(New York) – The authorities in India are increasingly using summary and abusive punishments against Muslims deemed to have broken the law, Human Rights Watch said today [7 October 2022].
As other nations return to state-led investment, Truss and Kwarteng act to weaken our democracy, economy and rights.
UK prime minister and Chancellor Liz Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng |PA Images / Alamy Stock Photo
When Britain’s new chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng stood up on stage at the Conservative Party conference yesterday [3 October 2022], he was a lonely figure.
Dr. Jan Oberg, co-founder and leader of the Transnational Foundation for Peace and Future Research, wrote a really excellent article on the question of who sabotaged Nordstream 2.
In it, he points out that Russia had no motive for sabotaging Nordstream 2. If the Russians had wanted to stop the flow of natural gas through the pipeline, they could have simply turned it off at the Russian end. Here is the link to Dr. Oberg’s fine article.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres drew attention on Saturday, the International Day of Older Persons, to the “resilience of the more than one billion older women and men” in a rapidly changing world.
“The past years have witnessed dramatic upheavals – and older people often found themselves at the epicenter of crises,” he said in a video message, adding that they are vulnerable to “a range of challenges”, including the COVID-19 pandemic, the worsening climate crisis, proliferating conflicts, and growing poverty.
“Yet in the face of these threats, older people have inspired us with their remarkable resilience”.
By 2030, 1.4 billion people will be at least 60 years old.
Every bean that ends up on Griffins Ochieng’s plate at Jaribu Primary School in northeastern Kenya can now be traced to a government warehouse where it was first stored.
Griffins Ochieng, aged 14, wants to be a soldier when he grows up. Photo: WFP/Martin Karimi
And that’s the idea – that nothing must go to waste in Kenya’s school meals. With the World Food Programme’s (WFP) support, meals are integrated into the government’s National Education Management Information System – an online tool that automates the management of all data and processes in the education sector.
BAE among arms firms paying Ministry of Defence staff’s salaries while winning lucrative contracts.
Nine officials at the Ministry of Defence are paid by the UK’s biggest arms firm. |Russell Hart / Alamy Stock Photo.
27 September 2022 (openDemocracy)* — More than 50 paid employees of global arms companies are working inside the UK’s Ministry of Defence, openDemocracy can reveal, sparking questions about conflicts of interest and national security.
They include nine staffers on long-term secondment from the UK’s biggest weapons manufacturer, BAE Systems, some of whom have been embedded inside the department for years.
(UN News)* — In an era of “nuclear blackmail”, UN Secretary-General António Guterres on Monday [26 September 2022] urged countries to step back from the threat of potential global catastrophe and recommit to peace.
UN/Ingrid Kasper | The “Good Defeats Evil” sculpture, located at UN Headquarters in New York, depicts an allegorical St. George slaying a double-headed dragon – symbolic of a nuclear war vanquished by historic treaties between the Soviet Union and United States.
“Nuclear weapons are the most destructive power ever created. They offer no security — just carnage and chaos. Their elimination would be the greatest gift we could bestow on future generations,” he said.
MADRID, Sep 26 2022 (IPS)* – A Mexican joke goes: “I kill people for money. But you are my best friend, so I will kill you for nothing.”
Nuclear Test. Credit: United Nations
This seems to be the dominating thinking of the five permanent members of the so-called Security Council, who, according to their own definition, hold the “primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security.”
“The Security Council takes the lead in determining the existence of a threat to the peace or act of aggression,” they say, while calling upon parties to a dispute to settle it “by peaceful means.”
Nevertheless, they self-attribute the strange right to launch wars. “In some cases, the Security Council can resort to imposing sanctions or even authorise the use of force to maintain or restore international peace and security.”
MADRID, Sep 23 2022 (IPS)* – Have you eaten today – or are sure you will? The answer depends on where you were born and where you live now. If you are Spanish or live here, you likely did or will, provided that you are not one of this European country’s 900.000 inhabitants who face some sort of hunger, malnutrition or undernourishment.
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Ten of the world’s worst climate hotspots have suffered a 123 percent rise in acute hunger over just the past six years, according to a new report from Oxfam. Credit: FAO
If instead, you are among the 550 million plus Africans who suffer moderate hunger (40 percent of the continent’s total population of 1.300 plus) or severe hunger (some 300 million or 24 percent of all Africans), your answer would be that you will likely –or surely– go to bed hungry… also today.
STOCKHOLM, Sep 22 2022 (IPS)* – After general elections on the 12th September, Sweden is on the threshold of a new era. The Sweden Democrats (SD) won almost 21 percent of the votes and thus became the largest in a bloc of right-wing parties that now have a collective majority in the parliament.
A nation that for a long time prided itself of being a beacon of tolerance and openness will now experience a historical transformation. The Sweden Democratswas once founded by Nazi sympathisers and for decades shunned by mainstream politicians.
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 