Conversations on Vietnam Development
Researchers used this data and cloud computing to generate powerful, high-resolution maps of rubber and its associated deforestation in Southeast Asia, where over 90% of global rubber is produced…The mapping showed that forest loss associated with rubber production is more than two to three times greater than indicated by previous research has suggested
A multi-partner team of researchers, led by the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, have used new Earth observation satellite data and advanced computer modelling to show that rubber-related deforestation is far higher than previous estimates have suggested
Almost all tropical deforestation is related to the production of global commodities, but mapping this deforestation through satellite imagery is rare (oil palm and soy are the notable exceptions). Natural rubber ranks among these global commodities but its deforestation impact has proved difficult to measure: globally, 85% of natural rubber is produced by smallholders on scattered plantations which have proved difficult to detect through traditional satellite imaging due to their small size. Moreover, these plantations also have a very similar visual appearance to forest when viewed from space. Previous calculations of rubber deforestation have therefore used model-based data.
Due to recent improvements in the visual quality of Earth observation data, in this paper the authors were able to capture the smallholder plantations in their mapping and address the deforestation knowledge gap. Researchers used this data and cloud computing to generate powerful, high-resolution maps of rubber and its associated deforestation in Southeast Asia, where over 90% of global rubber is produced.
By Ameera Adil and Faraz Haider
Last year, Pakistan faced the most devastating floods in the history of the country, which is notable because the country lies on a geographical floodplain. The Indus is an ancient and powerful river. The floodplain of the river covers nearly half of Pakistan, where most of the country’s population resides. When the Indus breathes, as rivers do, the lives and livelihoods on the floodplains are quietly absorbed by the water.
Climate change had a significant role to play in the 2022 floods. The affected areas received 900mm of rainfall between June to August, which is nearly 350 percent more than the long-term average. Tiếp tục đọc “The Interdependence of Climate Security and Good Governance: A Case Study from Pakistan”
UN Population Fund Updated on 27 October 2023
The humanitarian crisis in Gaza is deepening, as fuel, water, food and life-saving medical supplies run out. The health system is on the brink of collapse.
Among Gaza’s population of 2.2 million people, 1 in 4 are women and girls of reproductive age – around 572,000 – who need access to reproductive health services. An estimated 50,000 pregnant women are caught up in the conflict, with around 5,500 due to give birth within the next 30 days – more than 160 deliveries every day. An estimated 840 women may experience pregnancy or birth-related complications. Many of these women have been cut off from safe delivery services, as hospitals, which are overwhelmed with casualties, run out of fuel for generators, medicines and basic supplies – including for the management of obstetric emergencies.
Around 73,000 women are currently pregnant in the West Bank, with more than 8,120 expected to give birth in the next month as the violence threatens to spill over.
UNFPA is dispatching life-saving reproductive health medicines and supplies to Egypt for stockpiling and transportation across the border into Gaza when possible. As of 26 October, UNFPA has 3,000 dignity kits containing hygiene supplies in Egypt, ready to go into Gaza, as well as life-saving reproductive health supplies, prepositioned and ready to be sent through Egypt. These health kits and supplies save the lives of pregnant women – they are as vital as food, water, shelter.
Among other initiatives, a UNFPA-supported helpline is available for women, youth and other people requiring assistance in Gaza and the West Bank
In the West Bank, the Ministry of Health has redeployed midwives from hospitals to Safe Motherhood Emergency Centres supported by UNFPA, ensuring that midwives are accessible in every community. In addition, online support systems and referral services are helping to ensure women’s continued access to sexual and reproductive health care.
With more than half of Gaza’s population displaced, the risk of gender-based violence has also increased exponentially for women and girls who are on the move, seeking refuge in overcrowded shelters, which lack privacy and sanitation facilities.
UNFPA condemns the violence in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories and echoes the UN Secretary-General’s call for an immediate ceasefire, for the immediate and unconditional release of hostages by Hamas, and for unimpeded access for humanitarian aid and workers within Gaza.
Gaza is a virtual prison with hardly any way in or out. And it has been so since ten years ago when Al Jazeera entered Gaza to talk to the grandchildren of Fatima al Najar, who had recently achieved a strange kind of fame as the oldest Palestinian suicide bomber.
These children, whose lives had been shaped by the oppressive conditions imposed on the territory by Israel, spoke frankly about the hopes, and fear, for their future. Tehal was just ten at the time, and wanted to be the first female president of Palestine.
She said she had three priorities; to clean up the mess left behind by the Israeli bulldozers, to give children their rights, and “to build a new Gaza”. In contrast, another young girl – Rana – hoped to become a journalist, “So I can tell the people how we suffer here. I am a child, I know what death means, I know what war means, I know what blood means.”
These and other children opened their hearts in a moving show of optimism in the face of the dire conditions in which they lived.
Now, a decade on, Rewind returns to Gaza in search of the children featured in Children of Conflict, now young adults.Once again they speak to Al Jazeera’s cameras contrasting their aspirations of ten years ago with the reality of today.
UNICEF OCTOBER 26, 2023 by UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell
The true cost of the violence in Gaza and Israel will be measured in children’s lives—those lost to the violence and those forever changed by it.
Gaza is one of the most densely populated places on Earth—home to more than 2 million people, nearly half of whom are children. More than 1 million people in the north have been warned to move south, ahead of what is expected to be a wide-scale military operation. But with near-constant shelling, closed borders, and little room for movement, they have nowhere truly safe to go.
Meanwhile, what clean water remains is quickly running out, leaving many Gazans with little choice but to rely on polluted wells. This dramatically increases the risk of waterborne-disease outbreaks. Unless access to safe drinking water is restored, people will die from severe dehydration and illness, with children the most vulnerable.
Tiếp tục đọc “Gaza and Israel: The cost of war will be counted in children’s lives”Cenk Uygur, a Turkish-American political commentator and media host. He is the creator of The Young Turks
“We have to have two state solution immediately. I’m asking Israeli not out of hate….So many of my friends I grew up with are Jewish. This is not good for them. This is not good for any body. Please look into your hearts. Look. Be the moral that I know you can be. I’ve been to the Passover dinner where you pray for your oppressors. Now I breaks my heart. But I have to tell you, you have to pray for those you’re oppressing. And saying you’re not oppressing them after brutalizing them for 56-long years. You’re kidding yourself. And as a friend and an ally, I’m trying to get you wake up. You can not keep doing this.
CNN.com By Alaa Elassar, CNN Updated 11:38 AM EDT, Mon October 23, 2023
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Jewish peace activists staged a sit-in on Capitol Hill, where they called for an immediate ceasefire in the Israel-Gaza war on October 18.Jim Lo Scalzo/EPA-EFE/ShutterstockCNN —
As Rabbi Alissa Wise scrolls through social media, her feed is littered with videos of dead Palestinian children, parents holding their lifeless bodies with screams caught in their throats and eyes sunken with grief.
Like millions around the world, she has been haunted by the gruesome scenes flooding out of Gaza, where civilians have endured more than two weeks of an Israeli siege and bombing campaign that has collapsed homes, destroyed vital infrastructure and sparked a humanitarian crisis.
The airstrikes have killed more than 4,600 Palestinians so far, including an estimated 1,900 children, and wounded at least 14,000 others, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza. Another 1.4 million people have been internally displaced, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said.
Tiếp tục đọc “‘Not in our name’: Jewish peace activists across the US call for immediate ceasefire and justice for Palestinians”U.N. secretary general: I repeat my call for a humanitarian ceasefire in the Middle East, the unconditional release of all hostages, and the delivery of life-saving supplies at the scale needed. Everyone must assume their responsibilities. This is a moment of truth. History will judge us all.
| UN.org Click here for the PDF version Puede encontrar aquí los números de “Noticias de Acción de las ONG” en español. Priere de trouver ci-joint les bulletins “NGO Action News” en français. للحصول على الترجمة العربية لأنباء عن أعمال المنظمات غير الحكومية، يرجى زيارة هنا Middle East On 25 October, the Institute for Palestine Studies published an article titled “Real Names of Stolen Villages, Illegal Settlements of the Gaza Perimeter,” noting the violent history of the farming communities surrounding Gaza. On 25 October, the BADIL Resource Center for Palestinian Residency and Refugee Rights published an open letter to the UN General Assembly and its member states, calling on them to enforce an unconditional ceasefire, provide unrestricted and unconditional humanitarian aid, prevent additional displacement, and end the blockade on the Gaza Strip. On 24 October, Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association shared a letter sent by the Palestinian Human Rights Organizations Council to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), expressing alarm over the recent deaths of two Palestinian prisoners in Israeli detention, and calling on the ICRC to ensure the safety and well-being of Palestinian prisoners and detainees. On 24 October, Al-Shabaka launched a syllabus titled “Grounding the Current Moment – An Al-Shabaka Syllabus,” which contains publications, webinars and podcasts that provide context to better understand the current situation in Gaza. Tiếp tục đọc “United Nations Committee on the Exercise of theInalienable Rights of the Palestinian People NGO ACTION NEWS – 26 October 2023” |
Gaza Teen Describes What Life For Her & Other Children Is Like Right Now. Sara Besasio, a 16-year-old who grew up in Gaza. Sara said she’s lived through 7 major Israeli military operations in her lifetime. She called on the global community to answer why kids like her have to suffer so much merely for growing up in Gaza.
webmd.com Medically Reviewed by Poonam Sachdev on November 10, 2022 Written by Amber Felton
“It’s important to note that being intersex is not a disease, disorder, or condition…It’s estimated that around 2% of individuals worldwide fit into the intersex category”
So, what is intersex?
Intersex is an umbrella term used to categorize various reproductive and sexual anatomy differences that don’t fit the usual male or female definitions. In short, intersex individuals may have chromosomes, genitals, or internal reproductive organs that don’t fit into the typical male or female category or may possess characteristics of both male and female sexes.
Intersex, by definition, is when someone generally appears to be one sex but has the dominant anatomy of the other sex or when someone is born in between the typical male and female sexes. An example of this would be a female-presenting person having mostly male anatomy. Another example of someone born intersex is someone born with an in-between presentation of male and female genitals, such as someone born with a larger-than-usual clitoris and without a vaginal opening or someone who has been born with a scrotum that is divided into a labia-like form. A person may also be born with mosaic genetics or cells with XX and XY chromosomes.
While intersex is usually detected and assigned at birth, intersex anatomy isn’t always present then. Sometimes a person must reach the age of puberty before discovering they’re intersex. Some people may not even discover that they’re intersex until adulthood, when they discover that they’re infertile. In rare instances, intersex people are only diagnosed after they have passed away and are discovered through an autopsy.
Tiếp tục đọc “What Is Intersex? What cause it? Treatment options?”
A new Europol report has found that 70% of criminal enterprises are utilizing money laundering techniques to hide wealth and garner assets, outpacing authorities who are struggling to uncover their crimes.
By Eve Sampson September 26, 2023
Criminal networks in Europe are increasingly mixing illicit finances with seemingly legal businesses, and exploiting new technology to grow their operations and launder money faster than authorities can keep up, a new Europol report revealed.
Nearly 70% of criminal elements operating in the European Union use money-laundering techniques to garner revenue and hide assets, degrading the region’s financial stability and impeding its economic growth, according to the European Financial and Economic Crime Threat Assessment report released last week by the EU’s law enforcement arm, Europol. The increasing speed of deception is outpacing authorities which are struggling to uncover and prosecute financial crimes.
Though trade and technology have connected a globalized world, criminals are increasingly using modern advances to profit, Catherine De Bolle, the executive director of Europol, wrote in the report.
“Organised crime has built a parallel global criminal economic and financial system around money laundering, illicit financial transfers and corruption,” De Bolle said. “The ability to launder illicit proceeds on an industrial scale, to move them through a web of criminal financial brokers, and to corrupt the relevant actors, has become indispensable for modern organised crime.”
Tiếp tục đọc “Money-laundering criminals are adapting to new technology faster than authorities can keep up, EU report says”
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