US President Donald Trump has bowed to public pressure and signed an executive order promising to “keep families together” in migrant detentions.
Mr. Trump reversed his own policy amid international fury over the separation of undocumented parents and children.
He said he had been swayed by images of children who have been taken from parents while they are jailed and prosecuted for illegal border-crossing.
But the order does not address families already separated by the policy.
US immigration officials say 2,342 children were separated from 2,206 parents between 5 May and 9 June.
“It’s about keeping families together,” Mr. Trump said at the signing ceremony on Wednesday.
“I did not like the sight of families being separated,” he said, but added the administration would continue its “zero tolerance policy” of criminally prosecuting anyone who crosses the border illegally.
The president said his wife, Melania, and daughter, Ivanka, who reportedly have been applying pressure on him to drop the policy, “feel strongly” about ending the practice of separating migrant families.
“I think anybody with a heart would feel very strongly about it,” he said. “We don’t like to see families separated.”
Vice-President Mike Pence and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, who has emerged as the face of the White House policy, were both present for the signing of the order on Wednesday.
Before his U-turn on Wednesday the president had previously said “you can’t do it through an executive order,” insisting that only Congress could fix the policy by passing immigration reform.
Republican congressional leader Paul Ryan said the House of Representatives will vote on Thursday “on legislation to keep families together.”
Jacinda Ardern: New Zealand PM gives birth
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has given birth to her first child, a baby girl, weighing 3.31kg (7.3lb).
This makes her the second elected leader in history to give birth while in office.
Ms. Ardern was admitted to a hospital in Auckland early on Thursday morning, four days after her due date.
The 37-year-old has now passed on her duties to the Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters.
She has said she will take six weeks of maternity leave.
Ms. Ardern, who was elected in October, announced in January that she and her partner Clarke Gayford were expecting a baby.
“I am not the first woman to multitask. I am not the first woman to work and have a baby; there are many women who have done this before,” she had said earlier this year in an interview with Radio New Zealand.
She is the youngest prime minister the country has had since 1856.
In 1990, Benazir Bhutto gave birth to a daughter while serving as Pakistan’s prime minister, a first for an elected world leader.
Medecins Sans Frontieres staff ‘used local prostitutes’
Aid workers at charity Medecins Sans Frontieres used local prostitutes while working in Africa, whistleblowers have told the Victoria Derbyshire programme.
Female former employees said the behaviour was widespread.
One said a senior colleague said it was possible to barter medication in exchange for sex.
The charity said it does not tolerate “abuse, harassment or exploitation.”
The use of prostitutes is banned by MSF under its strict code of conduct.
The women spoke anonymously for fear of being blacklisted by foreign aid agencies, among which there can be a large crossover of staff.
The allegations were made against logistical staff, and not doctors or nurses, at MSF – one of the world’s biggest foreign aid agencies, also known as Doctors Without Borders.
One former employee, who worked out of the charity’s London office, said she had seen a senior member of staff bring girls back to MSF accommodation while posted in Kenya.
“The girls were very young and rumoured to be prostitutes,” she said, adding that it was “implicit” that they were there for sex.
“My colleague, who was staying in the same residence for a long time, felt that this was a regular occurrence,” she said.
The whistleblower claimed they felt unable to challenge the man “because he was quite senior.”
“I felt that, with some of the older guys, there was definitely an abuse of power. They’d been there for a long time and took advantage of their exalted status as a Western aid worker,” she said.
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“There’s definitely a feeling that certain predatory men were seen as too big to fail.
“You would often see men who were older, middle-aged, partying with much younger local girls. It was sexualised.”
Another female employee, who worked with HIV patients in Central Africa, claimed the use of local sex workers was “widespread.”
“There was an older colleague who actually moved a woman into the compound [where MSF staff were staying],” she said.
“It was pretty obvious she was a prostitute but he called her his girlfriend and she would spend night after night with him.
“This kind of thing was so blatant. So blatant and widespread.
“I saw one of my colleagues; he was a much younger guy, go into the toilet with a local prostitute.
“I knew her to talk to as she also worked in one of the bars. She told me afterwards that they’d had sex and he’d paid her.”
The whistleblower said she also felt sexually harassed by some of the men she worked with.
US envoy Nikki Haley berates human rights groups
US envoy Nikki Haley has attacked rights groups for trying to “thwart reform” of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC).
In a letter, Ms. Haley said groups worked “opposite the United States” and were partially to blame for the US withdrawal from the body.
The country withdrew from the UNHRC on Tuesday after accusing it of bias.
Her letter was sent to the International Humanist and Ethical Union, which represents 162 groups.
An image of the letter was posted on Twitter
Ms. Haley berated the groups for not supporting proposed US changes to the UNHRC, saying they “sought to undermine” them and worked “on the side of Russia and China, and opposite the United States.”
The letter says they were a contributing factor to the US withdrawal from the council due to their attempts “to block negotiations and thwart reform.”
Human Rights Watch UN director Louis Charbonneau said it is “preposterous” to suggest rights groups were undermining reform attempts, and called claims of them backing Russia and China “absurd.”
Mr. Charbonneau tweeted that the US was “attacking and blaming NGOS for its own failures.”
The US pulled out of the UNHRC on Tuesday, calling it a “cesspool of political bias.”
Announcing the decision to leave the council, Ms. Haley described it as a “hypocritical and self-serving organisation” that displayed “unending hostility towards Israel.”
She was speaking alongside US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who denounced the council as “a protector of human rights abusers.”
Charlottesville organiser plans Washington DC rally
The organiser of last year’s “Unite the Right” event in Charlottesville has won approval to hold a rally in Washington DC.
Jason Kessler’s application for a “white civil rights rally” has been approved for 11-12 August by the National Park Service.
The permit for the event has not yet been issued.
Mr. Kessler’s filing estimates 400 people will attend, and says he will work with law enforcement.
The Washington DC event is planned for exactly one year after the “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.
The event followed months of protests concerning the planned removal of a Confederate statue in the town.
A car rammed a crowd of demonstrators protesting against the event, killing one woman and injuring 19 others.
US President Donald Trump inflamed national tensions when he said both sides were to blame for the violence.
An application to hold another event in Charlottesville this year was rejected due to public safety concerns, according to local media.
