"250,000 Yemenis Could Lose Everything, Even Their Lives": Daily Brief
Saudi-led forces attack Yemen port city of Hodeidah; Israel's possible war crimes against Gaza strip protestors; Trump's North Korea summit sidestepped human rights; arrested Myanmar reporters "denied sleep" for 3 days; the World Cup and human rights; top human rights lawyer arrested in Iran; US plans "tent cities" for migrant children it detains; protecting women in Germany from violence; and Albinism Awareness day...
Saudi-backed government forces have begun an assault on the key Yemeni port of Hodeidah, which is held by Houthi rebels. The port is the main entry point into the country for aid relief, and with some 8 million people in the country already at risk of starvation, the UN is warning of an even greater humanitarian catastrophe unfolding.
Israeli forces’ repeated use of lethal force in the Gaza Strip against Palestinian demonstrators who posed no imminent threat to life may amount to war crimes, HRW said today.
US President Donald Trump shook hands with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un yesterday and called him a “terrific leader” who loves his country. But the dictator from Pyongyang certainly has a strange way of showing it, keeping over 100,000 of his fellow citizens in abject misery in mountain gulags.
It's been announced today that the 2026 Football World Cup will be jointly hosted by the United States, Canada and Mexico. But with serious concerns about human rights in Russia - which kicks off the World Cup tomorrow - as well as the 2022 host, Qatar, FIFA will "need to insist that the 2026 host rigorously complies with basic human rights rules", says HRW.
Two journalists from Myanmar who helped expose the killing of Rohingya civilians by the military were reportedly subjected to 72 hours without sleep during their initial interrogations. The pair remain on trial for breaching the country's official secrets act and face up to 14 years in jail if convicted.
There's breaking news from Iran, where one of the country's top human rights lawyers, Nasrin Sotoudeh, has reportedly been arrested.
The Trump administration is said to be looking to build "tent cities" at military posts in the US state of Texas, to shelter the increasing number of unaccompanied migrant children being held in detention.
The shocking murder of a 14-year-old girl in Germany last month - a crime allegedly committed by a failed asylum seeker from Iraq - cannot be allowed to overshadow the basic principles of justice.
And finally, on Albinism Awareness Day, its worth remembering that kids born with the condition should not be placed in boarding schools away from their families in a misguided attempt to protect them from possible violence, but instead be encouraged to live at home and attend regular schools.