Kenya is coercing residents of the world’s largest refugee camp to leave it and return to Somalia where they risk getting killed or forcibly recruited into the Islamic extremist group, al-Shabab, Amnesty International said Tuesday. Some who voluntarily returned to Somalia from Dadaab camp told The Associated Press they are now facing hunger despite promises that they would be assisted. Kenya’s government announced in May that Dadaab, with more than 280,000 residents, will be closed at the end of this month, saying the camp was creating security problems. (AP https://yhoo.it/2eCHiPn)
Intense fighting resumes in Aleppo…Russia resumed airstrikes on the besieged rebel-held sections of Aleppo, Syria, on Tuesday, as it began a major new offensive against insurgents battling Syria’s president, Bashar al-Assad. Russia’s defense minister, Sergei K. Shoigu, said it had started “a big operation to deliver massive strikes” against the Islamic State and the Levant Victory Front, formerly known as the Nusra Front, in Idlib and Homs Provinces. (NYT http://nyti.ms/2gdD0iz)
Quote of the day: “It is manifestly in the United States’ interests for these alliances to endure and to be a source of confidence to our partners and for them to understand that they don’t need to come out from under the U.S. umbrella. … The weight of this office, and the weight of American global leadership, and the responsibilities that it entails, and the history that we share, the interests that endure, make it reasonable for our allies and partners to expect that the United States will uphold its obligations.” — U.S. National Security Adviser Susan Rice (AFP https://yhoo.it/2eCQbs9)
Humanity affirming news of the day: Morocco eliminates Trachoma (WHO http://bit.ly/2gdArgf)
Top Stories
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said on Tuesday that rebels are ready to observe a ceasefire in Yemen starting this week but the government swiftly dismissed the plan. (AFP https://yhoo.it/2gehnxv)
Some 600,000 people are short of food in Burundi due to drought and flooding in the past year and the number could rise to 700,000 by next year, a World Food Program official said. (Reuters http://bit.ly/2eXzliS)
Around 100 people were missing, feared drowned, in the Mediterranean after a migrant dinghy capsized off Libya on Tuesday, according to NGO rescue teams helping with the search for survivors. (AFP https://yhoo.it/2eCGsSm)
A revised peace accord between Colombia’s government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia is final, negotiators said on Tuesday, a statement likely to anger those who rejected the original draft in a referendum as too favorable to the rebels. (Reuters https://yhoo.it/2gedRDB)
A group of 188 Eritreans are heading to Germany in the first big batch of refugee relocations from Italy to other EU countries. (AP https://yhoo.it/2gelg5P)
A farming crisis in war-torn Syria has reduced food production to a record low and raised fears people in the conflict-hit country will be forced to flee famine, the U.N.’s food agency said on Tuesday. (AFP https://yhoo.it/2eXslCw)
France and the United Nations on Tuesday stepped up warnings to U.S. President-elect Donald Trump about the risks of quitting a 2015 global plan to combat climate change, saying a historic shift from fossil fuels is unstoppable. (Reuters https://yhoo.it/2fV2gZC)
When refugees started arriving in Germany in large numbers last summer, many politicians and economists feted them as a solution to a skilled labor shortage, but a survey published on Tuesday shows that only around 1 in 8 have found jobs so far. (Reuters https://yhoo.it/2eXr2DM)
Opinion/Blogs
The U.N.’s special rapporteur on freedom of expression has a message for Donald Trump. (Global Dispatches Podcast http://bit.ly/2fSimRf)
Trump’s Threat on Multilateral Treaties Keeps U.N. Guessing (IPS http://bit.ly/2fdD2SE)
After Brexit and Trump, the development sector must finally heed domestic issues (Guardian http://bit.ly/2fUWZkL)
What If You Had Ebola And Didn’t Even Know It? (Goats and Soda http://n.pr/2fCGZ3A)
Celebrating Global Entrepreneurship Week (IPS http://bit.ly/2fUJt0u)
Why the corrupt rich will welcome Modi’s ‘surgical strike on corruption’ (Guardian http://bit.ly/2fUPtWM)
What America’s Tantrum Means for Africa (Nigeria Guardian http://bit.ly/2eXivRn)
No Climate Justice without Gender Justice – the Marrakech Pact (IPS http://bit.ly/2fCMbob)
As climate change uproots communities, innovation can rescue culture (TRF https://yhoo.it/2fdFo3T)
The development sector is in crisis, and that’s a good thing (Devex http://buff.ly/2eXFZWi)
Thinking harder about globalization (Cherokee Gothic http://buff.ly/2geot58)
