EU plans to deport Afghan asylum-seekers will not only leave tens of thousands of migrants in despair in Afghanistan, but also undermine security in the war-torn country, a top U.N. human rights expert has warned. “Sending them back now clearly adds to instability,” Chaloka Beyani, U.N. special rapporteur on the human rights of internally displaced persons, said during a recent visit to Afghanistan. “These people cannot be absorbed into Afghan economic and social life. The government clearly says, ‘Look, we don’t have the capacity.’” (Guardian http://bit.ly/2ejdiWZ)
A crisis that could have been prevented…Malawi declared a state of emergency in April, when it became clear that lack of rainfall was threatening crops in 40 percent of the country. Since then, the drought has pushed more than half a dozen countries in the region to the brink of famine: Angola, Lesotho, Madagascar, Mozambique, South Africa, Swaziland and Zimbabwe all face significant food shortages. (Foreign Policy http://buff.ly/2f5EA4k)
Where murdering journalists goes unpunished…Some of the highest rates of impunity in the murders of journalists can be attributed to killings by Islamist militant groups, CPJ found in its latest Global Impunity Index, which spotlights countries where journalists are murdered and their killers go free. (CPJ http://bit.ly/2eadHHM)
Africa
Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn swore in a group of technocrats and new finance and foreign ministers on Tuesday in a reshuffle meant to respond to grievances behind six months of violent protests. (Reuters https://yhoo.it/2f6chCA)
President Barack Obama extended U.S. sanctions on Sudan for another year, saying Khartoum’s policies remained an “extraordinary threat” to the national security of the United States. (AFP https://yhoo.it/2ew3AxW)
Sierra Leone: Living on stretches of state-owned land along the shore, a lack of land tenure for Freetown’s slum residents mean they feel powerless to improve their homes and communities – wary that the government could kick them off the land without any warning. (Reuters https://yhoo.it/2fAZVmJ)
Nigeria’s Senate on Tuesday rejected President Muhammadu Buhari’s plan to take on almost $30 billion in external borrowing to fund a record budget spending as the country battles to overcome a recession. (AFP https://yhoo.it/2fARxUl)
After living through the worst outbreak of yellow fever in decades, Angola is celebrating the absence of any confirmed cases since late June. But the battle is far from over. (UNICEF http://bit.ly/2fdR32j)
Talks to build an oil refinery in Uganda with a consortium led by Korea’s SK Engineering have collapsed but the East African nation still hopes to find a lead investor for the project by year end, an industry conference heard on Tuesday. (Reuters http://bit.ly/2ejoO4F)
China’s popularity in Africa is strong. Its policy of not linking aid and investments to human rights and good governance has made Beijing many friends on the continent, beyond its authoritarian governments. (DW http://bit.ly/2fB12Tv)
MENA
Russia’s defense minister is accusing the Syrian rebels of massive shelling of residential areas in the city of Aleppo. (AP https://yhoo.it/2eQJL7G)
Human Rights Watch on Tuesday slammed a “well-funded” clampdown on Gulf Arab rights activists and urged the six monarchies to implement “much-needed reforms” instead of jailing peaceful critics. (AFP https://yhoo.it/2frp5oJ)
Moroccan authorities have charged 11 people over the death of a fishmonger who was crushed in a garbage truck while trying to stop police from destroying his stock, in a case that has ignited public anger. (Reuters https://yhoo.it/2f9rKj7)
Islamic State militants killed 40 former members of the Iraqi Security Forces near Mosul on Saturday and threw their bodies in the Tigris river, U.N. human rights spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani said on Tuesday, citing reports from the field. (Reuters https://yhoo.it/2f9nJLm)
All sides fighting over the Syrian city of Aleppo may be committing war crimes through indiscriminate attacks in civilian areas, U.N. human rights spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani told a regular U.N. briefing in Geneva on Tuesday. (Reuters https://yhoo.it/2frvC2w)
A mountainous Palestinian community in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, Al Jab’a differs in many ways from surrounding Israeli settlements but it shares one worry with its neighbors – a shortage of water. (Reuters https://yhoo.it/2fdQLZ6)
Asia
Civil society activists in India and Pakistan have jointly urged both the governments to de-escalate military tensions and resume peace talks as deadly cross-border skirmishes continued on Tuesday. (VOA http://bit.ly/2fdbagT)
A U.N. investigator into the human rights of migrants arrived in Australia on Tuesday to assess its tough asylum seeker policy, after aborting a visit last year claiming a lack of government assistance and access to asylum seeker detention camps. (Reuters https://yhoo.it/2fdOcpQ)
Pakistan opposition leader Imran Khan backed down from his threat to shut down the capital on Wednesday, vowing instead to hold a celebratory rally about a Supreme Court decision to pursue a case linked to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. (Reuters https://yhoo.it/2ejARip)
Senior diplomats from the United States, China, Britain and the European Union will this week visit Myanmar’s troubled northern Rakhine State, which has been cut off to aid workers and observers for more than three weeks, sources said. (Reuters https://yhoo.it/2fryE6N)
In Sri Lanka, an elephant in the backyard has long been a sign of wealth, privilege and power. But these days it may also be a sign that someone is breaking the law. (AP https://yhoo.it/2fdPMbm)
The U.S. State Department halted the planned sale of some 26,000 assault rifles to the Philippines’ national police after Senator Ben Cardin said he would oppose it, Senate aides said. (Reuters https://yhoo.it/2fdRhpZ)
The Americas
The small Amazonian community of Pacaraima is busy selling food across the frontier but Venezuelans’ desperation is straining local services and goodwill. (Guardian http://bit.ly/2f9u35S)
Two years into President Barack Obama’s campaign to normalize relations with Cuba, his push to expand economic ties is showing few results. Apart from a few marquee deals for big U.S. brands, formal trade between the two countries remains at a trickle. (AP https://yhoo.it/2eXLtBx)
China on Tuesday rejected a plan by U.S. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump to back out of a global climate change pact, saying a wise political leader should make policy in line with global trends, a rare comment on a foreign election. (Reuters https://yhoo.it/2fdQs0q)
An increasing number of people from far-flung corners of the world quietly have tried to sneak into the United States among the hundreds of thousands of other, mostly Latin American migrants caught at the Mexican border in the last year, according to arrest data from the Homeland Security Department. (AP https://yhoo.it/2eaeOXR)
Colombia’s president received a ceremonial military welcome at the start of a state visit to Britain on Tuesday — while at home his government tries to salvage a deal to end decades of violence. (AP https://yhoo.it/2f9p6JY)
…and the rest
Germany’s justice minister is proposing legislation that would dissolve child marriages, with limited exceptions in cases where spouses are at least 16. (AP https://yhoo.it/2fdFgRs)
The bodies of a Syrian woman and her two daughters, ages 7 and 9, have been found in a freezer in a town in Denmark and the woman’s husband and father of the children was being sought, Danish police said on Tuesday. (Reuters https://yhoo.it/2f9rFvP)
Seven months after the European Union and Turkey struck an agreement to turn back the tide of Syrians fleeing west, not a single refugee has been sent back from Greece, and Brussels is losing its patience as overcrowded camps grow violent. (Reuters https://yhoo.it/2eadPH9)
Opinion/Blogs
12 ways environment and development sectors can collaborate to meet the SDGs (Guardian http://bit.ly/2fodMxr)
Projecting progress: are cities on track to achieve the SDGs by 2030? (ODI http://bit.ly/2f9E43h)
Rio just elected a very conservative mayor. Activists are worried about LGBT rights. (PRI the World http://bit.ly/2eQKvcY)
Int’l Effort to Help Ethiopia Shoulder Its Refugee Burden (IPS http://bit.ly/2fdGZ99)
Africa: We Can Lead The Way in Ending Aids, Malaria and TB (allAfrica http://bit.ly/2fAMOBU)
Solving last mile challenges: The potential of behavioral insights for the 2030 Agenda (Devex http://buff.ly/2ejEaWy)
What the ICC Can Do to Improve its Relationship with African States (Justice in Conflict http://buff.ly/2fdUndv)
10 Frontier Developmnt Technologies (From Poverty to Power http://buff.ly/2eah2GF)
12 ways environment and development sectors can collaborate to meet the SDGs (Guardian http://buff.ly/2frESna)
What happens after the Horrifically Violent War on Drugs in the Philippines Ends? (UN Dispatch http://buff.ly/2f9u5dO)
Cities making uneven progress towards the SDGs (ODI http://buff.ly/2eXXw1T)
Peter Singer’s effective altruism (DevPolicy http://buff.ly/2eXYfzX)
