World News

Nigeria listed among 10 countries with people facing food crises

Published

4 weeks ago

April 24, 2026

A UN-backed yearly report has said that two-thirds of people facing food crises globally last year lived in just 10 countries, with a third of them in Sudan, Nigeria and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The Global Report on Food Crises, based on data from the United Nations, the European Union and humanitarian agencies released on Friday, revealed that conflict remained the main driver of acute food insecurity.

And with conflicts and climate extremes “likely to sustain or worsen conditions in many countries”, the outlook for 2026 is “bleak”, it said.

“Acute food insecurity remains highly concentrated (in) 10 countries — Afghanistan, Bangladesh, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Myanmar, Nigeria, Pakistan, South Sudan, Sudan, Syrian Arab Republic, and Yemen,” the report said.

Improvements in some countries, such as Bangladesh and Syria, were “almost fully offset by notable deteriorations” in Afghanistan, DRC, Myanmar and Zimbabwe, it said.

For the first time in the report, which is in its 10th edition, famine was confirmed in two separate contexts — in Gaza and parts of Sudan — in the same year.

Around 266 million people in 47 countries or territories experienced high levels of acute food insecurity last year, nearly double the share recorded in 2016, the report said.

It also warned about the sharp decline in international aid and said the Middle East war risked aggravating existing crises by increasing the numbers of displaced in a region already hosting millions of refugees, and driving up fertiliser costs.

The blocking of the Strait of Hormuz, a key oil supply route, has sent fertiliser prices soaring since they rely on oil-based inputs.

“Now we’re in planting season,” Alvaro Lario, head of the UN’s International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), told AFP.

“So for sure this current food shock — both with the energy prices going up and also fertilisers going up — I think it’s going to have a massive impact in terms of production,” Lario said.

He called for more help to small-scale farmers, for example by investing in water- and climate-resilient crops.

Crises could be eased by farmers producing fertiliser locally as well as improving soil health so that less of it is needed, he added.

IFAD is also working on boosting investment by local private sectors.

“Creating the instruments and incentives for the local private sector… is a very important way of making that sustainability and that development money go a longer way,” Lario said.

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World News

Pope Leo XIV set to embark on fifth international apostolic journey

Published

6 days ago

May 16, 2026

News Diggers

Report by ewtnvatican.com says the Pontiff will undertake an apostolic journey to France from Sept. 25 – 28, a visit which will include a stop at the headquarters of UNESCO.

The trip was officially announced on May 16 by Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni. The Holy See did not immediately release the full itinerary of the trip.

The pope had already visited Turkey and Lebanon (in late 2025) and Monte Carlo (in March 2026).

In April he undertook a major voyage to Africa — with the trip spanning Algeria, Cameroon, Angola, and Equatorial Guinea — and is scheduled to visit Spain from June 6 – 12.

He is widely expected to also visit Latin America in the fall.

The last visit by a pope to France dates to Dec. 15, 2024, when Pope Francis travelled to Ajaccio, Corsica.

World News

Doctor, wife fined N140,000 for cutting important trees

Published

2 weeks ago

May 9, 2026

News Diggers

The City Council of Oakland has slammed a Nigerian medical doctor, Matthew Bernard, and his wife, Lynn Warner, with a fine of nearly $1 million (about N140 million) for allegedly cutting down 38 protected trees around their property on Claremont Avenue.

According to California-based media outlet KQED, the penalty was approved after a heated public hearing on Tuesday where more than 20 residents demanded strict enforcement of Oakland’s tree protection laws.

Residents argued that the removal of the trees posed serious environmental risks, stressing that the trees were crucial for wildfire prevention, ecological balance and public health in the community.

Reports said Bernard and Warner had defended their actions, claiming the trees were removed based on the professional advice of an arborist.

Speaking during the hearing, Bernard maintained that the trees, which were cut down nearly four years ago, were either “dead, dying, leaning,” or otherwise hazardous.

City authorities, however, rejected the explanation and imposed a total penalty of $915,135.40 on the couple.

The council also placed a claim on the property, a move expected to block any sale or development of the land until the fine is fully paid.

Defending the decision, community tree specialist Erys Gagnez said the environmental loss caused by the destruction of the mature trees could not easily be reversed.

“Trees of that size are not commercially available for replacement. Even with replanting, it will take decades, even centuries, to restore the ecological and protective functions that were lost,” Gagnez said.

She added that the magnitude of the fine reflected the severe environmental impact of the tree removal.

World News

10 powerful leaders killed in 63 years

Published

3 weeks ago

May 1, 2026

News Diggers

Many world leaders have been killed while in power in the last 63 years. Will there ever be an end to this?

See list below.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei (1939–2026)

On February 28, 2026, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader for 36 years, was killed during a massive joint airstrike by the US and Israel on Iran. He served as both the head of state and the commander-in-chief of the armed forces, including the elite Revolutionary Guards. He was one of the longest-serving rulers in the world.

Anwar Sadat (1918–1981)

Egyptian president Anwar Sadat was assassinated on October 6, 1981, while attending a victory parade in Cairo. He was killed by members of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad, likely because of Sadat’s peace initiative with Israel and the United States.

Yitzhak Rabin (1922–1995)

On November 4, 1995, Yigal Amir, an Israeli law student and right-wing extremist, shot and killed Yitzhak Rabin, the prime minister of Israel. Amir opposed Rabin’s peace initiative, particularly the signing of the Oslo Accords.

John F. Kennedy (1917–1963)

John F. Kennedy, the 35th president of the United States, was assassinated in Dallas, Texas, on November 22, 1963. Lee Harvey Oswald was arrested and charged with Kennedy’s murder, but he was shot and killed by Jack Ruby before he could be brought to trial.

Indira Gandhi (1917–1984)

Indira Gandhi served as the prime minister of India from 1966 to 1977 and again from 1980 until her assassination in 1984. She was killed by two of her Sikh bodyguards, apparently in revenge for Operation Blue Star—the removal of Sikh militants from the Golden Temple in Amritsar.

Rajiv Gandhi (1944–1991)

Rajiv Gandhi, who took office as prime minister after his mother’s death, also met a violent end. He was killed on May 21, 1991, by a female member of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, who detonated a bomb that killed Rajiv Gandhi and at least 14 other people.

Park Chung Hee (1917–1979)

Park Chung Hee served as the third president of South Korea from 1963 until his assassination on October 26, 1979. His killer was Kim Jae-gyu, director of the country’s National Intelligence Service.

Olof Palme (1927–1986)

The assassination of Olaf Palme on February 28, 1986, remains unsolved. Palme, the prime minister of Sweden, was shot and killed while walking home from a cinema with his wife in central Stockholm. In 1989, Christer Pettersson was convicted of the murder, but acquitted on appeal the following year. Despite police naming and arresting other suspects, no one else was charged with Palme’s murder.

Laurent Kabila (1939–2001)

Congolese rebel and politician Laurent Kabila served as president of the Democratic Republic of the Congo from 1997 until his assassination on January 16, 2001. It’s believed one of his bodyguards gunned him down. The investigation into Kabila’s death led to the arrest and subsequent jailing of 23 soldiers linked to the murder.

Hendrik Verwoerd (1901–1966)

Often referred to as the architect of apartheid, Hendrik Verwoerd served as prime minister of South Africa from 1958 until his assassination in 1966. Verwoerd had survived a previous assassination attempt in 1960, but six years later was stabbed to death in Cape Town by a man called Dimitri Tsafendas.

Adapted from report by Stars Insider