Nairobi, 16 July 2021 (UNEP)* — The Western Indian Ocean region has declared 143* marine and coastal areas as protected – an area covering 553,163 square kilometers, representing 7 percent of the total Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) for the region – according to a new publication by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP)-Nairobi Convention and the Western Indian Ocean Marine Science Association.
Against a backdrop of extreme poverty and a marine environment changing beyond her control, Kokoly lives on a knife edge. This is her story. #FishingForSurvival
(UN News)* — COVID-19 deaths in Africa have risen sharply in recent weeks, amid the fastest surge in cases the continent has seen so far in the pandemic, the regional office for the World Health Organization (WHO) on 15 July 2021 said.
IMF/James Oatway | A volunteer carer called Trinity is working in a COVID-19 field hospital in Nasrec, Johannesburg.
Fatalities are rising as hospital admissions increase rapidly as countries face shortages in oxygen and intensive care beds.
COVID-19 deaths rose by more than 40 per cent last week, reaching 6,273, or nearly 1,900 more than the previous week. The number is just shy of the 6,294 peak, recorded in January.
Young people were already facing disproportionate levels of unemployment and under-employment before the pandemic. More than one out of five youth were not in employment, education, or training, the majority of them young women.
15 July 2021 (ILO)* — On World Youth Skills Day 2021, ILO Senior Youth Employment Specialist, Susana Puerto, speaks about the impact of COVID-19 on young people’s education and job prospects and the skills that are in demand by employers and a changing world of work.
NEW YORK, 14 July 2021 (UNICEF)* – Nearly 40 per cent of migrant and displaced youth identified education and skills training as their top priorities, while 30 per cent named employment opportunities, according to a new UNICEF poll announced on the eve of World Youth Skills Day.
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These findings were revealed through a U-Report poll of more than 26,000 people, including almost 9,000 young people (aged 14-24), across 119 countries.
The poll, conducted between 6 May and 1 June 2021, asked respondents about their aspirations to learn and earn, and the unique barriers they face – as a girl or as a refugee, trying to access the labour market with or without legal status.
Why we should take extraterrestrial intelligence seriously
Speculation about extraterrestrial presences has been around a very long time | Image from Wall Street International.
Horatio upon seeing the ghost of his father: “O day and night, but this is wonderous strange.” Hamlet: “Therefore as a stranger give it welcome. There are more things in heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.”
(Shakespeare in Hamlet, Act 1, Scene 5)
15 July 2021 (Wall Street International)* — If someone wanted to ruin his career, taking UFOs seriously has been a good way to do it. In polite circles, the idea that nonhuman species are visiting Earth from distant civilizations has ranked high on the kook scale. Now that might be changing.