Hundreds evacuated as wildfires rage in Florida Panhandle

By BOBBY CAINA CALVAN today

1 of 15
In this Wednesday evening, May 6, 2020 photo, a Florida forestry tractor trailer is parked in Walton County, Fla., near a hot spot from a wildfire. Authorities say firefighters in the Florida Panhandle battled wildfires through the night that have forced hundreds of people to evacuate from their homes. The more than 575-acre fire in Walton County prompted about 500 people to evacuate. (Devon Ravine/Northwest Florida Daily News via AP)

VIDEO AT THE BOTTOM

MILTON, Fla. (AP) — All day it had been sunny. Then it grew dark as the winds began to whip. Daniel Felder stepped out into the road to watch the acrid smoke billow toward him. Ash started raining from the sky like light snow drifting in twilight.

Then came the crackle of fire, and he knew it was time to run.

“Next thing you know, the fire was right there,” said Felder, 45, recounting the harrowing minutes Wednesday afternoon when a raging fire swept through his bucolic wooded neighborhood in Florida’s Panhandle.

Unable to flee, Felder and his landlord waded into a nearby pond until the fire passed.

The house was spared, but the fire took down a barn and turned the surrounding trees into a charred forest of blackened trunks.

The blaze near Milton, Florida, was one of several fires burning through the Panhandle that scorched thousands of acres of woods, razed dozens of structures, including homes, and forced some 1,600 people to evacuate from their neighborhoods.

The 2,000-acre (809-hectare) fire in Santa Rosa County, located just east of Pensacola, prompted the evacuation of 1,100 homes Wednesday. Officials said a few of those residents, in areas south of Interstate 10, have been allowed to return to their homes, although others have been told to stay away. There have been no reports of injuries or deaths.

Officials said 13 homes were destroyed so far in the fire dubbed the Five Mile Swamp Fire. Because of the coronavirus pandemic, some evacuees were sent to nearby hotels to avoid potential problems with crowding.

Firefighters continued battling the erratic fire deep into the night Thursday. With only 35% of the fire contained, it could be days before it can be brought under control, officials said.

A stretch of Interstate 10, northern Florida’s main transportation artery, remained closed in both directions near Pensacola because of smoke.




Gov. Ron DeSantis met with emergency officials at a church parking lot in Milton for an hour Thursday before returning to the state capital of Tallahassee, located about 180 miles (290 kilometers) east.

The fire was feeding on stands of pines in forests strewn with dry needles.

Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried said in a news conference Thursday afternoon that fire officials are working around the clock to contain the wildfires.

“The threat is far from over and there is no rain forecasted,” Fried said. She asked residents to stay alert and “be ready for a wildfire impacting their neighborhood.”


Sgt. Rich Aloy, with the Santa Rosa County Sheriff’s Office, was patrolling Wednesday when he and other deputies rescued an older couple trapped by a burning power line. The possibly live wire blocked the two-lane, tree-lined road as smoke engulfed the area. Aloy said he and his deputies just happened upon the couple as they yelled for help.

“Right time, right place,” Aloy said.


In this Wednesday, May 6, 2020 photo, a helicopters carries water to the Five Mile Swamp Fire in Milton, Fla. Authorities say firefighters in the Florida Panhandle are battling wildfires that have forced some 1,600 people to evacuate from their homes. Smoke from the fires caused officials to close a stretch of Interstate 10 in both directions Thursday. (Gregg Pachkowski /Pensacola News Journal via AP)


The Santa Rosa County fire began Monday when a prescribed burn by a private contractor got out of control, Fried said. The conditions created a perfect storm for fire — low humidity and high winds.

“In Florida, when we’re seeing the gusty winds, it’s hurricane season, not necessarily fire season. So the recipe was just right for this fire to make a huge run,” said Ludie Bond, a spokeswoman for the Florida Forest Service.

On four different occasions, she said, the fire made a run for busy Interstate 10. Each time, it jumped the highway and pushed westward by gusts reaching 40 mph (64 kph).

Firefighters were expecting winds to shift and pick up on Friday, adding to the fire’s erratic behavior.

In a place accustomed to hurricanes, officials said many residents were ready to flee when given the word — although scores of people stayed behind, water hoses in hand, to stand against the fire.

Crews from other areas of Florida, including Jacksonville, are assisting firefighters who’ve been working long hours since Monday.

In neighboring Walton County, a 575-acre (233-hectare) fire in Walton County prompted about 500 people to evacuate. Authorities there said multiple structures were lost in the fire, which was 65% contained Thursday morning. Fried said about 33 structures have been damaged so far.

Felder felt fortunate to escape.

“It came close. Lots of trees burned. The home got singed. The barn behind the house was destroyed,” he said.

At the time, his neighborhood was still under voluntary evacuation.

“I knew there was a fire, but it still looked far away,” he said. “But when it got dark, I didn’t know where the fire was. Suddenly it was there.”

When he knew danger was approaching, he ran back into the house to retrieve his cat, Bowser. He heard his landlord hollering for him to head to the pond. He put his cat, shoes and phone in an aluminum boat, and he and his landlord waded into neck-deep water.

“I was afraid, but the panic set in afterward,” he said. “I had never been through anything like this.”

UPDATE   

More evacuations near Indian factory after fatal gas leak

By OMER FAROOQ today

Smoke rises from LG Polymers plant, the site of a chemical gas leakage, in Vishakhapatnam, India, Thursday, May 7, 2020. Synthetic chemical styrene leaked from the industrial plant in southern India early Thursday, leaving people struggling to breathe and collapsing in the streets as they tried to flee. Administrator Vinay Chand said several people fainted on the road and were rushed to a hospital. (AP Photo)
HYDERABAD, India (AP) — Indian authorities evacuated more people from villages near a South Korean-owned chemical factory where a gas leak killed 12 people and left about 1,000 struggling to breathe.

Authorities said the evacuation was precautionary, but it triggered panic among people overnight that another gas leak was occurring.

“No, there was not another leakage,” National Disaster Response Force spokesman Krishan Kumar said Friday.

Factory owner LG Chem said it asked police to evacuate residents because of concerns that rising temperatures at the plant’s gas tank could possibly cause another leak. The company said it was injecting water into the tank and applying other measures to keep temperatures under control.

A state administrator in the district, Vinay Chand, said authorities flew in chemicals from a neighboring state to neutralize the gas completely before allowing people to return to their homes.


A National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) soldier is fitted with gear before he proceeds to the area from where chemical gas leaked in Vishakhapatnam, India, Thursday, May 7, 2020. Chemical gas leaked from an industrial plant in southern India early Thursday, leaving people struggling to breathe and collapsing in the streets as they tried to flee. Administrator Vinay Chand said several people fainted on the road and were rushed to a hospital. (AP Photo)

Expert teams were checking the factory’s vicinity for any aftereffects of the gas leak. Residents of five villages are waiting for a clear signal to return to their homes, Chand said.

The initial evacuations on Thursday affected about 3,000 people.

The death toll rose to 12 on Friday with one person dying in a hospital, P.V. Sudhakar, a doctor, said.

Chand said 316 people were being treated in hospitals and were in stable condition. State police chief Damodar Gautam Sawang said 800 people were released after treatment on Thursday.

The chemical styrene, used to make plastic and rubber, on Thursday leaked from the LG Polymers plant on the outskirts of the eastern coastal city of Vishakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh state while workers were preparing to restart the facility after a coronavirus lockdown was eased.

The leak was suspected to have come from large tanks left unattended over the past six weeks.

“Our initial information is that workers were checking a gas storage tank when it started leaking,” said Industries Minister M. Goutham Reddy.


People pour water on a hatchling affected by a chemical gas leak in Vishakhapatnam, India, Thursday, May 7, 2020. Chemical gas leaked from an industrial plant in southern India early Thursday, leaving people struggling to breathe and collapsing in the streets as they tried to flee. Administrator Vinay Chand said several people fainted on the road and were rushed to a hospital. (AP Photo)

Videos and photos from the area showed dozens of people lying unconscious in the streets, arms open wide with white froth trailing from their mouths. People fled on foot, on motorbikes and in open trucks as police officers, some wearing gas masks, rushed to get people out of their homes.

The scene evoked bitter memories of the Bhopal industrial disaster in 1984 that killed at least 4,000 people and injured another 500,000, many of them with chronic health problems today, according to the government.

The blanket of gas spread about 3 kilometers (1.8 miles), sickening people in at least four villages. The leak was stopped by 8 a.m. Thursday, officials said.

A neurotoxin, styrene gas can immobilize a person within minutes of inhalation and be deadly at high concentrations.

LG Chem Ltd. is South Korea’s largest chemical company and produces a range of industrial products, including petrochemicals, plastic and batteries used in electronic vehicles. It is part of the family-owned LG Corp. conglomerate, which also has an electronics arm that globally sells smartphones, TVs and personal computers.

South Korea’s Foreign Ministry said Friday its ambassador to India had expressed regrets and condolences over the gas leak. A ministry statement said the South Korean government is closely monitoring efforts to handle the aftermath.


Firefighters walk with oxygen cylinders outside LG Polymers plant, the site of a chemical gas leak, in Vishakhapatnam, India, Thursday, May 7, 2020. Synthetic chemical styrene leaked from the industrial plant in southern India early Thursday, leaving people struggling to breathe and collapsing in the streets as they tried to flee. Administrator Vinay Chand said several people fainted on the road and were rushed to a hospital. (AP Photo)

LG Chem began operating the plant in Vishakhapatnam in 1997 and its Indian operation is one of the leading manufacturers of polystyrene and expandable polystyrene in the country. The Vishakhapatnam plant has around 300 workers.

The bowl-shaped coastal city in Andhra Pradesh state is an industrial hub known for frequent gas leak accidents. In December 2019, a leak from a pharmaceutical company killed two people.

“We have not learnt from our past mistakes,” said E.A.S. Sarma, a former senior state official, referring to the 1984 Bhopal gas leak.

Considered the world’s worst industrial accident, the leak of methyl isocyanate at a Union Carbide India pesticide plant prompted successive Indian governments to pledge to improve safety standards. But many similar accidents, although on a smaller scale, continue.


People affected by a chemical gas leak are carried out of a truck to an ambulance in Vishakhapatnam, India, Thursday, May 7, 2020. Chemical gas leaked from an industrial plant in southern India early Thursday, leaving people struggling to breathe and collapsing in the streets as they tried to flee. Administrator Vinay Chand said several people fainted on the road and were rushed to a hospital. (AP Photo)

Toxic gas leak at Indian chemical plant kills at least 11 and hospitalizes hundreds

By Vedika Sud, Akanksha Sharma, Jessie Yeung, Esha Mitra and Emma Reynolds, 

CNN Thu May 7, 2020

(CNN)Bodies lay crumpled on the ground beside toppled motorcycles and cars as suffocating toxic gas rose from a chemical plant in southern India in the early hours of Thursday morning.
Roads near the site of the fatal leak in the state of Andhra Pradesh were filled with hundreds of people fleeing the noxious gas, according to footage from the scene, many carrying the injured and unconscious over their shoulders.
Rescuers from India's National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) wearing hazmat suits and gas masks were also seen running with limp bodies in their arms.


Smoke rises from the chemical plant after the leak.

At least 11 people have been confirmed dead and hundreds more have been hospitalized after the incident at an LG Polymers plant, which lies near a village of at least 3,000 people on the outskirts of the city of Visakhapatnam.

Most of the dead were driving or standing on terraces outside their homes when they lost consciousness and fell where they stood, while others slipped into unconsciousness while they were sleeping, said Mekapati Goutham Reddy, minister for Industries, Commerce, and Information Technology in Andhra Pradesh. Three of those who died were children, he added.

Almost 1,000 people were directly exposed to the gas and about 20-25 people are in critical but stable condition, said Kamal Kishore from the National Disaster Management Authority.


A man runs from the toxic gas leak carrying an unconscious child as 5,000 people were evacuated from the area.


A member of India's National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) is fitted with protective gear before he enters the area affected by the leak.
The gas has been identified as Styrene, a flammable liquid that is used to make a variety of industrial products, including polystyrene, fiberglass, rubber, and latex.
"When we arrived on the spot a lot of people were lying on the ground unconscious and we evacuated around 1,000 people and rushed them to the hospital," said Tej Bharath, a senior Vishakhapatnam district official.
Gopalapatnam Police helped hundreds of people to escape the apocalyptic scenes in ambulances, police vehicles, and state-provided buses, while others left on their own, said local police Inspector V Ramanayya.
At least 285 people are now in hospital, said K Kanna Babu, managing director of the state's disaster response force. Individuals were taken to hospitals across the city to be treated for exposure of the gas.

How does India, a country of 1.3 billion people, have around 1,000 coronavirus deaths?
Babu said the district administration received the call by around 3:30 a.m. and his team was notified around 5:30 a.m. and were on-field by 6 a.m. But, he added, "we couldn't immediately enter because the smell of the gas was very pungent so we had to wait for half an hour before we could go in and start evacuating people."
The gas came out the factory's chimney and was carried by the wind, he said.
There are 10,000 people within the affected area of the gas leak; about 5,000 have been evacuated.
Photos tweeted by Satya Pradhan, director general of the NDRF, showed team members in hazmat suits and gas masks helping residents to safety.
Disaster response teams have brought the leakage in the silo to a minimum and it is almost under control, authorities confirmed in a press briefing.
"Overall the situation is under control. Now, the situation is of rehab and treatment," said Pradhan.


People affected by the gas leak are carried out of a truck to an ambulance in Vishakhapatnam.

How it happened
It is not immediately clear what led to the leak. However, the plant, which is owned by the South Korean company LG Chem, was preparing to reopen after coronavirus lockdown restrictions were eased, with the gas leak occurring during the process of re-starting operations, according to Bharath, the Visakhapatnam district official.
Reddy, the Andhra Pradesh minister, said workers at the plant had been conducting regular maintenance and gauging whether it was ready to return to full production. It was during this process that they found the leak coming from a storage tank, where the chemical had turned into a gas.

They immediately worked to neutralize the chemical, and had shut down the plant within an hour, Reddy said.
But Reddy said an alarm should have been raised when the gas leaked and asked why that didn't happen.
An LG Chem communications official told CNN that the plant's alarm only detects if raw Styrene is leaked in liquid form, and "something in there reacted," which meant it "leaked in vapor form."
Asked why it had turned into vapor, the official added: "That is something we need to investigate."
In a statement to CNN, LG Chem said it was taking measures to protect residents affected by the leak.
"(We) are currently assessing local town residents' damage situation and are taking maximum necessary measures for the protection of residents and employees together with related organizations," said the statement.
"The factory's gas leak is currently under control. Leaked gas can cause vomiting and dizziness from inhaling. (We) are seeking all measures so that related treatment can be done quickly."


A crowd gathers outside the plant after the leak.


Dead cows on the ground after the leak at an LG Polymers plant, which had recently reopened after the coronavirus lockdown.
"There is no specific antidote to reverse the effect of Styrene. The treatment does remain mainly supportive. Individuals have to be removed from the exposed area," said Dr. Randeep Guleria, Director at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences.
Local police are investigating the cause of the leak and conducting house to house visits in adjoining areas.
Photos of the aftermath has drawn parallels online with the Bhopal disaster -- a gas leak in the central Indian city of Bhopal in December 1984.
Nearly half a million people were exposed to toxic fumes, nearly 4,000 people died in the immediate aftermath, and around 10,000 subsequent deaths have been blamed on the leak, which is now considered one of the world's worst industrial disasters.
This leak is likely not as lethal as the Bhopal disaster, said Reddy, the state minister.

Government response
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in a tweet today that he had spoken with officials regarding Thursday's leak, and was monitoring the situation.
"I pray for everyone's safety and well-being in Visakhapatnam," he tweeted.
The state's chief minister is also set to visit the city hospital where residents are being treated, his office confirmed in a tweet.

"The Chief Minister is closely monitoring the situation and has directed the district officials to take every possible step to save lives and bring the situation under control," said the tweet.
The city's civic authority, the Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation (GVMC), warned residents to stay indoors during the response effort.

"There is gas leakage identified at LG Polymers in Gopalpatnam. Requesting Citizens around these locations not to come out of houses for the sake of safety precautions," GVMC tweeted. "As precautionary measures, the colonies and villages around the industry may leave to safer locations. Please use wet cloth as mask to cover nose and mouth."
Now as efforts turn from evacuation and rescue to investigation, state officials are beginning to look into the cause of the leak.
"Right now we are not taking any action but certainly the burden of proof lies with them (LG) -- to come forward and say what they have done," said Reddy. "We need to understand to what extent was this negligence or what it was. It will all come subsequently once we start ascertaining the situation on the ground."
He said that compensation of $131,000 per family will be given to those who have lost a loved one. LG will be asked to pay what it can and the state government will cover the rest, he added.
This story has been corrected to reflect that the plant has not yet reopened.

CNN's Swati Gupta contributed to this report.

Battle to prevent fresh gas leak at Indian plant

AFP / -A gas leak at the LG Polymers plant killed 12 people and knocked others unconscious in the street

Engineers battled Friday to prevent more toxic gas escaping at a chemical plant on India's east coast, a day after a pre-dawn leak killed 12 people and knocked locals unconscious in the street.

Although the death toll was lower than feared, the accident which left hundreds hospitalised outside the industrial port city of Visakhapatnam evoked memories of Bhopal where a gas leak killed around 3,500 people in 1984.

Late on Thursday the evacuation zone around the plant owned by South Korea's LG Chem was widened with hundreds more people in 10 localities brought to safety as a precaution, police said.

"The situation is better now but we can't say it is completely normal. The temperature in the tanks has been brought down by 120 degrees but we need to being it down further by 25 degrees," senior police officer Swaroop Rani told AFP.

AFP / Gal ROMAGas leak at Indian chemical plant


"Twelve people have died so far. No one is critical. But we have told those who have recovered that they may go either to their relatives' houses or to shelters that we have set up till the situation is completely normal," she said.

Plant owner LG Chem said Friday there was no fresh leak, but as a precautionary measure nearby people should be moved.

The company "made a request to the police to evacuate residents in case of an emergency if the temperature rises in the tank", it said in a statement issued in Seoul.

"Currently, we are taking necessary measures, such as adding water into the tank" to keep it cool.

AFP / -Rescuers evacuate people following the gas leak in Visakhapatnam. Engineers were working to prevent more gas escaping from the chemical plant

Horrifying footage on Indian television showed men, women and children slumped motionless in the streets after the Thursday morning gas escape.

"There was utter confusion and panic. People were unable to breathe, they were gasping for air. Those who were trying to escape collapsed on the roads -- kids, women and all," local resident Kumar Reddy, 24, told reporters.

B K Naik, district hospitals coordinator, said 1,000 had initially been hospitalised. By Thursday afternoon around 600 remained in treatment, with none in a critical condition.

"This is a calamity," Naik told AFP.

AFP photographs taken at the King George Hospital in the city early Thursday had shown two or three patients on each bed, some of them children, and several unconscious.

- Prayers -

"I pray for everyone's safety and well-being in Visakhapatnam," Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Twitter.

The plant, operated by LG Polymers, a subsidiary of LG Chem, is on the outskirts of Visakhapatnam.

AFP / STRAround 1,000 people were taken to hospital after the gas leak

The city and the surrounding area are home to around five million people.

The plant had been left idle because of the coronavirus lockdown, according to Rani, an assistant police commissioner in Visakhapatnam.

"(The gas) was left there because of the lockdown. It led to a chemical reaction and heat was produced inside the tanks, and the gas leaked because of that," Rani told AFP on Thursday.

LG Chem confirmed the plant, which makes polystyrene products, was not operating because of the lockdown, but there were maintenance staff at the facility, a spokesman in Seoul told AFP.

- 'Ticking bombs' -

Authorities advised people to wear wet clothes and masks, avoid eating uncovered food and consume bananas and milk to "neutralise the effect of the gas".

According to the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), the gas was styrene, which is likely carcinogenic and combined with oxygen in the air forms the more lethal styrene dioxide.

The leak happened because the gas was not stored at the appropriate temperature, causing pressure to build up and breaking the valve, the CSE said.

The tank was also "old and not properly maintained" and there was no monitoring mechanism installed to specifically detect styrene, it said.

The incident "shows us that there are ticking bombs out there as the lockdown ends and industries start resuming activities," it add

SEE  UPDATES

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2020/05/update-indians-recall-horrifying.html

 https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2020/05/update-more-evacuations-near-indian.html

FOR THOSE OF YOU WITH A DANCE POLE IN THE REC ROOM

AP PHOTOS: Turkish pole dance teacher moves classes online

By ZEYNEP BILGINSOY

In this Thursday, April 30, 2020 photo, Tuba Parlak, 39, a pole dancing performer and instructor performs at her studio in Istanbul, during an online training session for students watching from home, due to the coronavirus restrictions. To stem the spread of COVID-19, Turkey closed down sports facilities in March but Parlak's students continued their pole lessons, using video conferencing. For students not having a pole at home, Parlak has designed a special programme to make sure they stay strong and fit. (AP Photo/Emrah Gurel)

To stem the spread of COVID-19, Turkey closed down sports facilities in March but Tuba Parlak’s students wanted to continue their lessons.

Using the video conferencing app Zoom, Parlak teaches the vigorous exercise from her studio in Istanbul’s hip Cihangir district. She limits her classes to five students as she did in the studio, and says Zoom has made it easier to critique her students’ moves with all video images lined up on her screen.

Some of Parlak’s students had poles installed at home, with a discount from a local pole manufacturer, and others are continuing with pole dance floor work. The classes, most of them advanced, are only available to students that Parlak already worked with.

Parlak, a former arts and culture journalist, started pole dancing in 2015 and turned her passion to full time profession. She says the pandemic, apart from taking her work online, has not altered her day-to-day because she already led an “isolated” life as an athlete.

Drop-out rates are high in this challenging exercise, Parlak says. Her students are looking forward to returning to the studio but it remains uncertain when Turkey will allow sports facilities to re-open.

In this Thursday, April 30, 2020 photo, Tuba Parlak, 39, a pole dancing performer and instructor performs at her studio in Istanbul, during an online training session for students watching from home, due to the coronavirus restrictions. To stem the spread of COVID-19, Turkey closed down sports facilities in March but Parlak's students continued their pole lessons, using video conferencing. For students not having a pole at home, Parlak has designed a special programme to make sure they stay strong and fit.
In this Thursday, April 30, 2020 photo, Tuba Parlak, 39, a pole dancing performer and instructor warms-up at her studio in Istanbul, as she prepares for an online training session for students at home, due to the coronavirus restrictions.To stem the spread of COVID-19, Turkey closed down sports facilities in March but Parlak's students wanted to continue their pole lessons. Using video conferencing, Parlak teaches the vigorous exercise from her studio in Istanbul's hip Cihangir district. (AP Photo/Emrah Gurel)


In this Thursday, April 30, 2020 photo, Tuba Parlak, 39, a pole dancing performer and instructor prepares at her studio in Istanbul, for an online training session for students at home, due to the coronavirus restrictions. To stem the spread of COVID-19, Turkey closed down sports facilities in March but Parlak's students wanted to continue their pole lessons. Using video conferencing, Parlak teaches the vigorous exercise from her studio in Istanbul's hip Cihangir district. (AP Photo/Emrah Gurel)


DOING THIS IN HER FORTIES IS AMAZING  AS THIS IS USUALLY A YOUNGER WOMAN'S SPORT

IN NORTH AMERICA POLE DANCING IS FAVOURED BY EXOTIC DANCERS

FOR THE REST OF THE PHOTOS GO HERE https://apnews.com/17783b9afb57deb22d26bc7158dd1e6d

PRISON INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX 

America’s business of prisons thrives even amid a pandemic

By ROBIN McDOWELL and MARGIE MASON

FILE - In this March 16, 2011, file photo, a security fence surrounds inmate housing on the Rikers Island correctional facility in New York. As of Wednesday, May 6, 2020, more than 20,000 inmates have been infected by the COVID-19 coronavirus and 295 have died nationwide, at Rikers Island and at state and federal lockups in cities and towns coast to coast, according to an unofficial tally kept by the COVID-19 Behind Bars Data Project run by UCLA Law. (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews, File)
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — As factories and other businesses remain shuttered across America, people in prisons in at least 40 states continue going to work. Sometimes they earn pennies an hour, or nothing at all, making masks and hand sanitizer to help guard others from the coronavirus.

Those same men and women have been cut off from family visits for weeks, but they get charged up to $25 for a 15-minute phone call — plus a surcharge every time they add credit.

They also pay marked-up prices at the commissary for soap so they can wash their hands more frequently. That service can carry a 100% processing fee.


As the COVID-19 virus cripples the economy, leaving millions unemployed and many companies on life support, big businesses that have become synonymous with the world’s largest prison system are still making money.

“It’s hard. Especially at a time like this, when you’re out of work, you’re waiting for unemployment … and you don’t have money to send,” said Keturah Bryan, who transfers hundreds of dollars each month to her 64-year-old father at a federal prison in Oklahoma.

Meanwhile, she said, prisons continue to gouge.

“You have to pay for phone calls, emails, food,” she said. “Everything.”

The coronavirus outbreak has put an unlikely spotlight on America’s jails and prisons, which house more than 2.2 million people and have been described by health experts as petri dishes as the virus spreads.

Masks and hand sanitizer often aren’t provided. Testing is rarely carried out, even among those with symptoms, despite fears that surrounding communities may be affected. And in some parts of the country, those sickened by the virus languish in sweltering buildings with poor ventilation.

The concerns extend to outsourced prison health care, frequently accused by experts of offering substandard treatment even in the best of times.

Sheron Edwards shares a dorm with 50 other men at Chickasaw County Regional Correctional Facility in Mississippi. Given his past experiences with the prison’s medical provider, Centurion, he worries about what will happen if coronavirus hits.

“I’m afraid they’ll just let us die in here,” he said.

When he was at the state’s notorious Parchman prison several years ago, Edwards said the company refused to pay for costly heart medication and only provided one session of physical therapy when he had to have a six-inch rod and screws placed in his broken ankle.

“Even though that wasn’t life threatening, it was serious,” he said. “With COVID-19, I could actually lose my life.”

More than 20,000 prisoners have been infected and 295 have died nationwide — from Rikers Island in New York City to federal, state, and local lockups coast to coast, according to an unofficial tally kept by the COVID-19 Behind Bars Data Project run by UCLA Law.

On Wednesday, officials in San Diego announced the first death of a detainee in a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center.

When incarceration rates soared to record highs in the 1980s and ’90s, some corporations saw a business opportunity. They promised lower costs and, in many cases, profit-sharing agreements. Prison and jail administrators started privatizing everything from food and commissary to entire operations of facilities.

Proponents of for-profit prisons say it’s cheaper for private companies to run facilities than the government, arguing it’s easier to cancel contracts and there is more incentive to provide better service. They say that leads to improved living conditions and more effective rehabilitation of the incarcerated back into society with the ultimate goal of reducing recidivism.

But not everyone agrees. In 2019, criminal and immigration justice advocates successfully moved nine major banks, including J.P. Morgan and Bank of America, to stop lending money to private prisons.

Today, some of corporate America’s biggest names, and many smaller companies, vie for a share of the $80 billion spent on mass incarceration each year in the U.S., roughly half of which stays in the public sector to pay for staff salaries and some health care costs, according to the Massachusetts-based nonprofit Prison Policy Initiative.

A new report released Thursday by New York-based advocacy group Worth Rises detailed some 4,100 corporations that profit from the country’s prisons and jails. It identified corporations that support prison labor directly or through their supply chains. The group also recommended divesting from more than 180 publicly traded corporations and investment firms considered to cause the greatest harm to people behind bars and the communities that support them.

“The industry behind mass incarceration is bigger than many appreciate. So is the harm they cause and the power they wield,” said Bianca Tylek, the group’s founder and director.

“They exploit and abuse people with devastating consequences,” she said. “Of course, they aren’t unilaterally responsible for mass incarceration, but they’re part of the ecosystem propping it up.”

The report includes vendors that stock commissaries with Cup Noodles and Tide laundry detergent, along with contracted health care providers that have been sued for providing limited or inadequate coverage to those behind bars.

There are companies like Smith & Wesson that make protective gear for correctional officers and Attenti that supply electronic ankle bracelets. Other household names, such as Stanley Black & Decker, have entire units dedicated to manufacturing accessories for prison doors.

Incarcerated people also work, making everything from license plates to body armor vests and mattresses. In California, some even serve as firefighters. But in some places, they are employed by major corporations such as Minnesota-based 3M.

Billed as a cheap alternative to foreign outsourcing, inmates also previously provided goods to Starbucks, Victoria’s Secret and Whole Foods, sparking an uproar that caused many big-name companies to bow out.

Some people leave their lockups to do jobs in the community, such as fast food restaurants. State-owned businesses have also cropped up around the massive prison labor industries, including some with almost comical names, such as Big House products in Pennsylvania and Rough Rider Industries in North Dakota.

While some jobs might pay minimum wage as required by federal law for goods that enter interstate commerce, the take-home pay of workers in correctional industries can be as low as 20% of their stated wage after garnishment for room and board, restitution and other costs.

Meanwhile, private companies market catalogs full of products to lockups. One website advertises an array of pricey bondage items: Leather bed restraints for $267, ankle hobbles for $144 and a metal waist chain with handcuffs going for $76.95.

An Alabama company markets video conferencing systems as a replacement for in-person visits under a call box with the face of an elderly woman in glasses shown on the monitor inside. Beside it reads the slogan: “Keep Granny’s shank pies away from your facility.”

Bobby Rose, one of the report’s researchers, served 24 years in New York state prisons, where he spent a lot of time thinking about the role money plays in America’s legal system.

He was shocked to learn just how many big-name companies were involved and how much was being made off not only those behind bars, but also their families who are often poor and members of racial minorities — a particularly poignant concept during the pandemic.

“I feel,” he said, “that some of these companies that really profit could have provided ... sanitizer or even gave free soap.”

He still thinks about friends left in prison. Two of them have succumbed to the virus.

Facebook removes accounts linked to QAnon conspiracy theory

By BARBARA ORTUTAY May 5, 2020

In this Aug. 18, 2018 file photo man holds a sign that reads "Q-Nited We Stand" during a rally held by members of Patriot Prayer and other groups supporting gun rights near City Hall in Seattle. Facebook says it has removed several groups, accounts and pages linked to QAnon, taking action for the first time against the far-right U.S. conspiracy theory circulated among supporters of President Donald Trump. The social-media giant made the announcement Tuesday, May 5, 2020 as part of its monthly briefing on “coordinated inauthentic behavior” on its platforms. That’s Facebook's term for fake accounts run with the intent of disrupting politics elections and society. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren, file)


OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — Facebook says it has removed several groups, accounts and pages linked to QAnon, taking action for the first time against the far-right U.S. conspiracy theory circulated among supporters of President Donald Trump.

The social-media giant made the announcement Tuesday as part of its monthly briefing on “coordinated inauthentic behavior” on its platforms. That’s Facebook’s term for fake accounts run with the intent of disrupting politics elections and society.

In addition to the QAnon accounts, Facebook also removed accounts linked to VDARE, a U.S. website known for posting anti-immigration content, as well as accounts in Russia, Iran, Mauritania, Myanmar and the country of Georgia.


QAnon is a right-wing conspiracy theory centered on the baseless belief that Trump is waging a secret campaign against enemies in the “deep state” and a child sex trafficking ring run by satanic pedophiles and cannibals. For more than two years, followers have pored over a tangled set of clues purportedly posted online by a high-ranking government official known only as “Q.”

The conspiracy theory first emerged in a dark corner of the internet but has been creeping into the mainstream political arena. Trump has retweeted QAnon-promoting accounts and its followers flock to the president’s rallies wearing clothes and hats with QAnon symbols and slogans.

Facebook says it found the QAnon activity as part of its investigations into suspected coordinated inauthentic behavior ahead of the 2020 presidential election.

“We are making progress rooting out this abuse, but as we’ve said before, it’s an ongoing effort,” the company said in its April report on coordinated activity. “That means building better technology, hiring more people and working more closely with law enforcement, security experts and other companies.”

Social media research firm Graphika, which receives funding from Facebook, said in a concurrent report Tuesday that the QAnon network promoted conspiracy theories and tried to sell merchandise, such as T-shirts, using Facebook. The network, Graphika said, appeared to be run by a small group of users who had both real and fake accounts.

The network focused primarily on the “Q” conspiracy theory, but dabbled in others — around the 5G wireless network, the U.S. presidential elections, Bill Gates and the coronavirus, Graphika said.

Full Coverage: AP Fact Check

The research firm found related activity on Twitter as well, but noted that in itself, such activity may not have violated Twitter’s rules. Twitter allows users to post under fake names.

Twitter said if it finds information-operation campaigns that can be reliably attributed to state-backed activity, it removes them. It said Facebook shared details of the accounts it removed, but Twitter didn’t find anything to conclude that an information operation took place on its platform.

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Associated Press Writer Michael Kunzelman in Silver Spring, Maryland, contributed to this story.

Butler’s prescient sci-fi resonates years after her death

By HILLEL ITALIE

FILE - In this Feb. 4, 2004 file photo, author Octavia Butler poses near some of her novels at University Book Store in Seattle, Wash. Butler, considered the first black woman to gain national prominence as a science fiction writer, died Feb. 24, 2006, at age 58. Fourteen years after her death, Butler has never seemed more relevant. The rare black science fiction writer in her lifetime, she is now praised for anticipating many of the major issues of the day, from pandemics to the election of Donald Trump. (Joshua Trujillo/seattlepi.com via AP, File)

NEW YORK (AP) — Novelist N.K. Jemisin was a teenager the first time she read Octavia Butler, and nothing had prepared her for it. It was the 1980s, and the book was called “Dawn,” the story of a black woman who awakens 250 years after a nuclear holocaust.

“I remember just kind of being stunned that a black woman existed in the future, because science fiction had not done that before,” says Jemisin, whose “The City We Became” is currently a bestseller. “There was just this conspicuous absence where it seemed we all just vanished after a while.”

A revolutionary voice in her lifetime, Butler has only become more popular and influential since her death 14 years ago, at age 58. Her novels, including “Dawn,” “Kindred” and “Parable of the Sower,” sell more than 100,000 copies each year, according to her former literary agent and the manager of her estate, Merrilee Heifetz. Toshi Reagon has adapted “Parable of the Sower” into an opera, and Viola Davis and Ava DuVernay are among those working on streaming series based on her work. Grand Central Publishing is reissuing many of her novels this year and the Library of America welcomes her to the canon in 2021 with a volume of her fiction.

A generation of younger writers cite her as an influence, from Jemisin and Tochi Onyebuchi to Marlon James and Nnedi Okorafor, currently working on a screenplay for the Butler novel “Wild Seed” for the production company run by Davis and her husband, Julius Tennon. Davis, in a recent interview with The Associated Press, said she began reading Butler while attending the Juilliard school 30 years ago.

“I felt included in the narrative in a way I had never felt reading anything before,” said Davis, who has a deal with Amazon Studios. “There is something about seeing yourself in the imagination’s playground that opens up your world.”

Alys Eve Weinbaum, a professor of English at the University of Washington, says Butler broke open a genre “dominated by white men and white readers.” She is now praised as a visionary who anticipated many of the issues in the news today, from the coronavirus to climate change to the election of President Donald Trump. In her 1998 novel “Parable of the Talents,” the right-wing Andrew Steele Jarret runs for president in 2032 with a message familiar to current readers.

“Jarret insists on being a throwback to some earlier, ‘simpler’ time. Now does not suit him. Religious tolerance does not suit him,” Butler wrote. “There was never such a time in this country. But these days when more than half the people in the country can’t read at all, history is just one more vast unknown to them.”

Jarret’s campaign theme: “Help us to make America great again.”

“She (Butler) seems to have seen the real future coming in a way few other writers did,” says Gerry Caravan, an associate professor at Marquette University who is co-editing Butler’s work for the Library of America. “It’s hard not to read the books and think ‘How did she know?’”

Butler’s own life trained her to think in new ways. Born and raised in Pasadena, California, she was black, poor and stood 6-feet-tall. “I believed I was ugly and stupid, clumsy, and socially hopeless,” she once explained. Her feelings of isolation led her to the reading, and writing, of science fiction and fantasy stories even as an aunt told her, “Honey ... Negroes can’t be writers.”

At a writers workshop in the 1970s, Harlan Ellison read her work and became an early supporter, publishing one of her stories in a science fiction anthology. Her first novel, “Patternmaster,” came out in 1976, although it took her years to be able to support herself and for the industry to catch up to her. Jemisin and others remember that the original cover for “Dawn” featured a white woman, making Jemisin all the more surprised when she read the book and realized the protagonist was black.

Through the 1980s and ’90s, her readership and reputation grew. She became the first science fiction author to receive a MacArthur “genius grant” and her literary honors included Nebula Awards for “Bloodchild” and “Parable of the Talents.” She was shy and often reclusive and would describe herself as “A pessimist if I’m not careful, a feminist, a Black, a former Baptist, an oil-and-water combination of ambition, laziness, insecurity, certainty, and drive.”

Some admirers have personal memories of Butler. Not longer before she died, in 2006, she was the keynote speaker at the Gwendolyn Brooks Conference on Black Literature and Creative Writing at Chicago State University. Okorafor was among hundreds in the audience. She had known Butler for years, dating back to a writers workshop where she first read Butler and sought her advice, beginning with a phone conversation.

“She was really kind and she was funny, and I just remember the conversation being really nurturing. She was very down to earth, but it was also like talking to someone who was way up there,” Okorafor says. “At the Gwendolyn Brooks conference, I remember how surprised she was at the turnout. The room is packed, this big room with so much love. I just wish she were here now to see how much more she is being honored.”

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This story has been correct to show that the title of Butler’s first book was “The Patternmaster,” not “The Patternist,” and corrects the spelling of author’s last name to Okorafor, not Okarafor.

This combination of book cover images released by Grand Central Publishing shows, "Wild Seed," from left, "Parable of the Sower," and "Parable of the Talents," by Octavia e. Butler. Fourteen years after her death, Butler has never seemed more relevant. The rare black science fiction writer in her lifetime, she is now praised for anticipating many of the major issues of the day, from pandemics to the election of Donald Trump. Grand Central Publishing is reissuing many of her novels and the Library of America welcomes her to the canon in 2021 with a volume of her fiction. (Grand Central Publishing via AP)

SEE https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2006/03/octavia-butler-rip.html

Experts worry CDC is sidelined in coronavirus response

By MIKE STOBBE, JASON DEAREN and ZEKE MILLER

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Centers for Disease Control and Prevention pPrincipal Deuty Director Anne Schuchat, center, accompanied by National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Dr. Anthony Fauci, right, testifies before a Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee hearing on the coronavirus on Capitol Hill, Tuesday, March 3, 2020, in Washington. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

NEW YORK (AP) — The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has repeatedly found its suggestions for fighting the coronavirus outbreak taking a backseat to other concerns within the Trump administration. That leaves public health experts outside government fearing the agency’s decades of experience in beating back disease threats are going to waste.

“You have the greatest fighting force against infectious diseases in world history. Why would you not use them?” said Dr. Howard Markel, a public health historian at the University of Michigan.

The complaints have sounded for months. But they have become louder following repeated revelations that transmission-prevention guidance crafted by CDC scientists was never adopted by the White House.

The latest instance surfaced Thursday, when The Associated Press reported that President Donald Trump’s administration shelved a CDC document containing step-by-step advice to local authorities on how and when to reopen restaurants and other public places during the current pandemic.

The administration has disputed the notion that the CDC had been sidelined, saying the agency is integral to the administration’s plans to expand contact tracing nationwide.

But it’s clear that the CDC is playing a much quieter role than it has during previous outbreaks.

The nation’s COVID-19 response has seen a strange turn for the CDC, which opened in 1946 in Atlanta as The Communicable Disease Center to prevent the spread of malaria with a $10 million budget and a few hundred employees. Today, the agency has a core budget of more than $7 billion — a sum that has been shrinking in recent years — and employs nearly 11,000 people.

The CDC develops vaccines and diagnostic tests. Its experts advise doctors how best to treat people, and teach state, local and international officials how to fight and prevent disease. Among the CDC’s elite workforce are hundreds of the world’s foremost disease investigators — microbiologists, pathologists and other scientists dispatched to investigate new and mysterious illnesses.

In 2009, when a new type of flu virus known at the time as swine flu spread around the world, the CDC held almost daily briefings. Its experts released information on a regular basis to describe the unfolding scientific understanding of the virus, and the race for a vaccine.

The federal response to the coronavirus pandemic initially followed a similar pattern.

CDC first learned in late December of the emergence of a new disease in China, and the U.S. identified its first case in January. In those early days, the CDC held frequent calls with reporters. It also quickly developed a test it could run at its labs, and a test kit to be sent to state health department labs to detect the virus.

But February proved to be a disaster. The test kit was flawed, delaying the ability of states to do testing. A CDC-run surveillance system, meant to look for signs of the virus in people who had thought they had the flu, was slow to get off the ground. Officials at the CDC and at other federal agencies were slow to recognize infections from Europe were outpacing ones from travelers to China.

But politically speaking, one the most striking moments that month was something that the CDC — in the eyes of public health experts — got perfectly right.

In late February, Dr. Nancy Messonnier — a well-respected CDC official who was leading the agency’s coronavirus response — contradicted statements by other federal officials that the virus was contained. “It’s not so much a question of if this will happen anymore, but rather more a question of exactly when this will happen – and how many people in this country will have severe illness,” she said.

Stocks plunged. President Donald Trump was enraged.

The White House Coronavirus Task Force moved to center stage. Vice President Mike Pence took control of clearing CDC communications about the virus. CDC news conferences stopped completely after March 9. Messonnier exited the public stage.

CDC Director Robert Redfield continued to keep the low profile he’s had since getting the job. Two other task force members — Dr. Deborah Birx, the task force coordinator, and Dr. Anthony Fauci of the National Institutes of Health — became the task force’s chief scientific communicators.

Health experts have praised Fauci, but they say CDC’s voice is sorely missed.

“At the White House briefings, they (CDC) should be talking about antibody tests and if they work. How long do people have the virus if they’re infected? What are the data for that? The issue ought to be front and center. These are the questions CDC can answer,” said Dr. James Curran, a former CDC star scientist who is now dean of Emory University’s public health school.

The government has continued to look to CDC officials for information and guidance, but there have been repeated instances when what the agency’s experts send to Washington is rejected.

In early March, administration officials overruled CDC doctors who wanted to recommend that elderly and physically fragile Americans be advised not to fly on commercial airlines because of the new coronavirus, the AP reported.

Last month, USA Today reported that the White House task force had forced the CDC had to change orders it had posted keeping cruise ships docked until August. The post was altered to say the ships could sail again in July, the newspaper reported.

And last week, officials nixed CDC draft guidance that was researched and written to help faith leaders, business owners, educators and state and local officials as they begin to reopen.

The 17 pages of guidelines were never approved by Redfield to present to the White House task force, said an administration official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations. They were only discussed at the task force level once the drafts leaked publicly, and no decisions about them were ever made.

Still, the CDC guidelines were the subject of intense debate at the upper echelons of the White House. Some officials saw them as essential to helping businesses and other organizations safely reopen.

Others, including chief of staff Mark Meadows, did not believe it appropriate for the federal government to set guidelines for specific sectors whose circumstances could vary widely depending on the level of outbreak in their areas, according to a person familiar with the discussion. What was necessary for a coffee shop in New York and one in Oklahoma was wildly different, in their view.

They worried about potential negative economic impact from the guidelines, and some aides expressed doubts about whether the government should be prescribing practices to religious communities.

The decision not to issue detailed sector guidance is also in keeping with the White House’s strategic decision to leave the specific details of reopening to states. While Trump had at one point claimed absolute authority to detail how and when states open, he’s adopted a largely hands-off approach as more and more states begin to lift lockdowns.

Trump suggests his decision is in keeping with the principles of federalism, but White House aides acknowledge that it also lessens the political peril for the president — who has come under pressure from conservative allies, particularly in states that haven’t experienced wide outbreaks, to swiftly reopen the country.

On a conference call Thursday afternoon with the House members on the White House’s “Opening Up America” panel, lawmakers in both parties pressed the White House to release sector-specific guidance of the sort currently held up by the administration.

“There was clear bipartisan support for the need to have CDC guidance and the need to have best practices,” said Rep. Ted Deutsch, D-Fla.

The CDC did not respond to a Thursday request for an interview with Redfield.

In a recent interview with the AP, the agency’s No. 2 administrator, Dr. Anne Schuchat, was asked to address reports that CDC recommendations were being ignored in Washington.

She paused, and then replied slowly.

“The CDC is providing our best evidence-based information to policy makers and providing that on a daily basis to protect the American people,” she said, without further comment.

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Dearen reported from Gainesville, Florida. Miller reported from Washington.

Amid pandemic, the world’s working poor hustle to survive
By AYA BATRAWY and EMILY SCHMALL

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In this April 7, 2020, photo, Rosemary Paez Carabajal, left, her husband Yonoma Saenz, their children Laisa and Leonardo pose for a photo at the room they rent in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Carabajal makes a living selling coffee on the street, and can no longer do her job after the government-ordered lockdown to curb the spread of the new coronavirus. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — From India to Argentina, untold millions who were already struggling to get by on the economic margins have had their lives made even harder by pandemic lockdowns, layoffs and the loss of a chance to earn from a hard day’s work.

More than four out of five people in the global labor force of 3.3 billion have been hit by full or partial workplace closures, according to the International Labor Organization, which says 1.6 billion workers in the informal economy “stand in immediate danger of having their livelihoods destroyed.”

The toll for families is hunger and poverty that are either newfound or even more grinding than before. Hunkering down at home to ride out the crisis isn’t an option for many, because securing the next meal means hustling to find a way to sell, clean, drive or otherwise work, despite the risk.

How the world’s poor get through this pandemic will help determine how quickly the global economy recovers and how much aid is needed to keep countries afloat.

Here are six stories from six corners of the world of people who saw their lives upended by the same invisible menace.

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NAIROBI, KENYA

Judith Andeka. (AP Photo/Brian Inganga)

Judith Andeka has seen tough times before.

The 33-year-old mother of five lost her husband two years ago and was left to make ends meet on just $2.50 to $4 a day from washing clothes in Nairobi’s Kibera, one of the world’s biggest slums.

But things were never as tough as they are now.

Neighbors aren’t going to work because of restrictions on movement, so they can’t afford her services. Even if they could, they don’t want her handling their laundry due to virus concerns.

“I haven’t had a good day for the last two weeks,” Andeka said.

She’s been forced to send all five kids to live with relatives who are slightly better off: “I had no choice, because how do you tell a 2-year-old you have no food to give them?”

Like many others in Kibera, home to an estimated 300,000 to 800,000 people, Andeka wakes up early and rushes to a food aid distribution point to try her luck. Crowds often overwhelm the aid workers in their desperation, and men with sticks beat them back and police fire tear gas.

Each time she goes out looking for food or a chance to earn, she risks being robbed of the few belongings in her shack of cracked mud walls and rusty iron sheet roof. There’s a bed, two mismatched plastic chairs, a thin table, some buckets for collecting water from a communal tap and her two most prized possessions: a small gas burner and an old black-and-white TV.


Just a month ago, it didn’t seem life could be any harder. Now she knows otherwise.

“It’s better for corona(virus) to end and we continue living in hunger,” Andeka said. “Hunger is normal.”

- By Tom Odula in Nairobi.

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BUENOS AIRES, ARGENTINA

Rosemary Paez Carabaja with daughter Laisa and son Leonardo. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)

Rosemary Páez Carabajal pushed a coffee cart on the streets of Argentina’s capital, until the lockdown forced her to stop.

Páez Carabajal, her blacksmith husband who’s also out of work and their two children rent a single room in a two-story brick building for the equivalent of $119 a month.

Now the cart sits idle in the hall, and the home is stacked with textbooks as the couple try to home-school their lone school-age child, a 7-year-old son.

They are dipping into meager savings and relying on a one-time government aid voucher worth about $150. For now, their landlord is not collecting rent.

Páez Carabajal worries her small business may not survive even after restrictions are eased.

“People are going to have doubts about buying because the disease is transmitted by grabbing things,” she said.

The coronavirus came at a time of already painful recession in Argentina, with more than a third of its 44 million residents in poverty, according to figures from late 2019. Some 3 million have requested food aid in recent weeks, adding to the 8 million getting such assistance before the pandemic.

“When the quarantine was coming,” Páez Carabajal recalled, “I said: ‘We’re all screwed, us day-to-day vendors.’”

- By Débora Rey and Víctor Caivano in Buenos Aires.

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JAKARTA, INDONESIA

Budi Santosa with his young son. (AP Photo/Dita Alangkara)

When Budi Santosa, a cook in a Chinese fast food restaurant, was told he’d be laid off, he wasn’t sure how he’d tell his wife.

“I am the breadwinner of the family. My children are toddlers. So they are the first things I thought about that day,” he said.

The 32-year-old is one of nearly 2 million who’ve lost jobs as a result of the pandemic in Indonesia, where poverty afflicts close to 10 percent of the country’s nearly 270 million people.

For Santosa the blow from the virus has been twofold: Not only has he lost the job, restrictions on movement mean he no longer earns extra cash moonlighting as a taxi driver, only from making food deliveries, which pays less.

“The government told us to stay at home, but if I stay home my wife and children will have no food to eat,” he said.

Santosa hasn’t had much time to dwell on his misfortune because he has to think about survival: Food, rent and paying down the debt on his motorcycle.

He now averages a little over $4 a day, down from $19 before the pandemic, from deliveries, just enough to buy food for himself, his wife and two young children. She stays at home to take care of the kids in their small, sparse, bare-walled home.

Santosa borrowed from friends to pay April’s rent. He’s not sure what he’ll do for May.

- By Edna Tarigan in Jakarta.

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CAIRO

Hany Hassan, at right, and his friends. (Courtesy of Hany Hassan via AP)

In this sprawling and bustling metropolis of some 20 million people, the “ahwa,” or coffee shop, was among the first casualties of a shutdown order for many Egyptian businesses.

No longer were they allowed to offer “sheesha,” the hookah waterpipe so popular in the Middle East. Before long they were closed altogether.

That cost Hany Hassan his job. He hadn’t been making much — $5 a day — but it was enough to feed his family.

“We are financially ruined,” said the 40-year-old father of four.

Unable to find work in a relatively pricey Cairo he could no longer afford, he moved back to family in his hometown of Mallawi, about 190 miles (300 kilometers) to the south.

But his chances for work there are even dimmer. Chronic back pain means he can’t do the manual labor jobs many people work in the provinces.

Jobless for over a month, he goes out daily looking for work but comes back empty-handed every night. To keep afloat, he’s borrowed money.

Before the pandemic, one in three Egyptians or roughly 33 million people were living on about $1.45 per day, and around 6% were in extreme poverty, or living on less than a dollar a day, according to the country’s official statistics agency.

The government has created an emergency fund for vulnerable people, offering the equivalent of around $32 a month.

Hassan is one of 2 million who have applied. He’s grateful for that, but what he really needs is work. Otherwise, he fears, “there will be famine.”

“It’s not only me,” he said. “there are many people now who have nothing to feed their children.”

- By Samy Magdy in Cairo.

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AMMAN, JORDAN

Khalil Yousef with his children, from left Nada, Hamza and Hazem. (AP Photo/Omar Akour)

Jordan’s wide-reaching lockdown has hit hard in al-Wehdat, a crowded, impoverished refugee camp in the capital.

Brothers Mohammed and Khalil Yousef used to scratch out a day-to-day existence as truck drivers. Mohammed, 40, hauled construction supplies. Khalil, 38, moved produce. Each earned between 10 and 20 dinars, or $14 to $28, a day.

Between them they have nine children, all under 16. In Khalil’s cement shack, the refrigerator is bare save for some tomatoes, onions and a few bags of pita bread.

Mohammed said residents usually help each other out in hard times, but borrowing from neighbors isn’t an option today. “The whole camp is without work now,” he said. “Everyone is broke.”

He opened his wallet to show its contents: ID cards, but no cash: “In the beginning I still had a little bit of money, but now there’s nothing.”

Al-Wehdat is Jordan’s second-largest camp for Palestinian refugees, the descendants of those who fled or were driven from their homes in the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. Over the years, Syrian refugees and Egyptian migrant workers have also settled here, and today about 60,000 people are crammed into the camp.

The government is implementing a program to support day laborers and says it has made payments to more than 200,000 families. The Yousefs have not received anything so far but say some neighbors have gotten the equivalent of $35.

After being idled for weeks, they are now only partially getting back to work as some restrictions on drivers are eased.

There are fears that loosening the lockdown could cause a spike in the virus in overcrowded al-Wehdat, but it’s unemployment that worries people most.

“People are afraid of going broke,” Mohammed said, “of not being able to put food on the table.”

- By Karin Laub in Amman.

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LUCKNOW, INDIA

Mahesh and Gita Verma. (AP Photo/Biswajeet Banerjee)

Mahesh and Gita Verma ran a flower stall outside a Hindu temple honoring the monkey god Hanuman in this northern Indian city.

When authorities ordered a lockdown on nonessential businesses, the Vermas rushed to unload their stock, selling flowers to regular customers for just a few cents.

The money they got amounted to “nothing,” Mahesh said as the couple closed down the stall, covered beneath a blue tarp.

India has the world’s largest population of extremely poor people: 176 million living on less than $1.90 a day, according to the World Bank.

As of 2019, India had halved its poverty rate over the previous 15 years, fueled by growth topping 7% annually, but the crisis is expected to set that back. Economic activity in the country has fallen by 70%, according to French bank Société Générale.

Much of that activity was powered by workers in the informal sector -- rickshaw drivers, housekeepers, farm hands, shoeshiners and modest entrepreneurs like the Vermas -- who make up 85% of India’s labor force and now find themselves indefinitely sidelined.

The Vermas and their five children, ages 8 through 20, were already living hand to mouth before the coronavirus. Now they’ve canceled their cable TV — a small luxury that to them represented success — and are limited to eating mostly potato-based dishes.

“We cannot have food like we used to have,” Gita said.

The couple feared they’d run out of cash and food before the scheduled end of the lockdown May 18, so they took a small loan from friends to convert the flower stall into a bread and milk shop — the kind of business the government has deemed essential and thus exempt from the shutdown.

- By Biswajeet Banerjee in Lucknow and Emily Schmall in New Delhi.