LONDON, Sep 2 2024 (IPS)** –A New Zealand bill that would roll back Indigenous rights is unlikely to pass – but it’s emblematic of a growing climate of hostility from governing politicians. A recent survey shows that almost half of New Zealanders believe racial tensions have worsened under the right-wing government in power since December 2023.
Credit: Dave Lintott / AFP via Getty Images
The Treaty Principles Bill reinterprets the principles of the 1840 Treaty of Waitangi. New Zealand’s founding text, this agreement between the British government and Indigenous Māori chiefs established British governorship over the islands in return for recognition of Māori ownership of land and other property.
Yemen, 5 September (IOM)* – In response to the severe flooding and violent windstorms affecting nearly 562,000 people in Yemen, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) has launched a USD 13.3 million appeal to deliver urgent life-saving assistance.
Flooding and storms have wreaked havoc in Yemen, with homes reduced to debris and families left in critical need of assistance. Photo: IOM/Haithm Abdulbaqi
The unprecedented weather events have compounded the humanitarian crisis in the country, leaving thousands of internally displaced persons and host communities in dire need of assistance.
(UN News)* — The number of people experiencing catastrophic hunger has surged more than twofold in 2024, due largely to the ongoing conflicts in Gaza and Sudan, according to new figures released by the UN on Thursday [].
The updated Global Report on Food Crises reveals that nearly two million people are now grappling with the most critical level of food insecurity, classified as Phase 5 on the global IPC scale, which tracks acute hunger.
This level represents an “extreme lack of food and exhaustion of coping capacities,” with a sharply increased risk of acute malnutrition and death.
3 September 2024 (NRC)* — “As the heads of humanitarian organisations operating in Sudan, we urgently call on the international community to address the immense hunger crisis within the country.
Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire, 2 September 2024 (WMO)* — Africa bears an exceptionally heavy burden from climate change and disproportionately high costs for essential climate adaptation. On average, African countries are losing 2-5% of GDP and many are diverting up to 9% of their budgets responding to climate extremes.
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In sub-Saharan Africa, the cost of adaptation is estimated to range from US$ 30-50 billion annually over the next decade, or 2-3% of the region’s Gross Domestic Product, says the WMO State of the Climate in Africa 2023 report.
3 September 2024 — This month, Netflix released “The Goat Life,” a movie centered on the experiences of an Indian migrant worker, Najeeb Muhammed, who worked in Saudi Arabia in the early 1990s and, after being stranded in the desert, was forced to work as a goat herder.
It is based on the 2008 bestselling book, “Goat Days,” which was written by another migrant worker and author under the pen name Benyamin.
(UN News)* — Israeli forces continue to employ “lethal war-like tactics” in the West Bank, including airstrikes, with people being killed, injured and displaced, the UN Spokesperson said on Tuesday [].
GENEVA, 2 September 2024 (UN Human Rights)* – A UN independent expert warned today that Israel’s intensification of its military assault against the northern West Bank marks a dangerous escalation of grave violence and human rights violations committed by Israel against the Palestinian people since October 7, 2023.
“Israel’s genocidal violence risks leaking out of Gaza and into the occupied Palestinian territory as a whole,” warned Francesca Albanese, the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territory occupied since 1967.
ATLANTA, Georgia, Sep 3 2024 (IPS)* – Most people think that Israel’s main goal in Gaza is to recover the hostages seized by HAMAS on October 7, 2023 with an announced follow-up mission to eliminate HAMAS as a threat. If you thought that, you would be wrong.
Substantial evidence reveals a different strategic aim—destroying every shred of Palestinian legitimacy as a nation.
Credit: UNRWA
Inspite of continual pleas from the weak Biden-Harris-Blinken White House to stop bombing civilians in Gaza, Israel refuses to end the carnage. What’s going on? As usual in the Middle East, the obvious plot has at least one hidden sub-plot.
Text: Kristine Grønhaug. Photo/video: Richard Ashton. Design: Tove Skjeflo
One day last year, when 12-year-old Salwa was at the market in her hometown in Sudan, the dark shadow of war came over her. And when, a few weeks later, her neighbours’ house was bombed and the children who lived there were killed, she fled.
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 