In Russia, A Slap Is Only The Start: HRW Daily Brief
Plus: The children born of wartime rape; Brexit spike in UK hate crimes; refugees at risk in Lebanon; suffocated in Syria; Trump travel ban; US Labor Secretary nominee opposes minimum wage hike; exiled Ethiopian athlete joins family; child labor in North Korea; & UNHCR "crossed a red line".
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Breaking: Andrew Puzder, President Trump's nominee to head the US Labor Department, has reportedly withdrawn from the nomination. Puzder was set to appear before a Senate committee this week to be confirmed. Puzder's track record on labor issues in his businesses raised many concerns on his ability and willingness to stand up for labor rights in the US. Whomever replaces him should send a clear signal that they will.
Last year, garment workers and labor activists in Bangladesh went on strikes for better wages and protections in garment factories. Now, authorities are targeting strikers and labor leaders with arbitrary arrest and intimidation. Using police force to address labor grievances makes a mockery of government and industry claims that they are committed to protecting worker’s rights.
Today, United States President Donald Trump met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Washington. Tomorrow, the US Senate will hold a hearing on the nomination of David Friedman to serve as US ambassador to Israel. As the new US administration's policy on Middle East peace takes shape, Trump should press Netanyahu on advancing settlements.
Approximately 750,000 people in the United States have benefited from Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), an Obama administration program that enabled some undocumented immigrants who came to the US as children to work legally and pursue an education for a two-year period. But ambiguity and perceived hostility in new immigration actions coming from the Trump administration are leaving many of them afraid for their futures in the US.
This week, a new report will shed light on how far Canada has come in providing safe water to all First Nations, Canada's indigenous populations. For a country as water-rich as Canada, you would expect this to be an easy task. Unfortunately, progress has been slow.
From earlier today: A woman dies every 40 minutes in Russia at the hands of an abusive partner. But despite such grim numbers, Russian President Vladimir Putin has just signed a bill to decriminalize acts of domestic violence that don’t "cause severe injuries", or if they're "only" reported once a year. But victims of domestic violence shouldn’t have to nearly die for the government to take their abuse seriously.