The New Humanitarian

Ever since President Nicolás Maduro was proclaimed the winner of the 28 July election, tensions have been escalating in Venezuela, with thousands of citizens taking to the streets across the country to protest against what they regard as a blatantly fraudulent result. Early on 29 July, the Venezuelan electoral...

Tensions rise over Venezuela presidential poll

Marlene and I sat on the back patio of her home in Villa del Rosario, a town near Venezuela’s border with Colombia, sipping our coffees. A 44-year-old Venezuelan school teacher and single mother, Marlene painstakingly made a list of everything she could sell in her home to finance her trip to escape the crisis in Venezuela. On that list were her oven, pots and pans, tennis shoes, a swivel chair, and her two kids’ toys — items that represent the remnants of a once-stable life. The $12 she earns per month teaching would not be enough to travel to Chile, where she has family with whom she can stay.

It’s time to act: Why we can’t overlook the risk of a new exodus from Venezuela

Venezuela’s electoral body has declared Nicolás Maduro winner of Sunday’s presidential elections, but the opposition and international leaders cried foul and said they wouldn’t recognise his victory, which threatens a new exodus from the Latin American nation. By Monday morning, when 80% of the votes had...

No good options for Venezuelans as Maduro declared victor

Our editors’ weekly take on humanitarian news, trends, and developments from around the globe. Two assassinations – both believed to have been carried out by Israel, although the country has only owned up to one – have raised fears of an escalation to all-out war in the Middle East, and are likely to have complicated attempts to reach a ceasefire in Gaza. Israel killed Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr in a Beirut airstrike on 30 July, in a bombing that appeared to be retaliation for a 27 July rocket attack that killed 12 people in the Israel-occupied Golan Heights (Hezbollah denied it was responsible for the strike). Hours later, Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh was killed in Tehran. It is widely assumed that Israel was behind the assassination of Haniyeh, who has been the international face of Hamas for years and was a key figure in ceasefire negotiations, which had made little visible progress but were ongoing. He was visiting Tehran to attend the inauguration of Iran’s new president, Masoud Pezeshkian. It remains to be seen how Iran and Hezbollah will respond, with the former vowing “harsh revenge” and the latter a “definite” response. Inside Gaza, the violence continues: Local authorities said Israeli forces hit a school on 1 August in Gaza City, killing 15 and wounding 29 (Israel said Hamas fighters were using the school as a hideout), adding to the Palestinian death toll that is believed to be more than 39,000, mostly civilians. That includes two Al Jazeera Arabic journalists who were killed on 31 July when an Israeli airstrike hit their car. The Committee to Protect Journalists says 113 journalists and media workers have been killed in the war since October: 108 Palestinians, two Israelis, and three Lebanese.

Israel assassinations, Darfur famine, and pressuring Maduro: The Cheat Sheet

New York City, NY

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Cheryl E Preston

Yesterday was the third time this year that an ad stating Chelsea Clinton lives in a beautiful Virginia home popped up on my laptop. My computer did not warn me this was a dangerous site, so this time, I clicked on the link.

Chelsea Clinton is rumored to be living in Virginia but probably still in NYC

When the Israeli military issued evacuation orders on 13 October last year, telling 1.1 million Palestinians in the north of the Gaza Strip to head south, Mahmoud Shalabi decided he wasn’t going to leave. “I would rather die in my home than in a tent,” Shalabi told The New...

What is life like in northern Gaza?

Just a few kilometres from President Gustavo Petro’s palace in downtown Bogotá, hundreds of mostly Emberá Indigenous people live in a makeshift tent community in one of the Colombian capital’s most iconic parks. Fire smoke wafts from shelters fashioned from tarps and from signs that once...

When Colombia’s conflict-displaced come to the capital

Chicago, IL

Foodie in Chicago

Shortly before 3 AM, people in the Chicago area may have felt their houses shake as a 3.4-magnitude earthquake occurred about 60 miles west of the city. (CHICAGO) The United States Geological Survey (USGS) reported a 3.4-magnitude earthquake around Somonauk, IL. Somonauk is in DeKalb and LaSalle Counties, 64 miles west of Chicago.

Did You Feel the Earthquake?

The world is woefully off track when it comes to eliminating hunger and malnutrition, with one in 11 people going hungry in 2023 – a level that has remained unchanged for three consecutive years – and more than one in four slashing the quantity and quality of the food they consume or skipping meals, data from a UN flagship report shows.

Climate, conflict, and debt keep hunger and malnutrition stubbornly high globally

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The Lens

This year’s area of low oxygen in the Gulf of Mexico is larger than average, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) announced on Thursday. The “dead zone” is approximately 6,705 square miles , as measured last week. Within NOAA’s 38 years of measuring the dead zone, this year’s assessment marks the 12th-largest area of low to no oxygen, which can kill fish and marine life.

Gulf ‘dead zone’ larger than average, larger than expected for 2024, scientists announce

At the start of the year, we published this analysis flagging how – even as the conflicts in Gaza and Ukraine dominated headlines going into 2024 – it was important to remember the many other crises that were being too easily forgotten by the media and neglected by aid donors.

Why these 10 humanitarian crises still demand your attention

The US has blocked a British judge from holding a hearing on the British-held island of Diego Garcia to determine whether a group of asylum seekers is being unlawfully detained there. Around 60 Sri Lankan Tamil asylum seekers have been confined to a fenced camp the size of a football...

US blocks Diego Garcia asylum seekers detention hearing

Colorado State

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David Heitz

A bill quietly introduced this spring in the Colorado legislature to decriminalize the possession of drug paraphernalia obtained by harm reductionists has become law. As low-key as the legislation was introduced, the bill was signed into law without fanfare June 6. It garnered little to no media attention.

Colorado legalizes needles, pipes for meth and crack if obtained by harm reduction group

Florida State

Akeena

Who would have thought that a chain known for its endless shrimp promotion could find itself in such a pickle? But here we are—Florida-based Red Lobster, which has been reeling from financial troubles, may have finally found a lifeline. After a surprising $11 million loss in the third quarter of 2023 due to that very shrimp deal, Red Lobster filed for bankruptcy in May 2024. And now, there’s a glimmer of hope on the horizon.

A Florida based chain that filed for bankruptcy has reportedly found a potential buyer

The nexus isn’t a myth. The response to the refugee crisis in eastern Chad is a rare example of a joined-up approach to humanitarian and development challenges. Since war broke out in Sudan last April, more than 750,000 refugees and migrant returnees have fled to eastern Chad. They joined more than 400,000 people still displaced in Chad since the Darfur genocide of the 2000s.

Yes, the nexus is real. But it needs a radical overhaul

An operation to rescue 93 asylum seekers and migrants onboard a wooden fishing boat off the coast of Libya took a dangerous turn on 9 July. As workers from the search and rescue NGO SOS Méditerranée were evacuating people from the vessel, two dinghies carrying armed, masked men arrived on the scene. Two of the men boarded the fishing boat, prompting the remaining asylum seekers and migrants onboard to jump into the sea.

Armed men disrupt Mediterranean migration boat rescues

Since the Taliban returned to power in 2021, Afghanistan has once again come under scrutiny for consistent allegations of human rights violations perpetrated mainly by the group. At the same time, given that Afghanistan was completely dependent on foreign assistance before 2021, aid cutbacks, sanctions, and banking restrictions imposed by...

How to engage with the Taliban, if you have to

With only two bedrooms, a hallway, and a single bathroom, 47-year-old Karar’s humble home in the town of Gedaref, in southeastern Sudan, can be crowded at the best of times. Yet limited space hasn’t stopped Karar from opening his door to 40 people across six families, all driven from their homes by the still-expanding war that has gutted Sudan’s cities and produced the world’s largest displacement and hunger crises.

In Sudan, host families take the strain of the world’s largest displacement crisis

Jacksonville Today

Republican Donald Trump has a 7-point lead over Democrat Kamala Harris among Florida voters, 49% to 42%, according to a new poll from the University of North Florida. Four percent are backing another candidate, and 6% are undecided or didn’t answer.

New Florida poll: Trump leads; support strong for abortion and recreational weed

At the end of this year, the last UN peacekeepers are scheduled to leave the Democratic Republic of the Congo after two difficult decades, a withdrawal that reflects broader changes underway to the international security system. The peacekeeping mission – known by its French acronym, MONUSCO – has been the...

The changing face of peacekeeping: What’s gone wrong with the UN?

NewsBreak

Venezuelans hold their breath ahead of pivotal election

On Sunday, millions of Venezuelans will vote to pick their next president in a high-stakes election that polls suggest could see opposition candidate Edmundo González triumph...

Venezuelans hold their breath ahead of pivotal election

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