Rishabh Bhandari graduated from Yale College with degrees in History and Global Affairs. His senior thesis focused on the decision making of the Nixon administration in response to the 1971 Bengali Genocide. He is pursuing a doctorate in international relations at Oxford University.
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North Korea fired a ballistic missile into the sea early on Sunday in the first such test since Trump became president, Reuters informs us. An official said that the Trump administration had been expecting a North Korean “provocation” soon after taking office and will consider a full range of options in response, with the goal of avoiding escalation.
Timothy Edgar explained the nuanced reasons why he has publicly voiced support for Edward Snowden’s campaign for a public pardon. Jack Goldsmith responded decisively both by predicting that President Obama would not pardon Snowden and by arguing that Snowden’s behavior doesn’t warrant such forgiveness.
The Guardian
The House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence voted unanimously on Thursday afternoon to approve a report on Edward Snowden finding that he "did tremendous damage" to U.S. national security. The executive summary of the report is unclassified and is available here and below; the full report is 36 pages and is classified.
Five years of failed efforts to end the fighting in Syria have persuaded many observers that the war may not be resolvable any time soon. But the Associated Press reports that this week’s ceasefire has offered a glimpse of hope for Syria, as the interests of the region’s major actors—Turkey, Russia, Iran, and the United States—begin to converge.
The Syrian ceasefire brokered by the United States and Russia remains largely intact as residents
A nationwide ceasefire brokered by the United States and Russia is mostly holding across Syria. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that it has not recorded a civilian death from fighting in the 15 hours since the ceasefire was implemented on Monday evening, though the watchdog group said that pro-government forces had conducted scattered air attacks in the hours immediately following the ceasefire. Syrian state media said armed rebel groups had violated the truce in a number of locations around Aleppo since early Tuesday morning.