In today’s news…

The World Bank takes on inequality and pushes for shared growth in China. But some experts wonder if development policy is what China really needs, and some countries want a say in how China handles its exports.

A quarter of all Somalis are now displaced. And as drought persists and cereal prices skyrocket, charities are stepping up their campaigns for emergency famine relief in the Horn of Africa, and others are calling for long-term solutions.

A new UN report is calling for drastic, worldwide, long-term changes to how we live. And it wants them fast. According to the accompanying press release:  “Humanity is close to breaching the sustainability of Earth, and needs a technological revolution greater – and faster – than the industrial revolution to avoid “a major planetary catastrophe,” according to a new United Nations report.” The report also makes it clear that lowering global inequality must be done right or it will compound ecological problems: “Business as usual is not an option. An attempt to overcome world poverty through income growth generated by existing ‘brown technologies’ would exceed the limits of environmental sustainability.”

US sanctions halt food shipments to Iran, while global sanctions ostensibly aimed at preventing the development of Iranian nuclear weapons are laying a beating on nearby Dubai’s economy.

An airstrike in Afghanistan’s Helmand province has just become the first confirmed instance of a UK drone killing civilians, thereby making more difficult the British military’s task of winning over public opinion at home regarding the controversial unmanned aircraft.

Less than a week into its existence, the UK’s anti-bribery law is already having an impact.

Douglas Glover argues Wikileaks and the Arab Spring have brought an end to the age of diplomacy.