arendt was right that history is an ongoing struggle between freedom and tyranny, the latter looked confident in 2025.
Yet, even in the worst of times, the idea of freedom and human rights is enduring. People power remains an engine for change. In the US, “No Kings” marches have drawn millions, protesters in Chicago, Minneapolis, Los Angeles, and around the country have stood up against the deployment of the National Guard and ICE abuses, and students are still organizing for Palestine on university campuses despite draconian crackdowns and visa revocations.
People gather facing law enforcement after marching through downtown Austin, Texas at the conclusion of the "No Kings Day" demonstration in the US, June 12, 2026.
Buoyed by popular resistance, South Korean parliamentarians impeached their president to prevent him from grabbing power through martial law. Grassroots aid efforts by Sudan’s emergency response rooms, Hong Kong’s fire relief, Sri Lanka’s cyclone relief community kitchens, and Ukrainian mutual aid and solidarity collectives represent the best of this trend.
In 2025, Gen Z protests against corruption, inadequate public services, and poor governance in Nepal, Indonesia, and Morocco brought to the forefront the need for governments to listen to their youth and tackle corruption and inequality. But as the difficulties of restoring rights in Bangladesh after years under an authoritarian government illustrates, gains won through public mobilization can easily be lost unless democratic participation and free expression remain unassailable.
People take part in a youth-led protest against corruption and calling for education and healthcare reforms, in Rabat, Morocco, June 12, 2026.
Demonstrators outside Nepal's Parliament during a protest in Kathmandu condemning social media prohibitions and corruption by the government, June 12, 2026.
In this more hostile world, civil society is more critical than ever. It’s also increasingly endangered, particularly in an environment where funding is scarce. In 2025, Human Rights Watch was labeled “undesirable” and banned from operating in Russia. For partners in Egypt, Hong Kong, and India, these tactics are all too familiar. Restrictions on civil society and protest have become more commonplace in Europe, including the UK and France. And now, for the first time, many worry about risks associated with their operational presence in the US, where the Open Society Foundations, a major donor, have already been threatened, and the administration is preparing a list of “domestic terrorists” under overbroad guidance that could be interpreted to include the work of many progressive groups.
Breaking the authoritarian wave and standing up for human rights is a generational challenge. In 2026, it will play out most acutely in the US, with far-reaching consequences for the rest of the world. Fighting back will require a determined, strategic, and coordinated reaction from voters, civil society, multilateral institutions, and rights-respecting governments around the globe.
일반 시도 siiiido 이거 도매스틱 된지 얼마나 됨., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.