Shopify: The Canadian tech champion taking on Amazon

By David SilverbergTechnology of Business reporter

• 24 July 2020 this with this witthis with Twitter

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Image copyrightELAINE FANCY

Image captionShopify has become Canada's most valuable company

When the pandemic forced Pizza Pilgrims to close its 13 stores in London and Oxford in March, the business went from making 30,000 pizzas every week to zero. Of the 276 staff, 270 had to be furloughed.

While they opened one store in April to manage delivery, founder Thom Elliot still needed to find another way to make up for the lost revenue. "I tried to think of something that would serve our customers, who kept calling us, and also keep us relevant during these times," he says in an interview.

Mr Elliot and his team decided to create pizza kits featuring all the raw ingredients you need to make your own pizza at home, but to do that he needed to upgrade his website. That's where Shopify came in.

The Canadian company offers the technology for anyone to create an online store and sell their products, with added features such as inventory tracking and software to help understand sales trends.

Image copyrightPIZZA PILGRIMS

Image captionPizza Pilgrims founders James and Thom Elliot

When Mr Elliot launched the new website along with the pizza kits, and posted about the new product on the company's Instagram account, they sold out of the 50 kits within 25 seconds. Since early April, the new shop Pizza in the Post sold more than 25,000 kits.

"We've noticed that a lot of families like these kits so everyone can make pizza together during the lockdown," he says.

The easing of lockdown restrictions has allowed the company to reopen 10 of its 13 stores.

Lockdowns have been a bonanza for Shopify, as companies have scrambled to sell products online. According to internal figures, new stores created on the Shopify platform grew 62% between 13 March and 24 April this year, compared to the prior six weeks.

It has become Canada's most valuable public company, with sales of of $1.58bn (£1.24bn) last year, up 47% on the previous year.

Image copyrightPIZZA PILGRIMS

Image captionLockdown forced Pizza Pilgrims to think creatively

"What's interesting about this company is that not many people know about it but it's been around since 2004," says Dan Wang, associate professor of management at Columbia University in New York.

"They saw the trend of selling directly to small businesses before most, at a time when Amazon and other big players were taking centre stage."

He points to big moves Shopify has made recently that will further elevate its position in online commerce. In particular, a deal with US giant Walmart, under which some of Shopify's small business sellers will appear on Walmart's online marketplace.

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The goal is to bring 1,200 Shopify merchants to the marketplace this year.

"If you just take our US-based stores and aggregate them and pretend for a moment these stores are one single retailer, we are the largest online retailer after Amazon," says Harley Finkelstein, Shopify's chief operating officer.

"Technology has levelled the playing field so you don't need to have a lot of money to build a brand that is the envy of hegemonic corporate giants, and the cool part of it is that consumers vote with their wallets and prefer to buy from local merchants.

"The pandemic acted as an accelerant where people started to prefer buying a mug or pen or whatever directly from the person who made it."

That's not to say that people have been turning their backs on Amazon, which has also seen sales boom this year - in the first quarter revenue jumped 26% to $75.4bn (£59.4bn).

Shopify is going up against Amazon by launching its own warehouse and delivery network that lets shop owners deliver their products quickly to customers.

Image copyrightSHOPIFY

Image captionShopify is expanding into warehousing and delivery

To bolster that move, Shopify last year bought 6 River Systems, a company which provides software and robotics for warehousing and delivery systems.

Diving into warehousing doesn't come as a surprise to some analysts.

"This move is definitely a direct shot at competing with Amazon," says Pinar Ozcan, a professor of entrepreneurship and innovation at the University of Oxford.

"Amazon's competitive advantages are its vast supplier portfolio, which Shopify can already compete with, and its seamless distribution network. Shopify has been falling short in this second aspect. By focusing on distribution, their business model is getting closer to Amazon's, which is known to work well."

But she adds there will always be a difference between the two companies. Shopify will probably never compete in unbranded everyday goods, particularly as Amazon has its own ranges of products like batteries, light bulbs and pots and pans.

Image copyrightPHILIP WARREN BUTCHERS

Image captionPhilip Warren and his son Ian have attracted new customers with their new online store

What matters most to retailers such as Ian Warren, managing director of Philip Warren Butchers in Cornwall, is that his business has a new outlet for his products.

As a meat supplier to more than 150 restaurants in the UK, Mr Warren's business took a hit when lockdown began, inspiring him to launch a Shopify store dedicated to selling his products directly to consumers.

He estimates his store has attracted around 1,000 new customers who didn't frequent his physical sites.

"I really didn't think about building this kind of website before," he says, "but we needed something bespoke that would cater to a different kind of demographic than our usual meat buyers from restaurants."

Fires in Pantanal, world's largest tropical wetlands, 'triple' in 2020

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Wildfire in the Pantanal region in 2019 destroyed tens of thousands of hectares

The number of forest fires in the Pantanal, the world's largest tropical wetlands, has tripled in 2020 compared to last year, according to Brazil's national space agency Inpe.

Inpe identified 3,682 fires from 1 January to 23 July in the region, an increase of 201% compared to 2019.

Thousands of species including jaguars, anteaters and migratory birds live in the 140,000-160,000 sq km area.

Last month was the worst June for fires in the neighbouring Amazon in 13 years.Fires in world's largest tropical wetlands 'triple'

The wetlands are located across Brazil, Paraguay and Bolivia and are one of the most biodiverse areas in the world.

PA MEDIA

Giant anteater are one of the thousands of species in the Pantanal

Piranha, capuchin monkeys, green anacondas and thousands of plant species live in the basin which thrives off annual flooding following torrential rains.

A satellite map published by Inpe shows the fires currently burning in the Pantanal, collected using satellites that measure blazes larger than 30m long by 1m wide.
Amazon fires increase by 84% in one year - space agency

The 3,682 fires detected in the region so far this year are the highest number since records began in 1998. In the same period in 2018 there were 277 in the area in total.

Members of environmental network the Pantanal Observatory called the fires "a social danger since, in addition to the economic damage and the loss of biodiversity, fires cause respiratory problems, eye irritation and allergies," according to Brazilian newspaper O Globo.

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The Brazilian Pantanal wildlife boasts jaguars and anaconda

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Black-hooded parakeets also live in the Brazilian Pantanal

The organisation said that in two days, around 7,000 hectares were burnt as the result of both "criminal activity" and "climactic factors".

Wildfires often occur in the dry season in Brazil but they are also deliberately started in efforts to illegally deforest land for cattle ranching.

In the Bolivian Pantanal, fighting the fires has been complicated by the coronavirus pandemic which limits the number of people who can safely tackle the blazes, Carlos Pinto of the organisation Friends of Nature Foundation explained.

The Pantanal Observatory says it is releasing radio broadcasts and video to inform local residents about the risk of fires.

Earlier this month President Jair Bolsonaro introduced a ban on fires in the Amazon region, to the north of the Pantanal, for the next four months.

Environmentalists routinely accuse Mr Bolsonaro, a climate change sceptic, of failing to protect the country's vast and valuable natural resources.

Last year he accused NGOs of starting fires in the Amazon.

Wildfire in the Brazilian Pantanal last year destroyed at least 50,000 hectares.

Wildfires advance across Brazil's Pantanal wetlands
Amazon rainforest belongs to Brazil, says Jair Bolsonaro
Watch: Why is the Amazon rainforest so important?

Climate change: Polar bears could be lost by 2100
By Helen Briggs and Victoria GillScience correspondents, BBC News

20 July 2020

KATHARINA M MILLER

Sea ice is declining in the Arctic in both thickness and extent

Polar bears will be wiped out by the end of the century unless more is done to tackle climate change, a study predicts.

Scientists say some populations have already reached their survival limits as the Arctic sea ice shrinks.

The carnivores rely on the sea ice of the Arctic Ocean to hunt for seals.

As the ice breaks up, the animals are forced to roam for long distances or on to shore, where they struggle to find food and feed their cubs.

The bear has become the "poster child of climate change", said Dr Peter Molnar of the University of Toronto in Ontario, Canada.

"Polar bears are already sitting at the top of the world; if the ice goes, they have no place to go," he said.

Polar bears are listed as vulnerable to extinction by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), with climate change a key factor in their decline.

POLAR BEAR INTERNATIONAL

Female polar bears need to store sufficient fat to feed their cubs

Studies show that declining sea ice is likely to decrease polar bear numbers, perhaps substantially. The new study, published in Nature Climate Change, puts a timeline on when that might happen.

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By modelling the energy use of polar bears, the researchers were able to calculate their endurance limits.

Dr Steven Amstrup, chief scientist of Polar Bears International, who was also involved in the study, told BBC News: "What we've shown is that, first, we'll lose the survival of cubs, so cubs will be born but the females won't have enough body fat to produce milk to bring them along through the ice-free season.

"Any of us know that we can only go without food for so long," he added, "that's a biological reality for all species".

BJ KIRSCHHOFFER

POLAR BEARS INTERNATIONALPolar bears rely on sea ice to catch their prey

The researchers were also able to predict when these thresholds will be reached in different parts of the Arctic. This may have already happened in some areas where polar bears live, they said.

"Showing how imminent the threat is for different polar bear populations is another reminder that we must act now to head off the worst of future problems faced by us all," said Dr Amstrup.

"The trajectory we're on now is not a good one, but if society gets its act together, we have time to save polar bears. And if we do, we will benefit the rest of life on Earth, including ourselves."

Under a high greenhouse gas emissions scenario, it's likely that all but a few polar bear populations will collapse by 2100, the study found. And even if moderate emissions reduction targets are achieved, several populations will disappear.

The findings match previous projections that polar bears are likely to persist to 2100 only in a few populations very far north if climate change continues unabated.

Sea ice is frozen seawater that floats on the ocean surface, forming and melting with the polar seasons. Some persists year after year in the Arctic, providing vital habitat for wildlife such as polar bears, seals, and walruses.

Sea ice that stays in the Arctic for longer than a year has been declining at a rate of about 13% per decade since satellite records began in the late 1970s.

Canada’s forgotten universal basic income experiment

IT WAS A SUCCESS

By David Cox BBC 24th June 2020

Amid wide unemployment during Covid-19, basic income schemes have gained fresh relevance. A successful Canadian scheme that's over four decades old could provide a road map for others.


Evelyn Forget was a psychology student in Toronto in 1974 when she first heard about a ground-breaking social experiment that had just begun in the rural Canadian community of Dauphin, Manitoba.

“I found myself in an economics class which I wasn’t looking forward to,” she remembers. “But in the second week, the professor came in, and spoke about this wonderful study which was going to revolutionise the way we delivered social programmes in Canada. To me, it was a fascinating concept, because until then I’d never really realised you could use economics in any kind of positive way.”

The experiment was called ‘Mincome’, and it had been designed by a group of economists who wanted to do something to address rural poverty. Once it was implemented in the area, it had real results: over the four years that the program ended up running in the 1970s, an average family in Dauphin was guaranteed an annual income of 16,000 Canadian dollars ($11,700, £9,400).

With unemployment likely to mount in the wake of Covid-19, the concept of introducing a basic income is once again back in vogue on both sides of the Atlantic.

Why did these economists start Mincome those four decades ago? They wanted to see whether a guaranteed basic income for those below the poverty line could improve quality of life – a grand economic idea that had been around since the Enlightenment, but had barely been tested in practise.

As one of just a handful of real-life basic income trials that has taken place over the past half century, little did they know that more than 40 years later, this experiment would be at the centre of the discussion regarding the merits of introducing basic income on a larger scale.




Unemployment numbers have soared in many countries during the Covid-19 pandemic, causing some to reapproach the topic of universal basic income (Credit: Getty Images)


Back in 1974, Canadian policy makers were inspired by a wave of social reforms, which had been rolled out throughout the 1960s and early 1970s, including the introduction of universal health insurance across Canada in 1972. So, having garnered the support of Canada’s federal and provincial governments, University of Manitoba economist Derek Hum, along with Manitoba civil servants Ron Hikel and Michael Loeb, created a scheme in which Dauphin’s poorest residents could apply to receive monthly cheques to boost their existing income. At the time it was the most ambitious social science experiment ever to take place in Canada, and saw rates of hospitalisations fall, improvements in mental health, and a rise in the number of children completing high school.

“It wasn’t a case of getting money to live and do nothing,” says Sharon Wallace-Storm, who grew up in Dauphin and was 15 when the experiment began. “They set a level for how much a family of three or four needed to get by. You applied showing how much you were making, and if you didn’t meet that threshold they would give you a top up.”

‘100 miles too far from anywhere’

The experiment intrigued Forget, especially because of the sheer remoteness of Dauphin. Located in the middle of a vast plain, a five-hour drive from the capital of Winnipeg, Dauphin comprised little more than farming, and a small factory producing trainers. Even the town’s own inhabitants would jokingly refer to it as being “100 miles too far from anywhere”.

But choosing Dauphin wasn’t random – it was simply a case of pragmatism. The economists needed a town of approximately 10,000 people – any smaller, and they would lack sufficient data to draw conclusions, while any bigger and it would cost too much – which they could drive to and from in a day. They drew a big circle around Winnipeg and happened upon Dauphin.

In total, the scheme ran for more than four years, with the primary goal of investigating whether a basic income reduced the incentive to work, one of the main public concerns at the time regarding such schemes.


At the time it was the most ambitious social science experiment ever to take place in Canada, and saw rates of hospitalisations fall, improvements in mental health, and a rise in the number of children completing high school


However, it was abruptly stopped in 1979, a casualty of the political and economic turmoil of the mid-to late-1970s. A series of oil price shocks had led to rampant inflation and increasing levels of unemployment. This meant that by 1979, far more families in Dauphin were seeking assistance than the experiment had budgeted for, while the scheme’s payouts were rising with the inflation rate.

Soon, both the federal and provincial governments decided that supporting it was no longer viable, and so the experiment was scrapped. The many files of data were packed away in cardboard boxes, stored in a warehouse, and there they languished, unused and forgotten for nearly three decades.

Uncovering the truth

Forget had long wondered what had happened to the social experiment that so captivated her in 1974. Merely hearing about it even changed her own career direction: she switched fields from psychology, andlater became a health economist.

So, in 2008, she finallydecided to find out what had become of it.

“As a health economist, you become aware very quickly that we use the healthcare system to treat the consequences of poverty, and we do it in an inefficient and expensive way,” she says. “We wait until people live horrible lives for many years, get sick as a consequence, and then we go in all guns blazing to make things better.”

Forget discovered that the data had fallen under the jurisdiction of the Winnipeg regional office of Canada’s National Library and Archives. After gaining permission to analyse it, she was confronted with 1,800 dusty boxes packed full of tables, surveys and assessment forms, all of which needed to be digitalised.

After several years of painstaking work, she was finally able to publish the results, many of which were eye-opening. In particular, Forget was struck by the improvements in health outcomes over the four years. There was an 8.5% decline in hospitalisations – primarily because there were fewer alcohol-related accidents and hospitalisations due to mental health issues – and a reduction in visits to family physicians.

Forget believes this was a direct result of the added security in people’s lives provided by the basic income. “I wanted to see whether doing something about poverty has an impact on people’s health and these results are really interesting,” she says. “An 8.5% reduction over four years is pretty dramatic.”


The small city of Dauphin, Manitoba in Canada was the site of a successful universal basic income experiment in the 1970s. Can it be replicated elsewhere? (Credit: Alamy)

Joy Taylor, who was 18 and newly married when the scheme began, remembers that people had much less to worry about financially during the course of the experiment, which improved their wellbeing. Her husband was suddenly able to get a loan to open a local record store, with banks being more willing to lend money to small businesses because of the guaranteed payments.

There was also an increase in the number of adolescents completing high school. Before and after the experiment, Dauphin students – like many in rural towns across Manitoba – were less likely to finish school than those in the city of Winnipeg, with boys often leaving at 16 and getting jobs on farms or in factories. However, over the course of those four years, they were actually more likely to graduate than Winnipeg students. In 1976, 100% of Dauphin students enrolled for their final year of school.

“Very often these people were the first in their family who’d ever finished high school,” says Forget. “When Mincome came along, families decided they could support their sons in school just a little bit longer, and, in some ways, I think that’s the most exciting result because we saw that investment in human capital.”

Other families who were on the programme at the time remember that certain things were suddenly more affordable. For Eric Richardson, the youngest of six children who was aged 10 when the experiment began, the introduction of basic income meant a trip to the dentist for the first time. “Normally, you didn’t get to go until you were old enough to pay for it yourself,” he says. “I remember it very well because I had 10 cavities and our dentist would drill your teeth without freezing.”


For Eric Richardson, the youngest of six children who was aged 10 when the experiment began, the introduction of basic income meant a trip to the dentist for the first time


But when the experiment ended in 1979, the improvements which had been seen in health and education soon returned to how things had been in 1974. Taylor remembers how many of the small businesses that had sprung up over the preceding four years began to vanish. Her husband was forced to close their shop, and the couple soon left Dauphin for good.

“After the programme ended, we moved to Ontario in 1980 because there was nothing to stay for anymore,” she says. “It just wasn’t doing very well.”

And, so, Dauphin faded back into anonymity – until now. Forget’s persistence in bringing the findings of Mincome to light has led both policy makers and academics around the world to revisit this long-forgotten experiment, as they ponder whether such a scheme could ever be viable on a much larger scale.

Can basic income work across a whole country?

Proponents of a nationwide basic income scheme have argued that a system similar to Mincome, in which those earning less than a certain threshold receive top-up payments, are a necessary complement to the existing benefits system in order to reduce poverty. They feel that the stringent requirements attached to welfare programmes means that on their own, they provide insufficient support.

However, critics point to the huge administrative costs associated with providing a population-wide basic income, potentially supporting several million individuals. After all, just 2,128 people in total were involved in the Mincome experiment.

In 2017, Luke Martinelli, an economist at the University of Bath, attempted to model how much such a scheme may cost the UK, with the cheapest estimate coming to £140 billion per year – on top of the existing welfare state costs. Critics have stated that no trial conducted so far has provided any indication of whether governments could afford such a large-scale programme, nor whether citizens would be willing to accept the higher levels of taxation needed to fund it.

One of the things we do know from the Mincome experiment is that basic income does not appear to discourage the recipients from working – one of the major concerns politicians have always held about such schemes. Forget found that employment rates in Dauphin stayed the same throughout the four years of Mincome, while a recent trial in Finland – which provided more than 2,000 unemployment people with a monthly basic income of 560 euros ($630, £596) from 2017 to 2019 – found that this helped many of them to find work which provided greater economic security.

“They recently released the final results, which showed the nature of the jobs that people got once they received a basic income was changing,” says Forget. “So instead of taking on precarious part-time work, they were much more likely to be moving into full-time jobs that would make them more independent. I see that as a great success.”


Critics have stated that no trial conducted so far has provided any indication of whether governments could afford such a large-scale programme, nor whether citizens would be willing to accept the higher levels of taxation needed to fund it


But to understand some of the broader implications of how a basic income scheme may work across a larger population, some experts believe it may be necessary to first try it on a state-wide or regional level, before rolling it out on a nationwide scale can be considered.

This could provide governments with a better idea of what it could cost in practise, as well as analyse critical social factors such as what Greg Mason, an economist at the University of Manitoba, calls the ‘politics of envy’.

“All the experiments so far have only considered whether basic income affects the willingness to work of those receiving the extra payments,” Mason says. “But they haven’t looked at the people who are just above the threshold for receiving basic income. Those people could well become very resentful of anyone who isn’t working, and yet only earn slightly less than them.”

Mason believes that for basic income to work on a larger scale, governments would need to find an eligibility income threshold that is reasonable enough to cover necessities, while not allowing people to live “the good life”. He predicts that such a threshold is likely to lie in the region of CAD$15,000 ($11,000, £8,800) – very similar to the equivalent sum which families in Dauphin received during Mincome.

Although many questions do need to be answered surrounding the affordability of basic income on a larger scale, Forget believes that the impact of the coronavirus pandemic could render it necessary to consider taking radical measures to plug gaps within existing welfare programmes.

“When Covid-19 came along and people started to lose jobs in Canada, we discovered that the suite of social programmes in place was really not up to the task,” she says. “You have this mismatch of inconsistent programmes, and you’ve got people falling through the gaps so they’re not getting the support they need. That’s only going to continue as many of the firms suffering now because of the pandemic are probably finished. With so much employment, I think basic income needs to be considered as it provides a much more coherent solution.”

For the residents of Dauphin who lived through the Mincome project during the 1970s, there are no doubts of its merits. “I’m a huge advocate of basic income to this day,” says Taylor. “Knowing that extra money was coming in made life that bit easier. You no longer needed to be afraid of paying the bills or what you were spending on food. It gave you that piece of mind.”

Coronavirus: Why are Americans so angry about masks?

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By Tara McKelvey BBC Leawood, Kansas
20 July 2020

Some Trump supporters have been vocal in criticising masks but not all agree

In the midst of the pandemic, a small piece of cloth has incited a nationwide feud about public health, civil liberties and personal freedom. Some Americans refuse to wear a facial covering out of principle. Others in this country are enraged by the way that people flout the mask mandates.

Bob Palmgren tried to be polite - at first. He told a customer he had to wear a mask inside his restaurant, RJ's Bob-Be-Que Shack in Mission, Kansas. The customer, a man in his forties in a Make America Great Again (MAGA) cap, had flashed a gun and said that he was exempt from a state-wide mask requirement. He said that he could explain the exemption in the law to Mr Palmgren.

Mr Palmgren, a former marine, told the customer that he was not interested in continuing the conversation. Mr Palmgren was not swayed by the customer's gun, either. "Coronavirus doesn't care if you have a gun or not," said Mr Palmgren, describing his conversation with the customer. "I said: 'Now get the hell out of here.'"

The argument in the restaurant reflected a deep divide over requirements to wear masks in this country. People in Kansas, along with those who live in more than half of the country, are now required to wear masks in public as part of an ongoing effort to slow down the spread of the virus. But some people have been fighting against the mandate.GETTY IMAGES

Bob Palmgren, the owner of RJ’s Bob-Be-Que Shack, tells a customer to put on a mask

The wearing of masks has become a catalyst for political conflict, an arena where scientific evidence is often viewed through a partisan lens. Most Democrats support the wearing of masks, according to a poll conducted by researchers at the Pew Research Center.

Most Republicans do not. The Republicans are following the lead of the president: Trump has been reluctant to wear a mask, saying that it did not seem right to wear one while he was receiving heads of state at the White House. He put a mask on in public for the first time during a visit to a military hospital earlier this month.

The battle over masks has escalated during the final weeks of the campaign season. The general election is in November, and activists in both parties, Republican and Democrat, are working feverishly to ensure victory at the polls. Some of them have faced off on the issue of masks: as Timothy Akers, a public-health professor at Morgan State University, a historically black college in Baltimore, says: "We're seeing politics and science literally crashing."

The dispute over masks embodies the political dynamics of the campaign. It also reflects a classic American struggle between those who defend public safety and those who believe just as deeply in personal liberty.

The conflict over masks is tense, volatile and deeply personal. Mr Palmgren, the owner of RJ's Bob-Be-Que Shack, was trying to follow the state mandate when he got into the argument with the gun-toting customer.

Other stories about the masks have unfolded across the country. When workers in a Michigan pizzeria told a customer that she had to wear a mask, she made an obscene gesture, kicked someone in the restaurant and, according to local authorities, fled the police.

A fight over masks led to gunfire outside a Los Angeles grocery store, according to authorities, and a rapper named Jerry Lewis was killed.

The fight over masks is playing out against a backdrop of a health crisis that has reached historic levels. More than 3,544,000 people in the US have tested positive for the virus, according to the World Health Organization, and at least 137,000 people have died.

The divide between those who wear masks and the anti-maskers, as they call themselves, has become increasingly sharp. In interviews in the Midwest and across the US, people dug in their heels and defended their position, whether for or against the wearing of masks. Many of those interviewed sounded deeply mistrustful of people on the other side and blamed them for the nation's economic and public-health crises.

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Anti-maskers at a rally in April to reopen Pennsylvania

Resentment was palpable in the voice of Susan Wiles, a retired sign-language interpreter, as she described what happened to her at her local supermarket, Publix in Vero Beach, Florida. Mrs Wiles, who has an autoimmune disorder, was riding in a motorised cart in the produce department when a worker "jumped back", she says, and gave her "a glaring look".

As she recalls: "He yelled: 'You're not wearing a mask.' It was quite a commotion. Another guy joined right in and said: 'She's a menace to society. Get her out of here.' Then he yells: 'Why don't you just go attend a Trump rally?'"

As it happens, Mrs Wiles has been to the president's rallies. A Trump supporter, she says that she does not wear a mask because she believes that the concerns about Covid-19 are overblown. "Sure, there's a virus," she says. "But people die of the flu every year." When it comes to the pandemic, she says: "I don't fall for this. It's not what they say it is."

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Trump finally wore one publicly in July

Since her confrontation at Publix, the supermarket chain has introduced a formal policy requiring customers to wear masks. It goes into effect on Tuesday. Walmart, CVS and other retail stores across the US have already put a mask requirement in place. This makes it harder for Mrs Wiles and other anti-maskers to stand by their principles. Yet some persist.

Neil Melton is a construction-project manager who lives in Prairie Village, Kansas, and he admires Mr Trump. When it comes to masks, Mr Melton does not think they are effective: "There's really nothing you can do to hide from the virus." He also believes that the mask mandates in Kansas and other states are an example of "government over-reach". He explains: "There are people in power who want to see what people will submit to."

The disease has been spreading rapidly in recent weeks in Oklahoma, South Carolina, Georgia and other conservative, Republican-leaning states where economies opened up early and where people are less likely to wear masks.

The way that Americans in these states and other parts of the country chafe at the mask requirement evokes a time when people here were first told to wear seat belts and not to smoke in restaurants. Americans initially resisted those restrictions, too. But now they follow these safety guidelines. Many have not yet taken to wearing masks, however.

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The advice from health experts is clear - masks work

One Trump supporter, Crystal Lynn, an administrative assistant in Fairfax, Virginia, says she does not like wearing masks because they make her skin break out. Besides that, she says that she does not think that masks work: "It's a false sense of security." She puts on her seat belt when driving because she knows they can save your life. But masks are not "in the same category", she says: "I don't think a mask protects you in any way."

The anti-maskers have expressed their views loud and clear. Yet overall people here accept the wearing of masks and have embraced them more readily than those who live in the UK. Nearly 60% of people in the US said they would always wear a face mask when they go outside, according to Covid-19 Behaviour Tracker. In the UK less than 20% said the same.

People who study infectious diseases have been struggling to make sense of the political divide over masks and understand the public reaction to the health guidelines. "Some people don't wear masks because they say that they don't 'work' - quote, unquote," says David Aronoff, the director of the Division of Infectious Diseases at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville. "There are other people who see masks as a violation of their rights."

The views of anti-maskers are not shared by public-health experts. They say that wearing masks helps stop infected people from passing the virus on to others. Robert Redfield, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said recently in a webcast that if everyone in the US started wearing masks "right away", the epidemic would be brought under control within two months.

Their advice on masks has changed over the past several months, however, and at times it has been confusing. Earlier this year, public-health officials told people not to wear masks because they were concerned there would not be enough facial coverings for health-care workers. By late spring, scientific understanding of the virus and its transmission had changed, and so did the advice for the public.

This is what drives Democrats crazy. They believe that masks can help prevent the spread of infection and that if people covered their faces in public then the country could get back to normal faster.

For Matt DiGregory, a restauranteur who lives in Bernalillo, New Mexico, and his employees, the cost of the pandemic has been sharp. He closed down a number of restaurants because of the economic downturn. Of his 550 employees, only 60 are left.

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Most Americans are happy to wear them

Masks, he says, are required for all those who visit the restaurants that remain open. If a customer does not have one, the workers have extra masks for them to wear while they are inside the building. "I think masks are the only way we are getting out from under this," Mr DiGregory says. "I'm incredibly sad that there's a political divide on this, and that there's people who think it's a hoax."

Some in Kansas and other states agree with Mr DiGregory even when they do not share his political views. Mr Palmgren, the owner of RJ's Bob-Be-Que Shack, likes the way that Mr Trump has been running the nation. But unlike the president, Mr Palmgren is not ambivalent about masks. Mr Palmgren insists that everyone in his restaurant has a face covering.

Several days after his encounter with the MAGA-cap-wearing, gun-toting customer, Mr Palmgren sounds more disappointed than angry about the incident. Mr Palmgren says the customer gave Trump supporters a bad name. Recalling the customer's demeanor, Mr Palmgren says: "That doesn't make MAGA look good."

Later that day, Mr Palmgren stood outside the restaurant. He called out to someone who was heading for the front door and told them that they needed a mask. For Mr Palmgren, the requirement is non-partisan and non-negotiable.

BLM  PORTLAND 
Black protesters say focus on feds hasn’t derailed message

In this July 22, 2020 file photo Black Lives Matter organizer Teal Lindseth, 21, leads protesters in Portland, Ore. Many Black protesters say the large crowds in response to the deployment of federal agents to the city have helped focus attention on their demonstrations against inequality and racism. (AP Photo/Noah Berger,File)

MORE PHOTOS https://apnews.com/847341576e44e4d9e717128db08faad4

SALEM, Ore. (AP) — After George Floyd’s death at the hands of Minneapolis police, people in Portland came out in droves to protest police brutality and racism, chanting that “Black lives matter.” As the weeks went by, the crowds dwindled to a few dozen and the protests increasingly turned violent.

Since President Donald Trump deployed militarized federal agents to the progressive city early this month, the numbers of protesters have swelled again into the thousands, including mothers wearing yellow shirts and dads armed with leaf blowers to drive away tear gas.

FILE - In this July 20, 2020 file photo protesters kneel in memory of George Floyd during a demonstration in Portland, Ore. From left to right are Rachelle Davis, 10, Charlie Westley and Karen Davis. Many Black protesters say the large crowds in response to the deployment of federal agents to the city have helped focus attention on their demonstrations against inequality and racism (AP Photo/Noah Berger,File)

Feds go home!” the mostly white demonstrators chant. But they also call for racial justice, often led by Black protesters with megaphones.

While the protests have taken on a new tone of opposition to federal intervention, Black leaders and protesters say the surge in activity — though often chaotic — hasn’t distracted from their anti-racist message. Instead, it’s shined a spotlight on it.

WALL OF MOMS PROTECTING BLM PROTESTERS FROM BARR'S BULLY BOYS

A Black Lives Matter protester, who declined to give her name, rallies at the Mark O. Hatfield United States Courthouse on Wednesday, July 22, 2020, in Portland, Ore. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)

Mary Hubert, part of a "wall of moms," holds a peace sign during a Black Lives Matter rally on Wednesday, July 22, 2020, in Portland, Ore. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)

Portland City Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty, the first Black woman elected to that office, rejected the idea that the Black Lives Matter protests are being hijacked by white people.

“We cannot afford not to respond to this attack on our democracy, this attack on our Constitution,” Hardesty said. “And we would be foolish to believe that we could stay focused just on Black lives and not address the physical assaults that are taking place.”

Federal agents have used tear gas, less-lethal ammunition and other force against protesters who have been targeting the U.S. courthouse with fires and other vandalism during two months of nightly demonstrations. Peaceful protesters have also been tear-gassed and hit by impact munitions. U.S. authorities say they must act to protect federal property and officers, while local leaders say their presence has made the situation more volatile and urge the agents to leave.


Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler speaks with Black Lives Matter protesters on Wednesday, July 22, 2020, in Portland, Ore. Late Wednesday Wheeler joined protesters at the front of the crowd and was hit with chemical irritants several times by federal officers dispersing demonstrators. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)




By being subjected to tear gas, nightsticks and pepper spray, “white people are stepping up and they’re seeing the brutality” that Black people normally experience, said white protester Carol Vogel Warner, who has an adopted Black son. “They’re feeling it.”

Portland police also have used tear gas and other force against protesters.

State Sen. Lew Frederick, a Black Democrat who’s dodged pepper balls fired by federal agents at the protests, said the Trump administration “miscalculated” if it thought it could end the demonstrations with a show of force.


FILE - In this Monday, July 20, 2020, file photo, Romeo Ceasar holds a sign during a Black Lives Matter protest in Portland, Ore. Many Black protesters say the large crowds in response to the deployment of federal agents to the city have helped focus attention on their demonstrations against inequality and racism. (AP Photo/Noah Berger, File)

"It reignited the protest movement in Portland,” Frederick said, adding that he’s seen more Black people demonstrating now than in the early days.

Those attending the protests are overwhelmingly white, a reflection of Oregon’s makeup. Its population is only 2% Black, compared with 13% for the entire U.S., largely due to the state’s racist past. Its Constitution excluded Blacks from living in Oregon until the clause was repealed in 1927.

Even this week, with the nation focused on the deployment of the federal agents and their tactics, white protesters chanted the names of Floyd, Breonna Taylor and other Black Americans who have been killed by police.

Vogel Warner said thousands of people stopped marching Monday to remember them.

“We all raised a hand and we had some moments of silence, offering either prayers or chants or our silent love to those people who died,” she recalled.

The intervention in Oregon could be just the beginning of a clash between the Trump administration and Democratic leaders in cities nationwide. The White House announced this week that federal agents also will deploy to Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit, Milwaukee and Albuquerque, New Mexico, to combat rising crime.

The Movement for Black Lives, a coalition of more than 150 Black-led organizations across the U.S., said it remains “undeterred.”



“As we witness Portland becoming a war zone, we understand clearly that this is an attempt to intimidate not just protesters on the streets of Portland but to derail our movement in defense of Black lives,” said Chinyere Tutashinda, a coalition organizer. She called it “a failed strategy” designed to increase support for Trump’s re-election.

Some Black protesters, however, say that white people who have been throwing water bottles at law enforcement and causing vandalism are setting back the movement.

“When we ask people to stop, they don’t. I have been pushed tonight. I have been shoved tonight. I have been told to shut up,” Portland demonstrator Julianne Jackson said. “If white people want to help us, this is not helping us.”

The protests are just one prong of the move to end police violence and racial discrimination and serve underserved communities, Frederick said. Another is changing laws and providing assistance.

After Floyd’s death, Oregon lawmakers passed police accountability measures proposed by the People of Color Caucus, to which Frederick belongs.

And on July 14, 10 days after the federal deployment in Portland, lawmakers provided $62 million in federal coronavirus relief funding to Black people and businesses affected by the pandemic.

“That’s because of the People of Color Caucus and the kind of momentum that has been fostered,” Frederick said.

     TRUMP'S TROOPS


Associate Press reporters Aaron Morrison in New York and Aron Ranen and Gillian Flaccus in Portland, Oregon, contributed to this report.
Follow Andrew Selsky on Twitter at https://twitter.com/andrewselsky

     TRUMP'S TROPES