07/11/2020

Economic Trends and What’s Important in Life

Human Wrongs Watch

By Anis Chowdhury and Jomo Kwame Sundaram*

SYDNEY and KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 2 2020 (IPS)* – US third quarter GDP numbers released two weeks ago delighted stock markets and President Trump. Output had picked up by 7.4%, annualised as 33.1%, the largest quarterly economic growth on record, almost double the old record of 3.9% (annualised as 16.7%) in the first quarter of 1950, seven decades ago.

Anis Chowdhury

Spinning numbers
This news could not have come at a better time for Trump, who is struggling for re-election, as his Council of Economic Advisers (CEA) declared that this affirmed Trump’s claim, “we’re coming back, and we’re coming back strong”.

The CEA spun the White House press release headline accordingly, “The Great American Recovery: Third Quarter GDP Blows Past Expectations”.

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07/11/2020

What Three US Ballot Results Mean for Poverty and Inequality

Human Wrongs Watch

By Lena Simet and Amos Toh*

Voters Decided on Measures Affecting Workers’ Rights

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Envelopes containing ballots are shown at a San Francisco Department of Elections voting center in San Francisco, California, November 1, 2020.  © 2020 AP Photo/Jeff Chiu, File

6 November 2020 (Human Rights Watch) — The US elections took place amid a recession, record unemployment, and rising poverty. The economy was the top issue for voters in the election; one in two voters said that economic inequality was very important in their decision about who to support in the presidential election. But decisions that affect poverty and inequality are not only taken at the federal level.

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07/11/2020

Reducing Inequality: What Is Your Country Doing to Tackle the Gap between Rich and Poor?

Human Wrongs Watch

By OXFAM International*

The coronavirus pandemic has swept across a world that was already profoundly unequal. The failure to tackle inequality has left the majority of countries far more vulnerable and unprepared for both the health and economic impacts of the disease.

Setting up water points, Central African Republic - Covid-19 response

In the Central African Republic, the Covid-19 represents a health crisis which is added to an already alarming humanitarian crisis. One in two people in need of humanitarian assistance, and about 70% of health services are provided by humanitarian organizations. Photo: Aurelie Godet/Oxfam

Millions of people have died or been pushed into hunger and poverty because governments have not invested in public healthcare, protected workers’ rights, or provided safety nets for people who can’t work.

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07/11/2020

“If the virus doesn’t kill us, hunger will”

She lives in a settlement for displaced people outside Kabul, Afghanistan’s capital city. Fifteen people share her makeshift two-room home, including Shayista’s daughter and her children.

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06/11/2020

‘The World Has Been Put on a Heightened Famine Alert’

Human Wrongs Watch

UN food agencies warn of rising levels of acute hunger with potential risk of famine in four hotspots – Burkina Faso, northeastern Nigeria, South Sudan and Yemen cause for concern but acute hunger on the rise across the globe.

Photo: ©FAO/Luis Tato

A group of men prepare food in a village near Tanout in Niger.

ROME, 6 November 2020 (FAO)* – The world has been put on a heightened famine alert with a new report by two United Nations agencies that contains a stark warning; four countries contain areas that could soon slip into famine if conditions there undergo “any further deterioration over the coming months”.

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06/11/2020

‘Emergency Action’ Needed to Prevent Major Polio, Measles Epidemics

Human Wrongs Watch

6 November 2020 (UN News)* — Globally, millions of children are at a heightened risk of polio and measles – dangerous but preventable diseases – amid disruptions to vital immunization programmes due to the coronavirus pandemic, UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and World Health Organization (WHO) have said.

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UNICEF/Yuwei | A 3-year-old girl receives a vaccine shot at a community health centre in Beijing, China.
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According to the two UN agencies, immunization rates in some countries have fallen by as much as 50 per cent, with people unable to access health services because of lockdown and transport disruptions, or unwillingness due to fear of contracting COVID-19.

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06/11/2020

New Report Explores the Impact of Sand and Dust Storms

Human Wrongs Watch

6 November 2020 (UNEP)* — On the launch of the report, Impacts of Sand and Dust Storms on Oceans: A Scientific Environmental Assessment for Policy Makers, author and University of Oxford lecturer, Nick Middleton discusses how the dust cycle affects and interacts with other global-scale biogeochemical cycles.

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Photo: Pixabay / amazingsdj / 06 Nov 2020

What exactly are we talking about when we refer to the “dust cycle”?

The dust cycle describes the movement of trillions of tiny particles through the Earth System. Sand and dust is raised by strong winds from areas of bare or sparsely vegetated ground.

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06/11/2020

UN’s $5.1 Billion Shortfall Threatens Operations Worldwide

Human Wrongs Watch

By Thalif Deen*

UNITED NATIONS, Nov 5 2020 (IPS)* – When the United Nations was struggling to cope with a cash crisis back in April 1996, one of the many drastic measures it undertook was to cut down on its staff.

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Work and reforms of the UN ‘at risk’, Antonio Guterres warned Member States, amidst ‘record-level’ cash crisis, October 2020. Credit: UN Photo/Rick Bajornas. The UN Secretariat building in New York

So, it took the path of corporate America, and ironically, for a cash-strapped institution, it offered a “golden handshake”—a severance pay of about $80,000 dollars each — to those who would voluntarily leave the near-bankrupt Organization. Continue reading →

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05/11/2020

Violence and Bullying Affect One in Three Students, Warns UNESCO

Human Wrongs Watch

International Day against Violence and Bullying at School – Including Cyberbullying, on 5 November 2020.

Unsplash/James Sutton | School violence and bullying, including cyberbullying, is widespread and affects a significant number of children and adolescents.

(UN News)* — Children face violence and bullying at school all over the world, with one in every three students subject to attacks at least once a month and one in 10, a victim of cyberbullying, the UN said on Thursday [5 November 2020].

The warning from UNESCO, the UN organization for education, science and culture, based on 2019 data, coincides with the first International Day against Violence and Bullying at School – Including Cyberbullying, on 5 November.

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05/11/2020

Proposing Cradle-to-Grave Evaluations for All Vehicles

Human Wrongs Watch

By Katie Singer*

Letter to Greta Thunberg: why maintaining a gas-guzzler may cause less harm than buying a new e-vehicle

Because EVs do not emit GHGs at the tailpipe, they’re called emissions-free
Because EVs do not emit GHGs at the tailpipe, they’re called emissions-free | Image from Wall Street International.

3 November 2020 (Wall Street International)*

Dear Greta,

You know how manufacturers promote electric vehicles (EVs) because they have “zero-emissions?” I wonder if this is really true.

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