The Gemini IV mission was a big deal. It was going to include America’s first attempt at walking in space. The mission debuted the Gemini space suit, which not only kept us cozy in the harshness of space, but also opened the door to future exploration.

Yemen‘s Houthi rebels say air raids by the Saudi-UAE military alliance have killed dozens of civilians, most of them children, in a reported incident two weeks after a coalition air attack on a school bus killed 40 boys.

According to the Houthi movement’s Al Massira TV, 22 children and four women died on Thursday as fighter jets targeted a camp for internally displaced people in Ad Durayhimi, which lies about 20km from the Red Sea city of Hodeidah.

Backed by the United States, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have carried out attacks in Yemen since March 2015 as part of a military campaign to reinstate the internationally recognised government of President Abu-Rabbu Mansour Hadi.

In 2014, Hadi and his forces were overrun by the Houthi rebels who currently control much of northern Yemen, including the capital, Sanaa.

Yemeni government forces – backed by Saudi Arabia and the UAE – launched a major operation to retake Hodeidah and its strategic seaport from Houthi rebels in June.

Hussein al-Bukhaiti, a Yemeni journalist in Sanaa, said the death toll in Thursday’s air raids stood at 31, citing a medical source.

“The Saudi strikes at first targeted a village in the Ad Durayhimi area south of Hodeidah, killing five people and injuring another two,” he told Al Jazeera.

Al-Bukhaiti said that 26 women and children had come under attack before boarding a bus in an attempt to flee, but a “second Saudi-UAE strike targeted that bus, killing everyone”.

Earlier on Thursday, the UAE state news agency WAM said that the Houthis had launched a ballistic missile in the same district, which resulted in the death of one child.

WAM said the strike in the recently recaptured village of al-Ghalifqa in Ad Durayhimi also wounded dozens of people, three of them seriously.

Ruinous war

Last year, the United Nations added the Saudi-UAE military coalition to a blacklist of child rights violators for causing the deaths and injuries of hundreds of children in Yemen. 

On August 9, an air attack by the Saudi-UAE coalition hit a school bus in the Houthi-controlled province of Saada, killing 51 people, including 40 children.

According to munitions experts, a US-made bomb was used in the attack on the school bus, leading to further criticism over Washington’s role in the war in Yemen – described by the UN as the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.

“If it’s proved again that in this instance it was a missile from the US fired by the Saudi-led coalition, that will lead to greater calls and questioning of the US’ intervention and involvement in Yemen,” said Al Jazeera’s Alan Fisher, reporting from neighbouring Djibouti.

According to the UN, at least 10,000 people have been killed in the three-year war – a death toll that has not been updated in years and is certain to be far higher.

In retaliation, the Houthis have launched dozens of missiles at the kingdom. Saudi authorities say over the past three years 90 ballistic missiles were fired by the rebels.

Multiple rounds of United Nations-brokered peace talks have failed to achieve any breakthrough.

SOURCE: Al Jazeera and news agencies

Celtic’s defensive difficulties were exposed again as they battled to a 1-1 Europa League play-off draw with Lithuanian champions Suduva.

Olivier Ntcham’s header gave the Scottish champions a perfect start, but Celtic’s familiar frailties were to the fore again as the unmarked Ovidijus Verbickas headed Suduva level.

Brendan Rodgers’ side have now won two of their past seven matches – conceding in six of those games – and were also knocked out of the Champions League third qualifying round by AEK Athens.

Celtic could have taken a lead back to Glasgow for next Thursday’s return had James Forrest, Mikey Johnston or Moussa Dembele taken their chances.

But this was hardly a performance to dispel the impression of a club struggling to rediscover the best of themselves.

They dominated possession but created little of note in the final half-hour, and picked up another injury concern when Jozo Simunovic was forced off after landing heavily on his ankle.

‘Struggling to live up to expectations’ – analysis

BBC Scotland’s Chris McLaughlin at Suduva Stadium

Most who watched this game will expect Celtic to complete the job in Glasgow, but it was still a fairly frustrating night for Rodgers’ side at the end of another frustrating week.

The manager said beforehand that the disappointment of losing out on the Champions League was out of the system but the defensive slip-ups that led them here are clearly not.

This was a night for Celtic to show some flair, but more importantly, solidity against a side who should have been no match. There were certainly positives. Johnston shone down the left and McGregor was at the centre of most of the visitors’ creativity but the frustration and focus will once again fall on a shaky defence.

Leaving the Boyata debacle aside, Rodgers knows he has to strengthen. Ajer looked mostly fine but Simunovic once again looked shaky in the face of a forward line that appeared fairly toothless. He’s a man clearly lacking confidence but the central area shouldn’t be the only concern.

Gamboa is desperate to be given the nod at right back as Lustig continues to struggle but on this showing, few fans will think he is the answer. But if not him, then who? And can that area be the priority when the problems continue to surface centrally?

Much to ponder then for Rodgers as the clock ticks down on the summer transfer window. Progression to the group stages looks probable. If changes aren’t made after that, who knows, but Celtic have created an expectation that, for now, they are struggling to live up to.

Another horrendous concession for Celtic

Celtic started confidently, but there was more compelling evidence of the defensive vulnerability that proved so costly as they were knocked out of the Champions League by AEK last week.

When Vaidas Slavickas curled in a deep free-kick, it should have carried little threat. But Cristian Gamboa – preferred over Mikael Lustig at right-back – lost his marker, the rest of the Celtic defence froze, and goalkeeper Gordon was late coming off his line to stop Verbickas nodding in the simplest of goals.

It was a horrendous goal to concede, and a reminder of why Celtic lodged a bid for Aberdeen centre-back Scott McKenna this week, amid continued uncertainty over Dedryck Boyata’s future.

Suduva threatened only sporadically, but grew in confidence as Celtic stuttered, and Gordon was forced to field efforts from Rigino Cicilia and Julius Kasparavicius.

Rodgers had earlier raised eyebrows by giving 19-year-old Johnston just his fourth senior start, and first in Europe, ahead of the likes of Scott Sinclair and Leigh Griffiths.

But the teenager showed his quality after barely two minutes, turning his marker on the left before curling a right-footed cross perfectly for Ntcham to head home from close range,

Johnston might have scored himself, but could only direct his header straight at Ivan Kardum, while Forrest and Kieran Tierney also brought saves from the Suduva keeper.

The impressive Callum McGregor was at the heart of much of Celtic’s best work.

The Scotland midfielder weaved his way into the box and combined with Kristoffer Ajer, before the Norwegian defender stabbed a final shot at Kardum, and McGregor then combined beautifully with Dembele, whose sumptuous dinked pass over the defence led to the midfielder’s volley being touched wide for a corner by Kardum.

Dembele might have scored himself in the 54th minute, but could only lash the ball into the side netting after moving on to Ntcham’s sweet pass.

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Aretha Franklin’s funeral will be a star-studded musical affair: Stevie Wonder, Faith Hill, Ronald Isley, Chaka Khan and Jennifer Hudson are among the singers who will perform at the Aug. 31 service in Detroit.

Fantasia, Yolanda Adams, Shirley Caesar, the Clark Sisters and Jennifer Holliday are also on tap to perform, Franklin’s family announced Thursday. The full list of 19 performers is below.

Franklin’s funeral will be at 10 a.m. Aug. 31 at Greater Grace Temple on Detroit’s west side. It is expected to draw a host of dignitaries and celebrities from across the entertainment spectrum.

Many of the singers enlisted for the funeral were longtime friends and collaborators with Franklin, who died Aug. 16 in Detroit.

Jennifer Hudson, for instance, is the singer-actress handpicked by Franklin for her upcoming biopic.

Faith Hill recorded a duet with Franklin for 2011’s “A Woman Falling Out of Love” (though the track did not make the record), while she and husband Tim McGraw have been opening their recent concerts with a cover of “I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me).”

Detroit gospel star Karen Clark-Sheard and R&B veteran Ronald Isley were also duet partners with Franklin on the 2011 album.

Iconic Motown star Stevie Wonder was close to Franklin going back to the 1960s, and he was among the final guests to visit with her in the days before her death at home in Detroit.

Bishop Charles H. Ellis III of Greater Grace will officiate the funeral service, with the Rev. Robert Smith Jr. of Detroit’s New Bethel Baptist Church as co-officiant. The eulogy will be delivered by the Rev. Jasper Williams Jr. of Atlanta’s Salem Baptist Church. 

Related: 

Rainbow dazzles sky during Detroit Tigers’ Aretha Franklin tribute

Aretha Franklin left no will or trust, court records show

At this point, the funeral is private, but some public seating ultimately may be made available.

Note: While there could be some crossover, the performers named for the funeral service are distinct from the lineup that will play the just-announced Chene Park tribute show on Aug. 30. That list of performers has not been released.

Singers scheduled for Aretha Franklin’s funeral

Stevie Wonder

Faith Hill

Ronald Isley

Chaka Khan

Fantasia

Jennifer Hudson

Yolanda Adams

Shirley Caesar

The Clark Sisters

Jennifer Holliday 

Tasha Cobbs-Leonard

Marvin Sapp

The Williams Brothers

Vanessa Bell Armstrong

Audrey DuBois Harris

Alice McAllister Tillman

Edward Franklin

Aretha Franklin Orchestra

Aretha Franklin Celebration Choir

Contact Detroit Free Press music writer Brian McCollum: 313-223-4450 or bmccollum@freepress.com.

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Normally it would be a pretty cool to see yourself in a video game, but Houston Texans defensive end Christian Covington found his own digital representation to be a bit… uh… lacking.

Covington posted a photo of his character in the newly released Madden 19 Wednesday. Instead of a true-to-life model like some players get, Covington’s in-game model is really off, and honestly pretty ugly.

To be clear, that’s supposed to be the same person as the guy in that picture up at the top of this article.

“Guess I have to accept the fact that I’m ugly now,” Covington tweeted. It’s very clear from the real-life photo of Covington that he is not an ugly person by any means, but sadly that’s what he got in Madden.

He’s not the only football player to get a less-than-flattering representation in Madden. Take a look at Trent Taylor’s character.

Or how about this digital recreation of Daron Payne.

It can’t be easy to digitally recreate players’ faces in games like Madden, especially when there are hundreds of players in the game. But at the very least it would be nice if these players had characters that looked like they could be them.

Ottawa, Canada – Margaret Alluker’s backyard is overrun by tall blades of grass. The landlord used to mow the lawn, but she says that since she was handed an eviction notice, the maintenance work has all but stopped.

Alluker is among more than 100 families in Heron Gate, a neighbourhood in the Canadian capital, Ottawa, who were told in May that they need to leave their modest townhouses by the end of September.

“I had it in my mind that the eviction time is coming, and we don’t know … what will happen next,” Alluker told Al Jazeera earlier this month.

The mother of four said she hasn’t found a new house yet. Like many of her neighbours, she wants her landlord, mega-real estate firm Timbercreek Communities, to give her more time.

But more than anything, Alluker said she doesn’t want this situation to happen again.

“We need the support of the government, especially to force the laws on landlords and have more affordable housing,” said Alluker, who is also the secretary of the South Ottawa chapter of ACORN, a housing rights group active in low-income communities across Canada.

“We need a long-term plan, [so] that next time something like that won’t happen to any area of Ottawa.”

More than 100 families were told in May they needed to move out of their homes by September 30 [Jillian Kestler-D’Amours/Al Jazeera]

The ‘financialisation of housing’

Timbercreek announced plans in May to demolish about 150 units in Heron Gate, to make way for a massive development project in the neighbourhood. The company has followed the provincial laws that regulate tenant evictions. 

In fact, it says it’s gone “beyond the requirements of the law in providing relocation assistance” to displaced residents by offering three month’s rent, as well as $1,530 ($2,000 Canadian) compensation and employing a relocation group to help tenants find other properties.

It also told Al Jazeera it “continues to maintain Heron Gate units and quickly respond to repair requests”.

But Leilani Farha, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on adequate housing, who is based in Ottawa, said every alternative to eviction must be pursued under international human rights law.

The community must also be consulted, and “that simply did not happen” in Heron Gate, she said, likening the evictions to “a David and Goliath type of situation”.

“It’s the little people against the behemoth, and it’s very deeply concerning,” she told Al Jazeera.

Farha said the situation in Heron Gate isn’t unique to Ottawa or even Canada, however.

It’s the little people against the behemoth, and it’s very deeply concerning.

Leilani Farha, UN Special Rapporteur on adequate housing

Instead, it involves what she describes as “the financialisation of housing” – the growing trend of multi-billion-dollar firms owning and operating residential real estate for maximum profits – and it’s a pattern she said she’s seeing around the world.

Farah said while she’s not necessarily against profit-making, governments need to set clear directives for what is allowed in profit-making ventures.

“We are living in a time where the actors in residential real estate are principally financial actors, and they have zero interest in people and a complete focus on maximising profits,” she said.

“While that may be OK with other commodities like gold and steel, it is not OK in the area of housing because unlike those other commodities, housing is a human right.”

In that light, Heron Gate is “almost like a litmus test for here and now housing issues”.

Legislation coming this fall

Last November, the federal government unveiled a 10-year, $31bn ($40bn Canadian) National Housing Strategy – the first of its kind in Canada – to help ensure Canadians have access to affordable housing.

Among the programme’s main families are cutting chronic homelessness by 50 percent, building 100,000 new housing units, repairing 300,000 others, and removing more than half a million households from the “housing need” category, which includes those living in inadequate or unaffordable housing.

The plan, which says it will take a “human rights-based approach to housing”, also seeks to provide 300,000 households with a subsidy known as the Canada Housing Benefit, to help offset housing costs for low-income families.

It also sets aside over $12bn ($15.9bn Canadian) to a National Housing Co-Investment Fund, to encourage property developers to build affordable housing, and pay for the upkeep of existing units. Over two-thirds of that money will be disbursed in the form of low-interest loans.

Michael Brewster, a spokesperson for Jean-Yves Duclos, the minister of families, children and social development, which includes housing, said the government is “going further than any previous government has gone on the issue of housing rights”.

In an email, Brewster told Al Jazeera the government would introduce legislation this fall “that enshrines the rights-based approach to housing, and will ensure Canada maintains a national housing strategy in the future”.

He didn’t elaborate, however, on how Ottawa plans to enshrine those rights into law.

“We will protect and promote the housing needs of Canada’s most vulnerable people, reduce homelessness by 50 percent, and ensure that more Canadians have a place to call home,” his statement read.

When asked by Al Jazeera to comment on the situation in Heron Gate, and whether what happens in the community will be a “litmus test” for Ottawa’s rights-based approach to housing, Brewster said the minister had nothing to add beyond the previous statement.

About than 150 units in Heron Gate are expected to be demolished [Jillian Kestler-D’Amours/Al Jazeera]

On August 14, more than 170 organisations signed an open letter urging Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to guarantee the right to housing in law

The letter calls on Ottawa to make sure any legislation has accountability mechanisms in place, to allow homeless people and people living in inadequate housing to get recourse from the government.

It also demands that Ottawa address distinct barriers to housing that affect vulnerable people, such as Indigenous people, women and people of colour.

Enforcement a lingering question

Indeed, enforcing “the right to housing” is easier said than done.

“You can enforce a negative right – you can’t do something, and if you do it, we’ll stop you – but to enforce a positive right which says the government must ensure everybody has a right to housing, what does that mean?” said Steve Pomeroy, a senior research fellow at the Centre for Urban Research and Education at Carleton University in Ottawa who specialises in housing policy.

He said the government must increase the funding it has earmarked for the plan if it wants it to succeed, as well as provide real incentives to entice developers to build affordable housing.

There isn’t a lack of housing per se in Canada, Pomeroy said, but the housing that’s being built doesn’t meet the needs of many Canadians, especially families.

“You can say to developers we want you to build two- or three-bedroom units. ‘They say, well the economics don’t make sense [and] I’m not going to make any money, why would I bother?’” he told Al Jazeera.

“That really is the policy challenge. You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink.”

You can say to developers we want you to build two- or three-bedroom units. ‘They say, well the economics don’t make sense [and] I’m not going to make any money, why would I bother?’

Steve Pomeroy, Centre for Urban Research and Education at Carleton University in Ottawa

Pomeroy said he didn’t expect the federal government to step in to prevent the evictions in Heron Gate. Doing so, he said, would be costly, and potentially stall new development.

“That then challenges what they really mean by a human rights-based national strategy. So then they’ve got egg on their face and it’s a very, very dicey situation,” he added.

Daniel Tucker-Simmons, a lawyer representing some of the residents in Heron Gate, said he sent a request for accommodation to Timbercreek’s lawyer and to Mayor Watson.

He is asking that if parts of the neighbourhood need to be demolished, that the current tenants receive more relocation assistance, and be guaranteed a right to return once the redevelopment is finished, to units with similar rents. It also asks that the existing units be preserved if they can be.

The request is currently being considered, Tucker-Simmons said, and the case could eventually be sent to the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal, if he doesn’t receive a timely response.

What power do governments have?

While Canada has seen steady population growth in its major cities, very little is available for people on the lower half on the income spectrum, said Greg Suttor, a senior researcher at the Wellesley Institute focused on housing policy.

There is also a shortage of subsidised housing units.

In Toronto, the country’s largest city, more than 92,000 applicants were on the active waiting list for social housing last year. In Montreal, about 25,000 households are currently on the list to receive low-rent housing, but only 2,000 units are made available annually. About 10,500 families are currently on a waiting list for subsidised housing in Ottawa.

Commenting in general terms about the housing market in Canada, and not on Heron Gate specifically, Suttor said Canada is at “a particular moment in time” in its housing sector.

“You would have to go back 30 years to find the equivalent price pressures and low vacancies and this extent of supply-demand squeeze in either the rental market or the home-owner market,” he told Al Jazeera.

Over the years, people of colour and new immigrants have been particularly vulnerable to discrimination in the rental sector.

People of African descent deal with many stereotypes when searching to rent a property, such as a belief among landlords that “they are criminals or have too many children”, according to a 2008 report on rental housing and human rights by the Ontario Human Rights Commission.

You would have to go back 30 years to find the equivalent price pressures and low vacancies and this extent of supply-demand squeeze in either the rental market or the home-owner market.

Greg Suttor, Wellesley Institute

Based on testimonies made by individuals and non-profit groups, the report found that some people of colour also said they faced discrimination when they eventually were able to rent a home.

“Tenants stated that their requests for repairs and upkeep of the rental unit would be denied while those of non-racialised tenants would be met.”

According to Farha, the UN Special Rapporteur, the Canadian government should be using the pending evictions in Heron Gate as a test to draft its right-to-housing legislation.

“What can governments do in cases like this? What power do governments have – and at what levels – to make sure this predatory behaviour doesn’t continue?” she said.

In the meantime though, the tenants that remain in the community don’t have much time. “You’re thinking about it every single day,” said Heron Gate resident Margaret Alluker.

“You don’t know what will happen tomorrow, so it’s not easy.”

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U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions is defending his deputy, Rod Rosenstein, against Congressional Republicans who moved to impeach him. Rosenstein oversees the federal probe of Russia’s meddling in the 2016 presidential election. (July 26)
AP

WASHINGTON – In the face of new and threatening criticism from President Donald Trump, Attorney General Jeff Sessions fired back Thursday, declaring that he was in “control” of the Justice Department.

“I took control of the Department of Justice the day I was sworn in, which is why we have had unprecedented success at effectuating the president’s agenda – one that protects the safety and security and rights of the American people, reduces violent crime, enforces our immigration laws, promotes economic growth, and advances religious liberty,” Sessions said in a written statement.

Sessions went on to defend the department that Trump has subjected to months of withering attacks. Those assaults only escalated this week with the conviction of former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, and guilty pleas entered by former Trump fixer Michael Cohen.

“While I am attorney general, the actions of the Department of Justice will not be improperly influenced by political considerations,” Sessions said. “I demand the highest standards, and where they are not met, I take action.  However, no nation has a more talented, more dedicated group of law enforcement investigators and prosecutors than the United States.

“I am proud to serve with them and proud of the work we have done in successfully advancing the rule of law,” he said.

Sessions’ statement came just hours after Trump offered a blistering critique of Sessions during an interview on “Fox & Friends.”

Asked whether he intended to fire Sessions or Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein after the midterms, Trump didn’t dismiss the idea. 

“If you look at Hillary Clinton’s person, you take a look at the people that work for Hillary Clinton, and look at the crimes that Clinton did with the emails and she deletes 33,000 emails after she gets a subpoena from Congress, and this Justice Department does nothing about it and all of the other crimes that they’ve done,” he said. 

The president went into detail about his frustrations with Sessions and his decision to recuse himself from heading the Mueller investigation, which in turn put Rosenstein in charge of the inquiry. 

“[Sessions] took the job then he said ‘I’m going to recuse myself,’” Trump said. “I said ‘What kind of a man is this?’”

He said the only reason Sessions was given a job was because of his loyalty to the campaign. Trump dismissed Sessions’ character as someone who “hasn’t taken charge” of Justice.

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Throw us a bone! Sony is bringing its robot dog to the United States, but it won’t come cheap. The all-new Aibo, first unveiled at CES in January, will land in the coming weeks for $2,899. 

Yep, you’ll need to pony up $3,000 for the “first litter edition” of the robot dog. It’s a significant price to pay for a robot companion, but after checking it out in person, I have to say this thing is adorable.

For the price, you get Aibo, a three-year cloud plan, dog toys, and a commemorative dog tag. That cloud plan includes three years of AT&T LTE for network connectivity when you’re out and about, which is nice given the high price.

At a launch event in NYC, Sony was quick to note that Aibo is loaded with technology. It combines robotics, AI, and sensor technology into one product. For this version of the Aibo (technically the sixth generation, although the others have long been discontinued), and Sony updated the eyes with OLED screens. That lets Aibo blink, and users can customize the color via the My Aibo app. The app will also allow you to view photos that Aibo takes via its nose camera, send commands, and see the environment as mapped through the sensors.

For the exterior, there’s only one look: Aibo will only be available in this silver and white, and, no, it doesn’t have any fur.

The tech goes beyond the eyes with several touch sensors, including one on the nose and the back. It also has a camera on the nose and the butt, along with several other sensors throughout the body. These work together show Aibo can learn and map the environment and avoid obstacles.

With the camera on its nose, he or she (you can customize the gender) can learn the people of the household and recognize you. Through these interactions with humans, Aibo will learn and get smarter every day. For instance, you can teach him a trick like to shake hands or give a high five. However, just like with training a puppy, you have to give Aibo positive reinforcement. 

Aibo won’t always listen, especially in the beginning — so if a voice command doesn’t work the first time, try it again. During a quick demo, it took a few tries to get Aibo to play dead; instead, he barked or didn’t move. 

In addition to sensors and hardware inside, the design of Aibo is meant to have him move realistically. Seeing him shuffle across a table, Aibo doesn’t doesn’t move how you’d expect an animatronic robot to move — it moves more in a cute way. This is thanks to the many single- and dual-axis joints all over the robot.

However, while Aibo can walk like a real dog, it can only do so indoors. Sony doesn’t recommend using it outside on grass, dirt, and especially water. You might be able to get away with him on clean pavement, though.

The battery life is a letdown as a full charge only lasts two hours — not the same play time and enjoyment you get from a real dog. Aibo will navigate to his charging dock by himself, but expect the charging time to be around two hours as well. 

All in all, Sony is echoing similar tones to robotics as Anki is with Vector. There is a core belief in personality and being a companion, something that Aibo can achieve thanks to software, AI, and the hardware. After all, you wouldn’t let a robot dog into your house if it didn’t want to play and be nice. While I am eager to put Aibo to the test, the fact is that he is really expensive.

I don’t see this as a product for the masses, and Sony isn’t really pushing Aibo as a personal companion. There aren’t many utility features included, and while he does connect to the cloud through WiFi or LTE, it seems like that is mostly for learning and storing visuals. Chances are Aibo will speak to what Sony can do and that the future and the company’s future AI products, including robots.

If you want to add a robot dog to your home, Aibo won’t disappoint but be sure you can handle a $2,899 price. Also, I should mention you can get a real dog for cheaper, but this one doesn’t require cleanup.

The United Nations has urged Latin American countries to ease entry for thousands of people fleeing Venezuela’s deepening economic and political crisis.

The call on Thursday came after Ecuador and Peru announced tighter entry requirements for Venezuelans.

“We recognise the growing challenges associated with the large scale arrival of Venezuelans,” UN refugee agency chief Filippo Grandi said in a statement issued jointly with the International Organization for Migration.

“It remains critical that any new measures continue to allow those in need of international protection to access safety and seek asylum,” Grandi added. 

Led by President Nicolas Maduro, Venezuela has been struggling with hyperinflation, economic recession and shortages of essential goods, including food and medicine, as well as a political crisis that has left much of the country polarised.

According to the UN, 1.6 million Venezuelans have fled the country since 2015, 90 percent of whom went to countries within South America.

This week, Ecuador and Peru said that those without valid passports would be denied entry, in a move affecting hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans who were previously allowed to cross the border with paper ID cards instead.

The UN agencies warned that the new passport requirement will expose people to “further risk of exploitation, trafficking and violence”.

Ecuador recently declared a state of emergency in three northern states and has called for a regional summit to discuss the mass exodus, which sees up to 4,200 Venezuelans arriving in the country daily.

“It is the moment to exchange opinions, to see what different countries are doing in different aspects,”  Santiago Chavez, Ecuador’s vice minister for human mobility, said in a statement on Wednesday.  

“The worst that can happen to the country (Ecuador) is migratory chaos,” he added.

Al Jazeera’s Mariana Sanchez, reporting from the Ecuador-Peru border, said that “there is a lot of anxiety among all these Venezuelans who are trying to get into Peru” before a Saturday deadline where they will be required to have a passport to cross the border.

“There is a lot of expectation that there will be a lot of people coming here in the next few days,” she added.

‘We are stranded’

For its part, Colombia on Wednesday said it wanted a special UN envoy and a “multilateral emergency fund” to help manage the mass exodus. More than a million people have entered Colombia in the past 16 months alone.

Colombia has granted 800,000 of them temporary residence, but many want to travel onwards to Peru, Chile or even Argentina, which has taken in more than 30,000 Venezuelans under a law that allows foreign nationals to remain in the country “when there are exceptional reasons of a humanitarian nature”.

“What is happening in Venezuela is of such gravity that it looks as though we were going through a terrible war like Syria – except there is no war,” Trino Marquez, a sociologist in Venezuela’s capital, Caracas, told Al Jazeera.

“And there is the expectation that things will get even worse,” Marquez added.  

Many Latin American governments initially welcomed the migrants with open arms, remembering Venezuela’s role in welcoming those fleeing dictatorships and conflicts in the past.

But the exodus has ballooned this year, stretching social services, creating more competition for low-skilled jobs and stoking fears of unrest.

Earlier this week, residents in a northern Brazilian town drove hundreds of Venezuelans back over the border. 

“There have been days of tension at the border between Brazil and Venezuela, especially at the town of Pacaraima where a shelter where Venezuelans were living was attacked and set on fire, with a group of Brazilians pushing about 1,000 Venezuelans to the Venezuelan side of the border,” said Al Jazeera’s Teresa Bo, reporting from Boa Vista, the capital of the northern state of Roraima.

She added that those who had managed to come back were living in shelters.

“I cannot go back to my country, we cannot survive there,” Ricardo Rondon, a Venezuelan in Pacaraima, told Al Jazeera.

“It’s a disaster and I won’t go back as long as Nicolas Maduro is in power. We are stranded” 

Venezuelan migrants at a temporary shelter in the San Juan de Lurigancho district of Lima [Guadalupe Pardo/Reuters]

On August 20, Maduro’s government rolled out a new currency, the petro, slashing five zeroes from the bolivar in a bid to tame the country’s rampant hyperinflation,

Maduro, who says that he is the victim of a US-led “economic war” designed to sabotage his administration through sanctions, said that using the petro will abolish the “tyranny” of the dollar and lead to an economic rebirth in Venezuela, an OPEC member state home to the world’s biggest crude oil reserves.

But many fear the measures could worsen the situation.

“There has been complete confusion and paralysis since these new reforms came into place,” said Al Jazeera’s Lucia Newman from Caracas. 

“There is little confidence that these new measures are going to make things better … and people believe that the only way out of this crisis is leaving this country,” Newman added. 

But for many, this is not a realistic option. The country has all but stopped issuing passports due to ink and paper shortages, as well as bureaucratic problems.  Those who can afford it have paid fees and brides upwards of $2,000 to get a new passport.

“I need to leave but how? There is no way to get a passport unless you pay $2,000 under the table, which I don’t have,” a Venezuelan citizen told Al Jazeera.

Venezuela’s gross domestic product (GDP) has dropped by about 45 percent since Maduro took office in April 2013, according to the International Monetary Fund. 

“There is no work, I can not support my family or buy milk or diapers for my baby, so I have no choice but to leave,” Alejandro Blanco, another Caracas resident, told Al Jazeera.