UNITED NATIONS, Apr 25 2025 (IPS)* – The US State Department, in a wide-ranging political re-structuring of its policies, will eliminate 132 domestic offices, lay-off about 700 federal workers and reduce diplomatic missions overseas.
(UN News)* —The near two-month ban on humanitarian aid and supplies entering Gaza is driving families to the edge of survival, as critical essentials – including food, shelter and medicine – are rapidly running out.
UN Spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric told reporters at a news briefing at UN Headquarters on Thursday that the humanitarian situation continues to deteriorate rapidly.
22 April 2025 — As Gaza enters the eighth week of an Israel-imposed siege, blocking aid, vital supplies and commercial goods, Oxfam staff are describing conditions as the “stuff of nightmares”, with Israel’s mass forced displacement orders spreading terror, Oxfam said.
Children and their families are returning to their homes or the remains of their homes to check the status of their homes. (Photo: Alef Multimedia Company/Oxfam)
NAIROBI, Apr 24 2025 (IPS)* – The majority of African countries are yet to commit 15 percent of their GDP to funding the health sector, despite the growing disease burden weighing down the continent and two decades after the coming into force of the Abuja declaration on health sector funding.
Health workers getting ready for duty at an mpox treatment center in Lwiro in the Democratic Republic of Congo’, a hotspot for the pandemic that CD Africa handled in 2024. Credit: WHO
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 .
(UN News)* —Amid sweltering heat, raw sewage and overflowing trash, displaced families in southern Gaza are facing an escalating public health crisis as aid remains blocked and medical supplies dwindle.
In the makeshift coastal encampments of Al Mawasi, families have no choice but to live in unsanitary conditions that are rapidly turning deadly, Louise Wateridge, Senior Emergency Officer at Palestine refugee agency, UNRWA, told UN News.
(UN News)* — Families in Gaza were holding on to the slim chance of finding loved ones buried under the ruins of destroyed homes – but that hope is fading fast.
UN News | A bulldozer removes the rubble of a destroyed house in Gaza City, searching for people missing under the debris.
The destruction of key heavy machinery on Tuesday following reported Israeli airstrikes has brought rescue and recovery efforts to a standstill, making it even harder to reach the estimated 11,000 bodies still trapped under the debris.
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.
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HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 