Gig workers face shifting roles, competition in pandemic

Instacart worker Saori Okawa loads groceries into her car for home delivery on Wednesday, July 1, 2020, in San Leandro, Calif. Okawa is one of an estimated 1.5 million so-called gig workers who make a living driving people to airports, picking out produce at grocery stores or providing childcare for working parents. But with the pandemic pummeling the global economy and U.S. unemployment reaching heights not seen since the Great Depression, gig workers are clamoring for jobs that often pay less while facing stiff competition from a crush of newly unemployed workers also attempting to patch together a livelihood until the economy recovers. (AP Photo/Ben Margot)


NEW YORK (AP) — There were the two-hour, unpaid waits outside supermarkets when San Francisco first started to lock down, on top of the heavy shopping bags that had to be lugged up countless flights of stairs.

And yet even after signing up for several apps, 39-year-old Saori Okawa still wasn’t making as much money delivering meals and groceries as she did driving for ride-hailing giant Uber before the pandemic struck.

“I started to juggle three apps to make ends meet,” said Okawa, who recently reduced her work hours after receiving unemployment benefits. “It was really hard, because at that time, I could not afford to stay home because I had to pay rent.”




Instacart worker Saori Okawa shops for produce for home delivery on Wednesday, July 1, 2020, in San Leandro, Calif. Okawa is one of an estimated 1.5 million so-called gig workers who make a living driving people to airports, picking out produce at grocery stores or providing childcare for working parents. But with the pandemic pummeling the global economy and U.S. unemployment reaching heights not seen since the Great Depression, gig workers are clamoring for jobs that often pay less while facing stiff competition from a crush of newly unemployed workers also attempting to patch together a livelihood until the economy recovers. (AP Photo/Ben Margot)

Okawa is one of an estimated 1.5 million so-called gig workers who make a living driving people to airports, picking out produce at grocery stores or providing childcare for working parents. Theirs had already been a precarious situation, largely without safeguards such as minimum wage, unemployment insurance, workers compensation and health and safety protections.

But with the pandemic pummeling the global economy and U.S. unemployment reaching heights not seen since the Great Depression, gig workers are clamoring for jobs that often pay less while facing stiff competition from a crush of newly unemployed workers also attempting to patch together a livelihood - all while trying to avoid contracting the coronavirus themselves.

U.S. unemployment fell to 11.1% in June, a Depression-era level that, while lower than last month, could worsen after a surge in coronavirus cases has led states to close restaurants and bars.

Marisa Martin, a law school student in California, turned to Instacart when a state government summer job as paralegal fell through after a hiring freeze. She said she enjoys the flexibility of choosing her own hours but hopes not to have to turn to gig work in the future. The pay is too volatile — with tips varying wildly and work sometimes slow — to be worth the risk of exposure to the virus.

“We are not getting paid nearly enough when we’re on the front lines interacting with multiple people daily,” said Martin, 24, who moved in with her parents temporarily to save money.

Alexandra Lopez-Djurovic poses for a photograph in the parking of an Acme supermarket after shopping for a client, Wednesday, July 1, 2020, in Bronxville, N.Y. Lopez-Djurovic was working full time as a nanny until her hours were cut substantially due to the coronavirus pandemic, so she started her own grocery delivery service that made up for some of her lost wages, but not all. With the pandemic pummeling the global economy and U.S. unemployment reaching heights not seen since the Great Depression, gig workers are clamoring for jobs that often pay less while facing stiff competition from a crush of newly unemployed workers also attempting to patch together a livelihood until the economy recovers. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens)


Alexandra Lopez-Djurovic, 26, was a full-time nanny in a New York City suburb when one of the parents she works for lost her job while the other saw his hours cut.

“All of a sudden, as much as they want me to stay, they can’t afford to pay me,” she said. Her own hours were reduced to about eight per week.

To make up lost wages, Lopez-Djurovic placed an ad offering grocery delivery on a local Facebook group. Overnight, she got 50 responses.

Lopez-Djurovic charges $30 an hour and coordinates shopping lists over email, offering perks the app companies don’t such as checking the milk’s expiration date before choosing which size to buy. Still, it doesn’t replace the salary she lost.

“One week I might have seven, eight, 10 families I was shopping for,” Lopez-Djurovic said. “I had a week when I had no money. That’s definitely a challenge.”

Upwork, a website that connects skilled freelance workers with jobs, has seen a 50% increase in signups by both workers and employers since the pandemic began, including spikes in jobs related to ecommerce and customer service, said Adam Ozimek, chief economist at Upwork.

“When you need to make big changes fast, a flexible workforce helps you,” he said.

Maya Pinto, a researcher at the National Employment Law Project, said temporary and contract work grew during Great Recession and she expects that many workers will seek such jobs again amid the current crisis.

But increased reliance on temporary and contract work will have negative implications on job quality and security because it “is a way of saving costs and shifting risk onto the worker,” Pinto said.

It’s difficult to assess the overall picture of the gig economy during the pandemic since some parts are expanding while others are contracting. Grocery delivery giant Instacart, for instance, has brought on 300,000 new contracted shoppers since March, more than doubling its workforce to 500,000. Meanwhile, Uber’s business fell 80% in April compared with last year while Lyft’s tumbled 75% in the same period.

For food delivery apps, it’s been a mixed bag. Although they are getting a bump from restaurants offering more takeout options, those gains are being offset by the restaurant industry’s overall decline during the pandemic.

Gig workers are also jockeying for those jobs from all fronts. DoorDash launched an initiative to help out-of-work restaurant workers sign up for delivery work. Uber’s food delivery service, Uber Eats, grew 53% in the first quarter and around 200,000 people have signed up for the app per month since March — about 50% more than usual.

“Drivers are definitely exploring other options, but the issue is that there’s 20 or 30 million people looking for work right now,” said Harry Campbell, founder of The Rideshare Guy. “Sometimes I joke all you need is a pulse and a car to get approved. But what that means is it’s easy for other people to get approved too, so you have to compete for shifts.”

Delivery jobs typically pay less than ride-hailing jobs. Single mom Luz Laguna used to earn about $25 in a half-hour driving passengers to Los Angeles International Airport. When those trips evaporated, Laguna began delivering meals through Uber Eats, working longer hours but making less cash. The base pay is around $6 per delivery, and most people tip around $2, she said. To avoid shelling out more for childcare, she sometimes brings her 3-year-old son along on deliveries.

“This is our only way out right now,” Laguna said. “It’s hard managing, but that’s the only job that I can be able to perform as a single mother.”

Other drivers find it makes more sense to stay home and collect unemployment — a benefit they and other gig workers hadn’t qualified for before the pandemic. They are also eligible to receive an additional $600 weekly check from the federal government, a benefit that became available to workers who lost their jobs during the pandemic. Taken together, that’s more than what many ride-hailing drivers were making before the pandemic, Campbell said.

But that $600 benefit will expire at the end of July, and the $2 trillion government relief package that extended unemployment benefits to gig workers expires at the end of the year.

“So many drivers are going to have to sit down and decide, do I want to put myself at risk and my family at risk once I’m not getting the government assistance?” Campbell said.

Virus, Floyd death merge in brutal blow to Black well-being

In this June 5, 2020 photo provided by the Mountain Area Health Education Center, physicians, residents and staff from the facility in Asheville, N.C., take a knee to show support for renewed calls for racial justice after the police killing of George Floyd. Government statistics from late January through May 30 suggest an increase in U.S. deaths from chronic diseases compared with historical trends. They include 7,000 excess deaths from hypertension, about 4,000 from diabetes and 3,000 from strokes -- all conditions that disproportionately affect Blacks, although the data don’t include race. (Brenda Benik/MAHEC via AP)

Doctors have long known that Black people suffer disproportionately.

Before the renewed cries of “Black Lives Matter,” they knew racism has very real, physical effects. They knew about socio-economic challenges that contribute to poor health. And they treated diabetes, hypertension and other chronic diseases that hit their Black patients harder than their white ones.

Then came the coronavirus and George Floyd, a crushing double blow to Black people’s well-being. Doctors and their patients are reeling from the impact.

“We are exhausted and we are not OK,” says Dr. Patrice Harris, who just ended a yearlong term as president of the American Medical Association — only the second black to head the group. She was speaking not so much for herself as for her community.

Police violence is always an injustice, “but its harm is elevated amid the remarkable stress people are facing amid the COVID-19 pandemic,” Harris and AMA Trustee Dr. Jesse Ehrenfeld said in a recent online opinion article.

Floyd’s death is the most extreme example of over-policing that has been linked with elevated stress, high blood pressure and other chronic illness that contribute to the high coronavirus death rates in Black people.

As their offices start reopening for regular appointments, doctors are bracing for the fallout: a wave of sicker, shell-shocked patients.

Dr. Brittani James is a primary-care doctor. Her clinic’s mostly Black neighborhood was one of the last in Chicago to get a COVID-19 testing site. They opened first in wealthier, whiter areas.

She said it’s heartbreaking to see many patients hit hard by the virus, while others grow sicker from chronic disease.

“As a Black doctor, I feel like I’m failing my patients every day,” she said.

While her clinic has remained open, many patients are too terrified of COVID-19 to come in. That means trying to treat complaints without physical exams or blood tests. She has tried sending patients prescriptions for blood pressure cuffs but some can’t afford the cost. The options are “have their blood pressure uncontrolled or adjust their medications blind.”

For every patient who has called for an appointment, there are 10 others she hasn’t heard from in months.

“There is no way that all of a sudden overnight there’s no more heart attacks, no more strokes, no more patients having poorly controlled diabetes,” she said. “We have all seen our patients’ visits stop. Which is scaring me a lot.”

This May 2020 selfie photo provided by Terrence Nichols, 44, shows him in Chicago after a COVID-19 infection. Nichols has recovered physically from a relatively mild case of COVID-19, diagnosed in March. But as a Black man in Chicago, knowing its impact in his community has left Nichols feeling fearful, vulnerable and angry over the president’s push to reopen. (Terrence Nichols via AP)

It’s not just happening in Chicago.

James fears a “second wave” of worsening chronic illness and non-COVID-19 deaths is coming.

There are signs it is already happening.

Government statistics from late January through May 30 suggest an increase in U.S. deaths from chronic diseases compared with historical trends. They include 7,000 excess deaths from hypertension, about 4,000 from diabetes and 3,000 from strokes — all conditions that disproportionately affect Blacks, although the data don’t include race.

James says Floyd’s brutal death has added psychological trauma to the mix, and mental health care in many communities is scarce.

“There is an overwhelming need that we do not have the resources to address,” she said. “It’s devastating.”

Royanna Williams, 45, is a Black woman in Asheville, North Carolina, who suffers with persistent pain from autoimmune illnesses, which disproportionately affect Blacks.

Living with chronic illness had already left her anxious and depressed — feelings that have multiplied with the pandemic, Floyd’s death and the unrest that has followed.

“This right here is a whole ’nother ballgame,” she said.

Williams has started mental health televisits. They’ve helped.

She says white doctors have often discounted her pain and it has worsened as the pandemic has postponed her physical therapy sessions. Research has shown than Blacks are often under-treated for pain, partly because of false beliefs about supposed biological differences.

Now there’s evidence that Blacks with fever and cough are less likely than whites to be referred for COVID-19 testing, said Dr. Malika Fair, a health equity director at the Association of American Medical Colleges.

This even though Blacks are more likely to die from the disease. As of early June, an AP analysis found that roughly 26% of COVID-19 deaths were in Black patients, while Black people represented 13% of the population in the 40 states that provided detailed demographic data.

Rosetta Watson is only 38 but she has heart failure and needs valve replacement surgery. When COVID-19 hit Chicago in March, doctors postponed the operation indefinitely.

The virus has killed four of her relatives. She knows it could kill her too because of her poor health.

“I don’t know if I’m angry or am just numb to it,” Watson said.

Her doctor thinks her increasing fatigue may be from the leaky valve. She understands that COVID-19 cases are more urgent but the delays are frustrating.

Meantime, she has seen the protests on TV and supports the cause but not the property damage.

She’s been racially targeted, not by police but by strangers who disparage her white boyfriend with racist terms and by elderly neighbors in her apartment building who deride “you people” and won’t ride with her in the elevator.

“Seriously, it’s 2020. When we gonna grow up?” Watson said.

___

Follow AP Medical Writer Lindsey Tanner at @LindseyTanner.

___

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

THIS AIN'T '68

Wide shift in opinion on police, race rare in US polling

By HANNAH FINGERHUT July 2, 2020

1 of 6

FILE - In this June 3, 2020, file photo, demonstrators protest the death of George Floyd, Wednesday, June 3, 2020, at the U.S. Capitol in Washington. It’s rare for public opinion on social issues to change sharply and swiftly. And yet in the wake of George Floyd’s death, polling shows dramatic movement in Americans’ opinions on police brutality and racial injustice. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File)

WASHINGTON (AP) — It’s rare for public opinion on social issues to change sharply and swiftly. And yet in the wake of George Floyd’s death, Americans’ opinions about police brutality and racial injustice have moved dramatically.

About half of American adults believe police violence against the public is a “very” or “extremely” serious problem, according to a poll conducted earlier this month by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. Only about a third said the same as recently as last September, as well as in July 2015, just a few months after Freddie Gray, a Black man, died in police custody in Baltimore.

Floyd, a Black man, died on May 25 after a white Minneapolis police officer pressed his knee into Floyd’s neck for nearly eight minutes. In the weeks that followed, protests erupted nationwide.

The recent shifts in public opinion stand out when compared with years of survey research conducted following similar slayings of Black people by police. They are distinct from slow and steady movement on other social issues, such as support for same-sex marriage. And there is evidence they may last.

“I think this seems to be something different from the gradual change that we often see with cultural and social issues,” said Jennifer Benz, the deputy director of the AP-NORC Center.

The new poll and recent trends from NORC’s General Social Survey, she said, are “suggestive that there’s been something brewing for the past couple of years that could well be leading to lasting change, as opposed to situational change.”

MORE ON THIS MOMENT

More Americans than in 2015 say police in most communities are more likely to use deadly force against a Black person than a white person, 61% today compared with 49% in 2015. Only about a third of Americans say the race of a person does not make a difference in the use of deadly force, compared with roughly half in 2015.

And 65% say that police officers who cause injury or death in the course of their job are treated too leniently by the justice system, compared with 41% in 2015. Fewer now think police are treated either fairly or too harshly.

The recent poll builds on marked changes in public attitudes toward race relations observed in the 2018 General Social Survey, a long-running poll of Americans that started in 1972. The percentage saying the country spends too little on improving conditions of Black Americans peaked at 52%, up dramatically from 30% in 2014. Republicans and Democrats alike were more likely to say that. The poll also found more Americans attributing racial disparities in income, jobs, housing and education to discrimination.

SLOW AND STEADY SOCIAL CHANGE

Opinion on social issues often change gradually over an extended period of time.

Just 11% of Americans said gay and lesbian people should have the right to marry in 1988, according to the General Social Survey. That grew to 31% by 16 years later, the next time the question was asked. But after that, support for gay marriage didn’t rise by more than 10 percentage points from one survey to the next. Support instead grew steadily over two decades to become the majority opinion, most recently at 68% in 2018.

The trend is similar in support for marijuana legalization. In 1973, the General Social Survey found that just 19% of Americans said marijuana should be made legal. Support ticked up and down for most of the following three decades, never exceeding 30%. It reached 31% in 2000 and steadily rose to 44% in 2010 and 61% in 2018. Like for same-sex marriage, the share saying marijuana should be legal never rose more than 10 percentage points from one poll to the next.

REACTIVE CHANGE

Sometimes, public opinion responds to specific events that bring attention to a social issue, but then returns back to a “normal” in quiet moments. Polling by Gallup is evidence of how American views on gun laws are responsive to mass shootings, with somewhat more saying they want to see laws on the sale of firearms made more strict in the aftermath of such an attack.


Support for stricter gun laws ticked up from 60% in February 1999 to 66% in late April that year, just after the shooting at Columbine High School in Colorado, which killed 21 people. By the early 2000s, the percentage of Americans preferring stricter gun laws slipped back down — as low as 51% in October 2002.

Gallup polling shows the trend has oscillated regularly since. It fell as low as 43% in 2011 but rose again to 58% the next time the question was asked in December 2012, after the shooting at an elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut, that killed 28 people. A year later, support fell back to 49%.

A similar bump again happened after the high school shooting in Parkland, Florida, in February 2018.

POLITICAL CHANGE

Meanwhile, significant shifts in public opinion inevitably follow presidential and midterm elections. In April 2016, before President Donald Trump was elected, just 34% of Republicans considered the nation’s economy to be in good shape, according to an AP-NORC poll. By March 2017, that figure rose to 63% and was 89% in January 2020 before taking a hit amid the economic fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Meanwhile, according to Gallup polling, just 24% of Democrats in 2018 said they were satisfied with the country’s global standing, down 32 percentage points from 2017. What changed? Trump’s inauguration in 2017 following eight years of President Barack Obama’s time in office.

PROFOUND MOMENTS

But events or crises that touch most Americans can often be agents of change.

Approval of President George W. Bush went from 51% in the days just before the Sept. 11 attacks to 86% in the days just after, according to Gallup polling.

And more recently, the pandemic has deeply affected Americans’ views of their own lives. A May poll from NORC at the University of Chicago found the lowest percentage of Americans saying they are very happy in nearly five decades. Just 14% say they very happy today, down from 31% in 2018.___

Online:

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

1 of 2 protesters hit by driver on Seattle freeway dies

Protesters had shut down the interstate for 19 days in a row

THIS IS A RESULT OF BOTH CHARLOTTESVILLE 

AND GOP GOVERNMENTS PASSING ANTI-PROTESTING

LAWS ALLOWING VEHICULAR ASSAULT OF ANTI-PIPELINE

PROTESTERS IN THE DAKOTA'S
1 of 7 https://apnews.com/ff3c4fb3a627d694b5d888dcd48c89b0
Emergency workers tend to an injured person on the ground after a driver sped through a protest-related closure on the Interstate 5 freeway in Seattle, authorities said early Saturday, July 4, 2020. Dawit Kelete, 27, has been arrested and booked on two counts of vehicular assault. (James Anderson via AP)
SEATTLE (AP) — One of two people hit by a man who drove his car onto a closed Seattle freeway and into a crowd protesting police brutality has died.

Summer Taylor, 24, of Seattle died Saturday evening at Harborview Medical Center, spokesperson Susan Gregg said.

Taylor and Diaz Love, 32, of Portland, Oregon, were hit by the car that barreled through a panicked crowd of protesters on Interstate 5 early Saturday morning, officials said.

Dawit Kelete of Seattle drove the car around vehicles that were blocking I-5 and sped into the crowd about 1:40 a.m., according to a police report released by the Washington State Patrol. Video taken at the scene by protesters showed people shouting “Car! Car!” before fleeing the roadway.

Love is in serious condition in the intensive care unit, Harborview, Gregg said.

Love was filming the protest in a nearly two-hour-long Facebook livestream captioned “Black Femme March takes I-5” when the video ended abruptly; with about 15 seconds left, shouts of “Car!” can be heard as the camera starts to shake before screeching tires and the sound of impact are heard.

A graphic video posted on social media showed the white Jaguar racing toward a group of protesters who are standing behind several parked cars, set up for protection. The car swerves around the other vehicles and slams into the two protesters, sending them flying into the air.

The driver, who was alone, fled the scene after hitting the protesters, Trooper Chase Van Cleave told The Associated Press. One of the other protesters got in a car and chased the driver for about a mile. He was able to stop him by pulling his car in front of the Jaguar, Van Cleave said.

Troopers arrived, and the driver was put in custody, Washington State Patrol Capt. Ron Mead said.

Kelete was described by officers as reserved and sullen when he was arrested, according to court documents. He also asked if the pedestrians were OK, the documents say.

Kelete was booked into the King County Correctional Facility on Saturday morning on two counts of vehicular assault. Bail was denied.

A judge found probable cause to hold Kelete on an investigation of vehicular assault. He faces a second court hearing on Monday at which the judge will determine if he can be released on bail, according to court documents.

It was not immediately clear if Kelete had an attorney who could speak on his behalf.

Officials were trying to determine the motive as well as where he got onto the interstate, which had been closed by the state patrol for more than an hour before the protesters were hit. Mead said they suspect Kelete drove the wrong way on a ramp. Trooper Rick Johnson said the driver went through a barrier that closed the freeway.

Troopers did not know whether it was a targeted attack, but impairment was not considered a factor, Mead said.

Kelete has a Seattle address. He is listed in public records as a student who attended Washington State University between 2011 and 2017 majoring in business and commerce. His enrollment status could not be confirmed because the university was closed Saturday.

The Washington State Patrol said Saturday evening that going forward it won’t allow protesters to enter I-5 and would arrest pedestrians on the freeway.

Seattle has been the site of prolonged unrest following the May 25 police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, which sparked nationwide protests. Dozens of people were arrested this past week in connection with protests as demonstrations continue after authorities cleared the “Capitol Hill Occupied Protest” zone Wednesday morning.

Protesters had shut down the interstate for 19 days in a row, Mead said at a press conference.

‘Lift Every Voice and Sing’ hymn ignites hope across nation

By JONATHAN LANDRUM Jr.

In this June 19, 2020, photo, people attend a peaceful rally in Chicago to mark Juneteenth. The holiday celebrates the day in 1865 that enslaved black people in Galveston, Texas, learned they had been freed from bondage, more than two years after the Emancipation Proclamation. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)
LOS ANGELES (AP) — The Black national anthem was born more than a century ago, but the popular hymn within the African American community called “Lift Every Voice and Sing” has resurrected a beacon of hope during nationwide protests.

In recent weeks, countless rallies were held from D.C. to Seattle with arm-locked protesters of different races reciting the song’s lyrics while marching against police brutality of unarmed Black people. The demonstrations throughout the U.S. were ignited after George Floyd, who died after a Minneapolis police officer pressed a knee into his neck for several minutes.

FILE - In this June 15, 2020 file photo, people march down the street towards the Georgia state Capitol to protest against the mistreatment of black people and to press for policy change, in Atlanta. “Lift Every Voice and Sing” was created more than a century ago. But the hymn dubbed as the Black national anthem has resurrected a beacon of hope during recent nationwide protests. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson, File)

Some marches were peaceful, while others turned violent. But one common thread at protests were people chanting the anthem‘s long-lasting message of faithfulness, freedom and equality.

“I saw whites singing that song saying ‘No justice, no peace’ and ‘’Black Lives Matter.’ It’s something I didn’t see early in my career or even 15 years ago,” recalled Rev. Al Sharpton while protesters in Minneapolis in the aftermath of Floyd’s death. “You got to see people other than us appreciating our song, our anthem. This is just not a moment. This is a real movement.”

Growing up, Sharpton said he learned self-identity through the anthem, which was written as a poem by James Weldon Johnson before his brother, J. Rosamond, turned it into music. The song was performed for the first time in 1900, not long after it was written.


In this June 19, 2020, photo, singers perform "Lift Every Voice and Sing," dubbed as the Black national anthem, in Lincoln, Neb., during a Juneteenth rally. Juneteenth is the holiday celebrating the day in 1865 that enslaved black people in Galveston, Texas, learned they had been freed from bondage, more than two years after the Emancipation Proclamation. (AP Photo/Nati Harnik)


The NAACP dubbed “Lift Every Voice and Sing” as the Black national anthem in 1919. The decision came more than a decade before “The Star-Spangled Banner” was adopted as the national anthem of the U.S.

During the civil rights movement, the song was popular during protests with the likes of “We Shall Overcome” and “Amazing Grace,” which was written by former slave trader John Newton but his song helped define racial equality.

Sharpton said the ability of “ Lift Every Voice and Sing ” enduring several generations speaks volumes.

“The fact that this song could survive us going from the back of the bus and the outhouse to the Truman Balcony at the White House, it shows that this song really resonates in our hearts,” he said. “Very few songs would last through those kinds of changes in Black America. That’s why it’s a great barometer to the cultural shift.”

Protesters are certainly making the song heard. In Dallas, hundreds flocked to the plaza where John F. Kennedy was shot in 1963 to march before collectively taking a moment to sing the song. Protesters sang the song last month at the historic Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. The same happened in Los Angeles, Chicago, Baltimore and Minneapolis.

FILE - In this Jan. 20, 2009 file photo, the Rev. Joseph E. Lowery gives the benediction at the end of the swearing-in ceremony for President Barak Obama at the U.S. Capitol in Washington. Lowery began his benediction reciting the third verse of "Lift Every Voice and Sing," known as the Black national anthem. "Lift Every Voice and Sing" has been resurrected as a beacon of hope for all races during nationwide protests. (AP Photo/Ron Edmonds, File)

“The song is a refreshment and renewal of my faith,” said Young, the civil rights leader and former Atlanta mayor and U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. He said the singing of the song at protests shows how “desegregation of America is really the integration of cultures, ideals, energies and spirituality.”

Young has known the song’s lyrics since kindergarten and even recited every word during a recent interview. He believes the Black anthem is a more “powerful and patriotic” song than America’s national anthem, which was written by a slave owner who made a painful reference to slavery in its little-known third stanza.

“It’s much more applicable to the United States as we would love it to be more than the ‘Star-Spangled Banner,’” Young said of the black anthem.

Along with the protest, the staying power of “Lift Every Voice and Sing” into broader audiences can also be credited to the biggest entertainers and political figures who have referenced it.


Beyoncé performed the song in front of a mostly white audience at the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival in 2018. The late Rev. Joseph Lowery began his benediction reciting the song’s third verse at the inauguration for President Barack Obama in 2009; and musicians Mike Phillips and West Byrd sprinkled in snippets of the song while playing the national anthem at NASCAR’s 2020 Pocono 350 on Sunday.

The NFL will play “Lift Every Voice and Sing” before each game during Week 1, a person familiar with the discussions told The Associated Press. It’ll be played first when the Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs host the Houston Texans to kick off the NFL regular season on Sept. 10.

In this April 18, 2020 file photo Harlem resident who goes by the name New World Warrior, center, plays "Lift Every Voice And Sing" on his trumpet at one of multiple stops along 125th Street, blaring the song repeatedly as people walk on by, in New York. The Black national anthem was born more than a century ago, but the popular hymn within the African American community called "Lift Every Voice and Sing" has been resurrected as a beacon of hope for all races during nationwide protests. (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews, File)

Last month, Democratic presidential hopeful Joe Biden released the “Lift Every Voice” plan, which is a reference to the song. The plan proposes to address issues in the black community, including “systemic misconduct” in police departments and prosecutors’ offices.

Rev. Markel Hutchins said Biden’s reference to the song and hearing white Americans singing the lyrics has given him “hope and confidence, although we’re in a dark place as a nation today.”

“There’s new inspiration and motivation in America today for people of every walk of life, every race, every culture and every orientation,” he said.

Some NBA and collegiate teams played the song at games during Black History Month years ago, thanks to Eugene Williams. The retired Howard University professor lobbied for teams to play the song in February.

Williams wants the song to be played in all U.S. sporting venues, but Young and Hutchins are unsure if that should be the case. Hutchins thinks the song should be sung with pride and not taken lightly.

“I think the song is just too sacred to be reduced to what the ‘Star-Spangled Banner’ is,” he said. “The ‘Star-Spangled Banner’ is patriotic and inherently and uniquely American. It represents the complexities of America. But ‘Lift Every Voice and Sing’ is much more sacred on my view and should be handled as such.”

Sharpton confidently said the song should be performed at big venues for sporting events and beyond.

“It should because it recognizes the heritage and the true authentic America struggle,” he said. “There’s always been the controversy about race being involved in the national anthem. Here’s an authentic anthem coming out of the American experience that does not denigrate the country, but also uplifts the struggle and affirmation of people that have been part of this country.”

___

Follow AP Entertainment Writer Jonathan Landrum Jr. on Twitter: http://twitter.com/MrLandrum31

Facebook groups pivot to attacks on Black Lives Matter

WHITE RACIST CONSERVATIVE GROUPS ON FACEBOOK SAY IT AIN'T SO

By AMANDA SEITZ

FILE - In this June 19, 2020, file photo, protesters wear protective masks as they march after a Juneteenth rally outside the Brooklyn Museum, in the Brooklyn borough of New York. A loose network of Facebook groups that took root across the country in April to organize protests over coronavirus stay-at-home orders has become a hub of misinformation and conspiracies theories that have pivoted to a variety of new targets. Their latest: Black Lives Matter and the nationwide protests against racial injustice. (AP Photo/John Minchillo
CHICAGO (AP) — A loose network of Facebook groups that took root across the country in April to organize protests over coronavirus stay-at-home orders has become a hub of misinformation and conspiracies theories that have pivoted to a variety of new targets. Their latest: Black Lives Matter and the nationwide protests of racial injustice.

These groups, which now boast a collective audience of more than 1 million members, are still thriving after most states started lifting virus restrictions.

HOMEMADE SIGNS PROVES THIS IS A GENUINE GRASSROOTS MOVEMENT

NOT PAID PROTESTERS, THEY WOULD HAVE PROFESSIONALLY PRINTED 

SIGNS.

And many have expanded their focus.

One group transformed itself last month from “Reopen California” to “California Patriots Pro Law & Order,” with recent posts mocking Black Lives Matter or changing the slogan to “White Lives Matter.” Members have used profane slurs to refer to Black people and protesters, calling them “animals,” “racist” and “thugs”— a direct violation of Facebook’s hate speech standards.

Others have become gathering grounds for promoting conspiracy theories about the protests, suggesting protesters were paid to go to demonstrations and that even the death of George Floyd, an unarmed Black man who died in the custody of Minneapolis police, was staged.

An Associated Press review of the most recent posts in 40 of these Facebook groups — most of which were launched by conservative groups or pro-gun activists — found the conversations largely shifted last month to attacking the nationwide protests over the killing of Black men and women after Floyd’s death.
Full Coverage: Racial injustice

Facebook users in some of these groups post hundreds of times a day in threads often seen by members only and shielded from public view.

“Unless Facebook is actively looking for disinformation in those spaces, they will go unnoticed for a long time and they will grow,” said Joan Donovan, the research director at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics, and Public Policy. “Over time, people will drag other people into them and they will continue to organize.”

Facebook said it is aware of the collection of reopen groups, and is using technology as well as relying on users to identify problematic posts. The company has vowed in the past to look for material that violates its rules in private groups as well as in public places on its site. But the platform has not always been able to deliver on that promise.

Shortly after the groups were formed, they were rife with coronavirus misinformation and conspiracy theories, including assertions that masks are “useless,” the U.S. government intends to forcibly vaccinate people and that COVID-19 is a hoax intended to hurt President Donald Trump’s re-election chances this fall.

Posts in these private groups are less likely to be scrutinized by Facebook or its independent fact-checkers, said Donovan. Facebook enlists media outlets around the world, including The Associated Press, to fact check claims on its site. Members in these private groups have created an echo chamber and tend to agree with the posts, so are therefore less likely to flag them for Facebook or fact-checkers to review, Donovan added.

At least one Facebook group, ReOpen PA, asked its 105,000 members to keep the conversation focused on reopening businesses and schools in Pennsylvania, and implemented rules to forbid posts about the racial justice protests as well as conspiracy theories about the efficacy of masks.

But most others have not moderated their pages as closely.

For example, some groups in New Jersey, Texas and Ohio have labeled systemic racism a hoax. A member of the California Facebook group posted a widely debunked flyer that says “White men, women and children, you are the enemy,” which was falsely attributed to Black Lives Matter. Another falsely claimed that a Black man was brandishing a gun outside the St. Louis mansion where a white couple confronted protesters with firearms. Dozens of users in several of the groups have pushed an unsubstantiated theory that liberal billionaire George Soros is paying crowds to attend racial justice protests.

Facebook members in two groups — Wisconsinites Against Excessive Quarantine and Ohioans Against Excessive Quarantine — also regularly refer to protesters as “animals,” “thugs,” or “paid” looters.

In the Ohio group, one user wrote on May 31: “The focus is shifted from the voice of free people rising up against tyranny ... to lawless thugs from a well known racist group causing violence and upheaval of lives.”

Those two pages are part of a network of groups in Ohio, Wisconsin, Minnesota, New York and Pennsylvania created by conservative activist Ben Dorr, who has for years raised money to lobby on hot-button conservative issues like abortion or gun rights. Their latest cause — pushing for governors to reopen their states — has attracted hundreds of thousands of followers in the private Facebook groups they launched.
Private groups that balloon to that size, with little oversight, are like “creepy basements” where extremist views and misinformation can lurk, said disinformation researcher Nina Jankowicz, a fellow at the nonpartisan Wilson Center, a Washington, D.C., think tank.

“It’s sort of a way that the platforms are enabling some of the worst actors to stay on it,” said Jankowicz. “Rather than being de-platformed — they can organize.”

__

Associated Press technology writer Barbara Ortutay in Oakland, California, contributed.

Turkish fireworks factory explosion: At least 4 dead, dozens injured - VIDEO

By Jean Lotus July 3 (UPI) --

At least four people were killed and more than 90 injured Friday in an explosion at a Turkish fireworks factory, and the hunt continued for dozens of people feared to be trapped in rubble, authorities said.

Social media posters captured videos of the explosion, in Turkey's northeastern Sakarya province.

"A total of 97 patients were admitted to five hospitals," Fahrettin Koca, the country's health minister told state-run TRT World. Koca reported that rescue teams were working to free at least 45 others trapped in the rubble.

"All kinds of measures are being taken as of now," Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, told the broadcasting agency.

About 110 tons of explosive material were stored in the factory of Big Coskunlar Fireworks, the country's largest pyrotechnics manufacturer, the governor of Sakarya, Cetin Oktay Kaldirim said.

Firetrucks and ambulances initially were blocked from the scene because the fire was so intense, Kaldirim said.

The explosion was believed to be the the third at the factory since 2009, NBC News reported. Fireworks are used in Turkey to celebrate weddings, graduations and other family holidays, NBC said.

PALESTINIAN LIVES MATTER

A woman carries a poster of a Palestinian girl during a protest by Palestinians and Israelis against Israel's plan to annex parts of the West Bank at the Almog Junction near Jericho in the West Bank on Saturday, June 27, 2020. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says Jewish settlements in Palestinian Territories could be annexed by Israel as early as July 1. Photo by Debbie Hill/UPI - Permalink

COVID-19: WHO discontinues trial on hydroxychloroquine

The World Health Organization announced Saturday that it has discontinued the hydroxychloroquine trial for patients hospitalized with COVID-19. UPI File Photo | License Photo
July 4 (UPI) -- The World Health Organization announced Saturday that it discontinued its trial on hydroxychloroquine's effect on COVID-19 patients in hospitals.

WHO said in a statement that it accepted a recommendation from the Solidarity Trial's International Steering Committee that it stop the testing of the drug.

The decision to cease the trial came after interim trial results showed that the anti-malaria drug had little or no reduction in mortality of patients hospitalized for the novel coronavirus.
WHO also announced Saturday that it discontinued a trial for lopinavir/ritonavir arms, which are used along with other medications to treat HIV infection after finding in the interim trial that it similarly had little or no reduction on deaths of hospitalized COVID-19 patients.

The decision does not affect other studies evaluating these drugs for non-hospitalized patients, WHO said.

The National Institute of Health similarly halted a hydroxychloroquine trial last month after a study showed no harm or benefit from the anti-malaria drug's use in hospitalized COVID-19 patients.
Last month, British researchers similarly found no benefit of hydroxychloroquine.

President Donald Trump has touted hydroxychloroquine's potential use against COVID-19

and said he used the drug himself for two weeks in May. White House physician Dr. Sean Conley said last month that Trump completed the two-week regimen "safely," after weighing risks and hypothetical benefit.

Still, citing safety and efficacy concerns, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration withdrew Emergency Use Authorization for anti-malaria drugs hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine last month.

FDA Chief Scientist Denise Hinton said the agency would no long allow either drug to be prescribed to hospitalized COVID-19 patients or be used in clinical trials through the emergency authorization it gave in March as both are "unlikely to be effective."

RELATED Kimberly Guilfoyle, Trump campaign official, Donald Trump Jr.'s girlfriend, has COVID-19  

SHE WAS AT MOUNT RUSHMORE AND INTRODUCED DON JR.
SHE WAS A SUPER SPREADER AT A SUPER SPREADER EVEN

A report published in the journal Heart Rhythm last month found that hydroxychloroquine led to a potentially deadly heart rhythm disorder in an 84-year-old woman treated for COVID-19. The FDA also recently cautioned against using hydroxychloroquine or chloroquine for COVID-19 outside of hospital setting or clinical trial due to risk of heart rhythm problems.
https://www.fda.gov/drugs/drug-safety-and-availability/fda-cautions-against-use-hydroxychloroquine-or-chloroquine-covid-19-outside-hospital-setting-or

The WHO had resumed the hydroxychloroquine medical trials early last month after pausing the tests on May 25 for review by the Data Safety Monitoring Board.

upi.com/7019190

China appoints tough-talking party official to oversee security law

A man is detained and searched by police during a rally against the national security law in Hong Kong Wednesday. On Friday Chinese officials confirmed that party hardliner Zheng Yanxiong had been appointed to oversee implementation of the new law. Photo by Jerome Favre/EPA-EFE
July 3 (UPI) -- Chinese government officials confirmed Friday that they have appointed hardline party official Zheng Yanxiong to lead its new security agency and implement a far-reaching national security law.

Yanxiong is best known in China for his role in dealing with a protest over a land dispute in Wukan, in the southern part of the country, in 2011.

The new law, overseen by an agency that reports directly to Beijing, targets secession, subversion and terrorism with harsh punishments that can include life in prison.

Critics say it erodes Hong Kong's freedoms, and some pro-democracy activists have resigned their roles in government and even fled the territory.

RELATED Senate passes bill to punish China over Hong Kong national security law

The law expands Beijing's oversight of Hong Kong, which had been subsumed by pro-democracy protests that erupted last summer as China attempted to pass legislation that would allow some fugitives in Hong Kong to be extradited to the mainland for trial before Chinese Communist Party Courts.

It went into effect earlier this week, and police made the first arrests under the new law Wednesday.

One of the individuals arrested Wednesday, a motorcyclist accused of riding into a group of police while carrying a flag calling for the liberation of Hong Kong, was charged Friday with inciting secession and terrorism.

RELATED CBP officers seize 13-tons of human hair products imported from China

Also on Friday, another senior Beijing official said China's top legislative body could draft more laws affecting Hong Kong in the near future.

"Based on Hong Kong's actual situation, the standing committee can continue to make more laws, and lay down penalties for acts that threaten national security," Deng Zhonghua, deputy chief of the State Council's Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office, told CCTV.