A "Full-Scale Emergency" in Venezuela: Daily Brief
Call for UN help as Venezuela's health system collapses; thousands still missing in Mozambique after cyclone; Spanish firefighter who helped save migrants at sea faces jail; xenophobic violence flares ahead of South Africa's elections; China's internment camps under fresh scrutiny; UK failing to meet rights of citizens due to Brexit distractions; civil society crackdown in Egypt; and why Brunei's new penal code is "barbaric to the core"...
The combination of severe medicine and food shortages within Venezuela, together with the spread of disease across the country’s borders, amounts to a complex humanitarian emergency that now requires a full-scale response by the UN, researchers from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and HRW said today. Researchers conclude that the crisis is now so severe that UN leadership is needed to help save lives.
Thousands of people remain missing following the deadly Cyclone Idai in Mozambique, and the government should act quickly to help reunite families.
Italian authorities have accused a firefighter of aiding human traffickers after he helped save thousands of people from drowning in the Mediterranean.
Xenophobic violence in South Africa has surged less than six weeks from the country's elections. While several new political parties are running on a platform of overtly xenophobic policies, it’s overly simplistic to put all the responsibility on reckless political statements.
US President Donald Trump and President Xi Jinping of China will probably soon reach a historic trade agreement, but that won't solve the biggest problems, including severe human rights issues.
Critical issues - including poverty and a declining social care system - are being left unaddressed in the UK because the government is totally distracted by efforts to leave the European Union, otherwise known as Brexit.
Egypt’s civil society is shrinking under relentless government crackdown, HRW says. A 2017 law regulating nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) has ushered in unprecedented levels of repression and will criminalize the work of many such groups, making it impossible for them to function independently.
Staying with Egypt, authorities there should reveal the whereabouts of at least five Egyptian dissidents who were deported to Egypt in recent weeks.
And finally, Brunei’s barbaric new penal code, which imposes archaic punishments for acts that shouldn’t even be crimes, should be immediately withdrawn, rights groups say.