Archive for July 17th, 2021

17/07/2021

Summer of Extremes: Floods, Heat and Fire – World Meteorological Organization

16 July 2021 (WMO)*Heavy rainfall has triggered devastating flooding causing dozens of casualties in Western Europe. Parts of Scandinavia are enduring a lasting heatwave, and smoke plumes from Siberia have affected air quality across the international dateline in Alaska.
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The unprecedented heat in Western North America has also triggered devastating wildfires.

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17/07/2021

7 Billion Trees Outside Forests in Africa Reported for the First Time

Human Wrongs Watch

Pioneering environmental data collection initiative a world first for Africa

Photo: ©FAO/Giulio Napolitano/FAO

Africa Open DEAL initiative provides a detailed snapshot of the continent, captured through more than 300 000 sampling points between 2018 and 2020.

ACCRA, 16 July 2021 (FAO)* – A data collection and analysis initiative led by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the African Union Commission (AUC) has revealed 7 billion trees outside forests for the first time, among other findings.

The survey is the first consistent land use representation of the continent and discloses more forests and more arable lands than were previously detected.

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17/07/2021

‘Sulli Deals’: Muslim Women in India Being Put Up for Sale

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NEW DELHI, Jul 16 2021 (IPS)* – Ongoing online sexual harassment of Muslim women through ‘Sulli Deals’, an auctioning app hosted by GitHub, has been reported to the authorities – but not before it called untold trauma to the targeted women.

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Sania Ahmed found her photograph uploaded on ‘Suli Deal’ auctioning app. Credit: Handout

Cyber Cell registered the case in Delhi, India, despite GitHub having shut the open-source app Sulli Deals down.

Sulli is a derogatory term that often used by abusive right-wing trolls for Muslim women in India.

Previously similar profiles and handles were found on Twitter and YouTube.

These platforms were used to harass Muslim women using a similar ‘Sulli Deals’ modus operandi to auction pictures of the women.

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17/07/2021

Australia: 8 Years of Abusive Offshore Asylum Processing

By Human Rights Watch*

Governments Should Reject Costly, Harmful Policy for Refugees, Asylum SeekersAsylum seekers and human rights activists protest against the detention of refugees amid the Covid-19 crisis in Brisbane.Asylum seekers and human rights activists protest against the detention of refugees amid the Covid-19 crisis in Brisbane, Australia on May 1, 2020. © 2020 Florent Rols /SOPA Images/Sipa via AP Images

(Sydney) – Other governments should reject Australia’s abusive and costly offshore processing of refugees and asylum seekers, Human Rights Watch on 15 July 2021 said. July 19, 2021 is the eighth anniversary of the Australian government’s resumption of its offshore processing policy, which has harmed thousands of people.

17/07/2021

Expelled Asylum Seekers ‘Crying Out for Help’ in Northern Mexico

By Tim Gaynor in Tijuana*

Removed from the United States, asylum-seekers fear for their safety in northern Mexico and deadly violence if they return to their Central American homelands.  Español   |  Français   |  عربي

Mexico. Asylum seeker in limbo

Honduran mother Ana, 27, holds her three-year-old daughter in her arms at a makeshift shelter for asylum seekers in Tijuana, Mexico. © UNHCR/Tim Gaynor

15 July 2021 (UNHCR)* — Honduran mother of three Lorena* recalls how she clambered on to a makeshift raft on the banks of the Rio Grande in Mexico with her two eldest children, a girl of seven and a boy four, to cross to the United States and seek asylum. 

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17/07/2021

Forced from Their Homes, Displaced Congolese in Dire Need of Shelter

By Blaise Sanyila in Kitchanga and Sanne Biesmans in Beni, the Democratic Republic of the Congo 

As more families flee the DRC’s Beni Territory, shelter needs are mounting – over 100,000 families who have found safety in North Kivu urgently need a place to stay.

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Elodie, a displaced Congolese woman, cooks outside her durable shelter in Beni, in north-eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo.
© UNHCR/Justin Kasereka

17/07/2021

A ‘Hurricane of Humanitarian Crises’

Human Wrongs Watch

(UN News)* — There is a “bloody surge” impacting humanitarian crises around the world, with civilians in conflict zones paying the highest price, the UN deputy chief told the Security Council on Friday 16 July 2021. 

UN Photo/Marco Dormino | Security and humanitarian challenges plague Mali, considered the UN’s most dangerous peacekeeping mission.

Briefing on behalf of the UN chief, Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed, painted a grim picture of civilian executions, arbitrary arrests, detentions, forced displacement and sexual violence against children, on a massive scale, in the Tigray region of Ethiopia.

She also spoke of “brutal attacks” in Afghanistan, Syria and Yemen, where 20 million people are living “face-to-face” with hunger.  

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