cuts

Squeezed by budget shortfalls, shifting battlefields, and emerging security risks, the United Nations peacekeeping mission is buckling under intensifying pressure, with mounting struggles to shield civilians and uphold stability. Yet UN official Jean-Pierre Lacroix emphasized that these deployments remain essential instruments for helping nations transition from war to durable peace. Over the past year, peacekeeping missions have confronted "significant financial challenges," Lacroix said, triggering contingency steps that…

DAR ES SALAAM, Tanzania — President Samia Suluhu Hassan has moved to sharply reduce the size of her presidential motorcade and ordered government officials to share bus transport, a public austerity step aimed at cutting fuel use as Tanzania feels the strain of a global energy crisis. At a swearing-in ceremony at State House on Wednesday, Hassan said her usual convoy of more than 30 vehicles would be trimmed to four: her lead car, a police escort and a backup security unit. "From now on, wherever I go, all officials will…

South Africans face the prospect of record pump prices, even as Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana moves to trim the fuel tax by R3.00 a litre on both petrol and diesel. The step comes after crude prices surged by nearly 50% following attacks by the U.S. and Israel on Iran on  February 28. 

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration is canceling humanitarian aid programs it previously identified as lifesaving, according to an internal State Department email obtained by The Atlantic, a move that could sharply reduce U.S. assistance to vulnerable populations abroad. The internal message, made public by The Atlantic on Tuesday, says the new round of cuts will reportedly end all U.S. humanitarian funding in seven African countries. The email characterizes the affected programs as lifesaving before notifying colleagues…

Trump announces U.S.-India trade deal slashing tariffs to 18%, tied to cuts in Russian oil purchases President Donald Trump said he has agreed to a trade deal with India that will cut U.S. tariffs on Indian goods to 18% from 50%, in exchange for New Delhi lowering trade barriers, curbing purchases of Russian oil and increasing energy buys from the United States — and potentially Venezuela. In a social media post after a call with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Trump said the United States would reduce its “reciprocal”…

‘Ground zero’ for aid cuts: Rohingya children in Cox’s Bazar face hunger, lost schooling as funding collapses At a nutrition center in Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazar, a seven-month-old girl named Ahshiya clings to life. She weighs just 4.7 kilograms—little more than an average one-month-old. Her mother, 21-year-old Sajida Begum, fled Myanmar after soldiers attacked her village and burned their home. Now, inside the world’s largest refugee camp, she is battling HIV, diabetes and dengue fever while trying to keep her daughter fed.…

UN human rights chief Volker Turk says his office is in “survival mode” after major donor funding cuts forced deep reductions in staff and operations just as rights violations are mounting in conflict zones. “Our resources have been slashed, along with funding for human rights organisations - including at the grassroots level - around the world. “We are in survival mode,” Mr Turk told reporters. The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) is about €77 million short of what it needed this year,…

Kampala, Uganda — Uganda has halted the granting of refugee status to asylum seekers from Somalia, Eritrea and Ethiopia, citing an absence of active armed conflict in those countries and a steep decline in donor support that officials say is straining the country’s capacity to assist new arrivals. Hilary Onek, Uganda’s minister for Relief, Disaster Preparedness and Refugees, said he has instructed officials to stop processing new claims from citizens of the three countries. The move comes even as Uganda continues to…

Latest situation Conditions in Gauteng are expected to improve after a period of severe weather that disrupted services and response efforts. The latest forecast now calls for only scattered showers across the province. Weather models show a reduction in storm intensity, moving from widespread severe conditions to isolated showers. Authorities report that the earlier severe weather slowed emergency and repair responses in affected areas. Power restoration work is underway in some neighbourhoods where outages occurred…

Fed pivots toward steady cuts to shield jobs, betting inflation will cool The Federal Reserve on Wednesday delivered a quarter-point interest-rate cut and signaled more to come this year, a shift that underscores a growing concern among U.S. policymakers: the danger of a weakening labor market now looks larger than the risk of rekindled inflation. The move, supported by most of President Donald Trump's appointees on the Fed’s policymaking committee, reflects a central bank juggling two aims — price stability and full…