UNITED NATIONS, Jul 10 2024 (IPS)* – An overwhelmingly staggering 186,000 killings in Gaza –- compared with the official figure of over 37,000—has resurrected accusations of genocide and war crimes in the devastating nine-month-old war between Israel and Hamas, with no signs of a cease-fire.
Streets in Rafah were emptying as families continue to flee in search of safety, following an evacuation order by the Israeli authorities. Credit: UNRWA
The new estimates have come from The Lancet, one of the most prestigious peer-reviewed British medical journals.
On 15 November 2022, the world’s population reached an estimated 8.0 billion people, a milestone in human development. This unprecedented growth, according to the UN, is due to the gradual increase in human lifespan owing to improvements in public health, nutrition, personal hygiene and medicine. It is also the result of high and persistent levels of fertility in some countries. Meanwhile, the UN will be commemorating World Population Day on July 11.
WASHINGTON DC, Jul 9 2024 (IPS)* – Across East Asia, birthrates are plummeting. Japan’s has been falling for eight straight years and recently hit a record low of 1.2 children per woman, the lowest since record keeping began in 1899.
For reference, a total fertility rate of 2.1 is needed to maintain a stable population. China’s total fertility rate is now approaching 1.0. South Korea’s plummeted in 2023 to a record low of 0.72, the worlds’ lowest.
4 July 2024 — The crisis in the Central African Republic (CAR) has been overlooked for years. A landlocked country in the heart of central west Africa, CAR continues to pay the price of a long-standing conflict, and one in five Central Africans remains displaced.
This family fled their village of Loura in CAR after atrocities were committed against civilians. Photo: Marion Guenard/NRC
Here are five things you need to know about what’s happening in CAR.
(UN News)* — The security situation in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has resulted in alarming levels of violence and widespread civilian displacement, the UN envoy for the country reported on Monday [].
Special Representative of the Secretary-General, Bintou Keita, informed the Security Council of an attack on the residence of a Congolese politician, during which two police officers were killed.
(UN News)* — “Another day. Another month. Another school hit,” said Philippe Lazzarini, head of UNRWA, the largest aid agency in Gaza, in a post on X, formerly Twitter, after a school in Nuseirat, central Gaza, was “hit by the Israeli Forces” on Saturday [6 July 2024].
It was home to nearly 2,000 people forcibly displaced by the hostilities, the UNRWA Commissioner-General said, adding that dozens of casualties had been reported.
— In the first week of June 2024, searing heat in 80 countries broke temperature records – either monthly or for all time. Heatwaves scorched the US, the Mediterranean, Southern Europe, North Africa, Asia and the Middle East. Aswan in Egypt hit 50.9°C – an all time record – on the 7th June.
By Vibhu Mishra, with additional reporting by Daniel Johnson in Geneva
(UN News)* — The island of Carriacou in Grenada has been virtually “flattened” by the devastating Hurricane Beryl, a senior UN official there reported on Friday [5 July 2024], as humanitarian teams ramp up their support to communities affected across the Caribbean.
Speaking via video link from Grenada, Simon Springett, UN Resident Coordinator in Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean, outlined a scene of total devastation in Carriacou – where Beryl first made landfall on 1 July.
“The entire island is completely affected … that is literally 100 per cent of the population,” he stressed.
Only 19 per cent of the required funds for UNHCR’s refugee response have been received thus far, meaning that food rations have had to be “drastically cut”
(UN News)* — Millions of people have been forced out of Sudan as the brutal civil war continues to spread, including in Sinja Town, south of the capital Khartoum, where UN humanitarians reported on Tuesday [3 July 2024] that more than 55,000 people have already fled.
()* — The Gaza Strip is virtually “split in two”, with blockades not only restricting the movement of displaced people seeking shelter, but also aid workers trying to assist civilians in desperate need, a UN relief official said on Wednesday [3 July 2024].
Speaking via video link from Jerusalem, Andrea De Domenico, head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in the occupied Palestinian territory (OPT), said people have been forced to “completely reset their lives over and over again.”
The White House reversed course and now says a ceasefire in Lebanon cannot be contingent on a deal in Gaza.
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27 Jun 2024 – Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said Israel was prepared to send Lebanon back to the “Stone Age” with a massive bombing campaign. The White House desperately tries to avert a major war in the Middle East but is not making progress.
After three days of meetings with top officials in Washington, Gallant told reporters that Israel preferred diplomacy but was also willing to utterly destroy Lebanon.
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 