Cultural evolution depends on the non-genetic storage, transmission, diffusion and utilization of information.
John Scales Avery
The development of human speech, the invention of writing, the development of paper and printing, and finally, in modern times, mass media, computers and the Internet: all these have been crucial steps in society’s explosive accumulation of information and knowledge. Human cultural evolution proceeds at a constantly-accelerating speed.
Our modern civilization has been built up by means of a worldwide exchange of ideas and inventions. It is built on the achievements of many ancient cultures.
China, Japan, India, Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece, the Islamic world, Christian Europe, and the Jewish intellectual traditions, all have contributed.
Potatoes, corn, squash, vanilla, chocolate, chili peppers, and quinine are gifts from the American Indians.
(UN News)* — The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on tourism could result in a more than $4 trillion loss to the global economy, UN trade and development body UNCTAD on 30 June 2021 said in a report issued jointly with the UN World Tourism Organization (UNWTO).
United Nations/Katya Pugacheva | A lone passenger rides an escalator on the New York City subway at one of the network’s busiest stations. The city’s tourist industry is likely to be decimated by COVID-19 for the rest of 2020.
The estimate is based on losses caused by the pandemic’s direct impact on tourism and the ripple effect on related sectors, and is worse than previously expected.
29 June 2021 (WMO)* — An exceptional and dangerous heatwave is baking the Northwestern USA and Western Canada in areas which are more synonymous with the cold. Temperatures are likely to reach as high as around 45.0°C by day for perhaps five or more days, with extremely warm nights in between.
(UN News)* — With over 4.6 billion internet users around the world, digital advances continue to revolutionize human life, but “we must remain vigilant” in the face of malicious technologies that “could imperil the security of future generations”, the head of the UN Office for Disarmament Affairs (ODA) told the Security Council on Tuesday [29 June 2021].
26 June 2021 (openDemocracy)* — The UK’s new aircraft carrier, HMS Queen Elizabeth, is a few weeks into its deployment to Japan and back, which is expected to last more than seven months and include a transiting of the South China Sea through areas claimed by China.
The Royal Navy’s new aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth arrives in Gibraltar for her first overseas port visit. The 65,000 tonne future flagship was conducting a routine logistics stop having left her home in Portsmouth a week earlier for helicopter trials | Author: Dave Jenkins – InfoGibraltar | Licensed under the Creative CommonsAttribution 2.0 Generic license.
SYDNEY and KUALA LUMPUR, Jun 29 2021 (IPS)* – Too many have swallowed the myth that lowering corporate income tax (CIT) is necessary to attract foreign direct investment (FDI) for growth. Although contradicted by their own research, this lie has long been promoted by influential international economic institutions.
Anis Chowdhury
‘Beggar-thy-neighbour’ policies
The early 1980s’ economics ‘counter-revolution’ impacted the ‘Washington Consensus’ of the US federal government and the two Washington-based Bretton Woods institutions (BWIs) – the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank.
Thus, the rise of ‘supply side’ economics in the US – advocating lower direct taxes on income and wealth – influenced the world. Without evidence, IMF researchers justified its policy advice thus: “The complete abolition of CIT would be the most direct application of the theoretical result that small open economies should not tax capital income.”
Noting that capital is highly mobile, and can more easily evade taxes than labour, IMF economists even recommended that “small countries should not levy source-based taxes on capital income”.
This worldwide nonviolent resistance movement is a strategy to resist the achievement of elite control through implementation of the World Economic Forum’s ‘Great Reset’.
Our aim is to build a mass civil resistance movement to undermine the power of the Global Elite to control us, and to regain the freedoms that make our lives worth living.
New York, 27 June 2021 – The Bangladesh government has failed to address widespread allegations of torture and ill-treatment by its security forces, ten rights groups said on the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture. The groups called on the United Nations and concerned governments to take decisive action.
(UN News)* — Migrants smuggled across borders are often subjected to extreme violence, torture, rape and kidnapping, whether in transit or in captivity, but authorities take little action to address these offences, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) said in a report published on 28 June 2021.
OIM/Alexander Bee | Djibouti is a favoured destination for migrants and refugees from countries in the region, notably Ethiopia, Eritrea, and Somalia.
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The study focusses on transit routes in West and North Africa, the Mediterranean Sea, and Central America.It also examines the differing types of violence inflicted on men and women, and presents factors and motivations behind abuse committed during smuggling operations.
28 June 2021 (Wall Street International)* — Privacy has become a precious commodity. If you are rich enough, you can move to an off-grid island. If you are famous enough, you can get permission to build a higher wall around your property. The rest of us have to learn to live with an ever-decreasing level of privacy.
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 