'Unseen' News and Views
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On the first day of March 2022, visitors to the New York Times homepage saw a headline across the top
Norman Solomon
their screens in huge capital letters:
ROCKET BARRAGE KILLS CIVILIANS
It was the kind of breaking-news banner headline that could have referred to countless U.S. missile attacks and other military assaults during the previous two decades, telling of civilian deaths in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Syria, and elsewhere.
But those “war on terror” killings did not qualify for huge banner headlines.
What stirred the Times to quickly publish one about civilian deaths was—as reported on the front page of its print edition—“a deadly Russian rocket assault on Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, that raised new alarms about how far the Kremlin was willing to go to subjugate its smaller neighbor.”
These human tragedies are playing out at Europe’s land and sea borders on a daily basis. The first quarter of this year marked the deadliest in the central Mediterranean in six years, say humanitarian organisations in a joint statement. Credit: UN News Centre
“Being a child in Haiti today is harsher and more dangerous than it ever has been in living memory. The threats and hardships children face are simply unimaginable. They desperately need protection and support,” said UNICEF Haiti Representative Bruno Maes.
Mr. Guterres was speaking to journalists at UN Headquarters following a meeting with civil society climate leaders from across the world.
‘Catastrophe’ looms
He said limiting global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius is still possible but will require a 45 per cent reduction in carbon emissions by 2030.
(UN News)* — The UN Secretary-General said on Wednesday [] he was horrified at the news of dozens more deaths in the Mediterranean after an overloaded boat reportedly capsized and sank off the coast of Greece.
(UN News)* — In the face of rising hatred worldwide, both on and offline, faith leaders are vital allies in the quest for global peace, UN Secretary-General António Guterres told the Security Council on Wednesday [14 June 2023].
© Unsplash/Jason Leung | Demonstrators protest in the United States.
The Council met specifically to discuss “the values of human fraternity in promoting and sustaining peace”, building on a 2019 declaration co-authored by Pope Francis, head of the Catholic Church, and the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar Al Sharif, Ahmed Al-Tayeb, Chairman of the Muslim Council of Elders, and also considered the highest authority in Sunni Islamic thought.
“We trusted the government not to screw us,” said Edward Snowden. “But they did. We trusted the tech companies not to take advantage of us. But they did. That is going to happen again, because that is the nature of power.”.
Edward Snowden said in an interview on June 8, 2023 that advances in surveillance technology have made it far easier for government agencies to spy on citizens than it was in 2013, when he first disclosed the broad use of spying by the NSA and other agencies.(Image: Screenshot/Citizenfour)
Citing a report from the Center for AI Safety, the New York Times reported last week that a group of over 350 AI industry leaders warned that artificial intelligence poses a growing new danger to humanity –and should be considered a “societal risk on a par with pandemics and nuclear wars”.
© UNICEF/UN051302/Herwig | Adolescent girls use cellphones and tablets in the Za’atari camp for Syrian refugees (file).
Alarm over the potential threat posed by the rapid development of generative artificial intelligence (AI) must not obscure the damage already being done by digital technologies that enable the spread of online hate speech, as well as mis- and disinformation, he said.
The policy brief argues that they should be integral players in upholding the accuracy, consistency and reliability of information shared by users.
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 