In The News

Global Food Crisis – Prices Soar, Crops Rot: WSJ

Yaroslav Trofimov and Lucy Craymer May 14, 2020
The Covid-19 pandemic combined with protectionist restrictions has disrupted food processing and transportation, resulting in waste at farms and shortages in stores. Perishable vegetables and products like milk are at high risk, while prices for wheat, rice and other staples climb. The Wall Street Journal article offers numerous examples of food-chain disruptions and worries. The world confronts...

Habitat Destruction, Deforestation, Pandemics: CNBC

Emma Newburger May 12, 2020
Deforestation, climate change and other habitat destruction reduce biodiversity, bringing wild animals and humans closer along with infectious diseases. “The total number of disease outbreaks has more than tripled each decade since the 1980s,” reports Emma Newburger for CNBC. “More than two thirds of the diseases originated in animals and most of those were directly transmitted from wildlife to...

Right to Education: Dawn

Marvi Soomro May 12, 2020
Around the world, governments close schools to prevent the spread of Covid-19 and encourage teachers and parents to support ongoing studies. From primary school to university, lockdowns expose inequities in available technologies, parent capabilities and motivation, quiet spaces, books and other resources. “Major barriers like the digital divide and the weakness of education systems threaten to...

Covid-19 Conspiracy Theories and US Campaign: CNN

Stephen Roach May 11, 2020
US presidential candidates have paused campaigns due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The world learned about the deadly disease in early January, and incumbent Donald Trump repeatedly insisted the United States had Covid-19 under control. Months later the United States represents one third of the world’s confirmed cases and more than one quarter of the deaths, outcomes that expose layers of inequality...

Battle Against the “Tsunami of Hate”: UN

António Guterres May 8, 2020
The Covid-19 pandemic has targeted vulnerable populations – initially striking cities while wielding disproportionate effect on nursing homes, prisons and other facilities where employees work in close quarters. These include US meat-processing facilities, often staffed with immigrant labor. Researchers suggest many of the deaths are due to disparities in health care, and the pandemic exposes...

Failed State or America Stronger? The Atlantic

Kori Schake May 6, 2020
Analysts question US influence and capabilities, as the Covid-19 exposes corruption, a health system struggling with preventive care and other failures. The United States, with 4 percent of the world’s population, represents about 35 percent of Covid-19 confirmed cases and more than 25 percent deaths. “Our democracy doesn’t produce fast, elegant solutions to problems, and it often fails to...

Unprecedented Isolation: El País

Moisés Naím May 6, 2020
Covid-19 confounds humans with its exponential growth and cases doubling in increasingly shorter periods of time, resulting in steep curve. The United States responded swiftly on the economic front, approving more than $2 trillion in stimulus spending. Still, the largest economic stimulus package in history won’t prevent economic recession, job losses, bankruptcies and evictions. All countries...