Global aid funding cuts, led by the United States, are disrupting efforts to vaccinate children against deadly diseases almost as much as the COVID-19 pandemic did, the United Nations said on Thursday. Outbreaks of infectious diseases, including measles, meningitis, and yellow fever, have been increasing globally. According to reports from World Health Organization offices in 108 largely low and lower-middle income countries, Emergency and routine vaccinations meanwhile were significantly affected in nearly half of countries at the start of April due to the funding cuts. Cuts to funding also reduced vaccine supplies and hampered disease surveillance, the WHO and UNICEF…
Author: Fatimah Idera
Florida on Tuesday sued photo-sharing app Snapchat for allegedly employing features that addict children and opening accounts for children age 13 and younger. The complaint said Snapchat features including infinite scrolling, push notifications, auto-play videos, and metrics that provide user feedback violate a 2024 state law signed by Governor Ron DeSantis, and designed to protect children’s mental health from compulsive social media exposure. Florida called Snap’s conduct “particularly egregious” because the Santa Monica, California-based company markets Snapchat as safe for 13-year-olds, though it can be used to view pornography and buy drugs, among other harmful activities. By failing to…
President Donald Trump on Tuesday backed off from threats to fire Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell after days of intensifying criticisms of the central bank chief for not cutting interest rates. “I have no intention of firing him,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Tuesday. “I would like to see him be a little more active in terms of his idea to lower interest rates,” he added. The de-escalation drew an immediate thumbs up from Wall Street, as equity index futures jumped by nearly 2% on the resumption of trading on Tuesday evening. Stocks, bonds and the U.S.…
Brazil, which hosts the 2025 United Nations Climate Summit has a main goal of persuading Europe, China and other developing economies to commit to cutting greenhouse gas emissions enough to keep global warming well below 2 degrees Celsius, three people with knowledge of the country’s plans revealed. Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and U.N Secretary-General Antonio Guterres have scheduled a closed online meeting on Wednesday to talk with leaders from the world’s 35 biggest economies about stronger commitments. Brazilian ambassador and COP30 president Andre Correa do Lago, was in Beijing last week, where he discussed national pledges with…
Pay increases granted by British employers stayed at three per cent in the three months to March, according to figures from human resources data firm Brightmine that are likely to be welcomed by the Bank of England. It marked the fourth consecutive rolling quarter of pay awards at that level and the joint lowest pace of increase since December 2021. BoE officials are watching closely to see how employers react to an increase in social security contributions – known in Britain as national insurance – and a higher national minimum wage. Both took effect in April. “Currently, the data isn’t…
Britain’s economic growth forecast for 2025 received the sharpest downgrade of any major European economy from the International Monetary Fund on Tuesday as the UK braces for the global fallout from the U.S. President Donald Trump’s trade tariffs. The Fund also said British inflation would be higher this year than it had thought in January, and higher than in any other Group of Seven country – showing the economic risks facing finance minister Rachel Reeves and Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey, who will attend IMF spring meetings this week. Britain remains on course to grow more strongly than France,…
The Fund manager City Of London Investment Group on Tuesday reported a $170 million outflow from emerging markets in the three months to March 31, citing uncertainty from tariffs imposed by the U.S. President Donald Trump. Trump’s tariffs have caused turbulence in global markets, creating volatile trading swings across asset classes, clouding the global economic outlook, and prompting recession fears. Read also: Trump may shut down US embassies in Africa, others City Of London said its funds under management dropped in the first half of April by $200 million compared with the end of March, and currently stood at $9.7…
Starmer British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said a landmark ruling that the legal definition of a woman under equality laws should be based on biological sex provided much-needed clarity and a clear position to underpin gender policies. Recall that the Supreme Court ruled on April 16 that single-sex services for women, such as refuges, hospital wards and sports, could exclude trans women, clearing up legal ambiguity. Read also: UK Supreme Court defines woman as biological female Starmer in his first comments since the ruling, said he welcomed it. “I think for those that are now drawing up guidance, it’s a…
With the death of Pope Francis, announced by the Vatican on Monday, Roman Catholics around the globe will start speculating on who among the red-robed cardinals will succeed him. Given the nature of cardinal appointments Francis made during his papacy, there will inevitably be some expectation that the Argentine pontiff’s successor will be another non-European, and that like Francis he could be another progressive, opposed to the Church’s conservative wing. However, the election process that will take place once Francis is buried is highly secretive and nothing will be certain until white smoke pouring from the chimney of the Sistine…
Democratic U.S. Senator Chris Van Hollen met on Thursday with Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the man wrongly deported to El Salvador in a case that has pitted a defiant Trump administration against the courts and fanned the prospect of a constitutional conflict. The senator posted on X an image of himself in El Salvador with Abrego Garcia, dressed in a collared shirt, jeans and a baseball cap, a day after being denied access to the notorious prison for gang members where he has been held. “I said my main goal of this trip (to El Salvador) was to meet with Kilmar.…
