by Larry Powell Is the potent "trio" of war,  climate change and religion taking a toll on the world’s most vulnerable? Famine, drought and food insecurity have plagued Yemen, the poorest country in the Arab world, even before the outbreak of open warfare there in 2015. Since then, thousands have died in the conflict. Millions more face famine and imminent death from drought and starvation. Saudi Arabia has been bombing its little neighbour for some time now, in a conflict fed by sectarian hatred. Some of it has to do with which of the warring factions within the country believe in which branch of Islam, Sunni or Shi'ite. (Or which subdivision of which branch.)  As in much of the rest of the world, religion and war are paramount - at the pinnacle of what it apparently means to be "human."  This photo depicts a Yemeni fighter praying (in the 1960s.) Photo by  Dr. Ulrich Middendrop But the World Health Organization (a branch of the UN) says the w

UN News Centre Millions of children are on the brink of starvation in the worst humanitarian crisis in decades, the United Nations Children's Fund ( UNICEF ) has warned.  Story here.

UN News Centre   Refugee children in Afghanistan. UN photo. Despite significant progress, too many children are still being left behind, with nearly 535 million of them living in harsh conditions, lacking access to decent health, education and protection services. Story here.

The Washington Post The United Nations Environment Programme is highlighting the battle by Iraqi forces to reclaim Mosul from the Islamic State as the latest instance in the complex but very real linkage between military conflicts around the world and extreme environmental degradation. Story here.

by Larry Powell Many of us would be surprised to hear that climate change actually played a role in the civil war in Syria, that disastrous conflict that has dragged on for five weary years now. But that’s precisely what the prestigious National Academy of Sciences in the US concluded in a report last year. A terrible drought ravaged that country for at least four years before the war began. It wiped out crops, forcing farm families into urban centres in a mass migration that greatly increased internal tensions. Keep in mind, Syria was already a country rife with poor governance and unsustainable farming and environmental policies.  Now, using evidence from tree rings covering the past thousand years, the Earth Institute at Columbia University has added some new perspectives. In a study just published in the “Journal of Geophysical Research,” it concludes with confidence, not only was this drought aggravated by our burning of fossil fuels, it was likely the worst in 900 ye

CommonDreams The U.S. is poised to repeat all the same mistakes in Syria that it made in Iraq after 9/11, says former head of Defense Intelligence Agency. Story here.

GENEVA - The World Health Organization (WHO) deplores the bombing of a clinic run by Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) in Kunduz, Afghanistan, and extends its sincere condolences to the families and colleagues of those killed and injured. This represents a major loss for MSF and the affected community - to whom WHO offers its sympathy and support - and a serious challenge to humanitarian work in Afghanistan.

Chris Hedges Those who use violence to shape the world, as we have done in the Middle East, unleash a whirlwind. Our initial alliances -- achieved at the cost of hundreds of thousands of dead, some $3 trillion in expenditures and the ravaging of infrastructure across the region -- have been turned upside down by the cataclysm of violence. Thirteen years of war, and the rise of enemies we did not expect, have transformed Hezbollah fighters inside Syria, along with Iran, into our tacit allies. Story here.

Buffy Sainte-Marie talks about and sings "Universal Soldier." Video