Kyoto, 4 Jun 2018 – TRANSCEND Media Service — The world may be losing a peace opportunity in the USA-North Korea conflict. With NK nuclear-tipped missiles capable of reaching mainland USA something close to “balance of power” had been obtained, by many seen as the key to peace via “mutual and balanced” disarmamenteven to “general and complete disarmament” (GCD).
Johan Galtung
Whether this ever happened is unclear. States tend to see “balance” as having more than the other and suspecting that of him.
But something else may happen: distargeting, not aiming at each other.
However, in all these formulas there is an element of equality, of the symmetry that may be a condition for peace. But symmetry is unacceptable to USA.
That state does not see itself as being on an equal footing with anybody in the world, and certainly not with small, even if very powerful, North Korea.
The same applies to “negotiation” as a mutual give-and-take.
As they make their global journeys, migratory birds not only set birdwatchers’ binoculars agog, they also help the planet maintain its essential ecological balance. That’s one of the key messages from United Nations chief Antonio Guterres, for World Migratory Bird Day, celebrated on Saturday 12 May 2018, with the soaring message: “Unifying Our Voices for Bird Conservation.”
Photo via WMBD | Sanderlings, the small wading birds pictured here, are long-distance migrants, wintering south to South America, South Europe, Africa, and Australia.
Trade policies which better benefit women across East Africa, can pave the way for more inclusive development and prosperity, according to a new report from the United Nations trade body.
UNCTAD/AdamKane | Women traders in Tanzania have helped to boost growth rate but still face inequality
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Crediting improved education, employment and other key areas, the United Nations Conference for Trade and Development (UNCTAD) said on 9 May 2018 that East African countries can put better policies in place to address gender inequalities and bring women further into the workforce.
UN OCHA* — Floods have now displaced at least 244,407 people (45,219 households) people across Kenya, including more than 23,000 displaced over the last week, as several parts of the country continue to receive heavy rainfall.
Deeqo Abdo watches as women build a stick shelter in the Ifo extension camp to Dadaab, in Kenya. Source: INTERNEWS/OCHA
The death toll has risen to 80 people, and 33 have been injured, according to the Kenya Red Cross Society (KRCS) search and rescue team.
The highest displaced populations are reported in Tana River, Turkana, Mandera and Kilifi counties. In Nandi county, 243 households were displaced following a mudslide.
On arrival in war-torn country, refugees and migrants are routinely subjected to detention and abuse as UNHCR calls for unhindered access to detainees.
ADEN, Yemen, April 2018 (UNHCR)* – In excruciating pain from weeks of beatings and now suffering from gangrene and facing a leg amputation, 30-year-old Ethiopian refugee Jon* never imagined his quest for safety would result in such a horrific ordeal.
“I landed in Yemen about a month ago. I was dragged by armed men who held me captive for over a month. They beat me so badly that I lost track of what was happening,” he recounted while awaiting surgery.
30 April 2018 (TRANSCEND Media Service)* — Here’s how a free press, one owned by a handful of corporations, uses its freedom. It simply tells you what it is good for its business interests, or more generally for the political and business environment it operates in. It’s not interested in truth or airing all sides, or even necessarily basic facts.
**Photo: The ruins of the 2018 American-led bombing of Damascus and Homs | Author: Fathi Nizam | Tasnim News Agency | Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license.
The only restraint preventing the corporate media from outright lying to promote its material interests is the fear of being found out, of readers starting to suspect that they are not being told the whole truth.
Munggah aq Amaq Genap, a 58-year-old farmer from Sekaroh Village in Indonesia, looks serious but content. He has the build of someone who has been a farmer for all his life. Amaq planted corn once a year. If there was rain, his harvest was good. If there wasn’t, his harvest was poor. But with the changes in climate, he was finding that he could hardly grow enough maize to meet his family’s needs.
UK PM Theresa May has accepted the resignation of Amber Rudd as Home Secretary after new evidence suggested her knowledge of a migrant removal target system.
**Amber Rudd | Government of UK |Open Government Licence v3.0 (OGL v.3).
Rudd has been under increased pressure to resign for more than a week since she was accused of misleading Parliament over whether her department had targets for the removal of immigrants.
In a letter to May, Rudd said she was standing down on Sunday night, once again claiming that she mistakenly misled parliament and had no knowledge of the target system.
“I feel it is necessary to do so because I inadvertently misled the Home Affairs Select Committee over targets for removal of illegal immigrants,” Rudd said in a letter to Prime Minister Theresa May as cited by Reuters. “I should have been aware of this, and I take full responsibility for the fact that I was not.”
A newly-launched action plan that encourages employers to expand job opportunities for refugees aims to be a “win-win situation” for both sides, as well as host communities, according to a senior United Nations official.
UNHCR/Gordon Welters | Nastaran Fekri (left) and Rita Butmann (striped shirt) teach a workshop class at the ReDI school in Berlin. Set up for refugees without computer access at home, the school’s three-month course in coding takes students with basic skills to the point where they can build their own online store
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Launched on 24 April 2018 by the UN refugee agency and the 35-member Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the plan identifies challenges to integrating refugees into the labour market, but also lists concrete actions to boost their participation.
TWO DAYS ago, the State of Israel celebrated its 70th birthday. For days we heard about nothing else. Innumerable speeches full of platitudes. A huge festival of kitsch.
Uri Avnery
Everyone agreed: It was a historic moment, when David Ben-Gurion got up in a small hall in Tel Aviv and declared the foundation of the state.
Everybody still alive from then was asked this week: Where were you at that moment? What did you feel, when history knocked on the door?
WELL, I was alive. And I did not feel anything.
I was a soldier in the new army, which was not yet called “Israeli Defense Army ” (its official name in Hebrew). My company had a small encampment of pup tents in Hulda, a kibbutz south of Tel Aviv.
We were to attack an Arab village called al-Kubab, near the town of Ramleh, that night.
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 