MUMBAI, India, Jun 10 (IPS) - The effects of the COVID-19 pandemic have reminded us that ‘universal challenges' are experienced differently, based on context. The varying demographics, systems, and administrative structures in each nation have resulted in distinctive experiences and challenges while grappling with the fallout from the crisis.

Jun 10 (IPS) - During the Covid-19 pandemic governments around the world have introduced curfews as an exceptional, yet necessary, means of containing the spread of the virus. Yet while most countries have applied their curfews uniformly to all citizens, authorities across several regions have introduced them only for certain groups exclusively because of their age, including for under-18s.

UNITED NATIONS, Jun 10 (IPS) - I want to once again express to all colleagues my enormous appreciation, my enormous gratitude, for your fantastic professionalism, your flexibility and the way you have been able to fully deliver for the people we care for during this period.

UNITED NATIONS, Jun 09 (IPS) - The COVID-19 pandemic upended almost every aspects of life as we know it. Even those countries that are supposed to have the means to manage the spread and mitigate the effects are struggling.

UNITED NATIONS, Jun 09 (IPS) - The massive protests in more than 120 US cities over racial injustice and police brutality went global last week-- amidst presidential threats of military force on demonstrators in Washington DC.

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, Jun 09 (IPS) - As governments the world over struggle to revive their economies after the debilitating lockdowns they imposed following their failure to undertake adequate precautionary containment measures to curb Covid-19 contagion, neoliberal naysayers are already warning against needed deficit financing for relief and recovery.

Jun 08 (IPS) - Stuart Minchin, is Director-General Pacific Community (SPC)COVID19 has brought the world to a halt. The devastating impact of the global pandemic on people's lives and the world's economy is a jarring and historic turning point for all of us but it is also an opportunity to re-think many of our practices.

ROME, Jun 08 (IPS) - Few things are as natural and as necessary as eating food. However, if food producers, food processors, food handlers and consumers do not follow good food safety practices, food can become contaminated and rather than nourishing us and bringing us pleasure it can make us sick or even kill us.

Jun 08 (IPS) - Oceans cover 70 per cent of the Earth's surface. But, because many of us spend most of our lives on land, the 362 million square kilometres of blue out there aren't always top of mind.

AMSTERDAM/ROME, Jun 08 (IPS) - As the COVID-19 virus spread rapidly around the globe, so did various theories about what caused the pandemic. According to the standard scientific theory, the virus originated in bats; crossed over to humans, probably via another intermediate host; and then spread rapidly across the globe.