NGO: 2,390 deaths on migrant routes to Spain in 2022
MADRID—A Spanish nonprofit organization said Jan. 18 that the number of migrants who died or were reported missing while trying to reach Spain was 2,390 last year, a decrease in 2021 but in line with the past five years. Caminando Fronteras (Walking Borders) said that the figure included 288 women and 101 children. Some 1,784 of the migrants died while trying...
UK crisis: Nurses stage new strikes over low pay as health service creaks
Nurses across England have launched a new round of strikes over low pay in an already disrupted public health services as inflation skyrockets. “We take strike action with a heavy, heavy heart but a clear mind about what we want to achieve,” said nurse Anna Swift before joining a picket line in central London. “It’s time to take some action...
U.S. responds to China foreign minister’s five-country Africa tour
China’s foreign minister’s first trip abroad, like all visits, began with a trip to Africa. It marked the 33rd consecutive year the continent was the destination of Chinese foreign minister’s annual first overseas visit. That trip was followed by a subsequent trip to Africa by the U.S. Treasury Secretary. The new Chinese foreign minister and former Chinese ambassador to the...
Colombia: UN mission to verify rural reform and Indigenous representation in peace process
There are plentiful opportunities ahead for peacebuilding in Colombia, the head of the UN Verification Mission in the country told the Security Council in early January. Carlos Ruiz Massieu welcomed recent government actions on rural reform and greater equality, in line with the 2016 Peace Agreement between the Government and the FARC EP militia group that ended five decades of...
Still no peace: No reconciliation in sight for Palestine and Israel
Prospects for peace between the Zionist occupier state of Israel and the occupied Palestinian people are more distant than ever. A deadly cycle of Israeli aggression, state repression, and slaughter of Palestinians has sparked angry protests. And adding fuel to the tension is a new ultraright government angling to tighten its oppressive reign and denying Palestinians their right to...
Motorbike ambulance saves mothers and babies in Kenya: UNFPA
The hardship being felt across the Horn of Africa by the worst drought in 40 years has left many women weak and malnourished. The UN agency dedicated to women’s sexual and reproductive health, UNPA, is helping save mothers’ lives in Kenya, through the donation of a simple but effective way of accessing hard-to-reach areas—a motorbike, to enable safe emergency deliveries in hospital. “I cannot...
Black-owned company leads delegation on pilgrimage
MECCA, Saudi Arabia—Muslims from communities across the United States recently spent 10 days traveling from Madinah to Mecca to Cairo with Hajj Pros, the only Black company taking groups to Hajj and Umrah. This was Hajj Pros second Umrah group since the pandemic. The Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad, Eternal Leader of the Nation of Islam, visited the Holy Land, Africa...
Colombia VP says she was targeted with roadside bomb
BOGOTA, Colombia—Colombia’s Vice President said on Jan. 10 that her security team found more than seven kilos of explosives buried next to a rural road that leads to her home in the southwestern province of Cauca. She described the incident as an assassination attempt. Francia Marquez shared a police report on her Twitter account which says a drug-sniffing dog alerted...
Africa and China’s growing alliance and the de-Westernization of the continent
China’s new foreign minister Qin Gang made his first trip abroad January 9-16 to the continent of Africa. His trip comes amid changes in how the continent views the West. It is the decoupling of Western hegemony is how Dr. Tony Monterio describes Africa’s growing dissatisfaction with the U.S.-led Western powers. He told Africa Watch that it was Gang’s first...
President Maduro denounces U.S. policy in Venezuela a ‘failure’
Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro has denounced the U.S. parallel institution policy in his country, calling Washington’s attempt to assault and replace the public institutions of his country a “failure.” Mr. Maduro made the remarks during the opening ceremony of Venezuela’s now-defunct opposition-led National Assembly (NA) session in the new year, according to TeleSurTv website.07 Criticizing the U.S. attempt to shift political powers in his...