'Unseen' News and Views
(UN News)* — The UN Refugee Agency, UNHCR, voiced concern on Tuesday [] over the situation in Mexico, where refugees and migrants aspiring to get to the United States find themselves in cramped shelters, exposed to multiple risks.
At a press conference in Geneva, agency spokesman William Spindler pointed out that “the capacity to receive and provide assistance to refugees and migrants has been exceeded for months” in that border area.
“The humanitarian situation on the Mexican side of the US-Mexico border continues to be serious,” he stressed, explaining that families with young children arrive there distraught and disoriented.
(UN News)* — Record numbers of migrants are crossing the Darién jungle in Latin America in a desperate and perilous journey, including from as far off as Nepal and Afghanistan, UN agencies said on , highlighting the urgency of finding safe and regular pathways.
(UN News)* — The global average temperature for July 2023 was the highest on record and likely for at least 120,000 years, the UN weather agency and partners said on Tuesday [].
“The global average temperature for July 2023 is confirmed to be the highest on record for any month,” said Samantha Burgess, Deputy Director at the European Commission’s Copernicus Climate Change Service. The month is estimated to have been around 1.5C warmer than the average for 1815 to 1900, so the average for pre-industrial times.”
Briefing journalists in Geneva, Ms. Burgess noted that July had been marked by heatwaves “in multiple regions around the world”.
Close to 300 cases have been reported so far this year, nearly the total number registered for all of 2022, and three times more than 2021.
PORT-AU-PRINCE/PANAMA CITY/NEW YORK, 7 August 2023 (UNICEF)* –The ongoing violence in Haiti continues to threaten the well-being of children and women. The latest reports received by UNICEF reveal an alarming spike in kidnappings, with nearly 300 cases confirmed in the first six months of 2023, almost matching the total number documented for the entire previous year, and close to three times more than in 2021.
(UN News)* — The threat of famine, with people slowly starving to death, must be considered a red line for international peace and security, the UN Famine Prevention and Response Coordinator said on Thursday [], warning that warring groups deliberately use hunger as a tactic of war.
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Globally, over 250 million people suffered acute hunger in 2022, the highest in recent years, with about 376,000 people facing famine-like conditions in seven countries – all affected by armed conflict or extreme levels of violence. Another 35 million people are on the edge, Reena Ghelani said.
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Wildfires have caused devastation and dozens of casualties and forced evacuations of thousands of people in parts of the Mediterranean, including Algeria, Greece, Italy and Spain.
The Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS) has recorded a significant increase in intensity and emissions from wildfires in the eastern Mediterranean during the second half of July, particularly in Greece.
(UN News)* — United Nations agencies on Tuesday [] kicked off World Breastfeeding Week, emphasizing the need for greater breastfeeding support across all workplaces.
In the last decade, the prevalence of exclusive breastfeeding has increased by a remarkable 10 percentage points, to 48 per cent globally, according to the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the World Health Organization (WHO).
Promoting and supporting breastfeeding at workplaces can help drive the progress higher and towards the global target of 70 per cent by 2030, they said.
“Supportive workplaces are key. Evidence shows that while breastfeeding rates drop significantly for women when they return to work, that negative impact can be reversed when workplaces facilitate mothers to continue to breastfeed their babies,” Catherine Russell, UNICEF Executive Director, and Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General, said in a statement.
Intelligence or… what? What are AI possibilities, vis-a-vis its human counterpart? A new human master?
You be the judge.
Freepik
It is claimed that ChatGPT does not have access to the Internet but I find this incongruent. Therefore, this piece assumes that AI depends on the Web in the same way that a microorganism needs a body to survive and grow, possibly eventually killing it.
San Jose, 28 July 2023 (IOM)* – “I arrived in the Dominican Republic knowing I owed USD 4,500. Still, I did not know the conditions under which I would have to repay it,” tells Andrea*, a young Colombian woman who left her country in search of better opportunities. “I soon discovered that all the money I earned was taken from me and that I was required to work long hours, from 8 AM to 3 AM the next day.”
Andrea was a victim of sexual exploitation in the Dominican Republic after accepting a fake job offer. Illustration: IOM 2023/Milena Somogyi
Andrea was grappling with her country’s economic hardship and a lack of employment options. Amidst her desperation, a friend told her of a promising job opportunity in the Dominican Republic. The offer was tempting: a good salary and a significant loan from the company to cover her travel expenses.
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 