UNITED NATIONS, Nov 1 2024 (IPS)* – The United Nations continues to be virtually paralyzed – and remains politically impotent amidst two raging conflicts—as Russia and Israel keep defying the world body.
Credit: UN Photo/Manuel Elías
The killings of civilians and the destruction of cities, particularly by Israel, are devastating and continue despite repeated warnings from the UN, its humanitarian agencies, the International Criminal Court (ICC), UN human right experts and the Security Council.
Which prompts the question: has the UN outlived its usefulness –even as it commemorated its 79th anniversary on the annual UN Day on October 24?
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
.
.
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.
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).
.
.
.
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.
Some parts of the world are burning. Some parts are drowning and people everywhere are struggling to cope and in many cases to survive – particularly and always the poorest and most vulnerable: Inger Andersen
(UN News)* — Annual greenhouse gas emissions are at an all-time high, and urgent action must be taken to prevent catastrophic spikes in temperature and avoid the worst impact of climate change, according to a new report released on Thursday [] by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP).
(UNEP)* 24 October 2024 — Lead may be present in everything from cookware and cosmetics to paint and plumbing. Yet there is no safe level of exposure to the heavy metal, which causes more than 1.5 million deaths annually and can trigger developmental disorders in children.
Lead particles contaminate the air, water and soil, reducing crop productivity and harming biodiversity. Lead also disproportionately harms those in low- and middle-income countries.
(UN News)* — The proportion of women killed in armed conflicts doubled last year compared to 2022, accounting for 40 per cent of all deaths in war, while UN-verified cases of conflict-related sexual violence increased by 50 per cent.
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 