UNITED NATIONS, Nov 21 2023 (IPS)* – Jeanne Kirkpatrick, a former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, once made the distinction between “friendly” right-wing authoritarian regimes (which were mostly U.S. and Western allies) and “unfriendly” left-wing totalitarian dictatorships (which the U.S. abhorred).
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Among the “dictators” the U.S. shunned in the 1970s and 80s were Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe, Myanmar’s General Than Shwe, Iraq’s Saddam Hussein, Cuba’s Fidel Castro, Libya’s Mummar al-Qaddafi, Syria’s Hafez al-Assad and North Korea’s Kim IL-Sung.
At the same time, successive U.S. administrations cozied up to a rash of right-wing authoritarian regimes and family-run fiefdoms, mostly in South-East Asia, Latin America and particularly the Middle East.
Geneva, 15 November 2023 (WMO)* — The abundance of heat-trapping greenhouse gases in the atmosphere once again reached a new record last year and there is no end in sight to the rising trend, according to a new report from the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).
Global averaged concentrations of carbon dioxide (CO2), the most important greenhouse gas, in 2022 were a full 50% above the pre-industrial era for the first time. They continued to grow in 2023.
The rate of growth in CO2 concentrations was slightly lower than the previous year and the average for the decade, according to WMO’s Greenhouse Gas Bulletin.
15 November 2023 (UNHCR)* — The climate crisis and human displacement are increasingly interconnected. Not only did climate-related disasters trigger more than half of new reported displacements in 2022, but nearly 60 per cent of refugees and internally displaced people now live in countries that are among the most vulnerable to climate change. Also available in: Español
Our understanding of these links is growing, but the ways in which our rapidly changing climate is forcing people to move and making life harder for those already displaced are complex and evolving. This has allowed myths and disinformation to abound.
Here are five of the most common myths associated with the climate crisis and displacement, followed by what we know.
UNITED NATIONS, Nov 17 2023 (IPS)* – As one of America’s closest allies, Israel has remained heavily dependent on the US —politically, economically, and militarily—since its creation in 1948.
Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II : a Fifth Generation Stealth Fighter aircraft- (Wikipedia)
US arms supplies, mostly provided gratis, are channeled via US Foreign Military Financing (FMF), Military Assistance Program (MAP) and Excess Defense Articles (EDA).
According to the Congressional Research Service (CRS), the US has provided more foreign assistance to Israel since World War II than to any other country.
(UN News)* —Greenhouse gas emissions reached a record high in 2022 with “no end in sight to the rising trend”, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said in a report published on Wednesday [].
(UN News)* — Grave violations against children, including killing, maiming and abductions, are taking place in the Gaza Strip, according to the Executive Director on the UN Children’s Fund, UNICEF.
(UN News)* — UN health agency WHO hailed on Tuesday [] the “heroic efforts” of staff at Gaza City’s besieged Al-Shifa hospital and expressed concern for hundreds of thousands of displaced people in the enclave where heavy rainfall has caused flooding and aggravated the already dire health crisis.
“Rain will just add further to the suffering” of people in the Strip, WHO spokesperson Margaret Harris told reporters in Geneva, at a time when disruptions in sewage pumping and water shortages have caused a spike in waterborne diseases and bacterial infections.
7 Nov 2023 – What happened October 7 and after as UN Chief Guterres said “did not happen in a vacuum”. Palestinians endured ethnic cleansing and racist onslaught daily for 75 years (that is over 27325 days).
That left 8 million Palestinians refugees or displaced people and the rest stored in disconnected concentration camps (Gaza, Bethlehem, Jericho, Ramallah etc).
Mazin Qumsiyeh
There is deepening crime of apartheid and racial discrimination in the West Bank while genocide goes on in Gaza. Israel’s ongoing horrors are a mockery of international law.
Today the situation in Gaza is catastrophic as it shifts to a higher stage of carnage: from sudden death and injury of civilians by bombing them without warning to ADD death by thirst, starvation, lack of hygiene, and collapse of health care services (Israeli policies of mass murder by denial of basics of life).
More patients, including premature babies, have reportedly died in Gaza City’s Al-Shifa hospital which has gone three days without electricity amid intensifying Israeli military operations, making a ceasefire more urgent than ever, UN humanitarians have said.
The UN’s health agency WHO said on Sunday [13 November 2023] night that according to the Gaza health authorities, 37 premature babies at the hospital were relocated over the weekend to an operating room without their incubators, with health workers trying to heat the room.
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 