Maternal Deaths per 100,000 Births, by State Abortion Policy, 2018-2020. Maternal death rates were 62 percent higher in 2020 in abortion-restriction states than in abortion-access states (28.8 vs. 17.8 per 100,000 births). Notably, across the three years presented in this graph, the maternal mortality rate was increasing nearly twice as fast in states with abortion restrictions. Graphic: Commonwealth Fund

The U.S. maternal health divide: The limited maternal health services and worse outcomes of states proposing new abortion restrictions

By Eugene Declercq, Ruby Barnard-Mayers, Laurie Zephyrin, and Kay Johnson 14 December 2022 (Commonwealth Fund) – In anticipation of a U.S. Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade, a number of states passed “trigger laws” that would ban all, or nearly all, abortions once national abortion protections ended. In the months since the Court’s ruling in Dobbs […]

Prevalence of undernourishment (left axis) and number of undernourished people (right axis), 2005-2021. World hunger rose further in 2021, following a sharp upturn in 2020 in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. The persistence of the pandemic and its enduring consequences, which exacerbated existing inequalities, have contributed to further setbacks in 2021 toward achievement of the Zero Hunger target by 2030. Between 702 and 828 million people in the world faced hunger in 2021. Considering the middle of the projected range (768 million), hunger affected 46 million more people in 2021 compared to 2020, and a total of 150 million more people since 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic. Graphic: FAO

UN report: World hunger rose again in 2021, with 2.3 billion people severely or moderately hungry – “This year’s report should dispel any lingering doubts that the world is moving backward in its efforts to end hunger”

By Edith M. Lederer 6 July 2022 UNITED NATIONS (AP) – World hunger rose in 2021, with around 2.3 billion people facing moderate or severe difficulty obtaining enough to eat — and that was before the Ukraine war, which has sparked increases in the cost of grain, fertilizer and energy, according to a U.N. report […]

SDG Indicator 16.1.1 Detected victims of intentional homicide, by sex (women) vs. SDG Indicator 1.5.1 Number of people affected by disaster. Research shows that violence against women and girls increases in the aftermath of disasters. At the extreme end of the scale, this takes the form of intentional homicides. Data: United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs analysis based on Global Sustainable Development Goal Indicators Database (UN DESA, 2021). Graphic: UNDRR

Humanity entering “spiral of self-destruction”, UN warns – “By deliberately ignoring risk and failing to integrate it in decision making, the world is effectively bankrolling its own destruction”

26 April 2022 (France 24) – Humanity is suffering from a “broken perception of risk”, spurring us into activities and behaviours that cause climate change and a surging number of disasters around the globe, the UN warned Tuesday. In a fresh report, the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction, or UNDRR, found that between 350 and […]

Kaspersky Cyberthreat Real-time Map on 28 March 2021, showing Russia, Europe, and the Americas. Video: Kaspersky

The internet has become a tool for authoritarian repression – “You name it, this affects every industry”

By A. Tarantola 26 March 2021 (Engadget) – The internet was supposed to set us free. Yet in the past two decades, authoritarian regimes have quickly adapted long-held tactics to the digital age, leveraging social mechanisms and mores to maintain their grip on captive populaces. While the internet and social media revolutions may have empowered […]

Number of women murdered in Mexico, 2016-2019. In 2019, 1,006 women were victims of femicide – 580 more than in 2015. Data: Executive Secretariat of the National System of Public Safety (SESNSP). Graphic: The Guardian

Thousands of Mexican women strike to protest femicide – “Every day we have more evidence that they are killing us specifically for being women”

By Maya Averbuch 9 March 2020 MEXICO CITY (The Guardian) – As rush-hour began on Monday morning, there were no ticket-sellers in Mexico City subway stations. Nor were there female tellers at many of the banks. Nail salons, massage parlors, and hairdressers closed. And in cities across the country, far fewer women were on the […]

Marine biologist Ayana Elizabeth Johnson. When asked about abrupt clikmate change, she says that we’re witnessing an exciting “feminist climate renaissance”. Photo: Violetta Markelou / Huffington Post

We spoke to five climate experts about what gives them hope – “I have a tenuous relationship with hope these days, but I am certainly bolstered by the fact that we already have all the solutions we need”

By Kyla Mandel 26 December 2019 (Huffington Post) – This year comes to a close after an onslaught of bleak and terrifying revelations about the state of our planet. Glaciers are melting, species are dying, forests are burning and climate tipping points ― thresholds which, if breached, will usher in uncontrollable warming ― are about […]

The geographic breakdown of each percentile of the global distribution of income evolved, 1990-2016. In 1990, 33 percent of the population of the world’s top 0.001 percent income group were residents of the United States and Canada. In 2016, 5 percent of the population of the world’s top 0.001 percent income group were residents of the Russian Federation. Data: Alvaredo, et al., 2018, based on data from the World Inequality Database http://WID.world. Graphic: UNDP

2019 Human Development Report says unchecked inequality growth may trigger a “new great divergence” in society not seen since the Industrial Revolution – “This is the new face of inequality”

BOGOTÁ, 9 December 2019 – The demonstrations sweeping across the world today signal that, despite unprecedented progress against poverty, hunger, and disease, many societies are not working as they should. The connecting thread, argues a new report from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), is inequality. “Different triggers are bringing people onto the streets — […]

A resident of Lighthouse, an informal settlement in Chennai, carries a water pot back to her house in August 2019. “It is part of India’s social culture that the woman looks after everything related to the household. Collecting water and then carrying it up to the family’s apartment is, unfortunately, her burden,” said Krishna Mohan, chief resilience officer at 100 Resilient Cities (100RC), a non-profit organisation. Photo: Tim Daubach / Eco-Business

Parched lives on the fringe: How water scarcity has widened inequality in Chennai – “If you are innocent and weak, you will never get water”

By Tim Daubach 18 September 2019 (Eco-Business) – Weary from long hours spent waiting for water, S. Kumari, 54, rests in the shade to escape the searing, relentless heat. An engine roars to life nearby as the tanker that just delivered water to her drought-stricken neighbourhood M.S. Nagar, an informal settlement in the locality of […]

Images of models portraying women who have been abused, at a demonstration opposing violence against women on Copacabana beach on 6 June 2016 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Photo: CNN

Study finds four girls are raped every hour in Brazil, femicides increased in 2018 – Fears that President Jair Bolsonaro’s open misogyny will worsen violence – “Brazil is still one of the most dangerous places in the world for women”

By Helena Cavendish de Moura and Julia Hollingsworth 11 September 2019 (CNN) – In Brazil, four girls under 13 are raped every hour and every two minutes police receive a report of violence against women. Those are just two of the findings from a new study released Tuesday by non-governmental organization Brazilian Forum of Public Security, which […]

Human-rights experts: Political incitement to violence against journalists is “toxic” – One journalist is killed every four days, and most killers go unpunished

31 October 2018 (UN News) – A group of independent, UN-appointed human rights experts have called on world leaders to stop inciting hatred and violence against the media, citing the hundreds of journalists killed or forcibly detained because of their work, and ensure that those responsible are held accountable. On Wednesday, the experts, including David […]

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