'Unseen' News and Views
(UN News)* — A bold new blueprint to tackle all neglected tropical diseases has been agreed at the UN health agency’s World Health Assembly, which will involve a radical shift in approach by Member States and non-state actors, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Thursday [12 November 2020].
(UN News)* — The International Organization for Migration (IOM) on Thursday [12 November 2020] reported yet another devastating shipwreck in the Central Mediterranean, which has claimed the lives of at least 74 migrants off the coast of Khums, Libya. It is the eighth such incident since the beginning of October.
I would like to announce the publication of a new book, in which I have tried to sketch human history, from earliest times until the present, against a cosmic backdrop.
John Scales Avery
The book may be downloaded and circulated free of charge from the following link:
http://eacpe.org/app/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/A-History-of-the-Earth-by-John-Scales-Avery.pdf
According to modern cosmology, the universe is almost unimaginably vast. It is estimated that there are 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 stars in the observable universe. Of these, many stars have planets on which life is likely to have developed. Thus our earth and its life forms are by no means unique.
We cannot claim to be “the center of the universe” with any unique justification. However, the earth is our home. It is important to us. As parents, we wish for and work for the survival of our children and grandchildren, and for all future generations of humans.
Geneva/Rome, 11 November 2020 (IOM)* – A new report has found global hunger and population displacement – both already at record levels when COVID-19 struck – could surge as people on the move and those reliant on a dwindling flow of remittances desperately seek work to support their families.
Internally displaced persons arrive to a camp in Doloow, Somalia, where droughts in recent years have led to increased displacement and food shortages. Photo: IOM/Muse Mohammed
11 November 2020 (UN News)* — The UN High Commissioner for Refugees has called on world leaders to take bold and swift action to eradicate statelessness by 2024.
The need is all the more pressing in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, which is worsening the plight of millions of stateless people around the world, he warned.
11 November 2020 (Wall Street International)* — I am writing this article a few days prior to the American presidential election. By the time you read these words, that very same election will one way or the other be history. Surely, no matter the outcome, it will be the subject of extreme contention. We Americans can anticipate the likely intervention of the newly unbalanced Supreme Court.
– The ouster of Donald Trump from the US presidency last week may well be the dawn of a new era for multilateralism – and perhaps for a besieged United Nations— after nearly four years of misguided political rhetoric emerging from the White House.
As a hard-core unilateralist, Trump was openly antagonistic towards multilateral institutions and contemptuous of the world body.
Donald J. Trump, President of the United States of America, addresses the high-level segment of the General Assembly in September 2020. Credit: UN Photo/Rick Bajornas
The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNWRA) has run out of cash on hand to keep vital services going amid the worsening health emergency, UNRWA spokesperson Tamara Alrifai told a regular UN press briefing in Geneva on Tuesday [10 November 2020].
11 November 2020 — Now it is clear that Joe Biden is the new president of the United States. It is unlikely that Donald Trump’s legal manoeuvring will change the election results, as when a conservative Supreme Court in 2000 decided in favour of George Bush over Al Gore, who lost by 535 votes.
Roberto Savio
Even this Supreme Court, where Trump has six sympathetic members (three appointed by him, quite a record), and only three unsympathetic, will dare to change a result coming from too many states.
Trump is gone, but it is sad to say, Trumpism is here to stay. But is that a specific situation of the United States, or is it a more general phenomenon? We think that, in an era of globalisation, we should attempt a global analysis.
This will leave out a zillion of facts, events and analysis, but this is now the destiny of journalism. Anyone can add what they think is relevant and decide what has been left out. This will be a big improvement over this abridged analysis.
(Brussels) – The top governing body of the European Union Border and Coast Guard Agency (Frontex) should urgently establish an independent inquiry into allegations of its involvement in unlawful operations to stop migrants from reaching the European Union (EU), Human Rights Watch said on 9 November 2020.
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 