Archive for ‘Asia’

28/06/2025

New Era of Global Instability Has Empowered Organized Crime Groups, ‘Pushing Drug Use to Historically High Levels’

Human Wrongs Watch

By the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC)*

A new era of global instability has intensified challenges in addressing the world drug problem, empowering organized crime groups and pushing drug use to historically high levels, says the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) in the World Drug Report 2025 launched on 26 June 2025.

There have been a record number of seizures of amphetamine-type stimulants.
UNODC/Ioulia Kondratovitch | There have been a record number of seizures of amphetamine-type stimulants.

“This edition of the World Drug Report shows that organized drug trafficking groups continue to adapt, exploit global crises, and target vulnerable populations,” said Ghada Waly, Executive Director of UNODC.

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27/06/2025

Stop Netanyahu before He Gets Us All Killed

Human Wrongs Watch

By Jeffrey D. Sachs and Sybil Fares – TRANSCEND Media Service*

We could soon see several nuclear powers pitted against each other and dragging the world closer to nuclear annihilation.

Jewish protest against Benjamin Netanyahu, 24 Mar 2023 Alisdare Hickson from Woolwich, United Kingdom, CC BY-SA 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

16 Jun 2025 – For nearly 30 years, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has driven the Middle East into war and destruction. The man is a powder keg of violence.

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27/06/2025

Gaza: ‘Our kids cry for food’

Human Wrongs Watch

Most Gaza families survive on one meal a day. Adults are routinely skipping meals in order to leave more for children, the elderly and the ill.

A woman and her children sit inside their destroyed home, in Burij in the central Gaza Strip.
© UNICEF | A woman and her children sit inside their destroyed home, in Burij in the central Gaza Strip.

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27/06/2025

‘Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, are increasingly being subjected to forced displacement and land seizures’

Human Wrongs Watch

UN human rights office sounds the alarm over forced displacement in the West Bank

A young girl runs through the rubble of damaged buildings after an Israeli military raid at Nur Shams refugee camp, in the West Bank in August 2024.
© UNICEF/Alaa Badarneh | A young girl runs through the rubble of damaged buildings after an Israeli military raid at Nur Shams refugee camp, in the West Bank in August 2024.

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26/06/2025

$1 Towards a Girl’s Education = $3 for the Global Economy: That’s How Development Works

Human Wrongs Watch

By Antonio Lafuente, UN News*

  — Helping those with less isn’t charity – it’s a shared investment in a better future. Yet global development financing is under strain. An upcoming UN conference in Sevilla, Spain, aims to change that by mobilizing large-scale investment for a more just and sustainable world.

Girls give the thumbs-up at a school in Ghana.

© UNICEF/Roger Yebuah | Girls give the thumbs-up at a school in Ghana.

Every dollar invested in girls’ education yields an average return of $2.80 – translating into billions in additional GDP.

Similarly, each dollar spent on water and sanitation saves $4.30 in healthcare costs.

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26/06/2025

‘The world needs an extra $4 trillion every year to tackle some of the biggest challenges – ending poverty and hunger, fighting climate change, and reducing inequality’ 

Human Wrongs Watch

Children plant flowers in a playground in N’Djamena, Chad as part of an education project.

© UNICEF/ Frank Dejongh | Children plant flowers in a playground in N’Djamena, Chad as part of an education project.

These are part of 17 goals agreed by nearly every country, called the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The plan is to hit these targets by 2030.

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26/06/2025

Iran— Deja Vu All Over Again

Human Wrongs Watch

PhD, President of Conscience International

ATLANTA, USA, Jun 26 2025 ( IPS)* Chest thumping “Mission Accomplished” claims by President Trump that he ordered the world’s biggest conventional bombs to be dropped on a sleeping nation of 90 million people, were premature.
 

IAEA chief Rafael Grossi said Iran has reported no increase in radiation levels outside Fordow, Isfahan and Natanz nuclear sites. After surprise US bombing raids on Iranian uranium enrichment facilities over the weekend, the head of the UN-backed nuclear watchdog on Monday appealed for immediate access to the targeted sites to assess the damage that is likely “very significant”. 23 June 2025. Credit: Dean Calma/IAEA

To top it off he bragged that Iran’s nuclear capacity was devastated and that the whole nation fired “not a single shot” back.

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25/06/2025

‘Asia Is Warming at Twice the Global Average, Marine Heatwaves Worst on Record, Floods and Droughts Destroyed Lives and Livelihoods’

Human Wrongs Watch

By the World Meteorological Organization (WMO)*

23 June 2025 — Asia is currently warming nearly twice as fast as the global average, fuelling more extreme weather and wreaking a heavy toll on the region’s economies, ecosystems and societies, according to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).
 
 
Small island with palm trees silhouetted against a vivid orange and pink sunset sky over calm ocean water.
Canva

The WMO’s State of the Climate in Asia 2024 report says that 2024 was the warmest or second warmest year on record (depending on the dataset), with widespread and prolonged heatwaves. 

21/06/2025

Why Is the Manosphere on the Rise? UN Women Sounds the Alarm over Online Misogyny

Human Wrongs Watch

By Ana Carmo, UN News*

 A growing network of online communities known collectively as the “manosphere” is emerging as a serious threat to gender equality, as toxic digital spaces increasingly influence real-world attitudes, behaviours, and policies, the UN agency dedicated to ending gender discrimination has warned. 

 
Women and girls are feeling less comfortable to be exposed to the risks and threats when they engage in digital platforms, according to UN Women.

Unsplash/Anthony Tran | Women and girls are feeling less comfortable to be exposed to the risks and threats when they engage in digital platforms, according to UN Women.

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20/06/2025

“As Widespread as Guns and Bullets”: Sexual Violence Used to Terrorize Sudan’s Women and Girls

Human Wrongs Watch

More than 12 million people – one quarter of the population – are at risk of gender-based violence

GEDAREF STATE, SUDAN, 19 June 2025 (UN Population Fund)* – “Every woman and girl here is at risk, no matter her age or background. No one is safe,” said Khadija*, a midwife at a maternity clinic in Sudan’s eastern Gedaref State. 

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The shadow of a girl holding her hand up against a blue wall
More than 12 million people in Sudan are at risk of gender-based violence, with frontline responders and survivors reporting alarming rates of rape, abuse, coercion and child marriage © UNFPA Sudan
 

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