—Everyone knows the saying ‘life imitates art’, but we’d argue that art imitates life when it comes to Disney’s Moana film franchise. Moana 2 premiered in theatres in late November following the title character’s quest to protect her community’s ancestral way of life.
(UN News)* —The world has just experienced the hottest January ever recorded, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said on , citing data crunched by UN partner the Copernicus Climate Service
Last month was 1.75 degrees Celsius above the pre-industrial level and 0.79°C above the 1991-2020 average, despite expectations that the La Nina weather phenomenon might bring cooler temperatures.
In 2015, the international community agreed to try to limit average global temperature rise to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels.
ASMARA, Eritrea, Feb 10 2025 (IPS)* – At night, when the world lights up, large swathes of Africa remain cloaked in darkness—a stark reminder of the continent’s lack of reliable access to electricity.
Around 600 million Africans still lack reliable access to electricity, which is nearly half the continent’s population and more than 80 per cent of the global electricity access gap. Credit: Raphael Pouget / Climate Visuals Countdown via UNDP
This access is one of the key ingredients to accelerating the continent’s progress – powering homes, schools, hospitals, and businesses, towards unlocking the continent’s full potential.
(UN News)* — The civilian death toll in Sudan has surged dramatically, with at least 275 people killed between 31 January and 5 February, the UN human rights office, OHCHR, reported on Friday.[].
(Washington D.C., February 6, 2025) –The United States government’s decision to permit Lithium Americas to mine at Thacker Pass in Nevada violated Indigenous people’s rights, Human Rights Watch and the ACLU said in a report released today.
()* — Armed groups in Haiti are inflicting “unimaginable horrors” on children, turning their “bodies into battlegrounds”, according to the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF).
The agency’s spokesperson James Elder has just visited Port-au-Prince, the capital of the embattled Caribbean nation and has been speaking about what he experienced there.
Staggering abuse and neglect
“There has been a staggering 1,000 per cent rise in sexual violence against children in Haiti, which has turned their bodies into battlegrounds.
The 10-fold rise, recorded from 2023 to last year, comes as armed groups inflict unimaginable horrors on children.
NEW YORK, Feb 7 2025 (IPS)* –Even after Trump declared that he wanted to take back the Panama Canal, acquire Greenland by force, if necessary, and rename the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America, I could not, like many others, imagine that his madness could reach a new unfathomable height.
Much of Gaza has been destroyed in the current conflict. Credit: UNICEF/Eyad El Baba, February 2025
At his news conference on February 4, with Prime Minister Netanyahu standing beside him, sporting a sinister grin, Trump announced that the US would take over Gaza, ship the Palestinians like sheep to Jordan and Egypt, build such a mesmerizing Riviera along the Mediterranean Sea and, voilà, bring peace and prosperity to the whole region.
(Washington, DC) – US President Donald Trump’s statement on February 4, 2025, that the United States would “take over” the Gaza Strip and that the Palestinian population there would need to be moved out would, if implemented, amount to an alarming escalation of forced displacement and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in Gaza, Human Rights Watch on 5 February 2025 said.
(UN News)* —UN Secretary-General António Guterres urged the international community to continue pushing for a full ceasefire and the release of all hostages in Gaza, and “to avoid any form of ethnic cleansing” in the enclave, in a speech in New York on Wednesday [].
UN News | Children in Gaza stand on debris from a destroyed building.
The UN chief spoke in the wake of comments made by United States President Donald Trump on Tuesday night in the White House, who suggested the US could “take over” the Gaza Strip, calling on Palestinians living there to leave.
UNITED NATIONS, Feb 6 2025 (IPS)* –A new executive order from the United States White House calls for withdrawing support from major UN entities and a review of all international intergovernmental organizations which the United States is a member of.
Coly Seck (at microphone), Chair of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People and Permanent Representative of the Republic of Senegal to the United Nations, briefs reporters with Members of the newly-elected Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People (CEIRPP Bureau). At fourth from right is Riyad Mansour, Permanent Observer of the State of Palestine to the United Nations. Credit: UN Photo: Manuel Elías
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 