Stars and Stripes is making stories on the coronavirus pandemic available free of charge. See other free reports here. Sign up for our daily coronavirus newsletter here. Please support our journalism with a subscription. MOSCOW — Russian President Vladimir Putin marked Victory Day, the anniversary of the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II, in a ceremony shorn of its usual military parade and pomp by the coronavirus pandemic. In neighboring Belarus, however, the ceremonies went ahead in full, with tens of thousands of people in the sort of proximity that has been almost unseen in the world for months....

PARIS — French Resistance member Cecile Rol-Tanguy, who risked her life during World War II by working to liberate Paris from Nazi occupation, has died. She was 101. Rol-Tanguy died on Friday at her home in Monteaux, in central France, as Europe commemorated the 75th anniversary of the...

Glenn Hutchinson has been in touch to tell us how his passion for the Spireites began when he visited Saltergate as a youngster in the mid-50s... I first visited the ground when I was about 7/8 in 1954/55 with my dad. Caught the bug and been a Spirerite ever since. When I was...

Stars and Stripes is making stories on the coronavirus pandemic available free of charge. See other free reports here. Sign up for our daily coronavirus newsletter here. Please support our journalism with a subscription. After two months of ambulance sirens, mourning and isolation, this is the damage report from Italy: The novel coronavirus death toll has surpassed 30,000. The country is hurtling into its steepest recession in modern times. Tourism has gone bust. Many restaurants and shops lack the cash to ever reopen. The government's brittle finances are becoming ever more stretched. All the while, many Italians feel embittered and alienated. They are disappointed in the continent's early...

The Venezuelan military defector...

The American Wall Street Journal quoted military experts as saying that the military readiness of the United States for a possible confrontation in the Persian Gulf is more backward and weaker than what is being said in Donald...

Washington: The US is working to temporarily ban the issuance of some work-based visas like H-1B, popular among highly-skilled Indian IT professionals, as well as student visas and work authorisation that accompanies them, amidst the high level of unemployment due to the coronavirus, according to a media report on Friday. The H-1B is a non-immigrant visa that allows US companies to employ foreign workers from countries like India and China in speciality occupations that require theoretical or technical...

TAOS, N.M. (AP) — The top administrator of a national forest in northern New Mexico says there’s an elevated risk of human-caused wildfires due to drying conditions and negligence by some forest visitors....

An American newspaper stressed in a report: Although the US government has intensified its rhetoric and economic pressure on Iran, it seems that in fact, the main focus on Iran in its national security strategy is shifting to Russia and China. According to Fars News Agency, the administration of US President Donald Trump has intensified its rhetoric about Iran’s alleged threat this year. On the other hand, military officials and experts believe that the US military has reduced its presence in the Persian Gulf region and has withdrawn its ships, military aircraft and missiles. No US aircraft carrier has been replaced in the region since Theodore Roosevelt sailed from the Persian Gulf to...

With states opening even as Covid-19 rages on, the president is rolling the dice on his career – and tens of thousands of lives Coronavirus – latest US updates C oronavirus – latest global updates On Monday the Republican governor of Nebraska, Pete Ricketts, a close ally of Donald Trump and frequent...

The settlement report said that in strange and reprehensible statements that reflect the Zionist colonial and racist ideology, the American ambassador to Israel, David Friedman, urged the government of Benjamin Netanyahu and Benny Gantz to accelerate the announcement of the annexation of areas in the occupied West Bank to Israel. He told an Israeli newspaper that “if the government of Israel announces this, the United States will be prepared to recognize, in the coming weeks, Israel’s sovereignty over the Jordan Valley and Israeli settlement in Judea and Samaria, and that it will recognize 30% of the occupied West Bank as areas of Israel within the deal of the century in the...

Washington: The United States on Friday stunned other members of the UN Security Council by preventing a vote on a resolution for a ceasefire in various conflicts around the world to help troubled nations better fight the coronavirus pandemic, diplomats said. Washington's reversal came a day after it agreed to the text, negotiators said under cover of anonymity. "The United States cannot support the current draft," the country's delegation declared, without further detail, to the 14 other Security Council members, after nearly two months of difficult negotiation over the text. The latest stalemate continues to leave the global peace and security...

Miami: Carolina Vásquez lost track of days and nights, unable to see the sunlight while stuck for two weeks in a windowless cruise ship cabin as a fever took hold of her body. On the worst night of her encounter with COVID-19, the Chilean woman, a line cook on the Greg Mortimer ship, summoned the strength to take a cold shower fearing the worst: losing consciousness while isolated from others. Vásquez, 36, and tens of thousands of other crew members have been trapped for weeks aboard dozens of cruise ships around the world — long after governments and cruise lines negotiated their passengers’ disembarkation. Some have gotten ill and died; others have survived but...

Photo from Fredy Builes/VIEWpress via Getty Images) Colombian delivery app Rappi is testing pilot robot deliveries in Colombia. Rappi operates in several Latin American countries, and last year SoftBank invested one billion dollars into the startup. Deliveries are made using Kiwibot, a delivery robot from a Colombian owned company in California. Visit Business...

FALMOUTH, Maine (AP) — The coronavirus pandemic has canceled dozens of spring traditions, from college basketball’s Final Four to Easter Sunday services, but there’s one rite that’s going on largely unfettered — turkey hunting. Every state except Alaska, which is the only state with no turkeys, hosts a spring turkey hunt each year. The birds, whose domesticated cousins grace Thanksgiving tables from Hawaii to Maine, are among America’s greatest conservation success stories. The hunt is taking on a new look in some parts of the country this year due to social distancing laws. Many states, including Maine, are requiring out-of-state residents to self quarantine for two...

On April 17, the Alberto Ángel Fernández administration in Argentina officially unveiled its offer for debt restructuring on USD 66 billion foreign currency-denominated bonds. Starting on that date, the offer is valid for 20 days, a period during which difficult negotiations with bondholders are expected to take place. Based on the first reactions from some […]

The post Argentina’s Debt Restructuring “Groundhog Day”… or Maybe Not? Three Key Points appeared first on Inter Press Service.

The world is at risk of widespread famines resulting from lockdowns to contain the spread of the coronavirus pandemic. The devastating economic impact of Covid-19 is seeing a huge rise in the number of hungry people. Hamida Begum, a domestic worker in Bangladesh who is now out of work, said: “We only have forty Taka […]

The post Amid Covid-19 Hunger Fear Mounts in Bangladesh appeared first on Inter Press Service.

1. US to temporarily ban work-based visas including H-1B  Deccan Chronicle
2. US lawmakers want H-1B visas and foreign students internship suspended to protect American jobs  Times of India
3. US Mulls Temporary Ban on Work Visas Amid Unemployment: Reports  The Quint
4. US likely to temporarily ban work-based visas like H-1B due to rise in unemployment  Zee News
5. 5 US lawmakers ask Trump to suspend new H-1B visas  The Tribune India
6. View Full coverage on Google News

1. 'Not anticipating worst situation but…': Health Minister on Covid-19 in India  Hindustan Times
2. Testing capacity for Covid-19 scaled up to 95,000 per day: Harsh Vardhan  Times of India
3. 'Have prepared country for worst situation': Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan on coronavirus pandemic  Times Now
4. ‘We’re prepared for the worst’: Health minister on Covid-19 crisis  Top Live News
5. Do not anticipate worst case situation like developed countries in India: Harsh Vardhan  Times of India
6. View Full coverage on Google News

Growing up in Ramallah in Palestine, Maher Nasser, Director of Outreach Division at the United Nations Department of Global Communications, never really liked running. “I only ran when I needed to: to catch a bus or to run from soldiers,” he tells IPS. But now with three marathons under his belt — which raised thousands for scholarships […]

The post Q&A: How to #BeActive during COVID-19 Lockdown appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Nearly 400 Rohingya refugees have been rescued in Bangladesh after being at sea for two months.  Bangladesh coast guards reported rescuing 382 Rohingyas, including many women and children, who were starving and stuck on a boat as they were trying to reach Malaysia, the BBC reported on Thursday.  Coast guard spokesman Lt Shah Zia Rahman […]

The post Concerns for the Nearly 400 Rohingya Refugees Rescued off the Coast of Bangladesh appeared first on Inter Press Service.

David Lewis is professor of social policy and development at the Department of Social Policy, LSE.

The post On Watching Contagion: What Do We Learn? appeared first on Inter Press Service.

The deadly coronavirus COVID-19, which has shut down the UN secretariat in New York, along with 32 of its agencies globally, has forced over 37,500 UN staffers worldwide to work from their homes. Asked about a decision to re-open the Secretariat building after nearly a month-long hiatus, UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said: “I don’t know. […]

The post As US Unemployment Hits a Staggering 22 Million, Will UN Layoffs Be Far Behind? appeared first on Inter Press Service.

United Nations Secretary General António Guterres on Thursday pleaded with global leaders and families to ensure the protection of the world’s children, millions of whom he says are vulnerable to a myriad of threats as a result of the shutdown arising from the global coronavirus pandemic.  While children are at a significantly lower health risk […]

The post Global Leaders Must Prioritise Children’s Wellbeing amid Coronavirus Pandemic – UN appeared first on Inter Press Service.

With much of the global economy stalled amid an unprecedented lockdown of nations grappling to contain the COVID-19 pandemic, the author of a new United Nations report on the disease’s impact on poverty told IPS that hundreds of millions more could be pushed into poverty and we can expect to see social unrest. “A lockdown […]

The post Q&A: Continued Social Distancing and Hundreds of Millions More in Poverty – A New Normal for the World? appeared first on Inter Press Service.

The UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), described as an integral part of its highly-ambitious development agenda, may be in deep trouble. Aimed at addressing some of the global challenges the world faces– including extreme poverty and hunger, inequalities in incomes and gender, climate change and environmental degradation– the SDGs now seem threatened by a […]

The post UN’s Development Goals Threatened by a World Economy Facing Recession appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Soon schools in Timor-Leste, Ukraine, and Kosovo, where some 6.5 million children are currently at home, will hopefully start teaching their children once again — albeit online.  A learning platform, originally designed to assist refugee and displaced children, was launched this week to address the current global crisis affecting children who are out of school […]

The post Children under Lockdown get a ‘Learning Passport’ appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Alexander Trepelkov is Officer-in-Charge of the Division for Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) at the UN’s Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA)

The post SDGs: the Challenge to Improve Lives After the COVID-19 Crisis appeared first on Inter Press Service.

“I come from Baglung District, a part of Dhawalagiri Zone in Nepal. My house overlooks the river. Do you know, our district is known for the suspension bridges?”, her eyes glimmer for a fraction of a second and then she breathes a heavy sigh! Her right hand is still wrapped in a scarf, while with […]

The post Surviving Domestic Violence in times of Covid19 appeared first on Inter Press Service.

The Covid-19 pandemic has opened our eyes to many vulnerabilities. With home quarantine proving to be a successful strategy, we are finally catching up and practicing it. Bangladeshi narratives about home quarantine now discuss how home is the safest place to ensure sanitisation, hygiene and disinfection. But what if home is where you are most […]

The post Domestic violence during the time of corona appeared first on Inter Press Service.

A little over half of women across the globe are able to freely make choices about their sexual and reproductive health, according to a latest report based on data from 57 countries.  However, as much of the world has gone into lockdown because of the coronavirus pandemic, with countries implementing social distancing and restricting the […]

The post **Correction**How the COVID-19 Pandemic is Affecting Women’s Sexual and Reproductive Health appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Women in the South Pacific island nation of Vanuatu are dealing with six crises currently – COVID 19, drought, scarcity of potable water, and volcanic ash, acid rain and sulphur gas as there are several active volcanoes on the island. But global women’s rights organisations are collaborating with regional alliances in supporting local women.

The post How Some Pacific Women are Responding to Climate Change and Natural Disasters appeared first on Inter Press Service.

While one-fourth of the world’s population is under home-quarantine to contain the spread of the novel Covid-19 pandemic, another crisis is brewing behind closed doors—domestic violence. Research shows that in emergencies be it conflicts, economic crisis or during disease outbreaks, there has been a repeat pattern of increase in domestic abuse, therefore abusers and their […]

The post Addressing the rise in domestic violence during lockdown appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Feminist responses to COVID-19 have been swift, insightful, and numerous. There have been webinars (so.many.webinars), twitter threads, illustrations, press releases and policy recommendations, and online house parties. Analysis pieces cover everything from the gendered impacts of COVID-19 to how to work remotely to the role of neoliberal capitalism. Most strikingly, feminists have mobilized on a […]

The post Autonomous Resourcing: the Engine Room of Feminist Work Amid a Global Pandemic appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Ensuring sex workers’ rights was essential, not just for the workers themselves, but for any country’s wider society, including public health

The post Ensuring Russia’s Sex Workers’ Rights Essential for Wider Gender Equality appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Turkey’s longest-running traditional sports event, Kırkpınar Oil Wrestling competition, has started in the northwestern province of Edirne. The annual event, which is organized for the 657th time this year, attracts thousands of people. Click through for the story in photos...

Tripadvisor’s annual list of best hotels has been published. Click through for the top 15 hotels in Turkey that won Travellers’ Choice 2018 awards with the votes of the website’s users.

The district of Kadıköy on Istanbul’s Asian side has been hailed as one of the top 50 coolest neighborhoods in the world by Time Out magazine. Click through for the story in photos...

Ebru Ünsal, who has been described as the most popular Turkish pilot on social media, has switched jobs. Click through for the story in photos...

If you come to Turkey, you should not leave without experiencing at least some of its uniqueness. See, hear, feel, eat, travel, have fun and love in Turkish style. Click through our list of unique experiences that you can only have in Turkey...

Only one percent of the ancient city of Aigai in the Yunuslar district of the western Turkish province of Manisa has been unearthed so far in the excavations that started back in 2004. Click through for the story in photos...

As 2020 was declared the Year of Patara, interest increased in the ancient city, located between the resort districts of Kaş and Fethiye

For lovers of adrenaline sports and wildlife activities, Turkey presents a number of breathtaking options. Click through for the full list with a bonus in the end...

The Princes’ Islands in the Marmara Sea present a unique opportunity for a short escape from Istanbul. Our jury has picked nine awesome activities that you can do on the islands. Click through for the story in photos...

Turkey has been the host to many ancient civilizations and empires for ages. Its heritage can be seen in its preserved sites, inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List. Some of them remain largely undiscovered, though. Click through for our list, prepared by İnci Hazal Özcan, including the 16 UNESCO sites in Turkey that you should --but probably did not-- see. (Photos: Alamy)

From the Black Sea region to the serene beauty of the Aegean and the Mediterranean, Turkey offers picturesque camping sites for those seeking a budget-friendly holiday in the wilderness. Click through for our list, prepared by İnci Hazal Özcan, including the best ten camping sites in Turkey that you should know about:

Lady Gaga, Stevie Wonder, Lizzo, Shawn Mendes and others sang classic songs brimmed with messages of hope and change during a TV special aimed at fighting the coronavirus, while Beyoncé and Alicia Keys spoke passionately about how the virus has disproportionately affected black Americans.

Forbes magazine has announced the top 25 highest grossing Turkish TV series of the year. Click through for the full list...

Visitors snap photos of massive stone heads that stare down on them from the summit of Mount Nemrut. (Source: The Associated Press)

Istanbul enchants visitors and residents with its mesmerizing sights during sunrise. (DHA Photo)