October 2023 - Career Meaning

Amazon, DoorDash, Walmart, trapping workers in poverty: UN rights expert

In separate letters to Amazon CEO Andy Jassy, DoorDash CEO Tony Xu and Walmart CEO Doug McMillon, the UN-appointed independent expert on extreme poverty and human rights, Olivier De Schutter, requested a response to reports of inadequate pay, aggressive union-busting tactics, and the misclassification of workers as “independent contractors”, intentionally depriving them of traditional employment benefits such as…

Toll of Israel-Palestine crisis on children ‘beyond devastating’

UN relief chief Martin Griffiths, who has been visiting Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory, spoke to families in Gaza over the phone from east Jerusalem on Tuesday and said that what they have endured since the start of Israel’s retaliation for Hamas’ deadly 7 October attacks is “beyond devastating”. “When an eight-year-old tells you…

World News in Brief: ICC slams ‘unacceptable threats’, DR Congo displacement, UNEP ‘Champions of the Earth’

ICC President Piotr Hofmański was presenting the independent court’s annual report to the UN in New York. The ICC was established in July 2002 under a treaty known as the Rome Statute and is based in The Hague, in the Netherlands. Mr. Hofmański noted that he himself, along with Prosecutor Karim Khan was on the list, which…

‘Stop the madness’ of climate change, UN chief declares

Nepal has lost almost a third of its ice volume in 30 years, with glaciers melting 65 per cent faster in the last decade than in the previous one. “The rooftops of the world are caving in,” the UN chief said, warning that the “disappearance of glaciers altogether” looms even larger. “Glaciers are icy reservoirs…

Gaza hospitals hanging on by a thread: UN humanitarians

The vicinities of Shifa and Al Quds hospitals in Gaza city and of the Indonesian hospital in northern Gaza, have been bombarded over the weekend, UN humanitarian affairs coordination office OCHA said. “This followed renewed calls by the Israeli military to evacuate these facilities immediately,” OCHA added. Relief chief: Protect civilians ‘wherever they are’ “Palestinian…

Tackling climate mis/disinformation: ‘An urgent frontier for action’

Scientists agree that climate change is real and is caused by unsustainable human activity such as the burning of fossil fuels, yet certain actors continue to spread mis- and disinformation, creating harmful misperceptions that can stifle effective climate action. Climate action is one of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals. In a discussion Tackling mis/dis-information: An urgent…

Thousands in Gaza storm UN warehouses; a sign of desperation after weeks-long ‘siege’

The United Nations agency dealing with Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, and the UN World Foord Programme (WFP) were among the humanitarian organizations reporting the incidents, which follow a harrowing 24-hour communication blackout and persistent access challenges. One of the warehouses that was stormed, in Deir al-Balah, is where UNRWA stores supplies from the humanitarian convoys coming…

Israel-Palestine crisis has ‘reached an unprecedented level of dehumanisation’: Independent rights expert

In an interview with UN News, UN Human Rights Council-appointed expert Francesca Albanese, said it was “impossible to describe the pain and suffering that Israelis are going through because of what happened to them…because there are not only those who were killed, those who were taken hostage, but there is an entire population that was…

Situation in Gaza ‘growing more desperate by the hour’, says UN chief Guterres

The UN chief’s visit comes as the crisis in the Gaza Strip enters its third week following the 7 October incursion by Hamas militants into Israel and Israel’s subsequent declaration of war. Late last week the UN adopted a resolution calling for a humanitarian truce, but the past few days have seen heavy bombardment and…

Explainer: Fighting for facts amid crisis in Israel and Gaza

Harmful disinformation about the ongoing conflict in the wake of the 7 October attacks by Hamas against Israel continues to circulate online, with potentially dangerous consequences on the ground. While misinformation refers to the accidental spread of falsehoods, disinformation can be circulated intentionally by State or non-State actors, including during an armed conflict, to influence…