Humanitarian corridors advantages and disadvantages:

 

Humanitarian corridors are safe passage routes established during conflicts or disasters to allow civilians, aid workers, and humanitarian supplies to move safely. They can be temporary or sustained, depending on the situation. Here are the advantages and disadvantages:

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Advantages of Humanitarian Corridors

1. Safe Evacuation of Civilians

   • Protects vulnerable populations from active conflict zones, especially children, the elderly, and the injured.

2. Access to Humanitarian Aid

   • Enables delivery of essential supplies like food, water, and medical aid to people in besieged or inaccessible areas.

3. Facilitates Medical Assistance

   • Allows the sick or wounded to be evacuated for treatment, reducing civilian deaths and suffering.

4. Reduces Civilian Casualties

   • Creates a temporary pause in hostilities, offering protection and minimizing loss of life.

5. Supports International Humanitarian Law

   • Upholds principles of humanity and neutrality, promoting moral responsibility in war or crisis.

6. Pressure on Warring Parties

   • Encourages negotiation and temporary cooperation between opposing forces, sometimes leading to longer-term ceasefires.

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Disadvantages of Humanitarian Corridors

1. Risk of Being Exploited

   • Warring parties may misuse the corridor to regroup, move weapons, or gain strategic advantage.

2. Lack of Trust and Security Guarantees

   • Civilians and aid workers may be attacked if the corridor is not genuinely respected by all parties (e.g., “fake safe zones”).

3. Selective Access and Manipulation

   • Corridors may be used selectively, allowing evacuation only from areas under one party’s control, leading to forced displacement or ethnic cleansing.

4. Temporary Relief Only

   • Provides short-term assistance without addressing the root causes of the conflict or disaster.

5. Logistical Challenges

   • Requires coordination, monitoring, and often the involvement of neutral international bodies, which can delay implementation.

6. Political Manipulation

   • May be used by governments or militant groups to present themselves positively in the international arena while continuing abuses elsewhere.Here’s an example from the Ukraine–Russia war that clearly illustrates both the potential and the problems of humanitarian corridors:

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     Real-Life Example: Humanitarian Corridors in Ukraine (2022–Present)

     Context:
     After Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, several Ukrainian cities came under siege, such as Mariupol, Sumy, and parts of the Donbas region. Civilians were trapped without food, water, electricity, or medical care.

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     Advantages Demonstrated:

     1. Evacuation of Thousands:
        In some successful instances, corridors allowed thousands of civilians to leave besieged areas like Sumy and Irpin, reducing civilian casualties.

     2. International Monitoring:
        The corridors were often coordinated with organizations like the Red Cross or the United Nations, giving them credibility and some level of safety assurance.

     3. Delivery of Aid:
        In limited cases, humanitarian convoys were allowed through to deliver essentials like water, medicine, and baby formula to towns cut off by shelling.

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     Disadvantages and Failures:

     1. Attacks Despite Agreements:
        In Mariupol, several attempts to establish humanitarian corridors failed because of continuous shelling and reported attacks on evacuees, despite agreed ceasefires.

     2. Mistrust and Chaos:
        Many civilians refused to use corridors because they did not trust Russian forces or feared being forcibly relocated to Russian-controlled areas.

     3. Selective Control:
        Russia insisted on directing evacuees to Russian or Belarusian territory, rather than letting them escape to western Ukraine, raising international concern about forced displacement.

     4. Propaganda Use:
        Russia used the existence of corridors in state media to portray itself as humane, even as it was accused of targeting civilian infrastructure elsewhere.

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      Summary:

     The Ukrainian example shows how humanitarian corridors can save lives but also become tools of manipulation, deception, or military strategy when not strictly monitored and respected by all parties.

     Would you like a comparison between humanitarian corridors in Ukraine and those in Syria or Gaza?

A massive tariff on millions of Americans’ purchases just went into effect — cue the chaos

 

CNN — 

Many Americans might not have felt major effects from President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs — until now.

That’s because a major shipping loophole expired at one minute past midnight on Friday. The de minimis exemption, as it’s known, allowed shipments of goods worth $800 or less to come into the United States duty-free, often more or less skipping time-consuming inspections and paperwork.

The loophole helped reshape the way countless Americans shop, allowing ultra-low-cost Chinese e-commerce sites like Shein, Temu and AliExpress to pour everything from yarn to patio furniture, clothes to photography equipment and more into US homes.

Its impending end has rung alarm bells across social media, with a baseline tariff as high as 145% depending on the carrier set to take effect on Chinese imports, potentially more than doubling the cost for all those cheap products deal-hungry Americans scooped up.

And the end of the de minimis exemption for Chinese goods will also distill abstract, complicated, messy, hard-to-follow trade policy into something much easier to understand: a receipt.

Major carriers like UPS, FedEx, DHL and the United States Postal Service say they’re prepared for the changes. The government says it, too, is set; a US Customs and Border Protection spokesperson told CNN that “We are prepared and equipped to carry out enhanced package screenings and enforce orders effectively.”

But whether regular American shoppers are ready for the changes is another matter.

Of tchotchkes and trade policy

When President Donald Trump initially closed the de minimis exemption for goods from Hong Kong and China earlier this year, chaos ensued.

USPS briefly stopped delivering parcels from China. Delivery times for parcels that did get shipped stretched longer, with limited information on package tracking in the US.

At the heart of the issue: the sheer volume of packages. More than 80% of total US e-commerce shipments in 2022 were de minimis imports, the vast majority of which come from China, according to a congressional research report.

CBP told CNN it currently processes “nearly 4 million duty-free de minimis shipments a day.” Research indicates that a majority of those shipments come from China and Hong Kong. In total, over the last fiscal year, CBP said 1.36 billion packages came to the US under the de minimis exemption.

That’s a lot of dog bandanas, bead kits, frosting spatulas and tchotchkes. Regular Temu and Shein shoppers told CNN this week they’ve increasingly turned to the site as they feel made-in-the-USA products have gotten out of reach.

“I can’t afford to buy from Temu now, and I already couldn’t afford to buy in this country,” Rena Scott, a 64-year-old retired nurse from Virginia, previously said to CNN Business.

Lower-income households will suffer the most from the end of cheap Chinese e-commerce sites. About 48% of de minimis packages shipped to the poorest zip codes in the United States, while 22% were delivered to the richest ones, according to February research from UCLA and Yale economists.

The changes could come in stages. Already, for example, Shein and Temu raised prices ahead of the de minimis exemption’s end, hiking prices on several goods tracked by CNN.

“Due to recent changes in global trade rules and tariffs, our operating expenses have gone up. To keep offering the products you love without compromising on quality, we will be making price adjustments,” Shein said in a notice posted online recently. “We’re doing everything we can to keep prices low and minimize the impact on you.”

A Temu spokesperson said the company was changing its business model to encourage more local fulfillment, growing the number of US sellers on the platform.

“Temu’s pricing for U.S. consumers remains unchanged as the platform transitions to a local fulfillment model,” the company said in a statement. “All sales in the U.S. are now handled by locally based sellers, with orders fulfilled from within the country.”

But some items are not available locally, a user wrote on Reddit, claiming that their digital cart of more than 300 items dwindled to two items recently and that there is an additional fee unless a local order is at least $30.

“Temu is gone! What I saw today completely convinced me!” the user wrote. “Local sellers, despite obviously buying some items in advance in a bulk, don’t have all these items I was interested in.”

It’s unclear if more price increases are on the way from those retailers and others.

Shippers, too, will see higher costs. DHL told CNN the company has “increased our staffing levels in order to support the additional volume of informal entry clearances we anticipate.”

Goods from China and Hong Kong shipped via UPS, DHL and FedEx are subject to a baseline 145% tariff, plus any additional product-specific tariffs. Goods shipped through USPS will be subject to a baseline 120% tariff or a flat $100 fee per postal item. Come June 1, the flat fee will increase to $200.

A core of Trump’s MAGA base remain with the president, saying in social media posts and news reports that they will ride out bumps in the economy with their faith in the president. But increasingly, more Americans feel otherwise.

A 59% majority of the public now says Trump’s policies have worsened US economic conditions, according to a CNN poll conducted by SSRS last month.

The survey was conducted from April 17 to 24, after the White House first announced expansive new tariffs on dozens of countries, and then called a pause on many of them. Even so, 6 in 10 respondents said that Trump’s policies have increased the cost of living in their community.

On Friday, with the de minimis exemption ending, many Americans could see those costs go even higher.

“It’s a very, it’s a big deal,” Trump said at a Cabinet meeting Thursday, calling the de minimis exception “a big scam.”

He added: “And we’ve ended, we put an end to it.”

CNN’s Ariel Edwards-Levy contributed reporting.

US urges restraint as Kashmir massacre tensions put India and Pakistan on edge

 The United States is stepping up pressure on India and Pakistan to avoid conflict in Kashmir after a tourist massacre in an Indian-administered area of the divided territory last week.

US Vice President JD Vance said Thursday that Washington hopes Pakistan will help hunt down the militants behind the attack, who are based in Pakistan-controlled territory.

And Vance urged India, which has accused Pakistan of being involved in the attack, to act with restraint so tensions do not explode into a war between the nuclear-armed neighbor

“Our hope here is that India responds to this terrorist attack in a way that doesn’t lead to a broader regional conflict,” Vance said in an interview on Fox News’ “Special Report with Bret Baier.”

“And we hope, frankly, that Pakistan, to the extent that they’re responsible, cooperates with India to make sure that the terrorists sometimes operating in their territory are hunted down and dealt with.”

Vance’s comments echoed those of US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who on Wednesday spoke with top Pakistani and Indian officials and called on the two rivals to work with each other to “de-escalate tensions,” according to State Department readouts of the two calls.

Rubio “expressed his sorrow for the lives lost in the horrific terrorist attack in Pahalgam, and reaffirmed the United States’ commitment to cooperation with India against terrorism,” in his call with Indian External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar.

In his call with Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Rubio “spoke of the need to condemn the terror attack on April 22,” and urged Pakistani officials’ cooperation in the investigation.

Both leaders reaffirmed their continued commitment to holding terrorists accountable for their heinous acts of violence,” the readout said.

Fears of a broader conflict increased earlier this week when Pakistani Information Minister Attaullah Tarar said his country had “credible intelligence that India intends carrying out military action against Pakistan in the next 24-36 hours.”

That timeframe has now passed.

Militants on April 22 massacred 26 civilians, the vast majority tourists, in the mountainous town of Pahalgam in Indian-administered Kashmir, a rampage that has sparked widespread outrage.

India and Pakistan have since engaged in tit-for-tat hostilities.

India closed its airspace to commercial flights from Pakistan on Tuesday, matching Islamabad’s ban on flights from India, which was imposed last week in response to New Delhi’s cancelation of visas for Pakistani nationals and suspension of a key water sharing treaty.

This week, New Delhi and Islamabad have both been flexing their military might.

Pakistan shot down an Indian drone that was used for “espionage” in the disputed Kashmir region on Tuesday, Pakistani security sources told CNN.

Two days earlier, India’s navy said it had carried out test missile strikes to “revalidate and demonstrate readiness of platforms, systems and crew for long range precision offensive strike.”

Tensions have also been simmering along the de facto border, the Line of Control, in Kashmir, and gunfire was exchanged along the disputed border for seven straight nights.

Meanwhile, Pakistani authorities continue to believe an Indian attack is highly likely a a senior Pakistani official told CNN on Friday.

The official said four Indian fighter jets flew close to Pakistani airspace in the direction of Pakistani-controlled Kashmir on what Pakistani authorities assessed to be an attack mission early Wednesday, but rather than cross the border, diverted to a nearby base. The official noted that Pakistani jets were also in the area. CNN cannot independently verify the allegations.

CNN has reached out to the Indian government, army and air force for comment on the official’s allegations.

The official also praised efforts by the Trump administration to defuse tensions as even-handed and helpful.

10 Best Korean Vitamin C Serums to Brighten Skin

 

Gentler in concentration and more focused on preventative skincare, the best Korean vitamin C serum comes in lightweight, fast-absorbing formulas that brighten skin and fade hyperpigmentation and scarring. Thoughtful packaging preserves their stability, while a gentle formulation helps deliver on the key tenements of glass skin: smoothness, clearness, and luminosity. Paired with the best Korean cleansing oils and toners, you’re well on your way to creating a well-rounded K-beauty regimen that places its biggest focus on restoring, maintaining, and repairing the skin barrier.

Vogue’s Favorite Korean Vitamin C Serums

• Best Brightening: Numbuzin No.5+ Vitamin Concentrated Serum, $21
• Best for Hyperpigmentation: Goodal Green Tangerine Vita C Dark Spot Serum, $21
• Best With Retinol: PRMR Youth Radiance Vitatinol Serum, $45
• Best Stability: CosRx The Vitamin C 23 Serum, $21
• Best Spicules Serum: VT Vita-Light Reedle Shot 100, $35
• Best Exfoliating: Mediheal Vitamin C Brightening Serum, $20
• Best With Ferulic Acid: Glow Recipe Guava Vitamin C Dark Spot Serum, $45

• To start, there are three main forms of vitamin C: L-ascorbic acid, tetrahexyldecyl ascorbate, and 3-O-Ethyl-L-ascorbic acid. All have varying levels of stability and solubility. But regardless, vitamin C has three main benefits, says David Kim, MD, a board-certified cosmetic dermatologist based in New York City. “For starters, it’s a great antioxidant and keeps the skin cells really healthy. It also has brightening properties, alongside UV protection, so it’s great to use during the summertime.”

  Paula Brezavscek, a board-certified physician assistant, previously told Vogue as well that “vitamin C is a powerful antioxidant that plays several important roles in skin health,” including helping protect the skin from environmental stressors like UV rays and pollution; supporting collagen production, and helping even out skin tone by fading dark spots and hyperpigmentation. “It’s one of the most well-studied and effective ingredients we have for brightening and protecting the skin,” Dr. Brezavscek added. To add the ingredient to your regimen, take stock of the best Korean vitamin C serums—a look at some Vogue editor and dermatologist favorites below.

  In This Story

  • Is vitamin C popular in Korea?
  • What makes Korean vitamin C special?
  • Meet the experts

Children fall ill in India 'after dead snake found in school meal

 India's human rights body is investigating reports that more than 100 children fell ill from eating a school lunch after a dead snake was found in the food.

The cook reportedly still served the lunch despite removing the dead animal from it, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) said in a statement.

The commission said about 500 children are believed to have been served the meal in the city of Mokama in Bihar state, eastern India.

After children started falling sick, locals blocked a road in protest, the NHRC said.

"The commission has observed that the contents, if true, raise a serious issue of violation of the human rights of the students," it said.

The statement demanded a "detailed report" within two weeks from senior state officials which will include "the health status of the children".

The free school meals, know as the Mid-Day Meal, were first introduced for children from poor backgrounds in the southern city of Chennai (Madras) in 1925.

One of the biggest such schemes in the world, it was introduced to combat hunger and boost school attendance. However, there have been complaints of poor food hygiene.

In 2013, tainted food was blamed for the deaths of 23 schoolchildren in Bihar state.

Police said "very toxic" levels of a pesticide had been detected by scientific tests.

on the other side its not first

On April 25, 2025, over 100 schoolchildren in Mokama, Patna, Bihar, India, became violently ill after reportedly consuming a Mid-Day Meal contaminated by a dead snake. The school cook allegedly removed the snake before serving the meal to around 500 students at a government school. Despite this, many children experienced severe symptoms, including vomiting and dizziness, leading to at least 24 hospitalizations. Following the incident, teachers reportedly locked the school and fled, leaving police to transport sick children to the hospital. The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) launched an investigation and issued notices to local government officials, demanding a detailed report within two weeks. Local villagers protested by blocking the road in response to the incident, highlighting ongoing concerns about food safety in India's Mid-Day Meal program. The NHRC emphasized that such negligence could constitute a human rights violation. Notably, this is not the first such incident in Bihar; a similar case in 2013 resulted in the deaths of 23 students due to pesticide-contaminated food. The Mid-Day Meal initiative, introduced in 1995 to combat child malnutrition and poverty, remains crucial, given India’s high undernourishment and poverty rates .The Times of India+2People.com+2Hindustan Times+2

This incident is part of a troubling pattern of food safety lapses in India's Mid-Day Meal program. Similar cases have occurred across various states:The Times of India

• Tamil Nadu: Seven students fell ill after consuming lunch containing a dead lizard at a government school in Dharmapuri. Three cooks were suspended following the incident .India Today+5The Times of India+5The Times of India+5

• West Bengal: Approximately 35 children became sick after eating a meal with a dead lizard at the Hatgram ICDS center in Bankura district .The Times of India+6India Today+6The Times of India+6

• Maharashtra: Forty students and a teacher were hospitalized due to food poisoning after a dead lizard was allegedly found in the midday meal at Municipal School 88 in Thane. Authorities issued a show-cause notice to the meal contractor, and police initiated a case .The Times of India+1The Times of India+1

• Karnataka: Nearly 50 students from a residential school in Yadgir district were hospitalized after consuming a meal containing a dead baby snake. The students began vomiting while eating Uppittu, a semolina porridge .The Indian Express

These recurring incidents underscore systemic issues in the implementation of the Mid-Day Meal program, including inadequate food safety protocols, lack of proper oversight, and insufficient accountability mechanisms. The National Human Rights Commission's involvement in the Mokama case highlights the severity of the situation and the urgent need for comprehensive reforms to ensure the safety and well-being of children relying on these meals.