Ethiopia, China, Brazil.

Today's three stories you should know.

Jul 07, 2023

Ethiopia

The US and the UN World Food Programme need to resume sending food aid to Ethiopia’s Tigray region as malnutrition rates surge, the Doctors Without Borders (MSF) charity has said. The aid was suspended in March after it was uncovered that significant amounts were being stolen and turning up for sale at local markets. Since then, at least 700 people - many of them children - have died from hunger, according to officials and researchers. “Even before the suspension came into effect our medical teams were witnessing alarmingly high rates of … acute malnutrition,” MSF said. “This situation will only worsen with a protracted suspension of food aid.”

China

China has opened up air raid shelters to offer people relief from soaring heat. Shelters were opened in several cities, including Hangzhou, Wuhan and Shijiazhuang as temperatures hit unusual highs. The shelters, many of which were built during the Japanese invasion starting in 1937, are now kitted out with seating areas and access to water, refreshments and heat stroke medicine. Some even have Wi-Fi, TV and table tennis. Earth’s average temperature this week was the hottest ever recorded.

Brazil

Now that rarest of things for Proximities: some positive news. Deforestation in Brazil’s Amazon fell by 34 percent in the first half of 2023, according to government figures. The data comes just six months after President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva took office promising to end deforestation - the mass clearing of trees - by 2030.