Tim McDonnell

Garment workers in Indonesia are eligible for generous severance if they're laid off — although that law could be changing.

The $4 Million Severance Payout That Almost Didn't Happen

Tim McDonnell

Workers in Indonesia are beneficiaries of incredibly generous severance laws. But when one factory closed, it looked as if the workers wouldn't get what they expected.

An employee walks past a power plant's electricity pylons in Lagos, Nigeria. Power shortages are particularly a problem for Nigeria's booming tech industry, which accounts for nearly 14% of the country's GDP.

The Powerlessness Of Nigeria's Tech Startups

Tim McDonnell

The big problem for these booming businesses isn't staff shortages, government regulations or software glitches. It's all about the electrical grid.

Ugali, a staple starch in many parts of Africa, is filling but lacking in micronutrients.

Could 'Hidden Hunger' Be Conquered With A Particle The Size Of A Grain Of Salt?

Tim McDonnell

To pack a healthier punch into staple foods like flour, researchers borrowed technology from the pharmaceutical industry.

Displaced Kurdish and Arab women, who fled from violence after a Turkish offensive in northeastern Syria, sit with their children at a public school used as shelter where they now live in Hasakah, Syria.

UNICEF's Top Syria Official: 'We Have Witnessed Huge Amounts Of Distress' Among Kids

Tim McDonnell

Turkey's invasion of Syria this month has displaced 80,000 children who are "really in deep distress," UNICEF's Fran Equiza tells NPR. "The price children pay is absolutely disproportionate."

A blood transfusion bag hangs in an operating room in a hospital in the Republic of Congo. Most countries in sub-Saharan Africa have a huge gap between blood supply and demand, new research found.

Hospitals Around The World Have A Dire Shortage Of Blood

Tim McDonnell

The first global analysis of blood supply and demand finds that many developing countries are relying on risky emergency donations.

Childhood Obesity Is Rising 'Shockingly Fast' — Even In Poor Countries

Tim McDonnell

A comprehensive new report from UNICEF calls attention to the surge in obesity in developing countries — even as they're dealing with children who are undernourished.

Smoke rises from the Syrian town of Tal Abyad, where a hospital was shuttered because of the fighting.

Turkey's Invasion Of Syria Worsens A Humanitarian Crisis

Tim McDonnell

A front-line hospital was abandoned Friday as up to 100,000 people fled Turkey's ground and air offensive.

Gulalai Ismail, the Pakistani activist who fled the country after being threatened for taking a stand against sexual violence perpetrated by security forces. She was photographed in Brooklyn, where she is now seeking asylum.

Escape To New York: Afraid For Her Life, A Pakistani Activist Seeks Asylum

Tim McDonnell

Gulalai Ismail spoke out against sexual assaults committed by Pakistani security forces. She was detained and threatened. Then she disappeared — until last week.

A man stands in his wrecked home in Macomia, Mozambique, after Cyclone Kenneth in April. It was the second intense cyclone to strike the country in six weeks.

U.N. Summit: Climate-Related Disasters Getting Worse, Funds To Help Falling Short

Tim McDonnell

Low- and middle-income nations are still tens of billions of dollars a year short for recovery from the increasing number of disasters, according to a new report.

Eulalio Barrera Barrera's family was one of 6,000 to receive a monthly stipend funded by USAID that was cut off last month because of President Trump's foreign aid funding freeze. Like many families in the program, he spent the last cash on chickens.

Trump Froze Aid To Guatemala. Now Programs Are Shutting Down

Tim McDonnell

In April, the president put $450 million on hold for Guatemala as well as Honduras and El Salvador over what he described as the failure of their governments to stem the flow of migrants to the U.S.