CALL FOR CONVENING ORGANIZATIONS TO JOIN THE YOUTH ALLIANCE

 Dear colleagues,

As the Youth Alliance for Zero Hunger is working towards formalization, we are looking for more convening organizations to get involved in the final structure. These organizations will have direct decision-making power in the alliance through their representatives in the executive committee. In addition, the members of the convening organizations will also become members of the Youth Alliance. By being part of the Youth Alliance, an organization will amplify the scope of their initiatives, find valuable partnerships with other relevant youth organizations, access to potential sources of funding and increase their presence in global food and agriculture policy making.

We already have several organizations from a diverse range of sectors willing to be part of the alliance and break the silos: farming, entrepreneurship, research, student organizations, civil society, capacity building organizations, global youth networks ... We welcome organizations from any sector that meets the criteria to write to us for more information, especially in the areas of food sovereignty and gender issues.

Find below the requirements to be a convening organizations:

"Upon initial formation, organizations will be invited to apply for Convening Organization status with any organization meeting the following criteria to be accepted;

I. Be a not-for-profit organization or non-governmental organization

II. To have a main influence in at least a whole global constituency and therefore represent several countries. (Asia, Africa, Europe, South America, North America, Oceania, Central America & Caribbean)

III. Have a stated and proven track record of working with youth in agriculture and food for a minimum of two years.

Applications shall be submitted by email to the Youth Alliance (youth4zerohunger@gmail.com), detailing how the organization meets the above criteria (2.a.i-2.a.iii). "

Please, share this email with relevant organizations that you think should have a voice in the alliance.

Don't hesitate to write us an email if you want more information.

Best Regards,

🗣🌾 ✊

Youth Alliance for Zero Hunger

Happy press freedom day, 3 May

Every year, 3 May is a date which celebrates the fundamental principles of press freedom, to evaluate press freedom around the world, to defend the media from attacks on their independence and to pay tribute to journalists who have lost their lives in the exercise of their profession. 

MESSAGE FROM THE DIRECTOR-GENERAL

"The theme of this year's World Press Freedom Day,“ Information as a Public Good ”, underlines the indisputable importance of verified and reliable information. It calls attention to the essential role of free and professional journalists in producing and disseminating this information, by tackling misinformation and other harmful content. " - Audrey Azoulay, Director-General of UNESCO, on the occasion of World Press Freedom Day

World Press Freedom Day was proclaimed by the UN General Assembly in 1993 following a Recommendation adopted at the twenty-sixth session of UNESCO's General Conference in 1991. This in turn was a response to a call by African journalists who in 1991 produced the landmark Windhoek Declaration (link is external) on media pluralism and independence.

At the core of UNESCO's mandate is freedom of the press and freedom of expression. UNESCO believes that these freedoms allow for mutual understanding to build a sustainable peace.

It serves as an occasion to inform citizens of violations of press freedom - a reminder that in dozens of countries around the world, publications are censored, fined, suspended and closed down, while journalists, editors and publishers are harassed, attacked, detained and even murdered.

It is a date to encourage and develop initiatives in favor of press freedom, and to assess the state of press freedom worldwide.

3 May acts as a reminder to governments of the need to respect their commitment to press freedom and is also a day of reflection among media professionals about issues of press freedom and professional ethics. Just as importantly, World Press Freedom Day is a day of support for media which are targets for the restraint, or abolition, of press freedom. It is also a day of remembrance for those journalists who lost their lives in the pursuit of a story.

WORLD PRESS FREEDOM DAY 2021

This year's World Press Freedom Day theme “Information as a Public Good” serves as a call to affirm the importance of cherishing information as a public good, and exploring what can be done in the production, distribution and reception of content to strengthen journalism, and to advance transparency and empowerment while leaving no one behind. The theme is of urgent relevance to all countries across the world. It recognizes the changing communications system that is impacting on our health, our human rights, democracies and sustainable development.

To underline the importance of information within our online media environment, WPFD 2021 will highlight three key topics:

Steps to ensure the economic viability of news media;

Mechanisms for ensuring transparency of Internet companies;

Enhanced Media and Information Literacy (MIL) capacities that enable people to recognize and value, as well as defend and demand, journalism as a vital part of information as a public good.

WORLD PRESS FREEDOM DAY 2021 GLOBAL CONFERENCE

The 2021 Global Conference is hosted by UNESCO and the Government of Namibia. It will take place on 29 April - 3 May in Windhoek. The event will be a physical and digital experience combining virtual and in-presence participation. Register now to be part of the regional forums, side events, keynotes, artistic showcases, films screenings and more! Join media leaders, activists, policymakers, media and legal experts, artists and researchers from all over the world.

The Conference will call for urgent attention to the threat of extinction faced by local news media around the world, a crisis worsened by the COVID-19 pandemic. It will put forward ideas to tackle the challenges of our online media environment, push for more transparency of internet companies, strengthen safety of journalists, and improve their working conditions. The Conference will also call to support independent media and empower citizens to face these challenges.

30th Anniversary of Windhoek Declaration

World Press Freedom Day has its origins in a UNESCO conference in Windhoek in 1991. The event ended on 3 May with the adoption of the landmark Windhoek Declaration for the Development of a Free, Independent and Pluralistic Press. After 30 years, the historic connection made between the freedom to seek, impart and receive information and the public good remains as relevant as it was at the time of its signing. Special commemorations of the 30th anniversary are planned to take place during World Press Freedom Day International Conference.

The Windhoek + 30 Declaration it's now adopted!

Regional Forums

This year, the Conference is connecting with the regional World Press Freedom Day celebrations, hosting six Regional Forums to focus on local aspects of press freedom and explore the current trends and challenges. The Forums build upon the historic series of regional seminars triggered by the 1991 seminar in Windhoek, which inspired regional declarations to promote a free, independent, and pluralistic press, after similar seminars held in Alma-Ata (1992), Santiago (1994), Sana'a (1996), and Sofia (1997).

Academic Conference and Youth Newsroom

UNESCO and the University of Namibia (UNAM) are hosting the sixth edition of the Academic Conference on the Safety of Journalists. The Youth Newsroom 2021 edition is being held in partnership with the Namibia University of Science and Technology. Participants will cover the conference mostly virtually and will be able to attend guest speakers ’lectures.

Epic battle: Apple faces Fortnite creator in court

 On Monday, Apple faces one of its most serious legal threats in recent years: a trial that threatens to upend its iron control over its App Store, which brings in billions of dollars each year while feeding more than 1.6 billion iPhones, iPads, and other devices.

The federal court case is being brought by Epic Games, maker of the popular Fortnite video game. Epic wants to topple the so-called “walled garden” of the App Store, which Apple started building 13 years ago as part of a strategy masterminded by co-founder Steve Jobs.

Epic cartoons that Apple has transformed a once-tiny digital storefront into an illegal monopoly that squeezes mobile apps for a significant slice of their earnings. Apple takes a commission of 15 percent to 30 percent on purchases made within apps, including everything from digital items in games to subscriptions. Apple denies Epic’s claims.

Apple’s highly successful formula has helped turn the iPhone maker into one of the world’s most profitable companies, one with a market value that now tops $ 2.2 trillion.

Privately held Epic is puny by comparison, with an estimated market value of $ 30bn. Its aspirations to get bigger hinge in part on its plan to offer an alternative app store on the iPhone. The North Carolina company also wants to break free of Apple’s commissions. Epic says it forked over hundreds of millions of dollars to Apple before it expelled Fortnite from its App Store last August, after Epic added a payment system that bypassed Apple.

Epic then sued Apple, prompting a courtroom drama that could shed new light on Apple’s management of its App Store. Apple CEO Tim Cook and Epic CEO Tim Sweeney will testify in an Oakland, California federal courtroom that will be set up to allow for social distancing and will require masks at all times.

Neither side wanted a jury trial, leaving the decision to US District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers, who already seems to know her ruling her will probably be appealed, given the stakes in the case.

Much of the evidence will revolve around arcane but crucial arguments about market definitions.

Epic contends the iPhone has become so ingrained in society that the device and its ecosystem have turned into a monopoly [File: Chris Ratcliffe / Bloomberg]

Epic contends the iPhone has become so ingrained in society that the device and its ecosystem have turned into a monopoly Apple can exploit to unfairly enrich itself and thwart competition.Apple claims it faces significant competition from various alternatives to video games on iPhones. For instance, it points out that about two billion other smartphones from the not run iPhone software or work with its App Store - primarily those relying on Google’s Android system. Epic has filed a separate case against Google, accusing it of illegally gouging apps through its own app store for Android devices.

Apple will also depict Epic as a desperate company hungry for sources of revenue beyond the aging Fortnite. It claims Epic merely wants to freeload off an iPhone ecosystem in which Apple has invested more than $ 100bn over the past 15 years.

Estimates of Apple’s App Store revenue range from $ 15bn to $ 18bn annually. Apple disputes those estimates, although it has not publicly disclosed its own figures. Instead, it has emphasized that it does not collect a cent from 85 percent of the apps in its store.

The commissions it pockets, Apple says, are a reasonable way for the company to recoup its investment while financing an app review process it calls essential to preserving the security of apps and their users. About 40 percent of the roughly 100,000 apps submitted for review each week are rejected for some sort of problem, according to Kyle Andeer, Apple’s chief compliance officer.

Epic will try to prove that Apple uses the security issue to disguise its true motivation - maintaining a monopoly that wrings more profits from app makers who cannot afford not to be available on the iPhone.

But the smaller company may face an uphill battle. Last year, the judge expressed some skepticism in court before denying Epic’s request to reinstate Fortnite on App Store pending the outcome of the trial. At that time, Gonzalez Rogers asserted that Epic’s claims were “at the frontier edges of antitrust law”.

The trial is expected to last most of May, with a decision to come in the ensuing weeks.

SOURCE: AP

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73% of journalism practice blocked in 180 countries- RSF reports

 A Reporters Without Borders (RSF) report compiled as part of the 2021 World Press Freedom Day, shows that journalism, the main vaccine against disinformation, is completely or partly blocked in 73 percent of the 180 countries ranked by the organization.

This year’s Index, which evaluates the press freedom situation in 180 countries and territories annually, shows that journalism is totally blocked or seriously impeded in 73 countries and constrained in 59 others, which together represent 73 percent of the countries evaluated.

These180 countries are classified as having “very bad,” “bad” or “problematic” environments for press freedom, and are identified accordingly in black, red or orange on the World Press Freedom map, copied to the Ghana News Agency.

The Index data reflects the dramatic deterioration in people’s access to information and an increase in obstacles to news coverage. The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has been used as grounds to block journalists ’access to information sources and reporting in the field.

The data shows that journalists are finding it increasingly hard to investigate and report sensitive stories, especially in Asia, the Middle East and Europe.

The 2021 Edelman Trust barometer reveals a disturbing level of public mistrust of journalists, with 59 percent of respondents in 28 countries saying that journalists deliberately try to mislead the public by reporting information they know to be false.

In reality, journalistic pluralism and rigorous reporting serves to combat disinformation and “infodemics,” including false and misleading information.

Mr Christophe Deloire Secretary General of RSF said "Journalism is the best vaccine against disinformation."

“Unfortunately, its production and distribution are too often blocked by political, economic, technological and, sometimes, even cultural factors. In response to the virality of disinformation across borders, on digital platforms and via social media, journalism provides the most effective means of ensuring that public debate is based on a diverse range of established facts. ”

For example, in Egypt (166th), President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi’s government simply banned the publication of any pandemic statistics that didn’t come from the Ministry of Health. In Zimbabwe (down 4 at 130th), the investigative reporter Hopewell Chin’ono was arrested shortly after helping to expose the overbilling practices of a medical equipment supply company.

Biggest movements in the Index

Norway is ranked first in the Index for the fifth year running even though its media have complained of a lack of access to state-held information about the pandemic. Finland maintained its position in second place while Sweden (up 1 at 3rd) recovered its third place ranking, which it had yielded to Denmark (down 1 at 4th) last year. The 2021 Index demonstrates the success of these Nordic nations ’approach towards upholding press freedom.

The World Press Freedom map has not had so few countries colored white - indicating a country situation that is at least good if not optimal - since 2013, when the current evaluation method was adopted.

This year, only 12 of the Index’s 180 countries (7%) can claim to offer a favorable environment for journalism, as opposed to 13 countries (8%) last year. The country to have been stripped of its “good” classification is Germany (down 2 at 13th). Dozens of its journalists were attacked by supporters of extremist and conspiracy theory believers during protests against pandemic restrictions.

The press freedom situation in Germany is nonetheless still classified as “fairly good,” as is the case in the United States (down 1 at 44th), despite the fact that Donald Trump's final year in the White House was marked by a record number of assaults against journalists (around 400) and arrests of members of the media (130), according to the US Press Freedom Tracker, of which RSF is a partner. As a result of falling four places, Brazil joined the countries colored red, indicating that the press freedom situation there is classified as “bad”.

Most of the 2021 Index’s biggest gains are in Africa. Burundi (up 13 at 147th), Sierra Leone (up 10 at 75th) and Mali (up 9 at 99th) have all seen significant improvements, including the release of four journalists with the independent Burundian media Iwacu, the repeal of a law criminalizing press offences in Sierra Leone and a fall in the number of abuses in Mali.

Europe and the Americas (North, Central and South) continue to be the most favorable continents for press freedom, even though the Americas registered the biggest deterioration in its regional violations score (up 2.5%).

Europe registered a sizeable deterioration in its “Abuses” indicator, with acts of violence more than doubling in the European Union and Balkans, compared with a 17% deterioration worldwide.

Attacks against journalists and arbitrary arrests increased in Germany (13th), France (34th), Italy (41st), Poland (down 2 at 64th), Greece (down 5 at 70th), Serbia (93rd) and Bulgaria (down 1 at 112th) ).

Although there was less deterioration in Africa’s “Abuses” score, it continues to be the most violent continent for journalists, and the Covid-19 pandemic fueled the use of force to prevent journalists from working.

In Tanzania (124th), President John Magufuli called the virus a “western conspiracy,” suggesting that Tanzania had kept it at bay “by force of prayer” and imposed an information blackout on the pandemic before his death in March 2021.

In the Asia-Pacific region, the “censorship virus” spread beyond China, in particular to Hong Kong (80th), where the National security law imposed by Beijing seriously threatens journalists. Australia (up 1 at 25th), experienced a disturbing variant: in response to proposed Australian legislation requiring tech companies to reimburse the media for content posted on their social media platforms, Facebook decided to ban Australian media from publishing or sharing journalistic content on their Facebook pages.

There has been no significant change in the Middle East & North Africa (MENA) region, which maintained last place in the regional rankings.

RSF’s global indicator - its measure of the level of media freedom worldwide - is only 0.3 percent lower in the 2021 Index than it was in 2020.

However, the past year’s relative stability should not divert attention from the fact that it has deteriorated by 12 percent since this indicator was created in 2013.

GNA

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Cuba’s long biotech investments could pay off in COVID vaccines

 Cuba is preparing to roll out two of five vaccines it hopes will boost its flagging economy and protect its aging population.

Havana, Cuba - Dr Gustavo Sierra is a storied name in Cuban medicine, with awards and seats on Cuba’s most powerful committees to prove it. He led the team that created a vaccine for meningococcal meningitis, a horrible infection that inflames the membrane of the brain.

That vaccine forms the basis of Soberana-01, one of five vaccines Cuba has been developing against COVID-19 in a move unmatched in Latin America or, in fairness, by any similarly sized country in the world.

Two of the other vaccine candidates, Soberana-02 and Abdala - are about to be rolled out on a grand scale. María Elena Soto, the director of primary healthcare at Cuba’s Ministry of Health, announced on April 22 that a new trial would see 1.7 million volunteers from Havana immunized.

Cuba’s confidence in its ability to protect itself means it has not signed up to COVAX, the system through which the World Health Organization (WHO) distributes vaccines to poorer countries.

Volunteers wait with nurses to have their blood pressure measured after being injected with a dose of the Soberana-02 COVID-19 vaccine in Havana, Cuba [File: Ramon Espinosa / AP Photo]

If its vaccines work, it will be a stunning achievement, but not a surprise to those who trained in Cuba’s health service.

“People’s perception of Cuba is music, old cars, rum and beaches,” Dr Miguel Perez-Machado, now a professor of pathology at University College London told Al Jazeera. "But since the beginning of the 1980s, Cuba has made big investments in biotechnology and its scientists."

Over the years, those scientists have developed vaccines for a whole range of ailments, including hepatitis, tetanus and the meningococcal meningitis Dr Sierra focused on. These are now the “platforms” on which its new COVID vaccines have been developed.

“I was at home on a Saturday early in March when the family doctor knocked on my door,” says Gretel Escalona, ​​mother of a 22 month-old child living in Havana’s Playa neighborhood. “My block had been selected for the phase three trial of Soberana 02. I met all the requirements - young, healthy, of childbearing age.”

She visited a vaccination site at a clinic not far from the city’s famed Casa de la Musica. “Everyone was very excited and relieved. The desperation for a solution to this pandemic is so great that I think we were happy to be part of the experiment. People trust Cuban scientists a lot. ”

Vicente Veréz Bencomo is director-general of the Finlay Institute of Vaccines in Havana that is responsible for the three Sovereign “candidates”. In a rare interview last week he told the scientific journal Nature that Cuban president Miguel Díaz-Canel called for vaccines to be developed in May last year: “We had to abandon other projects. It was not possible to continue doing anything else. ”

Cuba was caught between a rock and a hard place. Its per-capita income is listed above $ 4,000, meaning it was not one of the 92 countries eligible for free vaccines through COVAX. But those figures did not take account of a recent economic collapse that has left the centralized state barely able to feed its people.

A technician shows a vial of the Cuban made COVID-19 vaccine called Soberana 02 at the packaging processing plant of the Finlay Vaccine Institute in Havana, Cuba [File: Yamil Lage / Pool via AP]

But such shortages have led to questions about the focus on COVID; so much so that Veréz Bencomo felt the need to tell Nature: “I can assure you that not one penny of the money used to make medicines or buy food - both of which are scarce at the moment - has been diverted for the manufacturing of COVID vaccines. ”To roll the vaccines out, Cuba will turn to its impressive network of family doctors and nurses. Medical students have been repeatedly visiting every home in the country to check for symptoms and take names for the immunization program. The vaccines, which are reportedly storable at 46.4 degrees Fahrenheit (8 degrees Celsius), will be administered from the clinics that are on every corner, and from state workplaces.

With the virus having caused a full-scale collapse of the tourism industry, there are hopes that the vaccines could provide a financial fillip (although Cuba has said it will supply poorer countries for free).

Veréz Bencomo said they were looking for countries to offer money up front so Cuba can “invest the resources we do not have in production”. There has also been talk of “vaccine tourism,” where visitors coming for the beaches and culture are offered the option of buying a jab.

Day laborers load a truck with potatoes in Guines, Cuba, on Friday, March 26, 2021. Authorities are promoting the production of basic staple foods while many essential vegetables have disappeared from markets [File: Ramon Espinosa / AP]

Cuba is particularly susceptible to the virus. It is a nation of abuelos, or grandparents, with the median age an astonishingly high 42.2 years (in Britain it is 40, Haiti next door is 22.7) .And so Soberana-02, and possibly Abdala, will be rolled out before testing is complete, in this vast trial with its 1.7 million “volunteers”. “That is something that only particular countries - China maybe - can do,” says Perez-Machado in London. “It would be illegal elsewhere, people would be able to sue. It’s not an example to follow, I don’t think. ”

But the pressure is mounting. While Cuba was heroic in keeping COVID beyond the borders for much of 2020, new daily cases have now climbed above 1,000. Deaths have also been creeping up (although still far below the numbers in other places). As of Sunday 664 people have died in total. Among them, last week, Dr Gustavo Sierra, the creator of the meningitis vaccine at the heart of Soberana-01.

Despite concerns, public support remains rock solid. There will be no US-style problems with take-up.

Rolando Berrio lives in Santa Clara, the crossroads town where Che Guevara won his greatest battle and ushered in the revolution that would dream of Cuba competing intellectually with the world like this. Santa Clara has a long history of great musicians, of romantic singers, and Berrio is among the best of them.

“These have not been good days for those of us in music, theater and dance, for those of us who need public spaces,” he says. “COVID-19 has erased the most important part of any work of art: the public. These vaccines represent the return of life.

“That the island that I love is working miracles - in a confluence of history, dreams, sacrifices, of mistakes - many mistakes - and most definitely of successes - well, it brings back my soul.”

SOURCE: AL JAZEERA

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The plight of South Africa’s informal coal miners

Thousands of informal miners in South Africa make a dangerous living by chipping away at abandoned mine shafts.

Darkness enveloped a disused mine in South Africa’s eastern Mpumalanga province as a pick-up truck left the site’s entrance and drove off into the night, loaded with coal.

Informal miner Bonginkosi Mhlanga threw a pickaxe over his shoulder and descended back below ground, where he would remain until daybreak.

Locally known as “zama zamas” – “those who try and try” in the Zulu language – Mhlanga and his counterparts scrape a living by chipping away at abandoned mine shafts previously exploited by mining conglomerates.

There are thousands of informal miners in South Africa, according to the National Association of Artisanal Miners (NAAM).

Many were left jobless when mining companies moved on, struggling to find new work in a country of 59 million people where unemployment stood above 30 percent even before the coronavirus pandemic hit.

Mhlanga, 31, skidded down 82 slippery steps bringing him back down into a narrow tunnel just 1.60 metres (5.2 feet) high.

The air grew thick as he made his descent, walls and floor dripping with humidity.

Bent-over figures brushed past, barely visible in the darkness as they lugged bulging sacks of coal up to the surface.

The ceiling lowered as Mhlanga made his way forward, passing patches of fungus until he reached a black vein in the rock some 2 metres (6.5 feet) wide.

“Here is my spot,” he told AFP news agency.

“I take care of it, I keep it clean, and no one is supposed to touch it.”

Using a headlamp, Mhlanga lifted his pickaxe and plunged it repeatedly into the rock with all his strength.

Black fragments flew out and fell at his feet.

He would later gather the raw coal with his bare hands and stuff it into old polypropylene sacks to sell for a meagre 500 rands ($35) per tonne.

Mining is an important source of revenue for South Africa, raking in about 8 percent of gross domestic product (GDP).

“Zama zamas” operate in about 6,000 disused mines across the country, NAAM estimates.

Lack of maintenance and the unmonitored use of explosives can cause ageing tunnels to collapse, burying miners with them.

“When you go down there you never know whether you’ll be back,” Mhlanga said, reluctant to talk about past incidents.

“If it happens, you have to run and leave everything behind.”

Mhlanga dragged his last bags of coal back up the 82 steps. He has made just 250 rands ($17) for a twelve-hour night shift.

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Manchester Ignited” – Team’s angry fans storm field to protest US owners

The American owners were part of the failed attempt to take the U.K. soccer team into a European Super League.

MANCHESTER, England (AP) — Manchester United supporters stormed into the stadium and onto the pitch, delaying Sunday’s game against Liverpool as thousands of fans gathered outside Old Trafford to demand the Glazer family ownership sells the club.

Long-running anger against the American owners has boiled over after they were part of the failed attempt to take United into a European Super League.

“Get out of our club,” fans chanted as flares were set off. “We want Glazers out.”

The family, who also own the NFL’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers, have declined to engage with fans since buying United in 2005 in a leveraged takeover that loaded debt onto the club

Fans are currently unable to attend games due to the pandemic but they found a way into the stadium. They also climbed onto vantage points next to turnstile entrances.

Supporters wore green-and-gold scarves and also set off flares in the colors of the club’s 1878 formation. More than 100 fans got inside the stadium and some could be seen from windows waving down to protesters. Corner flags were held aloft and one supporter was seen throwing a tripod from the interview zone.

Police on horseback later cleared protesting fans from outside the stadium, with glass bottles being thrown in brief clashes. Some fans moved back to a main road near the stadium with police forming a line to stop them returning.

If United loses Sunday’s game, Manchester City has won the Premier League title. United is the record 20-time English champion but hasn’t lifted the trophy since 2013.

Kickoff time was originally scheduled for 4:30 p.m. local time (1530 GMT) but has been delayed, with no announcement whether the game will still go ahead with neither team having arrived at the ground so far.

United and Liverpool were among six Premier League clubs that tried to form an exclusive European Super League along with three clubs each from Spain and Italy. Widespread opposition quickly ended the project, with all six English teams backing out within 48 hours of the announcement.

The “Big 6” clubs have been in damage control since, offering various forms of apologies and statements of regret, while fans long frustrated with billionaire owners have called for wholesale changes.

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