TOKYO, May 5 2020 (IPS) – The new coronavirus (COVID-19) continues to wreak havoc across the world, as the number of infections and deaths rapidly rise. It has the potential to infect anybody regardless of age or gender. There are grave concerns that the economic fallout from COVID-19 may be comparable to that of the Great Depression. According to Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center, there are 2,064,668 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 137,124 deaths due to SARS-CoV-2 (the virus causing COVID-19). In Japan as of noon April 15, there were 8,100 cases of COVID-19 , 119 deaths, and 901 patients discharged from hospitals.
Osamu Kusumoto
Responding to cases showing acut…
SYDNEY and KUALA LUMPUR, Jul 7 2020 (IPS) – In his early February annual , US President Donald Trump typically hailed his own policies for increasing wages and jobs to achieve record low US unemployment. Directly appealing to labour for a second term, Trump claimed exclusive credit for the US “blue-collar boom”.
Anis Chowdhury
‘Blue-collar boom’
During his previous two State of the Union speeches, Trump also directly appealed to blue-collar Americans who put him in the White House in November 2016. As Trump claims manufacturing workers have been the main beneficiaries of his economic policies, including his trade and other policies, this seemed likely…
Tijjani Muhammad-Bande is President of the 74th Session of the United Nations General Assembly and Permanent Representative of Nigeria to the United Nations.
H.E. Mr. Tijjani Muhammad-Bande, President of the 74th session of the United Nations General Assembly, visits a school in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. 10 February 2020. Credit: Geremew Tigabu/UN OPGA
NEW YORK, Aug 4 2020 (IPS) – The United Nations came into existence at a time of great despair, when the penholders of its founding document dared to imagine a better world, one that would be defined by peace and equality. Visionary world leaders chose hope over cynicism, empathy over indifference and partnersh…
STOCKHOLM, CAMBRIDGE (US), Sep 23 2020 (IPS) – As COVID-19 threatens farming communities across Africa already struggling with climate change, the continent is at a crossroads. Will its people and their governments continue trying to replicate industrial farming models promoted by developed countries? Or will they move boldly into the uncertain future, embracing ecological agriculture?
Million Belay
It is time to choose. Africa is projected to overtake South Asia by 2030 as the region with the greatest number of hungry people. An alarming 250 million people in Africa now suffer from “undernourishment,” the U.N. term for chronic hunger. If policies do not change…
A group of children being instructed by a teacher in an inner-city community. She has painted blackboards on walls to continue her lessons in the pandemic after schools were closed. Credit: Kate Chappell
KINGSTON, Jamaica, Dec 16 2020 (IPS) – In Jamaica, school playgrounds are deserted, filled only with phantom shrieks of delight. Blackboards remain devoid of arithmetic and uniforms hang wrinkle-free in closets. When the first case of Covid hit Jamaican shores in early March, the government closed primary and secondary schools and over 500,000 children transitioned to remote learning. The majority of schools have yet to resume face-to-face classes since the March 1…
Youth in Nigeria protested against the brutalities and extrajudicial killings by the rogue police unit known as SARS. The #EndSARS protests became a global movement as international corporations and celebrities offered their support.Photo by on
Jan 28 2021 (IPS) – As Nigeria’s biggest city, Lagos, reportedly of oxygen cylinders last week — with demand increasing fivefold in one of t…
The following opinion piece is part of series to mark the upcoming International Women’s Day, March 8.
Agricultural biodiversity at the market in Western Bengal. Credit: Krishnasis Ghosh
ROME, Mar 6 2021 (IPS) – In times of crisis, policymakers have a tendency to prioritize economic recovery while leaving “social issues” like women’s empowerment on the backburner. During the COVID-19 pandemic, however, women’s leadership is as essential to full and meaningful recovery as it is to basic human rights. As the world mobilizes to design and build a post-COVID landscape, women’s rights, interests and priorities must not only be included in interna…
The writer is Executive Director of UNAIDS and Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations.
A woman is vaccinated against COVID-19 in the indigenous community of Concordia, Colombia. Meanwhile, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres repeated his call for the G20 to establish a Task Force “able to deal with the pharmaceutical companies and other key stakeholders”, which would address equitable vaccine distribution through the global initiative. Credit: WHO/Nadege Mazars
GENEVA, May 27 2021 (IPS) – In this time of intersecting crises – the Covid crisis, the HIV crisis, the inequality crisis, and more – progress on all these crises is being blocked by anothe…
In March 2021, the UN Human Rights Council was given a mandate to collect and preserve information and evidence of crimes related to Sri Lanka’s 27-year long civil war that ended in 2009. Meanwhile, Western nations taking a cue from the Human Rights Council’s highly critical resolution on Sri Lanka appear to be tightening the noose. Credit: UN Photo / Violaine Martin. 43rd session of the Human Rights Council.
LONDON, Jul 5 2021 (IPS) – For well over a century Ceylon, now Sri Lanka, has been known to the world as the ‘Pearl of the Indian Ocean’ for its multifaceted attractions. That is until blurb writers ruined it all with hyperbolic epithets that obscured the…
Many families in the Solomon Islands and across the Pacific Islands region struggle to keep their children in school due to COVID-19 related economic hardship. Credit: Catherine Wilson/IPS
CANBERRA, Australia , Aug 27 2021 (IPS) – Before the pandemic, many Pacific Island countries grappled with low numbers of students completing secondary education. Now experts in the region are concerned that the closure of schools to contain the spread of COVID-19, and the economic downturn, will lead to even more students dropping out of education early.
It s an issue that has consequences for the region s future development, given it…