Page 5 - World In Progress News Today

Topics this week: For many coca Farmers in Colombia, it is far from simple to stop producing coca for drugs// Why protecting wildlife clashes with livelihoods of fishermen in Odisha, India//  Netflix film sparks protests in Egypt//  How artists in Turkey censor themselves because they face backlash for their art

Violence is so common in Brazil's favelas that online retailers refuse to deliver to addresses there. One young man who tried to buy something online and was refused decided to take matters into his own hands and developed an app. That was successful and has created jobs for residents and helped out businesses in the favela, too.

In Zimbabwe, the rate of child sexual abuse and the number of unwanted pregnancies among young girls has increased significantly following the introduction of strict COVID-19 curfews. Authorities are estimating thousands of unplanned pregnancies among schoolgirls. Often they weren't allowed to return to school to get an education. That has now changed!

Children from La Reunion were brought to children's homes under the guise of getting them a good education — which most never received. Can they find closure by traveling to the island? Young girls in Zimbabwe who fell pregnant during the pandemic used to get kicked out of school, but are now being encouraged to return. And how a delivery app changes the game in Brazil's favelas.

Between the 1960s and 1980s, France took some 2,000 children away from their families in the overseas territory of La Reunion. They were brought to France and promised a good education, but most never received that. Instead, they had to work as farmhands and were hit. Decades later, some are searching for family members on the island. And they hope reconnecting with their past will help them heal.

Fertilizers are getting more expensive and are pushing food prices up. And the millions of smallholder farmers who produce a third of the world's food will have little choice but to reduce using fertilizer which in turn will reduce their crop yield. DW speaks to Dr. Michael Brüntrup, senior researcher with the German Development Institute.

For many small-scale farmers, there's a myriad of problems. In addition to expensive fertilizers, some don't have the equipment they need to plow their fields. An app that was developed on the African continent wants to make life a little easier for small-scale farmers by connecting them to others who own tractors.

Small single-use plastic packets, also known as sachets, are ubiquitous in South East Asia. They are used for coffee, soap or laundry detergent. Large packs are too expensive for many there, but the single sachet packs aren't in fact a better deal. They end up costing more. And they're bad for the environment.

Rising energy costs are pushing many households in the UK to the brink — many are faced with a choice between eating or heating. It's already bad, but 2022 is set to be the hardest year ever for many people as the annual price cap for energy is due to rise by over 50% come April. Experts warn that one in four families in the UK is expected to be plunged into fuel poverty.

Even before the devastating explosion in the port of Beirut in 2020, the Middle Eastern country was in a deep economic crisis. Since then, people's hard-earned savings have continued to depreciate day by day. That’s why many Lebanese are now pinning their hopes on the digital world and are investing in cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, looking for security in a system that few truly understand.