China, Russia and India have dispatched emergency teams and supplies to earthquake-ravaged Myanmar. So have Thailand, Malaysia and Vietnam. The United States, the richest country in the world and once its most generous provider of foreign aid, has sent nothing. Even as President Trump was dismantling the U.S. Agency for International Development, he said that…
A powerful earthquake struck central Myanmar on Friday, gouging open roads, toppling century-old religious monuments and destroying multistory buildings as it shook a vast expanse of Southeast Asia and dealt another severe blow to a country that has been ripped apart by civil war. While the death toll remains unclear, expert estimates warned it could…
Myanmar’s long isolation and its internal instability are likely to complicate the global humanitarian aid response to the earthquake that struck on Friday, despite a rare plea for outside help from the country’s military-dominated government. “We need and want the international community to provide humanitarian aid,” said the military spokesman, Gen. Zaw Min Tun. “We…
The Israeli defense minister tried on Friday to turn up the pressure on Hamas to release more hostages, saying Israel was preparing to seize more territory in Gaza and intensify attacks by air, sea and land if the armed Palestinian group does not cooperate. The statement by the defense minister, Israel Katz, came days after…
U.S. foreign aid cuts impacting Sudanese refugees in Chad have reduced already razor-thin margins for lifesaving resources like food and water, and other U.S. government-funded programs including mental health counseling and education. “When we told [the students] the decision, that we’re going to close the school, most of them were crying,” said Aballah Abakar Abdallah,…
Outside the Zadna Bakery in central Gaza one recent afternoon, the long lines of people waiting for bread were threatening to dissolve into chaos at any minute. A security guard shouted at the crowds that pushed toward the bakery door to wait their turn. But no one was listening. Just a few steps away, scalpers…
More than a million people in the world’s largest refugee camp could soon be left with too little food for survival. In the camp in Bangladesh, United Nations officials said, food rations are set to fall in April to about 18 pounds of rice, two pounds of lentils, a liter of cooking oil and a…
The Israel-Hamas negotiations to extend the cease-fire in Gaza were in limbo on Thursday as the Trump administration turned its attention to talks with Russian officials in Moscow over the Ukraine war. Steve Witkoff, Mr. Trump’s Middle East envoy, was expected to leave the latest round of Gaza talks in the Gulf emirate of Qatar…
The United States is cutting almost all its spending on aid. The biggest loser will be Africa. For years, sub-Saharan Africa has received more U.S. aid money than any other region — except for 2022 and 2023, when the United States came to Ukraine’s aid after the Russian invasion. In 2024, $12.7 billion of $41…
One day after Israel began halting the entry of all goods and humanitarian assistance into the Gaza Strip, Palestinians there are already feeling the effects of the sweeping measure, with prices of essential goods on the rise. “It was a complete shock,” Iman Saber, a 24-year-old nurse from northern Gaza, said of Israel’s decision on…