Dr. Jan Oberg, co-founder and leader of the Transnational Foundation for Peace and Future Research, wrote a really excellent article on the question of who sabotaged Nordstream 2.
In it, he points out that Russia had no motive for sabotaging Nordstream 2. If the Russians had wanted to stop the flow of natural gas through the pipeline, they could have simply turned it off at the Russian end. Here is the link to Dr. Oberg’s fine article.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres drew attention on Saturday, the International Day of Older Persons, to the “resilience of the more than one billion older women and men” in a rapidly changing world.
MADRID, Oct 3 2022 (IPS)* – While cities are seen as a symbol of glamour and comfort for a number of their residents, over one billion people continue to live in overcrowded settlements with inadequate housing. And their number is rising every single day.
.
Most cities are not able to meet the triple objective of being economically productive, socially inclusive and environmentally sustainable, according to the United Nations findings on the occasion of the World Habitat Day. Credit: Bigstock
Yes, life in urban centres represents plenty of offices, constructions, job opportunities, shops, bars, restaurants, transport systems, and health and education services. So much that 2 of 3 people are forecasted to be concentrated in urban areas by 2050. Continue reading →
Meghalaya, India, Sep 28 2022 (IPS)* – Some ten years ago, Sheemanto Chatri, a 39-year-old farmer hailing from India’s northeastern state of Meghalaya, was reeling with distress. The unseasonal rainfall had washed away all the crops he had cultivated after year-long labor in his far-off hamlet.
The villagers work in a forest they planted to save themselves from the ravages of climate change. Credit: Umar Manzoor Shah/IPS
In 2013, this farmer had sowed a ginger crop on his half-acre land and was hoping for a profitable yield. However, providence had willed otherwise. In September that year, unseasonal rains wreaked havoc on Sheemanto’s village, destroying his crops beyond repair. Continue reading →
Every bean that ends up on Griffins Ochieng’s plate at Jaribu Primary School in northeastern Kenya can now be traced to a government warehouse where it was first stored.
Griffins Ochieng, aged 14, wants to be a soldier when he grows up. Photo: WFP/Martin Karimi
And that’s the idea – that nothing must go to waste in Kenya’s school meals. With the World Food Programme’s (WFP) support, meals are integrated into the government’s National Education Management Information System – an online tool that automates the management of all data and processes in the education sector.
29 September 2022 (FAO)*— Food. It is grown, harvested, processed, packaged, transported, distributed, traded, bought, prepared and then… thrown out.
Each year, approximately 14 percent of the food we produce is lost between when it is harvested and before it reaches the shops. A further 17 percent of our food ends up being wasted by retailers and consumers.
(UN News)* — Hurricane Ian caused devastation across western Cuba and increased its strength and size as it made landfall mid-afternoon local time on Wednesday [28 September 2022], in the United States; meanwhile Typhoon Noru underwent an “explosive” intensification before it hit the Philippines, the UN Meteorological agency, WMO, has said.
Hurricane Ian is tracked south of Florida on Sept. 26, 2022, by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA).
The two tropical cyclones came quick on the heels of Hurricane Fiona, which caused deadly flooding in the Caribbean and was the strongest storm on record to hit Canada. Typhoon Nanmadol, prompted the evacuation of nine million people in Japan.
MADRID, Sep 28 2022 (IPS)* – These are facts, not guesses: about 1.3 billion tons of food is wasted and lost… every single year, the equivalent of one ton per each of the one billion hungry people, many of them are those who produced the food.
.
Controlling the loss and waste of food is a crucial factor in reaching the goal of eradicating hunger in the world. Credit: FAO
The findings have been reported by the World Bank, whose recent study: What a Waste 2.0 also informs that the number of wasted calories “could fill hunger gaps in the developing world.” Continue reading →
BAE among arms firms paying Ministry of Defence staff’s salaries while winning lucrative contracts.
Nine officials at the Ministry of Defence are paid by the UK’s biggest arms firm. |Russell Hart / Alamy Stock Photo.
27 September 2022 (openDemocracy)* — More than 50 paid employees of global arms companies are working inside the UK’s Ministry of Defence, openDemocracy can reveal, sparking questions about conflicts of interest and national security.
They include nine staffers on long-term secondment from the UK’s biggest weapons manufacturer, BAE Systems, some of whom have been embedded inside the department for years.
(UN News)* — In an era of “nuclear blackmail”, UN Secretary-General António Guterres on Monday [26 September 2022] urged countries to step back from the threat of potential global catastrophe and recommit to peace.
UN/Ingrid Kasper | The “Good Defeats Evil” sculpture, located at UN Headquarters in New York, depicts an allegorical St. George slaying a double-headed dragon – symbolic of a nuclear war vanquished by historic treaties between the Soviet Union and United States.
“Nuclear weapons are the most destructive power ever created. They offer no security — just carnage and chaos. Their elimination would be the greatest gift we could bestow on future generations,” he said.
MADRID, Sep 26 2022 (IPS)* – A Mexican joke goes: “I kill people for money. But you are my best friend, so I will kill you for nothing.”
Nuclear Test. Credit: United Nations
This seems to be the dominating thinking of the five permanent members of the so-called Security Council, who, according to their own definition, hold the “primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security.”
“The Security Council takes the lead in determining the existence of a threat to the peace or act of aggression,” they say, while calling upon parties to a dispute to settle it “by peaceful means.”
Nevertheless, they self-attribute the strange right to launch wars. “In some cases, the Security Council can resort to imposing sanctions or even authorise the use of force to maintain or restore international peace and security.”
MADRID, Sep 23 2022 (IPS)* – Have you eaten today – or are sure you will? The answer depends on where you were born and where you live now. If you are Spanish or live here, you likely did or will, provided that you are not one of this European country’s 900.000 inhabitants who face some sort of hunger, malnutrition or undernourishment.
.
Ten of the world’s worst climate hotspots have suffered a 123 percent rise in acute hunger over just the past six years, according to a new report from Oxfam. Credit: FAO
If instead, you are among the 550 million plus Africans who suffer moderate hunger (40 percent of the continent’s total population of 1.300 plus) or severe hunger (some 300 million or 24 percent of all Africans), your answer would be that you will likely –or surely– go to bed hungry… also today. Continue reading →
STOCKHOLM, Sep 22 2022 (IPS)* – After general elections on the 12th September, Sweden is on the threshold of a new era. The Sweden Democrats (SD) won almost 21 percent of the votes and thus became the largest in a bloc of right-wing parties that now have a collective majority in the parliament.
A nation that for a long time prided itself of being a beacon of tolerance and openness will now experience a historical transformation. The Sweden Democratswas once founded by Nazi sympathisers and for decades shunned by mainstream politicians. Continue reading →
(UN News)* — Rising insecurity, including the proliferation of terrorist and other non-State armed groups, coupled with political instability, is creating a crisis in the Sahel that poses a “global threat”, the UN chief warned Thursday’s [22 September 2022] high level meeting on the vast African region, which took place behind closed doors at UN Headquarters in New York.
“If nothing is done, the effects of terrorism, violent extremism and organized crime will be felt far beyond the region and the African continent”, said Secretary-General António Guterres, in his remarks issued by his Spokesperson’s Office.
“A coordinated international breakthrough is urgently needed. We must rethink our collective approach and show creativity, going beyond existing efforts.”
(UN News)* — Ethiopia’s people are once again “mired…in the intractable and deadly consequences” of conflict between Government troops and forces loyal to Tigrayan separatist fighters, who are alllikely responsible for war crimes, top rights investigators said on Thursday [22 September 2022].
(UN News)* — The number of people facing life-threatening levels of hunger worldwide without immediate humanitarian aid, is expected to rise steeply in coming weeks, the UN said on Wednesday [21 September 2022] in a new alert about looming famine in the Horn of Africa and beyond.
In Somalia, “hundreds of thousands are already facing starvation today with staggering levels of malnutrition expected among children under five,” warned the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Food Programme (WFP).
(UN News)* — Since the Myanmar military launched its “disastrous” coup last year, UN-appointed independent human rights expert Tom Andrews said on Wednesday [21 September 2022] that conditions have worsened, “by any measure”.
World Bank/Tom Cheatham | A child looks after his younger sibling in Myanmar.
“With each report I have warned that unless UN Member States change course in the way they collectively respond to this crisis, the people of Myanmar will suffer even further,” he told the Human Rights Council in Geneva, saying that conditions have “gone from bad to worse, to horrific for untold numbers of innocent people in Myanmar”.
Mr. Andrews presented a grim assessment of 1.3 million displaced people; 28,000 destroyed homes; villages burned to the ground; more than 13,000 children killed as the death toll for innocent people rises significantly; a looming food crisis; and 130,000 Rohingya in de facto internment camps while others suffer deprivation and discrimination rooted in their lack of citizenship.
MADRID, Sep 20 2022 (IPS)* – Day after day, the world’s scientific community, based on solid investigations, elaborates dozens of studies identifying the causes of the existing emergencies facing humanity. They also prepare understandable summaries and conclusions and propose feasible solutions to the current crises and ways to prevent major future risks.
.
Between 2010 and 2020 the number of state-based armed conflicts roughly doubled (to 56), as did the number of conflict deaths, finds new report. Credit: James Jeffrey/IPS
Such studies are promptly submitted to politicians, both directly and through hundreds of summits, conferences, forums and meetings.
Are they just unable to read and understand these texts? Continue reading →
“We’re all going to die, all of us, what a circus! That alone should make us love each other but it doesn’t. We are terrorized and flattened by trivialities; we are eaten up by nothing.” — Charles Bukowski
.
.
17 Sep 2022 – A jet airliner opens up and sends its passengers falling to earth. You’d expect them to scream, to cry, to cling to each other in fear, to prepare for the end, to pray, to think about their loved ones, but they don’t. Instead, they turn on each other and start fighting.“
I hate you! I hate you!” they scream while flailing their fists at each other on their way down. Some try to strangle each other to death. Some try to steal from each other.
Some try to climb on top of others so that the other will die a fraction of a second sooner. Others cling to their possessions yelling “You’ll never take what’s mine!” and kick at anyone who comes too close.
UNITED NATIONS, Sep 20 2022 (IPS)* – When world leaders, numbering over 150, make their annual political pilgrimage to address the General Assembly in the third week of September, the security at the world body is exceptionally tight.
And this year is no exception.
Young climate activists from civil society organizations take part in demonstrations at the COP26 Climate Conference in Glasgow, Scotland, December 2021. Credit: UN News/Laura Quiñones
After two years of on-again and off-again lockdowns due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the UN Secretariat is back in full swing – but in a virtual high security war zone. Continue reading →
OPINION: The UK’s new prime minister is a market fundamentalist. The resulting crises could define her premiership.
.
Liz Truss replaced Boris Johnson as prime minister earlier this month | PA Images / Alamy Stock Photo
16 September 2022 (openDemocracy)* — Liz Truss, the UK’s new prime minister, places a high premium on loyalty. This is why many former members of the cabinet, however experienced, have been relegated to the backbenches. There is, though, one survivor from the Cameron-Clegg coalition era – Truss herself.
Critics warn that people ‘cannot wait for help’ as millions face poverty this winter.
.
The hearse carrying the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II / a food bank. | PA Images / Alamy Stock Photo
13 September 2022 (openDemocracy)* — The Queen’s funeral will shut down food banks and other cost of living services while the country grapples with its worst poverty crisis in decades.
Critics say millions at risk “cannot wait for help” as the country grinds to a halt for the event, whose cost is expected to run into the millions.
11 Sep 2022 – This week, a number of international and Russian journalists convened in Moscow – with more joining by video link – to discuss the now-infamous Ukrainian Mirotvorets “kill list.” Many of them are included themselves.
While some don’t take it seriously, the horrific car-bombing murder of Darya Dugina on August 20 and the subsequent marking on her Mirotvorets entry as “liquidated” makes it fairly clear the people behind the list do, in fact, want people dead. Continue reading →
Million of women don’t know what a salary is all about.
.
At the current rate of progress, it will take up to 286 years to close gaps in legal protection and remove discriminatory laws, Credit: Kristin Palitza/IPS
MADRID, Sep 15 2022 (IPS)* – While women in rich societies are paid around 25% less than men for equal jobs, those living in impoverished countries receive by far much lower salaries, if any at all.
13 September 2019 (UN News)* – New data published by the United Nations cultural agency on Friday, reveals that without taking urgent measures, around 12 million young children will never set foot inside a school, with girls facing “the greatest barriers”.
“According to our projections, nine million girls of primary school age will never start school or set foot in a classroom, compared to about three million boys”, said Audrey Azoulay, Director-General of the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
According to updated information on the world’s out-of-school children from the UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS), little or no progress has been seen in more than a decade.
(UN News)* — As the number of weekly reported deaths from COVID-19 plunged to its lowest since March 2020, the head of the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Wednesday [14 September 2022] that the end of the pandemic is now in sight.
.
PAHO/Karina Zambrana | A nurse prepares to administer a COVID-19 vaccination northern Brazil.
“We have never been in a better position to end the pandemic”, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told journalists during his regular weekly press conference.
The UN health agency’s Director-General explained however, that the world is “not there yet”.
SYDNEY and KUALA LUMPUR, Sep 13 2022 (IPS)* – After a quarter century of economic stagnation, African economic recovery early in the 21st century was under great pressure even before the pandemic, due to new trade arrangements, falling commodity prices and severe environmental stress.
.
Elizabeth II dancing with Nkrumah, 1961.
European scramble for Africa Africa’s borders were drawn up by European powers, especially following their ‘Scramble for Africa’ from 1881 ending by World War One. Various culturally, linguistically and religiously different ‘ethnic’ groups were forced together into colonies, to later become post-colonial ‘nations’. Continue reading →
8 Sep 2022 – In an address to the Trondheim World Festival in Norway, John Pilger charts the history of power propaganda and describes how it appropriates journalism in a ‘profound imperialism’ and is likely to entrap us all, if we allow it.
.
.
In the 1970s, I met one of Hitler’s leading propagandists, Leni Riefenstahl, whose epic films glorified the Nazis. We happened to be staying at the same lodge in Kenya, where she was on a photography assignment, having escaped the fate of other friends of the Fuhrer.
She told me that the ‘patriotic messages’ of her films were dependent not on ‘orders from above’ but on what she called the ‘submissive void’ of the German public. Continue reading →
8 September 2022 – Having seen its controversial plan to expel potential refugees to Rwanda temporarily blocked by the European Court of Human Rights, the UK government is at the Royal Courts of Justice in London this week to try and make the case that it should be allowed to proceed. The UK’s plan has been roundly criticized.
SEATTLE, USA, Sep 9 2022 (IPS)* – For a while in 2018, the Donald Trump administration’s “family separation” policy looked like it might become the Stalingrad of his war on immigrants. It was clearly a bridge too far politically, given the global outcry it provoked. Even parts of the Republican party couldn’t stomach it.
.
Katy Rodríguez (R) and her son (in his father’s arms) when they were reunited after leaving the Migrant Assistance Centre in San Salvador following their deportation. Like thousands of other families, mother and son were separated for four months after entering the United States without the proper documents. Credit: Edgardo Ayala/IPSContinue reading →
11 September 2022 (UN News)* — 2022 marks the tenth anniversary of the UN-run Za’atari refugee camp in Jordan. It is the largest in the Middle East – and one of the largest in the world – and home to some 80,000 Syrians. UN News spoke to some of the refugees about life at the camp, and their hopes for the future
UN News | View of Za’atari Camp Northern Jordan
Adil Toukan came to Za’atari camp in April 2013, from the city of al-Sanamayn in the Daraa governorate in southern Syria, along with his wife and two young children.
There is clear evidence that climate-related threats are becoming more severe.
One can think of the record-breaking heat waves in Europe and the Americas as well as in China. One can think of drought and falling water tables, which are threatening agriculture in very many countries.
And one can also think of the poles, which are warming four times faster than the remainder of the world.
There is a danger that coastal cities everywhere will soon be flooded because of rapidly melting polar ice, as is discussed in my book, “Warnings from the Poles.”
What are we to do? What actions can we take to avoid a climate catastrophe? Below is a list of helpful actions that can and should be taken.
MADRID, Sep 7 2022 (IPS)* – More than two-thirds of 10-year-olds are unable to read and understand a simple text. This shocking finding should be enough to be alarmed about the horrifying fate of an entire generation. But there is much more.
There are 244 million children out of school. Credit: Shafiqul Alam Kiron/IPS
6 September 2022 — As the United Kingdom’s new Prime Minister Liz Truss names her cabinet, she has an opportunity to halt the systematic destruction of freedoms that have been hard won over decades in the UK, and to redefine how the office of Prime Minister is viewed at home and abroad.
The US “Afghanistan War Commission,” created in December 2021 to examine “key strategic, diplomatic, and operational decisions” the US made in Afghanistan, and to develop “lessons learned and recommendations for the way forward,” is beginning its work.
One priority should be to examine US government pledges on women’s and girls’ rights in Afghanistan.
MADRID, Sep 6 2022 (IPS)* – Both the mainstream media, the international bodies and the human rights defenders continue to rightly denounce the Taliban’s inhuman abuses against the Afghan people’s basic rights, in particular those of women and girls.
.
Over one year after the Taliban takeover, an estimated 24.4 million people – 59 per cent of the population in Afghanistan – are dependent on international aid and emergency relief in their day-to-day lives. Credit: UNAMA/Fraidoon Poya
In doing so, they use a similar vocabulary, saying that since the Taliban “seized the power” on 15 August 2021 everything has collapsed. Shouldn’t it be more accurate to say that the power was “knowingly” “delivered” to them by the United States following negotiations between the two parties under Donald Trump’s administration?
Growing anger over rising inequality makes the UK a testing ground for late-stage capitalist economic model.
Nick Clegg and David Cameron’s coalition win in 2010 heralded the return of Thatcherite policies | Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
(openDemocracy)* — When the British environmentalist and TV presenter, Chris Packham, tweeted a link to a striking video of sewage gushing out of a pipe onto a sandy beach in Sussex last week, it caused quite the stir.
By mid-week, the video had surpassed five million views – the latest demonstration of a change in public attitudes to the privatised water companies.
CARACAS, Sep 3 2022 (IPS)* – Venezuela is preparing to replicate the experience of Special Economic Zones (SEZs), a mechanism with which more than 60 countries have tried to draw investment and accelerate economic growth, while under its avowedly socialist government a “silent neoliberalism” is gaining ground. | En español
.
A partial view of the city of Punto Fijo, with the Cardón refinery in the background, on the Paraguaná peninsula, projected as a special economic zone overlooking the Caribbean in northwest Venezuela. CREDIT: Megaconstrucciones
The world’s largest intact forest, the Amazon plays a key role in regulating the global climate. It is home to Indigenous Peoples and traditional communities whose land stewardship practices can lead us all toward a more sustainable future. It is perhaps the world’s most biodiverse region yet also a place where there are likely still many species unknown to science.
(UN News)* — The scale of the humanitarian crisis in Pakistan is unprecedented, with a third of the country under water, UN humanitarians warned on Friday [2 September 2022].
With more than 33 million people impacted, that represents 15 per cent of the total Pakistani population, said Dr. Palitha Mahipala, World Health Organization (WHO) Representative in the country.
Some “6.4 plus million people are in dire need of humanitarian aid”, he said, speaking from Islamabad to journalists in Geneva.
4 September 2022 (UN News)* — The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has reported an increase in the levels of mental disorders amongst the population of the Gaza Strip, especially among children, many of whom were already in need of mental health services and psychosocial support.
Ziad Taleb | One of the destroyed houses in Rafah refugee camp in the southern Gaza Strip
Over three violent days in early August, until a ceasefire was reached on 7 August, Israeli Defence Forces launched some 147 air strikes against targets in Gaza while Palestinian militants unleashed around 1,100 rockets and mortars into Israel.
SYDNEY and KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 30 2022 (IPS)* – Most sub-Saharan African French colonies got formal independence in the 1960s. But their economies have progressed little, leaving most people in poverty, and generally worse off than in other post-colonial African economies.
Anis Chowdhury
Decolonization?
Pre-Second World War colonial monetary arrangements were consolidated into the Colonies Françaises d’Afrique (CFA) franc zone set up on 26 December 1945.
For colonies to get ‘independence’, France required membership of Communauté Française d’Afrique (still CFA) – created in 1958, replacing Colonies with Communauté.
The overwrought fear of China and Russia is sold to a Western public through manipulation of the facts.
Russian President Vladimir Putin (L) and Chinese President Xi Jinping (R) pose during their meeting in Beijing, on February 4, 2022. (Photo: Alexei Druzhinin/Sputnik/AFP via Getty Images)
23 Aug 2022 – The world is on the edge of nuclear catastrophe in no small part because of the failure of Western political leaders to be forthright about the causes of the escalating global conflicts. Continue reading →
MADRID, Aug 30 2022 (IPS)* – Shortly before the 25 August approval by the Spanish Parliament of the government’s plan to save energy, the country’s right and far-right opposition parties revived their debate about an earlier suggestion of not wearing neckties in the Spanish Congress and Senate and other official institutions.
.
“Wildfires – well known for their disastrous consequences in southern Europe – are now occurring as far north as Scandinavia”. Credit: Unsplash/Fabian Jones.
The suggestion was made by Pedro Sanchez, President of the Spanish government, as a way to help save energy.
The idea was that neckties increase the feeling of warmth, now that the country has to face two great problems: energy shortage and unprecedented heatwaves that increase the consumption of electricity and other energy sources. Continue reading →
28 August 2022 (UN News)* — After successfully reclaiming her people’s territory in Northern Argentina, Celestina Ábalos turned to tourism to share and promote her indigenous culture. UN entrepreneurship training during the COVID-19 pandemic helped her business to grow.
.
Ivar Velasquez | Indigenous Argentinian tourism entrepreneur Hero photo alt text Celestina Ábalos stands outside her home.
.
.
Indigenous entrepreneur Celestina Ábalos runs a tourism business in the UNESCO World Heritage site of Quebrada de Humahuaca in Jujuy province, northern Argentina, sharing her community’s culture and knowledge of medicinal herbs..“I am a child of Pachamama, Mother Earth. Earth is everything to us. It is life. We cannot conceive of ourselves without her. My community dates back 14,000 years. On behalf of 60 families, I led a 20-year fight for the right to land, education and freedom.Continue reading →
(UN News)* — There have been one million COVID-19 deaths so far this year – a “tragic milestone” that must lead to more people being vaccinated against the disease, World Health Organization (WHO) chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus reported on Thursday {25 August 2022}.
“We cannot say we are learning to live with COVID-19 when one million people have died with COVID-19 this year alone, when we are two-and-a-half years into the pandemic and have all the tools necessary to prevent these deaths,” said Tedros, speaking during his regular briefing from Geneva.
(UN News)* — Managing the conflict between Palestinians and Israelis is no substitute for a real political process, a truth laid bare by recent events, the Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process told the Security Council on Thursday [25 August 2022], as he urged delegates to turn their attention to the broader strategy of ending the occupation and realizing the long elusive two-State solution.
UN Photo/Loey Felipe | Tor Wennesland (on screen), Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, addresses the UN Security Council meeting on the situation in the Middle East, including the Palestinian question.
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 