Photo by REUTERS/Sergio Moraes (Photo posted here from UN Environment’s stoy).
05/03/2020
Coronavirus Exposes Global Economic Vulnerability
Human Wrongs Watch
– As the outbreak of the novel coronavirus COVID-19 threatens a global pandemic, major stock markets around the world have suffered their worst performance since the 2008 financial crush.
Growth disruption
The OECD has warned that the coronavirus outbreak could halve global economic growth this year to 1.5%, the slowest rate since 2009. It has cut its 2020 growth forecast for China to a 30-year low of 4.9%, down from 5.7% in November.
The IMF downgraded its growth forecast for China to 5.6% in 2020, its lowest since 1990. Economists, polled by Reuters during 7-13 February, expected China’s economic growth to slump to 4.5% in the first quarter of 2020, down from 6% in the previous quarter, the slowest since the financial crisis.
Meanwhile, China’s manufacturing sector tumbled in February, as many factories remained closed after the annual lunar new year break. The Manufacturing Purchasing Managers Index (PMI), a widely used measure of factory activity, plunged to a record low in February, reflecting the sharp contraction.
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05/03/2020
Dry Weather Increases by Two the List of Countries in Need of External Food Assistance
Human Wrongs Watch
FAO report highlights risks posed by locusts in Africa amid stronger output trends in the Near East and Asia.
Farmers in Tanzania.
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ROME, 5 March 2020 (FAO)* – The effects of inadequate rainfall on agricultural production added two countries – Namibia and Tanzania – to FAO’s list of countries in need of external assistance for food, adding to strains triggered by desert locusts even as global cereal production appears strong, according to FAO’s quarterly Crop Prospects and Food Situation report, released today [5 March 2020].
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05/03/2020
A Green New Deal
Climate change | Image from Wall Street International.
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However, on the main Vancouver Island, 91% of the ancient forest has been felled. Naomi herself recounts her holiday in the area in 2017 when fires were raging and smoke blotted out the blue sky that she and her family had been so looking forward to, illustrating only too graphically the picture she paints in this book.
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05/03/2020
Twelve Small Actions with Big Impact for Generation Equality
5 March 2020 (UN Women)* — From the Liberian women’s sex strike paving the way for peace to the Icelandic “Women’s Day Off” demading economic equality to the global impact of the #MeToo movement, history has taught us that change can happen through collective activism.
Change, however, isn’t just about big headline moments, legal victories and international agreements: the way we talk, think, and act every day can create a ripple effect that benefits everyone.
As we usher in the new decade and take stock of global progress on women’s rights, join us, as Generation Equality, in getting to gender equality through these simple everyday actions.
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HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 