News headlines in April 2020, page 5

MEXICO CITY, Apr 21 (IPS) - As the high season for agricultural labour in the United States approaches, tens of thousands of migrant workers from Mexico are getting ready to head to the fields in their northern neighbour to carry out the work that ensures that food makes it to people's tables.

IBADAN, NIGERIA, Apr 21 (IPS) - Since the outbreak of coronavirus pandemic late last year in Wuhan, China, the global community has witnessed unprecedented policy responses to curtail, contain and control the disease. Many have proven to be successful. But others required critical context consideration.

NEW YORK, Apr 21 (IPS) - Ingmar Bergman's 1957 film The Seventh Seal is set in medieval Sweden, as the bubonic plague ravages the countryside. In one famous scene, a procession of zombie-like flagellants enters a village and interrupts a comic stage-show.

SYDNEY and KUALA LUMPUR, Apr 21 (IPS) - Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro appointed medical entrepreneur Nelson Teich his new health minister on 17 April. The businessman quickly echoed his boss' desire to resume business as usual regardless of its potentially lethal consequences.

COX'S BAZAR, Apr 21 (IPS) - Last week almost 400 Rohingyas were rescued off the coast of Bangladesh after being at sea for two months after their boat failed to reach Malaysia. But the case is not a new one as each month thousands board boats from refugee camps in Bangladesh in an attempt to irregularly migrate to Malaysia.

STOCKHOLM / ROME, Apr 20 (IPS) - Epidemic diseases are not random events that afflict societies capriciously and without warning, on the contrary, every society produces its own specific vulnerabilities. To study them is to understand the importance of a society's structure, its standard of living, and its political priorities. Epidemics are a mirror, they show who we really are: Our ethics, beliefs, and socio-economic relationships. -- Frank Snowden ¹

SYDNEY, Apr 20 (IPS) - Women in the South Pacific island nation of Vanuatu are dealing with six crises currently – COVID 19, drought, scarcity of potable water, and volcanic ash, acid rain and sulphur gas as there are several active volcanoes on the island. But global women's rights organisations are collaborating with regional alliances in supporting local women.

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka, Apr 20 (IPS) - Numerous studies in many parts of the world have linked the BCG (Bacillus Calmette-Guerin) vaccination, widely used in the developing world with fewer Coronavirus cases. This is good news for countries that have universal BCG vaccination in tropical Asia and Africa.

UNITED NATIONS, Apr 17 (IPS) - United Nations Secretary General António Guterres on Thursday pleaded with global leaders and families to ensure the protection of the world's children, millions of whom he says are vulnerable to a myriad of threats as a result of the shutdown arising from the global coronavirus pandemic. 

NEW YORK, Apr 17 (IPS) - The current financial crisis, triggered as a result of withholding or delaying payment of assessed contributions by Member States, is nothing new to the United Nations.