UN : World economy likely to shrink by 0.9% in 2020 due to COVID-19 (PRIV)
(Kanaga Raja, Geneva)
The world economy could contract by 0.9 per cent - instead of growing at an earlier projected 2.5 percent - in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN-DESA) has said.

Trade : CSOs call on WTO DG to halt the fisheries negotiations (PRIV)
(D. Ravi Kanth, Geneva)
The World Trade Organization Director-General Roberto Azevedo must immediately "halt" the fisheries subsidies negotiations at a time when the COVID-19 pandemic is ravaging the world, a global coalition of fishers' groups along with farmers, workers, and civil society organizations told the DG on 1 April.

Opinion : East Asian lessons for controlling COVID-19 (PRIV)
(IPS, Kuala Lumpur)
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 26 Mar (IPS/Nazihah Muhamad Noor and Jomo Kwame Sundaram*) -- By the third week of March 2020, the number of Covid-19 deaths in Italy had overtaken the number of deaths in China.

UN : White supremacists, yellow peril & "Chinese virus" add to a volatile mix (PRIV)
(IPS, New York)
When US President Donald Trump repeatedly characterized the fast- spreading COVID-19 as a "Chinese virus" recently, it prompted some white supremacists to resurrect an age-old ethnic slur against Chinese and East Asians: the "Yellow Peril" which, in a bygone era, was touted as a xenophobic threat to the Western world.