(UN News)* — United Nations agencies on Tuesday [] kicked off World Breastfeeding Week, emphasizing the need for greater breastfeeding support across all workplaces.
In the last decade, the prevalence of exclusive breastfeeding has increased by a remarkable 10 percentage points, to 48 per cent globally, according to the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the World Health Organization (WHO).
Promoting and supporting breastfeeding at workplaces can help drive the progress higher and towards the global target of 70 per cent by 2030, they said.
“Supportive workplaces are key. Evidence shows that while breastfeeding rates drop significantly for women when they return to work, that negative impact can be reversed when workplaces facilitate mothers to continue to breastfeed their babies,” Catherine Russell, UNICEF Executive Director, and Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General, said in a statement.
Intelligence or… what? What are AI possibilities, vis-a-vis its human counterpart? A new human master?
You be the judge.
Freepik
It is claimed that ChatGPT does not have access to the Internet but I find this incongruent. Therefore, this piece assumes that AI depends on the Web in the same way that a microorganism needs a body to survive and grow, possibly eventually killing it.
San Jose, 28 July 2023 (IOM)* – “I arrived in the Dominican Republic knowing I owed USD 4,500. Still, I did not know the conditions under which I would have to repay it,” tells Andrea*, a young Colombian woman who left her country in search of better opportunities. “I soon discovered that all the money I earned was taken from me and that I was required to work long hours, from 8 AM to 3 AM the next day.”
Andrea was a victim of sexual exploitation in the Dominican Republic after accepting a fake job offer. Illustration: IOM 2023/Milena Somogyi
Andrea was grappling with her country’s economic hardship and a lack of employment options. Amidst her desperation, a friend told her of a promising job opportunity in the Dominican Republic. The offer was tempting: a good salary and a significant loan from the company to cover her travel expenses.
(UN News)* — More than two days of armed violence at the Ein El Hilweh Palestine Refugee camp in southern Lebanon continues to impact civilians, including children, a senior UN official in the country said on Monday [].
.
Ziad Taleb | United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) Headquarter in Gaza
Eleven people were killed and another 40 were injured, including a staff member with the UN agency that assists Palestine refugees, UNRWA, said Dorothee Klaus, Director of UNRWA Affairs in Lebanon, citing reports.
Two schools operated by the agency sustained damage, and more than 2,000 people were forced to flee in search of safety.
(UN News)* — Global crises, conflicts, and the climate emergency are escalating trafficking risks, the UN warned on Sunday [], the World Day against Trafficking in Persons. People lacking legal status, living in poverty and without decent work often become the primary targets of traffickers.
IOM Port of Spain | Venezuelan migrant Manuela Molina (not her real name) was promised a decent job in Trinidad, but minutes after her arrival she was forced into a van and taken to a secret location.
.
In his message for the Day, UN chief António Guterres called human trafficking “a heinous violation of fundamental human rights and freedoms.” He said that this crime preys on vulnerability and thrives in times of conflict and instability, with more and more people targeted today.
MALAKAL, South Sudan, 24 July 2023 (UNFPA)* – “My neighbour Rose* travelled with me to Renk, but her three daughters stayed behind in Khartoum. Later she learned they had been gang raped,” said Martha.*
Martha had recently arrived in the port of Malakal, a key transit point for those fleeing the violence in Sudan and crossing into South Sudan. More than 170,000 returnees and refugees have so far arrived in Malakal since the conflict erupted on 15 April, a number that will only increase if the crisis continues.
LILONGWE, 24 July 2023 (WFP)* –The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has been forced to cut assistance to more than 51,000 vulnerable refugees by 50 percent as hunger levels deepen at Dzaleka Refugee Camp in Malawi.
.
Photo: WFP/Badre Bahaji
The refugees, who are mainly from the Great Lakes region, receive monthly WFP cash assistance at the camp – where they face several challenges, including insufficient shelter and inadequate health, water, and sanitation services.
(UN News)* — Civilians fleeing attacks by extremist groups in Burkina Faso must be allowed to shelter in neighbouring countries and not sent back, amid a spike in violence and horrifying rights abuses, the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) said on Friday [].
“We’re urgently appealing for all States to refrain from forcibly returning any individuals originating from the regions in Burkina Faso where there is an ongoing crisis,” said Elizabeth Tan, UNHCR Director of International Protection.
Speaking in Geneva, Ms. Tan highlighted “killings, forced disappearances, torture and kidnappings”, while in several instances, civilians had been targeted and killed, resulting in mass civilian casualties.
SYDNEY, Jul 28 2023 (IPS)* – The likelihood of further confrontations remains high following a major Israeli military assault on an impoverished camp of more than 23,500 Palestinian refugees in Jenin in the north of the occupied West Bank earlier this month.
The homes of Palestinians, public buildings, cars, property and service infrastructure were damaged or destroyed during an Israeli military attack on Jenin in the occupied West Bank earlier this month. Photo credit: UNRWA
The landlocked Palestinian territory, located between Israel to the west and Jordan to the east, has been illegally occupied, according to international law, following the invasion by Israel 56 years ago.
An Israeli court has given the go-ahead for the forced eviction of 500 Palestinian Bedouins in the Negev/Naqab region, highlighting the deep discrimination that Palestinian citizens of Israel face under apartheid, Amnesty International said today [July 28, 2023]. In a judgment issued on 27 July, the Beer’sheva Magistrate’s Court said residents of the village of Ras Jrabah must leave their homes, and vacate the lands where their families have lived for decades, by March 2024. They must also pay a fine of 117,000 NIS (approximately 31,700 USD) to cover legal expenses.
The forced evictions are part of the Israeli authorities’ plans to build a new neighbourhood for the city of Dimona, whose inhabitants are mostly Jewish Israelis. Ras Jrabah’s residents will be relocated to an impoverished and segregated Bedouin town nearby.
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 