BANGKOK, Thailand, Jan 9 2025 (IPS)* – The debt disaster is back. Indeed, the aid agency Cafod reports that developing countries today face “the most acute debt crisis in history”.
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Credit: Asian Peoples’ Movement on Debt and Development (APMDD)
At least 54 countries are in a debt crisis – more than double the number in 2010. A further 57 countries are at risk of debt crisis. In the past decade, interest payments for developing countries overall have risen by 64%, and for Africa by 132%.
African countries are paying over 100 billion dollars a year to creditors. The share of African countries’ budgets going on debt payments is four times higher than in 2010.
SAN FRANCISCO, USA, Jan 7 2025 (IPS)* – When news broke over the weekend that President Biden just approved an $8 billion deal for shipping weapons to Israel, a nameless official vowed that “we will continue to provide the capabilities necessary for Israel’s defense.”
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Displaced Palestinians walk through the Nour Shams camp in the West Bank. Credit: UNRWA/Mohammed Alsharif
Following the reports last month from Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch concluding that Israeli actions in Gaza are genocide, Biden’s decision was a new low for his presidency.
It’s logical to focus on Biden as an individual. His choices to keep sending huge quantities of weaponry to Israel have been pivotal and calamitous.
But the presidential genocide and the active acquiescence of the vast majority of Congress are matched by the dominant media and overall politics of the United States.
7 January 2025 (UNEP)* —In the unusually hot summer of 2016, a bacterium that causes anthrax killed more than 2,500 reindeer in Siberia’s remote Yamal Peninsula, according to one study.
Credit: AFP/Olivier Morin
Normally locked deep in a layer of permanently frozen land, or permafrost, the once-dormant pathogen eventually spread to humans, claiming the life of a 12-year-old boy and causing dozens of others to fall ill.
Some researchers believe the outbreak is a sign of things to come. As climate change rapidly warms the Artic, scientists say it could unleash a wave of potentially deadly microbes that for centuries have been trapped in ice.
(UN News)* — “We saw dead bodies scattered to the left and right, decomposing in the sun”, recounts Jonathan Dumont, Head of Emergency Communications at the World Food Programme (WFP). A veteran of conflict zones around the world, he says that the destruction and suffering he witnessed in Gaza is on a “different scale”.
Since the fierce bombardment of Gaza by Israel began in October 2023, in response to a deadly Hamas attack on the country, over 45,000 Palestinians have been killed, and over 100,000 injured.
The vast majority of Gazans, around 90 per cent, are internally displaced, forced to relocate several times to avoid airstrikes and fighting.
Text and graphics: Simon Randles | Research: Farah Bayadsi
“Look at the olives,” says Adlah Taha Abdallah Ali, 66, in the fields of her home village of Al Khadr, Bethlehem, in the southern West Bank. “See how they are dry … they did not get their share of water. Because of the high temperatures, there is not much oil in them.”
Adlah, like her fellow farmers across the region, is battling with the effects of a warming planet.
DAR ES SALAAM, Jan 3 2025 (IPS)* – As the dust settled over Kariakoo’s bustling streets, Halima Abdallah’s voice trembled through the cracks of a collapsed four-story building.
“Help me, please! I don’t get air,” she gasped, trapped under the rubble.
The recent collapse of a high-rise building in Dar es Salaam, killing 16 people and injuring more than 80, has reignited concerns about the city’s disaster preparedness. Credit: Kizito Makoye Shigela/IPS
For four hours, rescue workers scrambled to locate her. Their efforts, hampered by the lack of proper equipment, relied on tools hastily borrowed from a private company. By the time they reached her, it was too late. Abdallah had died.
Geneva, 03 January 2025 (IOM)* – The International Organization for Migration (IOM) is deeply alarmed by the devastating impact of winter rains and freezing temperatures on displaced Palestinians in Gaza, adding to the unparalleled humanitarian catastrophe.
(UN News)* —Newborns and infants in Gaza have reportedly died of hypothermia, deaths described by the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) as preventable. The news comes amid continued Israeli bombardments and an expected further drop in temperatures.
In Gaza, where hundreds of thousands of people displaced from their homes are sheltering in tents, the temperatures are expected to drop further in the coming days.
Edouard Beigbeder, UNICEF Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa, reported in a statement on Friday [] that, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, four newborns and infants died in recent days from hypothermia.
(UN News)* — Health challenges in northwest Syria have escalated due to harsh winter conditions, exacerbating the vulnerability of displaced populations, the UN World Health Organization (WHO)-led Health Cluster reported on Friday [].
It also cited rising cases of respiratory illnesses, compounded by inadequate heating, overcrowded camps and damaged infrastructure.
“There is continuous significant rise in influenza-like illnesses (ILI) and severe acute respiratory infections (SARI), since the beginning of winter with subsequent rise in hospital visits and heightened public health concerns,” the Health Cluster said.
(UN News)* — Fresh details of the Israeli airstrike on Sana’a airport, which occurred as Tedros Ghebreyesus, the Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO) was preparing to fly out of the country, have been provided by Julien Harneis, the UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in Yemen.
On 26 December, Israeli forces struck Sana’a International Airport, Red Sea ports and power stations. Tedros was at the airport when it was hit, along with Mr. Harneis and other members of a UN party negotiating the release of several UN workers held hostage by Ansar Allah, the de facto authorities in Sana’a.
Tedros and his colleagues were finally able to leave Yemen on Friday [].
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 