Welcome to Global Dispatch, a fortnightly roundup of some of the best stories from the Guardian’s global development team of journalists. There were some upbeat takes: Kat Lay reported on how new population predictions by the UN suggest a helpful trajectory for the planet, and Kat is also in Munich for the annual global Aids and HIV conference. Her report about how researchers had calculated that the pharmaceutical company Gilead could be selling a vital new drug for 1,000 times less than its current price and still make a profit was startling. Another report that hit home was the dispatch from Central African Republic by Philip Obaji, who was investigating the high rates of rape and sexual assault being reported in the country. Local people say Russian mercenaries are the perpetrators. The story is horrific but one line gave me pause as it so starkly showed the scale of the reality for people: there are food shortages in the town of Bouar because women and girls are so scared to leave their homes that the produce in the fields is going unharvested. Living in intense fear is a theme also in two stories from the Middle East. Our reporter Thaslima Begum spoke to some of the 100,000 Palestinians who have managed to cross into Egypt, leaving the devastation of violence being rained down on Gaza but struggling to survive without money or accommodation. And Kaamil Ahmed looked at the situation for women giving birth in Gaza, where the situation in the remaining hospital facilities is catastrophic and labour wards are “boiling hot tents”. Tracy McVeigh, editor, Global development
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