1 February 2021 (Wall Street International)* — He was one of the greatest artists, if not the greatest, of the 20th century. But as a human being he left a lot to be desired. Selfish, authoritarian, his behavior with women was reprehensible. No one, however, doubts his genius. Among other things, and together with Georges Braque, he was the creator of Cubism, a pictorial style that uses geometric shapes to draw human forms or objects.
BONN, Germany, Feb 1 2021 (IPS)* – Responding to reports this morning that Myanmar’s military has sized control of government in a coup on the eve of the country’s opening session of its new parliament, rights group Amnesty International said it “sends a chilling message that the military authorities will not tolerate any dissent amid today’s unfolding events”.
Myanmar’s military has sized control of government and reportedly detained civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi, senior members of her governing National League for Democracy (NLD) as well as human rights activists and student leaders. Courtesy: Yves Alarie on Unsplash
1 February 2021 (UN News)* — The United Nations Secretary-General has strongly condemned the detention of top political leaders and government officials, including State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi and President Win Myint in Myanmar, by the country’s military.
Unsplash/Kyle Petzer | A pagoda at dawn in downtown Yangon, the commercial hub of Myanmar.
In a statement issued by his spokesperson on Sunday [31 January 2021], Secretary-General António Guterres also voiced “grave concern” regarding the declaration of the transfer of all legislative, executive and judicial powers to the military.
“These developments represent a serious blow to democratic reforms in Myanmar”, the statement said.
25 January 2021 – The 1,000 richest people on the planet recouped their COVID-19 losses within just nine months, but it could take more than a decade for the world’s poorest to recover from the economic impacts of the pandemic, reveals a new Oxfam report today. ‘The Inequality Virus’ is being published on the opening day of the World Economic Forum’s ‘Davos Agenda’.
The report shows that COVID-19 has the potential to increase economic inequality in almost every country at once, the first time this has happened since records began over a century ago. Rising inequality means it could take at least 14 times longer for the number of people living in poverty to return to pre-pandemic levels than it took for the fortunes of the top 1,000, mostly White male, billionaires to bounce back.
31 January 2021 (UN News)* — Helping women start and grow businesses in the world’s poorest countries is a path to lifting them and their families out of poverty, the high-profile businesswoman, and new UN Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) Goodwill Ambassador Sonia Gardner, has told UN News, in the second of our two part series this weekend, on the role the financial sector can play in reducing inequality.
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UNCDF | The United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) is supporting women’s economic empowerment in the world’s 47 Least Developed Countries (LDCs).
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Moroccan-born Ms. Gardner, is one of the most prominent senior women in the financial sector, and has been an industry leader for over two decades, as president of a multi-billion dollar New York-based global alternative investment fund.
Sophisticated nation-state cyber-attacks involved U.S. federal agencies | Image from Wall Street International.
You’ve been hacked. It was by a nation-state.
27 January 2021 (Wall Street International)* — The latest example of this type of cyber attack involved U.S. federal agencies and high-profile companies that were breached via a compromised and weaponized version of a software update from a connected third party.
World Food Programme calls for more than $130m to reach displaced people and host communities on the brink
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People who’ve fled Cabo Delgado wait for humanitarian assistance in Palma, Mozambique. Photo: WFP/Sean Rajman
Escalating violence in northern Mozambique is pushing hundreds of thousands of people into food insecurity, according to Lola Castro, the World Food Programme (WFP)‘s Regional Director for Southern Africa.
“The situation is dire,” she says. “The food assistance WFP is providing every month is not enough for people to survive. ”
Without a cash injection of US$132.4 million to sustain operations for a year, rations may be cut and food distribution may stop altogether — the operation needs US$10.5 million for the next month.
World Food Programme and UNICEF call on governments to act on nutrition crisis as Covid-19 school closures reduce the diets of 370 million of the most vulnerable children by 40 percent
Mozambique: Schoolgirls in Beira receive rations before schools close in April. Photo: Karel Prinsloo/Arete/UN Mozambique
(UN News)* — The European Union’s failure to lift 20 million people out of poverty by 2020, is “a defeat for social rights”, an independent UN human rights expert said on Friday [29 January 2021], urging the bloc to boldly rethink its whole socio-economic approach.
World Bank/Mano Strauch | Some 20 million children in the EU are at risk of poverty according to the Special Rapporteur’s report.
“Since the EU has experienced steady economic and employment growth until very recently, the only explanation for this failure is that the benefits have not been evenly distributed”, he said.
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 