'Unseen' News and Views
NEW YORK, 19 July 2021(UNICEF)* – “As the official COVID-19 death toll around the world passed 4 million earlier this month, UNICEF is increasingly concerned for children left without one or both parents.
UNICEF/UNI394756/DejonghChildren working at a mine site in Burkina Faso
– With Henrietta Fore’s decision last week to step down as UNICEF Executive Director, her successor is most likely to be another American since that post has been held– uninterruptedly — by US nationals for almost 74 years, an unprecedented all-time record for a high-ranking job in the UN system.
UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta H. Fore meets with students at the Roberto Suazo Córdoba School, in Tegucigalpa, Honduras. Credit: UNICEF/Bindra
20 July 2021 (WMO)* — Amazonia hosts the Earth’s largest tropical forests and has been shown to be an important carbon sink. This carbon sink seems to be in decline, however, as a result of factors such as deforestation and climate change, according to a new paper published in Nature.
The study was led by Lucia Gatti, Group Leader, Brazil’s National Institute of Space Research /Center of Earth System Science and a member of the steering committee for the Integrated Global Greenhouse Gas Information System spearheaded by WMO.
Its main river inflows had been muffled by dams and many feared water levels were poised to drop by two-thirds, causing the lake to cleave into two smaller bodies of water. It was, one report said, an African “Aral Sea disaster in the making” – where only 10 per cent remains of the original sea.
– In June, the Department of Homeland Security made a critical announcement. For the first time in U.S. history, more than 15 national and local agencies and civilian organizations conducted a simultaneous major binational operation to find missing children inside and outside the United States.
Rosi Orozco
They called it “Operation Lost Souls”. Its objective was to find girls and boys who were missing and possibly deceived or kidnapped by sexual exploitation gangs.
The secret operation lasted a week. And the result announced by Special Agent Erik Breitzke surprised even the organizers: 24 minors were recovered and, among them, three were located in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico.
Technology is the answer! But what is the question?
London’s great smog of 1952 which led to thousands of deaths from inhaling coal smoke on which Britain relied for electricity | Image from Wall Street International.
July 2021 (Wall Street International)* — In the 19th and 20th centuries most, new technologies were equated with our societies’ progress. We loved electricity, automobiles, airplanes, telephones, radio, television, the Internet and space exploration.
Pegasus: Human rights-compliant laws needed to regulate spyware
(UN News)* — The UN human rights chief on 19 July 2021 said the apparent widespread use of Pegasus spy software to illegally undermine the rights of those under surveillance, including journalists and politicians, was “extremely alarming” and confirmed “some of the worst fears” surrounding the potential misuse of such technology.
17 July 2021 (Wall Street International)* — The contrasts are apparent between the two poles of power in the world.
In Beijing, there were huge celebrations, with fanfare and fireworks, marking 100 years of the founding of what is today the world’s largest political party (95 million members), holding power for the longest duration (72 years), in the most populous country of the world (1.4 billion).
July 2021 — In this moment of great challenge and terrible danger for South Africa, it is imperative for everyone who calls this country home to be part of finding solutions and making a future that is liveable for all.
Members of the public paying their respects outside Mandela’s Houghton home | Robert Dennison | CC BY 2.0
The temptation at times like this is to become paralysed, or to look away, or to give up. Our call is to honour Madiba in this month of Mandela Day by stepping up.
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 