Trade : South rebuffs attempts to create new rules at WTO amid COVID-19 (PRIV)
(D. Ravi Kanth, Geneva)
Many developing countries have rebuffed attempts by the United States and the Cairns Group of farm-exporting countries to create new rules at the World Trade Organization under the pretext of the Covid-19 pandemic, trade envoys told the SUNS.

Finance : Cross-border bank claims rise to $33 trillion amid COVID-19 (PRIV)
(Kanaga Raja, Geneva)
Global cross-border bank claims surged to $33 trillion in the first quarter of 2020, against the backdrop of the rapidly escalating COVID-19 pandemic, the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) has reported.

Finance : COVID-19 compounds developing country debt burdens (PRIV)
(IPS, Sydney/Kuala Lumpur)
Sydney/Kuala Lumpur, 23 Jul (IPS/Anis Chowdhury and Jomo Kwame Sundaram*) -- Covid-19 is expected to take a heavy human and economic toll on developing countries, not only because of contagion in the face of weak health systems, but also containment measures which have precipitated recessions, destroying and diminishing the livelihoods of many.

Senegal : Inadequate water & sanitation threatens women & girls' development (PRIV)
(IPS, Hyderabad)
With Tabaski (Eid al-Adha) around the corner, 11-year-old Fatoumata Binta from Terrou Mballing district in M'Bour, western Senegal, wakes up early and joins her brothers Iphrahima Tall and Ismaila to fetch water from a river several miles from home.