The Chamberí District, Madrid, April 27, 2020. The author, a former Argentine foreign minister who is living and working in Madrid, notes the “solitude” of the city at the end of the day, but says that the country has been responding to the pandemic with “solidarity.” SUSANA MALCORRA
Bodies being buried on New York’s Hart Island, where the Department of Corrections is dealing with more burials amid the coronavirus outbreak, April 2020. LUCAS JACKSON/REUTERS
As the new coronavirus disease, Covid-19, continues to threaten lives and livelihoods around the world, many people are seeking to hold government and corporate leaders to account for their blunders during the pandemic. But in the United States and many other countries, public health malpractice is a relatively underdeveloped area of the law, and it will take legislators some time to remedy that.
Chinatown in Singapore. March 19, 2020. The city-state, the author says, is known for its world-class health system, but in its strong response to the coronavirus pandemic, it had overlooked a crucial segment of society that enables its prosperity: migrants. ASIAN DEVELOPMENT BANK
The UNTV studio in New York, as Martin Griffiths, UN envoy for Yemen, left, briefs the Security Council by videoconference, April 16, 2020. The UN’s 75th birthday this year is a crucial chance, the authors argue, for the Council to recommit to the vision of the Charter. ESKINDER DEBEBE/UN PHOTO
The United Nations is turning 75 this year.
Several top UN officials and other leaders have called for easing of certain sanctions imposed on such countries as Iran, North Korea and Venezuela. In the US, some Democrats have rallied behind the call to specifically help Iran during the pandemic as well. But the Trump administration has refused to go along with those recommendations. CREATIVE COMMONS
Farmers planting rice in South Hwanghae Province, North Korea, 2019. The country is saying that its tactics against Covid-19 have kept the virus totally at bay. Outside experts are resisting such claims. JAMES BELGRAVE/WFP
Something is missing from the statistical charts and maps of Covid-19 in East Asia: credible data on the People’s Democratic Republic of Korea.
Stilled life in a usually active marina, Diversey Harbor in Lincoln Park, Chicago. The author of this essay, who is on sabbatical in Chicago, writes that amid the global economic meltdown and pandemic, “the breakdown in international cooperation is devastating.” THOMAS G. WEISS
CHICAGO — American cities have an intimate association with the United Nations. That relationship started in San Francisco 75 years ago later this month and continues today and, one hopes, tomorrow in the New York and Washington headquarters for the UN and the Bretton Woods institutions.
President Trump and the White House coronavirus task force, April 7, 2020. On April 14, he followed through on his threat to withhold US funding to the UN’s World Health Organization, right in the middle of a pandemic. ANDREA HANKS
A view of Vienna from the author’s terrace. She writes that during the Covid-19 crisis, the authorities have moved quickly to contain the virus and offer free hotline services, including delivering groceries to people who need it. Now, Austria is planning a phased plan to lift some restrictions. MONA ALI KHALIL
In Bamako, a signing ceremony of an agreement between the UN and Mali through its Ministry of Health and Social Affairs, to strengthen the response to Covid-19 with approximately $2.6 million, April 6, 2020. HARANDANE DICKO/MINUSMA
