World roundup: June 15 2022

Stories from Iran, Libya, Russia, and more

INTERNATIONAL

In today’s global news:

• Worldometer is tracking COVID-19 cases and fatalities.

• The New York Times is tracking global vaccine distribution.

MIDDLE EAST

YEMEN

The Washington Post looks at the grim situations in five countries whose food security has been particularly impacted by the war in Ukraine, including Egypt, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Somalia, and Yemen:

The World Food Program was already providing food for 13 million people in Yemen, where a long civil war has driven up food and fuel prices and caused a widespread hunger crisis.

The agency typically buys half of the wheat for its global food assistance from Ukraine. At a time when more people around the world require aid, the cost of providing it has gone up, leaving the agency with significant budget shortfalls. WFP announced Tuesday that it was suspending part of its food aid in South Sudan after funding ran out.

“We’re now having to decide which children eat, which children don’t eat, which children live, which children die,” WFP Executive Director David Beasley told The Post last month. The program already had to cut food rations for 8 million people in Yemen before Russia invaded Ukraine. Now, [WFP regional director Corinne] Fleischer said, the agency fears that it will have to cut more.