Trump’s eagerness to ‘bring our boys home’ is leaving the Afghan government with little power to resist the Taliban afterwards.
Goodbye Afghanistan | US Air Force photo by Clay Lancaster. Public domain.
31 July 2020(openDemocracy)* — One of Donald Trump’s main election pledges back in 2016 was to ‘bring our boys home’. Alongside this came criticism of Germany and other NATO states for not paying their way on military spending. He has followed up on both themes this week, by starting to reduce the US presence in Germany, albeit shifting some to Poland and leaving all the mechanisms of a rapid return in place, so that the extent of the ‘back home’ is far from what it appears.
BEIRUT, Jul 31 2020 (IPS)* – The Covid-19 pandemic seems to have spared children from the direct health effects of the virus but the crisis has affected their social and economic rights directly and indirectly beyond what we could have foreseen. And there’s no doubt that children who come from more vulnerable backgrounds will feel the long-term impact of the pandemic and the measures taken to prevent its spread the hardest.
Batara slum in a Dhaka suburb. Credit: Naimul Haq/IPS
Social and economic rights are crucial to ensure the fulfilment of basic rights like sustenance, housing, food, education, health, employment and freedom from discrimination.
31 July 2020 – In Latin America, where much of the region has dealt with years of sluggish growth, the economic crisis brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic is pushing millions more into poverty, says Alicia Bárcena, the head of the UN regional body for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC). (*).
PAHO/Karen González Abril | The Bogotá Ministry of Health have sent a Muisca nurse to Suba, in the north of Bogotá, Colombia, to check on the local indigenous population..
In an extensive interview with the UN communications chief, Melissa Fleming, Ms. Bárcena expressed concern at the disproportionate impact that the pandemic is having on indigenous people in the region, in terms of both the health risks they face; shared her fear that the wisdom and knowledge held by these communities is disappearing; and her dismay at rising inequality and poverty, following a period in which progress has been made on both fronts.
(UN News)* — Although older people are among those at highest risk of COVID-19, the head of the World Health Organization (WHO) has reminded younger generations that they are “not invincible” when it comes to the disease.
UN News/Daniel Dickinson | A park in Brooklyn, New York, has marked out circles in order to enforce social distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Evidence suggests that the spike in cases in some countries is partly due to younger people “letting down their guard during the northern hemisphere summer”, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on 30 July 2020.
(UN News)* — The World Food Programme (WFP) is urgently seeking more international support to prevent millions of Zimbabweans plunging deeper into hunger. The COVID-19 pandemic has aggravated an already severe hunger crisis in Zimbabwe, UN humanitarians warned on 30 July 2020.
WFP/Claire Nevill | In Harare, Zimbabwe, a single mother of three relies on food assistance from the World Food Programme (WFP) during the COVID-19 pandemic.
(UN News)* — The UN commemorated World Day against Human Trafficking on 30 July 2020 spotlighting the essential – but often overlooked – role of first responders who identify the millions of victims worldwide, helping them secure justice, and rebuild their lives.
“These are the people who work in different sectors – identifying, supporting, counselling and seeking justice for victims of trafficking, and challenging the impunity of the traffickers,” UN Secretary-General António Guterressaid in his message on the Day, which is observed annually each 30 July.
It’s hard to know exactly where the Trump Administration found the inspiration for its newest set of draconian asylum rules. Might it have been a National Geographic special where a giant anaconda encircles its prey, squeezes it to death, and then swallows it whole? Or perhaps a late-night, B-grade horror film in which some evil mastermind drowns his victims by slowly filling a sealed room with water?
Less than a quarter of this year’s $40 billion humanitarian aid appeal has been received to support 250 million vulnerable people, against the backdrop of an estimated $11 trillion coronavirus stimulus for wealthy nations.
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Families wait by the side of the road after fleeing attacks in Burkina Faso. The number of displaced people increased to over half a million last year, and the country is on the brink of a hunger crisis. Photo: Tom Peyre-Costa/NRC.
ROME, Jul 29 2020 (IPS)* – Recent world reports confirm that the goals set by the international community to end poverty and hunger, and create a more balanced, sustainable and fair world by 2030, are currently in danger. If effective and rapid global action is not taken, the goals will not be met and the results in just 10 years may be very negative for all of us. | En español
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A group of women of Central Africa receives training in production diversification and improvement to expand the food security of their communities. Credit: FAO
Samrawit* gazes into the distance as a light breeze ruffles the shawl around her face. She hugs herself tightly as a gust of wind blows in from Lake Mirayi in eastern Rwanda. | Español | Français
29 July 2020 (UNHCR)* — The 20-year-old Eritrean refugee’s current surroundings are peaceful and relaxed – a far cry from the horrors she endured while in captivity in the hands of smugglers in Libya, where she was tortured, beaten and raped for almost two years.
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 