World roundup: March 25 2022

Stories from North Korea, the Solomon Islands, Ukraine, 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

SYRIA

According to The New Arab, the Rukban displaced persons camp in southern Syria is nearly out of food, with camp residents making bread out of wheat husks and trying to farm nearby land even though the camp is in the Syrian desert. A Syrian government crackdown on smugglers is apparently blocking the camp’s only reliable source of food. Rukban lies within the US military’s defense perimeter around its military base at Tanf, but the United States has consistently refused to provide the camp with supplies while insisting that any obligation to do so rests with the Syrian government.

Elsewhere, talks in Geneva on Friday between government and opposition representatives serving on the United Nations’ Syrian constitutional committee apparently collapsed without making any progress. Please try to contain your surprise.