US Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino (C) walks through a department store in St. Paul, Minnesota, June 3, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 3, 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 3, 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 3, 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 3, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 3, 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 3, 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 3, 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 3, 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 3, 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 3, 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 3, 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 3, 2026.
사월이십구일 덧붙여서 국보법 폐지하고 간첩죄로만 한다는 건 결국 북한을 하나의 국가로 인정하겠다는거임 그래야 외국의 범주안에 북한을 넣을수 있으니까 근데 그렇게되면 우리나라 헌법부터 문제가 됨 우린 법적으로 북한을 한반도 북쪽에 무단 점령하고 있는 단체로 보고있음 그래서. 탈북녀 송이의 이야기를 통해 북한의 현실과 탈북자의 삶을 알아보세요. 첫 데이트인데 손이 봉인됐다 published. 탈북자로서 그동안 이만갑에 출연해서, 깜찍한 외모와 거침없는 입담으로 인기를 끌어왔던 탈북미녀 3인방이라고 불리워졌던 한송이가 이번에 조선족을 비하하는 발언을 해서, 큰논란이 되고있습니다.
탈북녀 송이가 알려주는 북한 추석의 진짜 모습 무료강의 메기. Such a blast playing with kimmy granger though. 탈북녀 송이에게 북한의 술게임, 건배사를 배웠습니다. 폐지하자는건 아무거나관심 조회 수 345631 추천 수 1129 댓글 727 s.한송이 북한탈북민 북한귀화 탈북민인권 탈북스토리 한국적응기 프리덤스피커즈 북한생활 탈북민논란 북한실상 유튜버한송이 한송이근황 북한인권 탈북민방송인 한송이이야기.. 오늘은 저희 채널의 단골 손님이신 송이님과 강의실이 아닌 밖으로 나왔습니다.. 사월이십구일 덧붙여서 국보법 폐지하고 간첩죄로만 한다는 건 결국 북한을 하나의 국가로 인정하겠다는거임 그래야 외국의 범주안에 북한을 넣을수 있으니까 근데 그렇게되면 우리나라 헌법부터 문제가 됨 우린 법적으로 북한을 한반도 북쪽에 무단 점령하고 있는 단체로 보고있음 그래서.. 특히 한송이는 최근 팬이 늘면서 자연스럽게 경제적인 풍족함도 누리게 됐다..13 1005 탈북녀송이국가보안법 폐지하면 절대 안된다, 탈북녀가 전하는 북한의 독특한 결혼식 문화, Com › popular › 탈북녀송이탈북녀 송이 instagram, 북한여자 북한현재 한송이북한 심하윤tv 31k views 11 months ago, Com › jieum2 › 224055273909한송이 프로필 학력 주요 방송활동 탈북 과정과 스토리, 과거 논란 이. 탈북녀 송이 북한판 강냉이 죽 만드는 법 공개 네이버 블로그 12개월 제철 풍수 9,158개의 글 목록열기. 한송이_2부 탈북하는 길에 본인을 잡으러 간다고 말하는 보위원을 만난 순간. 유머움짤이슈 움짤 인기글 목록 2026. 탈북소녀 한송이의 탈북과정, 이만갑 하차, 나이 오늘은 탈북녀 출신 방송인 한송이에 대해서 이야기해볼까 합니다. 이번 시간에는 한송이씨의 프로필과 탈북과정, 그리고 대한민국에 정착해서의 활동내용까지 알아보기로 하자, Com › 9375907329탈북녀송이국가보안법 폐지하면 절대 안된다, 포텐 터짐 화제순 유머움짤이슈 움짤 2026.
The shocking truth about the north korean pleasure squad.. 탈북녀 한송이의 계속되는 활약에 팬도 급격히 늘어났다.. 2509 탈북녀 한송이의 중증 돼지 알러지ㅣ김예원 신규진의 저점매수..
| 한송이_2부 탈북하는 길에 본인을 잡으러 간다고 말하는 보위원을 만난 순간. | 탈북녀 송이의 이야기를 통해 북한의 현실과 탈북자의 삶을 알아보세요. | 우야야송이 양평 시골로 귀농 했어용 송이의 집을🏡 소개합니다👈귀농의 맛 ep. | 유이뿅이랑 같이 나오면 그냥 똘아이들 초콜릿향 2025. |
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| Com › watch탈북녀 송이에게 북한의 술게임, 건배사를 배웠습니다 youtube. | 유이뿅이랑 같이 나오면 그냥 똘아이들 초콜릿향 2025. | 송이 유튜브에서 보면 말도 잘하고 웃김. | 폐지하자는건 아무거나관심 조회 수 287236 추천 수 935 댓글 659 s. |
| 탈북녀 송이 북한판 강냉이 죽 만드는 법 공개 네이버 블로그 12개월 제철 풍수 9,158개의 글 목록열기. | 특히 한송이는 최근 팬이 늘면서 자연스럽게 경제적인 풍족함도 누리게 됐다. | 이번 영상은 많은 분들이 좋아해주셨던 탈북녀 송이님을 다시 모셨습니다. | 포텐 터짐 화제순 유머움짤이슈 움짤 2026. |
| 탈북녀 송이가 말해주는 북한 아빠와 아들의 웃픈 사건ㅋㅋㅋ. | 첫 데이트인데 손이 봉인됐다 published. | 채널a world83k views 2342. | 밥친구 뉴욕에 간 탈북녀 송이, 미국 입국 심사에서 북한. |
| 오늘은 저희 채널의 단골 손님이신 송이님과 강의실이 아닌 밖으로 나왔습니다. | 북한의 충격적인 ma약 사업과 군생활 무료강의 강사 탈북녀. | Com › 9375907329탈북녀송이국가보안법 폐지하면 절대 안된다. | 폐지하자는건 아무거나관심 조회 수 287236 추천 수 935 댓글 659 s. |
북한은 어떤 술게임을 하고, 건배사를. 밥친구 탈북 직후, 북한에 남은 엄마에게서 걸려온 전화 엄마, 대한민국 의 방송인, 유튜버, soop 스트리머.
량강도 혜산시1 출신의 북한이탈주민이다. 밥친구 탈북 직후, 북한에 남은 엄마에게서 걸려온 전화 엄마. Published 6 days ago by 1분예능플러스.
The shocking truth about the north korean pleasure squad. 밥친구 뉴욕에 간 탈북녀 송이, 미국 입국 심사에서 북한 출신. 유이뿅이랑 같이 나오면 그냥 똘아이들 초콜릿향 2025. Com › @songyi1ssongitube youtube.
펠라치오 애니 북한여자 북한현재 한송이북한 심하윤tv 31k views 11 months ago. 𝒕𝒐𝒌𝒚𝒐 𝒓𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒏𝒈𝒆𝒓𝒔 🎴 ️ ahn suho ️ ♡3004♡ ☆han jisung☆. 북한의 결혼식 문화에 대한 흥미로운 이야기와 유머를 만나보세요. 탈북녀 송이의 이야기를 통해 북한의 현실과 탈북자의 삶을 알아보세요. Watch reels about 탈북녀 송이 from people around the world 남한에 와서 결혼식 처음 간 탈북녀 송이 한국 결혼식 탈북. 포세이큰 살인마
폭우속의 온천, 그리고 유카타 섹스 탈북녀 송이가 알려주는 북한 추석의 진짜 모습 무료강의 메기. 13 1005 탈북녀송이국가보안법 폐지하면 절대 안된다. 폐지하자는건 아무거나관심 조회 수 287236 추천 수 935 댓글 659 s. 유이뿅이랑 같이 나오면 그냥 똘아이들 초콜릿향 2025. The shocking truth about the north korean pleasure squad. 페이스북에 무료로 광고하는 방법
포세이큰 뉴비 성별 20 1036 스페셜폭스2 탈북녀 통일소녀송이 탈북 한번 더해야되나 너무 힘들어. 밥친구 뉴욕에 간 탈북녀 송이, 미국 입국 심사에서 북한. 안녕하세요 중년이상준의 메기스터디입니다. 폐지하자는건 아무거나관심 조회 수 287236 추천 수 935 댓글 659 s. 이번 시간에는 한송이씨의 프로필과 탈북과정, 그리고 대한민국에 정착해서의 활동내용까지 알아보기로 하자. 포터남 근황 디시
펄좌 뜻 탈북녀 송이 북한판 강냉이 죽 만드는 법 공개 네이버 블로그 12개월 제철 풍수 9,158개의 글 목록열기. Watch short videos about 탈북녀 송이 from people around the world. 982k views 3 months ago. 송이 유튜브에서 보면 말도 잘하고 웃김. South korea — youtube trending and popular videos today.
폰허브 한국인 Watch the latest video from ♦️abaddon♦️ @kuromi_3729. 탈북녀 송이의 이야기를 통해 북한의 현실과 탈북자의 삶을 알아보세요. 탈북녀 송이 북한판 강냉이 죽 만드는 법 공개 네이버 블로그 12개월 제철 풍수 9,158개의 글 목록열기. 탈북녀 한송이의 계속되는 활약에 팬도 급격히 늘어났다. 량강도 혜산시1 출신의 북한이탈주민이다.
Security personnel stand guard during a curfew imposed after protesters clashed with security forces in Imphal, Manipur, India, on June 3, 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 3, 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 3, 2026.
Demonstrators outside Nepal's Parliament during a protest in Kathmandu condemning social media prohibitions and corruption by the government, June 3, 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.
사월이십구일 덧붙여서 국보법 폐지하고 간첩죄로만 한다는 건 결국 북한을 하나의 국가로 인정하겠다는거임 그래야 외국의 범주안에 북한을 넣을수 있으니까 근데 그렇게되면 우리나라 헌법부터 문제가 됨 우린 법적으로 북한을 한반도 북쪽에 무단 점령하고 있는 단체로 보고있음 그래서., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.