(UN News)* — Unprecedented aid cuts are putting global progress to end maternal deaths at risk, three UN agencies warned in a new report that calls for greater investment in midwives and other health workers.
The escalation of violent conflict in recent months has pushed hundreds of thousands of people in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) into desperate conditions, warns the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) Secretary General Jan Egeland on a visit this week.
A school site in Nyiragongo, north of the city of Goma, where 300 families are now sheltering in cramped conditions and without functioning latrines or fuel to cook. As fighting flared in January this year, hundreds of other families fled the site, often to areas which have been badly hit by years of conflict. Photo: Ed Prior/NRC
2 April 2025 — Displaced families sheltering at temporary sites have once again been forced to flee, as fighting and abuse plunge people into life-threatening situations.
PORTLAND, USA, Apr 2 2025 (IPS)* – For most voters, to make America great again, as the 47th president has repeatedly pledged, meant to make the United States markedly superior globally.
The US administration’s actions, policies, program cuts and employee firings will not improve but likely only worsen America’s mediocre standing on virtually every major measure of societal wellbeing and development. Credit: Shutterstock.
However, the administration’s actions, policies and program cuts will not improve but only worsen the US’s mediocre standing among advanced countries.
(UN News)* —Artificial Intelligence (AI) is on course to become a $4.8 trillion global market by 2033 – roughly the size of Germany’s economy – but unless urgent action is taken, its benefits may remain in the hands of a privileged few, a new UN report warns.
Public Domain | Visualization of Artificial Intelligence combining a human brain schematic with a circuit board.
The Technology and Innovation Report 2025, released on Thursday by the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), sounds the alarm on growing inequality in the AI landscape and lays out a roadmap for countries to harness AI’s potential.
The report shows that just 100 companies, mostly in the United States and China, are behind 40 per cent of the world’s private investment in research and development, highlighting a sharp concentration of power.
As new findings show record-high hunger in Africa’s second-largest country, a severe funding crunch and insecurity hamper WFP’s efforts to reach tens of thousands of desperate people in the northeast.
Linda collects WFP food assistance in Bweremana, in northeastern DRC. She hopes it will tide her family by until harvest time. WFP/Benjamin Anguandia
— Linda L. is back home again. Back to a field full of weeds and a roof full of holes. Back to find once-precious livestock and other belongings long looted. Back to an uncertain future, as fierce fighting rages across northeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo where she lives.
(UN News)* — Amid alarming reports of sexual violence being used as a weapon of terror across Sudan, UN reproductive health agency, UNFPA, is warning that over 12 million women and girls – and increasingly men and boys – are estimated to be at risk.
It is nearly two years since the brutal war between the forces of the military government in Khartoum and the Rapid Support Forces militia erupted, sparking one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.
Human rights abuses have been committed on both sides and more than 30.4 million Sudanese require urgent assistance, with millions displaced, and tens of thousands killed.
MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay, Mar 25 2025 (IPS)* –The United Nations Refugee Agency faces devastating cuts that may eliminate 5,000 to 6,000 jobs, with potentially catastrophic consequences for millions of people fleeing war, repression, hunger and climate disasters.
Credit: Pietro Bertora/SOS Humanity
This 75-year-old institution, established to help Europeans displaced by the Second World War, now confronts an unprecedented financial crisis, primarily due to the US foreign aid freeze – and the timing couldn’t be worse.
(UN News)* — The word “tariff” has been catapulted from the business pages to the headlines over the last few months, as major economies impose or threaten them on other nations. But tariffs are not just a blunt weapon to be used in geopolitical brinkmanship: they can, if used effectively, help poorer countries develop their economies.
Every month, the UN trade and development agency (UNCTAD) provides an update on what’s happening in the world of global trade.
In March, the focus was on tariffs, and the report revealed that, whilst global trade reached a record $33 trillion last year, the outlook for 2025 remains uncertain, with mounting tensions, protectionist policies and trade disputes signalling likely disruption in the coming months.
27 March 2025 — United States President Donald J. Trump’s barrage of anti-immigrant policies has garnered worldwide attention, but Canada is taking a dark turn of its own.
UNITED NATIONS, Apr 1 2025 (IPS)* –The Trump administration’s ground-rules are dangerously clear—and devastating.
Credit: United Nations
If you are a pro-Palestinian demonstrator, denouncing Israeli atrocities in Gaza, you are either a supporter of the “terrorist organization” Hamas or you are described as anti-Semitic veering on hate crimes liable for prosecution.
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 