'Unseen' News and Views
Rome/Bangkok (FAO)* – Fall Armyworm could threaten the food security and livelihoods of millions of small-scale farmers in Asia as the invasive crop-eating pest is highly likely to spread further from India, with South East Asia and South China most at risk, FAO on 14 August 2018 warned.
Former Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva speaks at his book launch event in Sao Paulo, Brazil March 16, 2018. | Photo: Reuters | From teleSUR.
Attacks against children caught in the conflicts in Syria and Yemen must stop, the UN children’s agency, UNICEF, appealed on 13 August 2018.
In a tightly worded statement, UNICEF pointed out that since Sunday, 28 children were reported killed in Idlib and western Aleppo, located in northern Syria. The death toll included an entire family of seven.
Furthermore, three UNICEF-supported health facilities were also attacked, two of which are now out of service.
13 Aug 2018 – There is almost unanimous agreement among climate scientists and organizations – that is, 97% of over 10,000 climate scientists and the various scientific organizations engaged in climate science research – that human beings have caused a dramatic increase in the amount of carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide released into Earth’s atmosphere since the pre-industrial era and that this is driving the climate catastrophe that continues to unfold.
**Global temperature anomalies for 2015 compared to the 1951–1980 baseline. 2015 was the warmest yearin the NASA/ NOAAtemperature record, which starts in 1880. It has since been superseded by 2016 (NASA/NOAA; 20 January 2016) | NASA Scientific Visualization Studio – https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/ Goddard Space Flight Center – https://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard| Public Domain
13 August 2018 – Healthy soils are essential to achieve ‘Zero Hunger’ – and other Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) – peace and prosperity, the United Nations agriculture agency chief underscored in Brazil at the World Congress of Soil Science.
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On Sunday [12 August 2018], more than 2,000 scientists gathered in Rio de Janeiro under the theme “Soil Science: Beyond food and fuel,” for a week of exploring the increasingly complex, diverse role of soils; grappling with resilient agriculture practices to address environmental and climatic changes; and confronting threats to food security and sovereignty.
13 August 2018 – On August 9, a U.S.-supported Saudi airstrike bombed a bus carrying schoolchildren in Sa’ada, a city in northern Yemen. The New York Times reported that the students were on a recreational trip. According to the Sa’ada health department, the attack killed at least forty-three people.
Kathy Kelly
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According to the International Committee of the Red Cross, at least twenty-nine of those killed were children under the age of fifteen, and forty-eight people were wounded, including thirty children.
CNN aired horrifying, heartbreaking footage of children who survived the attack being treated in an emergency room.
One of the children, carrying his UNICEF issued blue backpack, is covered with blood and badly burned.
Commenting on the tragedy, CNN’s senior correspondent Nima Elbagir emphasized that she had seen unaired video which was even worse than what the CNN segment showed.
In 2015, the Boko Haram insurgency sweeping northern Nigeria reached the Diffa region of southern Niger, leading to the displacement of more than 250,000 people. However, even before 2015, Boko Haram had carried out some attacks in the region. In the wake of this crisis, people from across the border in Nigeria, and internally displaced people within Niger, sought refuge in Diffa town. What was, at first, an emergency slowly transitioned into a more permanent situation, and people have since made Diffa town their home.
Investing in people’s livelihoods in South Sudan is paving the way to Zero Hunger.
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As the farming group’s elder, Akuilina has become a counselor, the person other women turn to whenever disputes arise. ©FAO / Stefanie Glinski
Amin was hospitalized on July 21 and went back home on Saturday [11 August 2018], but he passed away the following day.
Samir Amin | Photo: Democracy Now | Photo from teleSUR.
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 