Tag Archives: COVID-19

On Wednesday, Brazil’s death toll from COVID-19 in Brazil reached 1,736 according to data from the Ministry of Health (Reuters 1). One day later, the Health Minister Henrique Mandetta announced his imminent removal from the position on Friday due to clashes with President Jair Bolsonaro (Reuters 1). The two disagreed on the correct approach to […]

Sweden’s COVID-19 death toll rose to 887 as of Sunday. The Scandinavian country’s approach to combating the virus has been an anomaly due to its relatively relaxed method in comparison to the rest of Europe (BBC). Stores, primary schools, restaurants, and bars have remained opened through-out March and April despite rising numbers of cases (AP). […]

As governments worldwide made major disaster declarations due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many victims of domestic violence found themselves locked at home with their abusers. Forced to shelter in place, victims of domestic abuse all over the world became even more vulnerable. UN Secretary General António Guterres urged all governments to put women’s safety first […]

Before Turkey’s executive presidency was inaugurated in 2018, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan repeated a pledge he had made on the campaign trail to rally support behind his long-term vision of changing the country’s parliamentary system to a presidential one. He promised to speed up the functioning of the state and make it more efficient. The […]

As the countries of the world, each in their own way, seek to combat the Coronavirus (COVID-19), violent extremists like Islamic State (IS) and Al-Qaeda (AQ) see the virus as an opportunity. It is an opportunity to take advantage of the confusion and weakness created by the widespread virus, which the Jihadists view as a […]

Since we do not have direct flights to China, the Puerto Rican Secretary of Health, who has since resigned, maintained in early March that the Island was free of COVID-19. The recently dismissed state epidemiologist affirmed at the time that while there were cases in Italy, it was only because “they were nearby” China, not […]

In light of the COVID-19 epidemic, the Republic of Ireland’s prime minister Leo Varadkar re-registered as a medical practitioner. Last Sunday Varadkar announced he will work one shift a week (Reuters). He offered his services to the Ireland Health Service Executive (HSE) after registering in March (Reuters). Varadkar previously worked as a doctor for seven […]

The Chinese government has reopened the city of Wuhan – where it’s believed the novel coronavirus originated – after more than two months of complete lockdown (The Hill). As of just after midnight Wednesday, the city’s 11 million residents are now permitted to leave without special authorization (Washington Post). More non-essential businesses will open their […]

A climate summit that had been due to take place in Glasgow in November has been postponed to 2021 because of the coronavirus outbreak (Reuters). The decision was taken by UN officials, including UN climate chief Patricia Espinosa and UK Business Secretary Alok Sharma, who is president-designate of the meeting (BBC). Officials decided to push […]

WEF Nexus as a Framework to Evaluate Societal Responses to Disturbance The WEF Nexus is a convenient means to assess interactions among the three resources controlling the structure and function of human communities and natural ecosystems: water, energy and food. System sustainability depends on maximizing resilience in the interactions among the resources comprising the three-legged […]