Representatives from the country’s government and Houthi rebel forces will hold a second consecutive day of meetings (Al Jazeera) today on a UN-chartered ship off the coast of Yemen to discuss a possible ceasefire deal.
 
The parties will discuss withdrawing forces from the port city of Hodeidah, a step agreed to in a December deal but still not fully implemented. The UN special envoy to Yemen also traveled to Saudi Arabia yesterday (The National) to meet with Yemeni president Abdrabu Mansur Hadi. Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have supported the government’s war against Houthi rebels, who are backed by Iran, but the United Arab Emirates has begun a drawdown of forces in Yemen, reportedly withdrawing 80 percent (NYT) of their troops around Hodeidah.

China’s public and private sectors will cut ties (Reuters) with U.S. companies that sell arms to Taiwan, the country’s foreign minister said. Yesterday, a Chinese government publication named U.S. companies that could be subject to sanctions.
 
New Zealand: More than 160 owners of newly prohibited weapons turned them in to the government (New Zealand Herald) Saturday in the first of more than 250 gun buybacks planned across the country after March shootings at two Christchurch mosques.

More than eighty people have died and tens of thousands have been displaced across India and Nepal in monsoon rains and landslides (CNN) that began on Thursday, according to officials.
 
India: The launch of the country’s second lunar mission was called off (Hindu) an hour before takeoff due to a technical problem and will be rescheduled, India’s space agency said. It would have been India’s first moon-landing mission (BBC).

Airstrikes by Syrian and Russian forces backing Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in the country’s civil war reportedly killed fifteen civilians (AFP) on Saturday in the country’s Idlib and Hama provinces, according to monitoring group Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Despite a September 2018 ceasefire agreement in the region, bombing has intensified since April.  

A gun attack and car bomb claimed by Islamist extremist group al-Shabab killed twenty-six people (NYT) at a Mogadishu hotel on Friday and Saturday, officials said. Among those killed was a prominent Canadian-Somali journalist.
 
This CFR Backgrounder examines the al-Shabab insurgency in Somalia.
 
DRC: A man carrying the Ebola virus arrived yesterday (Guardian) in Goma, a city of two million on the country’s eastern border with Rwanda, health officials said. He was taken to a treatment center while his fellow travelers were given a vaccine (WaPo).
 
CFR looks at the forces driving the Ebola crisis in the DRC.

More than one thousand people attended a demonstration (AP) in Moscow against election officials’ decision to disqualify several independent candidates from the ballot in a September vote for Moscow’s city parliament. Police arrested a dozen protesters (DW), including several opposition candidates.
 
United Nations: Russia and Saudi Arabia are among thirty-seven countries that signed a letter (Reuters) to the United Nations supporting China’s detention policy in its Xinjiang region, after twenty-two other countries signed a joint letter last week condemning it.
 
This CFR Backgrounder details China’s crackdown on Uighurs in Xinjiang.

Guatemala’s highest court issued a ruling (WSJ) blocking any immigration agreement in which Central American migrants would apply for asylum in Guatemala rather than travel to the United States. Guatemalan President Jimmy Morales, who was reportedly considering such an agreement, canceled a visit to the White House planned for this week.
 
Venezuela: The Colombian paramilitary group the National Liberation Army (ELN) has reportedly been expanding its operations in Venezuela (WSJ), receiving sanctuary in exchange for supporting Venezuela’s government-aligned paramilitaries.

The U.S. House of Representatives passed a $733 billion military spending bill (NYT) on Friday that would require Congressional authorization for war with Iran and restrict the use of military funds for wall construction on the U.S.-Mexico border. The House version of the annual defense bill must still be reconciled with the Senate, and President Donald J. Trump has promised to veto it (Politico) in its current form.