MADRID, Jan 16 2025 (IPS)* –It is no longer a secret that at major global summits there are more lobbyists than official delegates. There, they participate as ‘guests,’ and most of them work for big business corporations. Their goal? To deter the adoption of policies that conflict with their employers’ interests.
Transparency International revealed alarming findings in December 2024 about the siphoning of public funds in Africa. Credit: Shutterstock
Their persuasion exercise quite often helps water down the urgency of taking decisive actions, the need to cut the private business staggering profits, the financial dues of the industrialised powers to the impoverished nations that bear the heaviest brunt of their policies, and so on.
To achieve such a purpose, lobbyists often quietly show different sorts of ‘gratitude.’
()* — Philippe Lazzarini, Commissioner-General of the UN agency for Palestine refugees (UNRWA) on Friday []welcomed the Gaza ceasefire and hostage deal, pledging to scale up aid delivery across the stricken enclave once it comes into effect.
UN Photo/Mark Garten | Philippe Lazzarini, Commissioner-General of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, briefs journalists on UNRWA and latest developments in Gaza.
Speaking to reporters at UN Headquarters in New York, Mr. Lazzarini emphasised that the agreement is only the first step in addressing the region’s overwhelming humanitarian challenges.
UNITED NATIONS, Jan 17 2025 (IPS)* –The year 2024 has been one of the most devastating for journalists covering conflicts worldwide– with 361 behind bars, the second highest since the global record of 370 imprisoned back in 2023.
Credit: Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ)
According to a new report released January 16, by the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), China, Israel, and Myanmar were the leading jailers of reporters, followed by Belarus and Russia.
The main drivers of journalist imprisonment in 2024 were ongoing authoritarian repression, war, and political or economic instability. Many countries, including China, Israel, Tunisia, and Azerbaijan, set new records for imprisonment.
MADRID, January 2025 – In his master-piece: 1984, George Orwell amazingly predicted how today’s world would be, and how the current reality is not expected to get any better, rather…
George Orwell*
This way, war is now called peace; the killing of unarmed civilians for the purpose of invading and dominating is called an act of self-defence; all products are now marketed as ‘100% natural’ as if all what-ever has been elaborated had never used natural resources…
George Orwell (Eric Arthur Blair is his real name) wrote 1984 in 1949, that’s four years after publishing his yet another masterpiece: Animal Farm, through which he also predicted how popular uprisings and ‘revolutions’ have ended up in apparent ‘regime changes’ that quite too often led to restoring the old ones.
Done!
Meanwhile, today’s world is visibly dominated by the addiction to war and the destruction of Nature, through more and more voracity and greed. This is called ‘development.’
(UN News)* — The world is entering a new era of crisis for children; climate change, inequality and conflict are disrupting their lives and limiting their futures, an authoritative study from the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) warns.
At the beginning of each year, UNICEF looks ahead to the risks that children are likely to face and suggests ways to reduce the potential harm.
The latest report, Prospects for Children 2025: Building Resilient Systems for Children’s Futures, demands strengthening national systems that are designed to mitigate the impacts of crises on children and ensure they have access to the support they need.
Here is a breakdown of the main trends to look out for in 2025:
(UN News)* — UN weather experts from the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) confirmed on Friday [] that 2024 was the hottest year on record, at 1.55 degrees Celsius (C) above pre-industrial temperatures.
“We saw extraordinary land, sea surface temperatures, extraordinary ocean heat accompanied by very extreme weather affecting many countries around the world, destroying lives, livelihoods, hopes and dreams,”WMO spokesperson Clare Nullis said.
(UN News)* —Social media posts inciting hate and division have “real world consequences” and there is a responsibility to regulate content, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, insisted on Friday [], following Meta’s decision to end its fact-checking programme in the United States.
(UN News)* — Israeli authorities continue to deny UN-led efforts to reach North Gaza with lifesaving aid, including the most recent attempt on Friday [10], according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
On Thursday [9], only 10 out of 21 planned humanitarian movements were facilitated by the Israeli authorities.
Seven were denied outright, three were impeded and one was cancelled due to security and logistical challenges, said UN Spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric, at Friday’s media briefing in New York.
OCHA is also deeply concerned about the impact that dwindling fuel supplies are having on essential services in Gaza.
(UN News)* —The horrors in Gaza show no signs of abating, the UN said on Thursday [], noting that the Ministry of Health reports that over 46,000 Palestinians have been killed there since October 2023, most of them women and children.
Tragically in the last month alone, eight newborns have died of hypothermia and 74 children have already died amid the brutal conditions of winter in 2025.
“We enter this New Year carrying the same horrors as the last – there’s been no progress and no solace. Children are now freezing to death,” Louise Tidewater from the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, told UN News.
Meanwhile, hostilities continue with relentless operations by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) causing mass casualties and widespread destruction.
BANGKOK, Thailand, Jan 9 2025 (IPS)* – The debt disaster is back. Indeed, the aid agency Cafod reports that developing countries today face “the most acute debt crisis in history”.
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Credit: Asian Peoples’ Movement on Debt and Development (APMDD)
At least 54 countries are in a debt crisis – more than double the number in 2010. A further 57 countries are at risk of debt crisis. In the past decade, interest payments for developing countries overall have risen by 64%, and for Africa by 132%.
African countries are paying over 100 billion dollars a year to creditors. The share of African countries’ budgets going on debt payments is four times higher than in 2010.
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 