15 October 2019 (openDemocracy)* — Donald Trump is a master of distraction, but he is also an illusionist and there are few illusions bigger than his favourite obsession – the US border wall. On 1 October the New York Times reported that Trump told aides he would like to electrify his proposed wall and add to it a water-filled trench, stocked with snakes or alligators.
US border patrol stands watch as barbed wire is added to a border wall, 2018. | US Customs and Border Protection
GENEVA / LAGOS, Oct 16 2019 (IPS)* – In Geneva this week, a treaty process is underway that promises to usher in a new era for human rights around the globe.
The process—the intergovernmental working group on the binding treaty on transnational corporations and human rights—could mean that for the first time, human rights would be prioritized above corporate profits.
But the future of the agreement and human rights writ large will depend on whether governments can agree on a strong text this week.
Communities and governments have long struggled to hold abusive corporations and industries accountable.
16 October 2019 (UN News)* — On a Friday afternoon, in a small restaurant kitchen in the New York borough of Brooklyn, head chef Alexander Harris is giving instructions to his attentive team, preparing them for the busy evening ahead. So far, the tables are empty, but the small, popular space, with just a handful of tables – and some stools around the bar – will soon be bustling with the evening crowd.
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Conor Lennon/ UN News | Trainee chef Roberta Mbiua (2nd right) receives his instructions from culinary director Alexander Harris at Emma’s Torch Restaurant, Brooklyn.
16 October 2019 — Eating food high in starch, sugar, fats and salt; combined with a sedentary lifestyle, is a recipe for soaring global obesity rates, even in countries where many still suffer from hunger. On World Food Day, which falls on Wednesday 16 October 2019], the UN’s food agency, FAO, is calling for action to make healthy, sustainable diets affordable and accessible for all.*
Public Domain | Hamburger with Fries. WHO has released the REPLACE guidelines, to eliminate industrially-produced trans-fatty acids from food suplly.
15 October 2019 (The Norwegian Refugee Council)* —Pakistani refugees in Afghanistan are facing a bleak future as international organisations withdraw from Gulan camp, in the south-east of the country. Funding for their assistance is now being omitted for plans for 2020. In this photo story, camp residents share their concerns and their hopes.
In 2014, hundreds of thousands of Pakistani people fled their homes. Many settled in Gulan camp, in south-east Afghanistan. Here, men from North Waziristan wait in a queue for aid supplies in the camp distribution centre. Photo: Andrew Quilty/NRC
15 August 2019 (IGWIA)* — While much of the world has focused on the fires raging in the Amazon, the world’s largest forest–the Siberian Taiga in Russia–has been on fire for most of 2019.
Demonstration held in Krasnoyarsk on 22 Aug 2019. Signs read (left to right): Sign 1: “Summer 2019 – Evenkia is covered in smoke and on fire. Photos from Tura, Baikit, Vanavara settlements taken 9 August 2019, Indigenous Day”; Sign 2: “Investment projects are the destruction of the traditional environment of Evenkia — Ecocide. Photos from forest plots and the results of industrial logging by company Kraslessinvest”; Sign 3: “Baikit forest, 50km from Baikit, forest fires 2019 — Ecocide”. Photo: Nikita Kaplin
15 October 2019 (UN News)* — Across the globe, at least one-in-three children under-five are malnourished and not developing properly, UNICEF revealed on Tuesday [15 October 2019], in its most comprehensive report on children, food and nutrition in 20 years.
“An alarmingly high number of children are suffering the consequences of poor diets and a food system that is failing them,” the UN children’s agency (UNICEF) warned.
Achieving Zero Hunger is not only about addressing hunger, but also nourishing people, while nurturing the planet. This year, World Food Day calls for action across sectors to make healthy and sustainable diets affordable and accessible to everyone. At the same time, it calls on everyone to start thinking about what we eat.*
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16 October 2019 (FAO)* — In recent decades, we have dramatically changed our diets and eating habits as a result of globalization, urbanization and income growth.
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We have moved from seasonal, mainly plant-based and fibre-rich dishes to diets that are high in refined starches, sugar, fats, salt, processed foods, meat and other animal-source products.
Stress can produce conflict. For example shortages of food or water can lead to regional wars. But wars only make original problems worse. Today the world is facing a number of severe problems, and solidarity will be needed to minimize the suffering with which we and future generations are threatened.
John Scales Avery
The problems include shortages of fresh water, rising temperatures due to climate change, and food insecurity.
These problems are especially acute in the Middle East, a region that is already torn by bitter conflicts and wars.
In order to successfully minimize suffering, it is vital that peace be achieved in the Middle East. Let us look at some of the problems in detail:
Today it is in the news that 906,000 hectares have burned in the Amazon forests so far in 2019. It is in the news that an even larger –although harder to determine- number of hectares have burned this year in African forests and savannahs.
Prof. Howard Richards
The media often mention that the fires of 2019 continue an ominous trend. There has been worldwide a steadily increasing loss of vegetation to flames that has been accelerating for several decades. The feedback loop is negative. Less vegetation means less rainfall means less vegetation.
It is in the news that millions of people around the world –inspired by a Swedish teenager so honest that looking at a picture of her will cure a headache—have taken to the streets demanding that something must be done.
The process—the intergovernmental working group on the binding treaty on transnational corporations and human rights—could mean that for the first time, human rights would be prioritized above corporate profits.
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 