28 August 2019 (World Meteorological Organization)* — Fires that are raging in the Amazon rainforest are compounding the stress on the global climate and environment already unleashed by exceptional fires in the Arctic. There are also widespread fires in parts of tropical Africa.
Satellite imagery shows thousands of fires in Brazil, parts of Peru, Bolivia and Paraguay.
Somalia, 26 August 2019 (IOM)* – It is estimated that there are around 323,000 Internally Displaced People (IDPs) currently in Baidoa, Bay region of Somalia. Drought has been one of the primary causes of displacement. With no water, there is a severe shortage of crops and livestock, leading to loss of livelihoods or even starvation.
The International Organization for Migration (IOM)’s Camp Coordination and Camp Management (CCCM) team interviewed Faduma upon her arrival to Baidoa.
Faduma comes from Tubay village in Bakool region and is a mother of six children. The family has spent their lives as pastoralists who herd animals and tend to small rain-fed farms.
An asylum-seeker allowed to disembark from the Open Arms rescue vessel on the Italian island of Lampedusa recalls the horror of her journey. | Español | Français | عربي
AGRIGENTO, Italy, 23 August 2019 (UNHCR)* – Feven* kept looking at her feet. The 18-year-old’s voice was a whisper amid dozens of asylum seekers at a reception center on the Italian island of Sicily. Memories of her ordeal are still fresh.
28 August 2019 (IGWIA)* — Indigenous peoples in the Amazon rainforest are on the front line of defending themselves and their land from the rapidly spreading fires. A majority of the tens of thousands of fires are happening in Brazil, though fires are also raging in Bolivia where 10,000 km2 of forests (an area the size of Lebanon) have burned, as well as large areas in Paraguay and Peru.
This potential global emergency is yet another example of the ramifications of systematically ignoring and undermining indigenous peoples’ and their rights.
28 August 2019 — At-risk wildlife that is facing a “growing extinction crisis” received a boost on Wednesday, as countries wrapped up a marathon meeting in Geneva, by agreeing to increased protection measures and more sustainable trade in animals and plants across the globe.
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Ryan Harvey | A southern white rhinoceros at Lake Nakuru, Kenya.
Europe has lost ground in eliminating measles, as the number of countries having achieved or sustained elimination of the disease has declined, the European Regional Verification Commission for Measles and Rubella Elimination (RVC) warned on Thursday [28 August 2019].
The legacy of nuclear testing is “nothing but destruction,” and in a world of rising tensions, “our collective security depends” on bringing a global treaty into force that bans nuclear explosions, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres has said.
UN Photo/Eskinder Debebe | A view of Semipalatinsk Test Site’s ground zero in Kurchatov, Kazakhstan. The remote area was once the former Soviet Union’s primary testing venue for nuclear weapons. (file)
(Greenpeace International)* — It’s scary to think that while we are living in a climate emergency, CO2 emissions — a greenhouse gas driving global climate change — continues to rise each and every month. The transport sector is responsible for about a quarter of those global emissions.
Road transport — which consists of cars, trucks and buses — accounts for a whopping 74 percent of global transport CO2 emissions.In fact, in most places, transport is extremely problematic.Houston, we have a problem.
A view of the port of Lampedusa on the Italian island of the same name in the Mediterranean Sea. © UNHCR/Fred Noy
Fires in the Monte Verde Indigenous Territory in Bolivia. Photo: Territoria Indígena Monteverde
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 