The World Food Program is running out of money in northeastern Nigeria, leaving millions of people on the brink of famine there in one of the most threatening positions among the world’s various crises.
The U.S. government’s approach to delivering food aid overseas is endangering lives, say a bipartisan pair of senators who recently returned from a visit to a refugee camp in Uganda. Republican Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee and Sen. Chris Coons, a Democrat from Delaware, are urging reform to better deal with 20 million people facing famine worldwide.
Japan began withdrawing peacekeeping troops from South Sudan today, a U.N. official announced, amid escalating violence that some are now describing as genocide. The move is a setback for international support of the South Sudanese government and, symbolically at least, undermines Japan’s pledge to be a “proactive contributor to peace.”
The top 50 companies in the U.S. are stashing $1.6 trillion in offshore accounts, according to a new analysis by Oxfam. That money may return to the U.S. at a steep tax discount if a repatriation holiday proposed in some tax reform proposals is implemented. Doing so would allow corporations to continue evading taxes by holding money abroad, according to the NGO.
After nine years of service, the Cambodian government has suddenly nixed a U.S. military aid program with no explanation, while accepting a $157 million grant from China for a new soccer stadium. The move, many say, sends a clear signal of the country’s shifting diplomatic posture.
The decision to attack an airbase in Syria in response to chemical attacks on civilians represents a shift in U.S. policy toward the civil war. That shift – driven by horrific images of victims – should mean that the Trump administration is ready to do more to help Syrians, aid groups said.
International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Christine Lagarde delivered a grim warning on Monday: Unless every government urgently invests more in education and research to boost weak productivity growth, living standards around the world, efforts to reduce inequality and social stability could all be jeopardized.
South Sudan’s Ministry of Finance has decided to put a hold on a plan to charge as much as $10,000 per aid worker, a plan that aid groups criticized as wrongheaded at a time of great humanitarian need.
Two officials with the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) are traveling to East Africa this week to meet with governments and humanitarian actors about the emerging hunger crises in the region. They arrive at a time when $4.4 billion is needed to help some 20 million people, and the Trump administration is seeking to cut the foreign aid budget.
The new U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley wants to see some changes. While she championed human rights at an event Wednesday hosted by the Council on Foreign Relations, she also criticized the United Nations without evidence or solutions. Her comments echoed the White House’s plan to reduce U.S. contributions to the U.N., taking particular aim at peacekeeping.