A crisis within the world’s greatest humanitarian emergency could be reaching breaking point over the control of lifesaving aid millions of Yemenis need to survive.

Major donors and some of the world’s biggest aid agencies will meet in Brussels on Thursday in an effort to forge a collective response to what is being widely described as unprecedented and unacceptable obstruction by Houthi authorities who hold sway over large swathes of northern Yemen. The lives of millions of Yemenis depend on it. A recent Yemen briefing to the UN Security Council underlined that access constraints were affecting 6.7 million Yemenis who needed assistance – a figure which it noted has “never been so high.” “Humanitarian agencies must operate in an environment where they can uphold humanitarian principles,” says Lise Grande, the UN’s Resident Humanitarian Coordinator in Yemen. “If we reach a point where the operating environment doesn’t allow us to do that, we do everything we can to change it.”(BBC)…[+]

Heavy rains in New South Wales in recent days have led to hopes that all the bushfires in the Australian state could be out by the end of the week. Since Friday, parts of the fire-ravaged Australian state have experienced their heaviest rainfall in years. The rain caused widespread flooding – hundreds of people had to be rescued, including one man stranded in a tree.

The deluge has also extinguished 30 fires, leaving only four “uncontained”, said the NSW Rural Fire Service (RFS).

In total, 24 fires remain burning across the state. “Given the forecast, we should be able to get on top of those relatively quickly and set the fires down,” RFS spokesman James Morris told the BBC. “We are hoping by the end of the week we may be able to have zero uncontained fires across NSW,” he said. Officials have renewed wet weather warnings for parts of the coast and the neighbouring state of Queensland, but said the heaviest downpours had passed by Tuesday.(BBC)…[+]

A German state premier elected with the help of the far-right AfD says he is resigning to pave the way for fresh elections. The election of liberal leader Thomas Kemmerich in the eastern state of Thuringia prompted national outrage.

“Resignation is unavoidable,” he said. For years Germany’s main parties have shunned Alternative for Germany (AfD). Chancellor Angela Merkel – whose own party also backed Mr Kemmerich – called Wednesday’s election “unforgivable”.

The AfD has grown in popularity in recent years but has been condemned for its extreme views on immigration, freedom of speech and the press. Wednesday’s vote was described as a political earthquake as it was the first time the AfD helped form a government in Germany, breaking a consensus among the main parties to never work with extremist parties.(BBC)…[+]

Utah Republican Senator Mitt Romney is facing a backlash from Republicans angered by his decision to vote against Donald Trump in his impeachment trial.

The failed 2012 presidential candidate made history on Wednesday as the first US senator to vote to remove a president from their own party. Republican figures, including Mr Trump himself, have slammed him as a “sore loser” and a secret Democrat. Mr Trump was acquitted in the Senate, despite Mr Romney’s lone dissent vote.

Influential figures in conservative media called on Mr Romney to step down from the Republican Party, with one claiming that she would move to Utah to run to unseat him in 2024. And on Thursday morning, President Trump took a swipe at him when addressing the National Prayer Breakfast, criticising people who use their faith to justify “wrong” actions. Holding up a newspaper headline with “Acquitted” emblazoned across the front page, the president also decried “corrupt” Democrats as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi sat four seats from the podium.(BBC)…[+]

A notorious murderer who worked for Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar has died of stomach cancer, Colombian officials say. Jhon Jairo Velásquez, who boasted of killing 300 people for Escobar, was 57. Known as “Popeye”, he was released from prison in 2014 after more than 20 years and launched a YouTube channel, attracting more than a million followers.

Velásquez died at the National Cancer Institute in the capital Bogotá, where he had been receiving treatment for stomach cancer since December. He was a close associate of Escobar, who ran a drug trafficking empire from the Colombian city of Medellín that sent thousands of tonnes of cocaine to the US. Velásquez gave himself up to the authorities in 1992 and spent 23 years in prison, reportedly gaining a reputation for the stories he told about his life of crime.

After his release he started a YouTube channel called Repentant. He was re-arrested for extortion and was taken into custody at a party hosted by Colombia’s top drugs trafficking investigator. Escobar’s drug empire made him one of the world’s richest men during the 1980s and 1990s. He was killed by Colombian police in 1993 as he attempted to avoid extradition to the US.(BBC)…[+]

Charges against a California couple accused of sexually assaulting “hundreds” of women will be dropped due to lack of evidence, officials said. Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer accused his predecessor of mishandling the case and using it to aid his re-election bid.

In 2018, prosecutors said they found proof that Grant Robicheaux and Cerissa Riley drugged and raped victims. Mr Spitzer said the case was “manufactured”.

He accused his predecessor of misleading the public, as a review of the case found “not a single video or photograph” depicting assault, as Tony Rackauckas, the former district attorney, had claimed.  The couple had denied the charges against them. Mr Rackauckas, alleged the couple “used their good looks and charm” to lure and drug victims. He brought charges on behalf of seven unnamed women who said they were assaulted by Dr Robicheaux, 39, and Ms Riley, 32.

He said investigators had found “thousands” of videos and images on their mobile phones that showed vulnerable women “barely responsive to the defendants’ sexual advances”, and stated that hundreds more women could have been assaulted.

However, Mr Rackauckas admitted in a deposition last summer that he used the case to garner media attention and help his re-election effort, according to the statement from the district attorney’s office. He lost his re-election bid in November 2018.(BBC)…[+]

The world’s biggest iceberg is about enter open ocean.  A68, a colossus that broke free from the Antarctic in 2017, has pushed so far north it is now at the limit of the continent’s perennial sea-ice.

When it calved, the berg had an area close to 6,000 sq km (2,300 sq mi) and has lost very little of its bulk over the past two and a half years. But scientists say A68 will struggle to maintain its integrity when it reaches the Southern Ocean’s rougher waters. “With a thickness to length ratio akin to five sheets of A4, I am astonished that the ocean waves haven’t already made ice cubes out of A68,” said Prof Adrian Luckman from Swansea University, UK. “If it survives for long as one piece when it moves beyond the edge of the sea-ice, I will be very surprised,” he told BBC News.(BBC)…[+]

A Labour MP who faced criticism on social media for her off-the-shoulder dress said people needed to “listen to what we say not what we wear”. Tracy Brabin, the shadow culture secretary, said she had been “startled by the vitriolic nature” of some comments.

She told BBC Breakfast it was her responsibility to “call it out”. “Women around the world… are being demeaned everyday because of what they wear,” she said.

The Batley and Spen MP had been raising a point of order in the House of Commons on Monday about journalists being asked to leave a Downing Street press briefing on the next stage of Brexit talks, when her shoulder appeared. She said her slightly off-the-shoulder dress had slipped a little as she leant forward to speak.

Ms Brabin said she had been to a music event earlier in the day and was not expecting to be called to the dispatch box. “But, the context of this is frankly pretty absurd,” she said.(bbc)…[+]

The number of homeless students in the US is the highest in more than a decade according to a new study. Most of the 1.5 million homeless schoolchildren stayed with other families or friends after losing their homes.

But 7% lived in abandoned buildings or cars, the report by the National Centre for Homeless Education showed. It is often caused by job insecurity, unaffordable housing, domestic violence and recently the opioid crisis. Living without a fixed address has a seriously impact on children’s education and health.

Less than a third of homeless students were able to read adequately, and scored even lower in mathematics and science, the report showed. “Homeless children are in crisis mode, and because they don’t have the luxury of focusing on school, they often fall behind,” Amanda Clifford, of the National Youth Forum on Homelessness (NYFH), told the BBC.(BBC)…[+]

The wife of the prime minister of Lesotho has been charged with murdering his previous wife. Earlier First Lady Maesaiah Thabane handed herself in to be questioned by police in the southern African mountain kingdom.

Prime Minister Thomas Thabane has also been questioned about the killing. His estranged wife, Lipolelo Thabane, was shot dead outside her home in the capital Maseru two days before his inauguration in 2017. The couple were involved in bitter divorce proceedings at the time.

The attack was originally blamed on unknown armed men, but recent court papers filed by the country’s police commissioner, Holomo Molibeli, have raised further questions. A warrant of arrest of was issued for 42-year-old Maesaiah Thabane on 10 January after she disappeared.(bbc)…[+]