News headlines in 2020, page 95

Mar 19 (IPS) - The novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, recently declared a pandemic by the World Health Organisation, has taken the world by surprise. The good news is that tremendous scientific and technological advances have permitted scientists to understand a lot about this virus in a short amount of time.

UNITED NATIONS, Mar 19 (IPS) - Mina Setra remembers the story clearly. As a Dayak Pompakng indigenous person from Indonesia, when  visitors from the city who came into her community; brought bottled water with them because they were worried about the water not being suitable for drinking. 

FOZ DO IGUAÇU, Brazil, Mar 18 (IPS) - "It used to be complicated, I would have lunch with the flies," recalls Pedro Colombari, laughing, on his 400-hectare farm where he fattens 5,000 pigs and raises 400 cattle outside of a small town in southern Brazil.

SYDNEY, Mar 18 (IPS) - The coronavirus pandemic seems to have finally forced governments around the world to ditch their obsession (at least for the moment) with delivering budget surplus. As stock markets tumble, stimulus measures, worth billions of dollars, are announced to boost investor confidence and consumer spending to keep economies running.

IBADAN, Nigeria, Mar 18 (IPS) - With the increasing domestic and regional demand for diversified and processed food, there is a high opportunity to develop the agrifood business in Africa as well as a need to create opportunities to nurture agripreneurship among the continent's growing ranks of unemployed youth."

CARACAS, Mar 18 (IPS) - During his 1992 run, Bill Clinton, then elected US president, made "It's the economy, stupid!" a household phrase. Coined by campaign advisor James Carville, it pointed out economic and health issues as part of the strategy resulting in the accession of this relatively obscure governor of Arkansas into the White House.

NAIROBI, Kenya, Mar 18 (IPS) - The coronavirus disease, otherwise known as COVID-19, was first reported in Wuhan, China on the last day of December 2019. When it began to spread rapidly, the World Health Organisation (WHO) declared it a public health emergency of international concern on 30 January 2020.

Mar 17 (IPS) - Analysing how coronavirus impacts genders differently could be key in fighting the disease, say public health experts.

WASHINGTON DC, Mar 17 (IPS) - "Demography is destiny" is an oft-cited phrase that suggests the size, growth, and structure of a nation's population determines its long-term social, economic, and political fabric.

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, Mar 17 (IPS) - ‘Getting government out of the way', the neoliberal ‘free market' mantra, was supposed to boost private investment. Instead, business investment has declined as a consequence. Many economies now seem incapable of making much needed investments to sustain growth, apparently due to ‘capital allocation' problems.