Hawaiian Flag (top); Queen Liliuokalani, last Monarch of Hawaii (bottom) – On 17 Jan 1893, Hawaii’s monarchy was overthrown when a group of businessmen and sugar planters aided by US Marines forced Queen Liliuokalani to abdicate.
Lt. Col. Danny Davis was a hero on the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan. Our army hero then became a whistleblowing legend by exposing the chronic monumental lies the military has told and continues to peddle about achieving victory in those convulsed and splintered nations. The costs of the military’s prevarications have been steep: trillions of dollars squandered on fool’s errands; the killing, maiming or displacement of millions; and the awakening of hatreds or revenge against the United States that make all citizens potential targets.
(UN News)* — As the end of another year of war looms, “families in Syria remain without respite after almost a decade of conflict”, the UN Emergency Relief Coordinator told the Security Council on Wednesday [16 December 2020].
Speaking via videoconference, Humanitarian Affairs chief Mark Lowcock said that millions have been left displaced, impoverished, traumatized and suffering “deep personal loss”.
HARARE, 17 December 2020 (WFP)* – With millions of Zimbabweans devastated by a year of drought, rising hyperinflation and COVID-19, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) today appealed for an additional US$204 million to support over four million of the most food insecure people over the next six months.
A WFP beneficiary divides shares of WFP food assistance at a distribution in Bindura district, Zimbabwe. Photo: WFP/Tatenda Macheka
(UN News)* — Amidst a “critical shortage” of resources, hundreds of thousands of refugees in Kenya will lack food unless new funds are swiftly received, the UN’s food relief agency warned on Thursday [17 December 2020].
WFP | Refugees line up to collect food at a centre in Kakuma camp, in the north of Kenya.
The World Food Programme (WFP) needs $57 million to continue providing food and nutrition assistance to the country’s 435,000-strong refugee population between January and June of next year.
18 December 2020 — (UN News)* — The United Nations is commemorating International Migrants Day, on Friday [18 December 2020], highlighting their contributions to societies globally, and underlining the need to ensure that they remain central to the recovery from COVID-19.
UN Women/Pornvit Visitoran | Women migrant workers at a ceramics factory in northern Thailand. As part of the labour force, migrant workers support local businesses and also communities back home.
In a message, Secretary-General António Guterres said that in the midst of the global pandemic, societies have come to appreciate their dependence on migrants “who are too often invisible within our communities.”