Stéphane Dujarric, the spokesperson for the UN Secretary-General António Guterres, prepping for a virtual press briefing with him, April 30, 2020, UN headquarters. The secretary-general had asked the current UN medical director, Dr. Jillann Farmer, to extend her term a few months during the coronavirus crisis. But now she is returning to her home country, Australia. ESKINDER DEBEBE/UN PHOTO
Samantha Buonvino, above, is a civilian peacekeeper working for the UN in Mali. Her job is to get to know the community of Gao, where she is based, but the UN is under lockdown there, presenting not more “suffering,” she said, but just an “extra challenge.”
Secretary-General António Guterres holds a virtual press conference to promote a report on his call for a global cease-fire during the Covid-19 outbreak, April 3, 2020. A Security Council draft resolution supporting his call was knocked down by the US on May 8, facing a low chance for revival. LOEY FELIPE/UN PHOTO
Billions of people have been affected by the Covid-19 pandemic, and the unprecedented nature of the economic and health crisis could quickly turn into a housing crisis, the author writes. Many advocacy groups and others are proposing ways to avert such a disaster as well as to help people without a home. JOHN PENNEY
In Geneva’s city center at dusk, May 7, 2020. It turns out that when a society collapses, say, during a pandemic, the author writes, “it’s really important to know your neighbors.” PETER MCCAREY
Michael Edeh, a peacekeeping officer enhancing his skills working for the UN-African Union mission in Darfur, Sudan, through an e-learning program. Demand for virtual training has become suddenly more critical as Covid-19 keeps spreading and national training centers are being shut down.
As part of standard procedures in UN General Assembly elections, officials hold up empty ballot boxes for inspection by teller delegates, before collecting member states’ ballots. The pandemic has forced new methods on Assembly voting as the UN stays physically shut until the end of June for now. UN PHOTO
A photo taken recently from the author’s balcony, in Cornet Chahwan, Lebanon, with Beirut in the distance. He writes that being quarantined at home means he can “finally breathe fresh air” as the sky is no longer tainted by the nitrogen-dioxide inversion on the horizon. Yet the country is bracing for chaos. BEIRUT — In these dire times of the Covid-19 crisis, I am quarantined at home in the hills overlooking Beirut and the Mediterranean. I take comfort in the prospects of clear, clean skies, no longer tainted by the brown nitrogen-dioxide inversion on the horizon.
President Trump at a coronavirus update briefing, April 13, 2020. His attack on the WHO could backfire, the author argues, especially if the new pro-WHO coalition develops a vaccine before the US does. D. MYLES CULLEN/WHITE HOUSE
Just how crazy is Donald Trump’s campaign to punish the World Health Organization over its apparent “China-centric” bias in the midst of a deadly pandemic? Let us count the ways. At the top of the list: It may contribute to a big setback for Trump himself.
Secretary-General António Guterres recording a video message in the UNTV studio, in New York, on the pandemic’s effects on children, April 16, 2020. Soon after Guterres recently announced the resignation of the head of the UN staff pension fund, worth $63 billion, he reaffirmed his commitment to its “well-being.” ESKINDER DEBEBE/UN PHOTO
