Tác giả: Đào Thu Hằng

I'm from Hanoi, Viet Nam. I'm an author of Dot Chuoi Non (dotchuoinon.com/author/hangbelu/), a blog on Positive thinking, founded by Dr. Tran Dinh Hoanh, an attorney in Washington DC. I'm a co-founder of Conversations on Vietnam Development - cvdvn.net, a virtual think tank. I am a co-founder of two companies in Viet Nam working on children education services. I advise companies on STEAM education, English language education for children and students in Vietnam. I'm studying the Buddha's teaching and the teaching of Jesus. I practice mindful living including meditation. I hold a PhD on Sustainable Energy Systems from University of Lisbon and Aalto University. I graduated from Hanoi University of Technology on Environmental Engineering. I obtained a Master degree of the same major from Stanford University and Nanyang Technological University. My English-language blog at: hangbelu.wordpress/. I play table tennis as a hobby.

Sudan Humanitarian Update (21 December 2023)

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

UNOCHA.org

SITUATION OVERVIEW

Eight months after fighting between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) erupted in mid-April, more than 6.9 millionpeople have fled their homes, taking refuge inside and outside the country, with children representing about half of the people displaced. Sudan is now the country with the largest number of displaced people and the largest child displacement crisis in the world.

According to the International Organization for Migration Displacement Tracking Matrix (IOM DTM) Sudan Weekly Displacement Snapshot (13), more than 5.5 million people have been displaced within Sudan since April 2023. People have been displaced in 6,089 locations across the country’s 18 states, an increase of 115,000 people and 160 locations in one week. The highest proportions of IDPs have been observed across South Darfur (13 per cent), East Darfur (12 per cent), River Nile (11 per cent), Aj Jazirah (9 per cent), and North Darfur (8 per cent). THE IDPs were initially displaced from 11 states. The majority of IDPs – 3.5 million people or 64 per cent of the total – have been reportedly displaced from Khartoum State; followed by South Darfur (17 per cent), North Darfur (9 per cent), Central Darfur (4 per cent), West Darfur (3 per cent) and other states. In addition, about 1.4 million people crossed into neighbouring countries since 15 April, according to UNHCR.

The total number of people displaced within Sudan is likely to increase further when the estimated 250,000-300,000 people who have been newly displaced from Wad Medani and surrounding areas in Aj Jazirah State over the past few days are registered and verified in the locations where they have sought shelter and assistance.

About 250,000-300,000 people displaced from Wad Medani and surrounding areas, Aj Jazirah State

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More than 100 container ships rerouted from Suez canal to avoid Houthi attacks

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

theguardian.com

Cape of Good Hope diversion adds 6,000 nautical miles and three or four weeks to delivery times and has driven up oil prices

Jasper Jolly @jjpjollyWed 20 Dec 2023 14.24 GMT

More than 100 container ships have been rerouted around southern Africa to avoid the Suez canal, in a sign of the disruption to global trade caused by Houthi rebels attacking vessels on the western coast of Yemen.

The shipping company Kuehne and Nagel said it had identified 103 ships that had already changed course, with more expected to go around South Africa’s Cape of Good Hope.

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How—and Why—Yemen’s Houthi Rebels Are Poised to Seriously Disrupt the Global Economy

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

time.com

Loaded containers stacked on top of a cargo ship sailing in a canal, Suez Canal, Red sea, Egypt
Loaded containers stacked on top of a cargo ship sailing in the Suez Canal.Camille Delbos—Art In All of Us/Corbis/Getty Images

BY GREGORY BREW

DECEMBER 19, 2023 12:00 AM EST

Gregory Brew is a historian of international energy, U.S. foreign policy, the Cold War, U.S.-Iranian relations, and modern Iran. He is currently an Analyst at Eurasia Group.

After two months, the crisis in the Middle East is poised to seriously disrupt the global economy as well as regional stability—thanks to the Houthis, a rebel Shi’a group in Yemen, and their successful effort to disrupt shipping through the Red Sea.

While attacks by the Houthis on commercial shipping began on November 19, they escalated last week, with the Yemeni rebels firing anti-ship ballistic missiles at several passing ships and hitting one (the first time such a weapon has ever been used successfully). As none of the ships were bound for Israel or owned by Israeli companies, the attacks signaled the Houthis were stepping up their efforts to pressure local commerce as a way to force Israel to suspend its campaign in Gaza.

https://imasdk.googleapis.com/js/core/bridge3.609.1_en.html#goog_2071400301

Shipping companies got the message. Five of the largest shipping firms announced they would redirect their container ships away from the Bab al Mandab strait, the strategic waterway through which ships must pass on their way to the Suez Canal and which handles over 10% of global commerce.

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“Gaza: Children after children after children who are lying in the hospital corridors, with horrific injuries”

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

Journalist casualties in the Israel-Gaza war

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

CPJ.org December 21, 2023 4:07 PM EST

The Israel-Gaza war has taken a severe toll on journalists since Hamas launched its unprecedented attack against Israel on October 7 and Israel declared war on the militant Palestinian group, launching strikes on the blockaded Gaza Strip.

CPJ is investigating all reports of journalists and media workers killed, injured, or missing in the war, which has led to the deadliest period for journalists since CPJ began gathering data in 1992.

As of December 21, 2023, CPJ’s preliminary investigations showed at least 68 journalists and media workers were among the more than 20,000 killed since the war began on October 7—with more than 19,000 Palestinian deaths in Gaza and the West Bank and 1,200 deaths in Israel.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) told Reuters and Agence France Press news agencies that it could not guarantee the safety of their journalists operating in the Gaza Strip, after they had sought assurances that their journalists would not be targeted by Israeli strikes, Reuters reported on October 27.

Journalists in Gaza face particularly high risks as they try to cover the conflict during the Israeli ground assault, including devastating Israeli airstrikes, disrupted communications, supply shortages and extensive power outages.

As of December 21:

CPJ is also investigating numerous unconfirmed reports of other journalists being killed, missing, detained, hurt, or threatened, and of damage to media offices and journalists’ homes.

Australian City Uses Drainage Nets to Stop Waste from Polluting Waterways

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

interestingengineering.com

City of Kwinana

Pollution in our waterways is not only dangerous and unsanitary for humans but it also affects wildlife. That’s why it is so exciting to see an initiative aimed at preventing such waste.

RELATED: THIS MODULAR ROBOTIC EEL CAN DETECT SOURCES OF WATER POLLUTION

The Australian city of Kwinana has designed a simple and cost-effective solution to deal with the discharge of waste from drainage systems. The town has put nets on the outlet of drainage pipes.

Australian City Uses Drainage Nets to Stop Waste from Polluting Waterways
Source: City of Kwinana

These nets stop waste and pollutants from leaving the sewers, preventing garbage transported by rain waters from contaminating the town’s local water reserve. It is a simple filtering system and it works like a charm.

Australian City Uses Drainage Nets to Stop Waste from Polluting Waterways
Source: City of Kwinana
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In memoriam: Saleemul Huq (1952-2023) – “For three decades, Huq was arguably the foremost champion of poorest countries in UN climate negotiations”

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

This short film pays tribute to professor Saleemul Huq, an environmental and climate change giant who died on 28 October 2023.

Professor Saleemul Huq OBE (1952-2023)

Following the passing of Professor Saleemul Huq, senior fellow of IIED. This book of remembrance is open to all who wish to share their memories of Saleem.

Article, 29 October 2023

Head and shoulders photo of Saleemul Huq.

Professor Saleemul Huq was an environmental and climate change giant and senior fellow and dear friend of IIED and many IIED colleagues past and present.

Director of the International Centre for Climate Change and Development (ICCCAD) and a senior associate of IIED, he was awarded an OBE by the Queen in the 2022 New Year’s Honours List for his services to combating international climate change.

The honour was awarded in recognition of his work to build climate expertise in Bangladesh, the UK and across the world. 

Saleem was an expert on the links between climate change and sustainable development, particularly from the perspective of vulnerable developing countries. A constant voice for climate action and justice for the global South, he was the lead author of chapters in the third, fourth and fifth assessment reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Huq’s work with the IPCC spanned 1997 to 2014 and he contributed to reports that led to the panel being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007.

A professor at the Independent University, Bangladesh, and an advisor to the Least Developed Countries (LDC) Group of the UNFCCC, Huq published hundreds of scientific as well as popular articles and was named by Nature in 2022 as one of its top 10 scientists. 

He set up the climate change research group at IIED in 2000 and was its initial director – continuing as a senior fellow until 2021 – and worked across the institute to ensure climate was at the heart of all that IIED did. 

IIED executive director Tom Mitchell said: “I would like to offer my deepest sympathy and condolences to Saleem’s family and loved ones on behalf of IIED. There was no one quite like Saleem and I will remember his unique combination of warmth, generosity of spirit, academic prowess and enormous standing in climate science. 

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Three major gaps in climate-adaptation finance for developing countries

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

preventionweb.net

Source(s): Stockholm Environment Institute

In the new Adaptation Finance Gap Update, part of the UN Environment Programme(UNEP) Adaptation Gap Report 2023, we examine recent trends in adaptation funding.

Specifically, we focus on the flow of public adaptation funds from the governments of developed countries to developing countries, since the implementation of the Paris Agreement.

In this article, we identify three major gaps in adaptation finance and explain why these gaps have emerged even as nations commit to scaling up these funds.

Financial shortfall

Adaptation costs for developing countries are estimatedat between $215bn and $387bn annually this decade, according to the latest Adaptation Finance Gap Update report.

Spending from the public funds of developed nations, while not the only source of adaptation finance, remains a crucial source, especially for low-income countries.

As it stands, people in the least developed countries(LDCs) and small-island states are often more exposedto climate hazards and more likelyto be killed by climate-related disasters. This is despite the fact that these nations bear very little responsibilityfor causing climate change.

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“I’m furious. Furious that those with power shrug at the humanitarian nightmares unleashed on 1 mil. children.”

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

Israel-Gaza war is having a chilling effect on academic freedom

~ Đào Thu Hằng ~ Bình luận về bài viết này

theconversation.com 

Listen to podcast https://shows.acast.com/60087127b9687759d637bade/65804f3a3c61a300185b8044

“In the UK we’ve seen suspension of students and staff from their universities. We’ve seen cancelling of events … of student activities like protests and sit-ins. We’ve seen a few cases of students that were arrested. We’ve seen students whose visas are threatened to be revoked.“

Across parts of academia, concerns are mounting that the Israel-Gaza war is having a chilling effect on academic freedom. In the second of two episodes of The Conversation Weekly exploring how the war is affecting life at universities, we speak to an Israeli legal scholar, now based in the UK, about the pressures that academics and students are facing to rein in their views about the war.https://embed.acast.com/60087127b9687759d637bade/65804f3a3c61a300185b8044

In the two months since the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel and subsequent Israeli war on Gaza, Neve Gordon is worried that there’s been a major clampdown on academic freedom in the US, Europe and Israel.

After teaching for 17 years in southern Israel, Gordon moved to the UK in 2016 and he’s now a professor of human rights and humanitarian law at Queen Mary University of London. His research looks at the laws of war with a special focus on Israel-Palestine, and on definitions of antisemitism.

He’s also the vice-president at the British Society for Middle Eastern Studies and chair of its committee on academic freedom. In this role, he’s been following the impact of the conflict on free speech at universities, and recently hosted an international webinar on the issue.

In the UK we’ve seen suspension of students and staff from their universities. We’ve seen cancelling of events … of student activities like protests and sit-ins. We’ve seen a few cases of students that were arrested. We’ve seen students whose visas are threatened to be revoked.

In Israel, Gordon told us he was aware of 113 cases in Israel of students and staff who have been suspended or dismissed, and at least ten students who have been arrested for their criticism of Israel’s attack on Gaza. “We have several students sitting behind bars for Facebook or tweets that basically express empathy for the suffering of the Palestinians,” he says.

Read more: American universities in the spotlight over reaction to Israel-Gaza war – podcast

Meanwhile, in Germany, many protests supporting Palestinian rights have been banned and Gordon says colleagues in Germany have told him that “the situation is untenable”.

All this, Gordon says, is having a chilling effect across academia.

I’m getting phone calls from friends in different universities in different countries saying that they want to cancel their Israel-Palestine course for next semester because they’re afraid that things that they will say in class can be interpreted by students as antisemitic.

Listen to the full interview with Neve Gordon on The Conversation Weekly podcast, where you can also listen to the first of our two episodes on the way the Israel-Gaza war is affecting life at universities, focusing on what’s been happening at one American public university.