As Syria approaches the 10-year mark in its civil war next month, the United Nations says the nation’s youngest generation is suffering most, as millions of children suffer malnourishment, stunted growth, and a lack of schooling. “More than half a million children under 5 in Syria suffer from stunting as a result of chronic malnutrition, according to our latest assessments,” U.N. Humanitarian Chief Mark Lowcock said Thursday in his monthly briefing to the Security Council on the situation. “We fear this number will increase,” he said. Lowcock said stunting is especially bad in the northwest and the northeast of the country, where data show that in some areas, up to one in three children suffers from impaired growth and development due to poor nutrition and recurrent illnesses. The effects of stunting are irreversible. Last week, Lowcock spoke with a group of Syrian doctors. At one pediatric hospital, the physicians said malnourished children occupy half of the facility’s 80 beds. In the past two months, five children have died from malnutrition. “Another pediatrician told me that she diagnoses malnutrition in up to 20 children a day,” Lowcock said. “But parents are bringing their children to her for completely different reasons, unaware that they are suffering from malnutrition. Malnutrition, she said, has become so normal that parents cannot spot the signs in their own children.” Neglect Drives Child Labor in Syria Millions of displaced Syrian children work difficult, dangerous jobs just to survive Robbed of childhoods In a decade of war, Syria’s youngest citizens have known nothing but conflict and suffering. They are among the millions of internally displaced and refugees; young girls have been married off in their teens, and boys have been recruited to fight. Children have been physically and psychologically wounded from the violence of war — both perpetrated on them and in front of them. Thousands have been killed. ...
The civil war
Whitney Young Jr.: An unsung hero of the civil rights movement
close Video America Together - Black History Month - Family of Whitney M. Young Jr. Whitney Young Jr. may not be as well-known as some of the towering figures of the civil rights movement, but he had just as much impact, if not more. While the 1960s raged with unrest, riots and protests, Young, as head of the National Urban League, took the battle to corporate boardrooms and civic meetings. He was one of the era's unsung heroes: a bridge builder. "He preferred to diffuse situations using humor to find common ground," his daughter Dr. Marcia Cantarella said. BEN WATSON: BLACK HISTORY MONTH – FAMILY AND FAITH CONTINUE TO INSPIRE, SUSTAIN AFRICAN AMERICANS In an interview with Fox News as part of Black History Month, Cantarella talked about how her father worked with former President Lyndon B. Johnson crafting the War on Poverty bill. It was like two buddies getting together. "I'm absolutely sure that he sat with Lyndon Johnson, they told a couple of jokes. They had a shot of bourbon. And they did the work," she said. Young's legacy lives on in his daughter. Cantarella is a corporate executive who later became an associate dean at Princeton University. She considers herself fortunate being born into a family where the focus was always on excellence and high achievement. It's a philosophy Young worked to disperse throughout the entire Black community from the very beginning. SELMA'S 'BLOODY SUNDAY': WHAT TO KNOW ABOUT THE MARCH FOR CIVIL RIGHTS Cantarella, one of Young's two daughters, was born in Minneapolis where her father honed his skills as a powerbroker. Hubert Humphrey was then the mayor of Minneapolis and would later become vice president under Johnson. Young led the local Urban League in the city and as an example of how he preferred a quiet factual approach to change, he studied foot the traffic of African Americans in the major department store. He presented a cost-benefit ...
‘How Racist Is That?’: Larry Elder Slams Obama For Saying ‘White Resistance’ Blocked Slavery Reparations
Broadcaster Larry Elder asked Friday “how racist is that” for former President Barack Obama to say he didn’t push for slavery reparations because of “white resistance.” During a podcast with Springsteen, “Renegades: Born in the USA,” Obama said that he believes reparations are “justified.” (RELATED: Biden Supports Slavery Reparations Study, Wants Immediate Action On ‘Institutional Racism’) “Are reparations justified? The answer is yes, the politics of white resistance and resentment made the prospect of actually proposing any kind of coherent meaningful reparation’s program, not only a non-starter but potentially counterproductive,” Obama said. WATCH: Elder defined reparations as “the extraction of money from people who were never slave owners to be given to people who were never slaves,” during the interview. “Four years ago, Obama pretty much said that, he said it would be impractical, divisive and what about the people who felt they never had anything to do with slaves. Fast-forward, now he tells Bruce Springsteen that reparations are justified — and they are justified to the slaves themselves,” he continued. “Slavery ended over a century and a half ago. Good luck finding slaves right now and their legal owners. It is absolutely ridiculous.” Elder also said he finds Obama “to be a particularly bizarre vessel to carry the message. This is a biracial man whose dad is from Kenya, mom is from Kansas, her family owned slaves … Does Obama cut a check or does he get a check?” he asked. The broadcaster noted that “there are no slave owners right now” and it would be “just so divisive” to try to figure who owes and whom is owed money. Elder suggested that Obama is only raising the issue of reparations now because “he wants to remain relevant” and has been left behind by the more radical elements in the Democratic Party like “the squad.” “He has to step up and grab these ridiculous, divisive issues that four years ago he thought ...
Papua New Guinea’s Michael Somare, ‘Father of the Nation,’ Dies at 84
SYDNEY - Papua New Guinea's first prime minister, Michael Somare, has died at 84, his daughter said Friday. Known as the "father of the nation," Somare led the Pacific archipelago to independence from Australia in 1975 and served four times as prime minister. He had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in early February, his daughter, Betha Somare, said in a statement. She said many Papua New Guineans had embraced her father as their own "father and grandfather." Before independence, Somare was the chief minister of the Australian-administered territory of Papua New Guinea. He most recently served as the country's leader briefly in 2011. PNG is a mountainous and sprawling nation rich in resources and minerals, including oil and gas and gold and copper. Linguistically diverse, it is one of the largest island economies in the South Pacific, although it has faced economic hardship and internal conflict, most notably during the decade-long civil war in the region of Bougainville that claimed as many as 20,000 lives before ending in 1998. PNG Prime Minister James Marape said the former leader was now at rest from the "pain and toils of life." "Our nation honors this great leader, the founding and longest serving prime minister of our country," Marape said in a statement, appealing for a week of silence, peace and calm as the country pays its respects. "He is unmatched by anyone of us who comes after him," he added. Australia's Prime Minister Scott Morrison wrote in a tweet on Friday that Somare was the founding father of a democratic and independent PNG and "great friend" to Australia. ...
The $15 Minimum-Wage Debate Clarifies the Partisan Economic Divide
Republican “populists” are on the wrong side of this fight. Photo: J Scott Applewhite/AP/Shutterstock For many left-wing pundits, America’s partisan divide in 2021 is defined by its lack of a strong material basis . After all, a voter’s income level tells you less about her political allegiances today than it has for most of our nation’s modern history . In 2020, some of the wealthiest Zip Codes in the United States backed the party of organized labor by a landslide margin, while some of the poorest broke overwhelmingly for the party of libertarian billionaires. The ties that bind blue America’s tech entrepreneurs to its nonwhite gig workers — or red America’s oil barons to its white rural poor — are those of culture , not economics. Democrats stand for a multiethnic conception of American identity, secularism, cosmopolitanism, racial justice, and gender equality; Republicans, for a normatively white and Christian America, the patriarchal family, and zero-sum nationalism. In geographic terms, these divisions cleave the nation less by region than by density : All across the country, navy-blue urban cores fade into baby-blue inner-ring suburbs, red-violet exurbs and deep-red countryside. This “culture war trumps all” thesis elides many nuances. For one thing, the prominence of zero-sum nationalism in factory towns decimated by globalization surely cannot be attributed to culture alone. For another, a large segment of nonwhite Democrats espouse right-of-center views on immigration and gender, and thus, vote less on the basis of cultural attitudes than some combination of communal bonds, historical memory, and economic interest. Nevertheless, if liberals’ culturalist account of America’s political divide has its flaws, the “populist” right’s efforts to cast the conflict between red and blue in strictly materialist terms — with Republicans representing the interests of blue-collar workers in the heartland, and Democrats of cosseted professionals in ...
