Archive for July 9th, 2020

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09/07/2020

Illegal Trade in Fake or Faulty COVID-19 Products Booming, New UN Research Reveals

Human Wrongs Watch

(UN News)* — A surge in demand for medical products to combat COVID-19 has led to a jump in the trafficking of substandard and faulty merchandise, according to new UN research published on 8 July 2020.

World Bank/Henitsoa Rafalia | Health workers in Madagascar test citizens for COVID-19.
“Health and lives are at risk with criminals exploiting the COVID-19 crisis to cash in on public anxiety and increased demand for PPE and medications”, said Ghada Waly, Executive Director of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).

Among its countless other impacts, the coronavirus has further highlighted the shortcomings in regulatory and legal frameworks aimed at preventing the manufacturing and selling of these products, points out the UNODC research brief, entitled “COVID-19-related Trafficking of Medical Products as a Threat to Public Health”.

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09/07/2020

Refugees Deliver Mental Health Services to Locked Down Camps in Iraq

Human Wrongs Watch

By Rasheed Hussein Rasheed in Duhok, northern Iraq*

Trained community workers – many of them refugees themselves – are providing vital mental health support during the COVID-19 outbreak in northern Iraq.

5ef365983Syrian refugee Falak Selo (right) talks to her mother and sister in Akre camp, northern Iraq, where she provides mental health support to other refugees (26 January, 2020). © UNHCR/Seivan MSalim  

8 July 2020 (UNHCR)* — Falak Selo knows what the sudden loss of home, country and loved ones can do to a person’s mental wellbeing. She was studying philosophy at the University of Damascus in 2013 when Syria’s civil war reached the area where her mother and sister were living. |  Español   |  Français   |  عربي

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09/07/2020

Their Office in the Air: Helicopter Pilots Fighting Desert Locusts

Human Wrongs Watch

A day on the job with Miles Woodgate, a pilot conducting locust control operations in Somalia

Helicoptero-langosta-FAO-Haji-Dirir

Miles Woodgate is part of the crew of helicopter pilots hired by FAO to spray the desert locusts in Somalia, helping to save people’s food and livelihood sources. ©FAO/Haji Dirir

8 July 2020 (FAO)* — The alarm went off a few minutes ago, before the morning call to prayer. It is now a quarter past five and still pitch-black outside. Miles Woodgate is eating breakfast and getting ready for the long day ahead fighting Desert Locusts.

This Englishman is one of the pilots conducting aerial spraying in the easternmost country of the Horn of Africa — the first time in 30 years that the security situation has allowed for this to happen in Somalia.

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09/07/2020

Rising Global Temperature Shows ‘Enormous Challenge’ of Meeting Climate Goal

Human Wrongs Watch

(UN News)* — Annual global temperature is likely to be at least 1°C warmer than pre-industrial levels in each of the coming five years, putting globally agreed climate change targets in jeopardy, new data from the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) reveals.

UNICEF/Pirozzi | An 11-year-old boy finds relief from the summer heat by playing in a fountain in a historic part of the city of Samarkand, Uzbekistan. (file)

The prediction is among the findings in the UN agency’s latest Global Annual to Decadal Climate Update, released on 8 July 2020 in Geneva, which also shows that temperature could exceed 1.5°C in at least one year between now and 2024.

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09/07/2020

New Climate Predictions Assess Global Temperatures in Coming Five Years

Human Wrongs Watch

Geneva, 9 July 2020 (WMO)* – The annual mean global temperature is likely to be at least 1° Celsius above pre-industrial levels (1850-1900) in each of the coming five years (2020-2024) and there is a 20% chance that it will exceed 1.5°C in at least one year, according to new climate predictions issued by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).

The Global Annual to Decadal Climate Update, led by the United Kingdom’s Met Office, provides a climate outlook for the next five years, updated annually.

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09/07/2020

June Sees More Global Heat, Especially in Arctic Siberia

8 July 2020 (WMO)* — June 2020 was just 0.01°C below the record-breaking temperatures of June 2019, with exceptional heat in Arctic Siberia, according to the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S). Globally, temperatures last month were 0.53°C warmer than the average June from 1981-2010.

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Over Arctic Siberia, average temperatures reached as high as 10 °C above normal for June, fuelling severe wildfires. During both June and for the last 12 months, Siberia stands out as the region with the largest anomalies.

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