(UN News)* — Millions of people in the Horn of Africa – a region at the intersection of some of the worst impacts of climate change, recurring humanitarian crises and insecurity – are facing the driest conditions in four decades along with extreme food shortages.
The top UN World Food Programme (WFP) official in the region, Michael Dunford, is warning that the situation there is likely to get worse before it improves.
In an interview with UN News, Mr. Dunford said: “Unfortunately, we have not yet seen the worst of this crisis. If you think 2022 is bad, beware of what is coming in 2023. What that means, is that we need to continue to engage. We cannot give up on the needs of the population in the Horn.”
(By UN News)* — Conflict between Israelis and Palestinians “is again reaching a boiling point”, the UN Middle East envoy told the Security Council on Monday [], warning of escalating violence amid a stalled peace process.
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IRIN/Shabtai Gold | Palestinian women walk by Israel’s barrier near Ramallah in the West Bank.
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Special Coordinator Tor Wennesland called for stronger international commitment towards the two-State solution and outlined potential ways to move forward.
He reported that high levels of violence in the occupied West Bank and Israel in recent months has resulted in grave suffering. This included attacks against civilians from both sides, increased use of arms, and settler-related violence.
MADRID, Nov 25 2022 (IPS)* – Please take a quick look at this short report before rushing to shop on a Black Friday, Christmas sales and all those long chains of big discounts and wholesales, most of them are fake, as often denounced by consumers organisations that report that the business usually inflates prices before launching such deals.
Around 7,500 litres of water are used to make a single pair of jeans, equivalent to the amount of water the average person drinks over seven years. Credit: pexels
Just a couple of figures to start with: the fashion industry is responsible for more than all international flights and maritime shipping combined.
Consequently, it is widely believed that this business is the second major producer of greenhouse gases, just after the other industries using fossil fuels.
And it is a big business, which is estimated as valued at upward of 3 trillion dollars. Continue reading →
(UN News)* — Nearly 40 million children are at risk of getting measles due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said in a joint report published on Wednesday [].
Pandemic-related disruptions caused 25 million boys and girls to miss their first dose of the measles vaccine last year, while another 14.7 million did not get the second dose.
The record decline in measles vaccination coverage represents a significant setback in global progress to combat the disease.
Pandemic paradox
“The paradox of the pandemic is that while vaccines against COVID-19 were developed in record time and deployed in the largest vaccination campaign in history, routine immunization programmes were badly disrupted, and millions of kids missed out on life-saving vaccinations against deadly diseases like measles,” said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the WHO Director-General.
AMMAN, 18 November 2022 (UNICEF)* – November 20th marks World Children’s Day, the annual commemoration of the adoption of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), which provides a universal set of standards to be adhered to by all countries – including the principle of non-discrimination; the best interests of the child as a primary consideration in all actions concerning children; the child’s right to express his or her views freely; and, critically, the child’s inherent right to life.
UNICEF/UN0519152/Hayyan | Yemen is one of the world’s largest humanitarian crises – and children are being robbed of their futures.
DAKAR and KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 22 2022 (IPS)* – The ongoing plunder of Africa’s natural resources drained by capital flight is holding it back yet again. More African nations face protracted recessions amid mounting debt distress, rubbing salt into deep wounds from the past.
With much less foreign exchange, tax revenue, and policy space to face external shocks, many African governments believe they have little choice but to spend less, or borrow more in foreign currencies.
Ndongo Samba Sylla
Most Africans are struggling to cope with food and energy crises, inflation, higher interest rates, adverse climate events, less health and social provisioning. Unrest is mounting due to deteriorating conditions despite some commodity price increases.
Economic haemorrhage
After ‘lost decades’ from the late 1970s, Africa became one of the world’s fastest growing regions early in the 21st century. Debt relief, a commodity boom and other factors seemed to support the deceptive ‘Africa rising’ narrative.
MADRID, Nov 21 2022 (IPS)* – An indisputable truth is that no child has ever chosen where to be born, which colour of skin to have, which ethnic community to belong to, what religion to practice and language to speak, or how safe or dangerous the context to grow up in. A child is the most innocent and defenceless human being.
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Children from marginalised ethnic, language and religious groups, from 22 low and middle-income countries which were analysed, lag far behind their peers in reading skills. Credit: Brian Moonga/IPS
Nevertheless, children fall easy prey to all kinds of brutalities, everywhere and every single day. See how Continue reading →
Sharm El Sheikh, Nov 17 2022 (IPS)* – The Middle East and North Africa are the world’s most water-scarce regions – with 11 of the 17 water-stressed countries on the globe.
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Water scarcity in the Middle East is impacting on lives and causing diplomatic tensions in between countries. The Turkish dam project, which includes the large Ataturk and Ilisu dams, has reduced water flow to the Tigris River’s natural channel impacting Syria and Iraq. Pictured here is Koctepe – a village covered by water in the Ilisu dam project. Credit: Mustafa Bilge Satkın/Climate Visuals Countdown
According to UNICEF, nine out of 10 children live in areas with high or very high-water stress, resulting in significant consequences for their health, cognitive development, and future livelihoods. Continue reading →
MADRID, Nov 17 2022 (IPS)* – As much as wars –or even more–, climate disaster represents a great business opportunity, so don’t bother those who pour their fortunes into fueling them with talks about stopping it.
See what happens.
A new analysis of the “investments of 125 of the world’s richest billionaires shows that on average they are emitting 3 million tonnes a year, more than a million times the average for someone in the bottom 90% of humanity.” Credit: WA
Investing in wars
A couple of dozens of companies involved in manufacturing the most inhuman weapons of mass destruction– the nuclear warheads, have been supported by over 150 big banks by lending them money or underwriting bonds, according to the Nobel Peace Laureate International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN). Continue reading →
(Greenpeace International)* — Since the Paris Agreement was signed in 2015, it has only become less likely that the world will meet that pact’s goals. Emissions must now be halved by the end of this decade to avoid the worst impacts of the climate crisis.
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Don’t Gas Africa Event during COP27. Campaigners call for an end to fossil-fuel-induced energy apartheid in Africa and ask to scale up cost-effective, clean, decentralized, renewable energy to end energy exclusion and meet the needs of Africa’s people.
Making finance flows and services consistent with this pathway is essential not only for the planet, but for the financial sector itself. Munich Re, the world’s largest reinsurance company, adopted a new policy last month excluding oil insurance and reinsurance.
It’s not a single actor: As of October, 41 insurers — including industry heavyweights such as Allianz, Munich Re and Swiss Re — representing 39% of the market for primary insurance and 62% for reinsurance had withdrawn or reduced cover for coal.
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 