World Status Report

This report intends to give the UTD Community a snapshot of international risks, and other issues as reported by the linked media and official sources from the U.S. and other countries.

More health and security information for each country can be found in the travel advisories issued by the governments of the United States, Canada, the UK, New Zealand, and Australia, and the CDC, ECDC, and WHO sites. Not all advise in these sites will apply to US travelers.

Please note the publication date of this report and go to the direct sources linked for the most up-to-date information.  The information in this report may change without prior notice.

Security

• Haiti’s protracted political and humanitarian crisis – marked by spiking levels of gang-related violence and a badly struggling national police force – are reversing crucial security and development strides (UN News) made since the country’s devastating 2010 earthquake, the senior UN representative in Port-au-Prince told the Security Council on Tuesday.
• UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, is calling for enhanced support for those recently displaced in Mali (UN News), where violence and threats by armed groups have forced local Malians and refugees to flee for safety.
• Rwanda fires on Congo military aircraft accused of violation (Associated Press). Rwanda has fired on a Congolese military aircraft it alleges violated its airspace in a new escalation of tensions between the neighbors that has set off alarm across central Africa.
• Over 15,000 Flee as Myanmar Junta Bombs, Shells and Burns Katha Villages (The Irrawaddy). Regime troops target civilian communities across Sagaing township after suffering losses in 3-day clash with local resistance forces.
• Mexico court: army doesn’t have to tell police about arrests (AP News). Mexico’s Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that the armed forces do not have to advise civilian police when they make an arrest, as long as they eventually register the arrest in a computer system that civilian agencies use.
• Germany announced plans to deliver heavy tanks (Reuters) to Ukraine, and the United States was poised to do so too, a breakthrough hailed as a decisive military boost by Kyiv and condemned by Moscow as a reckless provocation.
• Report: Much of Africa less safe, democratic than in 2012 (Associated Press). A new report on African governance released Wednesday finds much of the continent is “less safe, secure and democratic” than it was 10 years ago, citing a surge in military coups and armed conflicts.
• Almost half of all killings of journalists in 2022 occurred in Latin America and the Caribbean (The Guardian), the Committee to Protect Journalists said in a new report.

Demonstrations

• Berlin airport cancels all flights amid ground staff strike (AP News). Berlin Airport canceled all its flights Wednesday after ground staff went on strike to press their demands for higher pay. The walk-out affected about 300 flights to and from Germany’s capital.
• Lebanese Protesters Block Several Roads Over Worsening Economic Conditions (Mena FN). A number of Lebanese people blocked on Tuesday traffic in several roads inside and outside the capital Beirut to protest against the deteriorating economic and living conditions.
• Peru protesters tear-gassed after president calls for truce (AP News). Thousands of protesters took to the streets of Peru’s capital and were met with volleys of tear gas and pellets amid clashes with security forces just hours after President Dina Boluarte called for a “truce” in almost two months of protests.

Natural Disasters

• From China to Japan, extreme cold is gripping East Asia. Experts say it’s the ‘new norm’ (CNN on MSN.com). Tens of millions of people across East Asia braved a severe cold snap Wednesday as subzero temperatures and heavy snow brought travel chaos during the Lunar New Year holiday. Korea Meteorological Administration spokesperson Woo Jin-kyu told CNN that while scientists took a long-term view of climate change, “we can consider this extreme weather – extremely hot weather in summer and extremely cold weather in winter – as one of the signals of climate change.”

Infrastructure

• Microsoft was hit with a networking outage (Reuters) that took down its cloud platform Azure along with services such as Teams and Outlook, potentially affecting millions of users globally. An Azure outage can impact a variety of services and create a domino effect as almost all of the world’s largest companies use the platform.

Health

• In Brazil, the Yanomami indigenous group living in the Amazon state of Roraima (ERCC) is being plagued by a severe nutrition and health crisis. There are more than 10,000 Yanomami children without medical assistance and every 72 hours a child is dying from preventable diseases (malaria, verminosis, malnutrition or diarrhoea) because of the polluted water and the lack of food caused by the presence of the illegal miners.
• European consumers ask officials to do more to address antibiotics shortages (CIDRAP). Some widely used antibiotics, such as amoxicillin, which is often used to treat ear and chest infections in children, have been in shortage in Europe since October.
• Canadian wastewater polio isolates show US links; African countries report more cases (CIDRAP). Virus found in Canadian wastewater samples is linked to a polio case and environmental samples identified last summer in New York.
• Avian flu strikes more poultry in 6 states as virus found in dead seals in Russia (CIDRAP). US poultry losses have reached a record 58.16 million since the H5N1 outbreaks began in February 2022. In a new development, scientists from Russia’s Dagestan State University announced that tests have detected avian influenza in seals that were involved in a mass mortality event in December.

Humanitarian

• The humanitarian impact continues to increase over northern and central Madagascar (ERCC), due to the passage of CHENESO as a tropical storm on 19-23 January. According to the National Bureau of Risk and Disaster Management (BNGRC), seven people have died and thirteen others are missing. Approximately 14,400 individuals have been temporarily displaced to 55 accommodation sites, while up to 35,000 people have been affected.

Please note the publication date of this report and go to the direct sources linked for the most up-to-date information.  The information in this report may change without prior notice.

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