Page 3 - World In Progress News Today

Lebanon's crisis has devastating effects on education: Many parents can no longer afford to pay for school fees, and more and more children have dropped out. Community health workers are important for people all over the world, especially in rural areas where doctors and nurses are few and far between. We hear from one brave woman in Zambia who's trying to make a change in people's lives.

Worldwide, millions of Community Health Workers provide basic healthcare in rural areas. These trained health workers, often women, are especially important in the Global South where there aren't enough doctors and nurses, hospitals and medical facilities. In Zambia, for instance, these workers play a crucial role in the country's health care system, even though many are not getting paid.

Argentina made history by becoming the largest Latin American country to legalize abortion. Although now legal, finding a doctor who is willing to perform the procedure is a different matter altogether. In other Latin American countries, the procedure is still banned outright.

Mama Dschun was born in 1928 in the south of Iran. She witnessed the rise and fall of Persian rulers, lived through the Islamic Revolution and the Iran-Iraq war. She was deprived of an education by her father and was supposed to marry a cousin she was promised to when she was just a kid. But Mama Dschun survived it all and thrived.

Iraq is the fifth most vulnerable country in the world to extreme temperatures and water shortages. Farming in Iraq used to be very lucrative, but that has changed. Prospects in other areas are bad, too. The economy is not able to get off the ground, everything still revolves around oil.

Refugees fleeing from the war in Ukraine run the risk of falling into the hands of human traffickers. RT (formerly known as Russia Today) has a huge influence on Latin America. And why Iraq's farmers are barely making a living anymore.

In the Democratic Republic of Congo, many civil servants are well past 70, sometimes even over 100 years old. They hold on to their jobs and their salaries, because they are not getting their pensions paid out. DW speaks to Stylianos Moshonas, postdoctoral research fellow at the Institute of Development Policy at the University of Antwerp. Why are they not getting their pensions?

Despite reaching retirement age, work never stops for civil servants in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Many civil servants are well past 70, sometimes even over 100 years old. They hold on to their jobs and their salaries. In Japan, some seniors also choose to continue working part-time jobs – to boost their pensions and because they believe it helps stave off dementia.

Japan has by far the oldest population in the world. Around a third of Japanese citizens have already reached retirement age. That comes with a range of problems, but Japan wants to regard seniors as a treasure full of experience rather than a burden. They've coined the term "platinum society" – because platinum does not oxidize like silver does.

The world is set to face 1.5 disasters a day by 2030, the UN has warned. We're severely underestimating the risks and are doing too little to protect ourselves. As the war in Ukraine rages on, repercussions are felt around the globe. And there are growing concerns that the international community is forgetting other parts of the world in dire need of aid.