The request came three days after a magnitude 7.8 offshore earthquake struck near the southern province of Sarangani, killing at least 47 people, injuring 688 and leaving 31 others missing, according to disaster management officials.

More than 45,000 residents remained displaced, with roughly half staying in emergency shelters, after the quake damaged more than 12,600 homes across farming towns and urban centers in the affected region. Provincial authorities said many residents were reluctant to return home because of continuing aftershocks.

The hardest-hit province was Sarangani, where 20 fatalities were reported, most linked to a landslide that buried homes in the coastal municipality of Glan, according to the Office of Civil Defense.

Glan Mayor Victor James Yap said 10 of the town’s 31 villages remained inaccessible, largely due to landslides that blocked roads and cut off transport links. The municipality, home to more than 100,000 residents, continued to face severe logistical challenges in distributing aid.

“We need food and water but it’s difficult to transport them to some of our villages which remain isolated,” Yap told DZMM radio, urging the government to deploy air force helicopters to reach communities cut off from ground access.

Yap said a major road leading into the town had reopened, allowing fuel deliveries to resume as early as Thursday. However, electricity had yet to be restored and cellular communication services remained unreliable across parts of the municipality.

Most earthquake-related deaths were caused by collapsing structures, falling debris and landslides in Sarangani, General Santos City and the neighboring provinces of South Cotabato and Davao Occidental.
The disaster also triggered coastal hazards. Two swimmers drowned and another remained missing after being swept out to sea near General Santos shortly after the quake.

Authorities recorded waves reaching up to 1.4 meters above normal tide levels in parts of the southern Philippines, while smaller sea surges were detected in Indonesia, Palau and southern Japan.

The earthquake ranks among the strongest to strike the Philippines in the last five decades. It follows the magnitude 8.1 earthquake and tsunami of August 1976, one of the country’s deadliest natural disasters, which killed about 8,000 people.

The Philippines lies along the Pacific Ring of Fire, a seismically active zone where frequent earthquakes and volcanic eruptions occur due to the movement of major tectonic plates.

Years of drought, recurring floods, armed conflict and shrinking humanitarian assistance have forced millions of Somalis into increasingly precarious conditions, with many displaced families now struggling to survive in overcrowded camps around the capital, Mogadishu.

Among them is 38-year-old Zeynab Ibrahim, a single mother who fled her hometown near Burhakaba in central Somalia after years of failed rains devastated local agriculture and pushed her family into extreme hardship.For three years, Ibrahim watched as drought tightened its grip on her community.

Reservoirs dried up, crops failed and food became increasingly scarce. Hunger and disease spread through the area, claiming numerous lives, including four of her 10 children.“We tried every means to survive – selling dried grass and digging up water from the barren earth.

Unfortunately, there was nothing left, so we had no choice but to escape to save our children,” Ibrahim said while sitting outside a makeshift shelter in an internally displaced persons camp in Mogadishu’s Kahda district.The journey to the capital came only after all other options had been exhausted.

Assisted by a truck driver transporting other displaced families from drought-stricken areas around Burhakaba, she joined the growing number of Somalis seeking refuge in the city.“So hunger is what brought us here,” she said.Ibrahim is one of more than one million displaced people now living in informal settlements across Mogadishu, where many families continue to face severe shortages of food, clean water and basic services despite escaping the immediate effects of drought in rural areas.

Before being displaced, her family relied entirely on farming for survival. Maize, beans, sesame and vegetables grown on their land provided both food and income. As rainfall disappeared, however, agricultural production collapsed.

“Our livelihoods depended on what we could grow on the ground, including maize, beans, sesame and vegetables. But the ground dried because there was no rain,” she said.Her experience reflects a broader pattern unfolding across Somalia, where communities increasingly face overlapping climate and security pressures.

Repeated droughts destroy crops and livestock, while floods that follow periods of extreme dryness often wash away fragile infrastructure and further undermine agricultural recovery.For many households, these environmental shocks occur against a backdrop of persistent conflict and insecurity, limiting opportunities to rebuild livelihoods or safely return home.

The result has been a growing displacement crisis that has reshaped communities across the country. Families forced from rural areas frequently arrive in urban centers with few possessions and limited means of earning an income, increasing their dependence on humanitarian support at a time when aid resources are under strain.

Adan Roble, another displaced Somali, said the combined effects of environmental disasters and insecurity have left many families struggling to meet even their most basic needs.“Imagine losing everything and trying to survive without food and clean water, while fighting continues and drones keep flying overhead,” Roble said.

Roble has experienced multiple climate-related disasters. Years of drought destroyed his crops and rendered his farmland unproductive, undermining the economic foundation on which his family depended.Stories such as those of Ibrahim and Roble illustrate the mounting challenges facing Somalia as climate-related shocks become more frequent and severe.

Rural communities that depend heavily on rain-fed agriculture are often among the most vulnerable, with prolonged dry periods quickly translating into crop failures, livestock losses and widespread food insecurity.For many displaced families, arriving in Mogadishu has provided safety from immediate environmental threats but not from poverty.

Conditions in many informal settlements remain difficult, with limited access to employment opportunities, healthcare, sanitation and reliable food supplies.As climate pressures, conflict and humanitarian constraints converge, displaced households continue to face uncertain futures.

Families that once relied on farming and livestock now find themselves dependent on irregular aid and struggling to rebuild their lives far from the land that once sustained them.

For Ibrahim, the move to Mogadishu was not a choice but a last resort after years of watching her community deteriorate. Although she escaped the drought that devastated her hometown, the daily struggle against hunger and deprivation continues in the camp she now calls home.

Across the enclave, markets that would normally bustle with Eid shoppers were subdued as residents grappled with soaring inflation, damaged infrastructure and a deepening humanitarian crisis following months of war between Israel and Hamas.

“I go to the market only to look around because I cannot afford to buy anything,” Nadia Abu Shamala, a displaced resident originally from northern Gaza, told AFP from Deir Al-Balah in central Gaza.

“This year, Eid comes with none of the joy we once knew in Gaza because of the effects of the war, the soaring prices, and our inability to provide even the simplest needs for our children,” she said.

Although a US-brokered ceasefire began in October 2025, Israeli air strikes continue intermittently across Gaza. The United Nations estimates that roughly 80% of buildings in the territory sustained damage during the conflict, while the majority of Gaza’s 2.1 million residents remain dependent on humanitarian aid for food and essential supplies.

Aid organizations operating in the enclave say restrictions on the volume of goods entering Gaza through Israeli-controlled crossings have contributed to shortages and sharply inflated prices for food, fuel and livestock.

The economic strain has transformed Eid preparations for many households. The ritual sacrifice of sheep or goats, central to Eid Al-Adha commemorations, has become unattainable for most families due to collapsing livestock supplies and wartime inflation.

“The truce is a big lie, but in any case, we are trying to create joy for the children,” said Abu Abdullah Al-Mosadar, a resident of central Gaza who said he pooled about 13,000 shekels ($4,570) with relatives to purchase a sacrificial sheep.

According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, only about 15,000 sheep remain in Gaza, roughly a quarter of the territory’s pre-war livestock population.

Raafat Asaliya, spokesperson for Gaza’s agriculture ministry, said prices for sacrificial animals had reached unprecedented levels due to shortages, rising feed costs and the destruction of farms.

“A sheep or goat that was sold before the war for around 1,000 shekels is now priced between 11,000 and 15,000 shekels,” Asaliya said.

Residents said even basic meat purchases had become unaffordable.

“Families like ours, who used to make sacrifices every year, are now unable even to buy one kilogram of meat for our children,” said Ahmed Abu Salem, a Gaza City resident.

The hardship has also disrupted longstanding culinary traditions associated with Eid. Families that once baked kaak and maamoul pastries at home now struggle to secure cooking gas and ingredients.

In Khan Younis, some displaced families improvised under makeshift shelters, preparing Eid biscuits in clay ovens beside tents fashioned from reused aid tarpaulins.

“We are still living in tents with no atmosphere of joy, only worries, fear, and exhaustion,” Abu Shamala said. “Without any of the happiness we once knew.”

Demonstrators gathered in central Tunis under the slogan “The people are hungry and prisons are full,” calling for an end to what they described as one-man rule and denouncing arrests targeting politicians, journalists and civil society figures.

Protesters said authorities were using the judiciary and security apparatus to suppress dissent while economic conditions continued to deteriorate. Tunisia has faced sluggish economic growth, rising consumer prices, shortages of medicines and some food products, financing constraints and mounting pressure on state services.

The latest demonstration reflects growing domestic criticism of Saied, who dissolved parliament in 2022 and expanded presidential powers by governing through decrees in moves opponents and rights organizations say undermined the democratic system established after Tunisia’s 2011 uprising.

Saied has repeatedly rejected accusations of authoritarianism, saying his measures are necessary to combat corruption and prevent political paralysis and instability.

Tunisia’s legal and media sectors have also intensified criticism of the government in recent weeks. The national bar association has called for strikes over concerns regarding judicial independence, while the journalists’ union has announced protests against the detention of journalists and what it describes as increasing restrictions on press freedom.

Authorities deny accusations of political repression and say legal actions taken against critics are carried out in accordance with the law.

Tunisia’s economic difficulties have been compounded by financing pressures and delays in implementing reforms sought by international lenders, while unemployment and declining purchasing power continue to fuel public frustration.

The warning came as Israeli authorities issued new displacement orders for 16 areas south of the Litani River, instructing residents to move toward the nearby city of Saida, adding further pressure on already strained communities and humanitarian operations.

U.N. spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said civilians continued to bear the brunt of the hostilities, with women and children disproportionately affected by displacement, overcrowded shelters and worsening living conditions.

He said reports indicated rising levels of psychological distress, family separation and increased risks of gender-based violence, particularly in temporary shelters where access to protection services remains limited.

“We and our partners are responding to the mounting needs where access allows,” Dujarric told reporters, while noting that humanitarian operations remain constrained by insecurity and restricted access in several affected areas.

A new joint analysis by the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization and the World Food Programme found that a sharp escalation in violence had reversed earlier food-security improvements and pushed Lebanon back into a crisis phase.

According to the latest Integrated Food Security Phase Classification assessment, around 1.24 million people nearly one in four of those surveyed — are projected to face IPC Phase 3, or crisis-level, food insecurity or worse during the April-to-August period.

At that level, households are typically forced to adopt severe coping strategies such as skipping meals, reducing food quality or selling essential assets to afford basic supplies.

Lebanon has been grappling with overlapping economic, political and security crises for years, with inflation, currency collapse and weakened state institutions already undermining access to food and public services before the latest surge in violence.

Humanitarian agencies also warned that funding shortfalls were limiting relief efforts. The Lebanon Flash Appeal has received just over $117 million so far, only 38% of the $308 million required to meet urgent needs, according to U.N. figures.

Dujarric said that without immediate additional funding and improved humanitarian access, conditions were likely to deteriorate further, leaving more families exposed to hunger, displacement and prolonged hardship.

At the Church of the Holy Spirit in Old Havana, nearly 50 elderly residents gather three times a week for a free lunch of rice, beans, ground meat and coffee, a modest but essential supplement for pensioners whose monthly incomes often amount to less than $10 at informal exchange rates.

Among them is 84-year-old retired chemical engineer Carmen Casado, who receives a monthly pension of 2,000 Cuban pesos, worth roughly $4 on the informal market. Living alone, without children or remittances from relatives abroad, she relies on church meals in addition to the limited bread, rice and beans available through Cuba’s state-run ration stores.“This is a lifeline for us retirees with small pensions,” Casado said.

“What we get from the bodegas alone is not enough.”Older Cubans, many of them former state employees such as teachers, doctors, nurses and technicians, have been among the hardest hit by the worsening downturn, which intensified this year following an oil embargo imposed by U.S. President Donald Trump.

The crisis has brought further cuts to subsidized goods that for decades formed the backbone of Cuba’s social safety net, while rising shortages and inflation have eroded the value of fixed pensions.At the same time, the migration of younger Cubans has left many elderly residents isolated, without family members to provide financial support or day-to-day care.

Cuba was already one of Latin America’s oldest societies before the latest wave of emigration. By the end of 2024, nearly 26% of the population was aged 60 or older, according to Cuba’s National Bureau of Statistics, compared with a regional average of 14.2% reported by the U.N. Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC).Over the last five years, Cuba’s population has declined by nearly 1.5 million, largely because of outward migration.

The number of residents on the island has fallen from 11.1 million to 9.7 million.The demographic shift is increasingly visible in Havana, where elderly residents stand in long lines for rationed food, sell small items such as cigarettes on the streets or search for assistance from churches and state institutions.

The pressure has prompted the government to authorize private entrepreneurs to operate elder-care services and residential facilities, a notable shift in a country where social services have traditionally remained under state control.Casado says she still considers herself fortunate. At 84, she remains physically independent, climbs the stairs to her aging apartment without a cane and needs only blood pressure medication, which she says is still available through state pharmacies.

Born in 1942, she has lived through the Cuban Revolution, the 1962 missile crisis, the Soviet-backed economic boom of the 1970s and 1980s, and the severe shortages of the post-Soviet “Special Period.”Despite today’s hardships, she continues to place responsibility for Cuba’s economic difficulties largely on the United States.

“We’re doing everything we can here to move the country forward,” she said. “But the thing is, we have a very powerful enemy, and he’s right there, right on our doorstep.”

Aid officials said shortages of food, medicine and shelter were worsening rapidly, particularly in Darfur and Khartoum, where access for humanitarian workers remains severely restricted.

The UN called for urgent international funding and stronger diplomatic efforts to prevent further regional destabilization.

The move is expected to increase the daily flow of food, fuel and medicine through supervised crossings while military operations continue in parts of northern and central Gaza.

Aid agencies welcomed the decision but said implementation and safe access for relief convoys remain critical amid ongoing fighting and infrastructure collapse.

While talking to any simple worker and wage earner, in the very first sentence of his conversation he tells you very simply that “I can no longer buy meat and chicken!”

The catastrophic state of the Iranian economy has directly affected the livelihood of the Iranian people, and now one of the biggest problems they face is malnutrition due to food shortages, skyrocketing prices, and poor quality of goods.

According to the World Health Organization, malnutrition is the leading cause of death in the world.

Malnutrition causes diseases and disorders to the body’s immune and digestive systems.

The Research Center of the Iranian Parliament, based on data from the Statistics Center of Iran, has reported a sharp decline in the consumption of basic goods by Iranians.

The report shows the price of essential goods have risen sharply in the past two years. The price of goods such as chicken meat was up more than 100 percent. At the same time, the average consumption of essential goods has decreased significantly in recent years.

In the third decile, including the lowest-income middle class and skilled workers, red meat consumption fell by 36% and rice consumption by 18%. Consumption of red meat decreased by more than 30% in 2019 compared to 2016, consumption of veal by 20% and lamb by 29%.

Considering more than 70% of Iranian workers are minimum wage earners and are considered below middle class, this drop in consumption is relatively higher among them.

However, this year’s inflation data has not been taken into account in the calculations of the Parliamentary Research Center. If it were to be, the reduction of consumption of essential goods would undoubtedly be much higher than this.

Workers within a period of one year and six months were faced with a 500% increase in rent rates and are no longer able to provide adequate housing in cities. Moreover, with an income of less than 100,000 tomans a day (approximately $5) people cannot even afford to put food on their tables.

According to the official report of the Statistics Center of Iran, the inflation rate in October has increased by 7% compared to September. This means that all goods and services have become 7% more expensive. According to the same official report, the inflation rate hit a record high in October 2020 and reached 41.4%. The low-income deciles feel the inflationary pressure on food and beverage groups of goods more than high-income deciles. The role of food commodities in inflation for low income deciles is more prominent.

Inflation by decile – Source: Statistics Center of Iran

The tables of Statistics Center and the Central Bank of Iran show the downward trend of 10-year consumption in Iran’s households, and if we put this downward trend next to the upward trend of household numbers, the average per capita consumption is obtained and will show how far it has fallen in recent years!

While talking to any simple worker and wage earner, in the very first sentence of his conversation he tells you very simply that “I can no longer buy meat and chicken!”

A municipal worker in Marivan says he has not bought red meat for months. He buys two dozen eggs and takes them home, and they eat “soy” (Tofu) instead of meat.

He says, “We, the municipal workers, are not only the minimum wage earners, but we do not receive the same insufficient wages on time. The municipality did not pay us for months. In this situation, how can we buy meat at above 100,000 Tomans (approximately $ 5) per Kilogram!? We don’t even buy chicken.”

A female head of household said she has not been able to buy meat and poultry for months, “We buy chicken feet and make soup, or we take a calf bone and boil it into the soup. Anyway, my children need protein. What else can I do!?”

One of the producers of raw materials for sausage and cold cuts said that people are turning to cheap and inexpensive meat products. According to this producer, the consumption of sausages has increased by 50% since the increase in the price of meat and poultry.

The Parliamentary Research Center has stated the situation as follows, “The current living conditions have degraded the lives of the vast majority of Iranian workers to the level of survival. The high price of food, which has accelerated in recent months, has made the Iranian household’s food basket smaller and low-value food has replaced proteins. The high cost of fruit during the outbreak of coronavirus deprives people of more vitamins and lowers their immune system.

“The economic situation worsened and the government continued to have no money to pay foreign currency at government rate for essential goods such as meat, grains, etc., and the import of animal feed at the government foreign currency rate continued to be difficult. These factors led to a surge in food and dairy prices.

“These increases are while the wage committee of the Supreme Labor Council estimated the cost of living in August of this year at 6.249 million tomans without taking into account the cost of housing. That means 1.309 million tomans more than the figure announced in March of last year”.

Cyrus Yaqubi is a Research Analyst and Iranian Foreign Affairs Commentator investigating the social issues and economy of the middle east countries in general and Iran in particular.