Every Monday, the Research Trainees of the CERESE assess the news of the previous week. You can read their opinions below:

I like the meeting of the US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia. The meeting was held on 6 June and human rights issues were raised, among others. It is crucial for a Western diplomatic mission to emphasize the importance of protecting human rights. Saudi Arabia has a long way to go in fully implementing the requirements of International Humanitarian Law. It is necessary for the international community to be concerned about human rights and for Western actors to not pay attention only to their strategic interests.

I like the criminal indictment of the former US President, Donald Trump, over retaining top secret documents and obstruction of justice. The former President will be the first in American history to be criminally charged by the Department of Justice since he was indicted facing 37 criminal charges. The main accusation leveled against him is that after leaving the White House, he took with him classified documents, including ones about nuclear weapons. Later, he refused to hand them over to the authorities and hid them on his private property. This is a reminder to everyone that no man is above the law, even former world leaders.

I dislike the partial collapse of the dam in Nova Kahovka in Ukraine. Currently, this area is controlled by Russian forces near the Dnieper River. Footage circulating online shows explosions at the dam in Nova Kahovka, with huge amounts of water gushing out of the dam’s wreckage. The dam is of great importance, as it has a huge reservoir that holds 18 cubic kilometers of water. A dam breach could flood the region, even affecting Kherson, which Ukrainian forces recaptured in late 2022. Ukraine blames Russia for blowing up the dam.

I dislike the rebuttal of the statement that the US is in a nuclear arms limitation agreement with Iran. More to the point, the US and the European Union have been trying to find ways to curb Tehran’s nuclear program by reviving the 2015 Iran nuclear deal. That deal provided for restrictions on Iran’s nuclear program and more extensive UN inspections in exchange for ending UN, US, and EU sanctions. The ultimately bogus new deal would have stipulated that Iran would stop enriching uranium to 60% or higher purity and continue cooperating with the UN nuclear watchdog in exchange for the export of up to 1 million barrels of oil per day. If such an agreement were true, perhaps the US and the EU would finally be able to achieve their goal.