Humans

• [New] We cannot rule out the possibility that the US-China commercial relationship will deteriorate further in 2021, as more sensitive, complicated, and structural issues began to get involved, such as national security, forced labor, and human rights.
• [New] The UN Human Rights Council will consider possible measures regarding Sri Lanka at its February-March 2021 session, including calls for an international accountability mechanism to pursue justice for past abuses.
• [New] President-Elect Biden is expected to maintain his predecessor's tough stance on China's trade, subsidy, intellectual property rights protection and other business practices, while more vocally condemning Beijing's human rights and undemocratic practices.
• [New] US and European donors might not be willing to stomach funding a Taliban-dominated government if it significantly reduces political freedoms and protections of human rights and women's rights.
• [New] The threat to human life has prompted platforms to take a more robust approach to removing misleading content in the last year.
• [New] The Asia Society said that it will be a tightrope walk, but the Biden administration should not hesitate to voice support for human rights, democratic institutions, and the rule of law as it deals with any of its partners, including India.
• [New] As the melting of glaciers around the world has gained pace due to the global climate crisis, smaller glaciers with an area smaller than 1 square kilometre are at particular risk, and might soon disappear without human intervention.
• [New] Global temperatures have increased 1.5 degrees since the year 1900 [and] scientists predict they could rise by 5 degrees Celsius by the year 2100.
• [New] India's term as a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council for 2021-22 and Uzbekistan's first-ever stint as a member of the UN Human Rights Council for 2021-23 gives rise to new possibilities of cooperation.
• [New] To maintain that increasing global temperatures are a threat to human existence itself entails believing that human beings - an endlessly adaptive species that has drastically increased its own lifespan over the past century - will be snuffed out if the planet gets a few degrees hotter.
• [New] US President-Elect Biden is expected to maintain his predecessor's tough stance on China's trade, subsidy and business practices, while more vocally condemning Beijing's human rights practices.
• [New] Current human use of the ocean is unsustainable but the tension between human commerce and protecting the ocean will grow as the global population is expected to reach 10 B by 2050.
• NASA's renewed efforts to return humans to the moon by 2024 has led to advances in new space technologies to improve processes, and reduce costs and development time.
• The need for international humanitarian assistance will reach a record high in 2021: more than 230 million people will be dependent on assistance.
• Venezuela's humanitarian and economic crisis will enter a new chapter in 2021, as Joe Biden enters the White House and turns away from Trump's maximum pressure campaign.
• A record 235 million people will need humanitarian assistance and protection in 2021, a 40% increase that the UN attributes almost entirely to Covid-19.
• The automotive landscape faces existential disruption over the next 5-7 years as governments around the world target regulations to achieve carbon neutrality.
• WITH the arrival of effective vaccines likely to bring the catastrophic Covid-19 pandemic under control in much of the world by summer 2021, the fight against climate change will once again be humanity's great existential challenge.
• Humanitarian crises are worsening around the world, with 235 million people expected to be in need of urgent assistance compared to 175 million people at the start of 2020.
• If major donors fail to contribute to UN humanitarian relief operations - which has been the case so far in 2020 - the world's worst humanitarian crisis in Yemen will cross a new threshold into famine or worse.

Last updated: 17 January 2021