The UN rights chief,  Michelle Bachelet told the opening of the UN Human Rights Council’s 47th session, “To recover from the most wide-reaching and severe cascade of human rights setbacks in our lifetimes, we need a life-changing vision and concerted action.” 

Bachelet said she was deeply disturbed by reports of “serious violations” in Tigray, racked by war and with about 350,000 people threatened by famine. She pointed to “extrajudicial executions, arbitrary arrests and detentions, sexual violence against children as well as adults,” and said she had “credible reports” that Eritrean soldiers were still operating in the region. Other parts of Ethiopia, which held elections on Monday, were also seeing “alarming incidents of deadly ethnic and inter-communal violence and displacement”, Bachelet said.

“The ongoing deployment of military forces is not a durable solution,” she said.

Bachelet also decried the situation in northern Mozambique, ravaged by recent deadly jihadist violence, where she said food insecurity was rising and “almost 800,000 people, including 364,000 children” had now been forced to flee their homes.

She  also pointed to the “chilling impact” of a sweeping national security law introduced in Hong Kong. The law, which took effect on the eve of 1 July, 2020, is seen as the spear tip of a sweeping crackdown on Beijing’s critics in the semi-autonomous city of Hong Kong following 2019’s huge democracy protests. It has criminalised much dissent, given China jurisdiction over some cases and awarded authorities powerful new investigative powers. She also pointed to “reports of serious human rights violations” in China’s Xinjiang region, and said she hoped Beijing would grant her a long-discussed visit there, including “meaningful access” this year. At least one million Uyghurs and other mostly Muslim minorities have been held in camps, according to rights groups.

Bachelet also criticised recent measures by the Kremlin shrinking the space for opposing political views and access to participation in September elections. She highlighted the recent moves to dismantle the movement of jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny. Barring his organisations from working in the country, a Moscow court earlier this month branded them as “extremist” in a ruling Bachelet said was “based on vaguely defined allegations of attempting to change the foundations of constitutional order”. Putin, has signed legislation outlawing staff, members and sponsors of “extremist” groups from running in parliamentary elections.

“I call on Russia to uphold civil and political rights,” Bachelet said.

UN warns of worst ‘cascade of human rights setbacks in our lifetimes’ | United Nations | The Guardian

 Combining solar power and microbes could produce 10 times more protein than crops such as soya beans, according to a new study at the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Plant Physiology in Potsdam, Germany, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America

The concept uses electricity from solar panels and carbon dioxide from the air to create fuel for microbes, which are grown in bioreactor vats and then processed into dry protein powders. The process makes highly efficient use of land, water and fertiliser and could be deployed anywhere, not just in countries with strong sunshine or fertile soils, the scientists said. Microbes are already used to make many common foods, such as bread, yoghurt, beer and Quorn. At least a dozen companies are already producing animal feed from microbes but the bacteria are typically fed either sugars from other crops or methane or methanol from fossil fuels. Solar Foods, based in Finland, is using electricity to create food for humans.

Dorian Leger who led the new analysis, said: “We think microbial foods are very promising and will be one of the major contributors to solving the potential food crisis. It might pick up quite quickly on the consumer side, but it’s hard to say. “But I do some exercise, and if I was offered a bacterial protein shake now, I would have it.”

The team focused on soya beans, as these are linked to the destruction of forests and are mostly fed to animals, but other bacteria produce the main elements of palm oil.

 “Bacteria are very flexible, so they could eventually be tuned to different products,” Leger said.

The new assessment is the first quantitative comparison of land use and energy efficiency between traditional agriculture and solar-powered microbial production systems. The researchers used data on today’s technologies to calculate the efficiency of each step of the process, including capturing CO2 from the air and processing the microbes into food that people could eat. They found the microbial system used just 1% of the water needed by the crops and a small fraction of the fertiliser, most of which is wasted when used in fields.

The analysis estimated that the solar-microbial process could produce 15 tonnes of protein from each hectare (or per 2.5 acres) a year, enough to feed 520 people, which the scientists said was a conservative estimate. In comparison, a hectare of soya beans could produce 1.1 tonnes of protein, feeding 40 people. Even in countries with relatively low sunlight levels like the UK, microbial protein production was at least five times greater from each hectare than plants. The microbial protein would cost about the same as current proteins eaten by people, such as whey or pea, the researchers suggested. But it was several times more expensive than current animal feeds, although future technological improvements are expected to lower costs.

Leger said plants’ ability to photosynthesise is remarkable but, in terms of energy efficiency, staple crops only convert about 1% of solar energy into edible biomass. This is because plants have evolved to compete and reproduce as well as just grow, and use less of the solar light spectrum than photovoltaic panels. All the components of the system exist, but Leger said they now need to be tested together and at scale, in particular the capturing of CO2 from the air and ensuring that used solar panels can be recycled. “For human food, there’s also a lot of regulation that needs to be overcome,” he said.

Pete Iannetta, at the James Hutton Institute in Scotland, said: ““It’s a really interesting concept – you are divorcing food production from land use, which would mean you could have all that land available for rewilding.” But he said food is not only composed of the main nutrients, like protein and carbohydrate: “There are an awful lot of secondary compounds that are important for your wellbeing.” Iannetta also questioned whether microbial foods would become mainstream: “For example, we have used algae for a long time as a potential food resource, but it’s still not widely accepted.”

Microbes and solar power ‘could produce 10 times more food than plants’ | Food | The Guardian

  Biden will meet the chief of the European Union’s executive, Ursula von der Leyen, and European Council President Charles Michel. The meeting marks the return of EU-US collaboration on fighting climate change. The United States and EU are the world’s second and third-biggest emitters of CO2, respectively, after China. A draft of their summit statement, seen by Reuters, outlines plans for a transatlantic alliance to develop green technologies and points to sustainable finance as an area for closer transatlantic collaboration.

It did not include firm promises of cash. It also stopped short of setting a date for the United States and EU to quit burning coal, the most polluting fossil fuel and the single biggest of greenhouse gas emissions.

Australia’s reliance on coal-fired power makes it one of the world’s largest carbon emitters per capita, but its conservative government has steadfastly backed the country’s fossil fuel industries. Australia has refused to budge from its Paris Agreement commitment to cut its greenhouse gas emissions by 26% to 28% from 2005 levels by 2030.

  More than 8,500 children were used as soldiers last year in various conflicts across the world and nearly 2,700 others were killed, the United Nations said in the UN chief Antonio Guterres’ annual report to the Security Council on children and armed conflict covers the killing, maiming and sexual abuse of children, abduction or recruitment, denial of aid access and targeting of schools and hospitals.

 Violations had been committed against 19,379 children in 21 conflicts. Most violations in 2020 were committed in Somalia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Afghanistan, Syria and Yemen.

More than 8,500 children were used as soldiers in 2020, United Nations says – National | Globalnews.ca

19 percent of US households had medical debt in 2017, according to a US Census Bureau report released in April, and the median amount owed was $2,000 for those who were fully insured and $3,000 for those who were not.

9 percent of people with health insurance reported they had declared bankruptcy due to medical bills at some point, with 2 percent doing so in the last year. This equates to some 530,000 people filing for bankruptcy in the US every year.

Infant loss in the US is not uncommon: each year, more than 21,000 children die before their first birthday, and birth defects, preterm birth, maternal pregnancy complications, Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) and injuries such as suffocation are the main causes, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

About 24,000 babies are stillborn each year – dying after 20 weeks’ gestation, according to the CDC. People of colour are disproportionately affected by both tragedies – the infant mortality rate and the stillbirth rate for Black Americans is more than double that of white Americans.

In the US, there is no paid leave provision for parents following the death of a child. India has offered women who experience miscarriage or stillbirth up to six weeks of paid leave since 1961.  New Zealand had become the second country to guarantee mothers and their partners three paid days off from work after a miscarriage or stillbirth. 

The cruel financial cost of losing a child in the US | US & Canada | Al Jazeera

 Despite all those seemingly altruistic promises from the wealthier nations to donate vaccines, many nearing their expiry dates, WHO senior adviser Dr Bruce Aylward said this was nowhere near enough to protect populations from a virus still spreading worldwide.

The Covax vaccine sharing programme had delivered 90 million doses to 131 countries. Only 40 million doses have been administered so far in Africa – less than 2% of the population.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa called for an end to vaccine hoarding by wealthier countries as shortages come as some nations in Africa see the third wave of infections.

 Biden said he was committed to shipping 80 million COVID-19 vaccine doses abroad by the end of June but fewer than 10 million doses have been shipped around the world.

  A network of centers run by Libya’s Department for Combating Illegal Immigration, or DCIM,  is supported by the European Union as a bulwark against mainly African migrants crossing the Mediterranean Sea.

Human rights groups and U.N. agencies say abuse also takes place in the official DCIM-run facilities.

“Sexual violence and exploitation are rife in several detention centers (for migrants) across the country,” said Tarik Lamloum, a Libyan activist working with the Belaady Organization for Human Rights. 

The U.N. refugee agency has documented hundreds of cases of women raped while in either DCIM detention or traffickers’ prisons, with some even being impregnated by guards and giving birth during detention, said Vincent Cochetel, the agency’s special envoy for the Central Mediterranean. 

At least two of the girls attempted to kill themselves in late May following alleged beatings and attempted rapes, according to local rights group Libyan Crime Watch and U.N. agencies.

When Libyan security forces rescued her earlier this year, the young Somali woman thought it would be the end of her suffering. For more than two years, she had been imprisoned and sexually abused by human traffickers notorious for extorting, torturing and assaulting migrants like her trying to reach Europe. Instead, the 17-year-old said, the sexual assaults against her have continued, only now by guards atthe Shara al-Zawiya detention center,  the government-run center in the Libyan capital Tripoli where they are being kept. 

“While it is not the first time I suffer from sexual attacks, this is more painful as it was by the people who should protect us,” the 17-year-old said, speaking to The Associated Press by a smuggled mobile phone. “You have to offer something in return to go to the bathroom, to call family or to avoid beating,” she said. “It’s like we are being held by traffickers.” 

Nearly 13,000 men, women and children have been intercepted by the Libyan Coast Guard and returned to Libyan shores from the start of the year up to June 12, a record number. Most are then placed in DCIM-run centers. At some of the 29 DCIM-run centers around the country, rights groups have documented a lack of basic hygiene, health care, food and water as well as beatings and torture. DCIM receives support, supplies and training, including on human rights, through the EU’s 4.9 billion-euro Trust Fund for Africa.

“The guns are silent, a cease-fire is in place … but human rights violations are continuing unabated,” said Suki Nagra, representative of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in Libya.

Libyan guards accused of sexually assaulting minors (apnews.com)

 Patricia Espinosa, who leads the UN on climate policy, told the Observer that progress had not been made on honouring past commitments to find $100bn (£72.5bn) a year to help developing countries invest in green technologies.

“We’re still very far away from being fully confident of having a full success at Cop26,” she said.  Espinosa expressed disappointment, saying: “Regarding finance, I’d have really hoped for a clearer signal on how and when we will be able to see the commitment to mobilise the $100bn fulfilled.”

At the G7, there was a lack of detail about precisely how much money wealthier nations would be willing to give to cut emissions and take costly steps necessary to reduce their reliance on fossil fuels.

“This is one condition to be able to have a good basis to have a successful Cop26,” Espinosa said. “It is essential. We cannot afford a lack of success. Cop26 should be able to give some sense of hope to the world. There isn’t much time. We are already in the second half of June.”

Rachel Kyte, dean of the Fletcher School at Tufts University in Massachusetts, and a former UN climate envoy explained, “The G7 failed to lead when it didn’t agree how to fulfil the $100bn promise. Their apparent strategy of brinkmanship is wrong-headed. Many around the world are already at the brink.”