News headlines in June 2020, page 3

WASHINGTON DC, Jun 24 (IPS) - The COVID-19 pandemic pushed economies into a Great Lockdown, which helped contain the virus and save lives, but also triggered the worst recession since the Great Depression. Over 75 percent of countries are now reopening at the same time as the pandemic is intensifying in many emerging market and developing economies. Several countries have started to recover. However, in the absence of a medical solution, the strength of the recovery is highly uncertain and the impact on sectors and countries uneven.

ROME/SANTIAGO, Jun 24 (IPS) - The lack of a coordinated international response had led to varying results worldwide in dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic. Two countries that have long coordinated their response to global goals like promotion on democracy, human rights and environmental issues, Sweden and Costa Rica highlight how public policy matters. While with their similar approaches to climate change the two walk together, their different approaches to COVID-19 have reaped disparate results, and death tolls.

ANTANANARIVO, Madagascar, Jun 24 (IPS) - As infections with Covid-19 appear to be intensifying in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), fears of severe food shortages have prompted experts to warn that the region may be "on the brink of a hunger pandemic." Efforts are intensifying to rally a major global response.

SYDNEY, Australia, Jun 24 (IPS) - Aïssata Ba, 45-year-old widow and mother of seven children, has been practising market gardening for the past 30 years in Lompoul Sur Mer village in the Niayes area of north-west Senegal. For many women in the village, endowed with fertile soil and favourable climate, it is the primary source of income throughout the year.

SOUTH ORANGE, New Jersey, Jun 24 (IPS) - Racism is not only an American problem but a plague that people of African descent have had to endure since time immemorial.

Rather than seizing this historic moment to act decisively, the United Nations, the world's highest platform for human rights, dithered on the issue when it was called on to establish a full commission of inquiry on race following the outrageous killing of George Floyd on May 25 2020.

PARIS, Jun 23 (IPS) - Many countries in sub-Saharan Africa get bad press for their progress in providing inclusive education. Just two in three children complete primary school on time, while the number of out-of-school children and youth is 97 million and growing. Less is said, however, about the range of tools many countries in the region are deploying to include some of those furthest behind in mainstream schools: students with disabilities.

BHUBANESWAR, India, Jun 23 (IPS) - The COVID-19 pandemic has brought a new layer of challenges to inclusive education. As many as 40 percent of low and lower-middle income countries having not supported disadvantaged learners during temporary school shutdowns, finds United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization's 2020 Global Education Monitoring Report released today, Jun. 23.

BUFFALO, New York, Jun 23 (IPS) - Police forces across the United States have committed widespread and egregious human rights violations in response to largely peaceful assemblies protesting systemic racism and police violence, including the killing of Black people.

SYDNEY and KUALA LUMPUR, Jun 23 (IPS) - Over the course of his presidency, US President Donald Trump's racism has become more evident with more leaks of his private remarks, which he has been generally quick to deny, qualify and explain away.

UNITED NATIONS, Jun 23 (IPS) - The coronavirus pandemic is beginning to transform the United Nations into an institution far beyond recognition.

The Secretariat building has been shut down since mid-March, and the UN campus will continue to remain a ghost town through end July-- and perhaps beyond-- with nearly 3,000 staffers, delegates and journalists working, mostly from home.