Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced that 83% of US international aid programs were “canceled” hours before a federal district judge ruled that the administration’s actions were an overreach of the Executive branch’s power. At risk are thousands of lifesaving humanitarian programs. In a refugee camp in Bangladesh, 500,000 Rohynga children depend on food treatment […] Continue reading ->
(The New Humanitarian) The International Rescue Committee, one of the oldest humanitarian aid organizations in the United States, is cutting thousands of staff, in another sign of the turmoil rippling across the humanitarian sector as the US aid funding freeze continues. “We have had to take immediate and significant cost-cutting measures, including laying off and furloughing […] Continue reading ->
The WHO Executive Board voted to advance a resolution on aid to war-torn Gaza to May’s World Health Assembly, the first to be greenlighted while several dozen other initiatives remain on hold due to budget constraints. Meanwhile, WHO Director General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus appealed to Israel to allow thousands of desperately sick and injured […] Continue reading ->
WHO and other UN and international relief agencies heartily welcomed Wednesday’s announcement of a long-awaited  Israeli-Hamas ceasefire. Israelis and Palestinians, meanwhile, began an anxious countdown, hoping that the agreement would indeed take effect as planned Sunday – even as Israel and Hamas traded accusations Thursday that the other was trying to torpedo the accord. “Wednesday’s […] Continue reading ->
WHO’s Director General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus was back in Geneva this week, after surviving a near miss from an Israeli Air Force strike on Sana’a International Airport, Thursday. Airport TV footage aired Monday by the DG on X showed his entourage fleeing the VIP departures hall, where they had been waiting to board a […] Continue reading ->