The World Food Programme (WFP) has been forced to reduce food assistance to eight million people in need in Yemen because it is running out of funds.
From January, affected families will get barely half the daily minimum ration from the UN agency.
The five million Yemenis at immediate risk of slipping into famine conditions will remain on a full ration for now.
The WFP warned that its food stocks were dangerously low and more severe reductions would soon be unavoidable.
Donors have pledged only $2.23bn (£1.68bn) of the $3.85bn requested by UN agencies for the humanitarian aid effort in the war-torn country this year.
The WFP needs $813m to continue to assist the most vulnerable until May, and $1.97bn to help those on the brink of famine throughout 2022.
“Every time we reduce the amount of food, we know that more people who are already hungry and food insecure will join the ranks of the millions who are starving,” said Corinne Fleischer, the WFP’s regional director for the Middle East and North Africa.
“But desperate times call for desperate measures and we have to stretch our limited resources and prioritise, focusing on people who are in the most critical state,” she added.
Without new funding, the WFP could be forced to cut people from food assistance programmes completely. Malnutrition treatment and food supplies for children may also be reduced.
According to the WFP, half of all families – about 16 million people – are now affected by inadequate food consumption, with the devaluation of the Yemeni rial and hyper-inflation driving the economy to near collapse.
Food prices have more than doubled across much of the country this year, while fighting across multiple front lines has displaced tens of thousands of people.
Yemen has been devastated by a conflict that escalated in 2015, when the Iran-aligned rebel Houthi movement seized control of large parts of the country and a Saudi-led coalition launched an operation to restore President Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi’s rule.
The fighting has reportedly left more than 130,000 people dead, while tens of thousands more are estimated to have died from indirect causes, such as lack of food, health services and infrastructure.
A teenager who murdered a man during a fight between two rival gangs has been jailed for life.
Karl Marler, 17, stabbed Charlie Elms to death after the 25-year-old fell in the street while running away from an attack on a house in Oldham in May.
Marler, previously of Third Avenue in Lime Side, Oldham, was sentenced to a minimum of 15 years in prison at Manchester Crown Court.
Det Ch Insp Carl Jones said the attack was “a shocking episode of violence”.
Greater Manchester Police said Mr Elms was in a Vauxhall Corsa with five other men which pulled up to a property on Fifth Avenue in Lime Side at about 17:00 GMT on 26 May.
All six got out and began to attack a house, which had another group of men inside, but they began to retreat when Marler, a 16-year-old boy wielding a meat cleaver and two others came out of the property, a force spokesman said.
IMAGE SOURCE,POLICE HANDOUT
Image caption,
Mr Elms was one of a group of men who arrived to attack the house which Karl Marler was inside, police said
Four of those fleeing got into the Corsa, but Mr Elms and another man were left behind, and as the car drove off, the boy threw the cleaver through its window.
Mr Elms and the other man attempted to run away, but tripped and fell on Third Avenue.
The spokesman said that allowed Marler to catch up and fatally stab Mr Elms.
He added that six men had admitted violent disorder in connection with the incident, one man had pleaded guilty to possession of a bladed instrument and two 16-year-old boys had received referral orders for their parts in what happened.
Speaking after sentencing, Det Ch Insp Carl Jones said the actions of all those involved in the incident were “completely inexcusable”.
“This was a shocking episode of violence, which very sadly led to the death of a 25-year-old man,” he said.
“Thankfully no-one else sustained any serious injuries that day, but the outcome could have been far worse.”
Latest data suggests there have been 2,174 cases or suspected cases of the Omicron coronavirus variant in Hertfordshire, the county council said.
Statistics revealed 445 confirmed cases and 1,729 suspected cases of Omicron up to 13 December.
Revised data for a week earlier revealed 336 confirmed and 737 suspected cases.
Officials expected figures for the week ending 13 December to also increase when that data is next updated.
“Although it will take a few weeks to get a complete and accurate picture, it is clear that the Omicron variant is spreading rapidly all across Hertfordshire,” a Hertfordshire County Council spokesperson said.
“And we expect it to become the dominant variant by around Christmas.”
The data shows the highest number of cases, confirmed and suspected, was in St Albans, where there have been 340 cases, including 91 confirmed and 249 suspected cases, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.
Overall Covid-19 data revealed that in the seven days to 14 December there were 9,976 cases of the virus recorded across the county, resulting in an incidence rate of 834.3 per 100,000 of the population.
This pointed to an increase of more than 50%, compared to the previous week, 7 December, when the rate was 556.6.
Police have released new details about a sexual assault which took place earlier this year after a woman got into a car believing it was a taxi.
The 21-year-old victim got into the VW Golf at The New Bay Horse pub in Leeds during the August bank holiday weekend.
She was then attacked after the driver took her to a car park in Middleton Grove, police said.
The vehicle he used was particularly distinctive as it was missing a rear wheel trim, officers added.
The victim, who had been on a night out with friends in Hunslet, was left “traumatised” by the serious sexual assault which happened on Sunday 29 August, police said.
The attack took place in Car Park A of the John Charles Centre for Sport.
Police said following the assault the attacker drove the victim near to her home.
The woman then contacted police at about 23:15 BST.
The suspect is described as Asian, in his early 20s, about 5ft 10ins (1.78m) tall, with short brown hair and a short trimmed beard.
As part of the investigation into the incident, police have released CCTV pictures of the suspect’s car passing various cameras on the journey.
IMAGE SOURCE,WEST YORKSHIRE POLICE
Image caption,
The attacker’s car was a silver or grey VW Golf Mk6, police believe
The registration of the car was not visible in the footage, but expert analysis concluded it was a silver or grey Volkswagen Golf Mk6, thought to have been manufactured between 2008 and 2013, according to police.
Det Insp Damian Roebuck said the car was “particularly distinctive”, having a missing rear nearside wheel trim at the time of the assault.
“We hope the information on the car, along with the physical description of the offender and the locations and timings involved, will mean someone will recognise him,” he added.
Anyone who recognised the car, or the details of the suspect, was asked to contact police.
Cocaine with a street value of £90m has been found in a banana shipment during an armed raid at a Kent port.
Six men – including a security guard – were arrested after 100 officers swooped at Sheerness port in the early hours of Monday.
A seventh man was held in Hertfordshire, said the National Crime Agency (NCA), which led the raid.
The 1.2 tonnes of cocaine seized at the port had arrived in the UK from Costa Rica.
All seven men have been charged with conspiring to import class A drugs.
They appeared before Medway magistrates on Tuesday and were remanded in custody until 18 January, when they are due to stand trial at Maidstone Crown Court.
IMAGE SOURCE,NCA
Image caption,
The drugs arrived to Sheerness from Costa Rica
Those charged are Michael Turner, 54, from Hertfordshire, Kyle Davidson, 30, and Danny Laird, 38, both from Buntingford, Hertfordshire, Ian Woodward, 33, from Ware, Hertfordshire, Joel McCaughey, 31, from Castlefield, Manchester, Darren Laurie, 50, of no fixed address, and Sam Elphick, 27, from Sheerness.
A woman has become the fourth person to be arrested over suspected fake Covid-19 vaccination records.
Three men were previously held after investigations were launched when staff at two London NHS Trusts noticed suspicious entries on their systems.
Police said a 28-year-old woman from Redbridge had been held, and two laptops and two mobile phones seized, as part of one of the probes.
She and another of the arrested men are both employees of the same NHS Trust.
The woman has been arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to commit offences under section two of the Computer Misuse Act, fraud by false representation and money laundering.
The Met’s Cyber Crime Unit started investigating after suspicious activity was found within the Trust’s online system.
Det Insp Alex Flanagan said: “Following arrests last week regarding two separate investigations into fake vaccine records, we have identified a fourth person suspected to be involved.
“Misuse of IT systems is extremely serious and we will be analysing all devices seized, working closely with our partners.”
The 36-year-old man who was previously held as part of the same investigation was released from custody but remains under investigation.
During the second investigation two other men, aged 27 and 23, were arrested on suspicion of unauthorised computer access and conspiracy to commit fraud by misrepresentation.
Both have been released under investigation.
The Met has said that no NHS networks had been hacked from the outside and systems remained “robust”.
A woman whose unvaccinated partner died with Covid-19 is urging people to get jabbed to avoid the “tragedy” her family are going through.
Father-of-seven Martin Mulcahy from Nuneaton died earlier this month after putting off getting his jabs because he was busy, his partner Tracey Lea said.
She has now arranged for her family to be fully vaccinated.
Ms Lea, who lost her mother almost exactly a year ago to the virus, said she was “devastated” over his death.
Mr Mulcahy’s funeral is to be held on Thursday, a year and a day after her mother’s, who died before the vaccine rollout had begun.
Ms Lea said the family caught the virus in October and came out of isolation on 13 November, but her partner was admitted to hospital due to falling oxygen levels.
IMAGE SOURCE,FAMILY PHOTO
Image caption,
The couple planned to marry next year
He seemed to improve but then suffered a collapsed lung and “deteriorated very, very quickly”.
“By the Friday evening he was put on a ventilator and I went to see him on the Saturday and they did say it wasn’t looking very good, and on Sunday at about 6 o’clock, I had a phone call to say his health had deteriorated very, very quickly and the ventilator was going to be turned off that day.”
She said the children were in shock as they expected him to come home but he “just got worse”.
Image caption,
Ms Lea said her partner improved but then became more ill very quickly
Mr Mulcahy was not against vaccines, “he just never got round to doing it”, she said.
“It’s just life, we have three kids with autism too, so it’s just trying to find the time to go and do it as well, but I wish we did it sooner rather than now, later.”
Over the past year, a Liberian journalism treasure, The Bush Chicken, has been mostly inactive. Regular news articles have not been published on our website for some time. Before we explain why, permit us to recap what we’ve accomplished so far.
Since The Bush Chicken launched on January 31, 2015, we’ve been providing a quality of writing and selection of stories unrivaled by any other Liberian news outlet. This level of excellence is evident in the fact that no other news outlet won more Press Union of Liberia excellence awards between 2017 and 2020.
Our reporters have also been recognized externally, including being selected for:
Training at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in New York,
The U.S. Department of State-sponsored Edward R. Murrow Program for Research and Investigative Journalists, and
Merck Foundation’s More Than A Mother ‘Media Recognition Awards’.
We’ve also been cited in U.S. State Department Human Rights reports and featured in the Global Health NOWnewsletter published by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
The Bush Chicken’s Sampson David holds his 2019 Press Union of Liberia Excellence Award for Humanitarian Reporting
We hold ourselves to the highest international standards. Unlike many Liberian media outlets, we do not accept plagiarism and regularly screen all articles to ensure originality.
We refuse pieces that are not balanced or well-documented, and we ensure we have permission to use images we publish.
No other news outlet in Liberia has an explicit rule forbidding its reporters from accepting payments from newsmakers. And when we have financial or other interests with subjects of stories our reporters write, we make a disclosure to allow our readers to understand the connections.
Although this is unremarkable for those who read international newspapers, in Liberia, this is unique.
To accomplish all this, our work hinged on ensuring that our reporters could earn a living wage doing honest and ethical work. We knew we would need to build an organization that can create revenue to ensure sustainability.
The Bush Chicken’s Lloyd Massah snapped this photo of Liberians celebrating the inauguration of Pres. George Weah.
However, after operating for almost 6 years, we failed to achieve sustainability. Although we have been sustained by grants, reader donations, consultancies, and over $90,000 of cash from our owners’ group, we failed to find a formula that provided us with regular monthly income. Our online advertising was just not enough to compete with giants like Facebook and Google.
Moreover, our website faced major hacks that affected crucial elements such as our RSS feed, social media sharing, and our daily newsletter.
Our thorough research showed us we could be profitable if we started a print edition, but we have never managed to raise enough money to go to print.
Instead of hobbling along, we decided to stop publishing to avoid continuing to pile on over US$6,500 in salary arrears to our employees.
Now, at the cusp of completely shutting down our operations, we’ve decided to reach out to the reading public to vote with their wallets.
We’re looking to raise US$23,000 to completely rebuild The Bush Chicken. Here’s what we plan to do with the money:
We will pay the over US$6,500 we owe in salary arrears to our employees to ensure a fresh start. (~30% of the funds)
We will design an entirely new website with significantly increased security features, improved social media shareability, and better SEO. Our current website has suffered significant hacks that have made many functions inoperable. This rebuild is needed to regain all key functions of the website. (~25% of the funds)
We will fund a print edition that will allow us to become financially sustainable. Although print media is disappearing in much of the developed world, a significant amount of advertising dollars in the Liberian media still goes to print. High browsing costs and other disincentives keep the population from using platforms other than social media. (~55% of the funds)
The US$23,000 will allow us to implement a business plan that’ll lead us to sustainability.
If you value having an independent, thought-provoking media outlet in Liberia, we urge you to contribute to this project. Training and equipping journalists to do unbiased and high-quality reporting require significant capital.
Helpus reimagine what is possible with the media in Liberia in terms of quality and independence.
If we meet our Kickstarter goal, we’ll follow this schedule:
February 2022 – Complete repaying reporters’ salary arrears
March 2022 – Website redesigned and relaunched
April 2022 – Print edition layout design finalized
May 2022 – Digital only print edition published
June 2022 – First print edition published
Feedback
If you’ve been a regular reader, please also take the following survey to give us your thoughts that will help us improve our operations (https://sprw.io/stt-8b57cc). We’ll also be contacting 10 of our strongest supporters to get more in-depth insights.
Risks and challenges
The biggest risk we face is not being able to raise all the funds. However, for backers of this Kickstarter project, you’ll simply get your money back.
