Havana, Cuba | AFP | Yadira types out a message to her WhatsApp group, with the name of a Havana store where a supply of chicken has just arrived. Cuba already suffered from food shortages, but the coronavirus crisis has made finding food for the dinner table a veritable scavenger hunt, …
Read More »For Russians, humble dacha provides refuge from coronavirus
Sokolniki, Russia | AFP | After years spent on submarines with Russia’s Northern Fleet, Ivan Chernyshyov is having no problem adjusting to life on coronavirus lockdown — especially as, like many Russians, the retired sailor can escape to the countryside. “It’s good here. We’ll grow carrots and strawberries and maybe …
Read More »Busia fish dealers move to decongest market
Busia, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Fish dealers under Busia Fish Traders Association-BUFA have resolved to reduce on the numbers of vendors in a bid to decongest the market to avert the possible spread of the Covid19 disease. At least more than 360 people including brokers, transporters and fish mongers among …
Read More »Food prices escalate in Moroto district
Moroto, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Food prices have soured in Moroto town in the recent days, distressing the population that is already struggling to earn a living due to the lockdown that has largely affected normal life and business. There has been an increase in the cost of Rice, beans, …
Read More »Coronavirus highlights role of foreign staff in British hospitals
London, United Kingdom | AFP | Joan Pons Laplana is a senior digital charge nurse working on the frontline in an intensive care unit treating coronavirus patients at Sheffield Teaching Hospital in the north of England. Like many of his colleagues in the state-run National Health Service (NHS), the 45-year-old medic …
Read More »Divided EU leaders meet on virus recovery plan
Brussels, Belgium | AFP | EU leaders are set to haggle on Thursday over a giant package to help their economies recover from the coronavirus pandemic, but bitter divisions mean little progress is expected. The situation facing the EU is dire: more than 110,000 confirmed COVID-19 deaths and an economy set …
Read More »Spending for 2020/21 budget should prioritize key growth areas, CSOs tell government
Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Julius Businge | Expenditure for the new budget should mainly focus on key sectors that must support revamping of the economy, according to civil society organisations under their umbrella group, Civil Society Budget Advocacy Group (CSBAG). In a joint statement dated April 20, the group …
Read More »Dreaming of returning home, Egypt’s Nubians revive language
Aswan, Egypt | AFP | Fatma Addar grew up in a Nubian family, connected to her ethnic minority’s rich history through its tales of a bygone life on the Nile, though regaled less and less in their original language. She lives in the southern Egyptian city of Aswan and was schooled …
Read More »In Navajo Nation, pandemic exposes water crisis and health disparities
Washington, United States | AFP | The coronavirus is hitting the United States’ largest Native American territory hard, with a spike in cases bringing long-standing disparities to the fore in a land marked by the trauma of past waves of disease. With its towering sandstone mesas, majestic canyons and ancient ruins, …
Read More »MPs recommend review of national budget
Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Parliament’s Budget Committee has recommended that the government reviews and revises the National Budget for the coming financial year 2020/2021 in the wake of COVID-19. This is one of the committee’s recommendations in its report to Parliament in which it approved the appropriation of Shillings 45.493 …
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