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L’Algérie a confirmé en 2024 son statut de première puissance militaire africaine en matière de dépenses, avec un budget de 21,8 milliards de dollars, selon […]

L’article Dépenses militaires : l’Algérie 1ᵉʳ budget africain et 2ᵉ du monde arabe en 2024 (SIPRI) est apparu en premier sur .

Ce mercredi, le ministre de la Justice et garde des Sceaux, Lotfi Boujemaa, a présenté un projet de loi sur la mobilisation générale devant la […]

L’article Mobilisation générale : l’Algérie dévoile son projet de loi pour parer aux urgences militaires est apparu en premier sur .

Dans un effort inédit pour freiner la propagation des drogues et des substances hallucinogènes en Algérie, le ministre de la Justice, M.Lotfi Bouzema, a présenté […]

L’article Les candidats à la fonction publique devront désormais présenter un test de dépistage négatif est apparu en premier sur .

A healthcare worker vaccinates children in Barikotal Rezkan village, Argo district, Fayzabad, Badakhshan province, Afghanistan. Credit: UNICEF/Muzamel Azizi

By Oritro Karim
UNITED NATIONS, Apr 30 2025 (IPS)

For 2025, the theme of World Health Immunization Week (24-30 April), “Immunization for All is Humanly Possible”, emphasizes the need to eradicate disparities in access to vaccines, particularly for children. By encouraging governments to implement vaccination programs at the local and national levels, the World Health Organization (WHO) seeks t0 ensure worldwide access to life-saving vaccines.

“Vaccines are among the most powerful inventions in history, making once-feared diseases preventable,” said WHO Director-General, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. “Thanks to vaccines, smallpox has been eradicated, polio is on the brink, and with the more recent development of vaccines against diseases like malaria and cervical cancer, we are pushing back the frontiers of disease. With continued research, investment and collaboration, we can save millions more lives today and in the next 50 years.”

According to figures from the United Nations (UN), over the past 50 years global immunization efforts have saved roughly 154 million lives. Vaccines are also estimated to save around 4.2 million lives each year. More children live to see their first birthday and beyond than ever before in human history.

Health experts have estimated that immunization is one of the most cost-effective disease treatments, with every 1 dollar invested in vaccinations yielding a 54 dollar return in productivity. Additionally, vaccines are estimated to save the average infected person around 66 years of life, with roughly 20 million people having been spared of paralysis due to polio vaccinations.

Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, reported that in 2024, more than 5 million children who had not received a single dose of an essential vaccine were immunized in 20 vulnerable countries, many of which were in Africa. Gains in public health were most notably observed in Uganda, Chad, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Mozambique, Malawi, Madagascar, and Côte d’Ivoire.

In the past year alone, cases of polio type 1 have decreased in these regions by roughly 65 percent. Additionally, Human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination coverage has increased by 28 percent as a result of this campaign, making Africa the region with the second highest coverage rate for HPV vaccinations.

Despite recent improvements, rates of global immunization have begun to slip in recent years due to humanitarian crises, recent cuts in funding, and public doubt surrounding the efficacy and implications of child vaccinations. Humanitarian organizations have expressed concern due to the rise or re-emergence of several public health concerns. According to a study conducted by WHO, roughly 50 percent of people across 108 countries are experiencing moderate to severe disruptions to immunization services.

“The progress seen across African countries – bolstered by an unprecedented record of co-financing toward vaccine programmes in 2024 by African governments – demonstrates the tangible impact of sustained commitment,” said Thabani Maphosa, Chief Country Delivery Officer at Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance. “However, this momentum must not stall. Conflict, population growth, displacement, and natural disasters are creating ideal conditions for outbreaks to emerge and spread. Investing in immunization and securing sufficient funding for Gavi to carry out its mission over the next five years is essential to protect our collective future.”

According to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the recorded cases of measles reached a total of 10.3 million in 2023, marking a 20 percent increase from the previous year. It is projected that measles cases have risen sharply in 2024 and 2025.

Additionally, rates of meningitis infections have been on an upward trend in 2024 and 2025. Health experts have dubbed the recent rise in meningitis cases in sub-Saharan Africa as the “meningitis belt”, fearing that low and middle-income communities have been hit the hardest.

In 2024, there were nearly 26,000 cases of meningitis and 1,400 deaths across 24 countries. From January to March 2025, there have been approximately 5,500 suspected cases of meningitis and roughly 300 recorded deaths in 22 countries. Health experts also recorded re-emerging malaria and yellow fever epidemics.

In order to ensure global public health and maximize quality of life, it is imperative for governments to invest in health systems that benefit all walks of life, maximize disease surveillance, and tackle persisting cultural taboos surrounding immunization. However, recent cuts in funding threaten to undo decades of progress.

“The global funding crisis is severely limiting our ability to vaccinate over 15 million vulnerable children in fragile and conflict-affected countries against measles,” said UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell. “Immunization services, disease surveillance, and the outbreak response in nearly 50 countries are already being disrupted – with setbacks at a similar level to what we saw during COVID-19. We cannot afford to lose ground in the fight against preventable diseases.”

Although many local governments would consider allocating funds for vaccination services as financial losses, Gavi reports that investing in immunization campaigns and programs nets significant financial gains. In recognition of World Immunization Week, UNICEF, WHO, and Gavi released a joint report that detailed the results of the Expanded Programme on Immunization (EPI) in Bangladesh.

The report found that Bangladesh’s EPI has saved roughly 94,000 lives, prevented 5 million child cases of child infections, and yielded a 25 dollar return per 1 dollar of U.S. funding invested. Additionally, as a result of this model, Bangladesh has managed to increase the coverage of fully immunized children from 2 percent to over 81 percent since 1979.

“The need to maintain investments in immunization to improve health security and protect populations from vaccine-preventable diseases has never been more urgent if we are to sustain the progress and tangible impact seen across Bangladesh and South-East Asian countries,” said Sam Muller, Regional Head, Core Countries at Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance. “It is important that Gavi is fully funded for its next strategic period from 2026 to 2030, and governments continue their remarkable commitment to the lifesaving power of vaccines.

IPS UN Bureau Report

 

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A méh-, darázs-, lódarázs- és kullancscsípés általában nem okoz komoly gondot, de bizonyos esetekben életveszélyes is lehet – figyelmeztet Katarína Liptáková, a zólyomi Agel kórház sürgősségi osztályának főnővére. Az egészségügyi szakemberek azt javasolják, súlyosabb reakciókkal forduljunk szakemberhez.

For some Halicki’s contrarianism is refreshing, with the EPP source labelling him “the only one who speaks out against Weber”. But others find his abrasive approach hotheaded and unnerving.

Credit: World Bank

By External Source
MANILA / LONDON, Apr 30 2025 (IPS)

The Rogun Dam in the mountains of Southern Tajikistan, if ever completed, would be the tallest dam in the world. Late last year, the World Bank committed almost $3 billion to finance its development, claiming the project would benefit locals.

What the World Bank has failed to highlight, however, is that the dam is also causing tremendous social and environmental damage, while driving up the country’s foreign debt obligations. When the dam goes online, 70% of the power it generates will be exported to neighbouring countries, as the project’s capacity far exceeds domestic needs.

Multilateral development banks (MDBs) are relevant to the extent that they respond to the development priorities of countries in the Global South.

The World Bank, the largest MDB, says its mission is to create a world free of poverty on a liveable planet. Yet its policy prescriptions—and those of the International Monetary Fund (IMF)—continue to restructure Global South economies in ways that de-prioritise production for domestic markets and disincentivise industrial policy.

The grandiose scale of the Rogun Dam—which far exceeds projected national energy needs at an unaffordable price tag—is a perfect example of this misguided approach.

Today, 80 years since the Bank and the IMF’s establishment, and amid widely recognised threats to the multilateral order, demand is growing for a UN intergovernmental process to review the governance, role and mandate of international finance institutions.

Today, 80 years since the Bank and the IMF’s establishment, and amid widely recognised threats to the multilateral order, demand is growing for a UN intergovernmental process to review the governance, role and mandate of international finance institutions

The pre-conference negotiations at the end of April for the Fourth Financing for Development Conference (FfD4) later this year in Sevilla, Spain, are an ideal opportunity to move this agenda forward.

The World Bank was a product of the post-World War II order. The United States and its European allies grew in economic and political influence, and this power was and remains reflected in the Bank’s leadership, governance, and priorities.

Directed by the Global North, the Bank’s role evolved throughout the decades. Initially focused on infrastructure, it first embraced development policy; then narrowed its focus to eradicating extreme poverty and now incorporates climate and job creation.

While its initial support for infrastructure investment was better linked to national industrialisation efforts, the Bank has departed from that approach. Reflecting the ascendancy of neoliberal economics and policies in the Global North, the Bank increasingly relied on market-based solutions and prioritised private capital.

This bias deepened in 2015 with the Bank’s “billions to trillions” push— which claimed public finance must primarily serve to attract large-scale private investment.

But economic history casts serious doubt that private finance leads to economic transformation, rather than ‘bigger and better’ extraction. And enticing private capital into low-income countries and ‘emerging markets’ requires offloading risk—onto Global South countries.

The Global South has lost trillions in resources, as global norms supported by the Bank drive the private appropriation of wealth.

Worse, decades of Bank-supported deregulation, privatisation and focus on primary commodity exports has left Global South countries increasingly exposed to shocks, crises and market volatility. Even after the Bank’s Chief Economist admitted the “billions to trillions” agenda was a “fantasy,” the focus on ‘creating an enabling environment’ for foreign finance remains unchanged.

The Bank’s recent attempts to reform itself—its ‘Evolution Roadmap’—have so far failed to move the Bank beyond its private capital focus. This is unsurprising, given the Northern-led “one-dollar-one-vote” governance and Bank President Ajay Banga’s own statements that the Bank’s original purpose “was to forge a global economic landscape ripe for private sector investment.”

More than a year since Banga echoed the G20 in calling for a “bigger and better Bank,” the institution now finds itself having to defend its very existence.

The Bank needs to convince the US administration of its essential role in furthering the interests of the United States. And, as the establishment of the BRICS’ bank, the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and the expansion of the BRICS bloc demonstrate, Southern countries’ patience with the lack of governance reform is not without limits.

The negotiations in preparation for Sevilla could shift the norms of the current extractive financial architecture and set the stage for transformational development in the Global South.

We need economic transformation and industrial policy that allows states to escape debt and dependency, reduce exposure to external shocks, and increase capacity to safeguard human rights while supporting the aspirations of their people. We need development banks that support those goals.

The World Bank, in its current form, is not fit for this purpose. It is up to Global South countries, social movements, and civil society to raise their voices to change the terms of the conversation.

No dam, no matter how tall, can hold back the flood of change that’s coming. The world is not what it was 80 years ago. Development banks shouldn’t be either.

Rodolfo Lahoy Jr. is Deputy Director of IBON International, based in Manila, and Luiz Vieira is Coordinator of the Bretton Woods Project, based in the UK

Töltés közben kigyulladt egy elektromos fűnyíró egy családi ház garázsában Krakoványon (Krakovany/Pöstyéni járás). A tűzben egy személy megsérült, közölte Facebook-bejegyzésében a Tűzoltóság és Műszaki Mentőszolgálat Országos Parancsnoksága.

Mfor.hu: Gyengült a forint szerdán (4. 30.) a bankközi devizapiacon. Az euró árfolyama a reggel hét órakor jegyzett 404,38 forintról 404,55 forintra erősödött 18.15 órakor. A svájci frank jegyzése a reggeli 431,70 forintról 433,23 forintra ment fel, míg a dolláré 355,50 forintról 356,44 forintra emelkedett. (MTI)

Several apartheid-era atrocities, like murder, have been uncovered but few have made it to court.

Spokespersons for Parliament and for the political groups will hold a briefing on the 5 - 8 May plenary session, on Friday at 11.00 in Parliament’s Anna Politkovskaya press room.

Source : © European Union, 2025 - EP

Spokespersons for Parliament and for the political groups will hold a briefing on the 5 - 8 May plenary session, on Friday at 11.00 in Parliament’s Anna Politkovskaya press room.

Source : © European Union, 2025 - EP

Pékin a levé les sanctions imposées à cinq eurodéputés depuis 2021 après avoir manifesté son intérêt pour un rapprochement économique et politique avec l'Union européenne.

The post La Chine lève ses sanctions contre plusieurs eurodéputés appeared first on Euractiv FR.

À un mois de l’Aïd al-Adha, les préparatifs battent leur plein en Algérie, mais cette année, la fête s’accompagne d’une opération d’ampleur, visant à soulager […]

L’article Tirages au sort pour obtenir un mouton de l’Aïd : les vidéos font polémique en Algérie est apparu en premier sur .

Power play over CMA review ends with Conference of Presidents decision

Észtország kész csatlakozni az Egyesült Királyság és Franciaország által vezetett koalícióhoz, amely biztonsági garanciákat nyújtana Ukrajnának.

EU institutions are rushing to amend the law, but Berlin isn’t waiting.

A KDH szerint párbeszédre, nem pedig egyoldalú kijelentésekre van szükség ahhoz, hogy igazságos és tartós béke legyen Ukrajnában. Tekintve azonban a második világháború befejeződésének 80. évfordulójára rendezett moszkvai ünnepségek jellegét, nem biztos, hogy Oroszország készen áll egy ilyen párbeszédre.

Five MEPs were among those sanctioned by China in 2021.