As a journalist, you want to report the story – you never want to be the story. So after weeks of covering the coronavirus crisis, it was a shock to learn I had tested positive for Covid-19.Unfortunately, though I did not know it at the time of my diagnosis, my story with the disease would soon be taking an even darker turn when it left my 73-year-old mother Lien comatose and struggling for her life.I had arrived in Hong Kong from Britain on Monday March 23, following a holiday to see my family…

While the coronavirus pandemic has forced the city’s tourism sector to a near standstill, agency head Christina Yuen Ho-yee is busier than ever, routinely working 12 hours a day.As the Covid-19 pandemic caused global lockdowns, sales at her firm, EGL Tours, dropped to zero between March and June, down from HK$500 million (US$64.5 million) in the same stretch last year.All of her roughly 600 staff members have been asked to take days of unpaid leave between April and June.But Yuen, the agency’s…

A man in Hong Kong has died the day after police used what they described as appropriate force to arrest him for criminal damage, drugs possession and assaulting officers.The force said that Yau Tsim district officers on patrol in Nathan Road were called at about 5pm on Thursday by members of the public who reported that a non-Chinese man “smelling strongly of alcohol” had damaged a moving vehicle with a glass bottle and toppled over a nearby motorcycle.The suspect “fiercely resisted” when he…

The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights is calling on governments and leaders around the world to ensure that their respective lockdown measurements don’t end up causing harm to people by those enforcing the lockdowns.   “Emergency powers should not be a weapon governments can wield to quash dissent, control the population, and even perpetuate […]

The post Governments Cautioned Not to Use COVID-19 Lockdown to Cause Harm appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Like much of the West, Argentina did not take many early precautionary actions after the Covid-19 epidemic was confirmed in January, but became the first Latin American country to act decisively with a 12 March public health emergency declaration. The presidential decree came a day after the World Health Organization (WHO) declared a global pandemic, […]

The post Argentina Responds Boldly to Coronavirus Crisis appeared first on Inter Press Service.

David Medine is Senior Financial Sector Specialist at the Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (CGAP). He is also CGAP’s lead on data protection and security and works to develop novel, consumer-oriented approaches to data protection and to encourage the creation of cyber security resource centers for developing countries.

The post Financial Scams Rise as Coronavirus Hits Developing Countries appeared first on Inter Press Service.

The new coronavirus (COVID-19) continues to wreak havoc across the world, as the number of infections and deaths rapidly rise. It has the potential to infect anybody regardless of age or gender. There are grave concerns that the economic fallout from COVID-19 may be comparable to that of the Great Depression. According to Johns Hopkins […]

The post Global Impact of New Corona Virus and Population Issues appeared first on Inter Press Service.

As social distancing, quarantines and lockdowns have spread across the globe to slow the spread of coronavirus, they have imposed some of the greatest worldwide restrictions on public gatherings in living memory. These restrictions may be necessary for public health, but they require the most anxious scrutiny to prevent them being misused to quash legitimate political […]

The post How Coronavirus Makes us Rethink Youth Protests appeared first on Inter Press Service.

The current coronavirus pandemic can offer insight into how to shake-up traditional methods of data collection, and might provide an opportunity to do it in more innovative ways, in turn enhancing progress towards gender equality. “Necessity is the mother of invention, and when you look at society’s crisis – whether that’s a health crisis or […]

The post Q&A: COVID-19 Means we Must Innovate Data Collection, Especially on Gender appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Globalization has been a driver for increased prosperity world-wide, but it has been in reverse in the last years due to the growth of populism in the USA and Europe. The COVID-19 pandemic may well provide further momentum to increasingly national-interest oriented policies in the west. Nevertheless, a common response to COVID-19 is needed, where […]

The post COVID-19: Developing Countries Must Not be Left Behind appeared first on Inter Press Service.

It’s eight o’clock in the morning and Pascuala Ninantay is carrying two large containers of water in her wheelbarrow to prepare with neighbouring women farmers 200 litres of organic fertiliser, which will then be distributed to fertilise their crops, in this town in the Andes highlands of Peru. “We grow healthy, nutritious food without chemicals,” […]

The post Coronavirus Hasn´t Slowed Down Ecological Women Farmers in Peru’s Andes Highlands appeared first on Inter Press Service.

The world’s poorer nations, reeling under an unrelenting attack on their fragile economies by the COVID-19 pandemic, have suffered an equally deadly body blow: being buried under heavy debt burdens. Abiy Ahmed, prime minister of Ethiopia who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2019, said last week that in 2019, 64 countries, nearly half […]

The post World’s Poor Hit by Double Jeopardy: a Deadly Virus & a Devastating Debt Burden appeared first on Inter Press Service.

As the COVID-19 pandemic worsened in April, many Americans were shocked by the extent that black Americans were being disproportionately impacted: higher infection rates, more deaths and greater job loss. But many black Americans were not surprised. This is not new. The same dynamic has been going on at times of crisis for decades and […]

The post Black Americans are Bearing the Brunt of Coronavirus Recession – This Should Come as no Surprise appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Kenya has accused the UN of bowing to pressure from other countries by setting up an investigation that pins the blame for peacekeeping failures in South Sudan on the Kenyan force commander.

A 14-year old girl sitting for her Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) in Samburu County died tragically on Wednesday after she complained of stomach cramps.

The US says it is closely monitoring the situation following President Uhuru Kenyatta’s decision to withdraw Kenya Defence Forces from the United Nations Mission in South Sudan.

Bomet Governor, Isaac Ruto was airlifted to Nairobi Hospital on Monday morning after clashing with police officers.

Seized illicit shipments of elephant ivory are almost entirely made up of tusks from recently poached animals rather than siphoned from government stockpiles, scientists using a forensic technique reported on Monday.

A mobile clinic which was donated by First Lady Margaret Kenyatta remains unused causing much frustration.

Bomet County Commissioner, Benard Lebarmarai has lambasted Governor Isaac Ruto for falsely accusing the police of causing harm to him.

A high school teacher in Kisii County was arrested on Tuesday for impersonating a 20-year old girl during a KCSE exam.