(UN News)* — At night he sleeps under a tarpaulin sheet on the ruins of his family home. Like others returning to northern Gaza after months of being displaced by war, Sufian Al-Majdalawi clings to whatever he can find.
UN News | Sufyan Al-Majdalawi inspects the rubble of his home in Jabalia in northern Gaza.
Using small tools and his bare hands, he sifts through mounds of twisted debris and dirt to try and unearth belongings and important paperwork such as property deeds to prove he is the legal owner.
He dreams of one day being able to rebuild; in the short-term, he hopes that even the rubble might hold some value.
The war in Gaza has left an unprecedented level of destruction, with an estimated 51 million tons of rubble blanket the landscape where bustling neighborhoods once thrived.
(UN News)* — The United States has cut $377 million worth of funding to the UN reproductive and sexual health agency, UNFPA, it was confirmed on Thursday [], leading to potentially “devasting impacts”, on women and girls.
“At 7pm on 26 February, UNFPA was informed that nearly all of our grants (48 as of now) with USAID and the US State Department have been terminated,” the UN agency said in a statement.
“This decision will have devastating impacts on women and girls and the health and aid workers who serve them in the world’s worst humanitarian crises.”
A dramatic rise in Israeli military violence has caused the largest forced displacement in the West Bank since the Israeli occupation began. As the ‘Gazafication’ of the West Bank unfolds, vital humanitarian work and projects are being delayed or destroyed, Oxfam on 25th February 2025 warned.
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Photo from OXFAM International
More than 40,000 people have been forcibly displaced since the Gaza temporary ceasefire came into force on 19 January – the highest number since Israel occupied the Palestinian Territory including the West Bank, in 1967.
(UN News)* — UN human rights chief Volker Türk on Thursday [] called for an end to the “abhorrent, dehumanizing narratives” that continue to hamper a positive outcome to the Middle East crisis.
Mr. Türk – making his closing remarks during the session reporting on the Occupied Palestinian Territory at the Human Rights Council – said he was deeply troubled by the “dangerous manipulation of language” and disinformation that surrounds discussions over the Palestine-Israel conflict.
(UN News)* — Weeks of deadly Israeli military raids in the occupied West Bank have turned Palestinian communities into “battlefields” and left 40,000 people homeless, UN humanitarians warned on Wednesday [].
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The violence has seen exchanges of fire between Israeli troops and Palestinian militants – and the use of bulldozers in refugee camps for the first time in 20 years which have destroyed public services, including vital electricity and water networks.
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, Feb 25 2025 (IPS)* – Donald Trump’s Make America Great Again (MAGA) appeal captured US mass discontent against globalisation.
In recent decades, variations of America First have reflected growing ethnonationalism in the world’s presumptive hegemon.
Jomo Kwame Sundaram
Deglobalisation?
Trade liberalisation probably peaked at the end of the 20th century with the creation of the multilateral World Trade Organization (WTO), which the West kept outside the UN system.
With deindustrialisation in the North blamed on globalisation, their governments gradually abandoned trade liberalisation, especially after the 2008 global financial crisis.
Free trade mahaguru Jagdish Bhagwati has long complained of the weak commitment to multilateral trade liberalisation. Most recent supposed free trade agreements (FTAs) have been plurilateral or bilateral, undermining multilateralism while promoting non-trade measures.
(UN News)* — Breast cancer cases are expected to increase by 38 percent globally by 2050, withannual deathsfrom the diseaseprojected to rise by 68 percent, according to a new report from the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), a specialisedbranch of the World HealthOrganization (WHO).
Those who have done the least to cause the climate crisis are the worst affected, while those who have done the most to provoke it are the most shielded from its impacts.
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We talk about this in the new episode of SystemShift, a Greenpeace podcast that explores how we can move from a world that serves the economy to an economy that works for people and the planet.
This time Carl and Joycelyn host two young climate leaders: Lali Riascos, from Guapi, Colombia, and Mateus Fernandes, from Sao Paulo,Brazil.
(Brussels) – European Union High Representative Kaja Kallas and EU foreign ministers should unequivocally condemn Israel’s atrocity crimes and other serious violations of international law during the EU-Israel Association Council meeting with Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar on February 24, 2025, Human Rights Watch said on 24 February 2025.
UNITED NATIONS, Feb 24 2025 (IPS)* –The UN’s human rights agenda is in danger of faltering since the Geneva-based Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCHR) is planning to “restructure” the office, under the moniker OHCHR 2.0.
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Credit: United Nations
But this proposal, if implemented, would result in the abolition of the Special Procedures Branch, established by the Human Rights Council (HRC), to report and advise on human rights from thematic and country-specific perspectives.
Photo from OXFAM International
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 