News headlines in 2020, page 61

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.

Jun 22 (IPS) - The practical challenge of quickly getting financial support in the hands of people who lost jobs amid the COVID-19 economic crisis has baffled advanced and developing economies alike. Economic lockdowns, physical distancing measures, patchy social protection systems and, especially for low-income countries, the high level of informality, complicate the task. Many governments are leveraging mobile technology to help their citizens.

LONDON, Jun 22 (IPS) - As the world continues to struggle with the Covid-19 pandemic, the situation in institutions like prisons or care homes has shown how quickly overcrowded facilities can become a breeding ground for an infectious disease. But what about other congregate facilities like residential institutions for children, such as orphanages? What risks do they face? And how should governments be responding during - and after - this pandemic?

KHARTOUM, Jun 22 (IPS) - Omnia Nabil*, a Sudanese doctor, who worked in one of the largest hospitals in Khartoum, the country's capital, was devastated to witness the deaths of 50 young women who had unsafe abortions during a space of just three months.