News headlines in June 2020, page 8

BUENOS AIRES, Jun 10 (IPS) - Rice farmers in the Argentine province of Entre Rios often look like mechanics. "They're always full of grease, because they haul diesel fuel around all the time, for their water pumps," says local farmer Arturo Deymonnaz. He, however, doesn't have that problem, because he uses solar energy to grow his rice.

NEW YORK and BRUSSELS, Jun 10 (IPS) - After a period of forced silence because of the Covid-19 quarantines, citizens around the world are defying coronavirus restrictions and claiming the streets to fight for real democracy, jobs, living wages, public services, human rights and against corruption, inequality and injustice. We predict an increasing wave of protests all over the world led by different types of people defying the status quo. Unless policies change, clashes in the street are likely to become the new normal.

UNITED NATIONS, Jun 10 (IPS) - The combination of rife insecurity, food insecurity and more than 7.5 million people in need of humanitarian assistance has left the Sahel a region in crisis, with the global coronavirus pandemic expected to exacerbate the situation.

MUMBAI, India, Jun 10 (IPS) - The effects of the COVID-19 pandemic have reminded us that ‘universal challenges' are experienced differently, based on context. The varying demographics, systems, and administrative structures in each nation have resulted in distinctive experiences and challenges while grappling with the fallout from the crisis.

Jun 10 (IPS) - During the Covid-19 pandemic governments around the world have introduced curfews as an exceptional, yet necessary, means of containing the spread of the virus. Yet while most countries have applied their curfews uniformly to all citizens, authorities across several regions have introduced them only for certain groups exclusively because of their age, including for under-18s.

UNITED NATIONS, Jun 10 (IPS) - I want to once again express to all colleagues my enormous appreciation, my enormous gratitude, for your fantastic professionalism, your flexibility and the way you have been able to fully deliver for the people we care for during this period.

UNITED NATIONS, Jun 09 (IPS) - The COVID-19 pandemic upended almost every aspects of life as we know it. Even those countries that are supposed to have the means to manage the spread and mitigate the effects are struggling.

UNITED NATIONS, Jun 09 (IPS) - The massive protests in more than 120 US cities over racial injustice and police brutality went global last week-- amidst presidential threats of military force on demonstrators in Washington DC.

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, Jun 09 (IPS) - As governments the world over struggle to revive their economies after the debilitating lockdowns they imposed following their failure to undertake adequate precautionary containment measures to curb Covid-19 contagion, neoliberal naysayers are already warning against needed deficit financing for relief and recovery.

Jun 08 (IPS) - Stuart Minchin, is Director-General Pacific Community (SPC)COVID19 has brought the world to a halt. The devastating impact of the global pandemic on people's lives and the world's economy is a jarring and historic turning point for all of us but it is also an opportunity to re-think many of our practices.