CALI, Columbia, Oct 31 2024 (IPS)* – José Aruna, a forest defender from Sud Kivu province in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), remembers the night in September 2019 when a group of heavily armed men barged into his house in the middle of the night.
Antonio Guterres, the UN Secretary General at COP16, sent a message that peace with nature was only possible if there was a political solution to conflicts. Credit: Stella Paul/IPS
Aruna and his wife—6 months pregnant at the time—were in bed when he heard sounds of boots on the front yard and quickly knew something was about to happen.
He silently slipped out of the bed and hid behind a tree at the back of the house.
Care responsibilities are excluding and holding back millions of women worldwide from taking paid employment, and with climate and demographic changes on course to increase the demand for care, measures to support the care economy are urgently needed, according to a new ILO brief. Open the brief
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An estimated 708 million women worldwide are outside the labour force because of unpaid care responsibilities, according to new ILO global estimates, released on Tuesday [], on the occasion of the International Day of Care and Support.
There are high hopes that artificial intelligence (AI) can help tackle some of the world’s biggest environmental emergencies. Among other things, the technology is already being used to map the destructive dredging of sand and chart emissions of methane, a potent greenhouse gas.
Close-up of an electronic circuit board showing microchips and components. (Photo by TEK IMAGE/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY / ABO / Science Photo Library via AFP)
But when it comes to the environment, there is a negative side to the explosion of AI and its associated infrastructure, according to a growing body of research.
By Amy E. Pope, Director General, International Organization for Migration*
Port Sudan, 29 October (IOM)* – Good morning, I am glad to be able to speak with you this morning live from Port Sudan.
I arrived here yesterday on a four-day visit, into a deteriorating security situation with alarming reports of new atrocities.
IOM Director General interacts with some of those who have been displaced by the ongoing conflict in Sudan. Photo: IOM/Philippa Lowe
I have heard distressing detail from our teams on the ground of the conditions faced by ordinary Sudanese people whose lives have been thrown into turmoil by this conflict.
GENEVA, 25 October 2024 (UNICEF)* – “Children are being medically evacuated from Gaza at a rate of fewer than one child per day. If this lethally slow pace continues, it would take more than seven years to evacuate the 2,500 children needing urgent medical care.
UNICEFFILE Photo, 9-year-old Jouri in the European Hospital, Khan Younis, Gaza on 9 April 2024. The bones in Jouri’s right arm, wrist and the right side of her face had several breaks, likely requiring further surgery. She had serious open wounds that were yet to receive reconstructive surgery – the hospital was not able to do this so was forced to focus on keeping the wound clean.
(UN News)* —Monday ’s vote by the Israeli Knesset banning the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) contradicts principles of the UN Charter, violates Israel’s obligations under international law, and sets a dangerous precedent, the head of the Agency, Philippe Lazzarini has warned. The UN chief pledged later he would take the issue to the General Assembly.
“This is the latest in the ongoing campaign to discredit UNRWA and delegitimize its role towards providing human-development assistance and services to Palestine refugees,” Mr. Lazzarini said in a post on X, following reports of the long-anticipated vote being taken by Knesset members, passing by a margin on 92-10.
25 Oct 2024 – Western publics are being subjected to a campaign of psychological warfare, where genocide is classed as ‘self-defence’ and opposition to it ‘terrorism.’
Israel knew that, if it could stop foreign correspondents from reporting directly from Gaza, those journalists would end up covering events in ways far more to its liking.
They would hedge every report of a new Israeli atrocity – if they covered them at all – with a “Hamas claims” or “Gaza family members allege”.
28 October 2024 — Greenhouse gas levels surged to a new record in 2023, committing the planet to rising temperatures for many years to come, according to a report from the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).
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Carbon dioxide (CO2) is accumulating in the atmosphere faster than any time experienced during human existence, rising by more than 10% in just two decades.
Fifty of the world’s richest billionaires on average produce more carbon through their investments, private jets and yachts in just over an hour and a half than the average person does in their entire lifetime, a new Oxfam report on 28 October 2024 reveals.
The first-of-its-kind study, “Carbon Inequality Kills,”tracks the emissions from private jets, yachts and polluting investments and details how the super-rich are fueling inequality, hunger and death across the world.
The report comes ahead of COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan, amidst growing fears that climate breakdown is accelerating, driven largely by the emissions of the richest people.
UNITED NATIONS, Oct 28 2024 (IPS)* – As it continues to leave a mounting trail of death and destruction in Gaza, Israel has come under severe attack from the international community, including the United Nations and its humanitarian agencies, Western allies, the International Criminal Court (ICC) and scores of human rights experts.
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 