Article here. Excerpt:

'The number of people taking their own lives in England has jumped more than a quarter in two years according to provisional figures collated by the Office of National Statistics.

The figures, which are yet to be finalised found that the men accounted for 74 per cent of suicides with the most common age between 50 and 54.

There was also a significant regional breakdown across England with the northeast of the country having the highest number - resulting in 12.8 deaths per 100,000 people. The corresponding figure in London is 8.4 per 100,000 and 8.5 per 100,000 in the north west.

However, the proof needed for coroners to reach a determination of suicide in England and Wales was reduced in July 2018. This change could have seen a statistical increase in the number of deaths attributed to suicide which would have earlier been counted under a different classification.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'A fourth-year doctoral candidate was wrapping up his dissertation when he became the subject of a sexual misconduct investigation allegedly rife with gender bias and lacking in due process.

Now a federal judge has refused to dismiss Title IX and 14th Amendment claims by “J. Lee” against the University of New Mexico for depriving him a degree.

The taxpayer-funded institution was facing pressure from the Obama administration on how to handle campus sexual assault investigations when it investigated Lee and expelled him in 2016, U.S. District Judge James Browning wrote in the 127-page ruling last week.

He said UNM “prioritized administrative efficiency over a rigorous fact-finding process” and apparently left him with “no meaningful opportunity to be heard.”

Article here. Jump the paywall by Googling the first para. text. Excerpt:

'In Foster v. Board of Trustees of the University of Michigan, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit ruled that a university could be deliberately indifferent to sexual harassment when it fails to take immediate action that effectively ends the harassment and does not expel the alleged harasser. Public colleges and universities must walk a fine line between failing to address appropriately all complaints of sexual harassment and failing to afford due process to the alleged harassers.

To date, failing to walk that line has exposed colleges and universities to liability to one side or the other. But in Foster, the dissent cautions that the Sixth Circuit’s new standard portends that a university can be simultaneously liable to the victim for not preventing harassment and the harasser for not providing due process.

Article here. Excerpt:

'The Covid-19 pandemic is attacking every person on the planet but the United Nations only cares about some of them.

UN Secretary General Antonio Gutteres spoke in New York City on March 31, 2020 about the socioeconomic impacts of COVID-19. It was a shameful display of political correctness in the face of statistics.

He led with a call to aggressively combat the virus saying “I am particularly concerned about the African continent.”

He then added “Second, we must tackle the devastating social and economic dimensions of this crisis, with a focus on those most affected: women, older persons, youth, low-wage workers, small and medium-sized enterprises, the informal sector and vulnerable groups, especially those in humanitarian and conflict settings.”'

Article here. Excerpt:

'Although Covid-19 appears to kill more men than women – the Italian Higher Institute of Health has observed a mortality rate of 7.2% for men compared to 4.1% for women – it is women who are on the frontline of the fight against the disease. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), women represent 70% of workers in the health and social sector, though in the Chinese province of Hubei – the epicenter of the outbreak – that figure stands at 90%. Women are also primarily responsible for caring for children and the elderly. And they are in a more financially vulnerable position than men – in Europe, the employment rate for women is 65% compared to 78% for men – an issue that will be exacerbated by the economic fallout of the crisis. And yet, still no political or health authority has analyzed the impact of the coronavirus from a gender perspective.

Article here. Excerpt:

'The amount is being released by the Ministry and will be credited to more than 20.39 crore Jan Dhan accounts of women by the end of April first week, officials said.

The Centre credited the first instalment of ₹500 to over four crore Jan Dhan accounts of poor women on Friday as part of a relief package in view of the nationwide lockdown due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak, the Rural Development Ministry said.

The amount is being released by the Ministry and will be credited to more than 20.39 crore Jan Dhan accounts of women by the end of April first week, officials said.'

----

₹500 = ~USD $6.55 (min. wage in some states in India is about USD $2.40 per day)
"Crore" = 10 million of something
Jan Dhan: Explained here

Article here. Excerpt:

'It was January 27 when 11-year-old Gannon Stauch disappeared from his Colorado Springs home. He missed school that day, and his stepmother, Letecia Stauch, reported him missing shortly before 7 p.m. that night

Article here. Excerpt:

'It’s not enough for a college to arrest and remove a student accused of harassment, at least according to a new Title IX ruling from the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

A three-judge panel found the University of Michigan showed “deliberate indifference” toward student Rebecca Foster, based on her alleged harasser’s repeated flouting of restrictions placed on him by the university.

The ruling appears to undermine an opinion from the same court but different three-judge panel in December. That panel said the female plaintiff cannot claim Michigan State University violated Title IX policies simply because she is dissatisfied with its response – a sentiment echoed by the dissenting judge in the new ruling.

Article here. Excerpt:

'Three Democrat senators are using the coronavirus pandemic to urge Education Secretary Betsy DeVos to delay providing college students their constitutional rights to due process.
...
Sens. Patty Murray (D-WA), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), and Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) were the only three senators to sign the letter, saying that “while schools are grappling with how to maintain basic services for and supports to their students, it is wholly unacceptable for the Department to finalize a rule that fundamentally will change the landscape of how schools are required to respond to incidents of sexual harassment and assault, and we urge you to reconsider this misguided plan.”

Article here. Excerpt:

'Over six hundred lawsuits arguing higher ed institutions deny students accused of Title IX-related offenses basic rights have been filed against higher ed institutions, according to Title IX For All's Title IX Legal Database.

Over six hundred lawsuits have been filed against colleges and universities in behalf of students accused of Title IX-related offenses. These numbers come from Title IX For All, an organization dedicated to tracking such lawsuits since 2013. The current count in their Title IX Legal Database , a clearinghouse of information on these cases aimed at assisting Title IX professionals and accused students, is 621.

Article here. Excerpt:

'As the U.S. Department of Education prepares to implement new regulations regarding sexual misconduct on college campuses, lawsuits filed by accused students claiming their rights were violated continue to boil over in the federal courts.

Complaints against institutions of higher education in Indiana have been filed in the Northern and Southern Indiana district courts. Also, a lawsuit against Purdue University — John Doe v. Purdue University et al., 17-3565 – became the first such case to reach the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals.

Education Secretary Betsy DeVos has put forth a proposal that more clearly defines and, in some ways, limits a school’s responsibility in instances of sexual misconduct.

Attorney Scott Shockley of DeFur Voran in Muncie supports the proposed changes. He has represented Ball State University in a variety of matters and was recently successful in defending the school against a Title IX claim brought by a male student.

From SAVE:

“The dog ate my homework” is one of the oldest excuses students use to rationalize their delay in turning in an assignment. The coronavirus pandemic is one of the newest excuses universities and others are using to request the Department of Education suspend the Title IX rule making process, which has been ongoing since November 2018.

Stop Abusive and Violent Environments (SAVE) calls on the Department of Education to swiftly proceed by releasing the new regulations, keeping with their stated goal of restoring due process in the handling of sexual harassment cases on college campuses.

In a letter to Secretary DeVos and others [1], the National Women’s Law Center (NWLC) lays out their argument for delaying the regulations. In their rampage, NWLC cites reasons, such as, reduced resources, ongoing stress, and remote working environments. While these are true, they are also true for a university absent of a coronavirus pandemic. With campuses devoid of most students until the Fall semester, the university campus is quieter than ever, and the administration has ample time to focus and implement the necessary steps to be compliant.

Article here. Excerpt:

'We’ve already been told plenty of times that the coronavirus pandemic is a gendered crisis, as those on the front lines — “nurses, nurse aides, teachers, child carers and early-childhood educators, aged-care workers and cleaners” — are mostly women. We’re not certain what to do with this information, or even if we believe it. School teachers have had their classes sent home, and there are plenty of male nurses (and female doctors).

And then there’s the uncomfortable fact that men are more likely to die from COVID-19 complications than women. But Rep. Frederica Wilson wanted to get in a word about the gender disparity among those on the front lines of the coronavirus fight.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'Only identity politics could turn a virus that disproportionately attacks and kills males into a women’s problem.

Mehreen Faruqi, Australian politician, Greens Senator for New South Wales, and identity politician stood up before that nation’s legislative body and asked her colleagues to consider the impact that coronavirus is having on women specifically, and that resources be dedicated to that cause.

“Let us not forget that COVID-19 is a gendered crisis. Nurses, nurse aids, teachers, child care workers and early childhood educators, age care workers and cleaners, are mostly women. They are on the front line of this public health crisis, and carry a disproportionate risk to being exposed to the virus.”'

Article here. Excerpt:

'Mexico’s government is calling on the nation’s men to pick up a mop, do some laundry and take on more household responsibilities while they are staying home because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Four female officials spoke out at Mexico’s daily COVID-19 briefing on Thursday to remind people that women do almost three times more housework and family care than do men.
...
“We have to redistribute this work equally between men and women.... Men will have to do more, and women should have to do less,” said Nadine Gasman, head of the National Women’s Institute INMUJERES, a government body working for gender equality.'