World Bank: Up to 150 Million More People Will Live in Extreme Poverty by 2021

The convergence of the coronavirus, combined with global conflict and climate change has put the goal of ending global poverty by 2030 virtually out of sight.

Alan Macleod
By Alan Macleod
World Bank Feature photo

A new report from the World Bank estimates that the number of people living in extreme poverty around the world will increase by between 88 and 150 million by 2021, thanks in part to the COVID-19 pandemic. This represents an increase in the number, calculated as those living on less than $1.90 per day, for the first time in 20 years, according to

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Exporting Toxic Chemical Waste to Poor Countries Must End, Says UN

Last year, at least 30 rich countries exported locally-banned toxic substances to poorer ones, allowing corporations to write off their costly waste and transferring the costs to some of the poorest people on earth.

Alan Macleod
By Alan Macleod
Toxic waste Feature photo

The practice of dumping banned, toxic chemical waste on poorer societies by big corporations in rich countries must end, say experts at the United Nations Human Rights Council. “In nearly every case there is no legitimate public interest justification,” said Baskut Tuncak, a Turkish-American UN special rapporteur on the environment and the disposal

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Is Wall Street Behind the Delay in Declaring the Coronavirus Outbreak a “Pandemic”?

A little known financial mechanism set up by the World Bank could be behind the decision not to declare the coronavirus a pandemic reports Whitney Webb.

Whitney Webb
By Whitney Webb
coronavirus pandemic

A little known specialized bond created in 2017 by the World Bank may hold the answer as to why U.S. and global health authorities have declined to label the global spread of the novel coronavirus a “pandemic.” Those bonds, now often referred to as “pandemic bonds,” were ostensibly intended to transfer the risk of potential pandemics in low-income

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Leaked Wikileaks Doc Reveals US Military Use of IMF, World Bank as “Unconventional” Weapons

This “U.S. coup manual,” recently highlighted by WikiLeaks, serves as a reminder that the so-called “independence” of such financial institutions as The World Bank and IMF is an illusion and that they are among the many “financial weapons” regularly used by the U.S. government to bend countries to its will.

Whitney Webb
By Whitney Webb
Argentina | IMF protest

WASHINGTON – In a leaked military manual on “unconventional warfare” recently highlighted by WikiLeaks, the U.S. Army states that major global financial institutions -- such as the World Bank, International Monetary Fund (IMF), and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) -- are used as unconventional, financial “weapons in

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Washington Just Injected Serious Cash and Weapons into Ukraine’s Far-Right Regime

It doesn’t seem to bother US lawmakers that the government of Ukraine is dominated by Neo-Nazi demagogues and paramilitaries who worship Stepan Bandera and other Ukrainian collaborators in the Third Reich’s Final Solution.

Finian Cunningham
By Finian Cunningham
Ukraine US Weapons

Oh, what a lovely big stocking-filler for the Kiev regime this week from Washington. Just in time for Christmas too, and only weeks after President Petro Poroshenko tried to incite a war with Russia from a naval provocation in the Kerch Strait. First, we had US government envoy Kurt Volker announcing this week that an additional $250 million in

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World Bank Issues Stark Warning: Gaza’s Economy is Collapsing

“A combination of war, isolation and internal division has left Gaza in a crippling economic state and exacerbated the human distress,” said Marina Wes, World Bank Country Director for the West Bank and Gaza.

Middle East Monitor
By Middle East Monitor
UNRWA Schools Gaza budget

The World Bank has issued a stark warning about Gaza’s economy. A report published today stated that the enclave is “collapsing” due to the 11-year Israeli-led blockade and described the economy as being in “free fall”, with aid flows no longer enough to stimulate growth. A “recent drying up of liquidity” noted by the Bank is a reference to the

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