FSRN Weekly Edition – June 3, 2016
- Deadline passes for humanitarian aid access to besieged Syrian towns, UNSC considers air drops
- Refugee crisis driven further underground; drownings spike while smuggling booms
- CFPB proposes new rules to rein in payday loans
- Sub-Saharan African immigrants arrive with the most education but struggle with underemployment
- Despite numerous historic sites, Gaza Strip’s tourism industry barely exists
- African farmers seek creative solutions to cut back on food waste
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Deadline passes for humanitarian aid access to besieged Syrian towns, UNSC considers air drops
The June 1st deadline for the Syrian government to allow humanitarian aid access to a list of besieged towns has come and gone. The World Food Programme is now considering air-dropping aid packages and the UN Security Council met Friday on the issue. FSRN’s Nell Abram has more.
Refugee crisis driven further underground; drownings spike while smuggling booms
The war in Syria is but one of many factors pushing waves of refugees and migrants towards Europe and the journey is now deadlier than ever. Hundreds are drowning off the coast of Italy on a weekly, and even daily basis, Greek police are dismantling refugee settlements and smuggling routes into Hungary are skyrocketing. Despite border closures and resettlement plans, Europe’s refugee crisis hasn’t gone away. If anything it has become more complex and diffuse. Andrew Connelly reports from Subotica, Serbia.
CFPB proposes new rules to rein in payday loans
On Thursday, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) released a proposal for the first-ever federal regulations on the payday lending industry. The CFPB was set up 2010, in the wake of the financial crisis, as a watchdog agency for consumers in the U.S. FSRN’s Robert Packard has more.
Sub-Saharan African immigrants arrive with the most education but struggle with underemployment
The Migration Policy Institute counts Black immigrants as one of the fastest growing demographics in the United States, increasing by almost 200 percent in the 1980s and 1990s, and doubling in size during the 2000s. Once in the U.S., these immigrants generally have higher rates of college graduation than their counterparts from other regions of the world and U.S. citizen alike. And FSRN’s Lena Nozizwe reports, many African immigrants arrive with impressive levels of education.
Despite numerous historic sites, Gaza Strip’s tourism industry barely exists
The Gaza Strip has never been a major tourist destination, though before Israel clamped down on the coastal region’s borders visitors traveled there not only to the beach but to explore the area’s more than 30 ancient sites. But for almost a decade now, tourism has been nearly nonexistent and archaeological work all but stopped. FSRN’s Rami Almeghari has more.
African farmers seek creative solutions to cut back on food waste
The UN Food and Agriculture Organization estimates about one-third of all food produced globally goes to waste, creating a massive amount of greenhouse gas emissions and needlessly squandering water, land, labor and energy resources. This waste is drawing the attention of global agriculture organizations and financial institutions, which have started to back initiatives aimed at scaling back food waste. Now a group of farmers in Uganda has come up with one solution: transforming food into novel products with a longer shelf life. FSRN’s Ngala Killian Chimtom reports.
