Welcome to our roundup of news and current events related to ethics and international affairs! Here’s some of what we’ve been reading this past week:
Photo Credits: Wikimedia Commons
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s termination of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) last November left 600,000 Venezuelans in the United States vulnerable to detention and deportation. Debates over TPS have reignited this week following the devastating earthquake in Venezuela, with more than 2,000 deaths and 4,000 injuries currently reported. Despite sending millions of dollars in aid, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) continues to target Venezuelans living in the United States. This persecution has, in turn, disrupted contact with loved ones and hindered the delivery of aid to those affected by the earthquake. Venezuelans arrested by ICE now face the prospect of deportation to a disaster-stricken country or prolonged detention in the United States.
Read more on migration status and climate disasters in Ethics & International Affairs:
Detained Migrant Children, Autonomy, and Positive Duties (2025: 39-3)
Climate Migration and the Right to Exclude (2024: 38-3)
What's Political about Political Refugeehood? A Normative Reappraisal (2022: 36-3)
Photo Credits: Wikimedia Commons
Aljazeera - Billions flow between EU institutions and Israel, despite Gaza genocide
Since January 2022, EU member states have signed 194 contracts worth more than $3 billion with Israeli pharmaceutical firms, arms manufacturers, and other companies. Financial ties between EU public institutions and the Israeli private sector have persisted despite repeated human-rights violations in the occupied Palestinian territories and the ongoing atrocities in Gaza. Even Spain, one of Israel’s most vocal critics within the EU, currently has 14 active contracts involving Israeli firms, including equipment and supply agreements with the Spanish defense ministry and police forces. The EU remains Israel’s largest trading partner, in part because of the EU–Israel Association Agreement, which facilitates cooperation and trade. Although Israel’s actions have been argued to breach the Agreement through failures to uphold international human-rights standards, several EU member states, notably Germany and Italy, have opposed suspending the agreement.
Read more on international cooperation, accountability, and moral complicity in Ethics & International Affairs:
The Dark Side of International Cooperation: Indifference and the Psychosocial Dynamics of Cooperative Deterrence (2026: 39-4)
The Politic and Morality of Transnational Corporate Accountability (2025: 39-2)
The Liberal International Order as an Imposition: A Postcolonial Reading (2024: 38-2)
Image Description: Aboutengué, Chad Refugee Camp near Sudanese Border
Photo Credits: Wikimedia Commons
The Guardian - Sudan's RSF committed crimes against humanity in El Fasher, Amnesty says
According to Amnesty International, the Sudanese paramilitary Rapid Support Forces perpetrated genocide against non-Arab civilians in Sudan’s Darfur region. Survivors of the RSF’s 18-month siege of El Fasher and its surrounding areas have reported ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity, including torture, rape, and murder. The RSF carried out these atrocities as part of systematic military campaigns in the region from mid-2024 to late-2025. Since the Sudanese civil war began in April 2023, hundreds of thousands have been killed. Calls for a ceasefire and for stronger international intervention are growing in urgency.
Read more on the global response to atrocities and morality of intervention in Ethics & International Affairs:
UN Peacekeeping and Impartiality: A Fading Relationship (2024: 38-4)
Trust or Perish? The Responsibility to Protect and Use of Force in a Changing World Order (2021: 35-2)
The Cost of Atrocity: Strategic Implicatoins of Russian Battlefield Misconduct in Ukriane (2024: 38-1)
Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons
NYT - Underground Births, Under Bombardment: Childbearing in Ukraine
Childbirth in Ukraine has steadily declined since the onset of Russia’s invasion, falling from 274,000 births in 2021 to 168,000 in 2025. Pregnant people have been especially affected by the war, experiencing severe stress and trauma caused by bombardment, occupation, and blackouts. Maternal mortality increased by more than one-third between 2023 and 2024, and emergency c-sections are becoming more common. Russia’s attacks on power stations and destruction of maternity hospitals in Ukraine have undermined access to proper care for pregnant patients. Throughout the article, women in Ukraine share stories of resilience and perseverance as they welcome new life amid war.
Read more on Ukraine and Human Rights in Ethics & International Affairs:
The Ethics of Human Rights Advocacy in the Ukraine War (2024: 38-3)
What We Owe to Ukrainians: A Moral Perspective on Nuclear Coercion and Military Intervention (2024: 38-1)
International Law and the Humanization of Warfare (2023: 37-4)