As US legalises cannabis, new studies find a minute’s exposure to pot smoke can be fatal to asthma patients
A new study in a number of states in America has established a direct link between legalisation of cannabis sativa consumption and rising incidence of asthma, especially in children and young adults. About six million children in the United States have asthma, according to the US Centers for Disease Control...
No safe place for millions of Ukrainians displaced by war a year after Russia launched full-scale invasion
A year after Russia launched its full-scale invasion, around 5.3 million Ukrainians – 12 per cent of the pre-war population – are displaced within the country. Many are struggling to meet their most basic needs, with the elderly and people with disabilities among the most vulnerable. “Internally displaced people (IDPs)…...
Reparations: Sexually abused by UN staff, DR Congo women are now victims of WHO policy inconsistencies
Despite informing investigators about the World Health Organization (WHO) worker who gave up her a job in exchange for sex, the woman told The New Humanitarian in February that she still hadn’t received any assistance. The woman said her fiancé ended their relationship once he found out about the abuse....
WHO sex abuse victims in DR Congo complain promised support is often too little, too late
Nearly two dozen survivors of the UN’s largest known sexual abuse scandal say the World Health Organization has been slow to make good on promises of support, and that when assistance has come it has been too little to rebuild their lives. After suffering abuse during the 2018-2020 Ebola outbreak...
Kenya: How tribal, political interests threaten future of 10,000 students, hundreds of university workers
Kenyans’ affinity to ethnicity and regional politics has put on the line the future of more than 10,000 students, hundreds of academic and subordinate staff which say they live in daily fear of the standoff that has been raging for more than two years now. Suppliers and creditors are also...
Rethinking Congo peace: Eastern DRC plans should prioritise humanitarian, not militarised interventions
The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has struggled with a multifaceted humanitarian crisis since the 1990s. The situation worsened in the past two years as the number and magnitude of conflicts escalated, especially in the east. Millions have fled their homes, creating a significant demand for humanitarian assistance. The...
New WHO study links high incidence of heart diseases among African American women in US to racism
The rates of heart disease are higher among African Americans than any other ethnic group in the United States, new research finds. The research suggests that racism is associated with higher rates of heart disease in Black women. Two cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) – ischaemic heart disease and stroke – are,...
US cartoonist in trouble for Whites ‘assisting Blacks, Native Americans, Vietnamese, Iraqis and have never been thanked once’ remark
Wednesday’s peculiar Youtube remarks by Dilbert cartoonist Scott Adams about Black Americans being a “hate group” have certainly received a lot of attention. Hundreds of newspapers across the US have now dropped Adams’s strip. What’s gotten almost no notice, however, is how Adams went on at length about his efforts...
Ukraine reporter’s diary: When I visited Lidiia last she refused to move and vowed ‘I want to die in my bed’
The last time I visited Lidiia – an 85-year-old woman who lived alone in Mariinka, a town along the ‘line of contact’ that has been largely reduced to rubble – was in early February 2022, a couple of weeks before the full-scale invasion. The fighting around Mariinka was already intensifying,...
Ukraine reporter’s diary: After all the horror they’d experienced, the desperation I saw was hard to process
I’ve been covering conflict in Ukraine for more than eight years. I was in the country when Russia launched its full-scale invasion on February 24 last year and have visited several times since. Still, I was shocked by what I saw during my latest reporting trip in January. Before the...
