Magazine

A UN Special Rapporteur calls for international investigation into the journalist's killing.

The UN's Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial Killings has concluded what many others believe - that the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia must have known about the murder of Jamal Khashoggi.

Agnes Callamard says Saudi agents planned the killing of the journalist and critic of Mohammed Bin Salman - then carved up his body in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul last October.

Callamard is calling for an international and impartial investigation.

So who will hold Saudi Arabia to account?

Last week the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed bin Salman ordered the case on the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi closed.

But a new UN report has unearthed gruesome details based on an audio recording.

Al Jazeera's Jamal ElShayyal looks at the sequence of events leading up to his death.

The US President launches his bid for re-election in 2020

Few, including Donald Trump, expected him to win the US presidential election in 2016.

Now he's well into his first term, and campaigning hard for a second in 2020.

He launched his re-election bid in Florida, a swing state that he must win.

Trump didn't offer new policies during the rally, and again attacked what he called the 'fake news media' and the political establishment for undermining him and his supporters.

Opinion polls suggest Trump could lose to most of the possible Democratic challengers such as Joe Biden.

So will he win a second term?

American missionary Renee Bach travelled to Uganda in 2007 when she was just 18 years-old and founded Serving His Children (SHC), a nonprofit organisation she said would help Ugandan women care for ill and malnourished children. Critics, though, say Bach, who had no experience in either development work or medicine, performed complicated medical procedures on hundreds of children.

In 2015, Ugandan authorities closed SHC's facility in the town of Jinja - where a number of children were reported to have died - but the organisation still operates in other parts of the country. A lawsuit brought by two women who say their children died under SHC’s care has been adjourned until January 2020, according to the Uganda-based legal services group Women’s Probono Initiative.

Bach’s case has again highlighted the issue of medical "voluntourism", while raising questions of whether some charities in the developing world have a “white saviour problem”. In response, Uganda-based social workers Olivia Alaso and Kelsey Nielsen began the No White Saviors campaign to educate and advocate for better practices in mission and development work.

In this episode, The Stream takes a look at why some Westerners get to work in the developing world without adequate experience, and what groups like No White Saviors are doing to hold them accountable.

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman should be investigated over killing of journalist Khashoggi, UN expert concludes.

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, also known as MBS, should be investigated over the killing of dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi, a United Nations rights expert has concluded, citing "credible evidence".

UN extrajudicial executions investigator, Agnes Callamard, released her report on the killing of Khashoggi on Wednesday.

Al Jazeera's James Bays reports live from the UN.

Egypt's only democratically-elected president died on Monday while attending a court session in Cairo.

Mohamed Morsi insisted he was Egypt's legitimate president right up to the moment he died.

He collapsed in court on Monday while arguing his defence against charges that many believed were trumped up just to keep him in jail.

State media barely mentioned the 67-year-old's death, and he wasn't given the funeral his family wanted.

Morsi's brief tenure as Egypt's only democratically-elected president was characterised by optimism, which quickly turned to frustration.

So what's Mohamed Morsi's legacy?

It was the peace deal nobody saw coming. In July of last year Eritrea's President Isaias Afwerki stepped off a plane in Ethiopia and was greeted with a warm hug from that country's Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed after almost two decades of hostility between the horn of Africa neighbours.

Isaias, analysts said, had been caught off guard when Abiy, a new and reform-minded leader for Ethiopia, extended an olive branch. Still, the Eritreans responded in kind as Abiy promised Ethiopia would finally accept the terms of a UN-brokered agreement that ended a 1998 - 2000 border conflict, which had killed more than 80,000 people and left the two nations in an effective state of cold war.

Almost a year later, though, Eritrean opposition activists say there has been no peace dividend. Isaias, a former rebel commander, came to power in 1993 -- and no elections have been held since. Rights groups report that journalists and dissenting politicians have been rounded up and imprisoned without trial. Eritreans must obtain an exit visa to leave the country. There is forced conscription.

Eritrea has long said such measures are necessary to protect it from attack or sabotage from its much bigger neighbour. But activists are now asking, with the new accord inked, how much longer that argument can hold.

This month, a group of 100 leading African journalists, politicians and activists signed an open letter to Isaias urging him to embark on political reform. Eritrean Diaspora youth are stepping up the pressure, too, kick starting vibrant social media campaigns such as Yiakl - or Enough - and HappyBirthdayCiham.

The government says it has been victimised by foreign powers and that it is reforming - albeit slowly.

So, where does the truth lie and what comes next? We ask a panel of Eritreans.

Brexit is the main issue as candidates battle to lead the UK's Conservative Party.

The race to become Britain's next Prime Minister is well underway, with six men in the running to lead the governing Conservative Party.

By July, one of them will replace Theresa May.

She is stepping down after parliament refused three times to back her deal to take the UK out of the European Union.

Brexit dominated the candidates' first televised debate.

However, the man many consider as the frontrunner, Boris Johnson, didn't even show up.

So who will win? And how will the next leader deal with an issue that has divided the Conservative Party and the United Kingdom?

Albania was hoping to be asked to start European Union membership talks this month but that now seems unlikely to happen.

EU leaders want to see a country with stable democratic institutions, but in the past week, President Ilir Meta has cancelled local elections that were scheduled for the end of the month because the opposition Democratic Party refuses to take part in them.

Making matters worse, the ruling Socialist Party has questioned Meta's constitutional authority to change the date. There is no constitutional court to rule on the matter, because its judges' finances are being investigated and they are suspended.

So Albania presents a picture of anything but a stable democratic state, which is a precondition of EU membership.

Meta says it will harm the chances of joining the EU if left unchanged.

"If the crisis is going to last, the chances will be undermined for years, not for months. This is clear," he told Al Jazeera, saying that the country's ability to demonstrate that it can hold free and fair elections will be the determining factor.

"If we do not show normality and progress now related to the future of general local elections, it will be a disaster."

He defends his decision to cancel elections scheduled for June 30, and says it can help bring all parties to the table.

"I am sure I have done the best to avoid this fuller escalation of the conflict between the government and the opposition and to give to both sides the possibility to calm down, to reflect, and to enter soon in the local (elections) for the best interests of all Albanians."

Albania's overarching national goal is to join the European Union.

But Prime Minister Edi Rama does not think the country is ready for membership, partly because its political institutions are seen as underdeveloped.

That has been on display in the past week as political parties have disagreed on when to hold nationwide local elections.

They were scheduled for June 30, but the opposition Democratic Party now wants that date pushed back and has not fielded mayoral candidates.

The ruling Socialists of Edi Rama want to proceed regardless with the candidates they have registered.

The deadlock is part of a growing political crisis; in February, the opposition Democratic Party withdrew from parliament and supporters took to organising in the streets.

Weeks of anti-government protests have called for Rama to step down, accusing him of corruption and election fraud, and early elections.

In an interview with Al Jazeera, Rama said that changing the election date would, in fact, undermine Albania's democracy. President Ilir Meta had cancelled the elections, stating that current conditions do not allow for a fair and inclusive process and would undermine accession talks with the EU.

"It's not what Albania deserves and it's not what the future is about. Because if we set a precedent that a party, two parties, three parties, one side, decide to impose the disruption and election terms can be decided upon disruption then we will have it for many years to come," Rama said.

"In the end, elections are not made for the politicians to decide, it's made for the people to decide about the politicians ... Escaping this judgement or transforming this very basic element of our democratic life, it means going in a direction which is not our future, it's a past."

Still, the deadlock has added to scepticism in the EU about whether Albania is ready to join it.

A 2019 European Commission report states that Albania has made important reforms but still must work to address issues such as corruption and organised crime. It says corruption is still "prevalent in many areas and remains an issue of concern".

Rama acknowledges the problem.

"I think Albania has a problem with organised crime and corruption as every country that is not yet a modern, functioning state. That's why we are in this process, that's why we are not members of EU, or that's why I am not pretending that it's an injustice that we are not members today. We need to prepare, we need to modernise, and fighting corruption and fighting organised crime is about very strong will, but it's about very strong institutions and very strong mechanisms and functioning in every direction," he said.

He says there is a lot of work to be done.

"If I turn my head five years and a half ago and I see from where we come, we have done impressively. But if I see forward, where we want to go and where I am to bring the country, there is much more to do."

He maintains that if accession talks are successful, both Albania and the EU will benefit.

"Albania and the western Balkans are surrounded by EU borders so we are somehow an organ of a body that is dragging out of the body, but is not simply fading away but it is there. So the choice is very simple; let this organ bleed and create troubles to the whole body ... or help this organ to integrate and help the body to get the organ in," he said.

"So it's not about enlargement, it's about completion, it's about a very important piece of the puzzle .... (It is) an area ... within the European Union that should not be left as an open space for other actors that may not be very keen to see the European Union progress and prosper."