Tag: bionoia

Africa
Sudan

Sudan: worst humanitarian crisis ever recorded

The International Rescue Committee declared that Sudan is currently experiencing the worst humanitarian crisis ever recorded. The report states that approximately 30.4 million people—over half of Sudan’s population—are in urgent need of humanitarian assistance, a staggering figure that accounts for 10% of all people globally requiring aid, despite Sudan representing less than 1% of the world’s population. Health services have been critically impacted, with more than 70% of healthcare facilities nonfunctional and widespread outbreaks of diseases like cholera and malaria threatening already vulnerable populations.(Map: PCL)

The Caribbean
Cuba decide

Cuba: investigate death of political prisoner

Several non-governmental organizations have demanded access to Cuban prisons, calling for international support following the death of a man imprisoned for participating in the July 2021 anti-government demonstrations on the island. Manuel de JesĂșs GuillĂ©n Esplugas, a member of the opposition Patriotic Union of Cuba (UNPACU), had been serving a sentence of six years in the Combinado del Este prison in Havana. GuillĂ©n Esplugas was among those arrested after participating in the protests that began on July 11, 2021, when thousands of Cubans, spurred by their dissatisfaction with living conditions, organized demonstrations against the regime for its handling of the economy and COVID-19 crisis, and repression of dissidents. (Image: Justicia11J)

Syria
Syria rebels

Syria: rebel forces launch new offensive on Aleppo

In the most significant escalation in Syria since a 2020 ceasefire instated under emergency conditions during the COVID pandemic, rebel forces in northwestern Idlib province  launched a surprise offensive on the country’s most populous city, Aleppo. The rebel advance is said to have penetrated the perimeter of the city, which had been held for years by rebel forces before it was retaken by the regime with the help of Russian air power in 2016. Russia has responded to the new offensive with fresh air-strikes on Idlib, which has been coming under intermittent Russian bombardment for years. At least 225 fatalities are reported in the new fighting, including some 25 civilians killed in Russian air-strikes. (Photo: Syrian Observer)

East Asia
HK47

Hong Kong: 45 activists sentenced for ‘subversion’

The Hong Kong Court of First Instance sentenced 45 defendants for conspiracy to commit “subversion” under the National Security Law, with prison terms ranging from 50 to 120 months, depending on their alleged roles in an unauthorized primary election staged by pro-democracy groups in 2020. The case stems from activists’ efforts in 2020 to gain a majority in Hong Kong’s Legislative Council. The LegCo election was ultimately suspended, ostensibly as an emergency measure during the COVID-19 pandemic. (Image: HKDC)

Palestine
Gaza

Gaza: demand ‘reckoning’ over ‘horrific violations’

The UN Human Rights Office released a report detailing six months of war in Gaza from November 2023 to April 2024, denouncing the “horrific” suffering inflicted by Israel as well as Palestinian armed groups, and warning of potential crimes against humanity. In an accompanying release, the UN rights chief Volker TĂŒrk urged Israel to comply with international law. He warned that there would be a “due reckoning with respect to allegations of serious violations of international law through credible and impartial judicial bodies
” (Photo: WAFA via Jurist)

Palestine
Gaza

UN human rights chief: Gaza faces ‘darkest moment’

United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker TĂŒrk warned that “the darkest moment of the Gaza conflict is unfolding in the north of the Strip.” Calling for urgent action by the international community, TĂŒrk stated: “Unimaginably, the situation is getting worse by the day. The Israeli Government’s…practices in northern Gaza risk emptying the area of all Palestinians. We are facing what could amount to…crimes against humanity.” TĂŒrk asserted that under the Geneva Convention, member states have “an obligation to act when a serious violation of international humanitarian law has been committed.” (Photo: badwanart0/Pixabay via Jurist)

Greater Middle East
Gaza

Ceasefire talks, as Gaza death toll crosses 40,000

A fresh round of ceasefire negotiations got underway in Doha, Qatar, aiming to bring an end to Israel’s more than 10-month-long war in the Gaza Strip and secure the release of the estimated 115 Israeli hostages still held by Hamas and other Palestinian militant groups. Forty-one of the hostages are believed to be dead, and the recorded death toll from Israel’s military campaign has now reached over 40,000, according to health authorities in the Strip. That’s roughly 2% of Gaza’s pre-war population—or one out of every 50 residents—that has been killed. (Photo: WAFA via Jurist)

Greater Middle East
Yemen

Yemen: Houthis obstruct aid amid deepening disaster

Flooding in Yemen’s coastal Hodeidah province has killed at least 30 people, while floods in the inland district of Taizz killed 15. The World Health Organization reports severe damage to homes and infrastructure, with contaminated water worsening the cholera outbreak in the country. Meanwhile, Human Rights Watch said in a new report that authorities across Yemen have “obstructed aid” to stricken areas, and “failed to take adequate preventative measures to mitigate the spread of cholera.” The report especially criticizes such obstruction by the Houthi forces, who have for years maintained a siege of Taizz. (Map via PCL)

The Amazon
Mashco Piro

Peru: ‘uncontacted’ tribe attacks loggers

Peru’s reclusive Mashco Piro people used bows and arrows to attack loggers encroaching on their territory in the Amazon, according to a regional indigenous organization. FENAMAD, representing 39 indigenous communities in Cuzco and Madre de Dios regions, said that it believes illegal logging was taking place on Mashco Piro territory and that one logger was injured in the attack. Days before the incident occurred, photos emerged of some 50 members of the isolated tribe apparently searching for food on a river beach—which advocacy group Survival International said is evidence that logging concessions are “dangerously close” to its territory. (Photo: Survival International)

Oceania
Tuvalu

Tuvalu regains full sovereignty over security relations

Australia and Tuvalu released a joint statement announcing new commitments to improve security relations, and remove the veto power Australia previously had over the small island nation’s security relations with other countries. The announcement concerned implementation and interpretation of the Falepili Union, a bilateral treaty entered into last November, which expands upon the Australia-Tuvalu Security Partnership of 2017. However, it eliminates the 2017 provision that limited Tuvalu’s sovereignty in foreign affairs—a sensitive matter given Australia’s growing regional rivalry with China. (Image via Pixabay)

Planet Watch
Gaza

How to break cycle of rising global hunger?

More countries facing crises; more people going hungry. Some 281 million people were locked in high levels of acute hunger last year, according to the latest Global Report on Food Crises—a benchmark analysis of food insecurity by a network that includes UN agencies, donors, and famine analysts. The figure is 24 million higher than the previous year—a rise driven in part by Sudan’s civil war and Israel’s destruction of Gaza. Global hunger numbers have spiked since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic and continue to rise. A mix of conflict, extreme weather, El Niño, inflation, and volatile food prices suggest there won’t be a reprieve by the time 2024’s numbers are tallied. (Photo: Maan News Agency)

Planet Watch
air pollution

Lower emissions from US power grid (at least)

The US Department of Energy released its preliminary estimate for the nation’s carbon emissions in the previous year. While falling far short of the kind of drop needed to meet the Paris Agreement goals, a dip in emissions was recorded—almost entirely due to changes in the electric power sector. US carbon emissions have been trending downward since 2007, when they peaked at about six gigatonnes. The COVID-19 pandemic produced a dramatic drop in emissions in 2020, bringing the yearly total to below five gigatonnes for the first time since before 1990, when DoE monitoring began. Carbon releases rose after the return to “normalcy“; 2023 marked the first post-pandemic decline. The drop is largely due to the phase-out of coal-burning power plants. However, electricity generation remains the second source of emissions, behind transportation. (Photo: Ralf Vetterle, Pixabay)