The UN's role in Haiti's cholera outbreak and Michael Bloomberg's new gig: This week in development

Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has a new job fighting non-communicable diseases, Malaysia’s 1MDB money laundering scandal prompts questions about Leonardo DiCaprio’s charity and a massive vaccination campaign ramps up to combat yellow fever. This week in development news.

For the first time, the U.N. acknowledged it played a role in a cholera outbreak that has killed thousands in Haiti, and is widely believed to have been brought to the island nation by U.N. peacekeepers in the aftermath of Haiti’s 2010 earthquake. The New York Times reported Wednesday that the international organization — while still not accepting any legal responsibility or agreeing to compensate Haiti’s affected individuals and communities — has responded to a confidential and highly-critical report from the human rights special rapporteur with assurances of a “significant new set of U.N. actions” in Haiti, presumably in support of cholera-affected populations. The “new response will be presented publicly within the next two months, once it has been fully elaborated, agreed with the Haitian authorities and discussed with member states,” according to the deputy spokesman for the secretary general Farhan Haq, as quoted in the Times.

U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki moon, meanwhile, weighed in on the race to elect his successor —  calling it “high time” the international organization is led by a woman, despite the fact that a male candidate, Portugal’s former Prime Minister António Guterres, is the current frontrunner. Five of the 11 candidates are women.