As is currently occurring in Australia, the jump in the number of fires in Brazil’s huge tropical forest region last August sparked international alarm.
Smoke billows during a fire in an area of the Amazon rainforest near Humaita, Amazonas State, Brazil, Brazil August 17, 2019. | Photo: Reuters (photo posted here fromteleSUR).
9 January 2020 (teleSUR)* — Brazil’s Amazon region last August registered 30,901 fires, a figure almost three times that for the same month in 2018 and the worst for the month in the last decade, all of this resulting from the drought, the high temperatures and – in large part – deforestation caused by man, a governmental agency reported Wednesday [8 January 2020].
On the 75th anniversary of United Nations, building a new world order has become an urgent matter.
75th anniversary of United Nations (Photo from Wall Street International).
9 January 2020 (Wall Street International)* — “Order!” shouted in the House of Commons John Bercow, the peculiar and efficient speaker, with his strong and resolute voice. And we all felt comforted to see how the diverse and sometimes extravagant representatives of UK peoples managed to keep the composure they need to carry out the tasks they have been entrusted with.
There is a significant body of evidence that human extinction is now imminent; that is, it will occur within the next few years and possibly this year: 2020.
Robert J. Burrowes,
There is also a significant body of evidence that human extinction is now inevitable; that is, it cannot be prevented no matter what we do.
There are at least four distinct paths to imminent (that is, within five years) human extinction: nuclear war (possibly started regionally), biodiversity collapse (already well advanced and teetering on the brink), the deployment of 5G (commenced recently) and the climate catastrophe.
SYDNEY and KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 7 2020 (IPS)* – The latest November 2019 UBS/PwC Billionaires Reportcounted 2,101 billionaires globally, or 589 more than five years before. Earlier, Farhad Manjoo had seriously recommended, ‘Abolish Billionaires’, presenting a moral case against the super-rich as they have and get far, far more than what they might reasonably claim to deserve.
Manjoo also argues that unless billionaires’ economic and political power is cut, and their legitimacy cast in doubt, they will continue to abuse power to further augment their fortunes and influence, in ways detrimental to the economic, social and public good.
Benign billionaires?
In defence of billionaires, Josef Stadler, head of ultra-high net worth at UBS Global Wealth Management, argued that their wealth “has also translated into their philanthropy, as billionaires seek new ways to engineer far-reaching environmental and social change.”
(UN News)* — The top UN official in West Africa and the Sahel updated the Security Council on Wednesday [8 January 2020], describing an “unprecedented” rise in terrorist violence across the region.
@OCHA/Eve Sabbagh | A girl runs outside a small community school in Korioume, Mali, where children lack basic equipment, including notepads and pens. Parts of the school have been attacked and in 2013 the village was a Jihadist stronghold.
The opinion comes in a statement released on Tuesday [7 January 2020] following the latest meeting of the Emergency Committee convened by the World Health Organization (WHO) that provides technical advice on international public health emergencies.
7 January 2020 (UN News)* — Countries are being asked to step up assistance to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) which is facing the world’s worst measles epidemic, with more than 6,000 deaths since the start of last year. The World Health Organization (WHO) on Tuesday said some 310,000 suspected cases of the disease have been reported since then.
On 3rd January 2020, Iranian General Qasem Soleimani, Iraqi militia leader Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, and up to top six others were assassinated by a US military drone and missile attack at Baghdad airport.
Mairead Corrigan Maguire
The cruel assassinations were directly ordered by President Trump and were illegal, immoral and a breach of international law.
This is a serious action that has already increased the fear of escalating violence and potential for war against Iran.
Trump has also ordered an additional 3,000 troops be sent to Iraq (where the US has the largest of its 800 bases in the world).
About 89 percent will be erected in “settlements that Israel may have to evacuate under a future peace agreement with the Palestinians.”
Israel has built some 140 settlements in the Occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem since the 1967 six-day war. | Photo: Reuters (Photo posted here from teleSUR).
6 January 2020 (teleSUR)* — Israel’s Higher Planning Committee (HPC) approved Sunday and Monday the construction of 1,936 illegal housing units for Jewish settlers in the occupied West Bank, according to Israeli NGO Peace Now.
7 Jan, 2020 (RT)* — The US Air Force is sending six B-52 Stratofortress long-range bombers to Diego Garcia, a secretive military outpost in the Indian Ocean, as tension soars in the wake of a US assassination strike on a top Iranian general.
Smoke billows during a fire in an area of the Amazon rainforest near Humaita, Amazonas State, Brazil, Brazil August 17, 2019. | Photo: Reuters (photo posted here from teleSUR).
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 