'Unseen' News and Views
14 May 2025 — When we think about displacement, many of us picture refugees crossing borders in search of safety. But displacement can also happen within one’s own country. There are millions of internally displaced people (IDPs) in the world, yet their stories often remain untold.
OHCHR said 142,000 people were deported from the US between 20 January and 29 April, according to official data.
(Beirut) – Scores of migrant workers in Saudi Arabia die in gruesome yet avoidable workplace-related accidents, including falling from buildings, electrocution, and even decapitation, Human Rights Watch said on 14 May 2025.
(UN News)* — Women’s organisations operating in crisis settings are being pushed to the brink by widespread funding cuts.
Across 73 countries, 308 million people now rely on humanitarian aid – a number that continues to rise.
Women and girls are disproportionately affected by these crises, facing preventable pregnancy-related deaths, malnutrition, and alarming levels of sexual violence.
Desertification and Drought Day 2025
Bonn – Accelerating progress to restore 1.5 billion hectares of degraded land around the world and jumpstarting a trillion-dollar land restoration economy will be the focus of this year’s Desertification and Drought Day on 17 June.
The theme of Desertification and Drought Day 2025 is “Restore the land. Unlock the opportunities”, underscoring multiple benefits linked to land restoration.
Livestock in eastern Mauritania are dying due to drought. Credit: UNHCR/Caroline Irby
The answer, according the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), is drought.
The past 10 years have been the hottest 10 years on record, and higher temperatures and drier conditions are making more regions vulnerable to drought and arid land degradation, or desertification.
Geneva, 13 May 2025 – An unprecedented 83.4 million people were living in internal displacement at the end of 2024, according to the newly released Global Report on Internal Displacement 2025 (GRID) from the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC).
People internally displaced in Honayiet, Sudan. Credit: IOM 2024/ Omer Hagali
(UN News)* — Devastating floods in South Sudan in recent months left thousands of herders without their most precious possessions: goats, cows and cattle. The animals are central to people’s lives and age-old customs including marriage and cultural traditions. All risk being swept away or scorched by the ravages of climate change.
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE-AI – TRANSCEND Media Service*
12 May 2025 – Nobel Prize winner Geoffrey Hinton, the physicist known for his pioneering work in the field, told LBC’s Andrew Marr that artificial intelligences had developed consciousness – and could one day take over the world.
Mr Hinton, who has been criticised by some in the world of artificial intelligence for having a pessimistic view of the future of AI, also said that no one knew how to put in effective safeguards and regulation.
(UNICEF)* — Measles is a highly contagious virus. For young children, it can be deadly. In too many places, low vaccination coverage is creating opportunities for measles to spread.
Over the last five years, measles outbreaks have hit over 100 countries, home to roughly three-quarters of the world’s children.
But we know how to stop it. Measles vaccines are safe and effective. They are the best way to protect children from getting sick with measles and spreading it to others.
As measles cases surge, here are five things you need to know:
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 