BRATISLAVA, May 3 2024 (IPS)* – A new report has warned media freedom in the EU [European Union] is close to “breaking point” in many states amid rising authoritarianism across the continent.
Protestors gathered in Bratislava on May 2, 2024 to protest against changes to the public broadcaster, RTVS. The placard in the picture reads: RTVS on a flat-screen TV; STVR about a flat earth. Credit: Ed Holt/IPS
In its latest annual report covering 2023, the Berlin-based Civil Liberties Union for Europe (Liberties) highlighted widespread threats, intimidation and violence against journalists and attacks on the independence of public broadcasters in the EU, with roll backs in media freedom down to “deliberate harm or neglect by national governments”.
(UN News)* — Climate change shocks caused record levels of disruption and misery for millions in Europe in 2023 with widespread flooding and severe heatwaves – a new normal which countries must adapt to as a priority, the UN weather agency said on Monday [].
New data published jointly by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the Copernicus Climate Change Service confirmed fears that that 2023 was the joint warmest or second warmest year on record in Europe, depending on the dataset selected.
Geneva/Dubai (WMO)* 30 November 2023 – 2023 has shattered climate records, accompanied by extreme weather which has left a trail of devastation and despair, according to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).
Key messages
2023 set to be warmest year on record
Greenhouse gas levels continue to increase
Record sea surface temperatures and sea level rise
(UN News)* — An estimated 13.4 million babies were born early in 2020, with nearly one million dying from preterm complications, UN agencies and partners said in a new report on Thursday [].
The Project for a New American Century was a Washington-based “think tank” founded in 1997 by William Kristal and Robert Kagen.
John Scales Avery
The basic idea behind the organization was that since the United States had emerged as the world’s sole surviving superpower, the country should increase its military spending and use its military power to promote US interests and values throughout the world.
Global Hegemony through Military Force
In recent years, the United States has aimed at “full spectrum dominance”, military dominance over all other nations, global hegemony through military force, and the construction of an empire.
31 July 2023 (WMO)*— Intense heat is gripping large parts of the Northern hemisphere in this summer of extremes, causing major damage to the people’s health and the environment. China set a new national daily temperature record, and many new station temperature records have been broken.
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Wildfires have caused devastation and dozens of casualties and forced evacuations of thousands of people in parts of the Mediterranean, including Algeria, Greece, Italy and Spain.
The Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS) has recorded a significant increase in intensity and emissions from wildfires in the eastern Mediterranean during the second half of July, particularly in Greece.
(UN News)* — During the first half of the year, 289 boys and girls died while crossing the Mediterranean Sea to reach Europe, or double the number compared to the same period in 2022, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) reported on Friday [].
The figure is equivalent to about 11 children dying each week, “far beyond what we hear in news headlines,” Vera Knaus, the agency’s Global Lead on Migration and Displacement, told journalists attending the biweekly UN humanitarian briefing in Geneva.
By contrast, most U.S. news organizations have only paid sparing attention to the calamitous event, offering up just a tiny fraction of the coverage that they accord air disasters, or floods and earthquakes in wealthy countries.
MADRID, Jun 22 2023 (IPS)* – The abuse of human rights has sharply increased with the steady rise of the right and far-right parties in the wealthy industrialised countries, whose extremist ideology is now spreading faster than ever in Europe.
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Santiago Abascal, leader of Spain’s far-right Vox party. The party could soon be in government, after the 23 July 2023 general elections. Credit: Shutterstock
Indeed, most of the European Union 27 member countries are now either formally ruled by or strongly influenced and supported by extremists and populist parties, which publicly negate basic human rights, while masking their policies of suppressing public services like health, education, pensions, and protection of workers.
Geneva/Berlin/Cairo(IOM)* – Nearly 3,800 people died on migration routes within and from the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region last year (January-December 2022), the highest number since 2017 when 4,255 deaths were recorded according to newly released data from the International Organization for Migration’s (IOM) Missing Migrants Project (MMP).The 3,789 deaths recorded in 2022 was 11 per cent higher than the previous year.
IOM’s Missing Migrants Project documented 441 migrant deaths in the Central Mediterranean in the first quarter of 2023. Photo: IOM 2022…
The MENA region accounted for more than half of the total 6,877 deaths recorded worldwide by the MMP, according to the new report.
On North African land routes, particularly during the perilous Sahara Desert crossing, 203 deaths were recorded, while an additional 825 deaths occurred on Middle Eastern land routes.
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 