GENEVA, Jul 8 2021 (IPS)*– The Biden administration made a decision to withdraw US troops from Afghanistan based on the Trump-Taliban agreement. Their last combat soldier may have already left. There is nothing to argue about!
With all the major indicators for Afghanistan’s security and development looking “negative or stagnant” as international troops withdraw, the threats that lie ahead cannot be overstated, Deborah Lyons, Special Representative and Head of the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) told the Security Council last month. Credit: UNAMA/Freshta Dunia / Kabul, Afghanistan.
5 July 2021 (openDemocracy)* — Military leaders in the United States and Britain, as well as allied countries, now accept that they have lost their war with the Taliban.
Climate Catastrophe is staring us in the face. Record temperatures, wild fires, and intense destructive storms can’t be ignored.
The U.S. Military is the largest consumer of oil and largest emitter of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the world. In the name of “defense” the U.S. military is carbon bombing the planet.
RÍO DE JANEIRO, Jul 5 2021 (IPS)* – Twenty years after the blackout that prompted nine months of rationing to keep the power grid from collapsing, Brazil may see a repeat of the traumatic situation, this time with a more obvious climate change undertone. | En español
View of a wind farm in the interior of Bahia, a state in Brazil’s Northeast region where wind power already provides most of the local electricity and was critical in some years between 2012 and 2018 when severe drought reduced the generation capacity of hydroelectric plants. CREDIT: FP/Public Photos
I spoke with Indian scholar, food sovereignty advocate and environmental activist #VandanaShiva. She speaks about #BillGates‘ book and the colonisation of land and food production. However, she provides us with hopeful and powerful words of advice that might help us challenge these Tech Giants and monopolies.
5 July 2021 ()* — Few people want to buy products that involve the exploitation or enslavement of the workers who make them – but that’s exactly what most of us do on a daily basis.
Estimates reveal that there are 40.3 million people in slavery worldwide as part of a US$32 billion business. Credit: UN images.
The discovery of yet more graves of Indigenous children taken by the government for forcible assimilation has – at last – shocked the world | ESPAÑOL
Installation in Vancouver honouring the 215 Indigenous children whose unmarked graves were discovered in May | JSMimages / Alamy Stock Photo. All rights reserved
5 July 2021 (openDemocracy)* — Imagine if your child was ripped from your arms by police who were enforcing the laws of your oppressors; if the devil in the form of forced assimilation and colonisation, under the guise of church-run institutions, stole your children – and your flesh and blood were beaten, sexually violated, shamed and stripped of their identity; or if your child – or aunt, uncle, brother or sister – died from malnutrition, unsanitary living conditions or were murdered by their abusers. Imagine it as your beating heart ripped from your chest.
6 July 2021 (UNEP)* — Unprecedented biodiversity loss, pollution, climate change and the rise of zoonotic diseases have showcased the symbiotic relationship between humans and nature.
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Unsplash / Markus Spiske / 05 Jul 2021
The human right to a safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment, as well as other human rights, can only be realized where biodiversity thrives and ecosystems are healthy.
(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.
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 