Winning a rickshaw in a race sponsored by the OM sports ministry team in Bangladesh changes Anwar's life and his family's life.

This summer nearly 1,000 Roma children in Roma villages throughout Central and Eastern Europe heard the Gospel.

The Coldwater band is calling for federal intervention after Trans Mountain announced it was changing the way it would study the aquifer the First Nation relies on for its drinking water.

Saskia perseveres through language learning and connects with a young Albanian girl who becomes a follower of Jesus.

Pittsburgh Penguins superstar Sidney Crosby is easing the burden for many Pennsylvania families struggling during the COVID-19 virus.

FSI Briefs No 5, April 2020. In response to the Covid-19 pandemic, governments have launched guarantee programmes to support bank lending to companies, especially small and medium-sized enterprises. This is essential to avoid a sharp contraction in bank credit that would exacerbate the pandemic's adverse impact. The design of such programmes needs to strike a difficult balance between responding promptly to the pandemic and maintaining a sufficient level of prudence. Key features of a sample of programmes (eg target beneficiaries, coverage of the guarantee, loan terms, length of the programme) reflect this tension. Incentives were created for the banks to join these programmes by exploiting flexibility in existing prudential requirements, while central banks have often provided liquidity support. Programmes are, however, subject to operational challenges and, ultimately, fiscal capacity limits.

Banks globally entered the Covid-19 crisis with roughly US$ 5 trillion of capital above their Pillar 1 regulatory requirements. The amount of additional lending will depend on how hard banks' capital is hit by the crisis, on their willingness to use the buffers and on other policy support. In an adverse stress scenario such as the savings and loan crisis, banks' usable buffers would decline to US$ 800 billion, which could support US$ 5 trillion of additional loans (6% of total loans outstanding). Yet in a severely adverse scenario, similar to the Great Financial Crisis, the corresponding figures would be only US$ 270 billion and US$ 1 trillion (1.3% of total loans).

FSI Briefs No 6, May 2020. Regulatory actions in the current circumstances need to focus on preserving banks' lending activity without jeopardising their solvency. This means that flexibility in capital requirements, including through the use of regulatory buffers, and capital conservation should go hand in hand. Basel III provides for automatic distribution constraints when capital falls below specific thresholds. In the current context, this may disincentivise firms from following authorities' recommendations to use capital buffers. Blanket distribution restrictions imposed through supervisory action may help address these disincentives to the extent that they are not linked to firms' individual capital positions and thus remove any possible stigma effect. Most authorities have undertaken initiatives in relation to banks' distribution policies in the Covid-19 pandemic environment. However, practices across jurisdictions diverge markedly as regards scope and stringency.

Introductory remarks (by videoconference) by Mr Luis de Guindos, Vice-President of the European Central Bank, to the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs of the European Parliament, Frankfurt am Main, 7 May 2020.

Daily data on monetary policy rates have been updated. This covers 38 central banks with the earliest data starting in 1946.

Banks' performance on equity and debt markets since the Covid-19 outbreak has been on a par with that experienced after the collapse of Lehman Brothers in 2008. During the initial phase, the market sell-off swept over all banks, which underperformed significantly relative to other sectors. Still, markets showed some differentiation by bank nationality, and credit default swap (CDS) spreads rose the most for those banks that had entered the crisis with the highest level of credit risk. The subsequent stabilisation, brought about by forceful policy measures since mid-March, has favoured banks with higher profitability and healthier balance sheets. Less profitable banks saw their long-term rating outlooks revised to negative. And the CDS spreads of the riskiest banks continued increasing even through the stabilisation phase.

Are financial intermediaries inherently unstable and, if so, why? To address this, we analyse whether model economies with financial intermediation are particularly prone to multiple, cyclic or stochastic equilibria.

Bank of Italy Working Papers by Giorgio Albareto, Andrea Cardillo, Andrea Hamaui and Giuseppe Marinelli

Netherlands Bank DNB Occasional Studies by Peter Wierts and Harro Boven

CNA Staff, Apr 21, 2020 / 02:19 pm (CNA).- Indigenous rights groups are warning that many families in Bangladesh who have lost jobs and income because of the coronavirus pandemic are not yet receiving aid, and many are facing starvation.

A joint statement from three Bangladeshi indigenous rights groups warns that the vast majority of those living in rural areas are day laborers, and are now out of work.

Bangladesh, a low lying county situated just east of India, has 3,400 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and has recorded 110 deaths. Officials say actual numbers are likely higher due to a lack of testing kits.

Romen Kisku, a Catholic father of five and member of the Santal ethnic group, told UCA News that his family has received a small amount of food aid from a charity, but he worries it will not be enough to feed his 10-member family. He and his family live in the northern region of Dinajpur, and he said he hopes to find work in a neighboring region as a paddy farmer.

“Three men of our family are day laborers and our income pays for everything. Now we cannot go to work and government aid has not reached us. The minimal aid was too little for our family, so we have to go on starving if things don’t improve,” Kisku told UCA News.

Ethnic-minority Santal people live mostly in northwestern Bangladesh as well as parts of India and Nepal. About eight percent are Christian.

Bangladesh has a low percentage of Catholics— as low as 0.3% in some areas— and the Catholic aid group Caritas is struggling to raise funds for the poor.

“We have made an appeal to people in our parishes and areas, so they come up with whatever they can to assist those having hard times during this crisis. The suffering of people will intensify if the crisis lingers, so we need to help people any way possible,” Bishop Sebastian Tudu of Dinajpur told UCA News.

Though the government and charitable organizations are mobilizing to provide relief, the remoteness of the areas where many indigenous people live mean that in some areas, very few families have yet received government assistance.

Though Catholic Relief Services is active in providing aid in refugee camps in Bangladesh, a CRS spokesperson confirmed to CNA that CRS is not currently active in the Dinajpur region.

The branch of Caritas in the southeastern port city of Chittagong has taken two emergency cash handouts of 2,250 taka (US$27) and 1,547 taka to support 950 families on the hills, UCA News reported.

Bangladesh’s government started food relief and subsidized food sales at the end of March, aiming to support about 50 million poor and needy people across the country, UCA News reports.

Bangladesh imposed a nationwide lockdown March 26, with a restriction of no more than five people allowed to congregate in prayer in a mosque, the New York Post reported. Despite this, on April 18 a crowd of some 100,000 people gathered for a funeral in Brahmanbaria, in the eastern part of the country.

The association is happy with a ruling that found it violated the law.

The Bank of England says the UK faces its worst slump in 300 years, but on Thursday held off from any moves on rates or bond buying.

Rome Newsroom, Apr 30, 2020 / 11:45 am (CNA).- After eight weeks without funerals, Italian families will be able finally to gather together to mourn and pray at funeral Masses for the victims of the coronavirus starting May 4.

In Milan, the largest city in Italy’s coronavirus epicenter, priests are preparing for an influx of funeral requests in the coming weeks in the Lombardy region, where 13,679 have died.

Fr. Mario Antonelli, who oversees liturgies on behalf of the Archdiocese of Milan, told CNA that archdiocesan leadership met April 30 to coordinate guidelines for Catholic funerals as more than 36,000 people remain positive for COVID-19 in their region.

“I am moved, thinking of so many dear people who have wanted [a funeral] and still desire one,” Fr. Antonelli said April 30.

He said that the church in Milan is ready like the Good Samaritan to “pour oil and wine on the wounds of many who have suffered the death of a loved one with the terrible agony of not being able to say goodbye and embrace.”

A Catholic funeral is “not just a solemn farewell from loved ones,” the priest explained, adding that it expresses a pain like childbirth. “It is the cry of pain and loneliness that becomes a song of hope and communion with the desire for an everlasting love.”

Funerals in Milan will occur on an individual basis with no more than 15 people in attendance, as required by “phase two” of the Italian government’s coronavirus measures. 

Priests are asked to notify local authorities when a funeral is scheduled to take place and ensure that social distancing measures defined by the diocese are followed throughout the liturgy. 

Milan is home to the Ambrosian rite, the Catholic liturgical rite named for St. Ambrose, who led the diocese in the 4th century.

“According to the Ambrosian rite, the funeral liturgy includes three ‘stations’: the visit / blessing of the body with the family; community celebration (with or without Mass); and burial rites at the cemetery,” Antonelli explained. 

“Trying to reconcile the sense of the liturgy … and the sense of civic responsibility, we ask the priests to refrain from visiting the family of the deceased to bless the body,” he said.

While Milan archdiocese is limiting priests from the traditional blessing of the body in the home of the family, the funeral Mass and burial rites will be able to take place at a church or “preferably” at a cemetery, Antonelli added. 

During the nearly two months without Masses and funerals, dioceses in northern Italy have been maintaining telephone lines for grieving families with spiritual counsel and psychological services. In Milan, the service is called “Hello, is this an angel?” and is operated by priests and religious who spend time on the phone with the sick, the mourning, and the lonely. 

Aside from funerals, public Masses will still not be allowed throughout Italy under the government’s May 4 coronavirus restrictions. As Italy eases its lockdown, it remains unclear when public Masses will be allowed by the Italian government.

Italian bishops have been critical of Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte’s latest coronavirus measures, announced on April 26, saying that they “arbitrarily exclude the possibility of celebrating Mass with the people."

According to the prime minister’s April 26 announcement, the easing of lockdown measures will allow retail stores, museums, and libraries to reopen beginning May 18 and restaurants, bars, and hair salons June 1.

Movement between Italian regions, within regions, and within cities and towns is still prohibited except under strict cases of necessity.

In a letter April 23, Cardinal Gualtiero Bassetti of Perugia, the president of the Italian bishops' conference, wrote that “the time has come to resume the celebration of the Sunday Eucharist, and church funerals, baptisms and all the other sacraments, naturally following those measures necessary to guarantee security in the presence of more people in public places.”

"I'M hungry."

The Reserve Bank bought R11.4 billion worth of government bonds from the secondary market during April, as part of its measures to introduce liquidity to the market.

This summer nearly 1,000 Roma children in Roma villages throughout Central and Eastern Europe heard the Gospel.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — It's been over a decade since reggae king Buju Banton and R&B star John Legend collaborated on a song, and the Grammy winners have reunited for a new track.Banton and Legend released the easy-going love song Memories on yesterday. It is the first single from Banton's upcoming album Upside Down, his first studio project since 2010's Before the Dawn.

NEATEBOX, the Scottish technology firm which specialises in improving accessibility for people with disabilities, has been accepted into an accelerator programme run by Royal Bank of Scotland.

Thyme: Lebanese Street Sajeria

The slur isn't appropriate for school personnel or students of any race to ever use, writes Tyrone C. Howard.

Michael Casserly, who has led the Council of the Great City Schools since 1992, will step down next year and become an adviser to the group.

Framed prints of Steven Camley's cartoons are available by calling 0141 302 6210

The social media giant, which is facing withering scrutiny over its data-collection practices, has announced a partnership with the National Urban League.

Saskia perseveres through language learning and connects with a young Albanian girl who becomes a follower of Jesus.

The ballot measure essentially repeals Proposition 227, the 1998 law that made it tougher for districts to offer bilingual education.

Patients living in rural versus urban counties encounter different health care environments. Whether these differences result in different health care utilization for rural versus urban infants is not known.

In this study, infants living in rural California counties were hospitalized less often than infants living in urban counties. Among those hospitalized, infants living in rural counties were hospitalized for fewer cumulative days than infants residing in urban counties. (Read the full article)

Drowning is a leading cause of death for children in low- and middle-income countries. However, few childhood mortality reduction programs target drowning because of a lack of evidence on costs and effectiveness of these interventions.

This study presents the cost-effectiveness results of a low-cost injury and drowning prevention program in Bangladesh. We show that child care centers and swimming lessons are highly cost-effective interventions that could be scaled to other countries. (Read the full article)

The effect of substandard housing on children’s risk of diseases such as asthma has been studied; little is known about how it affects child injury risk. Pediatricians actively promote injury prevention but typically without regard to housing quality.

Low-income children are likely living in substandard homes, which is significantly associated with not having working smoke alarms and safe hot water temperatures. Pediatricians can use these results to inform anticipatory guidance. (Read the full article)

Physical inactivity is one of the major modifiable factors contributing to the growing national epidemic of childhood obesity. There is lack of literature on pedometer-determined physical activity (PA) during the school day in US minority kindergarten and first-grade students.

This is the first study to assess school-day PA in US urban minority kindergarten and first-grade students. Higher grade level, participation in physical education class, and outdoor recess were found to be independent predictors of PA. (Read the full article)

Developmental screening using standardized tools has been endorsed by professional groups to improve rates of identification and referral for young children who have developmental delays. Little is known about the effectiveness of these tools among a high-risk urban population.

Using a randomized design, we found that a program of developmental screening improved the percentage and time to identification of developmental delay, referral, and eligibility for early intervention among a poor, racially diverse urban population of young children. (Read the full article)

In inverse proportion to the steadily declining under-5 mortality rate, prevalence of childhood disability has doubled in the past decade in Bangladesh. The Rapid Neurodevelopmental Assessment (RNDA) tool has been shown to be reliable and valid for assessment of a range of neurodevelopmental impairments (NDIs) and disabilities in children younger than 2 years. There is currently a lack of professional expertise for assessing NDIs in 2- to 5-year-old children in low- and middle-income countries.

We developed a set of instruments as part of the RNDA for administration by a single professional with experience in child development to assess >2- to 5-year-old children for a wide range of NDIs. The tool was acceptable to mothers, interrater reliability was high, and proportions of children with NDIs were elevated among the lowest income groups and in stunted children, demonstrating discriminant validity. The RNDA was valid for identifying >2- to 5-year-old children with a range of NDIs, especially in cognitive, behavior, and motor functions. Validity of the RNDA for vision, hearing, and seizure disorders needs further research. (Read the full article)

Internet, smartphones, and online social media offer new platforms for health promotion and disease management. Few studies have evaluated the use of digital technology among families receiving care in an urban pediatric primary care setting.

Caregivers in an urban pediatric primary care setting have access to and frequently use the Internet, smartphones, and online social media. These technologies may help reach a traditionally hard-to-reach population. (Read the full article)

Violence involving firearms is a leading cause of death among US youth ages 14 to 24. The emergency department is the primary medical setting for care of assault-injured youth and an underused but important setting for violence-prevention programs.

Among assault-injured youth seeking emergency department care, firearm possession rates are high, most obtained outside of legal channels. Higher rates of negative retaliatory attitudes and substance use among those youth with firearms increases risk of future lethal violence. (Read the full article)

Individuals living in Mediterranean countries have historically had a lower risk of cardiovascular disease. Important changes in diet and lifestyle have taken place in these countries in recent years, and it is unknown how these changes might influence current cardiovascular health.

Fitness and fatness levels indicate that urban adolescents from southern Europe are less healthy than those from central northern Europe. The extent to which these differences might be explained by physical activity, diet, and genetics is analyzed and discussed in this article. (Read the full article)

Adverse childhood experiences have been shown to have long-term impacts on health and well-being. However, little work has been done to incorporate the voices of youth in understanding the range of adverse experiences that low-income urban children face.

Study participants cited a broad range of adverse experiences beyond those listed in the initial adverse childhood experience studies. Domains of adverse experiences included family relationships, community stressors, personal victimization, economic hardship, peer relationships, discrimination, school, health, and child welfare/juvenile justice systems. (Read the full article)

Sleep disturbance affects 47% to 60% of children with atopic dermatitis and is a leading cause of impaired quality of life for the patients and their family.

Sleep disturbance in children with atopic dermatitis can be predicted by a Scoring Atopic Dermatitis index of ≥48.7, and lower nocturnal melatonin secretion might play a role in the pathophysiology. (Read the full article)

More than 200 million children <5 years old in low- and middle-income countries are not reaching their potential in cognitive development because of factors associated with poverty.

Poverty affects children’s cognition as early as 7 months and continues to increase until 5 years of age. It is mainly mediated by parental education, birth weight, home stimulation throughout the 5 years, and growth in the first 24 months. (Read the full article)

The heads of Deutsche Bank and Siemens, two of Germany’s biggest companies, are among a dwindling number of high-profile delegates still scheduled to attend an investment conference in Saudi Arabia following the disappearance of dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

The founder and chief of his eponymous investment bank traveled to Riyadh to extol the virtues of friendship. He stood out as many of the titans of U.S. finance sat out the kingdom’s signature investment summit amid international outrage over the killing of government critic Jamal Khashoggi.

Banks can be as powerful and valued as the big technology firms. Yes, those trillion-dollar titans.

The furore surrounding the arrival of over 200 Cuban medical doctors in South Africa to fight the coronavirus has highlighted a failure on the part of the SA government to explain the nature and drivers of our country’s relationship with Cuba, says Mills Soko.

Depuis jeudi et l’attaque de Bangui par les groupes anti-balaka qui viennent de province et sont composés de villageois et d’anciens militaires constitués en milices d’autodéfense, un calme précaire est revenu dans la capitale centrafricaine grâce au déploiement des militaires français.

In number 10 in our countdown, I tried to offer a few thoughts to funders as they embraced new agendas and looked to avoid repeating yesterday's missteps.

Saskia perseveres through language learning and connects with a young Albanian girl who becomes a follower of Jesus.

Payments Association of South Africa has warned consumers to be cautious when sharing personal information which can be used by fraudsters to make unauthorised debit orders.