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Tomás Ojea Quintana told the UN’s human rights committee that North Koreans are facing food shortages and livelihood breakdowns, with the most vulnerable being children and the elderly, who are at risk of starvation. He also brought up the issue of hunger in political prison camps.

For the unfamiliar, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea — the North’s official name –, has closed its borders to prevent a pandemic. Quintana added the government has taken other harsh measures to prevent the spread of the viral disease in the country, including a policy of shooting those who try to enter or leave the country.

According to the AP, the UN investigator also stated that closing the borders would have a “devastating impact” on the people’s right to health, as the DPRK’s health infrastructure is inadequate and supplies are in limited supply due to underlying human rights violations.
“Increased restrictions on freedom of movement and the shutting of national borders has choked market activity that has become essential for people’s access to basic necessities, including food,” Ojea Quintana added in his final report to the UN General Assembly after six years as the UN special investigator on human rights in the DPRK.

Despite the fact that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un recognizes the country’s “grim” food situation and is investing in attempts to prevent hunger, the border blockade has halted the United Nations’ and other international actors’ lifesaving humanitarian activities. According to the UN investigator, there is now no UN international staff in the country, and diplomats are continuing to leave.

In his report to the General Assembly, the UN investigator recommended that, in light of the pandemic, the Security Council committee overseeing sanctions against the DPRK over its nuclear programme “should re-evaluate the sanctions regime under these circumstances, and ease those sanctions as necessary.” Despite the fact that humanitarian aid to the DPRK is exempt from sanctions, Ojea Quintana believes sanctions have had unintended consequences for ordinary people.
He cited UN sanctions against the export of textiles and seafood, industries in which women are the majority of employees, as an example, which have resulted in women who are family breadwinners losing their jobs.
In his report, Ojea Quintana also acknowledged the irony of the DPRK’s failing social and economic rights while the government continues to test missiles, “probably diverting resources that should be allocated in those areas.”

Kolkata: Mamata Banerjee, the leader of the Trinamool Congress, has set her sights on growing her party’s footprint in poll-bound Goa, particularly in BJP-ruled states. TMC Supremo Mamata will arrive in the coastal state of Goa on October 28 for a two-day visit, amid speculation that the Goa Forward Party (GFP) and Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP) may join the TMC.

Following the defection of former Goa chief minister Luizinho Falerio last month, the Bengal chief minister is scheduled to attend a series of political events during her visit. Apart from Falerio, renowned Goan sports figures such as Denzil Franco, a footballer, and Lenny D’Gama, a boxer, had also joined the TMC.
The TMC launched a slogan in Goa before of Mamata’s visit—’Goanchi Navi Shokaal’—ahead of Mamata’s arrival (New morning in Goa). Early next year, the 40-member Goa assembly will be held.
“Her visit will be focused on the TMC’s stance in the coastal state’s politics. During Mamata’s visit, a few more prominent faces in Goa politics is likely to come to join our party. She will also hold meeting with some of the prominent faces who are known their anti-BJP views,’’ said a Trinamool leader.
The TMC has already decided to contest in all 40 of Goa’s Assembly seats in the upcoming elections. Mamata has sent MPs Derek O’Brien, Sukhendu Sekhar Roy, and Prasun Banerjee, as well as cabinet minister Manoj Tiwari, to Goa to campaign the party’s agenda.
Aside from the coastal state, the TMC is also looking forward for expanding its territory in Tripura adhereing in mind with the target of the 2023 Assembly elections. “Before the crucial 2024 Lok Sabha elections, we will hoist our party flags in these two states by derailing the BJP-led government in Tripura and introducing the TMC-led government in Goa,’’ said a leader of the Bengal’s ruling party.

Residents of Dabaka, near Hojai, have reacted angrily to the Assam government’s decision to cut down nearly 5,000 Sal trees, especially at a time when climate change is beginning to have an impact in the region.
The 13-kilometer stretch of road connecting Hojai and Karbi Anglong is known for its Bagan of Sal trees, the majority of which are over a century old.
Assam has received less rain than projected this year, and a massive deforestation push at this time could be devastating for the area.
According to recent satellite data analysed by researchers at the University of Maryland, Assam has lost 14.1 percent of its green cover due to large-scale deforestation and destruction of forest resources in the last 20 years.

Karbi Anglong is at the top of the list, losing 97.4 hectares (Kha) of green cover, followed by Dima Hasao (63.2 Kha), Sonitpur 17.4 Kha, Tinsukia 13.2 Kha, and Kokrajhar 10.4 Kha canopy cover, according to the research.
“The Assam government has drafted a proposal to strike down the forest to construct four-lane roads. The forest department has not yet allowed the felling of trees,” sources reported. Locals, however, allege that the trees in the area have been marked for felling.
Nearly 600 people live in the forest, and they are furious that the department did not consult them before deciding to ruin their environment.
Because the project is still in its early stages and has not yet been approved by the Assam Forest Department, it is unclear whether an impact assessment was done.

On Thursday, Chinese authorities canceled hundreds of flights, shut down schools, and increased mass testing in an effort to curb a fresh Covid-19 pandemic linked to a group of tourists.

Even as other countries slowly ease restrictions, Beijing has maintained a rigorous zero-Covid approach with stringent border closures and targeted lockdowns.
Domestic infections have largely been eradicated, but authorities in China tightened coronavirus controls after the sixth day of fresh cases — predominantly in northern and north-western areas.
China is imposing fresh COVID-19-induced lockdowns and closing its borders with neighboring countries, unlike other countries where restrictions have been lifted. This came after a group of tourists tested COVID-19 positive after seven elderly people on cross-provincial excursions.
According to reports, this group of travelers flew from Shanghai to Xi’an, Gansu Province, and Mongolia. Following that, dozens of cases in at least five provinces, including Beijing, have been recorded and linked to their visit. China reported new cases for the seventh day in a row, predominantly in the north and northwest.
COVID-19 infection in Beijing was caused by the Delta variant, according to virus gene sequencing results. In Northwest China’s Shaanxi and Gansu provinces, a COVID-19 transmission chain was found.
According to statistics from aviation tracker VariFlight, hundreds of flights have been canceled at airports in the affected areas.
Around 60% of flights to and from Xi’an and Lanzhou’s main airports have been canceled.
Erenhot in Inner Mongolia issued a notice on Monday prohibiting people from leaving their housing compounds and prohibiting movement in and out of the city.
The state-owned tabloid Global Times warned on Wednesday that the new virus cases in Inner Mongolia were likely to have an impact on Mongolian coal imports owing to supply chain disruptions.

The social media platforms WhatsApp, Instagram, and Facebook were all down on Monday, according to many users. Many social media users went to Twitter to express their dissatisfaction with the inability to access the services of the aforementioned websites.

It was reported by Downdetector.com, a website that monitors problems linked to traffic on major websites, that there has been an increase in the number of complaints confirming that a significant number of users have been unable to access WhatsApp, Facebook and Instagram.

It has been reported that the WhatsApp Service is not functioning for more than 20,000 users. The error message 5xx Server Error is also shown on the web.whatsapp.com page.

This is the first time on Twitter that none of these social media sites has made a comment about this occurrence. Users across the globe are experiencing an outage, according to news organizations Reuters and AFP. Users in the tens of millions may have been affected by the outage.

Furthermore, according to the website downdetector.com, at least 87,000 individuals have claimed that they were unable to access Facebook.