The French president, Emmanuel Macron, has formally recognised that the French state was responsible for the death of a dissident mathematician in Algeria in 1957, admitting for the first time the French military’s “system” of torture during Algeria’s independence war.

Macron paid a visit on Thursday to the widow of Maurice Audin, a French communist mathematician and anti-colonial activist. Audin was arrested in 1957 by the French military during the battle of Algiers. His body has never been recovered. Macron told the widow: “The only thing I am doing is to acknowledge the truth.” Audin has become the symbol of France’s abuses during the war in its former colony in the 1950s and 1960s. Macron’s predecessor, François Hollande, had acknowledged Audin didn’t escape – contrary to the official version – but died in jail.(theguardian)…[+]

Yemen’s humanitarian situation has worsened rapidly since UN peace talks collapsed and fighting resumed in the port city of Hodeida, where hundreds of thousands of lives hang in the balance, the top UN aid official in the country has said. “The situation has deteriorated dramatically in the past few days. Families are absolutely terrified by the bombardment, shelling and airstrikes,” the UN humanitarian coordinator Lise Grande said in a statement.

On Thursday, the Saudi-led military coalition attacking Houthi rebels seized the main road into the strategic port city of Hodeida, weakening Houthi control over the supply of humanitarian aid into the country.“The mills in Hodeida feed millions of people,” Grande said. “We’re particularly worried about the Red Sea mill, which currently has 45,000 metric tonnes of food inside, enough to feed 3.5 million people for a month. If the mills are damaged or disrupted, the human cost will be incalculable,” she said.(theguardian)…[+]

Donald Trump has falsely claimed that 3,000 people did not die in Puerto Rico from Hurricane Maria, and said the number was made up by the Democratic party “to make me look as bad as possible”. Despite significant evidence showing nearly 3,000 people were killed in the devastating storm last year, Trump tweeted that the official death toll was a political scheme, two days after he was sharply criticised for saying the government had an “unsung success” in its response to Maria.

Puerto Rico’s government raised the official death toll from 64 people to 2,975 late last month following the publication of new research by the publication of new research by George Washington University’s Milken Institute School of Public Health.Though the official death toll was changed in August, reports by other academic institutions and newspapers estimated the death toll was in the thousands as early as December 2017. But Trump contested these findings on Thursday.(theguardian)…[+]