The global march of face masks: A mirror on humanity
By JOHN LEICESTER

Nantaga Sanguannoi poses for photo during her evening walk at Lumpini park Bangkok, Thailand on Tuesday, July 21, 2020. Sanguannoi, works as a registered nurse in a hospital in Bangkok. "I want everyone to know it is easy to prevent spreading of COVID-19 by wearing a mask. Lot of resources have been utilized, and economies have been shattered because of the virus. If we can prevent spreading of the virus those resources can be utilized to help already affected poor people, think about it" said Sanguannoi. (AP Photo/ Gemunu Amarasinghe)

SAINT-GERMAIN-EN-LAYE, France (AP) — House keys, wallet or purse, mobile phone and .... oh, yes: face mask.

Reluctantly for many, but also inexorably in the face of a deadly invisible enemy, small rectangles of flimsy yet live-saving tissue have in mere months joined the list of don’t-leave-home-without-them items for billions around the world.

Not since humans invented shoes or underwear has a single item of dress caught on so widely and quickly from Melbourne to Mexico City, Beijing to Bordeaux, spanning borders, cultures, generations and sexes with almost the same Earth-shaking speed as the coronavirus that has killed more than 600,000 and infected more than 15 million.

Syrian Orthodox priest, Shimon Jan, 70, poses for a portrait wearing his protective face mask in the alleys of Jerusalem's Old City, Tuesday, July 21, 2020. Jan says "I'm advising to everyone to wear face masks not only because of the law also because life is the most important thing". (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)

“There has, perhaps, never been such a rapid and dramatic change in global human behavior,” says Jeremy Howard, co-founder of #Masks4All, a pro-mask lobbying group. “Humanity should be patting itself on the back.”

But rarely, also maybe never, has anything else worn by humans sparked such furious discord and politicking, most notably in the United States. Did anyone on an American beach ever pull a gun on someone for wearing a bikini, as an unmasked man did on a masked shopper this month at a Florida Walmart?

As such, like other human habits, the mask has become a mirror on humanity. That so many people, with varying degrees of zeal, have adapted to the discomfort of masking their airways and facial expressions is powerful medicine for the belief that people are fundamentally caring, capable of sacrifice for the common good.

From Marsha Dita, a social media freelancer in Jakarta, Indonesia, comes a view succinctly put, and increasingly widely shared: “This is not the time to be selfish.”

Yet also apparent from outbreaks of fierce resistance to masks, especially in democracies, is this: Plenty of people don’t like being told what to do and distrust the scientific evidence that masks curb contamination.

Cries that masks muzzle freedom have been vociferously aired at rallies in the United States, Canada and, last Sunday, in London. There, a speaker at a protest against the introduction this Friday of mandatory mask-wearing in Britain’s stores argued: “People die every year. This is nothing new.”

62-year-old fruit vendor Peda Tuazon poses at her stall in Manila, Philippines on Tuesday, July 21, 2020. Tuazon said she will convince the person to wear a mask to prevent the spread of COVID. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila)

Skepticism shared by, among others, Mohammed al-Burji, a 42-year-old civil servant in Lebanon. Walking to work without a mask, violating laxly enforced rules that they be worn everywhere outside the home, he said: “There is no coronavirus, brother. They’re just deceiving people.”

The country has reported over 3,100 infections and 43 deaths, and senior officials have made public appeals for people to stick to mask wearing and social distancing.

The same human reflexes that cause people to size up each other’s fashion choices, haircuts and alike on first meeting are now instinctively applied to masks, too.

In Mexico City, Estima Mendoza says she cannot help but recoil at people without masks. “I feel defenseless. On one hand I judge them and on the other I ask myself ’Why?” Mendoza said. ”As human beings, we always judge.”

As a Black Muslim woman in France, Maria Dabo knows that feeling all too well. For her, the adoption of masks has had an unexpected but welcome side effect: She no longer feels such a standout in the country that has legislated to prevent Muslim women from wearing face-covering veils. With masks required in all indoor public spaces, the French far-right’s long obsession with Islamic veils has been muted.

Pakistani Wasim Abbas poses for a photo after talking with the Associated Press in Islamabad, Pakistan, Wednesday, July 22, 2020. Abbas lives in rural Pakistan where 20 per cent of people he says are still not convinced that coronavirus is a reality. "They think it is a rumor." Abbas says he doesn't wear a mask in the village. Why? He asks. If they are effective it is only when indoors and in a crowd, but in the countryside Abbas says rarely are they worn. (AP Photo/Anjum Naveed)

Tatyana Khrupina, speaks standing in Nikolskaya street near Red Square during her interview with the Associated Press in Moscow, Russia, Tuesday, July 21, 2020. "It has its minimal usefulness, but it is definitely not what you should start with," Tatyana Khrupina told The Associated Press, adding that she doesn't "really believe" in the effectiveness of a mask. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko)

Mohammad Karbalaei wearing no protective face mask speaks with The Associated Press at Tehran's Grand Bazaar, Iran, Wednesday, July 22, 2020. "There is no special reason I'm not wearing a mask. Ever since they said the (new) coronavirus has come to the country I didn't care and I never got infected." Mohammad Said. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

“I feel like we are a bit better understood,” Dabo said. “Everyone is obliged to do the same as us, which makes me believe that God is busy teaching people a lesson, that covering up isn’t religious or anything else. It’s about not being a fool and protecting oneself.”

Also muddying and fueling global debate has been mixed messaging from government leaders who flip-flopped on the utility of masks and advised against their public use when stocks were so lacking that health workers cared for the sick and dying without adequate protection.

Chief among the U-turners is U.S. President Donald Trump, who first wore a mask in public only after COVID-19 had killed at least 134,000 Americans and tweeted this week that mask-wearing is a patriotic act.

Months of resistance preceded that tweet — resistance that causes head-scratching in autocratic China, which has quashed debate about how the pandemic started and was handled there.

“People in other countries ask for freedom. But they are actually losing it, because they have seen a rapid increase in infected cases,” said Liu Yanhua, an insurance worker.

Even within households, masks divide. Yu Jungyul, a child-health worker in Seoul, South Korea, says she has to nag her husband to wear one, telling him: “‘We have to wear masks for other people now, rather than only for ourselves.’”

Estelle Fitz poses for a photo as she stands on Westminster Bridge in London, Wednesday, July 22, 2020. "You should wear a mask for the safety of everyone, i'm sure thats the biggest reason for it, you have to think about the other people" (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)

In Australia, the introduction this week of mandatory face coverings in Melbourne came with a plea from the region’s premier, Daniel Andrews, for masks to be incorporated into life’s routines.

“Most of us wouldn’t leave home without our keys, we wouldn’t leave home without our mobile phone. You won’t be able to leave home without your mask,” he said.

Trend-setters are setting the tone, too. Fashion historian Kimberly Chrisman-Campbell, author of “Worn On This Day: The Clothes That Made History,” notes that “fashions spread through emulation,” and can sprint around the globe in minutes on social media. She suggests that “seeing more prominent people — like actors, models, social media personalities, or politicians — wearing them on TV or in social media would have an immense impact.”

“The decision to wear a mask — or NOT wear one — also offers people the illusion of control at a time when everything seems wildly out of control,” she argues.

Then there are the practicalities. Masks are an unaffordable luxury for those in extreme poverty and are making painful dents in the budgets of modest families. Says Wasim Abbas, a villager in Pakistan: “Some people are poor. They have not been given masks.”

In heat, masks can be a torment. In Lagos, Nigeria, mask-less street trader Jibola Costello said he had to peel his off for a cool-down breather. “That’s why I removed it.”

And in France, fruit and vegetable seller Montassar Yoinis noticed that shoppers shun his stand if his face is uncovered. So he compensates by yelling loudly through his surgical mask: “Hello Monsieur, don’t hesitate to taste the cherries!”

“It’s a bit of a bother, but we have no choice,” he said. “People are wary when you don’t wear a mask. They don’t come.”

Fishmonger Sante De Luca wears a surgical mask as he poses in his stall at a market in Rome, Tuesday, July 21, 2020. "Masks need to be worn, full stop! It's not optional. It's a matter of respect for others. There might be no need to wear it while driving a car alone, but in public spaces, it must be used. While working I don't wear one at all times, but I always respect safe distancing." (AP Photo/Riccardo De Luca)
Shopping with her young kids (she was masked, they weren’t), French museum worker Celine Brunet-Moret said she misses not being able to see faces and “all the emotions people have. You don’t see people smiling or if they are OK or not.”

“It’s not the same life and it’s not the normal life, so I’m thinking that we’ll never get used to it, really get used to it,” she said.

But across the street from the shop where Brunet-Moret was buying pungent cheese, fabric store worker Laure Estiez said venturing out without one of her growing collection of about 30 home-made masks now feels “almost unnatural.” She says her new morning routine of picking colors and patterns to match her mood and outfits has “become a pleasure.”

“We have a very strong capacity for adaptation,” she said. “You get used to everything.”

___

AP journalists around the globe contributed to this report. Follow AP coverage of the pandemic at https://apnews.com/VirusOutbreak and https://apnews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak

STATEHOOD OR INDEPENDENCE Thousands in Puerto Rico still without housing since Maria

Wilfredo Negron stands on the rooftop of one of his properties securing the zinc roof in preparation for the current hurricane season, in Corozal, Puerto Rico, Monday, July 13, 2020. Nearly three years after Hurricane Maria tore through Puerto Rico, tens of thousands of homes remain badly damaged, many people face a new hurricane season under fading blue tarp roofs and the latest program to solve the housing crisis hasn't yet finished a single home. (AP Photo/Carlos Giusti)
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — Nearly three years after Hurricane Maria tore through Puerto Rico, tens of thousands of homes remain badly damaged, many people face a hurricane season under fading blue tarp roofs and the island’s first major program to repair and rebuild houses hasn’t completed a single one.

Maria hit more than 786,000 homes on Sept. 20, 2017, causing minor damage to some homes and sweeping others from their foundations. A federally funded program administered by local officials carried out relatively small repairs to some 108,000 homes the next year, while churches and nonprofits patched up thousands with private funds.

A Puerto Rican government program known as R3 is the first major effort by the U.S. territory to carry out major repairs and rebuilding of damaged and destroyed housing. Nearly 27,000 homeowners have applied. But nearly 1 1/2 years after federal funding was released to local officials, not a single repair or rebuilding job has been completed.

Puerto Rican officials say work is almost finished on the first 45 homes to benefit from the program, but it is not yet complete.

For many Puerto Ricans, the program’s slow progress has become a symbol of their government’s inability to address the long-term effects of the disaster.

“They talk about billions of dollars, but we’re not seeing it,” said Sergio Torres, mayor of the northern mountain town of Corozal. His municipality still has 60 homes with blue tarps as roofs and two families still living in school shelters. ”Ït’s a way of life here.”

Hurricane Maria slammed into Puerto Rico with 155 mph (249 kph) winds, and its center spent eight hours over the U.S. territory, obliterating the electricity grid and causing more than an estimated $100 billion in damage. An estimated 2,975 people died in the storm’s aftermath.

A Puerto Rican government-run program known as Your Home Reborn, which operated from January-December 2018, repaired 108,487 residences with funds from the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Some had to be repaired again due to shoddy work. Churches and nonprofits launched smaller-scale efforts around the island.

But tens of thousands of homes in Puerto Rico remain uninhabitable by modern standards, with damage ranging from total destruction to missing roofs. In the central mountain town of Villalba alone, 43 families still live under blue tarps as roofs. Mayor Luis Javier Hernández said one family used theirs for so long that it wore out and he had to give them a new tarp.

R3, which stands for repair, rebuild or relocate, aimed to address the backlog by paying contractors to make repairs for households that earn less than 80% of the region’s median income.

The territory’s government submitted its plans for using federal block grant money for R3 in June 2018. The first $1.5 billion for the program became available in February 2019, with another $1.7 million approved in February this year.

Manuel Morales Ortíz explains what his home suffered during the 2017 hurricane season, in Corozal, Puerto Rico, Monday, July 13, 2020. Nearly three years after Hurricane Maria tore through Puerto Rico, tens of thousands of homes remain badly damaged. (AP Photo/Carlos Giusti)

Nearly 27,000 households applied for help between R3′s start date, July 31, 2019 through early January, when Puerto Rico’s government stopped taking applications. Of the applications accepted, several hundred have been rejected and thousands remain in the preliminary stages. More than 900 people remain on a wait list.

“It’s becoming apparent that Puerto Rico delays are a lot longer than we’ve seen anywhere else,” said Carlos Martín, a senior fellow at the Urban Institute.

He said Puerto Rico’s housing department is understaffed, and that the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development also has imposed an unusually large number of requirements on Puerto Rico’s government to prevent fraud or misspending.

Marian Colon, a single mother of two sons, inspects her hurricane-damaged house in Guaynabo, Puerto Rico, Tuesday, July 14, 2020. Hurricane Maria tore off her roof and caused a nearby landslide that put her home in jeopardy, and nothing has been fixed or repaired for nearly three years. During that time, she has bounced from home to home thanks to the generosity of relatives, but she is anxious to settle down. (AP Photo/Carlos Giusti)

Puerto Rico’s housing secretary, Luis Carlos Fernández, who took over the position recently, said officials have been trying to simplify the process of verifying and approving requests.

Fernández said he doesn’t know if the federal funds received so far will even be enough to help everyone already accepted into the program. He said elderly applicants, disabled people and those who have significant property damage are first in line.

“We’re not going to be finished for years,” Fernández said.

Fernandez said that more than 2,600 of the applicants are still using blue tarps instead of roofs. Former Housing Secretary Fernando Gil said in September 2019 that an overall estimated 20,000 to 25,000 so-called ”blue roofs″ remained across the island.

It’s a number that angers Ariadna Godreau, a human rights lawyer who runs a nonprofit legal organization.

“We never expected this panorama,” she said. “It’s horrible.”

Among those still waiting is 38-year-old Marián Colón, a single mother of two sons. The hurricane tore off her roof and caused a nearby landslide that put her home in jeopardy, and nothing has been fixed or repaired for nearly three years. During that time, she has bounced from home to home thanks to the generosity of relatives, but she is anxious to settle down.

Colón said she knows of several people who applied for the program and gave up after numerous failed tries. She noted some of them don’t have access to the internet or own a car, making the mission nearly impossible.

“It’s been a very exhausting and very overwhelming process,” she said.

Gov. Wanda Vázquez, who ascended to that position in August after the previous governor resigned following protests over corruption and other issues, has said she puts a priority on speeding up the reconstruction of hurricane-damaged homes.

“The excuses were plentiful, and they were unacceptable,” she said. “Our people have waited too long and can’t take it anymore.”

USA 
AP-NORC poll: Optimism fades jobs lost to virus will return
FILE - In this July 13, 2020, file photo a For Rent sign hangs on a closed shop during the coronavirus pandemic in Miami Beach, Fla. Nearly half of Americans whose families experienced layoffs during the pandemic now believe their lost jobs will not return, a new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research shows, as temporary layoffs give way to shuttered businesses, bankruptcies and lasting payroll cuts. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky, File)


WASHINGTON (AP) — Nearly half of Americans whose families experienced a layoff during the coronavirus pandemic now believe those jobs are lost forever, a new poll shows, as temporary cutbacks give way to shuttered businesses, bankruptcies and lasting payroll cuts.

It’s a sharp change after initial optimism the jobs would return. In April, 78% of those in households with a job loss thought they’d be temporary. Now, 47% think that lost job is definitely or probably not coming back, according to the latest poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.
That translates into roughly 10 million workers who will need to find a new employer, if not a new occupation.

The poll is the latest sign the solid hiring of May and June, as some states lifted stay-at-home orders and the economy began to recover, may wane as the year goes on. Adding to the challenge: many students will begin the school-year online, making it harder for parents to take jobs outside their homes.

“Honestly, at this point, there’s not going to be a job to go back to,” said Tonica Daley, 35, who lives in Riverside, California, and has four children ranging from 3 to 18 years old. “The kids are going to do virtual school, and there is no day care.”

Daley was furloughed from her job as a manager at J.C. Penney, which has filed for bankruptcy protection. The extra $600 a week in jobless benefits Congress provided as part of the federal government’s coronavirus relief efforts let her family pay down its credit cards, she said, but the potential expiration or reduction of those benefits in August would force her to borrow money to get by.

The economy’s recovery has shown signs of stalling amid a resurgence of the coronavirus. The number of laid-off workers seeking jobless benefits rose last week for the first time since March, while the number of U.S. infections shot past 4 million — with many more cases undetected.

The poll shows that 72% of Americans would rather have restrictions in place in their communities to stop the spread of COVID-19 than remove them in an effort to help the economy. Just 27% want to prioritize the economy over efforts to stop the outbreak.

“The only real end to this pandemic problem is the successful application of vaccines,” said Fred Folkman, 82, a business professor from Long Island, in New York.

About 9 in 10 Democrats prioritize stopping the virus, while Republicans are more evenly divided — 46% focus on stopping the spread, while 53% say the economy is the bigger priority.

President Donald Trump and Congress have yet to agree to a new aid package. Democrats, who control the House, have championed an additional $3 trillion in help, including money for state and local governments. Republicans, who control the Senate, have proposed $1 trillion, decreasing the size of the expanded unemployment benefits.

Overall, about half of Americans say they or someone in their household has lost some kind of income over the course of the pandemic. That includes 27% who say someone has been laid off, 33% been scheduled for fewer hours, 24% taken unpaid time off and 29% had wages or salaries reduced.

Eighteen percent of those who lost a household job now say it has come back, while another 34% still expect it to return.

The poll continues to show the pandemic’s disparate impact. About 6 in 10 nonwhite Americans say they’ve lost a source of household income, compared with about half of white Americans. Forty-six percent of those with college degrees say they’ve lost some form of household income, compared with 56% of those without.

Trump’s approval rating on handling the economy stands at 48%, consistent with where it stood a month ago but down from January and March, when 56% said they approved. Still, the economy remains Trump’s strongest issue. Working to Trump’s advantage, 88% of Republicans — including 85% of those whose households have lost income during the pandemic — approve of his handling of the economy. Eighty-two percent of Democrats disapprove.

“A lot of people criticize our president, but he’s a cheerleader,” said Jim Russ, 74, a retired state worker from Austin, Texas. “As long we keep that, the American public will think positive and look positive.”

The poll finds that 38% of Americans think the national economy is good. That’s about the same as in June and up from 29% in May but far below the 67% who felt that way in January.

Sixty-four percent of Republicans think the economy is good, compared with 19% of Democrats. Likewise, 59% of Republicans expect the economy to improve in the next year, while Democrats are more likely to expect it to worsen than improve, 47% to 29%.

Sixty-five percent of Americans also call their personal financial situation good. That’s about the same as it’s been throughout the pandemic and before the crisis began. Still, Americans are slightly less likely than they were a month ago to expect their personal financial situation to improve in the next year. Thirty-three percent say that now, after 38% said so a month ago. Another 16% expect their finances to worsen, while 51% expect no changes.

So much of what happens in the economy will depend on the trajectory of the virus, said Danny Vaughn, 72, from Dade City, Florida.

“I don’t disagree with everything the president does, but his leadership on the coronavirus issue has been lacking,” Vaughn said. “And that’s the number one issue facing the American people right now.”

___

The AP-NORC poll of 1,057 adults was conducted July 16-20 using a sample drawn from NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for all respondents is plus or minus 4.3 percentage points.

___

Online:

AP-NORC Center: http://www.apnorc.org/.

Berlin bans rally by vegan chef and conspiracy theorist Attila Hildmann

Berlin authorities have banned a rally of the coronavirus conspiracy theorist Attila Hildmann. The vegan chef claims Adolf Hitler was a "blessing" compared to Angela Merkel, accusing her of preparing a global genocide.

A rally by the self-described "ultra-right-winger" Attila Hildmann was canceled by the city of Berlin's interior ministry on Thursday. The officials said several investigations had been launched over the statements made at the latest Hildmann rally on Saturday, including probes into suspected insults, threats as well as incitement to disorder and illegal acts.

The new rally, originally set for the coming weekend, would likely lead to the utterance of "[criminally] punishable statements once again," Berlin officials said.

  NON ANARCHIST VEGAN

The 39-year-old Hildmann had been making appearances in the German media as a vegan chef and cookbook author. In recent months, however, he drew attention for spreading conspiracy theories on the coronavirus pandemic, including allegations that a "genocide" was being prepared under the guise of vaccination. He also spoke at the "Hygiene Demonstrations" directed against social distancing.

Hildmann believes Chancellor Angela Merkel, the daughter of a protestant pastor, to be Jewish and a leader of a "Zionist regime" involved with "the new axis of evil." The chef, who has a Turkish background, denies being an anti-Semite but claims that certain Jewish families work to destroy Germany and the "German race.


Watch video
COVID-19 Special: Coronavirus conspiracies

https://www.dw.com/en/berlin-bans-rally-by-vegan-chef-and-conspiracy-theorist-attila-hildmann/a-54299794

He has recently called for a "blitzkrieg" against toy manufacturer Playmobil over an animated video where toys explain the pandemic and face masks.

'Slave masks'

At the Berlin rally last Saturday, he accused Merkel and US billionaire Bill Gates of using the coronavirus crisis to launch a genocide campaign.

"Hitler was a blessing compared to the communist Merkel, because she is planning a global genocide of 7 billion people with Gates," he told the crowd of some 200 supporters.

He has also described face masks as "slave masks" and decried his opponents as "leftist fascists."

Commenting on the Thursday ban, Berlin's Interior Minister Andreas Geisel said he was happy about the decision to "draw clear borders" on public behavior.

"The right of assembly and freedom of opinion is very highly valued in our democracy," Geisel said. "But the state will decisively stand up to anyone who takes advantage of it to make possibly illegal statements and trample on other people's dignity."

Watch video

https://www.dw.com/en/berlin-bans-rally-by-vegan-chef-and-conspiracy-theorist-attila-hildmann/a-54299794
Understanding conspiracy theories

dj/msh (dpa, epd, AFP)

DW RECOMMENDS

Opinion: Don't fear the coronavirus protests

Conspiracists worldwide are protesting government measures aimed at fighting the coronavirus pandemic. Politicians and media outlets should ignore them and offer assertive solutions instead, writes Hans Pfeifer.


Date 23.07.2020

Vietnam suspends wildlife trade as pandemic prods action
               
Issued on: 24/07/2020 -

It is a major victory for conservation groups who have in the past accused Vietnamese authorities of turning a blind eye to the rampant trade in endangered species - Vietnam News Agency/AFP/File


Hanoi (AFP)

Vietnam, one of Asia's biggest consumers of wildlife products, has suspended all imports of wild animal species "dead or alive" and vowed to "eliminate" illegal markets across the country.

The directive signed by the leader of the Communist country follows an international scandal over the sale of wildlife, which has been blamed as the origin of the coronavirus pandemic in neighbouring China.

It is a major victory for conservation groups who have in the past accused Vietnamese authorities of turning a blind eye to the rampant trade in endangered species inside and across its borders.

"The prime minister orders the suspension of imports of wildlife -- dead or alive -- their eggs... parts or derivatives," said the order released Thursday on the government website.

"All citizens, especially officials... must not participate in illegal poaching, buying, selling, transporting... of illegal wildlife."

Among the most frequently smuggled animal goods are tiger parts, rhino horn and pangolins used in traditional medicine.

Despite the high prices they command -- with ingredients trafficked from as far as Africa -- there is no scientific evidence of their health benefits in humans.

Vietnam locked down swiftly to dodge a major health crisis as COVID-19 emerged, but its economy has been hit hard.

The country will also "resolutely eliminate market and trading sites which trade wildlife illegally", the edict said -- warning of a crackdown on the poaching, trafficking, storing and advertising of animals, birds and reptiles.

Anti-trafficking group Freeland hailed the move as the most stringent to control the wildlife trade since the pandemic broke out.

"Vietnam is to be congratulated for recognising that COVID-19 and other pandemics are linked to the wildlife trade," said Steven Glaster, its chairman.

"This trade must be banned as a matter of international and public health security," he added.

China, the world's biggest market for illegal wildlife products, has enacted a similar ban. Vietnam has gone further by taking aim at online sales and imposing an indefinite ban on the trade.

While welcoming the move, conservationists warn enforcement will be a challenge across a country with long porous borders and poorly paid officials who can be bent by cash.

© 2020 AFP

Coronavirus: Billions of people need basic income, says UN body

A temporary basic income for more than 2.5 billion of the world's poorest people is "desperately needed" as infection rates spike in developing countries, said the UN Development Program.
WE NEED A GLOBAL UNIVERSAL BASIC INCOME NOW!


Nearly 3 billion of the world's poorest should receive a temporary basic income that could help slow the spread of the coronavirus by allowing them to stay home, said the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) in a report on Thursday.

The basic income would help 2.7 billion people in 132 countries, the UNDP recommended.

Funding of $199 billion per month would be needed to provide the "means to buy food and pay for health and education expenses," the report stated.

Amid rising infection numbers in developing countries, measures to protect vulnerable populations were "urgently needed," according to the report.

Millions in such countries work in the informal economy with little access to government welfare or other support, meaning they are unable to follow stay-at-home guidelines that could slow the virus spread.

Read more: Just how helpful is the IMF's debt relief?

"Bailouts and recovery plans cannot only focus on big markets and big business. A Temporary Basic Income might enable governments to give people in lockdown a financial lifeline," said UNDP Administrator Achim Steiner. "Unprecedented times call for unprecedented social and economic measures."
How would the coronavirus 'basic income' work?

The report suggests three options for getting funds to people who need it. It could take the form of top-ups on existing average incomes or lump-sum transfers linked to differences in living standards across a country. Governments could also provide uniform lump sum transfers regardless of where someone lives in a country.

The UNDP claimed that countries could pay for a temporary basic income by repurposing billions of dollars that would have been spent repaying debts, albeit without addressing how creditors might react to that or exploring what effects national defaults might have on poor people in those countries.

In April, leaders of major economies known as the G20 agreed on a suspension of debt service payments for the world's poorest countries until the end of the year to help them deal with the coronavirus pandemic. Whether this moratorium would actually plug the $199 billion monthly hole — and whether governments might incur other unplanned costs amid the pandemic — was rather less clear.

Read more: World Bank head praises G20 over debt moratorium

The UN has previously warned that the pandemic and associated recession could see an increase in poverty worldwide for the first time since 1990 and push 265 million people to the brink of starvation.

The intergovernmental organization cautioned the virus could kill 1.67 million people in 30 low-income countries.

kmm/msh (Reuters, AFP, epd)

USA
The unemployment situation is really, really bad
Dion Rabouin, author of Markets AXIOS

Data: Department of Labor; Chart: Andrew Witherspoon/Axios

In the first week of July, nearly 1.5 million Americans were receiving unemployment benefits from the little-known Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation and Short-Term Compensation programs.

The state of play: For the week ending April 11, the first week for which data on the programs is available, PEUC and STC programs counted a little over 62,000 and 27,000 claimants each, respectively. That means both programs have seen approximately 15-fold increases in about three months' time.

Why it matters: As first-time claims for traditional unemployment benefits have held steady between 1 million and 1.5 million a week for 18 straight weeks, pandemic-specific unemployment insurance programs are spiking, showing greater job losses and weakness in the economy.

What it means: The PEUC program provides additional benefits for those affected by the pandemic who have exhausted traditional state unemployment benefits.

STC provides benefits to people who still have jobs but whose employers have reduced their hours significantly to avoid layoffs, providing a pro-rata share of weekly benefits based on the reduction in hours of work.

Between the lines: The continuous increase in PEUC claims likely means Americans are staying unemployed for longer and the consistent uptick in STC claims shows that even businesses that have not laid off employees yet have been cutting their hours and having the government pick up the slack.

The number of people receiving benefits under each newly created program is higher than the total number of people receiving unemployment benefits during any week in 2019.

The big picture: Such programs have helped uphold American consumers' spending, but have been quite costly — government spending in June totaled $1.1 trillion, according to CBO estimates — more than triple outlays in June 2019, or about a $763 billion increase.

What's next: The unemployment picture looks to be worsening right as the $600 in additional federal unemployment assistance expires.

According to the Census Bureau’s weekly Household Pulse Survey published Wednesday, the number of employed Americans declined by about 6.7 million from mid-June through mid-July, including a 4.1 million fall from the first to the second week of July.

Yelp reported that its tally of business closures that had been declining consistently since March has stalled out with temporary business closures now turning to permanent ones.
Yelp noted that permanent closures now account for 55% of all closed businesses since March 1, an increase of 14% from June.

THIRD WORLD USA
The pandemic is making schools even more unequal

Erica Pandey, author of @Work



Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios


No matter what's going on at home, schools have always been something of an equalizer — with all the neighborhood kids, richer and poorer, sitting behind the same desks in the same classrooms. Pandemic-induced remote learning is doing away with that.

The big picture: When you don't have kids from different backgrounds learning together, all of their differences become magnified — particularly when they can see into each other's homes, and especially when online learning shortchanges some students more than others.

What's happening: We didn't get the coronavirus pandemic under control over the summer, and a number of school districts — including big ones like Los Angeles and Maryland's Montgomery County — have announced plans to go online for the fall.
Taking school home "just emphasizes every difference," says Susan Ohanian, a longtime public school teacher in Vermont. "The poor kids are going to be the ones who really suffer."

Home conditions and family dynamics will be on display as kids attend classes over video calls.
Socioeconomic differences among classmates are even more pronounced when everyone can see what the inside of everyone else's home looks like.
And children who live in households steeped in pandemic chaos, where parents are too busy to get them ready for the day or set up their workstations, may show up for online school unkempt or in a messy environment.
For many young students, school is a safe space away from an unstable home. Now that safe space has disappeared, just as domestic abuse is on the rise.
And millions of kids have lost family members to the virus or are spending their days worried about a parent who is an essential worker or who has lost their job, says Patricia Hinchey, a professor of education at Penn State. Being at home all the time brings all of those stresses to the surface.

"These are all things that are traumatizing kids," Hinchey says. "And kids cannot learn when they're under emotional stress. They just can’t."

Food insecurity for children will also become a bigger issue as schools remain closed.
Around 22 million American kids count on free or reduced-price lunch at school. Some districts have committed to distributing lunches to the kids who rely on their schools for meals, but not all have done so.

The gaps in remote learning curriculums will affect lower-income students and students of color the most, potentially setting them back in the longer term.
The shift to remote learning in the spring exposed a stark digital divide, and the effects of that divide will only get worse in the fall. There are still millions of kids without reliable broadband access to stream lessons — and millions more who are sharing one computer or even one smartphone with siblings and parents.
On top of that, most schools have pared lessons back to the very basics in order to make them work remotely, meaning kids aren't getting nearly as much out of the teaching as they would in normal times.
Wealthier families will be able to afford tutors for their children. And kids living in two-parent households might have more access to adults who can help them.
Students without these privileges, who are relying solely on remote school, will fall behind.

The bottom line: If we're stuck with online school to keep teachers and students safe, we need to think harder about ways to make it more equitable, experts say.
"When we turn to technology, we simplify what education looks like. What gets lost are all the parts of school that have a huge amount of influence on how students learn, like social interaction and study habits and building self-esteem," says Kevin Kumashiro, former dean of the school of education at the University of San Francisco.
"Let’s make sure we’re thinking about the whole child and not getting caught up in just the academics."

ICE, CBP, TSA employees join lawsuit seeking hazard pay for work during pandemic

TRUMP CHEATS ALL HIS EMPLOYEES

July 23 (UPI) -- Employees from federal agencies including Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Customs and Border Protection and the Transport Security Administration joined a class-action lawsuit seeking hazard pay for work conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The lawsuit states that the Trump administration violated the overtime provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act by not providing employees with hazard pay equal to at least 25% of their wages for working in close proximity to "virulent biologicals.

The suit was originally filed in March on behalf of employees within the Bureau of Prisons, Agriculture Department and Department of Veterans Affairs.

Attorneys on Thursday added employees from nine new federal agencies to the suit.

The lawsuit states that the plaintiffs worked in close proximity to objects, surfaces, and other employees infected with COVID-19 without sufficient protective devices.

"Exposure to COVID-19 was not taken into account in the classification of the plaintiff's positions," it reads.

Heidi Burakiewicz, an attorney representing the employees, told The Washington Post that federal employees have been greatly impacted by the virus.

"This is hitting the federal workforce harder and harder. The federal government doesn't seem to have learned from mistakes in the past or improved at all to save people's lives," Burakiewicz said.

Poll: 75% of U.S. teachers fearful of COVID-1 in schools this fall

AMAZING THAT RIGHT WING POLITICO'S LIKE DEVOS WHO HATE PUBLIC SCHOOLS AND PROMOTE HOME SCHOOLING ARE PUSHING TO OPEN PUBLIC SCHOOLS 

THEY SURE DON'T HAVE FAITH IN HOME SCHOOLING DO THEY

By Clyde Hughes

Concerned educators, including St. Louis Public School first-grade teacher Cindy Digar, attend a protest at district headquarters in St. Louis. Mo., on July 13. Teachers nationwide have expressed some concern about resuming classes in the fall. Photo by Bill Greenblatt/UPI | License Photo
July 24 (UPI) -- A vast majority of U.S. schoolteachers are concerned about exposure to COVID-19 in classrooms this fall, a Gallup survey Friday showed.

According to the poll, three-quarters of teachers from kindergarten through high school said they're either "very" (57%) or "moderately" (18%) concerned about COVID-19 exposure in the classroom. That's an increase of 16% from May.

The survey comes amid uncertainty across the United States about how and when schools can safely be reopened. Some health experts have warned against resuming classes too soon, while others -- including Centers for Disease Control and Prevention chief Robert Redfield -- have expressed confidence the next school year can safely begin on time.

The study found that teachers are far more concerned about coronavirus exposure than workers in other fields. Just 21% of other workers said they're very concerned and 29% said they're moderately worried.

RELATED Poll: More in U.S. have returned to work, 'always' using PPE

"This divergence in the views of teachers and workers in all other industries has grown since May," Gallup wrote. "While concern about workplace exposure has been fairly steady among workers who are not teachers, this unease has risen sharply among teachers."

Teachers have been working remotely since schools were closed in the spring. In Friday's survey, 74% of educators said they would continue to work remotely if it was up to them. That figure was 57% in May.

"They are increasingly saying they prefer to work remotely almost entirely because of concerns about the virus," Gallup noted.

RELATED Poll: Most in U.S. say COVID-19 is worse, but many are less vigilant

"Even if districts decide to go fully in-person, whether they will be able to do so depends on teachers' willingness to go into work and parents' willingness to send their children to school."

Gallup surveyed nearly 500 teachers and 2,600 non-education workers for the poll, which has a margin of error of between 4 and 9 points.

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