15 April 2021 (FAO)* — In 1826, the genial French gastronome Brillat-Savarin penned the phrase “Tell me what you eat, and I will tell you what you are.”
Two hundred years later, pathbreaking research suggests that what we eat doesn’t just give us fuel and pleasure but also feeds the trillions of microbes in our gut microbiome, and thus constitutes one of the most consequential interactive exposures we have to our environments.
16 April 2021 (UNEP)* — Deepika Hemrom’s parents pay her school fees with plastic. Not Master Card or Visa but actual plastic waste.
Photo: Akshar Foundation / 16 Apr 2021
They are participating in a ground-breaking scheme in Assam, India, that allows low-income families to use single-use plastic in lieu of money to pay for private schooling.
Deepika’s parents are manual labourers and this unique payment method means the 13-year-old, who dreams of becoming a doctor, can access a quality education, which would otherwise be out of her family’s financial reach.
NEW YORK and NAIROBI, Apr 15 2021 (IPS)* – Last week Ministers of Finance met virtually at the Spring Meetings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank to discuss policies to tackle the pandemic and socio-economic recovery.
Map of countries with projected austerity cuts in 2021-2022, in terms of GDP, based on IMF fiscal projections. Credit: I. Ortiz and M. Cummins, 2021
15 April 2021 — United States President Joe Biden called in early February for “ending all American support for offensive operations in Yemen, including relevant arms sales.”
At the time, I, like many human rights advocates who have been documenting abuses committed during the armed conflict in Yemen, thought we were finally moving in the right direction after years of work.
Dispelling myths around the starvation and disease that could kill 34 million people
FLASHBACK: A WFP helicopter arrives in Thonyor Payam, Leer County, as famine is declared in South Sudan in 2017. Photo: WFP/George Fominyen
14 April 2021 (WFP)* — A staggering 34 million people in 20 countries are teetering on the brink of famine, with immediate action needed to avert huge loss of life. In Yemen and South Sudan 155,000 people are already suffering famine or famine-like conditions, with conflict, insecurity and resulting displacement putting people at imminent risk of starvation.
(UN News)* — A lack of new treatments for common infections has left people dangerously exposed to the “world’s most dangerous bacteria”, the UN health agency said on Thursday [15 April 2021].
CDC | A shortage of new treatments for serious illnesses has left people dangerously exposed to the world’s most dangerous bacteria.
The alert from the World Health Organization (WHO) is delivered in a report showing that none of the 43 antibiotics in development today sufficiently addresses the growing threat posed by 13 priority drug-resistant bacteria.
“The persistent failure to develop, manufacture, and distribute effective new antibiotics is further fuelling the impact of antimicrobial resistance and threatens our ability to successfully treat bacterial infections,” said Dr. Hanan Balkhy, WHO Assistant Director General on antimicrobial resistance.
UNITED NATIONS, Apr 14 2021 (IPS)* – A new Cold War – this time, between the US and China —is threatening to paralyze the UN’s most powerful body, even as military conflicts and civil wars are sweeping across the world, mostly in Africa, the Middle East and Latin America.
The UN Security Council is now the battleground for a new Cold War between the US and China. Credit: United Nations
(UN News)* — A so-called “Rewards for Justice” programme in the United States is violating the human rights of some of the individuals it targets, independent UN human rights experts on 14 April 2021 said.
Operated by the US State Department, the anti-terrorism programme offers money for information on people outside the country, who the Government has designated as being associated with terrorism, although they have not been charged with any crimes.
(UN News)* — Almost half of women in some 57 countries do not have the power to make choices over their healthcare, contraception, or sex lives, a new United Nations report launched on Wednesday [14 April 2021], has revealed.
UNICEF/Richard Humphries | According to a 2021 UNFPA report, nearly half of all women are denied their bodily autonomy, placing them at higher risk of risk of gender-based violence and harmful practices such as early marriage.
Indian labourers have been denied pay, food and accommodation. Now, some are demanding their rights
Over two million Indians from the state of Kerala were working in the Gulf before the pandemic. | Iain Masterton / Alamy Stock Photo, all rights reserved.
8 April 2021 (openDemocracy)* — Like millions before him, Manoj migrated from the southwestern Indian state of Kerala to the Gulf in search of work in 2019. He found a job at a construction company in Bahrain that described itself as a “regional leader”. The pay, at 240 dinars (£577) a month, was far more than he could expect to find at home.
A microbiome is the genome of all the microorganisms living in and on all vertebrates. Though a new science, it is already helping us better understand the relationship between food and non-communicable diseases. ©Kateryna Kon/shutterstock.com
