Israeli soldiers have said that they were ordered to open fire at unarmed Palestinian civilians desperately seeking aid at designated distribution sites in Gaza, a report in the Ha’aretz newspaper has revealed.

The report came as 70 Palestinians were killed across the Gaza Strip — mostly at aid sites belonging to the widely condemned Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) — in the last 24 hours.

Soldiers said that instead of using crowd control measures, they shot at crowds of civilians to prevent them from approaching certain areas.

• READ MORE: Israeli soldiers ‘ordered’ to shoot at unarmed Gaza aid seekers
• Human rights ‘godfather’ Ken Roth on genocide, Trump and standing up for democracy
• Other Israeli war on Gaza reports

One soldier, who was not named in the report, described the distribution site as a “killing field,” adding that “where I was, between one and five people were killed every day”.

The soldier said that they targeted the crowds as if they were “an attacking force,” instead of using other non-lethal weapons to organise and disperse crowds.

“We communicate with them through fire,” he continued, noting that heavy machine guns, grenade launchers and mortars were used on people, including the elderly, women and children.

The increased attacks, particularly those targeting aid-seekers, come as Gaza’s government Media Office said at least 549 Palestinians had been killed by Israeli forces while trying to get their hands on emergency aid in the last four weeks.

‘Evil of moral army’
Al Jazeera’s senior political analyst Marwan Bishara described what was happening in Gaza was more than the genocode.

“It is the evil of the most moral army in the world,” he said.

Israeli forces continued their attacks across the Gaza Strip on Friday, killing at least three Palestinians in an attack on Khan Younis, in the south, while also heavily bombing residential buildings east of Jabalia in the north.

Medical sources also said a Palestinian fisherman was killed, and others wounded, by Israeli naval gunfire off the al-Shati refugee camp, while he was working.

Gaza’s Ministry of Interior responded to the attacks with a statement, accusing Israel of “seeking to spread chaos and destabilise the Gaza Strip”.

Malnutrition soars
Gazans have continued to desperately seek aid provided by the US and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, despite the hundreds of people killed at its sites, as malnutrition soars in the territory.

Two infants have died this week due to malnutrition and the ongoing blockade on Gaza.

For weeks now, health officials in the enclave have raised the alarm over the critical shortage of baby formula, but aid continued to be obstructed.

The two infants were buried on Thursday evening, after they were pronounced dead at the Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis. Medical staff said the cause of death was a lack of basic nutrition and access to essential medical care.

One of the infants, identified as Nidal, was only five months old, while the other, Kinda, was only 10 days old.

Mohammed al-Hams, Kinda’s father, told local media that children are dying due to severe malnutrition, sarcastically labelling them “the achievements of Netanyahu and his war”.

“Not a second goes by without a funeral prayer being held in the Gaza Strip,” he continued.

Malnutrition ‘catastrophic’
On Wednesday, Gaza’s Ministry of Health said the humanitarian situation in Gaza had reached “catastrophic” levels, noting that there had been a sharp increase in malnutrition among children, particularly in infants.

According to Palestinian official figures, at least 242 people have died in Gaza due to food and medicine shortages, with the majority of them being elderly and children.

Israel’s war on Gaza has killed at least 61,700 Palestinians since October 2023. The war has levelled entire neighbourhoods, and has been called a genocide by leading rights groups, including Amnesty International.

In Auckland last night, visiting Palestinian journalist, author, academic and community advocate Dr Yousef Aljamal spoke about “The unheard voices of Palestinian child prisoners”.

Dr Aljamal, who edited If I Must Die, a compilation of poetry and prose by Refaat Alareer, the poet who was assassinated by the Israelis in 6 December 2023, also described the humanitarian crisis as a “catastrophe” and called for urgent sanctions and political pressure on Israel by governments, including New Zealand.

Soldiers admit Israeli army is targeting aid seekers       Video: Al Jazeera

This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by Pacific Media Watch.

This action flies in the face of the U.S. government’s lengthy record of humanitarian assistance to people of other nations whose lives had been blighted by war, poverty, and illness. From the Marshall Plan to rebuild war-devastated Europe, to Senator George McGovern’s Food for Peace project to feed the hungry, to massive international public health campaigns to eradicate global diseases, U.S. aid programs have played an important role in alleviating human suffering around the world.

Of course, these actions were not unique. Other wealthy nations also developed overseas humanitarian aid programs. In 2023, when the U.S. government allocated 0.24 percent of its gross national income to humanitarian aid, Britain allocated 0.58 percent and Norway allocated over 1 percent.

Behind the support for the U.S. international aid program lay two key factors―a desire to reduce human misery and a desire to win friends for the United States in foreign lands.

But such concerns were ignored by the Trump administration. On January 20, 2025, the day of his return to the White House, Donald Trump ordered a 90-day freeze on U.S. foreign assistance. Three days later, the State Department issued a “stop work” order while the aid program received what it called a “comprehensive review.”

Elon Musk, the arrogant, eccentric, and drug-addled multibillionaire, took the lead in this review process. Unleashing his DOGE minions on the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), which administered most of the federal government’s humanitarian aid programs, Musk proclaimed that the agency was a “viper’s nest of radical-left Marxists who hate America.” USAID, he announced, “is a criminal organization. Time for it to die.”

Trump apparently shared this warped perspective and, consequently, most of USAID’s vital signs rapidly plummeted. In response to the president’s orders, its staff was decimated, its website was shut down, and its budget was slashed. After USAID’s shattered remains were transferred to the State Department, Secretary of State Marco Rubio cut 83 percent of its international humanitarian programs, reducing them from 6,200 to about 1,000.

As the distinguished historian Alfred McCoy reported this May, when USAID’s “skilled specialists in famine prevention, public health, and governance stopped working, the pain was soon felt around the world, particularly among mothers and children.” In Asia, the end of USAID’s funding forced the World Food Program to cut by half the pathetic food rations it provided to a million Rohingya refugees residing in miserable camps in Bangladesh, with food support shrinking to $6 a month per person.

In Africa, as McCoy noted, departing USAID officials estimated that the aid cuts would likely produce a 30 percent spike in tuberculosis, a disease that kills over a million people worldwide every year, and that 200,000 more children would probably be paralyzed within a decade. In the Congo, 7.8 million war refugees were likely to lose food aid and 2.3 million more children were predicted to suffer from malnutrition. Thanks to cutbacks in USAID health programs, a half-million AIDS patients were projected to die in South Africa, while, in the Congo, an estimated 15,000 could die within a month. In West Africa, the end of USAID’s Malaria Initiative virtually ensured that, within a year, there would be 18 million more malaria infections and 166,000 more likely deaths.

Malnutrition, as journalist Nicholas Kristof recently reported, already “leaves more than one-fifth of children worldwide stunted, countless millions cognitively impaired, and vast numbers … weak from anemia. Malnutrition is a factor in 45 percent of child deaths worldwide.”

Nevertheless, in early June, the Trump administration and its Republican allies took further action toward dismantling U.S. overseas humanitarian aid programs. In response to a request by the President, the Republican-controlled House of Representatives voted to claw back billions of dollars Congress had already appropriated for such aid. This included $500 million for activities related to infectious diseases and child maternal health, $400 million to address the global HIV epidemic, and $800 million for a program providing emergency shelter, water and sanitation, and family reunification for people forced to flee their countries.

Before the House vote, the president of Oxfam America, a leading humanitarian aid organization, appealed to the assembled legislators, arguing that the measure “would do irreversible harm” to millions of people. “We are already seeing women, children and families left without food, clean water and critical services after earlier aid cuts,” she declared, “and aid organizations can barely keep up with rising needs.” Nevertheless, despite unanimous Democratic opposition, the House Republican leadership pushed the bill through by a vote of 214 to 212.

Applauding GOP passage of the measure, Mike Johnson, the Republican Speaker of the House, promised “more of this in the days to come.” John Thune, the Republican Senate Majority Leader, pledged Senate action on the House bill this July.

As the United States, the world’s wealthiest nation, is the largest financial contributor to the United Nations, the drastic reductions in U.S. humanitarian aid are already having a devastating impact on UN assistance programs that provide life-saving food, medicine, and shelter to the world’s poorest, most desperate people. In mid-June, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said that it was being forced to drastically scale back these programs due to “brutal funding cuts.” The UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief commented gloomily: “We have been forced into a triage of human survival.”

Calling for aid “to help 114 million people facing life-threatening needs across the world,” the UN Office for Humanitarian Affairs said that “this isn’t just an appeal for money―it’s a call for global responsibility, for human solidarity, for a commitment to end the suffering.”

Thus far, there’s no indication that the Trump administration has that commitment.

This content originally appeared on Dissident Voice and was authored by Lawrence S. Wittner.

The prediction made one year ago of a man-made famine is about to be realised, though in truth, Gazans have suffered food insecurity for decades. Despite a heavy dependency on international agencies for humanitarian assistance, access to food and safe water supplies has repeatedly been denied due to blockades imposed by Israel. As is the trend in such crises, women and children are particularly affected by malnutrition. Anaemia and other manifestations of nutrient deficiency have led to adverse effects on maternal and foetal health. Miscarriage and birth defect rates are high. Suboptimal nutritional status also impairs immune function and the ability of mother and child to recover from disease.

This dire baseline has only amplified the number of civilian losses caused by violence. The proportion of deaths in Gaza attributed to trauma-related injury versus that from malnutrition is hard to define; in many cases, it’s part of the same story. Malnutrition significantly affects the ability to recover from internal injuries, limb loss, and surgery, thereby increasing the risk of infection, sepsis and death.

Obtaining accurate quantitative information on injury, disease and deaths is essential. It draws global attention, and allows humanitarian organisations to focus their resources. The tricky bit of course is that over- or under-inflation of rates can occur for political gain. Regardless, even Israeli officials admit that the Palestinian Ministry of Health are the only governmental body actively collating decent morbidity and mortality data. There are pro-Israel lobbyists who are still quick to dismiss those figures, citing that a third of the 38,000 deaths declared earlier this summer were unverifiable. However, the reality of real-time assessment in this war zone is that many of the dead are still buried under rubble. Formal ID is impossible: collected statistics unavoidably include household losses reported by family members. Any remaining deniers of data coming out of Gaza should consider satellite image analysis performed by the City University of New York and Oregon State University. Almost 100,000 buildings had been destroyed in the first two months of the current crisis, most of which were in densely populated residential areas. The World Health Organisation and United Nations have also found mortality rates quoted by the Palestinian Ministry of Health to be reliable during earlier critical periods in Gaza’s history.

Malnutrition prevalence from (neutral) aid agency field and clinic data also paints a progressively disturbing picture. In March, nutrition monitoring by UNICEF and others highlighted that around 1 in 20 children attending health centres and in shelters were at a life-threatening stage of severe wasting. In addition, over 30 percent of children under 2 years of age were classified as acutely malnourished; double that of three months earlier. By June, major nutritional concerns were no longer primarily restricted to the north. Almost 3,000 children in southern Gaza were in need of intervention to manage the effects of moderate to severe malnutrition, yet were prevented from attending clinics due to ongoing conflict. Spring and late summer saw some alleviation of food insecurity, as more convoys were able to cross the border and distribute supplies. Then September marked the month with the lowest cross-border transfer and distribution of food and bottled water.

The UN continues to monitor the situation closely. Is Gaza now ‘officially’ in famine? To meet the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) definition, at least 20 percent of the population should have significant lack of access to food; acute malnutrition prevalence should be at least 30 percent; and mortality should be at or above 2 deaths per 10,000 people daily. At the time of writing, forty-three thousand are dead. The vast majority of the surviving population are now displaced, and one in five are facing “catastrophic levels of denied access to nutrition” (another IPC classification). Three-quarters of all crop fields have been destroyed. Access to food and safe water supplies, medical care and the availability of proper sanitation continues to be impossible in most situations. As the UN have stressed, Gaza sits on the very brink of famine. Without an immediate ceasefire, this will be a forgone conclusion.

This content originally appeared on Dissident Voice and was authored by E. Mark Windle.

As Israel continues its relentless assault on Gaza, causing mass famine, injury and death, we get an update on the malnutrition and mental health crises in Gaza from Dr. Nahreen Ahmed, a pulmonary and critical care doctor and the medical director of the humanitarian aid group MedGlobal. She is recently back from a two-week volunteer trip to Gaza, where she says these crises are growing so rapidly “that even if aid was increased tomorrow, we would still be in a severe situation where the amount of food would not be enough in the immediate term.” It is a “horrific experience for all involved,” she concludes.

This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.

A report by a media watchdog has revealed the United Kingdom’s media bias in covering the Hamas attack on October 7 and Israel’s five-month genocidal bombardment and ground assault in response.

“Much of the news coverage of 7 October refers to Hamas’s attacks on Southern Israel as ground zero, with guests or commentators who try and explain the 75-year-old occupation of Palestine being accused by some presenters and columnists as justifying the attacks,” the report by the Centre for Media Monitoring (CfMM) said.

By ignoring the context and history of the occupation of Palestine and Gaza in particular, the report said the media landscape had been “favourable to an Israeli narrative which has constantly promoted the attacks on Gaza and in the West Bank as a war between light and darkness”, reports Al Jazeera.

• READ MORE: NZ news media under fire for ‘bias, propaganda’ in Gaza coverage
• Other media bias reports
• Israel’s war on Gaza live: Israeli attacks kill 86 Palestinians in a day

Titled “Media Bias Gaza 2023-24”, the report also called out treating the Israeli military as a “credible source” without subjecting it to further verification as “one of the glaring failures of journalists and media outlets”.

Difference in the use of language has also been a regular feature of coverage, the report says, with Palestinian deaths often underplayed compared with those of Israelis.

Pro-Palestinian voices and activists have been routinely denounced, misrepresented and targeted by many national media outlets, it says.

The report adds that the right-wing media have been particularly hostile towards pro-Palestinian voices, framing them as supporters of terrorism and anti-Semites as well as being hostile to British values.

Key findings include:

• Language use: Emotive language describes Israelis as victims of attacks 11 times more than Palestinians.
• Framing of events: Most TV channels overwhelmingly promote “Israel’s right” to defend itself, overshadowing Palestinian rights to defend itself and other rights by a ratio of 5 to 1.
• In broadcast TV, Israeli perspectives were referenced almost three times more than Palestinian ones.
• In online news, it was almost twice as much.
• Contextual framing: 76 percent of online articles frame the conflict as an “Israel-Hamas war,” while only 24 percent mention “Palestine/Palestinian,” indicating a lack of context.
• Misrepresentation and undermining: Pro-Palestinian voices face misrepresentation and vilification by media outlets, perpetuating harmful stereotypes.
  Right-wing news channels and right-wing British publications were at the forefront of misrepresenting pro-Palestinian protesters as antisemitic, violent or pro-Hamas.

At least 30,717 people have been killed and 72,156 wounded by Israeli attacks on Gaza since October 7, the Palestinian Health Ministry anounced.

The death toll from malnutrition and dehydration in Gaza has risen to 18.

This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by Pacific Media Watch.

Thousands marched for Palestine across Australia at the weekend in the wake of Israel’s massacre of more than 100 starving Palestinians who were trying to get flour from an aid truck southwest of Gaza City.

Israel’s siege on Gaza has stopped Palestinians from accessing food, medical supplies and other crucial aid. A United Nations report found that more than 90 percent of the population, more than 2 million people, are facing starvation and malnutrition.

This is made worse by the cutting of funding to the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) by Western governments, the main organisation providing aid to Gaza, after Israel alleged that 12 of its 30,000 staff were involved in the October 7 incursion.

• READ MORE: Death toll ris­es as Is­raeli forces in­ten­si­fy at­tacks in south­ern Gaza
• Other War on Gaza reports

The Labor government has refused to restore funding to UNRWA despite foreign minister Penny Wong conceding she had not seen any evidence to support Israel’s allegations.

“Our government has suspended funding to UNRWA when instead it should be restoring it and increasing it,” Greens senator Larissa Waters told the Meanjin/Brisbane rally on March 3, reported Alex Bainbridge.

Waters said that Foreign Minister Penny Wong was right to condemn Israel’s attack on food vans but that she was “not bowled over by the strength of response because Senator Wong has said she’s going to get her department to have a little word to the Israeli ambassador”.

“That’s all she’s going to do after we saw desperate parents getting slaughtered [while getting] food for their children.”

‘Solidarity with Palestinian women’
The rally had a “Solidarity with Palestinian women” theme in recognition of International Women’s Day on March 8.

Call on global Jewish community to rise up against Israel’s genocide in Gaza.   Video: Green Left

Protesters held a minute’s silence in recognition of United States Air Force serviceperson Aaron Bushnell who self-immolated on February 25 in protest against the US government’s participation in genocide.

Israel has begun its bombardment offensive against Rafah, the small city in southern Gaza where 1.4 million people are sheltering. More than 30,500 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since October 7.

A YouGov survey found that more than 80 percent of Australians support an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, showing the Palestine solidarity movement has cut through the establishment media pro-Israel messaging.

Edie Shepherd, from the Tzedek Collective, an anti-Zionist Jewish group told thousands at the rally in Gadigal/Sydney on March 3 that the global Jewish community must “rise up against the dominant Zionist frameworks that wield hate, power militarism to carry out atrocities against Palestinians”, reported Peter Boyle.

“The greatest shame is that our survival of genocide has been weaponised to commit genocide against Palestinians now.”

Nasser Mashni, president of the Australia Palestine Advocacy Network (APAN), told the March 3 rally in Garramilla/Darwin that “Israelis and Zionists want to kill Palestinians”, reported Stephen W Enciso.

‘They want decolonisation’
“Palestinians do not want to kill Israels. Indigenous folk do not want to kill their colonisers. They just want to be acknowledged. They want [a] treaty. They want their rights. They want restitution. They want racism to stop and decolonisation to start,” he said.

Kulumbirigin Danggalaba Tiwi woman Mililma May drew links between the colonial violence faced by Indigenous people in Australia and Palestine.

She pointed to the coronial inquest into the killing of Kumanjayi Walker by former constable Zachary Rolfe, in which Rolfe gave evidence about widespread racism in the Northern Territory Police Force.

“We are witnessing in plain evidence the racism and the deep horror that exists in the NT police, as across the colony,” May said.

“We live in the same states and under the same violence as Palestine. It just manifests itself in different ways.”

Kites flying for Gaza
A kite-flying for Gaza event was organised by Pilbara for Palestine in Karratha, Western Australia on March 3.

Children made and flew kites decorated with Palestinian flags, watermelons and “Free Palestine” in solidarity with the children on Gaza.

Organiser Chris Jenkins told Green Left that the action “demonstrated once again that support for Palestine exists from the CBD to the bush”.

The community also raised money for UNRWA.

In Muloobinba/Newcastle a “Hands off Rafah” rally and kite-flying event was held on March 2 at Nobby’s Beach, reported Khaled Ghannam.

Former Greens Senator Lee Rhiannon, who visited Palestine in June last year, said the Israeli occupation impacts on everything Palestinians do.

“One of the common things that people we interviewed said was, ‘please take our voice to the world’,” she said.

“We are part of a massive global movement, millions of people are on the move around the world in so many countries, with a similar message to us:

• Ceasefire now,
• Restore UNRWA funding, and
• End the occupation.”

She said the UN had called on Australia and other countries to stop arming Israel.

Republished with permission from Green Left.

This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by APR editor.

Thousands marched for Palestine across Australia at the weekend in the wake of Israel’s massacre of more than 100 starving Palestinians who were trying to get flour from an aid truck southwest of Gaza City.

Israel’s siege on Gaza has stopped Palestinians from accessing food, medical supplies and other crucial aid. A United Nations report found that more than 90 percent of the population, more than 2 million people, are facing starvation and malnutrition.

This is made worse by the cutting of funding to the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) by Western governments, the main organisation providing aid to Gaza, after Israel alleged that 12 of its 30,000 staff were involved in the October 7 incursion.

• READ MORE: Death toll ris­es as Is­raeli forces in­ten­si­fy at­tacks in south­ern Gaza
• Other War on Gaza reports

The Labor government has refused to restore funding to UNRWA despite foreign minister Penny Wong conceding she had not seen any evidence to support Israel’s allegations.

“Our government has suspended funding to UNRWA when instead it should be restoring it and increasing it,” Greens senator Larissa Waters told the Meanjin/Brisbane rally on March 3, reported Alex Bainbridge.

Waters said that Foreign Minister Penny Wong was right to condemn Israel’s attack on food vans but that she was “not bowled over by the strength of response because Senator Wong has said she’s going to get her department to have a little word to the Israeli ambassador”.

“That’s all she’s going to do after we saw desperate parents getting slaughtered [while getting] food for their children.”

‘Solidarity with Palestinian women’
The rally had a “Solidarity with Palestinian women” theme in recognition of International Women’s Day on March 8.

Call on global Jewish community to rise up against Israel’s genocide in Gaza.   Video: Green Left

Protesters held a minute’s silence in recognition of United States Air Force serviceperson Aaron Bushnell who self-immolated on February 25 in protest against the US government’s participation in genocide.

Israel has begun its bombardment offensive against Rafah, the small city in southern Gaza where 1.4 million people are sheltering. More than 30,500 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since October 7.

A YouGov survey found that more than 80 percent of Australians support an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, showing the Palestine solidarity movement has cut through the establishment media pro-Israel messaging.

Edie Shepherd, from the Tzedek Collective, an anti-Zionist Jewish group told thousands at the rally in Gadigal/Sydney on March 3 that the global Jewish community must “rise up against the dominant Zionist frameworks that wield hate, power militarism to carry out atrocities against Palestinians”, reported Peter Boyle.

“The greatest shame is that our survival of genocide has been weaponised to commit genocide against Palestinians now.”

Nasser Mashni, president of the Australia Palestine Advocacy Network (APAN), told the March 3 rally in Garramilla/Darwin that “Israelis and Zionists want to kill Palestinians”, reported Stephen W Enciso.

‘They want decolonisation’
“Palestinians do not want to kill Israels. Indigenous folk do not want to kill their colonisers. They just want to be acknowledged. They want [a] treaty. They want their rights. They want restitution. They want racism to stop and decolonisation to start,” he said.

Kulumbirigin Danggalaba Tiwi woman Mililma May drew links between the colonial violence faced by Indigenous people in Australia and Palestine.

She pointed to the coronial inquest into the killing of Kumanjayi Walker by former constable Zachary Rolfe, in which Rolfe gave evidence about widespread racism in the Northern Territory Police Force.

“We are witnessing in plain evidence the racism and the deep horror that exists in the NT police, as across the colony,” May said.

“We live in the same states and under the same violence as Palestine. It just manifests itself in different ways.”

Kites flying for Gaza
A kite-flying for Gaza event was organised by Pilbara for Palestine in Karratha, Western Australia on March 3.

Children made and flew kites decorated with Palestinian flags, watermelons and “Free Palestine” in solidarity with the children on Gaza.

Organiser Chris Jenkins told Green Left that the action “demonstrated once again that support for Palestine exists from the CBD to the bush”.

The community also raised money for UNRWA.

In Muloobinba/Newcastle a “Hands off Rafah” rally and kite-flying event was held on March 2 at Nobby’s Beach, reported Khaled Ghannam.

Former Greens Senator Lee Rhiannon, who visited Palestine in June last year, said the Israeli occupation impacts on everything Palestinians do.

“One of the common things that people we interviewed said was, ‘please take our voice to the world’,” she said.

“We are part of a massive global movement, millions of people are on the move around the world in so many countries, with a similar message to us:

• Ceasefire now,
• Restore UNRWA funding, and
• End the occupation.”

She said the UN had called on Australia and other countries to stop arming Israel.

Republished with permission from Green Left.

This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by APR editor.

In his half-hour-long address, PM Modi talked about various topics including how innovative campaigns are being executed in different regions of the country to eradicate malnutrition. Against this backdrop, on August 30, two days after the episode was aired, an opinion piece was published on The Wire Science titled “Dear PM Modi: Good Food Will Reduce the Burden of Malnutrition, Not Bhajans”.

The piece, authored by Pankaj Kumar Mishra, a PhD scholar at the Centre of Social Medicine and Community Health at the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), was shared by The Wire on Twitter with a caption that read, “Prime Minister Narendra Modi said conducting bhajans can be part of the solutions to reducing malnutrition.” This tweet received over 1400+ likes and 400+ retweets.

Quote-tweeting The Wire’s tweet, Dr Shashi Panja, the West Bengal women and child development minister, wrote, “Dear PM @narendramodi, availability and easy access to healthy food will reduce the burden of malnutrition, NOT BHAJANS.” She also called the PM “a colossal failure” when it comes to the lives of children of this nation.

Dear PM @narendramodi, availability and easy access to healthy food will reduce the burden of malnutrition, NOT BHAJANS.

Give up your stupidity! You are a colossal failure when it comes to improving the lives of our children in this nation. https://t.co/YYO1pLTMrT

— Dr. Shashi Panja (@DrShashiPanja) August 31, 2022

Ashok Swain, professor of peace and conflict research at Uppsala University, tweeted on the matter saying that “PM Modi says singing Bhajan (Hindu devotional song) can solve malnutrition problem.” His tweet garnered over 10k likes and 1000+ retweets.

On August 31, Telangana Rashtra Samithi leader K.T. Rama Rao tweeted on the issue saying “I seriously hope it was a teleprompter typo where Bhojan was typed in as Bhajan”.

Fact-check

We carefully analysed the opinion piece written by Pankaj Kumar Mishra for The Wire Science and noticed that the author argues that the PM said that “conducting bhajans and singing devotional songs can help reduce the burden of malnutrition.” Below we have added the relevant portion from the piece.

On the official YouTube channel of PM Narendra Modi, we found the clip of him talking about innovative campaigns to eradicate malnutrition. In this four-minute-long clip, the PM talks about three states — Assam, Madhya Pradesh and Jharkhand — where local administrations have come up with innovative ways to tackle the problem.

At the 1:00 minute mark, while talking about Madhya Pradesh, the PM says “Can you imagine that songs, music and bhajans can also be used to fight malnutrition?” He goes on to say that in the Datia district of Madhya Pradesh, under the “Mera Bachha Campaign”, bhajan-kirtans were organized in which teachers, known as nutrition gurus, were called. He further adds that a ‘balbhoj’ or meals for children event is also organised using grains provided by women to the Anganwadi centre.

Alt News accessed the English translation and the Hindi transcription of the address through the website of All India Radio (AIR). Below we have added the Hindi transcript of the segment:

The English translation of the script available on the AIR website was inaccurate. However, a different translation was provided on the official YouTube channel of PM Narendra Modi which was more faithful to the original Hindi speech. It says:

“Can you imagine that songs, music and bhajans can also be used to fight malnutrition? It was successfully used in ‘Mera Baccha Abhiyan’ in Datia, Madhya Pradesh. Under this bhajan-kirtan programs were organised in the district, where teachers known as ‘Poshan Guru’ were called. A ‘matka program’ is also organised. In this, women bring a fistful of grains to the Anganwadi Centre and with these grains ‘bal bhoj’ is organised for children on Saturdays. This helped in increasing the attendance of children in Anganwadi Centres and also decreased malnutrition.” (sic)

It is quite evident from this excerpt that the Prime Minister did not say Bhajans can be a solution to the problem of malnutrition. His speech rather focused on how local administrations had come up with unique solutions to fight malnutrition, among which bhajan-kirtan was a crucial tool. In fact, using various art forms to raise awareness is not uncommon at all. We can find instances of them in the battle against climate change or  Covid-19.

Mera Baccha Abhiyan

To gather more information on Mera Bacha Abhiyan, Alt News reached out to Arvind Upadhyay, the district program officer (women & child development), Datia. “We organised these bhajan sessions in the afternoon when the women of the area are most free. We noticed that nobody wanted to hear lectures in their free time, so we sang Bhajans to gather them at one place. Then we used songs called ‘Suposhan Geet’ to raise awareness on nutrition,” Arvind said.

“We started in September of 2019 and in the initial phase things were unorganised, but today we have everything in order. Bhajans are used to gather an audience. The Poshan Gurus are school teachers who talk about nutrition after school prayers or after a lecture. There are qualified volunteers as well who are considered Poshan Gurus. We also have nutrition clubs where we hold orientation for people. We received an award this year for our efforts to eradicate malnutrition,” he added.

Datia district received Prime Minister’s Award for Excellence in Public Administration on April 21, 2022.

Upon request, Mr Upadhyay shared a video of such a session with us, where women are singing about the benefits of having green vegetables.

Analysing the cycle of misinformation

There are multiple factors that led to the misinterpretation of PM’s speech. The programme aired on August 28 and the opinion piece on The Wire Science was published on August 30. Between these two days, there was no ‘outrage’ on social media.

Misleading caption & headline

It is pertinent to look at the caption of the tweet by The Wire. The caption says PM said, “…Bhajans can be part of the solutions…” but it fails to capture the essence of the speech. The PM was talking about innovative ways local administrations are fighting malnutrition among which was bhajan-kirtan as a tool to distribute information on malnutrition. This crucial information did not make it to the caption and hence a cycle of misinterpretation began.

The evidence that The Wire’s tweet was misinterpreted can easily be figured out when we do an advance search on Twitter. One of the first tweets about Bhajans is by All India Radio News on August 28 and it has only 20 retweets. Meanwhile, the tweet by The Wire on August 30 has over 500+ quote tweets and 400+ retweets. This suggests that without reading the content of the article people had jumped to their own conclusion. It is a well-known phenomenon that people on Twitter jump to conclusions without opening and reading an article, that is one of the reasons why Twitter shows a prompt asking users to read before they retweet.

When we look further at the quote-tweets it is more evident that the users focused only on the tweet and not the article within the tweet.

On Crowd Tangle, the social monitoring platform by Meta, we again noticed the same pattern. It was The Wire’s tweet that became the focus of the topic. Readers who have access to Crowd Tangle can view the extent of the impressions by clicking on this link.

This claim eventually got detached from The Wire’s tweet and found an independent life of its own in popular culture in the form of cartoons, memes and infographics, with information which was totally opposite of what the PM said and what The Wire Science story suggested. Below we have added two such examples. One is a cartoon by Satish Acharya and the other is an infographic.

The headline of the article in The Wire Science, too, was misleading since it claimed, albeit indirectly, that the PM said bhajans could be used to reduce the burden of misinformation.

Lack of details in the speech and inaccurate translation

The Prime Minister’s speech did not elaborate on how this ‘Mera Baccha Abhiyan’ programme worked. It did not explain the nature of these bhajan-kirtan sessions and the role of the ‘Poshan Gurus’. It was only after speaking to the District Program Officer of Datia, that Alt News was able to figure out how bhajan-kirtan sessions are used as a tool to gather an audience.

Moreover, the translation of the PM’s speech available on All India Radio’s website failed to capture the essence of his speech. Any non-Hindi speaker reading the translation is bound to have difficulties in figuring out what is being conveyed.

To sum it up, a segment in Mann Ki Baat where PM Modi spoke about innovative ways through which malnourishment was being tackled was misinterpreted by various social media users and prominent figures. This misinterpretation is also evident in the caption of a tweet by The Wire and in the headline of an article in The Wire Science, both of which failed to capture the nuances of the PM’s speech.

The post Mann ki Baat: PM Modi didn’t say Bhajans reduced malnutrition appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Kalim Ahmed.

In his half-hour-long address, PM Modi talked about various topics including how innovative campaigns are being executed in different regions of the country to eradicate malnutrition. Against this backdrop, on August 30, two days after the episode was aired, an opinion piece was published on The Wire Science titled “Dear PM Modi: Good Food Will Reduce the Burden of Malnutrition, Not Bhajans”.

The piece, authored by Pankaj Kumar Mishra, a PhD scholar at the Centre of Social Medicine and Community Health at the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), was shared by The Wire on Twitter with a caption that read, “Prime Minister Narendra Modi said conducting bhajans can be part of the solutions to reducing malnutrition.” This tweet received over 1400+ likes and 400+ retweets.

Quote-tweeting The Wire’s tweet, Dr Shashi Panja, the West Bengal women and child development minister, wrote, “Dear PM @narendramodi, availability and easy access to healthy food will reduce the burden of malnutrition, NOT BHAJANS.” She also called the PM “a colossal failure” when it comes to the lives of children of this nation.

Dear PM @narendramodi, availability and easy access to healthy food will reduce the burden of malnutrition, NOT BHAJANS.

Give up your stupidity! You are a colossal failure when it comes to improving the lives of our children in this nation. https://t.co/YYO1pLTMrT

— Dr. Shashi Panja (@DrShashiPanja) August 31, 2022

Ashok Swain, professor of peace and conflict research at Uppsala University, tweeted on the matter saying that “PM Modi says singing Bhajan (Hindu devotional song) can solve malnutrition problem.” His tweet garnered over 10k likes and 1000+ retweets.

On August 31, Telangana Rashtra Samithi leader K.T. Rama Rao tweeted on the issue saying “I seriously hope it was a teleprompter typo where Bhojan was typed in as Bhajan”.

Fact-check

We carefully analysed the opinion piece written by Pankaj Kumar Mishra for The Wire Science and noticed that the author argues that the PM said that “conducting bhajans and singing devotional songs can help reduce the burden of malnutrition.” Below we have added the relevant portion from the piece.

On the official YouTube channel of PM Narendra Modi, we found the clip of him talking about innovative campaigns to eradicate malnutrition. In this four-minute-long clip, the PM talks about three states — Assam, Madhya Pradesh and Jharkhand — where local administrations have come up with innovative ways to tackle the problem.

At the 1:00 minute mark, while talking about Madhya Pradesh, the PM says “Can you imagine that songs, music and bhajans can also be used to fight malnutrition?” He goes on to say that in the Datia district of Madhya Pradesh, under the “Mera Bachha Campaign”, bhajan-kirtans were organized in which teachers, known as nutrition gurus, were called. He further adds that a ‘balbhoj’ or meals for children event is also organised using grains provided by women to the Anganwadi centre.

Alt News accessed the English translation and the Hindi transcription of the address through the website of All India Radio (AIR). Below we have added the Hindi transcript of the segment:

The English translation of the script available on the AIR website was inaccurate. However, a different translation was provided on the official YouTube channel of PM Narendra Modi which was more faithful to the original Hindi speech. It says:

“Can you imagine that songs, music and bhajans can also be used to fight malnutrition? It was successfully used in ‘Mera Baccha Abhiyan’ in Datia, Madhya Pradesh. Under this bhajan-kirtan programs were organised in the district, where teachers known as ‘Poshan Guru’ were called. A ‘matka program’ is also organised. In this, women bring a fistful of grains to the Anganwadi Centre and with these grains ‘bal bhoj’ is organised for children on Saturdays. This helped in increasing the attendance of children in Anganwadi Centres and also decreased malnutrition.” (sic)

It is quite evident from this excerpt that the Prime Minister did not say Bhajans can be a solution to the problem of malnutrition. His speech rather focused on how local administrations had come up with unique solutions to fight malnutrition, among which bhajan-kirtan was a crucial tool. In fact, using various art forms to raise awareness is not uncommon at all. We can find instances of them in the battle against climate change or  Covid-19.

Mera Baccha Abhiyan

To gather more information on Mera Bacha Abhiyan, Alt News reached out to Arvind Upadhyay, the district program officer (women & child development), Datia. “We organised these bhajan sessions in the afternoon when the women of the area are most free. We noticed that nobody wanted to hear lectures in their free time, so we sang Bhajans to gather them at one place. Then we used songs called ‘Suposhan Geet’ to raise awareness on nutrition,” Arvind said.

“We started in September of 2019 and in the initial phase things were unorganised, but today we have everything in order. Bhajans are used to gather an audience. The Poshan Gurus are school teachers who talk about nutrition after school prayers or after a lecture. There are qualified volunteers as well who are considered Poshan Gurus. We also have nutrition clubs where we hold orientation for people. We received an award this year for our efforts to eradicate malnutrition,” he added.

Datia district received Prime Minister’s Award for Excellence in Public Administration on April 21, 2022.

Upon request, Mr Upadhyay shared a video of such a session with us, where women are singing about the benefits of having green vegetables.

Analysing the cycle of misinformation

There are multiple factors that led to the misinterpretation of PM’s speech. The programme aired on August 28 and the opinion piece on The Wire Science was published on August 30. Between these two days, there was no ‘outrage’ on social media.

Misleading caption & headline

It is pertinent to look at the caption of the tweet by The Wire. The caption says PM said, “…Bhajans can be part of the solutions…” but it fails to capture the essence of the speech. The PM was talking about innovative ways local administrations are fighting malnutrition among which was bhajan-kirtan as a tool to distribute information on malnutrition. This crucial information did not make it to the caption and hence a cycle of misinterpretation began.

The evidence that The Wire’s tweet was misinterpreted can easily be figured out when we do an advance search on Twitter. One of the first tweets about Bhajans is by All India Radio News on August 28 and it has only 20 retweets. Meanwhile, the tweet by The Wire on August 30 has over 500+ quote tweets and 400+ retweets. This suggests that without reading the content of the article people had jumped to their own conclusion. It is a well-known phenomenon that people on Twitter jump to conclusions without opening and reading an article, that is one of the reasons why Twitter shows a prompt asking users to read before they retweet.

When we look further at the quote-tweets it is more evident that the users focused only on the tweet and not the article within the tweet.

On Crowd Tangle, the social monitoring platform by Meta, we again noticed the same pattern. It was The Wire’s tweet that became the focus of the topic. Readers who have access to Crowd Tangle can view the extent of the impressions by clicking on this link.

This claim eventually got detached from The Wire’s tweet and found an independent life of its own in popular culture in the form of cartoons, memes and infographics, with information which was totally opposite of what the PM said and what The Wire Science story suggested. Below we have added two such examples. One is a cartoon by Satish Acharya and the other is an infographic.

The headline of the article in The Wire Science, too, was misleading since it claimed, albeit indirectly, that the PM said bhajans could be used to reduce the burden of misinformation.

Lack of details in the speech and inaccurate translation

The Prime Minister’s speech did not elaborate on how this ‘Mera Baccha Abhiyan’ programme worked. It did not explain the nature of these bhajan-kirtan sessions and the role of the ‘Poshan Gurus’. It was only after speaking to the District Program Officer of Datia, that Alt News was able to figure out how bhajan-kirtan sessions are used as a tool to gather an audience.

Moreover, the translation of the PM’s speech available on All India Radio’s website failed to capture the essence of his speech. Any non-Hindi speaker reading the translation is bound to have difficulties in figuring out what is being conveyed.

To sum it up, a segment in Mann Ki Baat where PM Modi spoke about innovative ways through which malnourishment was being tackled was misinterpreted by various social media users and prominent figures. This misinterpretation is also evident in the caption of a tweet by The Wire and in the headline of an article in The Wire Science, both of which failed to capture the nuances of the PM’s speech.

The post Mann ki Baat: PM Modi didn’t say Bhajans reduced malnutrition appeared first on Alt News.

This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Kalim Ahmed.

The failure by global policymakers to act decisively to address the climate emergency threatens to erase decades of progress in the fight against childhood malnutrition in the Global South, according to a new study by researchers at Cornell University.

The study shows that children in low-income countries are increasingly suffering from both acute and chronic malnutrition as their communities experience the effects of extreme heat, which is becoming more prevalent and severe around the world as fossil fuel extraction persists and carbon emissions rise.

"As the number of hot days increases, we find that the prevalence of child malnutrition increases to a pretty high degree."

Sylvia Blom, who earned a Ph.D. from Cornell University in 2021 and led the study published earlier this month in the Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, said in a statement last week that "as the number of hot days increases, we find that the prevalence of child malnutrition increases to a pretty high degree."

Blom and her co-authors compared household survey data from 1993 to 2014 in five West African countries—Benin, Togo, Ghana, Burkina Faso, and Cote d'Ivoire—with geocoded weather data collected by Princeton University, tracking the hours of exposure to extreme heat over children's lifetimes and during heat shocks.

The study examined the effects of extreme heat on more than 32,000 children ages 3 months to 3 years old, finding that the average level of extreme heat exposure increased the prevalence of stunted growth from chronic malnutrition by 12%.

The prevalence of low weight from acute malnutrition increased by 29%.

The research comes as climate experts are warning that global policymakers are not doing enough to limit planetary heating to 1.5°C. If the global temperature rise reaches 2°C, as scientists warn it is likely to without major reductions in emissions, "the average effect of heat exposure on stunting would nearly double," said the researchers.

That means the level of child malnutrition in the Global South would wipe out gains made by anti-poverty initiatives over the study period.

"We're talking about children at a very young age that will have changes for the rest of their lives, so this is permanently scarring their potential," said Ariel Ortiz-Bobea, an associate professor and applied economist at Cornell. "What we are doing to reduce global poverty is being eroded by our lack of action on climate."

Programs that resulted in improved incomes, infrastructure, and child care practices during the study period helped reduce stunted growth by 5.8% on average.

"While this progress has been welcomed in West Africa and in other low- and middle-income countries, it's occurring against the backdrop of rising temperatures and an increased likelihood of extreme weather events," said John Hoddinott, a professor of food and nutrition economics and policy at Cornell. "Our work suggests these rising temperatures risk wiping out that progress."

The researchers said they believe the causal effects of extreme heat on malnutrition are "not physiological responses to direct heat," but are rather related to factors including higher risks that children will be exposed to pathogens from food and water that's been exposed to heat. Lower consumption of protein from animal sources, due to reduced agricultural productivity, could also be behind the spikes in malnutrition.

The study was released as extreme heat killed more than 1,000 people in Europe, broke a 40-year record in Tunisia's capital city as temperatures reached 118°F, and melted tar and buckled roads in China.

"Such extreme heat has direct impacts on human health," said Steven Pawson of the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center.

This content originally appeared on Common Dreams - Breaking News & Views for the Progressive Community and was authored by Julia Conley.

The failure by global policymakers to act decisively to address the climate emergency threatens to erase decades of progress in the fight against childhood malnutrition in the Global South, according to a new study by researchers at Cornell University.

The study shows that children in low-income countries are increasingly suffering from both acute and chronic malnutrition as their communities experience the effects of extreme heat, which is becoming more prevalent and severe around the world as fossil fuel extraction persists and carbon emissions rise.

"As the number of hot days increases, we find that the prevalence of child malnutrition increases to a pretty high degree."

Sylvia Blom, who earned a Ph.D. from Cornell University in 2021 and led the study published earlier this month in the Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, said in a statement last week that "as the number of hot days increases, we find that the prevalence of child malnutrition increases to a pretty high degree."

Blom and her co-authors compared household survey data from 1993 to 2014 in five West African countries—Benin, Togo, Ghana, Burkina Faso, and Cote d'Ivoire—with geocoded weather data collected by Princeton University, tracking the hours of exposure to extreme heat over children's lifetimes and during heat shocks.

The study examined the effects of extreme heat on more than 32,000 children ages 3 months to 3 years old, finding that the average level of extreme heat exposure increased the prevalence of stunted growth from chronic malnutrition by 12%.

The prevalence of low weight from acute malnutrition increased by 29%.

The research comes as climate experts are warning that global policymakers are not doing enough to limit planetary heating to 1.5°C. If the global temperature rise reaches 2°C, as scientists warn it is likely to without major reductions in emissions, "the average effect of heat exposure on stunting would nearly double," said the researchers.

That means the level of child malnutrition in the Global South would wipe out gains made by anti-poverty initiatives over the study period.

"We're talking about children at a very young age that will have changes for the rest of their lives, so this is permanently scarring their potential," said Ariel Ortiz-Bobea, an associate professor and applied economist at Cornell. "What we are doing to reduce global poverty is being eroded by our lack of action on climate."

Programs that resulted in improved incomes, infrastructure, and child care practices during the study period helped reduce stunted growth by 5.8% on average.

"While this progress has been welcomed in West Africa and in other low- and middle-income countries, it's occurring against the backdrop of rising temperatures and an increased likelihood of extreme weather events," said John Hoddinott, a professor of food and nutrition economics and policy at Cornell. "Our work suggests these rising temperatures risk wiping out that progress."

The researchers said they believe the causal effects of extreme heat on malnutrition are "not physiological responses to direct heat," but are rather related to factors including higher risks that children will be exposed to pathogens from food and water that's been exposed to heat. Lower consumption of protein from animal sources, due to reduced agricultural productivity, could also be behind the spikes in malnutrition.

The study was released as extreme heat killed more than 1,000 people in Europe, broke a 40-year record in Tunisia's capital city as temperatures reached 118°F, and melted tar and buckled roads in China.

"Such extreme heat has direct impacts on human health," said Steven Pawson of the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center.

This content originally appeared on Common Dreams - Breaking News & Views for the Progressive Community and was authored by Julia Conley.

Human rights advocates are demanding that the United States immediately release billions of dollars which it seized from Afghanistan's Central Bank after ending its 20-year military occupation of the country last year, causing a devastating hunger crisis that has already killed thousands of Afghan newborns in 2022.

"The country needs a functioning Central Bank. Aid is not enough."

With 95% of the country unable to access sufficient food due to the currency crisis, Human Rights Watch (HRW) reported last week that 13,000 newborn babies have died of malnutrition and hunger-related diseases since January, warning that "time is running out" to address hunger in the impoverished country.

"This suffering is on the U.S. government," said anti-war group CodePink Monday in response to reports that as many as 3.5 million Afghan children need urgent nutrition support.

After spending months sitting on more than $9 billion it seized from the central bank last summer after the Taliban took over Afghanistan, the Biden administration last month announced it would commit $3.5 billion to unspecified humanitarian efforts.

But as HRW reported last week, the U.S. sanctions on the Taliban have left international banks wary of allowing aid groups to transfer funds into the country, while currency shortages are forcing Afghan banks to limit withdrawals.

"The country needs a functioning central bank," said Birgit Schwarz, a communications manager for the organization. "Aid is not enough."

As Ryan Cooper wrote at The American Prospect last month, the seizure of Afghan funds has "caused all the problems one might expect."

"The banking system has ceased to function," he wrote. "Businesses can't find credit and have resorted to mass bankruptcies and layoffs; people can't get enough cash; the country can't afford necessary imports; and the value of the currency is collapsing."

CodePink noted that the Biden administration's decision to split the funds it seized last year, reserving $3.5 billion for families who lost loved ones on September 11—over the objections of many of those family members—"undoubtedly exacerbated this horrific crisis."

According to a report last week by the BBC, hospitals run by charities like Doctors Withour Borders (MSF) have become "completely overwhelmed."

"One in every five children admitted to critical care is dying," wrote Yogita Limaye, "and the situation at the hospital has been made worse in recent weeks by the spread of the highly contagious measles disease that damages the body's immune system, a deadly blow for babies already suffering from malnutrition."

While the director of one humanitarian group told HRW last week that children across the country "are only skin on bones now," Cooper noted that "there is likely enough food in Afghanistan for all Afghans to survive, and in any case more could be imported as needed."

"The main problem is the shattering recession and currency crisis that has crushed the Afghan economy since American troops withdrew," he wrote. "Occupation spending accounted for about 40% of the country's GDP, and three-quarters of its government budget. Most Afghans can't afford food that would otherwise be readily available."

The country's hunger crisis is "absolutely heartbreaking" as well as "preventable," said MSNBC journalist Mehdi Hasan.

According to Sara Sirota of The Intercept, lawmakers including Sens. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) and Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) are calling on the Biden administration "to move more quickly to try to... loosen up the banking system."

"We absolutely could be moving more money more quickly," said Murphy on Monday.

This content originally appeared on Common Dreams - Breaking News & Views for the Progressive Community and was authored by Julia Conley.

RNZ News

In just a few weeks the situation in Afghanistan has deteriorated sharply as millions cope without desperately needed international aid, New Zealand journalist Charlotte Bellis says.

Bellis is Al Jazeera’s senior producer in Afghanistan and reported on the turmoil in August as the Taliban took over the government and thousands of people tried to flee.

She has dealt with Taliban leaders for a long time, and has sensed a change in their attitudes since they first ruled the country before being toppled 20 years ago.

• LISTEN: ‘I just can’t believe how quickly everything has deteriorated’ – NZ journalist Charlotte Bellis in Afghanistan (Duration 10′:12″)
• READ MORE: Taliban takeover: Charlotte Bellis faces perils outside ‘enemy territory’ — Pacific Journalism Review

She had to leave the country in mid-September because the network feared for her safety and Bellis noted on Twitter that the Taliban were detaining and beating journalists trying to cover protests.

Now she has returned and told RNZ Sunday Morning that she was not worried about her safety.

“The situation here is pretty dire and there are a lot of stories still to be told and I feel invested in what’s happening here and I also just love the country. It’s a beautiful place to be with amazing people and I genuinely like being here.”

However, the country is facing an uncertain future with its population suffering more than ever now that international aid has been cut off.

UN warns of humanitarian crisis
This week the United Nations warned that Afghanistan is becoming the world’s largest humanitarian crisis and Bellis agrees.

“The Taliban took over about two months ago and I just can’t believe how quickly everything has deteriorated.

“People cannot find food, there’s no money, they can’t pay for things, employers can’t pay their workers because there’s no cash, they can’t get money out even from the ATMs.”

Millions of jobs have disappeared, half of the population does not know where their next meal is coming from and already children are dying from malnutrition, Bellis said.

All the aid agencies are appealing to the world to listen.

23 million need urgent help
She is about to go out with the UN Refugee Agency whose teams are organising some aid distribution as the temperatures drop to 2 degC overnight as winter approaches. They are handing out blankets, food and some cash to thousands of the needy in camps in Kabul.

“But it’s such a Band-Aid. There is no way they can reach the number of people they need to reach — it’s  like 23 million people who need that kind of assistance,” she said.

Neighbouring countries such as Pakistan and Iran were very concerned, in part because they fear a huge influx of refugees. They have closed the borders to try and keep them away.

The process of getting money and food into people’s hands had broken down, she said, with a lot of it due to United States sanctions.

Three quarters of the country ran on foreign donations before the Taliban took over and that has dried up because no countries are recognising the Taliban’s legitimacy to govern.

Bellis has spoken to one senior Taliban official who said that at recent meetings between the Taliban and the US in Doha the Americans would not tell the Taliban what policies they needed to enact to unfreeze billions of dollars in funding.

“They [the Americans] are playing with millions of people’s lives.”

School problem for girls
She believes some Taliban leaders are pragmatic and would be willing to agree to high school girls being educated but are worried they will alienate their conservative base.

In the main, primary school age girls are able to attend their lessons but the problem is at secondary school level.

“If you’re a high school girl in Kabul it’s awful – sitting around thinking how did this happen. It’s really frustrating and really frustrating for everyone to watch and say this doesn’t make sense.”

Bellis said while she feels safe at the moment, the main problem is the terrorist group, ISIS-K, who have made threats against the hotel where she is staying.

The Taliban have said they will protect guests and have placed dozens of extra guards outside.

ISIS-K is believed to only number between 1200 and 1500 yet they are a potent force with their random attacks, such as beheading members of the Taliban, whom they hate.

She believes the Taliban’s biggest worry is that ISIS will appeal to its most fundamentalist members.

ISIS attracting recruits
ISIS is also believed to be trying to attract recruits who would be trained as fighters and be paid $400 a month which is a substantial amount of money in Afghanistan.

Bellis said she feels guilty staying at a hotel with the scale of poverty and deprivation she is witnessing.

“Right outside the door people are desperate,” she said.

She visited a major maternity hospital in Kabul yesterday and the only medication available for women giving birth was paracetamol.

“Imagine going into labour and thinking, OK if anything goes wrong I’ve got paracetamol. It’s just life and death on so many levels.”

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

For those of you wondering what you can do to help Afghans.. this @WFP project is the gold standard.
You donate meals direct to Afghans – choosing a set number of meals or month at a time. https://t.co/qgmuaTdpfo

— Charlotte Bellis (@CharlotteBellis) October 26, 2021

This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by Pacific Media Watch.

By AUT News

The Tonga episode in Auckland University of Technology’s Pacific language video series – Adapting to a Changing World, Shaping Resilient Futures – has been released.

The video is narrated in Tongan (with English subtitles) from the viewpoint of a 15-year-old girl, to acknowledge the language being celebrated in Aotearoa New Zealand this week.

It looks at the issue of food security among our Pacific families in Aotearoa, based on significant findings from the Pacific Islands Families Study (PIFS).

PIFS director Associate Professor El-Shadan Tautolo said the availability and cost of healthy food options was a significant issue faced by many communities across Aotearoa, including Pacific families.

“Our research found that around 40 percent of the 1300 families interviewed, could not afford to buy healthy food, and as a result, they would often skip important meals and go hungry, or they would buy food that was less nutritious, but cheaper,” said Associate Professor Tautolo.

“Much more needs to be done for our communities when it comes to this issue.

“There are some resources available, including AUT’s Certificate of Proficiency in Pacific Nutrition, which supports our communities to utilise healthy eating options or alternatives, at a low cost, to avoid diet-related health diseases.

“However, at a policy level, governments need to do more to close the gap between food availability, choice and cost, particularly in light of the recent covid-19 situation and the impact on household incomes and the ability to buy nutritious healthy food.

“The upcoming elections provide an opportunity to see this issue highlighted – we need urgent regulatory changes to ensure healthy food options are prioritised.”

Release dates for upcoming videos:

• Te Wiki o te Reo Māori (Māori Language Week) – Sunday September 13 2020
• Tuvalu – Sunday 27 September
• Fiji – Sunday 4 October
• Niue – Sunday 18 October
• Tokelau – Sunday 25 October