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.
()* — 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.
The protracted conflict and economic collapse in Yemen have created one of the world’s most severe humanitarian crises, affecting over 18 million people.
With the war entering its eleventh year, countless Yemenis are still waiting for a chance to rebuild their lives. Photo: IOM/Majed Mohammed
Eighty per cent of Yemenites live in poverty, and more than half struggle to access basic necessities including food, health care and safe water.
Displacement remains widespread, and there are millions of internally displaced persons, many of whom have been forced to move multiple times.
(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.
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.
.
Without urgent action, Sudan’s dire humanitarian crisis could tip into greater catastrophe.
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 