The Red Cross is running 42 emergency appeals around the world. Funding is running at only 20 percent. The picture for longer-term aid looks even bleaker.

Meanwhile, weapons makers have had their best year ever given the biggest wars for decades in Europe and the Middle East and the fears of insecurity that are driving countries everywhere to tool up for conflict. That is driven not only by the global dynamics of a retrenching United States under President Donald Trump and an increasingly powerful China, but also a multitude of smaller arms races.

A perfect storm is brewing of more conflict and fewer resources to prevent it or cope with it, humanitarian workers say.

“It has now become acceptable to say you will cut back on supporting the most vulnerable to invest in guns and bombs,”

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