Zuckerberg, Trump, Musk. None care about free speech, least of all yours or mine. They care about power and remaining billionaires – or, better still, becoming trillionaires.
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8 Jan 2025 – A few observations on Mark Zuckerberg’s astonishing volte face today, declaring that he will end the crushing climate of censorship on his Meta platforms, such as Facebook and Instagram, in time for Donald Trump’s arrival in the White House.
It should not have taken a video admission from Zuckerberg for us to appreciate the degree to which we have been living for many years under a regime of political censorship on social media, with Meta leading the pack.
MADRID, Jan 16 2025 (IPS)* –It is no longer a secret that at major global summits there are more lobbyists than official delegates. There, they participate as ‘guests,’ and most of them work for big business corporations. Their goal? To deter the adoption of policies that conflict with their employers’ interests.
Transparency International revealed alarming findings in December 2024 about the siphoning of public funds in Africa. Credit: Shutterstock
Their persuasion exercise quite often helps water down the urgency of taking decisive actions, the need to cut the private business staggering profits, the financial dues of the industrialised powers to the impoverished nations that bear the heaviest brunt of their policies, and so on.
To achieve such a purpose, lobbyists often quietly show different sorts of ‘gratitude.’
(UN News)* —The humanitarian crisis in Haiti has reached a critical point, with one in eight children now internally displaced due to escalating violence fuelled by armed groups who continue to control most of the capital, according to the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF).
()* — Philippe Lazzarini, Commissioner-General of the UN agency for Palestine refugees (UNRWA) on Friday []welcomed the Gaza ceasefire and hostage deal, pledging to scale up aid delivery across the stricken enclave once it comes into effect.
UN Photo/Mark Garten | Philippe Lazzarini, Commissioner-General of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, briefs journalists on UNRWA and latest developments in Gaza.
Speaking to reporters at UN Headquarters in New York, Mr. Lazzarini emphasised that the agreement is only the first step in addressing the region’s overwhelming humanitarian challenges.
UNITED NATIONS, Jan 17 2025 (IPS)* –The year 2024 has been one of the most devastating for journalists covering conflicts worldwide– with 361 behind bars, the second highest since the global record of 370 imprisoned back in 2023.
Credit: Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ)
According to a new report released January 16, by the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), China, Israel, and Myanmar were the leading jailers of reporters, followed by Belarus and Russia.
The main drivers of journalist imprisonment in 2024 were ongoing authoritarian repression, war, and political or economic instability. Many countries, including China, Israel, Tunisia, and Azerbaijan, set new records for imprisonment.
MADRID, January 2025 – In his master-piece: 1984, George Orwell amazingly predicted how today’s world would be, and how the current reality is not expected to get any better, rather…
George Orwell*
This way, war is now called peace; the killing of unarmed civilians for the purpose of invading and dominating is called an act of self-defence; all products are now marketed as ‘100% natural’ as if all what-ever has been elaborated had never used natural resources…
George Orwell (Eric Arthur Blair is his real name) wrote 1984 in 1949, that’s four years after publishing his yet another masterpiece: Animal Farm, through which he also predicted how popular uprisings and ‘revolutions’ have ended up in apparent ‘regime changes’ that quite too often led to restoring the old ones.
Done!
Meanwhile, today’s world is visibly dominated by the addiction to war and the destruction of Nature, through more and more voracity and greed. This is called ‘development.’
Geneva/ Port-au-Prince, 14 January 2024 – More than a million people are now internally displaced in Haiti, according to alarming new figures released by the International Organization for Migration (IOM).
IOM team in Port-au-Prince conducts an assessment among displaced people to understand the needs, scale and complexity of the crisis, and inform distributions of essential items. Photo: IOM 2024/Antoine Lemonnier
The latest data reveals that 1,041,000 people, many displaced multiple times, are struggling amidst an intensifying humanitarian crisis. Children bear the greatest burden of displacement, making up over half of the displaced population.
(UN News)* — The world is entering a new era of crisis for children; climate change, inequality and conflict are disrupting their lives and limiting their futures, an authoritative study from the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) warns.
At the beginning of each year, UNICEF looks ahead to the risks that children are likely to face and suggests ways to reduce the potential harm.
The latest report, Prospects for Children 2025: Building Resilient Systems for Children’s Futures, demands strengthening national systems that are designed to mitigate the impacts of crises on children and ensure they have access to the support they need.
Here is a breakdown of the main trends to look out for in 2025:
(UN News)* — UN weather experts from the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) confirmed on Friday [] that 2024 was the hottest year on record, at 1.55 degrees Celsius (C) above pre-industrial temperatures.
“We saw extraordinary land, sea surface temperatures, extraordinary ocean heat accompanied by very extreme weather affecting many countries around the world, destroying lives, livelihoods, hopes and dreams,”WMO spokesperson Clare Nullis said.
(UN News)* —Social media posts inciting hate and division have “real world consequences” and there is a responsibility to regulate content, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, insisted on Friday [], following Meta’s decision to end its fact-checking programme in the United States.
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HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 