News headlines in May 2020, page 3

BONN, May 22 (IPS) - Restoring damaged ecosystems is vital to avoid the collapse of nature's most valuable contributions to people, but International Day for Biological Diversity 2020 should also be a wake-up call about the importance of addressing our social, economic and systemic values, because it is these that are driving the destruction of nature.

UNITED NATIONS, May 22 (IPS) - Today, May 22, marks the International Day of Biological Diversity. Experts say that conservation efforts have actually strengthened under the COVID-19 pandemic. This year's International Day of Biological Diversity falls amid the coronavirus pandemic and the slow easing, in some nations, of a global lockdown. While the lockdown has forced most people to stay at home, there have been reports of more wildlife being spotted - even in once-busy city centres. 

STOCKHOLM / ROME, May 22 (IPS) - It is easy to generalize about migration. Populist politicians often portray migrants as strangers and "our" homeland as a stable entity, rooted in an old agricultural society. When they do so they tend to forget that most of us are in fact migrants who have left that traditional farming community far behind and if it was not we who did so, it was our ancestors.

LONDON, May 22 (IPS) - Ruth Romer is Senior Private Sector Advisor, WaterAidAs COVID-19 lockdown restrictions across the globe start to be relaxed, the collective conversation has shifted towards plans for a ‘new normal.'

May 21 (IPS) - Fake and bogus cure claims are a longstanding, but neglected public health problem. Throughout recorded history, plagues have inspired anxiety and desperation. Time and again, this public nervousness has proved a fertile ground for false cures and claimants to thrive. In this sense, recent claims of COVID-19 cures and antidotes are no exception.

CANBERRA, Australia, May 21 (IPS) - As of 11 AM (AEST) on 20th May 2020 the incidence of COVID-19 virus (henceforth virus) on the Pacific Islands was limited. Active cases (deaths) in some of the Pacific Islands were Australia 7,072 (100), New Zealand 1,503 (21), PNG 8(0), Guam 154 (5), Fiji 18 (0), Timor-Leste 24 (0), French Polynesia 60(0), and New Caledonia 18(0).¹

BANGKOK, May 21 (IPS) - While most of the world self-isolates at home and skies are emptier than they have been for decades, humanitarian flights transporting life-saving aid are revving up around Asia and the Pacific.

HYDERBAD, India, May 21 (IPS) - Amid the social distancing measures posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, coastal communities of Bangladesh and India face a double threat while the record-breaking storm Cyclone Amphan made the landfall yesterday (May 20).

JUBA, South Sudan, May 21 (IPS) - Earlier this year, just before the coronavirus virtually shut down international travel, I sat under a mesquite tree and listened to a rambling speech by a South Sudanese general at a military base outside of the capital, Juba.

Since 2012, Teresa Castellanos has fought the construction of a gas-fired power plant in Huexca, in the central Mexican state of Morelos, adjacent to the country's capital.