The Human Rights Watch (HRW) says two recent summits on the global refugee crisis held at the United Nations (UN) were dismal failures. “This week’s summits on the global refugee crisis failed to meet the challenge of this critical moment in history,” read a statement released by the rights group on Tuesday, referring to two high-level summits attended by world leaders and held at the UN headquarters in New York.

The first meeting, held on Monday, was hosted by the outgoing UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. During that summit, countries reconfirmed their commitment to receiving and assisting refugees. But the HRW said it was “filled with dismal speeches that veered from vapid platitudes disconnected from real world challenges to get-tough pronouncements about securing borders and stopping irregular migration.”

The second summit, which was held on Tuesday and hosted by the outgoing US President Barak Obama, called on the participating countries to accept higher refugee relocation quotas, and to donate more money for refugees.

The Tuesday summit was also viewed by the rights group as a disappointment since it was expected to hear speeches from “world leaders about how they would support the countries where most refugees live,” but almost no such speech was delivered.

According to the statement, the crisis has reached a “critical moment” since many countries, which host the huge majority of the world’s refugees, have clearly said that they have reached the limit of their capacity.

It added that some of those countries, which have generously hosted refugees for years — or even decades — are now pressuring asylum seekers to leave, have shut down their doors to new arrivals, or have announced that they would be doing so soon.

In the second summit, however, some more concrete goals were put on the table, including getting one million refugee children into school, granting work permissions to one million of their parents, and resettling a significant number of more refugees.

“As laudable as these goals are, however, they are not an end in themselves,” since they in fact “will help to keep front-line host countries from becoming destabilized,” the HRW said.

“That is the best strategy for ensuring that their doors can remain open so that people fleeing threats to their lives in the months and years to come will still have a place of refuge,” it added.

Europe has been facing an unprecedented influx of refugees, most of whom are fleeing conflict zones in North Africa and the Middle East, particularly Syria. Last year alone, well over a million refugees made their way into the continent.

Many blame major European powers for the exodus of the refugees from their home countries as the conflicts and violence that force them out are usually a result of Western policies.

Presstv

A US black man that was fatally shot by police in Tulsa, Oklahoma last Friday was unarmed, police officials say. A video, taken from a police dashcam, was released on Monday which shows that 40-year-old Terence Crutcher had his hands up when he was tasered and then shot by police.

The incident began after an officer responded to a report of a stalled SUV in the middle of the road in Tulsa, where there was another police car stopped behind the disabled SUV. In the video, it can be seen that Crutcher walked away from the police cars and toward his own car with his hands over his head.

Then, one female officer followed him with her gun pointed at the victim’s back and then three other officers joined her, which obscured the camera’s view of the black man. He then collapsed with one officer saying on the police radio, “I think he may have just been Tasered” and then another one, saying, “shots fired.” He was later pronounced dead at a hospital.

Presstv

Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton censures three terrorist attacks carried out in the US states of New Jersey, New York and Minnesota earlier. Responsibility for at least one of the recent attacks – the one in Minnesota—was claimed by the Daesh Takfiri terror group.

The former secretary of state took the chance on Sunday to highlight the US alleged war on ISIL. “ISIS has claimed responsibility for the attack in Minnesota, and this should steel our resolve to protect our country and defeat ISIS and other terrorist groups. I have laid out a comprehensive plan to do that,” Clinton said. She further elaborated on her plan to stop the group from carrying out similar attacks on the US soil.

“This includes launching an intelligence surge to help identify and thwart attacks before they can be carried out, and to spot lone wolf attackers. We also need to work with Silicon Valley to counter propaganda and recruitment efforts online. Americans have faced threats before, and our resilience in the face of them only makes us stronger. I am confident we will once again choose resolve over fear.”

No injuries were reported after a pipe bomb went off in Seaside Park, New Jersey, late on Saturday. The explosion was followed by another one in New York City, leaving 29 people wounded. Nine people were also stabbed by a Daesh affiliate at a mall in St. Cloud, Minnesota, Saturday night. Meanwhile, an investigation was launched by the FBI in order to assess whether the stabbing was a terror attack.

Presstv