海角大神

Tomorrow the high court takes up a case that, for many, epitomizes the racial injustice bound up in sentencing rules left over from the war on drugs. Will its decision herald reform?

A top-down commitment to improving public works could make Moscow, a legendarily snarled city, easier to get around in, and greener too. We look at the complex roots of a priority shift.

The pandemic has put many tourism hot spots in peril. We found one that鈥檚 thriving, but one where locals also have a message for visitors: More important than your money is your respect.

Nourishment takes different forms. Planting a community oasis in a food desert is about much more than nutrition. It鈥檚 also about opportunity, and healing.

India is now home to 1 in 3 new coronavirus cases around the globe. But that is not India鈥檚 only burden. It also accounts for nearly 60% of the global increase in poverty caused by the pandemic. The COVID-19 recession in India has increased the number of poor people 鈥� or those living on less than $2 a day 鈥� by 75 million.

Yet despite the grim numbers, the South Asian nation has done something quite well over the past year. It has managed to feed most of its 1.3 billion people, a result of more than a half-century of reforms aimed at ending the country鈥檚 history of famines.

While the world rushes to help India deal with the pandemic, it also has something to learn from India鈥檚 ability to find new ways to combat hunger.

A new report from the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) gives one reason food kept flowing during the crisis. 鈥淚ndia鈥檚 rapid policy actions and effective coordination across national, state, and local institutions helped buffer the initial shocks to health and nutrition programs. This success reflects India鈥檚 decades of investments in social-safety-net infrastructure, particularly recent investments in direct and cash benefit transfers,鈥� the report states.

Such lessons will be needed in 2021. The United Nations estimates the number of people vulnerable to severe hunger will nearly double because of the pandemic. And the COVID-19 crisis has exposed many weaknesses in the global food system. As a result, the U.N. plans to hold the Food Systems Summit 2021 in September to transform how the world produces and consumes food.

Compared with food summits going back to the 1970s, this one offers a new conceptual shift, writes Julie Howard, an adviser to the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Instead of a focus on simply growing more food, it holds 鈥渢he possibility of reshaping the global food system to become more productive, resilient, sustainable and healthy.鈥�

Besides India, a number of countries have responded well in providing food during the crisis. 鈥淎lthough income losses caused serious, potentially persistent declines in food security and nutrition, food supply chains proved more resilient than expected,鈥� states the IFPRI report. 鈥淎lso importantly, as food systems鈥� central role and capacity for adaptation were demonstrated, the momentum needed to change our food systems for the better increased in 2020.鈥�

That momentum will be on display this fall, when world leaders gather in New York for the food summit. By then, India hopes to be on top of the pandemic. As it is, it can offer lessons on how it constantly innovates in agriculture and in other aspects of the food supply. In times of crisis, those lessons pay off.