livus

livus, 3 days ago

From the aeticle:

Poorer communities are disproportionately affected. Mathare Valley, with roughly 70,000 residents, is just one part of the densely populated “informal settlement” in Nairobi, and people are still reeling from the impact of the flooding two weeks later.

The water supply has been contaminated by open sewers, and the medical humanitarian organisation Médecins Sans Frontières has warned that water- and mosquito-borne diseases such as cholera and malaria are “significant concerns”.

Streets along the settlement are lined with people’s belongings, muddy and battered by the continuing rain. Kalekye’s furniture is waterlogged beyond use, and the loosely held iron sheets are peeling off slowly from the shack’s walls. There is barely anything to salvage from the place she has called home for decades.

“I only have the clothes on my back now, and even these were given to me by the clothing shelter,” Kalekye says, fighting back tears as she stands in the alleyway. Most of her belongings, including important personal documents and a bale of old clothes she bought for resale, were swept away by the water....

The government provides relief items to the area, but rights groups have criticised what they say was a slow response to the disaster, despite warnings from the meteorological department, which predicted last year that the region would experience an El Niño weather pattern through February, triggering extreme conditions.

Ruto ordered government agencies to provide humanitarian support on Friday – including relief food, medical supplies and temporary shelters – and told the military and police to support rescue and evacuation efforts.

The meteorological department has predicted that the heavy rains are expected to continue through May in parts of the country, as the crisis brings new scrutiny to Kenya’s infrastructure and slum housing.

Edna Odhiambo, a climate-action lawyer, says: “We can attribute the intensity [of the rains] to the El Niño phenomenon and climate change, but what we need to separate is the cause and its effects – the havoc we are seeing caused by the floods is a planning problem.”...

More in article.

livus, 3 days ago

@eldavi

i’m going to copy/paste this to the only 2 comments this thread is getting

I don't get why you don't just post it once and then @ everyone you're talking to.

livus, 3 days ago

That would explain it! No worries.

livus, 3 days ago

Reddit also reported a 37% increase in daily active users. I think we all know who those are.

livus, 4 days ago

However, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said that the truce proposal fell short of Israel’s demands and that his war cabinet had approved continuing an operation in Rafah. Netanyahu’s office said Israel would still send a delegation to meet with negotiators to try to reach an agreement. Qatar’s foreign ministry said its delegation would head to Cairo on Tuesday.

One Israeli official said it was unclear exactly which proposal Hamas was accepting, as some of the terms appeared to differ substantially from those shown by mediators to Israel and agreed by the Israeli government last week. “[We] don’t recognise some,” the official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said.

Hundreds of Israelis converged on the main military headquarters in Tel Aviv calling for a deal. Smaller gatherings were reported in Jerusalem and other cities across Israel. “Hamas’s announcement must pave the way for the return of the 132 hostages held captive by Hamas for the past seven months. Now is the time for all that are involved to fulfil their commitment and turn this opportunity into a deal for the return of all the hostages,” a statement from the Hostages and Missing Families Forum said.

US president Joe Biden urged Netanyahu not to launch an offensive in Rafah, the White House said. The leaders’ call occurred before Hamas announced it had accepted a ceasefire proposal. Biden told Netanyahu he still believes reaching a ceasefire with Hamas is the best way to protect the lives of Israeli hostages held in Gaza, officials said.

Biden also hosted King Abdullah II of Jordan for a private lunch meeting at the White House on Monday to discuss the war and hostage talks. Jordan’s embassy in Washington said in a posting on the social media site X following the leaders’ meeting that Abdullah warned that an Israeli operation on Rafah “threatens to lead to a new massacre.”

US officials familiar with the matter said a briefing by Israeli officials last week on a plan to evacuate Palestinian civilians ahead of a potential Rafah operation had not changed the US administration’s view that moving forward with an operation would put too many innocent Palestinian civilians at risk. Pentagon press secretary Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder said defence secretary Lloyd Austin had previously stressed with Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant that Israel needed a “credible plan” to evacuate those civilians.

Separately a US official said the US was “concerned” about Israel’s latest strikes on Rafah, but “does not believe they represent a major military operation,” Reuters reported. US officials are focused on prevent major military operations targeting “densely populated” areas of Rafah, the source added, and that it “does not appear the Israelis are doing that”.

Saudi Arabia reacted furiously to Israel’s Rafah evacuation order, describing Israel’s war in Gaza as a “genocide”. A Saudi foreign ministry statement warned of the “dangers of the Israeli occupation forces targeting the city of Rafah as part of its systematic bloody campaign to storm all areas of the Gaza Strip and displace its residents towards the unknown”.

UN secretary general António Guterres reiterated “my urgent call to the Israeli government & Hamas leadership to come to an agreement & stop the suffering.” In a post on X he said he was “deeply concerned by indications that a large-scale military operation in Rafah may be imminent”.

livus, 4 days ago

Looks really interesting.

In terms of mood does it leave you feeling hopeful by the end, or is it more sombre?

livus, 3 days ago

Thanks, that sounds like a good documentary. Adding it to my list now!

livus, 4 days ago

The first what since India?

Right now there are a number of societies enduring harsh colonization and occupation.

livus, 4 days ago

Text of the ceasefire agreement is online here.

livus, 4 days ago

Well, put it this way, the US still has the American Servicemembers Protection Act in which it authorizes itself for a military invasion of The Hague if the ICC ever tries to indite an American for war crimes.

livus, 4 days ago

Bush pulled us out in 2002.

Her, uh, did a little bit more than that....

livus, 4 days ago

I posted that article as an example to illustrate my point not an overview of the entire topic. It's well researched and quantifies the number of people adversely affected.

I chose it because fewer people know about what Western countries are doing to the sea, than know about China. But since you asked, here's a good article about some of China's predatory fishing practices around poor nations that I posted a few weeks ago.

wouldn’t that be seen as

By whom? I'd love it if the West stopped taking fish from the mouths of poor nations, and so would the millions of people adversely affected by it.

The so called "free market" ideology that if you can legally pay elites for something, you're entitled to take it, has deepened and intrenched global inequality. It has also created grotesque distortions such as food exports from countries in famine.

livus, 4 days ago

Gravel pit of doom.

livus, 3 days ago

That's hilarious!