A few months ago, at a center for malnourished children in the remote Darfur region of Sudan, an orphaned baby who had arrived days earlier on the brink of death gripped Tom Fletcher’s finger with surprising strength. The United Nations’ humanitarian chief says those seconds eased his frustration at international inaction and the “anger” he feels over cuts to aid at a time when needs and conflicts are rising around the world.

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The journalist Roxana Berenice Guzmán was inside her home when armed men showed up and smashed the door. Like in a nightmare, they did not succeed immediately: they broke the glass and then began hammering at the lock. Blow after blow, up to a dozen. A man inside asks them to wait, but one of the attackers silences him, sticking a rifle through the broken glass and taking aim. They begin to kick at the door. The kicks are combined with the hammer blows. The man inside the house pleads again: “There’s a baby, calm down!” But, as in nightmares, the squad finally manages to break a piece of the door and enter the house. “Get on the floor!” one of the hooded men shouts, before grabbing the phone that is recording him. There are no images after that, but the attackers took the founder of the local media outlet Pulso Informativo del Sureste. The recording has shaken a country used to attacks on its journalists.

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