June 14th, 2018 - Daily News Brief

Daily News Brief

Hudaida The Saudi-led assault on the Yemen port city of Hudaida is continuing as witnesses report fighting near the airport on Thursday morning. The coalition is backing the exiled government, after Iran-backed Houthi rebels occupied the capital, Sanaa. Hudaida is the main entry for food aid into a country already on the brink of famine, with fears mounting of a humanitarian disaster. The UN security council is scheduled to meet on this latest attack later today. Pompeo US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is in Seoul meeting his counterparts from South Korea and Japan. Pompeo said N Korea will continue to face tough sanction until it gets rid of its nuclear weapons. That appears to contradict the North's view, that its promise to disarm will be phased and ra-see-pra-cal. Pompeo's visit comes after US President Donald Trump met North Korea's Kim Jong-un earlier this week in a summit in Singapore that was long on talk but short on detail. Palestine resolution The UN General Assembly has voted in favour of a resolution put forward by Turkey and Algeria, which condemns Israel for its 'excessive use of force' against Palestinians. It follows the deaths of more than 120 people in recent months in protests on the Gaza-Israel border. The US failed to win enough votes in its proposed amendment, which would have condemned Hamas for inciting violence. Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said passage of the resolution signalled a failure for Washington. Macedonia A tough road lies ahead for Macedonia and Greece. The country's two prime ministers thought they had reached a deal to rename the Balkan nation to the Republic of Northern Macedonia to distinguish it from a region in Greece also called Macedonia. But Macedonian President Gjorge Ivanov says he won't sign the agreement. Macedonia's parliament could force the issue, but that could then lead to a referendum with all bets then off in a dispute that is causing division on both sides of the border. World Cup And finally, Nobody would have picked the tournament’s two worst teams to launch the 2018 World Cup. But when Russia and Saudi Arabia meet later today, form will be irrelevant as the world’s biggest football festival explodes into life in Moscow. The game features the two lowest-ranked teams in the tournament, but it does kick off the game's global showcase. So it's unlikely that anybody outside of Russia and Saudi Arabia will be paying much attention to the score.