"Instead, we had to make do with Katy Perry spending 11 minutes on the edge of space as part of Blue Origin's all-female crewed mission. Perry promised us all that, in service of women's empowerment, the crew would put the ass' in astronaut and make space and science glam. Truly, one giant leap for womankind! Space may have got glam, but it was another glum year for many on Earth."
"The war in Ukraine continued, with increasing numbers of women volunteering to fight. The civil war in Sudan raged on, with the UN urging the world not to ignore harrowing details of targeted sexual violence, torture, and abductions from the region. The slaughter in Sudan is so extreme that the blood can even be seen from space. Although I'm not sure the billionaires and celebs doing celestial joyrides in their expensive rockets are particularly bothered by that view."
"Meanwhile, a ceasefire was supposedly brokered in Gaza in October. But, as the past few months have made clear, it is effectively a ceasefire in name only: the genocide, media blackout and aid blockade continue. Malnutrition remains rampant, particularly among children and pregnant and breastfeeding women. Babies who aren't starving are freezing to death. Over in the US, a year of Trump 2.0 has had a devastating impact on human rights protections at home and around the world."
Space tourism and celebrity publicity provided glamorous distractions while severe humanitarian crises persisted globally. The war in Ukraine continued with rising numbers of women joining the fight. The civil war in Sudan involved targeted sexual violence, torture, abductions, and mass slaughter reported as visible even from space. A nominal ceasefire in Gaza failed to stop genocide, media blackouts, and aid blockades, producing widespread malnutrition and lethal cold exposure among infants. In the United States, a new Trump administration reinstated the Global Gag Rule and saw intensified attacks on contraception, abortion access, and democratic norms. Celebrity gossip contrasted sharply with widespread human suffering.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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