10 April 2019 (OECD)* — Governments need to do more to support middle-class households who are struggling to maintain their economic weight and lifestyles as their stagnating incomes fail to keep up with the rising costs of housing and education, according to a new report by OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development).
Under Pressure: The Squeezed Middle Class says that the middle class has shrunk in most OECD countries as it has become more difficult for younger generations to make it to the middle class, defined as earning between 75% and 200% of the median national income. While almost 70% of baby boomers were part of middle-income households in their twenties, only 60% of millennials are today.
19 April 2019 (Human Rights Watch)* — “If I didn’t have to go to the doctor, I didn’t go,” a 47-year-old breast cancer survivor living in Greene County, Alabama, told my colleague last year about losing her insurance in 2012 when she was laid off from her job. She needs access to routine care, but unless it was an emergency, she avoided the health care system.
The former Brazilian president was removed from office in proceedings considered a coup by political organizations and analysts / Agência Brasil/Archive
19 April 2019 (Reporters Without Borders)* — The 2019 World Press Freedom Index compiled by Reporters Without Borders (RSF) shows how hatred of journalists has degenerated into violence, contributing to an increase in fear. |Читать на русском / Read in Russian
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The number of countries regarded as safe, where journalists can work in complete security, continues to decline, while authoritarian regimes continue to tighten their grip on the media.
The RSF Index, which evaluates the state of journalism in 180 countries and territories every year, SEE THE MAPHEREshows that an intense climate of fear has been triggered — one that is prejudicial to a safe reporting environment.
The hostility towards journalists expressed by political leaders in many countries has incited increasingly serious and frequent acts of violence that have fuelled an unprecedented level of fear and danger for journalists.
“These leaked documents provide clear evidence that French military equipment supplied to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) is being widely used in the conflict in Yemen.
TEHRAN, 19 April 2019 (UNICEF)* — Devastating flooding in three quarters of Iran’s provinces has affected 10 million people, of whom 2 million are severely impacted and 500,000 displaced – half of them are children.
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Over 1,000 health facilities and 1,000 schools have been destroyed or severely damaged forcing 100,000 children out of school and depriving thousands of essential healthcare.
18 April 2019 (UN Women)* — Milena Zindovic is an urban planner and gender expert and member of the Association of Women Architects in Serbia. Zindovic, with the support of UN Women studied current waste management practices in Serbian households to understand the role of women in both waste creation and management.
Milena Zindovic. Photo: UN Women/Elif Gulec
The study will be used by UN Women to create targeted campaigns to raise awareness of waste management and climate action among women and their communities.
UNITED NATIONS, New York (UNFPA)* – Reproductive rights and choices have become a reality for more women than ever, says UNFPA’s flagship report, State of World Population 2019, released on 10 April 2019. Yet despite these gains, vast numbers of women around the world are not empowered to make fundamental decisions about their own bodies.
20 April 2019 (FAO)*— Food is evolving. Meal-replacement beverages, 3-D printed pasta and meat grown in laboratories… These are just some of the paths it is taking. Whatever our take on it, as food changes, so will our need to define its safety.
18 April 2019 (openDemocracy)* — In the shadow world of the arms trade there is one business model that outshines all others: selling arms to both sides in the same war.
Ideally it works best when weapons you have sold to one side destroy weapons you have sold to the other.
Thus if one side uses air-launched precision-guided missiles to destroy the other’s aircraft (or tanks, armoured personnel carriers or whatever), then it will need to buy replacement missiles, will need to have your people service its aircraft and, if it ‘wins’ the war it will most likely buy new planes from you as it rearms.
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 