UNITED NATIONS, Apr 17 2020 (IPS)* – The deadly coronavirus COVID-19, which has shut down the UN secretariat in New York, along with 32 of its agencies globally, has forced over 37,500 UN staffers worldwide to work from their homes.
Credit: United Nations
Asked about a decision to re-open the Secretariat building after nearly a month-long hiatus, UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said: “I don’t know. I think, some experts have said, it’s the virus that will decide.”
Still, there are several other lingering questions which remain unanswered– specifically against the backdrop of a severe new cash crisis threatening the survival of the UN and aggravated by a global economic meltdown.
14 April 2020 (UNHCR)* –The COVID-19 crisis has sparked an outpouring of solidarity from people around the world and that includes refugees, keen to help in the countries where they now live.
(Greenpeace International)* — In the past few weeks, our entire planet has been experiencing an unprecedented crisis due to the COVID-19 pandemic, with extremely significant losses on many levels.
A view of a building in Seoul during a summer heat wave.
I am a professor of biology at the University of West Attica in Greece, and a volunteer at Greenpeace. Given the tremendous impact of this pandemic on people’s lives combined with the fact that many experts believe that global heating and other environmental disturbances could facilitate the development of more novel viruses such as COVID-19, I would like to explain how climate change relates to the transmission and spread of infectious diseases.
From coronavirus to climate change, China is surging ahead of the US and its allies. Are we witnessing the slow death of liberal capitalism?
Lan Hongguang/Xinhua News Agency/PA Images
16 April 2020 (openDemocracy)* — Amidst the turmoil in global financial markets in recent weeks, something unusual has happened.
Investors, seeking shelter from the coronavirus-linked sell-off, have piled into Chinese government bonds on an unprecedented scale. These purchases have increased the total foreign ownership of Beijing’s bonds to record highs, even as much of the country is still emerging from lockdown after the viral outbreak.
15 April 2020 (UN Environment)* — As COVID-19 has expanded around the globe, many of our worlds have seemed to shrink. We see too little of nature, receive too much bad news, and settle for virtual companionship in place of actual community.
Photo by Unsplash/ Joshua Earle
A post-COVID-19 world will not be the same one we knew before, but it can be a better one. “When we get past this crisis, which we will, we will face a choice,” says United Nations Secretary-General, António Guterres. “We can go back to the world as it was before or deal decisively with those issues that make us all unnecessarily vulnerable to the crises.”
The changes that we must make to create a better world after the pandemic
We will be faced with the problem of rebuilding the world after the enormous economic and human destruction which the disease will have left in its wake | Image from Wall Street International.
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15 April 2020 (Wall Street International)* — I would like to announce the publication of a book, which discusses the changes that we must make to create a better world after the pandemic has ended. The book may be freely downloaded and circulated from the following link.
UNITED NATIONS, Apr 15 2020 (IPS)* – President Donald Trump’s threat to abruptly cut all US funding to the World Health Organization (WHO) has been described as ‘reckless and deadly”—particularly at a time when the Geneva-based UN agency was engaged in an uphill battle against the spreading coronavirus.
15 Apr, 2020 (RT)* — Providing money to the “underfunded” World Health Organization is among the best ways to help develop a vaccine against Covid-19, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas has said after Trump halted the WHO’s funding.
“Apportioning blame doesn’t help. The virus knows no borders,” Maas wrote on Twitter on Wednesday.
The U.S. is the biggest overall donor to the Geneva-based WHO, contributing more than US$400 million in 2019, roughly 15 percent of its budget.
Trump ignored reports from U.S. intelligence agencies starting in January and February that warned of the scale and danger of the new coronavirus, according to the Washington Post. | Photo: EFE
14 April 2020 (teleSUR)* — United States President Donald Trump announced Tuesday that his country will halt funding to the World Health Organization while his administration reviews the agency’s response to the coronavirus pandemic.
NEW YORK, Apr 15 2020 (IPS) – The coronavirus pandemic has set off an unprecedented institutional crisis at the United Nations – funds are drying up, key meetings are cancelled and the world body is fighting for its future.
Credit: United Nations
The chief management officer of the world body, Catherine Pollard, wrote a dire memo on 1 April, setting out the breadth of the crisis, the depth of the financial shortfall, and the emergency steps to be taken immediately to head off ruin.
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