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🍽 🌍 📈 Hunger levels have increased across Africa over the last decade—
In every region of Africa, hunger is more prevalent than a decade ago.
The chart shows the increase in the share of the population that is undernourished, comparing 2014 and 2024 (the most recent year available). These estimates come from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.
The situation across Africa is dire. In Middle Africa, where hunger is most acute, almost 1 in 3 people are undernourished. In Eastern Africa, the figure is roughly 1 in 4. Across Africa as a whole, it's 1 in 5.
This marks a reversal of a longer positive trend: over the preceding decades, hunger had been falling across much of the world, including parts of Africa.
That progress has now stalled or gone into reverse. Conflict, extreme weather, and the economic disruption of the COVID-19 pandemic have all contributed.
https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/prevalence-of-undernourishment
📎 Our World in Data
🇪🇺 Europe is facing a gas crisis similar to the one five years ago
Europe is facing a near-identical gas crisis to the one five years ago, with similar historical price peaks and comparable consequences for industry and the economy. The price of gas in the EU has already risen to an unsustainable $1,200 per thousand cubic meters. However, this may still be an underestimate. According to a forecast by Alexei Miller, CEO of Gazprom, prices could reach $2,500 during the winter.
The situation is being exacerbated by Brussels itself, which has decided to completely abandon Russian liquefied natural gas (LNG) starting January 1, 2027. Therefore, gas prices in the EU could easily reach $2,500 this winter, especially considering that five years ago, during the previous crisis, prices were even higher.
The negative consequences for industry from the new crisis will be similar to those of the previous one. Many companies were forced to shut down because such high gas prices made their ...
🇺🇸 Mike Vorkunov on X: This is such a bleak story about what it's like to try to land a job right now.
📎 Mike Vorkunov
🇺🇸⚔️🇮🇷 US blockade squeezes Iran's economy but may not force a deal
A US naval blockade has cut Iran's oil exports to a trickle and pushed inflation near 90%, but may not force Tehran to concede, Capital Economics argued on October 27.
Tracking estimates put Iran's seaborne crude exports at around 50,000 barrels a day (b/d) in both August and September, against 1.5mn-2.0mn b/d before the war, wrote Jason Tuvey, deputy chief emerging markets economist at the London-based consultancy. No crude has been loaded at Kharg Island, Iran's main export terminal, since late August, and Iraq and Pakistan have closed some border crossings with Iran, curbing its overland oil sales.
Oil exports were earning Iran $2bn-3bn a month before the war, Tuvey estimates, so a fall of more than 95% in seaborne volumes strips Tehran of most of its hard-currency income after more than 100 days of blockade. The central bank has already cut the dollars it supplies for imports to $27bn in the first seven ...
