KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, Apr 22 2025 (IPS)* – Donald Trump’s top economic advisor claims the President has weaponised tariffs to ‘persuade’ other nations to pay the US to maintain its supposedly mutually beneficial global empire.
Jomo Kwame Sundaram
Geopolitical economist Ben Norton was among the first to highlight the significance of Trump’s Council of Economic Advisers chairman Stephen Miran’s briefing at the Hudson Institute.
The Institute is funded by financiers such as media czar Rupert Murdoch, who controls Fox News, The Wall Street Journal, and other conservative media.
Miran made his case just after Trump’s electoral victory in A User’s Guide to Restructuring the Global Trading System. Miran attempts to rationalise Trump’s economic policies, which are widely seen as at odds with conventional wisdom and reason.
()* — A mass wave of displacement in Sudan’s North Darfur state is pushing hundreds of thousands into precarious conditions far from lifesaving aid, as overstretched operations struggle to keep pace with the growing emergency.
Renewed attacks on camps – including Zamzam and Abu Shouk – that were sheltering those displaced by earlier violence have now forced an estimated 400,000 to 450,000 people to flee again.
16 April 2025 – Two years into Sudan’s war, millions of lives have been uprooted – and millions more hang in the balance. Behind the staggering statistics of displacement, hunger and loss, there are people like Khaled, Um Adam, Zainab and Mariam – each carrying the burden of a conflict they never chose.
Zainab, 35, fled with her four children from Nyala to West Darfur, seeking safety from relentless airstrikes and fighting.
These are not just stories of loss. They are urgent reminders of why the crisis in Sudan can’t be ignored.
ROME – The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) warned that 58 million people risk losing life-saving assistance in the agency’s 28 most critical crisis response operations unless new funding is received urgently.
PORT SUDAN/AMMAN/NEW YORK, 15 April 2025 (UNICEF)* – As the conflict in Sudan enters its third year, the number of children in need of humanitarian assistance has doubled, from 7.8 million at the start of 2023 to more than 15 million today.
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Without urgent action, Sudan’s dire humanitarian crisis could tip into greater catastrophe.
(UN News)* —Libya’s prolonged political transition is facing renewed strain, with mounting economic pressures and tensions between rival governments threatening the calm that has held since the 2020 ceasefire.
Nearly 15 years after the fall of Muammar Gaddafi and the emergence of rival administrations in 2014, the country remains divided, with the internationally recognised Government of National Unity (GNU) based in Tripoli in the northwest and the Government of National Stability (GNS) in Benghazi in the east.
(UN News)* — Recent severe flooding caused by torrential rains has displaced nearly 10,000 people in Tanganyika province in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, on said.
PORTLAND, USA, Apr 15 2025 (IPS)* –As the world’s population of 8.2 billion people increases in size and becomes older due to demographic ageing, the number of people experiencing the long goodbye, or dementia, is rapidly rising.
Despite the global rise in dementia, people living with the condition should continue to enjoy the same human rights as everyone else — including the rights to dignity, autonomy, and participation in decisions about their lives. Credit: Shutterstock
Millions of displaced Sudanese struggle for survival as conflict and hunger grip South Kordofan
Illustrations to depict the testimonies of people who have fled to Sudan’s Nuba mountains in search of safety from the ongoing conflict, March 2025.
8 April 2025 — “The morning of the attack I was at home and my mother was sick. We ran to escape with my children. I carried my mother on a donkey cart as she could not walk,” says a displaced woman living in Sudan’s Nuba mountains.
“When we were near the mountains, we stopped to bury her. My two brothers were shot and killed during the escape.”
Sudan, 15 April 2025 – Most people know her as Mama Nour (Light in Arabic), a name that perfectly embodies her spirit. Nour Hussein Al Sewaty Mohammed has devoted her life to bringing hope and light to countless women and children in Sudan who have faced unimaginable hardships, even amid Sudan’s ongoing war.
Mama Nour, an orphan herself, now advocates for single mothers and children without parental care in Sudan. Photo: IOM Sudan 2025/Omer Hagali
Mama Nour’s journey began in the shadows of her own childhood. Orphaned at a young age, she grew up in Maygoma, Sudan’s largest orphanage located in the capital, Khartoum.
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 