For Pacific Island countries, the Middle East crisis is not a distant geopolitical event. It is already showing up in higher fuel prices, electricity uncertainty and fears that communities sitting at the far end of global supply chains could be pushed into deeper economic insecurity.

A “new wave of global instability is hitting Myanmar at the worst possible moment,” a UN official in the country warned on Friday, as increases in fuel, food, and fertilizer prices due to the ongoing Middle East conflict push vulnerable families closer to hunger one year after a devastating earthquake.  

Domestic violence was not something people spoke about openly in Kyrgyzstan in the 1990s following the collapse of the Soviet Union, but after a long road of dedicated efforts, there are now laws addressing family abuse, crisis centres and hotlines while human rights defenders tackle such new challenges as sexual slavery.

The fallout from the war in the Middle East is rippling far beyond the Gulf, disrupting fuel supplies, shipping routes and supply chains across Asia and the Pacific, with some of the region’s most vulnerable economies already feeling the strain through rising prices, rationing and threats to jobs, food security and remittances.

Top UN officials condemned on Tuesday Pakistan’s overnight strike on a rehab centre that reportedly killed at least 400 people in Kabul, according to Taliban authorities, and injured more than 250 others.

The Sawyers from Australia were never really interested in volatile investing. As their retirement age approached, the idea of a low-risk investment for their pension seemed attractive. But one day, after clicking on a seemingly legitimate online advert that offered a reasonable risk-averse plan, they unlocked a process that would lead them to lose over $2.5 million.