But the impact is not evenly felt. In Asia, heavily reliant on the Middle East for crude oil and liquefied natural gas, Bangladesh closed all its universities and Pakistan some of its schools due to fuel shortages. While US coverage is dominated by the impact at home, others are paying a higher price. And it is the world’s poorest and most vulnerable who will be the worst hit. The war has created a new humanitarian crisis – with millions displaced in Iran and Lebanon, and healthcare facilities hit as well as more than 17,000 residential buildings, according to Iran’s Red Crescent. But it is also deepening existing ones, and it comes as US cuts to aid – and reductions by Britain and others – are already pushing millions deeper into hunger.

In Gaza, food prices have surged after Israel closed crossings. The World Health Organization, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies and others are struggling to ship essential aid from the region: Dubai is home to a major humanitarian logistics hub and the Middle East’s largest container terminal – which caught fire after it was struck by wreckage from an intercepted Iranian missile.......but the weapons manufacturers are making a killing! so to speak. read on     https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/mar/12/the-guardian-view-on-the-cost-of-trumps-war-the-worlds-poor-will-pay-most-dearly

Household burning of plastic waste in developing world is hidden health threat, study shows. The practice is ‘much more widespread’ than previously realised, researchers say, with serious environmental impact. Guardian Donna Lu 8 jan 2026The household burning of plastic for heating and cooking is widespread in developing countries, suggests a global study that raises concerns about its health and environmental impacts.

The research, published in the journal Nature Communications, surveyed more than 1,000 respondents across 26 countries. One in three people reported being aware of households burning plastic, while 16% said they had burned plastic themselveRespondents worked closely with low-income urban neighbourhoods and included researchers, government workers and community leaders. Dr Bishal Bharadwaj, the lead author of the study and a research associate at the University of Calgary, said the work provided broad global evidence on households burning plastic, a practice that had been “difficult to get accurate data on”.

“When families can’t afford cleaner fuels and have no reliable waste collection, plastic becomes both a nuisance and a last-resort energy source. We found evidence of people burning everything from plastic bags and wrappers to bottles and packaging, just to meet basic household needs,” Bharadwaj said in a statement. “The practice is far more widespread than anyone realised, but because it happens in marginalised communities and is often hidden, it has escaped meaningful global attention despite the severe risks to health and the environment.”

The researchers surveyed people in low- and middle-income countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America, and suggest that plastic burning “does not result solely from energy poverty, but also represents a vital informal solution in many settings to cope with … a high rate of mismanaged plastic”. The study’s authors highlighted health risks such as inhalation of toxic emissions in confined spaces as well as contamination of food. Burning plastic releases noxious compounds such as dioxins, furans and heavy metals, while previous research has identified toxic compounds in egg samples near plastic burn sites.

The researchers described the work as “an initial step toward filling critical knowledge gaps in this domain”, but noted that more work was needed to give a true sense of the “scale and distribution of plastic waste burning”. https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2026/jan/08/household-burning-of-plastic-waste-in-developing-world-is-hidden-health-threat-study-show