European countries have accepted less than 10% of the 160,000 refugees they promised to move to safety from unsanitary and cramped camps in Italy and Greece, leading the European commission to warn it will “accept no more excuses”. Only 13,546 relocations have been carried out so far – 3,936 from Italy and 9,610 from Greece – amounting to just 8% of the total the EU committed to relocate in 2015. Just two member states, Malta and Finland, have met their resettling obligations under the relocation scheme that will close in September. During a press conference in Brussels, the commissioner for migration, Dimitris Avramopoulos, warned that infringement proceedings against member states, including huge daily fines, could soon be levied. (Guardian http://bit.ly/2lXAkpP)
Filling the gap…Countries pledged tens of millions for family planning schemes in developing countries to plug a gap left by Donald Trump’s ban on US funding to groups linked to abortion. (Guardian http://bit.ly/2misWX9)
U.K. aid contractor scandal fallout…The founders of Adam Smith International, one of the biggest UK foreign aid contractors, stepped down after the government froze future contracts with the firm over questions about its ethical integrity. (Guardian http://bit.ly/2mJ75pk)
Top Stories
Suspected militiamen kidnapped five workers at Banro Corp’s Namoya gold mine in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, the company said, in the second attack on its facilities in a month. (Reuters http://bit.ly/2mJ77xs)
Eleven bodies were found near a tourist area in the Mexican state of Veracruz on Wednesday, a day after the government said it would send federal police to calm one of the most violent regions of the country. (Reuters https://yhoo.it/2lXAoGr)
Egypt’s former president Hosni Mubarak denied involvement in the killing of protesters during the 2011 uprising that ended his 30-year rule as his final retrial in the case began. (Reuters http://bit.ly/2lXA8qO)
Papua New Guinea’s government sought to downplay the announcement by the United Nations that the country’s voting rights in the general assembly would be suspended for failing to pay $180,000 in dues – claiming it was an administrative error. (Guardian http://bit.ly/2lCZCHa)
Nigeria’s Vice President Yemi Osinbajo traveled to the restive southeastern oil region to continue peace talks, according to his Twitter account, as the government seeks a deal with militants that could revive crude production. (Reuters http://bit.ly/2lZI5dq)
Kenya is suffering from a devastating drought. The government has declared it a national disaster, with the Red Cross estimating 2.7 million people are in need of food aid as a result of failed rains in October, and again last month. But a lack of rainfall is not the only culprit behind the worsening water shortage. (IRIN http://bit.ly/2mJgr4g)
U.S. President Donald Trump plans to finalize a new order limiting travel to the United States in the coming days, his vice president said, after federal courts blocked the administration’s earlier travel ban. (Reuters https://yhoo.it/2minHH7)
Zimbabwe, which is recovering from drought and battling a pest outbreak that threatens its staple maize crop, budgeted $140 million to buy the grain from farmers for its strategic reserve, Agriculture Minister Joseph Made told parliament. (Reuters http://bit.ly/2mJAakj)
Opinion/Blogs
Trump’s been silent on the climate deal, and that’s making UN officials hopeful. (UN Dispatch http://bit.ly/2ljLcQe)
Even in an age of austerity, aid works. We have to keep giving (Guardian http://bit.ly/2mJdMHO)
A Last Call to Protect Our Children (Daily Star http://bit.ly/2mJeW6c)
UN Needed to Be ‘Fit for Purpose’ (Vanguard http://bit.ly/2mJ81tS)
Eritrean refugees in Ethiopia (ODI http://bit.ly/2mJ5pfw)
Burn it, dissolve it, eat it: is the solution to India’s waste problem in the bag? (Guardian http://bit.ly/2mJeC7r)
Why is the so-called Islamic State attacking Sufis? (IRIN http://bit.ly/2md2Xjz)
When a famine points to a deeper need (CSM https://yhoo.it/2mdf0gS)
Public Hearings Can Fight Corruption (Daily Star http://bit.ly/2mJircS)
