Cuts to global health funding are leading to a rise in outbreaks of diseases that vaccines had nearly wiped out, the UN health agency, WHO, is warning on Thursday .
Asia’s sprawling megacities – which are driving economic growth – face an uncertain future as rising temperatures, aging populations and unplanned urban development tests their resilience.
UN-Habitat/Julius Mwelu | Home to nearly 30 million people, Shanghai is one of the world’s largest cities.
Seven of the ten most populous cities in the world are in Asia, with Tokyo, Delhi, Shanghai and Dhaka topping the list.
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.
()* —Haiti is on the verge of “total chaos” as coordinated gang violence continues to escalate, threatening the State’s ability to maintain public order, the UN’s top envoy for the country warned on Monday .
Special Representative María Isabel Salvador told ambassadors in the Security Council that a “deliberate and coordinated” campaign is being waged by organized crime groups to expand territorial control and paralyse the capital, Port-au-Prince.
(UN News)* —Two centuries to the day after France imposed a crippling debt on Haiti in exchange for its independence, a UN forum has heard calls for the restitution of what has long been described as a “ransom” extorted under the threat of force from the Caribbean nation that still bears the scars of colonialism and slavery.
UN Photo/Mark Garten | Shackles used to bind slaves on display at the Transatlantic Slave Trade exhibition at UN Headquarters in New York. (file)
.
The first country ever to free itself from slavery through a successful uprising, Haiti gained independence from France in 1804. But the price for defying the colonial order was steep.
On April 17, 1825, besieged by French warships, Haiti agreed to pay an indemnity of 150 million gold francs to the European power.
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.
(UN News)* — Hundreds of thousands of guns are being used by gangs to exert control and spread terror in Haiti, according to the UN’s designated expert on the human rights situation in the Caribbean country.
The island nation has suffered from a series of humanitarian, economic, political and security crises in recent years and it is widely believed that gangs control up to 90 per cent of the capital, Port-au-Prince.
William O’Neill spoke to UN News following a recent visit to Haiti.
Risk of famine looms as armed violence and economic conditions continue to push families to the brink
UNICEF/U.S. CDC/UN0771576/Georges Harry Rouzier
PORT-AU-PRINCE/ NEW YORK, 17 APRIL 2025 (UNICEF)* – Over one million children are facing critical levels of food insecurity in Haiti, UNICEF estimates.
Persistent armed violence, repeated displacement, and lack of sufficient humanitarian access continue to threaten vulnerable families – while the risk of famine looms.
()* — Escalating armed violence, displacement, economic turmoil and disruptions to local food production are fueling hunger in Haiti and leaving millions at risk, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) said on Thursday [].
The UN agency is sounding the alarm following the release of the latest Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) report, which uses a scale from 1 to 5 to assess conditions.
It reveals that more than half the Haitian population, a record 5.7 million people, are projected to experience acute food insecurity through June.
.
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 