Strikers protest Haiti’s lack of security after kidnappings

By DÁNICA COTO and EVENS SANON

1 of 15

Burning tires block a road, set by protesters in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Monday, Oct. 18, 2021. Workers angry about the nation’s lack of security went on strike in protest two days after 17 members of a U.S.-based missionary group were abducted by a violent gang. (AP Photo/Joseph Odelyn)


PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — The usually chaotic streets of Haiti’s capital were quiet and largely empty Monday as thousands of workers angry about the nation’s lack of security went on strike in protest two days after 17 members of a U.S.-based missionary group were abducted by a violent gang.

American officials including the FBI were working with Haitian authorities to try to secure the release of the 12 adults and five children connected with the Ohio-based Christian Aid Ministries who disappeared Saturday while on a trip to visit an orphanage.

It was the largest reported kidnapping of its kind in recent years. Haitian gangs have grown more brazen amid ongoing political instability, a deepening economic crisis and a spike in violence that is driving more people to flee the country.

Haitian police told The Associated Press that the abduction was carried out by the 400 Mawozo gang, a group with a long record of killings, kidnappings and extortion.

As authorities sought the release of the 16 Americans and one Canadian, the strike led by local unions and other organizations disrupted much of daily life. Public transportation drivers stayed home, and businesses and schools were closed.

“The population cannot take it any more,” said Holin Alexis, a moto taxi driver who joined the strike.

Barricades of burning tires closed off some streets in the capital and in other cities, including Les Cayes in southern Haiti, with some people throwing rocks at the occasional car that drove past.

Only a handful of moto taxi drivers like Marc Saint-Pierre zoomed through Port-au-Prince looking for customers. He said he was attacked for working on Monday but had no choice.

“I have children, and I have to bring food to my house today.”

The Western Hemisphere’s poorest nation is again struggling with a spike in gang-related kidnappings that had diminished in recent months, after President Jovenel Moïse was fatally shot at his private residence on July 7 and a magnitude 7.2 earthquake killed more than 2,200 people in August.

“Everyone is concerned. They’re kidnapping from all social classes,” Méhu Changeux, president of Haiti’s Association of Owners and Drivers, told Magik9 radio station.

He said the work stoppage would continue until the government could guarantee people’s safety.

The U.S. State Department said Sunday that it was in regular contact with senior Haitian authorities and would continue to work with them and other partners.

“The welfare and safety of U.S. citizens abroad is one of the highest priorities of the Department of State,” the agency said in a statement.

Christian Aid Ministries said the kidnapped group included six women, six men and five children, including a 2-year-old. A sign on the door at the organization’s headquarters in Berlin, Ohio, said it was closed due to the kidnapping situation.

Among those kidnapped were four children and one of their parents from a Michigan family, their pastor told The Detroit News.

The youngest from the family is under 10, said minister Ron Marks, who declined to identify them. They arrived in Haiti earlier this month, he said.

A pair of traveling Christians stopped by the organization’s headquarters Monday with two young children to drop off packages for impoverished nations. Tirtzah Rarick, originally of California, said she and a friend prayed on Sunday with those who had relatives among the hostages.

“Even though it’s painful and it provokes us to tears that our friends and relatives, our dear brothers and sisters, are suffering right now in a very real physical, mental and emotional way, it is comforting to us that we can bring these heavy burdens to the God that we worship,” she said.

News of the kidnappings spread swiftly in and around Holmes County, Ohio, hub of one of the nation’s largest populations of Amish and conservative Mennonites, said Marcus Yoder, executive director of the Amish & Mennonite Heritage Center in nearby Millersburg, Ohio.

Christian Aid Ministries is supported by conservative Mennonite, Amish and related groups in the Anabaptist tradition.

The organization was founded in the early 1980s and began working in Haiti later that decade, according to Steven Nolt, professor of history and Anabaptist studies at Elizabethtown College in Pennsylvania. The group has year-round mission staff in Haiti and several countries, he said, and it ships religious, school and medical supplies throughout the world.

Conservative Anabaptists, while disagreeing over technology and other issues, share traditions such as modest, plain clothing, separation from mainstream society, closely disciplined congregations and a belief in nonresistance to violence.

The Amish and Mennonite communities in Holmes County have a close connection with missionary organizations serving Haiti.

Every September at the Ohio Haiti Benefit Auction, handmade furniture, quilts, firewood and tools are sold, and barbecue chicken and Haitian beans and rice are dished up. The event typically brings in about $600,000 that is split between 18 missionary groups, said Aaron Miller, one of the organizers.

Nearly a year ago, Haitian police issued a wanted poster for the alleged leader of the 400 Mawozo gang, Wilson Joseph, on charges including murder, attempted murder, kidnapping, auto theft and the hijacking of trucks carrying goods. He goes by the nickname “Lanmò Sanjou,” which means “death doesn’t know which day it’s coming.”

Amid the spike in kidnappings, gangs have demanded ransoms ranging from a couple of hundred dollars to more than $1 million, sometimes killing those they have abducted, according to authorities.

At least 328 kidnappings were reported to Haiti’s National Police in the first eight months of 2021, compared with a total of 234 for all of 2020, said a report last month by the United Nations Integrated Office in Haiti.

Gangs have been accused of kidnapping schoolchildren, doctors, police officers, busloads of passengers and others as they grow more powerful. In April, a man who claimed to be the leader of 400 Mawozo told a radio station that the gang was responsible for kidnapping five priests, two nuns and three relatives of one of the priests that month. They were later released.

___

Coto reported from San Juan, Puerto Rico. Associated Press videographer Pierre-Richard Luxama in Port-au-Prince and AP writers Eric Tucker and Matthew Lee in Washington, Matt Sedensky in New York, Peter Smith in Pittsburgh, John Seewer in Toledo, Ohio, and Julie Carr Smyth in Berlin, Ohio, contributed to this report.

‘He lied’: Iraqis still blame Powell for role in Iraq war

By QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA and ZEINA KARAM

 In this Feb. 5, 2003 file photo, Secretary of State Colin Powell holds up a vial he said could contain anthrax as he presents evidence of Iraq's alleged weapons programs to the United Nations Security Council. Powell, former Joint Chiefs chairman and secretary of state, has died from COVID-19 complications. In an announcement on social media Monday, the family said Powell had been fully vaccinated. He was 84. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola, File)


BAGHDAD (AP) — For many Iraqis, the name Colin Powell conjures up one image: the man who as U.S. secretary of state went before the U.N. Security Council in 2003 to make the case for war against their country.

Word of his death Monday at age 84 dredged up feelings of anger in Iraq toward the former general and diplomat, one of several Bush administration officials whom they hold responsible for a disastrous U.S.-led invasion that led to decades of death, chaos and violence in Iraq.

His U.N. testimony was a key part of events that they say had a heavy cost for Iraqis and others in the Middle East.

“He lied, lied and lied,” said Maryam, a 51-year-old Iraqi writer and mother of two in northern Iraq who spoke on condition her last name not be used because one of her children is studying in the United States.

“He lied, and we are the ones who got stuck with never-ending wars,” she added.

As chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Powell oversaw the Persian Gulf war to oust the Iraqi army in 1991 after Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait.

But Iraqis remember Powell more for his U.N. presentation justifying the invasion of their country more than a decade later by casting Saddam as a major global threat who possessed weapons of mass destruction, even displaying a vial of what he said could have been a biological weapon. Powell had called Iraq’s claims that it had no such weapons “a web of lies.” No WMD were ever found, however, and the speech was later derided as a low point in his career.

“I am saddened by the death of Colin Powell without being tried for his crimes in Iraq. ... But I am sure that the court of God will be waiting for him,” tweeted Muntadher al-Zaidi, an Iraqi journalist who vented his outrage at the U.S. by throwing his shoes at then-President George W. Bush during a 2008 news conference in Baghdad.

In 2011, Powell told Al Jazeera he regretted providing misleading intelligence that led the U.S. invasion, calling it a “ blot on my record.” He said a lot of sources cited by the intelligence community were wrong.

But in a 2012 interview with The Associated Press, Powell maintained that on balance, the U.S. “had a lot of successes” because “Iraq’s terrible dictator is gone.”

Saddam was captured by U.S. forces while hiding in northern Iraq in December 2003 and later executed by the Iraqi government.

But the insurgency that emerged from the U.S. occupation grew into deadly sectarian violence that killed countless Iraqi civilians, and the war dragged on far longer than had been predicted by the Bush administration and eventually helped give rise to the Islamic State group. President Barack Obama pulled U.S. troops out of Iraq in 2011 but sent advisers back in three years later after the Islamic State group swept in from Syria and captured large swaths of both countries.

Powell’s U.N. testimony “resulted in the deaths of tens of thousands of Iraqis. This blood is on his hands,” said Muayad al-Jashami, a 37-year old Iraqi who works with nongovernmental organizations.

While he did not suffer direct losses, al-Jashami said he continues to struggle with stress and panic attacks as a result of growing up with war, displacement, and years of terrorist bombings in the country.

Aqeel al-Rubai, 42, who owns a clothes and cosmetics shop in Baghdad, said he doesn’t care if Powell regretted the faulty information he gave on WMD.

Al-Rubai, who lost his cousin in the war, also blames the U.S. for the death of his father, who had a close call during the sectarian blood-letting that followed the U.S. invasion, and later had a fatal heart attack.

“What does that remorse do for us? A whole country was destroyed, and we continue to pay the price,” he said. “But I say may God have mercy on him.’

Elsewhere, Powell was remembered as “a towering figure in American military and political leadership over many years, someone of immense capability and integrity,” by former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who backed the U.S. campaign and invasion.

German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas tweeted that Powell was a “straight-talking foreign policy official” and a “trans-Atlantic bridge-builder.”

The Israeli Embassy in Washington praised Powell for his “commitment to Israel and his deep personal connection to the Jewish community.”

Mary Robinson, the former president of Ireland, said Powell was “a wonderful, moral man who was misled terribly in the context of the Iraq war before the Security Council.” Robinson heads The Elders, a group of retired world leaders.

But Maryam, the writer from northern Iraq, refuses to accept the idea that Powell may have been misled on Iraq.

“I don’t believe that,” she added. “And anyway, when lives are at stake, you do not have that luxury.”

___

Karam reported from Beirut.

JAPAN 

PM Kishida calls for 'complete decommissioning' of Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant


The crippled Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant of Unit 1 through Unit 4, from top to to bottom, is seen in Okumamachi, Fukushima prefecture, northern Japan in this March 20, 2011, photo taken by a small drone. 

File photo by UPI/Air Photo Service Co. Ltd. | License Photo

Oct. 17 (UPI) -- Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida made his first visit Sunday to the defunct Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in the prefecture, which was devastated by a tsunami a decade ago.

Kishida, who was sworn in as prime minister earlier this month, wants the plant the power plant, which experienced multiple meltdowns amid the national disasters, to be decommissioned.

"The power plant's complete decommissioning is a must if we want to rebuild the region, so I want to see you building a confidential relationship with the locals as you carry on with the work," he told the plant's operator.

Efforts to decommission the plant have been underway since 2011 when an earthquake-induced tsunami flooded hundreds of miles and severely damaged three nuclear reactors at the site, causing it to release massive quantities of radiation.

Groundwater in the area has continued to be contaminated since the tsunami as it comes in contact with damaged reactors and fuel debris and in April, former Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga decided to release tons of treated wastewater into the ocean despite strong pushback from conservation groups and concern from neighboring nations.

After inspecting the plant, Kishida offered flowers and prayed at a monument in the town of Namie, which at one point was entirely off-limits due to the nuclear crisis caused by the 2011 disaster.

Since taking power, Kishida has promoted the use of nuclear power, as most of the nation's plants remain offline after the tsunami.

He has pledged to restart nuclear power plants and meet safety standards through achieving local consent to help Japan reach its goal of attaining carbon neutrality by 2050.

THIRD WORLD USA

State spending on poverty reduces child abuse, foster care placements, deaths

By Cara Murez, HealthDay News

Government antipoverty spending can reduce incidence of child abuse, reduce the number of children placed in foster care and reduce child death, according to a new study. Photo by Bessi/Pixabay


When states spend money on programs that reduce poverty, fewer children are abused and neglected, fewer end up in foster care and fewer die, a new study reveals.

Researchers found that for every additional $1,000 that states spent on federal, state and local benefit programs per person living in poverty, there was a 4% reduction in substantiated child abuse, a 2% reduction in foster care placements and about an 8% reduction in fatalities.

Many people would say this is reason enough to direct public spending in this way. Yet, there's also a fiscal advantage to doing so because investments in these programs may offset some of the long-term costs, according to the study.

"Child abuse and neglect is a public health crisis and it needs a public health response to be prevented. Pathways towards addressing poverty is one of the cornerstones, I believe, for preventing child abuse and neglect," said lead author Dr. Henry Puls, from the pediatrics department at Children's Mercy Kansas City, a Missouri hospital.

Puls said existing literature supports this association, "but I would say I'm actually pleasantly surprised at the effect size," Puls continued. "For how much money we're talking about going out into a large population of people and how much child abuse and neglect that is potentially or estimated to be reduced, I was surprised that it was as large as it was."

Spending $46.5 billion on programs, about a 13% increase, in 2017 would have meant 181,850 fewer reports of child abuse more than 4,100 fewer foster care placements and 130 fewer children killed by abuse and neglect, according to the study.

The types of spending included in the research were cash, housing and in-kind assistance housing infrastructure childcare assistance tax credits and medical assistance.

In the United States, investigations for child abuse involved 3.5 million children in 2018. Those reports were substantiated for 678,000 of those kids. About 1,770 children died in the United States that year from maltreatment. About 207,000 children received foster care services.Spending now to save later

The lifetime financial burden for one year of maltreated kids is nearly $3 trillion, Puls said.

"We realize that policymakers answer to annual budgets, but we found that for about $46.5 billion dollars, the potential reductions in child abuse and neglect would offset somewhere between $1.5 and $9.3 billion in the short term, but in the long term over the life course of children, it could offset about, we estimated, $25.8 billion to $153.2 billion," Puls said.

The study didn't consider the specifics of why this kind of investment would make a difference, but Puls offered some thoughts.

"Reducing poverty can have positive impacts on parents' mental health, their physical health, their ability to obtain basic needs and materials and so all that together creates a better environment for children to grow and thrive," Puls said.

Some states haven't expanded their benefits programs much and for them there is a lot of opportunity for expansion, Puls noted.

The findings were published online Monday in the journal Pediatrics.

Data show that what one experiences in childhood has a tremendous ability to predict functioning and health in adulthood, said Dr. Andrea Asnes, a child abuse pediatrician and associate professor of pediatrics at Yale School of Medicine.Poverty causes stress

Asnes said child abuse is rarely something that people get up in the morning and plan to do. Poverty is an enormous source of personal stress and trauma, but it can also contribute to making choices that are unsafe, she said.

Childcare is extraordinarily expensive, Asnes noted, and some people may leave their children in unsafe situations or with unsafe caregivers.

Providing childcare benefits is something that U.S. policymakers have been talking about in recent months.

"If there were high quality childcare available to everyone, if I could snap my fingers and make that happen, I think there would be an immediate decrease in child abuse and neglect," Asnes said.

If you also consider the "downstream effects" of child abuse and neglect, including incarceration and mental health problems, substance abuse and poor health in adulthood, all of which are expensive to society, Asnes said, she thinks costs savings may even be greater.

"I would just highlight the value of this kind of work. As someone who takes care of children who've been abused and neglected, I'm especially appreciative of those who are able to show the actual cost savings of this kind of policy. I do think it has the potential to be quite compelling to those who make the decisions about how our tax dollars are spent, how our public money is spent," Asnes said. "And it gives me some hope."More information

Childwelfare.gov has more on recognizing the signs of child abuse and neglect.

Copyright © 2021 HealthDay. All rights reserved.

FOR PROFIT HEALTHCARE
American COVID-19 patients can incur thousands of dollars in hospital bills, researchers say

Out-of-pocket costs for COVID-19 hospital care could reach into the thousands of dollars, according to a new study.

 File Photo by John Angelillo/UPI | License Photo


Oct. 18 (UPI) -- People hospitalized with COVID-19 incur $4,000 in out-of-pocket expenses for care, on average, even with healthcare insurance, a study published Monday by JAMA Network Open found.

This figure is based on those with private insurance carriers who do not cover charges for "facility" fees, such as accommodations and in-patient pharmacy services, the researchers said.

However, even for those with plans who do cover these fees, which includes the majority of patients, out-of-pocket expenses average about $800, the data showed.

Meanwhile, patients with Medicare Advantage and are hospitalized with the virus spend an average of about $1,500 above what is covered by the plan, including facility fees, according to the researchers.

RELATED  COVID-19 diagnosis may be more expensive in 2021, study suggests

For those for whom the government-funded plans cover facility fees, out-of-pocket costs averaged about $400, they said.

"Under federal law, COVID-19 testing and vaccination is free in the vast majority of instances, but there is no federal law mandating free COVID-19 treatment, including hospitalization," study co-author Dr. Kao-Ping Chua, told UPI in an email.

As a result, "most patients hospitalized for COVID-19 going forward will be billed thousands of dollars," said Chua, a pediatrician and researcher at Michigan Medicine's C.S. Mott Children's Hospital in Ann Arbor.

RELATED  Average COVID-19 hospital bill for U.S. seniors nearly $22K

Last year, as the pandemic reached the United States, most private and Medicare Advantage insurers voluntarily waived bills for COVID-19 hospitalization, according to America's Health Insurance Plans and research by the Kaiser Family Foundation

However, by August, 72% of the two largest insurers in each state had started billing patients for hospitalizations, a Kaiser Family Foundation analysis found.

Total hospital charges for older patients treated for COVID-19 are nearly $22,000, on average, a government-led study conducted earlier this year estimated.

For this study, Chua and his colleagues analyzed hospital billing data for more than 4,000 people treated for COVID-19.

The patients, most of whom were older adults ages 50 to 80, were selected from a national health insurance claims data base and had been hospitalized between March and September last year, according to the researchers.

Just over one-third of the patients included in the analysis had private healthcare insurance, while the rest had Medicare Advantage plans, the researchers said.

"The major driver of out-of-pocket costs were facility services billed by hospitals, such as charges for room and board," Chua said.

"Other services that contributed to out-of-pocket costs included ambulance services, testing services and physician services for managing patients in the hospital," he said.

#PFAS
EPA unveils plan to regulate, restrict toxic 'forever chemicals'

PFAS, which are found in air conditioners and refrigerators, are called "forever chemicals" because they don't break down in the environment and can move through soil to contaminate drinking water. 

 File Photo by Stephen Shaver/EPA | License Photo


Oct. 18 (UPI) -- The Environmental Protection Agency announced a plan Monday to regulate dangerous and toxic "forever chemicals," which have been linked to serious health issues including cancer.

Perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, are a collection of man-made industrial chemicals used in common products like air conditioners, refrigerators that have been linked to cancer.

The EPA said its strategy will restrict pollution from a cluster of long-lasting PFAS that are more frequently being found in areas of public concern, like water supplies and food sources.

"For far too long, families across America ... have suffered from PFAS in their water, their air, or in the land their children play on," EPA Administrator Michael Regan said in a statement.

RELATED California bans 'forever chemicals' from children's products, food packaging

"This comprehensive, national PFAS strategy will deliver protections to people who are hurting, by advancing bold and concrete actions that address the full life cycle of these chemicals."

The EPA plan sets aggressive timelines to establish enforceable drinking water limits, hold polluters financially accountable, review past actions on PFAS to test effectiveness, increase monitoring and data collection and better address emissions.

PFAS are called "forever chemicals" because they don't break down in the environment, can move through the soil to contaminate drinking water and can build up in fish and wildlife, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

RELATED PFAS 'forever chemicals' may affect ability to breastfeed, study finds

"To safeguard public health and protect the environment, the efforts being announced will help prevent PFAS from being released into the air, drinking systems, and food supply, and the actions will expand cleanup efforts to remediate the impacts of these harmful pollutants," the White House added on Monday.

Regan is launching what he calls the EPA's PFAS Roadmap, which will be a thorough strategy that outlines actions over the next three years. He said it will guide the agency's activities targeting efforts to restrict and remediate PFAS, including regulatory, administrative and enforcement actions.

"Actions include a new national testing strategy to accelerate research and regulatory development, a proposal to designate certain PFAS as hazardous substances under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act and actions to broaden and accelerate the cleanup of PFAS," the White House added.

RELATED Carpets, dust are sources of airborne 'forever chemicals' in schools, offices

Officials said the EPA will work with other federal agencies to limit PFAS, including the Pentagon, Food and Drug Administration and Federal Aviation Administration.

Gulf Coast welders dying from anthrax-like disease, researchers say

By Steven Reinberg, HealthDay News

Welders on the Gulf Coast have recently been dying due to an anthrax-like infection, with researchers saying they should be on the lookout for a variety of symptoms. 

A common group of bacteria may be causing deadly pneumonia or anthrax-like disease among metalworkers in the southern United States, health officials report.

The bacteria, called Bacillus cereus (B. cereus), naturally occurs in soil and dust.

B. cereus can cause food poisoning and anthrax-like disease, but why it singles out welders and other metalworkers is a mystery, according to researchers from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Also a puzzle is why it has only been reported in Gulf Coast states.

"In the past, long-term exposure to welding and metalworking fumes has been associated with various forms of lung injury that can cause changes in lung function and increase susceptibility to lung infections, including fatal pneumonia," said senior researcher Dr. William Bower, a medical officer in the CDC's Division of High-Consequence Pathogens and Pathology.

"However, it's not known why welders and metalworkers have been the only occupations reporting this specific infection," he said. "More research is needed to better understand how and why this particular occupational group is affected by this rare illness."

Bower added that it's probable that more cases of this infection occur than is known.

"It is likely some cases go unreported, but we believe this is still a rare condition," he said. "Infections with B. cereus are not reportable conditions these cases were investigated because astute clinicians were concerned by the severity of the illness. Hopefully, this report will lead to more clinicians being aware of this disease."

According to the report, 2020 saw two cases of anthrax pneumonia in welders caused by a rare B. cereus bacteria that contained anthrax toxin genes usually associated with the bacteria that causes anthrax. One patient died.

In all, since 1994, seven cases of pneumonia infections with B. cereus bacteria with anthrax toxin genes have been seen. Five of these patients died. The other two were severely ill, remained hospitalized for a long time and had a long recovery.

All were welders or metalworkers in Louisiana or Texas.

Bower said that doctors should be on the lookout for this disease when workers, especially welders, develop severe pneumonia.

"Health care providers should consider the possibility of Bacillus cereus infection when trying to determine the cause of severe, rapidly progressive pneumonia in welders and metalworkers, especially if they are working in U.S. Gulf Coast states. These types of bacteria have also rarely been associated with infections resembling anthrax skin lesions," he said. "Prompt and proper diagnosis could help improve patient care and survival."

Also, welders and metalworkers should be educated about the disease and try to minimize inhaling harmful fumes, Bower said.

Dr. Marc Siegel is a clinical professor of medicine at NYU Langone Medical Center in New York City. He said this bacteria is generally associated with gastrointestinal infections causing diarrhea. The severe pneumonia-like illness is much less common, he noted.

"This is very rare, but something to be aware of for this group," Siegel said.

The report was published Friday in the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.More information

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has more on Bacillus cereus.

Copyright © 2021 HealthDay. All rights reserved.

NO AFFORDABLE CHILD CARE USA

Over 300,000 women left workforce last month, National Women's Law Center says

A sign seeking applications for new employees is seen in the window of Dos Gringos in the Mount Pleasant neighborhood of Washington, D.C.

 File Photo by Sarah Silbiger/UPI | License Photo

Oct. 18 (UPI) -- Over 300,000 women age 20 and over left the workforce entirely in September, the National Women's Law Center said in a new analysis.

The number represented the largest drop in women in this age group no longer working or looking for work since the same month last year, when 863,000 women left the labor force, the NWLC said.

Women's labor force participation for the same age group fell to 57.1%, from 57.4% in August, remaining below the pre-pandemic rate of 59.2% in February 2020, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data shows.

Before the COVID-19 pandemic started, women's participation rate in this same age group had not been as low as 57.1% since 1988, more than a generation ago, the NWLC noted.

Overall, the U.S. economy gained 194,000 jobs last month, but women lost 26,000 jobs and are still short nearly 2.9 million jobs since February 2020.

Men gained 220,000 jobs the same month, resulting in the overall job increase.

The economy has lost nearly 5 million jobs since February 2020 and women account for 57.5% of those losses.

"It would take over two years of growth at September's level to gain back the nearly 5 million jobs the economy has lost since February 2020," according to NWLC calculations using BLS data. "If the nearly 2 million women who have left the labor force since February 2020 were counted among the unemployed, women's unemployment would have been 6.8% last month."

Black and Latina women have been disproportionately impacted by higher rates of unemployment since the pandemic in comparison to women overall and White men, the NWLC data showed.

Over the first 10 months of the pandemic in the United States, more than 2.3 million left the labor force, the NWLC previously said, in comparison to just under 1.8 million men.

A few months prior to the pandemic, women made up the majority of the U.S. workforce.

The NWLC told The Hill Monday that the "normal" that existed before the pandemic was "not sustainable for millions of working women, particularly Black, brown, and immigrant women, single mothers, and women with disabilities."

The NWLC added that the "best path" forward is "robust investments in child care and home-based services, universal kindergarten, universal paid leave, extending the Child Tax Credit."

Many of those measures have been included in President Joe Biden's "Build Back Better" plan, which lawmakers have worked on as part of social benefits and climate package, but lawmakers have disagreed on the size and scope of the package.

US Survey: One in three young kids uses social media, use of parental controls spotty

Many younger children use social media, but fewer parents engage controls, a new survey has found. Photo by Pixelkult/Pixaba

Oct. 18 (UPI) -- One out of three children ages 7 to 9 use some form of social media, according to the results of a national poll released Monday.

In addition, nearly half of those ages 10 to 12 indicated that they are on social media, the data showed.

Still, one in six parents of elementary and middle schoolers who use social media report that they do not use parental controls, the survey, conducted by the University of Michigan Health C.S. Mott Children's Hospital found.

Roughly 40% say that it is too time consuming to monitor kids' social use, the researchers behind the survey said.

"There continues to be debate over how soon is too soon when it comes to using social apps and how parents should oversee it," Sarah Clark, co-director of the Mott Poll, said in a press release.

"Our poll looks at how often tweens and younger children use social platforms and how closely parents are monitoring these interactions," she said.

The findings are based on a survey of more than 1,000 parents with at least one child ages 7 to 12, according to Clark and her colleagues.

In deciding which apps are appropriate and safe for their child, nearly three in four parents surveyed reported that they consider if the app has parental controls while more than three in five looked at an app's age rating or whether their children would need it for school, the researchers said

About one-third of those surveyed said their children were taught about safe use of social media apps in school, and these parents are more likely to report that their child uses social media apps, the data showed.

Although two-thirds of respondents said they use at least one parent control feature, one in five indicated they had been unable to find the information they needed to set up parental controls.

Nearly two-thirds of responding parents said they use a parental block on certain sites and about 60% require parent approval for new contacts.

In addition, more than half of respondents indicated that they use privacy settings, daily time limits and passcodes for certain content.

Conversely, a little more than one-third believed parental controls of social media are a "waste of time" because children would be able to find a loophole around them, the data showed.

However, parents should be helping kids navigate the social media world to help them understand the harms of oversharing and interacting with strangers, Clark said.

"If parents are allowing younger children to engage in social media, they should take responsibility for making the child's online environment as safe as possible," she said.

"If parents can't commit to taking an active role in their child's social media use, they should have their child wait to use these apps," she added.

Two-thirds of parents surveyed expressed concerns about their child sharing private information through social media, but less than 60% of them reported using privacy settings that limit the collection of data through children's apps, the data showed.

Half of parents polled also thought their children would be unable to spot an adult user masquerading as a young person on social media, while one-third also are not confident that their children could recognize what information is true versus false on social media apps.

"Parents should be guiding children toward safe use of social media apps through both parental controls and having regular conversations with their kids to teach them online safety rules," Clark said.

"For young kids who are using these apps for the first time, it's especially important for their parents to stay vigilant about content they're engaging with and who they're talking to," she said.

WALL STREET
7-foot tall Harambe statue installed opposite of Charging Bull covered in bananas


by: Kristine Garcia, Nexstar Media WirePosted: Oct 18, 2021 


A Harambe statue is seen in front of the Charging Bull statue on October 18, 2021 in New York City. The Sapien.Network, a social networking platform currently under development, unveiled a seven-foot statue of Harambe, a gorilla from the Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden who became a media sensation in May 2016 who was shot by zookeepers to protect a child, in front of the Charging Bull statue that was surrounded by bananas, that would be distributed to local food shelves, to protest wealth disparity in the country. The group states that the statue of Harambe “represents the millions of everyday people who struggle under a system that enriches wealthy elites and leaves the average person behind.” (Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)



NEW YORK (WPIX) – A statue of Harambe, a 17-year-old gorilla whose death sparked international outcry, went face to face with the Charging Bull statue in Manhattan Monday.

The seven-foot statue of the silverback gorilla appeared opposite of the famous Charging Bull statue in the Financial District.

In addition to the Harambe statue, 10,000 bananas were placed around the iconic bull to illustrate how “bananas” Wall Street has become, the group behind the effort said. Sapien.Network, a company currently building a new social media network, commissioned the seven-foot statue of the gorilla.

Sapien.Network said the bronze statue of Harambe, contrasted with the bronze Charging Bull, represents millions of people who struggle under a system that enriches only the wealthy. They hoped the display would bring attention to income inequality.

The bananas will be distributed to local food shelves across the New York area, the company founders said

.

Bananas are seen covering the floor space of the Charging Bull statue on October 18, 2021 in New York City. (Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)

Harambe was shot and killed after a 3-year-old boy climbed into the gorilla’s exhibit at the Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden. The gorilla then grabbed the boy and carried him around the exhibit. Harambe was shot by zookeepers in fear of the boy’s safety.

The incident sparked criticism over how the zoo handled the situation and sparked debate over primates in captivity, with “Justice for Harambe” trending on social media.