21 July 2018 (SPUTNIK)* — Ecuador’s President Lenin Moreno is not planning to meet with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who resides in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, during the president’s upcoming visit to the United Kingdom, the Ecuadorian Foreign Ministry said on July 19.
A source close to the Ecuadorian Foreign Ministry and the president’s office, refusing to speak publicly, has confirmed that Moreno is close to settling if he has not already settled, an agreement to hand over Assange to the UK within the next several weeks, the Intercept reported.
The withdrawal of Assange’s asylum and his ejection could come as early as this week.
21 July 2018 (teleSUR)* — As Pakistan heads toward the July 25 general elections, teleSUR examines how the 71-year-old South Asian nation’s diplomatic relations with key global players have shaped it.
A street decorated with flags of political parties ahead of Pakistan’s general elections, in the Lyari neighborhood of Karachi. | Photo: Reuters | Photo from teleSUR.
Land Of Contradictions
The United States has a longstanding relationship with Pakistan. At the beginning of the Cold War, the United States strategically allied with Pakistan. The South Asian country maintained its distance from the Soviet Union, unlike India.
Stockholm (SIPRI)* – The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) on 18 June 2018 launched the findings of SIPRI Yearbook 2018, which assesses the current state of armaments, disarmament and international security.
SIPRI Yearbook 2018
Key findings include the following: all the nuclear weapon-possessing states are developing new nuclear weapon systems and modernizing their existing systems; and the number of personnel deployed with peace operations worldwide continues to fall while the demand is increasing.
World nuclear forces: reductions remain slow as modernization continues
At the start of 2018 nine states—the United States, Russia, the United Kingdom, France, China, India, Pakistan, Israel and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea)—possessed approximately 14 465 nuclear weapons.
This marked a decrease from the approximately 14 935 nuclear weapons that SIPRI estimated these states possessed at the beginning of 2017.
Voicing deep concern over the latest flare-up of violence around Gaza, the United Nations chief on Saturday 21 July 2018 urged all sides to “step back from the brink of another devastating conflict”.
UN Photo | Palestinian side of the Kerem Shalom crossing between Israel and Gaza, May 2018.
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“I am gravely concerned over the dangerous escalation of violence in Gaza and southern Israel,” said Secretary-General António Guterres in a statement. “I deeply regret the loss of life. It is imperative that all sides urgently step back from the brink of another devastating conflict”, he added.
Celebrating the holding of the first session of a new Congress in Colombia, the United Nations has said that the inclusion of former rebels in the legislative body marked their transition “from weapons to politics”.
UN Photo/Hector Latorre | UN Mission in Colombia extracts weapons caches (file)
20 July, 2018 – Addis Ababa (IOM)*– Clashes between communities on the border of Ethiopia’s Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples’ Region (SNNPR) and Oromia regions have forced some 970,000 people to flee their homes since April 2018, most becoming displaced in June alone.
IOM team discusses improving poor living conditions with displaced Ethiopians. Photo: Olivia Headon IOM
Rapid woreda (district) level assessments conducted by IOM’s Displacement Tracking Matrix (DTM) teams have found that 822,187 people are displaced in Gedeo zone (SNNPR region) and at least 147,040 people in West Guji (Oromia region).
July 19, 2018 — Together, the five largest meat and dairy corporations (JBS, Tyson, Cargill, Dairy Farmers of America and Fonterra) are already responsible for more annual greenhouse gas emissions than ExxonMobil, Shell or BP, a new studyreleased on Wednesday (18 July) warns.
The combined emissions of the top 20 meat and dairy companies surpass the emissions from entire nations such as Germany, Canada, Australia or the United Kingdom, a new the report finds. [White78]
The combined emissions of the top 20 meat and dairy companies surpass the emissions of entire nations like Germany, Canada, Australia or the United Kingdom, the report revealed.
“My sources tell [Julian] Assange will be handed over to Britain in the coming weeks or even days,”Simonyan wrote in a recent tweet which was reposted by WikiLeaks. “Like never before, I wish my sources were wrong,” she continued.
Following a Government-led assault on Syria’s opposition-held areas, an estimated 140,000 people in the country’s south-west remain homeless and in need of help, the United Nation Refugee Agency (UNCHR) on 20 July 2018 said, calling for sustained access to displaced communities.
UNICEF/Alaa Al-Faqir | Families from rural Quneitra are displaced, seeking shelter in open areas and camps. An estimated 140,000 people remain displaced across south-west Syria, in need of safe passage out of the area.
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“A new scaling-up of assistance is needed and UNHCR continues to advocate for sustained access for humanitarian actors,” UNHCR spokesperson Andrej Mahecic told reporters at the regular press briefing in Geneva, explaining that the UN and other partners have reached tens of thousands.
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 