(UN News)* — “Another day. Another month. Another school hit,” said Philippe Lazzarini, head of UNRWA, the largest aid agency in Gaza, in a post on X, formerly Twitter, after a school in Nuseirat, central Gaza, was “hit by the Israeli Forces” on Saturday [6 July 2024].
It was home to nearly 2,000 people forcibly displaced by the hostilities, the UNRWA Commissioner-General said, adding that dozens of casualties had been reported.
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, Jul 8 2024 (IPS)* ––For some time, most multilateral financial institutions have urged developing countries to borrow commercially, but not from China. Now, borrowers are stuck in debt traps with little prospect of escape.
Jomo Kwame Sundaram
More debt, less growth since 2008: The last decade and a half has seen protracted worldwide stagnation, with some economies and people faring much worse than others.
The 2008 global financial crisis and Great Recession have recently been worsened by the Covid-19 pandemic, US Federal Reserve Bank-led interest rate hikes and escalating geopolitical economic warfare.
Following Reagan-inspired tax cuts, ostensibly to induce more private investments, budget deficits have loomed larger. Instead of enabling rapid recovery, greater fiscal austerity is now demanded, as in the 1980s.
— In the first week of June 2024, searing heat in 80 countries broke temperature records – either monthly or for all time. Heatwaves scorched the US, the Mediterranean, Southern Europe, North Africa, Asia and the Middle East. Aswan in Egypt hit 50.9°C – an all time record – on the 7th June.
By Vibhu Mishra, with additional reporting by Daniel Johnson in Geneva
(UN News)* — The island of Carriacou in Grenada has been virtually “flattened” by the devastating Hurricane Beryl, a senior UN official there reported on Friday [5 July 2024], as humanitarian teams ramp up their support to communities affected across the Caribbean.
Speaking via video link from Grenada, Simon Springett, UN Resident Coordinator in Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean, outlined a scene of total devastation in Carriacou – where Beryl first made landfall on 1 July.
“The entire island is completely affected … that is literally 100 per cent of the population,” he stressed.
SOUTHERN PROVINCE, Zambia, 3 July 2024 (UNFPA)* -– “They don’t have any food, and the teenagers can become vulnerable,” said nurse Suvannah Sinakaaba, in the village of Hakankula in Zambia’s Monze District. “HIV rates are quite high among adolescents; some engage in sexual activities with fishermen, because they want [financial] help.”
Zambia is acutely exposed to the global climate emergency, hit by frequent – and deadly – droughts, floods and heat waves.
Now in the grips of its driest agricultural season in more than 40 years, the President has declared a national emergency: Crops have been wiped out, livestock have died, and poverty and food insecurity are deepening for more than 9.8 million people.
“At a time when the world is falling apart for millions of people, we are seeing an increasing trend of international neglect. I have never before seen such a glaring gap between the need for lifesaving aid and available funding…
Geneva (IOM)* – Refugees and migrants continue to face extreme forms of violence, human rights violations and exploitation not just at sea, but also on land routes across the African continent, towards its Mediterranean coastline.
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A group of migrants trek together in Tadjoura, Djibouti. Photo: IOM/Alexander Bee
This is according to a new report released today [5 July 2024] by UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the Mixed Migration Centre (MMC), titled “On this journey, no-one cares if you live or die”(Volume 2).
Only 19 per cent of the required funds for UNHCR’s refugee response have been received thus far, meaning that food rations have had to be “drastically cut”
(UN News)* — Millions of people have been forced out of Sudan as the brutal civil war continues to spread, including in Sinja Town, south of the capital Khartoum, where UN humanitarians reported on Tuesday [3 July 2024] that more than 55,000 people have already fled.
3 July 2024 (UN News)* — The United Nations has called for international solidarity with Grenada, the Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and other Caribbean islands hit hard by Hurricane Beryl.
A Category 5 storm, Hurricane Beryl has claimed at least six lives as it barrels through the Caribbean Sea. Initial reports indicate severe damage to homes, infrastructure and power and communications.
()* — The Gaza Strip is virtually “split in two”, with blockades not only restricting the movement of displaced people seeking shelter, but also aid workers trying to assist civilians in desperate need, a UN relief official said on Wednesday [3 July 2024].
Speaking via video link from Jerusalem, Andrea De Domenico, head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in the occupied Palestinian territory (OPT), said people have been forced to “completely reset their lives over and over again.”
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 