'Unseen' News and Views
6 November 2017 – Expressing horror at continued violence perpetrated by all parties to the conflict in Yemen, the top United Nations humanitarian official in the country has called on the conflicting sides to uphold their obligations under international humanitarian law.
The city of Sa’ada in the Sa’ada Governorate has been heavily hit by airstrikes during the conflict in Yemen (file). Photo: OCHA/Philippe Kropf
Scene from Codrington town in Barbuda during the Secretary-General’s visit to survey the damage caused by recent hurricanes. Credit: UN Photo/Rick Bajornas
On the one hand, the organisers – the UN, Fiji and Germany – express strong hopes that it will speed up the implementation of the 2015 Paris Climate Change Agreement.
On the other, a giant contributor to global warming – the United States – decided to desert that milestone Agreement. Meanwhile, major European powers have been, again, prodigious in unmet promises.
In her recent book “What Happened”, Hillary Clinton makes endless tearful, self-pitying excuses for the disastrous 2016 US election, in which the climate-change-denying, racist, wealth-worshipping Republican Party gained control over the Presidency, the Congress and the Senate.
Johan Scales Avery
But what really happened in that terrible election was that voters were faced with a choice between two evils, and many disillusioned and disgusted young Democrats reacted by not voting at all.
The Democrats can win in 2018. They can win in 2020. But to do so, they must reform their party.
Experts agree that if Bernie Sanders had won the Democratic Primary, he would easily have defeated Donald Trump. But, as revealed by recent disclosures, the Democratic National Committee gave Clinton control over party funds well in advance of the Primary.
The UN human rights office on 3 November 2017 expressed its concern over “an unfolding humanitarian emergency” at Australia’s offshore detention centre, where refugees and asylum seekers are holding out after the Australian Government’s decision to close the facility and pull out its support staff.
Photo: UNHCR/V. Tan
We share the concerns of other UN agencies… about what is an unfolding humanitarian emergency,” said Rupert Colville, a spokesperson for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), explaining that food, water and other basic services have been cut off since the Australian Government shuttered the Regional Processing Centre on Manus Island in Papua New Guinea on 31 October..
Briefing the press at United Nations Headquarters in New York for the first time, the first-ever UN advocate for the rights of victims of sexual exploitation and abuse on 3 November 2017 highlighted her role to give those who have suffered “visibility” and amplify their voices.
Victims of sexual violence at a shelter in Goma, Democratic Republic of the Congo. UN Photo/Marie Frechon (file)
04/11/2017
I HATE self-evident truths.
Uri Avnery
Ideals may be self-evident. Political statements are not. When I hear about a self-evident political truth, I immediately doubt it.
The most self-evident political truth at this moment concerns Iran. Iran is our deadly enemy. Iran wants to destroy us. We must destroy its capabilities first.
Since this is self-evident, the anti-nuclear agreement signed between Iran and the five Security Council members (plus Germany) is terrible. Just terrible.
We should have ordered the Americans long ago to bomb Iran to smithereens. In the unlikely event that they would have disobeyed us, we should have nuclear-bombed Iran ourselves, before their crazy fanatical leaders have the opportunity to annihilate us first.
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 