Emma Batha

International aid fell in 2024 for the first time in six years, and is set to plunge further this year after U.S. President Donald Trump imposed a sweeping freeze on foreign aid, and many other key donors announced cuts.

The world's major donors contributed $212.1 billion in 2024, down 7.1% in real terms compared to 2023, according to preliminary data collected by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

U.S. President Donald Trump's decision to slash aid will cost lives in Afghanistan where millions depend on assistance to survive, humanitarian experts say.

They warned of "massive impacts" on everything from healthcare to demining programmes, along with huge staff layoffs. 

Respiratory consultant Binita Kane was working on the frontlines of the pandemic in Britain when her 10-year-old daughter Jasmin developed long COVID in 2021.

Tens of thousands of children in Britain - and millions worldwide - have long COVID, impacting their health, education and futures.

As a lively 11-year-old, Louise's son loved riding his bike, building outdoor dens, and swimming in the sea near his home on England's south coast. But then COVID struck.

He has since spent most of the last three years housebound with long COVID, needing a stairlift and wheelchair to get around when not bedridden.

Thousands of South Sudanese refugees working with aid agencies in Bidibidi camp in northern Uganda lost their jobs overnight after U.S. President Donald Trump froze government aid funding, paralysing humanitarian programmes.

Yesua Aliki, 28, a refugee advocate in Bidibidi - one of the world's biggest camps - warned that the stoppage would lead to a big rise in malnutrition and more deaths.

Long COVID is costing countries billions of dollars in lost productivity and increased health and social welfare costs, economists say.

Five years on from the start of the COVID-19 crisis, millions of people are struggling with debilitating health problems that have decimated their lives and livelihoods.

As COVID-19 raged around the world five years ago, London community nurse Beverly Summers found herself on the frontline of the pandemic, caring for patients in their homes as hospitals rapidly ran out of beds.

Passionate about her job, she did back-to-back shifts for eight weeks, but then caught the virus herself.

Context spoke to Lotfullah Najafizada, CEO of Amu TV about how dangerous it is to be a journalist in Afghanistan.

From Gaza to Ukraine, more than 180 million people are caught up in humanitarian emergencies, but while a handful make headlines, many crises fly under the radar.

Here are the 10 that attracted the least media attention last year, according to research by aid agency CARE.

President-elect Donald Trump's return to the White House will embolden anti-abortion activists who want to further restrict access, reproductive rights experts say.

Abortion is a deeply divisive issue in the United States where a 2022 Supreme Court ruling in 2022 upended reproductive rights across the country.