Between May 15 and June 20, people from all over the world celebrated World Localization Day 2021 with a Local Food Feast, as part of a global campaign with focus on localization and local food economies. Simultaneously, groups, organizations and networks in 29 countries on six continents organized a variety of events, varying from online talks and seminars to face-to-face workshops and festivals, all with focus on local. Learn more here.
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Video Message by António Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations, on World refugee day 2021.
War, violence and persecution have forced more than 80 million people around the world to flee their homes, leaving everything behind to save themselves and their families. Refugees must begin their lives anew. But for so many, the pandemic has wiped out their livelihoods, led to stigmatization and vilification and exposed them disproportionately to the virus. At the same time, refugees once again demonstrated their invaluable contribution to their adoptive societies as essential and frontline workers. We have a duty to help refugees rebuild their lives. COVID-19 has shown us that we can only succeed if we stand together. On World Refugee Day, I call on communities and governments to include refugees – in health care, education, and sport. We heal together when we all get the care we need. We learn together when we are all given the chance to study. We shine together when we play as a team and respect everyone. On World Refugee Day, I commend the countries that have welcomed refugees. But we need more support – from States, the private sector, communities and individuals – if we are to move together towards a more inclusive future, free of discrimination. The refugees I have met have shown me what it means to rebuild your own life while summoning the strength to enrich the lives of others. As High Commissioner for Refugees for 10 years, I was inspired by their courage, resilience and determination. I thank refugees and displaced persons across the world and reiterate my personal admiration for what they have taught us all about the power of hope and healing. This World Refugee Day and every day, we stand together with refugees.
More information: https://www.un.org/en/observances/ref…
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A dangerous heat wave is set to scorch a large part of the country this week. CBS News meteorologist and climate specialist Jeff Berardelli has the forecast.
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CBS New York chief weathercaster Lonnie Quinn is tracking the heat wave and has this forecast.
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Millions of people are under heat advisories as a record-breaking heat wave grips much of the western United States, worsening droughts and increasing the threat of wildfires. CBS News national correspondent Jonathan Vigliotti spoke with CBSN’s Vladimir Duthiers and Anne-Marie Green about the concerns the extreme weather is bringing.
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In California’s Death Valley National Park, typically one of the hottest spots in the world, a thermometer at the Furnace Creek Visitor’s Center marked 130F (54C) on Thursday.
Willo Alford, who runs a general store in Death Valley Village and has lived there most of her life, told Reuters news agency: “Up to a certain temperature, it’s OK, like maybe 120F (49C), but once it gets above that is when it really gets hard.”
California has declared a state of emergency to address power system concerns, as parts of the US south-west reported dangerously high temperatures.
An excessive heat warning is in place for much of Arizona and California, and southern areas of Nevada and Utah.
People are being told to stay in air-conditioned areas and out of the sun.-
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More than 1 million people in Puerto Rico were left in the dark this month after power transmission and distribution for the island was taken over by a private company under a 15-year contract. Much of Puerto Rico lost power after a fire at an electrical substation caused a massive blackout just days after the private U.S. and Canadian company LUMA Energy formally took over management of the island’s electric grid from the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority, or PREPA, which was devastated by Hurricane Maria. Many people are still without power or facing ongoing blackouts. “This is a classic example of disaster capitalism,” says Arturo Massol-Deyá, executive director of Casa Pueblo, a community-based natural resources conservation and sustainable development group.
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China says NATO is adopting a “Cold War mentality” after the military alliance singled out China and Russia for criticism during a summit in Brussels. In its final communiqué, NATO leaders said, “China’s stated ambitions and assertive behavior present systemic challenges to the rules-based international order.” NATO leaders also criticized Russia and called on Moscow to withdraw troops from Ukraine, Georgia and the Republic of Moldova. Stephen Wertheim, a historian of U.S. foreign policy, says he is concerned that the Biden administration is “moving toward a quite hostile posture toward China and Russia simultaneously.” He also says policymakers need to urgently reevaluate the purpose of NATO, which he says could fuel greater conflict. “Is that really what the American people need for the rest of the 21st century?” he asks.
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Former National Security Agency contractor Reality Leigh Winner was released from prison Monday to serve the rest of her sentence in a halfway house. We get an update from the lawyer handling her commutation and pardon process. Winner was arrested in 2017 under the Espionage Act for leaking classified government information about Russian interference in the 2016 election to reporters at The Intercept. Prosecutors told The New York Times she got the longest sentence ever given by a federal court for unauthorized disclosure of government information to the press. Winner’s family and legal team say she should receive a pardon and are calling for her sentence to be commuted. “Reality released a document that gave us information that we needed to know at a time that we absolutely needed to know it,” says Alison Grinter Allen, Winner’s attorney.
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We look at another significant June 19 in the history of slavery in the United States: June 19, 1838, when Jesuit priests who ran what is now Georgetown University sold 272 enslaved people to pay off the school’s debts. In 2016, Georgetown University announced it would give preferential admissions treatment to descendants of the Africans it enslaved and sold. “Ours, as Americans, is an uninterrupted line of inheritance that many of us refuse to believe that we are descendants of,” says Mélisande Short-Colomb, who is one of the first two Georgetown University students to benefit from legacy admission for direct descendants and serves on the Board of Advisors for the Georgetown Memory Project.
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Transition Studies 