News headlines in May 2020, page 7

NAIROBI, Kenya, May 13 (IPS) - Public health officials are calling the "stay home" policy the sacrifice of our generation. To flatten the curve of COVID-19 infections, this call of duty is now emblazoned on t-shirtsin street art and a celebrity hashtag.

May 12 (IPS) - "When I was 13… I got pregnant from my older brother… He raped me starting when I was 11," a girl from Guatemala told one of us in 2015. She was one of the 2 million girls under 15 worldwide who give birth each year, often due to sexual violence.

BULAWAYO, Zimbabwe, May 12 (IPS) - Bulawayo, Zimbabwe' second city of some 700,000 people, has experienced a shortage of vegetables this year, with major producers citing a range of challenges from poor rains to the inability to access to bank loans to finance their operations. But this shortage has created a market gap that Zimbabwe smallholders — some 1.5 million people according to government figures — have an opportunity to fill. 

Oxford University, May 12 (IPS) - Covid-19 is the most significant event since the Second World War. It changes everything.

It brings great sadness to many of us as we lose loved ones, as we see people losing their jobs, and as we see people around the world suffering immensely.

UNITED NATIONS, May 12 (IPS) - After six weeks of negotiations, the United States shot down hopes for a resolution to be approved in the United Nations Security Council on May 8, refusing to back worldwide cease-fires as the US continues to castigate China and the World Health Organization for the Covid-19 pandemic. Meanwhile, momentum behind tenuous cease-fires is vanishing, experts say.

LONDON, May 12 (IPS) - The coronavirus pandemic underscores the profound fragility and unsustainability of today's world. It exposes the chronic underinvestment in human health and well-being and the consequences of a relentless exploitation of biodiversity and the natural environment.

SYDNEY and KUALA LUMPUR, May 12 (IPS) - Although Wuhan local authorities undoubtedly ostracized local medical whistle-blowers, notably Dr Li Wenliangwho suspected a new virus was responsible for flu-like infections in Wuhan in late 2019, official responses were apparently not delayed, and possibly even expedited, as the novel character of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, responsible for Covid-19 infections, was not immediately self-evident.

BULAWAYO, Zimbabwe, May 11 (IPS) - Experts across Africa are warning that as hospitals and health facilities focus on COVID-19, less attention is being given to the management of other deadly diseases like HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria, which affect millions more people.

BOSTON, USA, May 11 (IPS) - NGOs, at the international, national - and most of all local - level are on the frontlines every day.

I just heard from Oxfam staff in Bangladesh, that when asked whether they were scared to continue our response with the Rohingya communities in Cox's Bazar, they replied: "They are now my relatives. I care about them — and this is the time they need us most.'"

NAIROBI, Kenya, May 11 (IPS) - The world commemorated the 75th Anniversary to mark the end of the 2nd World War also called VE Day on 08 May 2020.

With her nation, and much of the world still in lockdown due to COVID 19, England's Queen marked 75 years since the allied victory in Europe with a poignant televised address. From Windsor Castle, Queen Elizabeth said, "the wartime generation knew that the best way to honour those who did not come back from the war, was to ensure that it didn't happen again".