'Unseen' News and Views
(UN News)* — The rapid spread of the highly infectious avian flu virus H5N1 has reached an “unprecedented” scale, wiping out hundreds of millions of birds worldwide and increasingly spilling over into mammals, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) warned on Monday .
New FAO study notes a nearly 40 percent price surge in 2024 due to supply-side disruptions, primarily from unfavourable weather
.jpg?sfvrsn=caa8700a_4 "Adverse climatic conditions drive coffee prices to highest level in years")
Smallholder farmers account for 80 percent of global coffee production. ©FAO/Santiago Billy
Rome (FAO)* – World coffee prices reached a multi-year high in 2024 – increasing 38.8 percent on the previous year’s average – mostly driven by inclement weather affecting key producing countries, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) on 14 March 2025 said.
– In these turbulent and sad times, it is hard to keep quiet about abuses and violations of human rights taking place around the world; in eastern DR Congo, South Sudan, Ukraine, and Gaza.
Among the most egregious examples of incomprehensible stances on such abuses is the behaviour displayed by the Trump Administration, not least the President’s behaviour against the lawfully elected president of Ukraine.
Trump’s doubts about the validity of a nation’s desperate struggle against the forces of a dictatorial regime, which destroys their country and aims at taking over its richest territory.
The European Commission’s proposal for a new “Returns Regulation” for undocumented migrants, announced March 11, is both cruel and unrealistic.
It would mean longer detention, harsher treatment, and fewer rights for people, without any meaningful promise of more repatriations.
(UN News)* — Online attacks against women are getting worse, according to the UN, causing lasting damage that can spill over into real world violence. Leading activists from Spain and Latin America met at UN Headquarters on Wednesday [] to rally women and share strategies on fighting back.
“We were already overstretched, under resourced and literally under attack, with last year being the deadliest year on record to be a humanitarian worker. But it is far tougher for the 300 million plus people who we serve,” he said.
(UN News)* — The UN’s top relief official warned on Wednesday [that the global humanitarian system has reached breaking point, with funding cuts forcing life-or-death decisions over which aid programmes to sustain and which to shut down.
– NATO geopolitical strategy has now joined the ‘coalition’ of Western geoeconomic forces accelerating planetary heating, now led again by re-elected US President Donald Trump.
Jomo Kwame Sundaram
Industrial Revolution
Economic development is typically associated with the spread of industrialisation over the last two centuries.
The Industrial Revolution involved greater energy use to increase productive capacities significantly.
Burning biomass and fossil fuels greatly expanded mechanical energy generation. The age of industry in the last two centuries has thus involved more hydrocarbon combustion to increase output.
Uneven development has also transformed population geography.
– Faced with an impending cash crisis primarily due to non-payment of dues by the US and over 100 other member states– along with threats of a US withdrawal from the world body– there were widespread rumors the United Nations was re-costing and reducing its approved budget for 2025 while deciding to freeze hiring new staffers.
The UN Secretariat building in New York City, where staff of the UN Secretariat carry out the day-to-day work of the UN. Credit: UN Photo/Manuel Elías
The United States currently pays about 22% of the United Nations’ regular budget and 27% of the peacekeeping budget. As of now, the United States owes $1.5 billion to the UN’s regular budget.
And, between the regular budget, the peacekeeping budget, and international tribunals, the total amount the US owes is $2.8 billion.
In contrast to the rapid growth of the high fertility countries like the DRC and Nigeria, some of the largest populations in 1950, such as Germany, Italy, Japan and Russia, have grown relatively slowly during the recent past. Credit: Shutterstock.
Those continuing changes in the distribution of the world’s population have weighty economic, political, social and environmental consequences (Table 1).
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 