South Sudan Ceasefire “Largely Holding”

Meanwhile, the Security Council is being briefed on the situation by the top UN Peacekeeping official today. “The United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) has reported that the ceasefire in the crisis-gripped country appears to be ‘largely holding, barring sporadic gunfire,’ while the UN refugee agency has urged countries to keep their borders open for people fleeing tensions in Juba, where the human rights wing has warned the situation is “deteriorating rapidly’….UNMISS also reported that the airport in the capital has been reopened, although commercial flights remain suspended. Peacekeepers were able to conduct a limited number of short patrols in Juba today.” (UN News Center http://bit.ly/29CDlWx)

#ThisFlag Leader Arrested…”A Zimbabwean protest leader has been charged with inciting public violence, but still urged supporters to go ahead with demonstrations and strike against President Robert Mugabe. Baptist preacher Evan Mawarire, was arrested and charged on Tuesday, for “inciting public violence and disturbing peace,” his lawyer Harrison Nkomo told the Reuters news agency. Nkomo said police had raided his client’s home, office and church in the capital Harare.” (Al Jazeera http://bit.ly/29CF9Pp)

Get to know Hillary Clinton’s possible running mate…Former NATO Commander and current dean of the fletcher school Admiral James Stavridis is being vetted as a possible running mate for Hillary Clinton. Last year, he spoke on the Global Dispatches podcast in a wide-ranging conversation, including his PhD thesis on the UN Convention of the Law of the Sea, how just war theory can be applied to cyber war, his favorite books and his life and career in the Navy. (Global Dispatches http://bit.ly/1IEmkCH)

Stat of the day: A new report by the Afghan Journalists’ Safety Committee named 2016 as the most dangerous so far for journalists in Afghanistan, with 10 news professionals killed in the first six months of this year. (AP http://yhoo.it/29udstu)

ICYMI…Al Jazeera hosted a debate between several of the candidates for Secretary General last night. The webcast is here: http://bit.ly/29CFy49

South Sudan

Three-quarters of the population of South Sudan needs humanitarian aid after four days of deadly fighting, the UN’s World Food Programme director Etharin Cousin told AFP on Tuesday. (AFP http://yhoo.it/29V2OfW)

The government in South Sudan appealed to its people to stay in their homes, as hunger and violence force many to return to Sudan only five years after independence. (Guardian http://bit.ly/29LwcEl)

Fifteen Kenyan truck drivers and six from Uganda were shot dead near Jebel town in South Sudan on Saturday, their union has said. (The Star http://bit.ly/29CDJoa)

Africa

Three demonstrators were killed in northern Mali on Tuesday, a medical source said, in a protest centred on a contentious peace accord that Mali has been struggling to enact. (AFP http://yhoo.it/29OYEmU)

Human Rights Watch is urging an end to “forced anal examinations” with a report documenting them in eight countries, mostly in Africa, saying the practice is based on flawed ideas about supposedly proving homosexual conduct. (AP http://yhoo.it/29H0xU2)

Representatives of five opposition parties that participated in Burundi’s general election boycotted the second round of peace talks in the northern Tanzanian city of Arusha on Tuesday. (Reuters http://yhoo.it/29vpMWJ)

The United Nations Tuesday launched a global appeal for $952 million to fund Sudan’s humanitarian needs in 2016, most of it to help people affected by the deadly conflict in Darfur. (AFP http://yhoo.it/29GXXNZ)

Mozambique has been certified free of polio, the health ministry said, comparing the achievement to the country’s elimination of leprosy in 2008. (Reuters http://bit.ly/29GXJGz)

Uganda’s main opposition leader Kizza Besigye was granted bail Tuesday in his ongoing treason trial in the capital Kampala. (AFP http://yhoo.it/29udPV5)

Children appear to be the main victims of continued widespread rape in the Ivory Coast, with little done to bring the perpetrators to justice, a UN report warned.” http://yhoo.it/29zHtTX)

Five years after the return of peace to Ivory Coast, 11,000 Ivorian refugees living in Ghana are still afraid to go home despite an upbeat economic climate in the world’s top cocoa producer. (AFP http://yhoo.it/29wl8XQ)

A landmark court ruling raising the legal age of marriage for girls in Tanzania to 18 will have little impact in ending child marriage if parents continue to marry off their daughters for bride price rather than educating them, campaigners said. (Reuters http://yhoo.it/29uc4ah)

A rise in Chinese companies operating in Cameroon’s timber sector, combined with weak law enforcement, have fueled a surge in illegal logging that is fast depleting the nation’s forests, experts warn. (Reuters http://yhoo.it/29LvBlW)

In policy as in life, one man’s poison is another man’s cure. While Brexit and rising nationalism across Europe have called into question the European project, last Sunday the African Union unveiled an electronic passport intended to allow the free movement of people, goods and services across the continent’s 54 countries. (Guardian http://bit.ly/29BqsyI)

MENA

About 86 people have died in a year-long government siege of the Syrian town of Madaya, including 65 from starvation and malnutrition, two non-governmental organisations said. (AFP http://bit.ly/29zG0wM)

Hundreds of thousands of civilians in rebel-held areas of Aleppo risk starvation, the head of Syria’s main opposition coalition said Tuesday, accusing Damascus of trying to besiege the city into submission. (AFP http://yhoo.it/29zEkmZ)

An international human rights group says that under the rule of Islamic State terrorists, brutal torture is an everyday occurrence and escape attempts will elicit, in many cases, a swift execution. (VOA http://bit.ly/29Lw2wC)

Israel’s parliament has adopted a law seen as targeting left-wing groups critical of the government by forcing NGOs that receive most of their funding from foreign states to declare it. (AFP http://yhoo.it/29Lw9Ir)

Asia

India’s prime minister called an emergency meeting Tuesday over escalating anti-India protests in Kashmir, where at least 29 people have died in clashes and hospitals are struggling with hundreds of injured. (AP http://yhoo.it/29wlA8k)

Police in Thailand raided the office of an independent news website on Tuesday to look for leaflets urging a vote against a draft constitution proposed by the country’s military government. They left empty-handed without making any arrests. (AP http://yhoo.it/29zH83y)

Posters begging Pakistan’s powerful army chief to launch a coup appeared in major cities including the capital Islamabad overnight, raising eyebrows in a country that has been ruled by the military for more than half its history. (AFP http://yhoo.it/29H08kF)

Myanmar government officials, lawmakers and rights activists say the country should step up efforts to combat human trafficking following the United States’ recent decision to list Myanmar among the world’s worst countries for trafficking and forced labor. (VOA http://bit.ly/29H0Qyk)

The Americas

Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro said on Monday that Citibank NA , planned to shut his government’s foreign currency accounts within a month, denouncing the move by one of its main foreign financial intermediaries as part of a “blockade.” (Reuters http://yhoo.it/29vsX0M)

Mexico’s presidency on Monday moved against two state governments, saying they had flouted federal anti-corruption laws, setting the scene for a possible conflict with two outgoing governors tarnished by graft accusations. (VOA http://bit.ly/29wkZ6C)

Congress is expected to exit Washington for a months-long recess with no action on gun control, despite mass shootings in recent weeks and uproar from Democrats who have pushed for new legislation. Efforts to fund the fight against the Zika virus have also stalled, threatening the speedy development of a vaccine to protect women and their babies from Zika. (AP http://yhoo.it/29Lr3w5)

Venezuela’s defense minister is getting a major promotion as the socialist-run country struggles to combat severe shortages and stave off food riots. (AP http://yhoo.it/29vpLSF)

As Venezuela’s lines have grown longer and more dangerous, they have become not only the stage for everyday life, but a backdrop to death. (AP http://yhoo.it/29vrgAr)

Guam’s archdiocese is reviewing how it responds to allegations of sexual abuse against church officials after the archbishop was accused of assaulting boys in the 1970s. (AP http://yhoo.it/29zE7Av)

…and the rest

Talk of the end of Aids was premature, according to a new UN report that reveals the steady decline in new HIV infections stalled five years ago and that, in some areas, the numbers are rising again. (Guardian http://bit.ly/29zHhE8)

The flow of refugees and migrants to Europe has slowed since April when the European Union sealed a deal with Turkey to halt illegal traffic across the Aegean Sea, the region’s border agency chief said on Tuesday. (Reuters http://yhoo.it/29H0DLy)

Opinion/Blogs

African Union Summit: Who Will Succeed Dlamini-Zuma? (VOA http://bit.ly/29zy2Uz)

Secret aid worker: ‘the field’ is not a lab where you can experiment without consequence (Guardian http://bit.ly/29wesJp)

Aid agencies weigh risks in Juba (IRIN http://bit.ly/29u9GjQ)

Why South Sudan is again torn by fighting (AP http://yhoo.it/29Lr0A4)

Would an arms embargo on South Sudan work? (IRIN http://bit.ly/29vpJuf)

Fed up and not afraid! (Africa is a Country http://bit.ly/29zPHvl)

Things Are Dire In South Sudan But Aid Workers See Signs Of Hope (Goats and Soda http://n.pr/29H7p3R)

Why we shouldn’t be working ourselves out of a job (Devex http://bit.ly/29By7Nu)

Brexit and Anticorruption (Global Anticorruption Blog http://bit.ly/29BxZ0u)

Dear Africa, Louise Linton Is On Us (The Development Set http://bit.ly/29H7yEq)

‘The Pivot’: Three profound misunderstandings about Asia (Interpreter http://bit.ly/29H8Y1s)