UNITED NATIONS, Sep 24 2020 (IPS)* – With more than 20,000 civilians killed last year in conflicts in 10 countries — including Afghanistan, Central African Republic, Iraq, Libya, Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan, Syria, Ukraine and Yemen– UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres reiterated his call for a “global cease-fire”: a proposal which failed to generate a positive response since he first announced it last March.
26 September 2020 (Wall Street International)* — America proclaims itself to be the land of ultimate freedom and opportunity. The ability to rise above one’s condition of birth, not inhibited by social class – this is the essence of the American myth of a classless society.
24 September 2020 – Los Angeles, USA (Pressenza)* — The World Wildlife Foundation, in collaboration with the Zoological Society of London, recently issued an eye-popping description of the forces of humanity versus life in nature, the Living Planet Report 2020, but the report should really be entitled the Dying Planet Report 2020 because that’s what’s happening in the real world. Not much remains alive.
A new report has found nuclear-armed states spent a record $73 billion on nuclear weapons in 2019, a $7.1 billion increase from 2018 expenditures. The United States, the center of the global coronavirus pandemic, accounted for nearly half of that spending.
As the economies of the US, China, France, and Russia all contract, their nuclear spending is expanding. Supplemental ICAN research shows yearly expenditure on nuclear weapons in the US alone could pay for 300,000 ICU beds; 150,000 nurses; 75,000 doctors; and 35,000 ventilators to address the COVID19 pandemic.
Sculpture depicting St. George slaying the dragon. The dragon is created from fragments of Soviet SS-20 and United States Pershing nuclear missiles. PHOTO:UN Photo/Milton Grant
(United Nations)* — Achieving global nuclear disarmament is one of the oldest goals of the United Nations. It was the subject of the General Assembly’s first resolution in 1946, which established the Atomic Energy Commission (dissolved in 1952), with a mandate to make specific proposals for the control of nuclear energy and the elimination of atomic weapons and all other major weapons adaptable to mass destruction.
IAEA/Dean Calma | Euratom inspectors conduct safeguards inspections at URENCO in the Netherlands.
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Almost 75 years since the adoption of the first General Assembly resolution in 1946, which committed the UN to the goal of ridding the planet of nuclear weapons, “the world continues to live in the shadow of nuclear catastrophe”, Secretary-General António Guterressaid in his message commemorating the day.
(UN News)* — Tax abuse, money laundering and corruption, plague the global financial system, a high-level UN panel reported on Thursday [24 September 2020], launching an interim report that underscores the need for urgent reforms to achieve the 2030 Global Goals (SDGs).
World Bank/Philip Schuler | Anti-corruption sign in Namibia.
“Corruption and tax avoidance are rampant. Too many banks are in cahoots and too many Governments are stuck in the past”, said Dalia Grybauskaitė, co-chair of the High-Level Panel on International Financial Accountability, Transparency and Integrity to Achieve the 2030 Development Agenda (FACTI Panel) and a former president of Lithuania.
17 Sep 2020 – This morning I heard courageous patriot and Vietnam War-era whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg interviewed on Democracy Now!.
Referring to the Afghani refugee tragedies on the Greek Island of Lesbos and elsewhere, Ellsberg said:
“Our government is responsible for the flight of 37, 000,000 refugees worldwide because of United States-initiated wars.”
And he could have added,
“The US is also responsible for the sale of the lethal weapons that militaries and mercenary soldiers use to kill, maim and terrify innocent refugees-to-be all around the world. These weapons and militaries have destroyed families, freedoms, safety, shelter, jobs, food and water supplies, which naturally means that these innocents have to leave their destroyed homelands in search of safety, food, water and a future for them and their children.”
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 