#AND LIKE IT WAS RIGHT AFTER THE COVID SHUTDOWN WHERE IS THE SOLIDARITY

[ah0yh0y]

thinking about the 2020 tony awards and how the lightning thief musical got so unfairly snubbed im so angry

[newstfionline]

Wednesday, October 4, 2023

Why Consumers Are Mad About Inflation Even Though It Has Fallen (WSJ) Inflation has fallen sharply in the past year. The economy remains strong. Yet Americans remain deeply unhappy about the economy, often citing inflation. One big reason: While economists and the Federal Reserve focus on inflation, which is the rate of change in prices, Americans in their everyday lives usually focus on the absolute price of the things they need and want. On that front, prices for many items remain well above their levels just before or at the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic and aren’t likely to return to where they were. “The fact that inflation has come down doesn’t mean prices have come down,” said Tim Quinlan, senior economist at Wells Fargo.

The House removed Kevin McCarthy as speaker in an unprecedented vote. (WSJ) Democrats sided with a band of GOP dissidents to oust the Republican leader after nine months of fighting with a hard-right conservative wing of his party and days after he engineered legislation to avert a government shutdown. McCarthy was vulnerable because of the GOP’s 221-212 majority. Rep. Matt Gaetz (R., Fla.) this week led the charge to remove McCarthy; the measure passed 216 to 210. It was unclear who the next speaker nominee for Republicans would be.

UN approves Haiti security mission to fight gangs (AP/Guardian) The U.N. Security Council has decided to send Kenyan armed forces into Haiti. The decision marks the first time that armed forces will be entering the country in almost 20 years, though the U.S. has unofficially interfered in Haiti multiple times during that timespan. Under Monday’s resolution, the Kenyan-led force will be active in Haiti for one year, with funding provided on a voluntary basis—the U.S. has already pledged up to $200 million. The deployment comes in response to widespread gang violence, which has grown following the effective end of its democratically-elected government—the country is now nominally ruled by Prime Minister Ariel Henry, who is backed by the international community. While the U.S. ambassador to the U.N. said she was confident that Kenyan forces would be able to handle the situation in Haiti, critics have raised questions about the police force’s humanitarian record.

E.U. diplomats rally in Kyiv as cracks grow in West’s support (Washington Post) A delegation of top European foreign ministers was in Kyiv on Monday in a show of solidarity with an embattled government. E.U. foreign policy chief Josep Borrell billed their arrival in the Ukrainian capital as part of a “historic meeting” with a candidate for membership of the European Union. German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock declared that the future of Ukraine would be within the bloc and hailed the continent’s “community of freedom, which will stretch from Lisbon to Luhansk.” Ukraine’s present is far less rosy, with its province in Luhansk among the territories under Russian control and occupation. A slow going Ukrainian counteroffensive, outfitted by Western governments, is battering against Russian fortifications across a vast front line spanning the country’s south and east. Casualties are mounting, while concerns grow over the flow of vital foreign aid that Ukraine needs to sustain its resistance to Russia’s invasion.

Ukraine is using a warfare tool as old as time in its conflict against Russia: decoys. (WSJ) The bogus howitzers, radar stations and mortars are used to lure Moscow’s missiles, shells and drones. The logic? Every weapon that strikes the fakes is one fewer danger to real equipment and troops. High-quality replicas made from rigid plastic foam, plumbing and scrap equipment can help mislead an enemy about attack plans or how well defended an area is, deterring an assault. Kyiv declined to comment on how widely used they are, but fakes likely account for some of the weapons Moscow claims to have destroyed on the battlefield, which exceed the numbers in Ukraine’s arsenal. Russia also deploys decoys; their effectiveness is uncertain.

Azerbaijan moves to reaffirm control of Nagorno-Karabakh as the Armenian exodus slows to a trickle (AP) The last bus carrying ethnic Armenians from Nagorno-Karabakh left the region Monday, completing a grueling weeklong exodus of over 100,000 people—more than 80% of its residents—after Azerbaijan reclaimed the area in a lightning military operation. Armenian Health Minister Anahit Avanesyan said some people had died during the exhausting and slow journey over the single mountain road into Armenia that took as long as 40 hours. The exodus followed a nine-month Azerbaijani blockade of the region that left many suffering from malnutrition and lack of medicine. Azerbaijan Interior Ministry spokesman Elshad Hajiyev told The Associated Press on Monday the country’s police have established control of the entire region.

Turkey detains hundreds in raids following suicide bomb attack (Foreign Policy) Turkish authorities have arrested at least 928 suspects in connection to the suicide bomb attack of the capital Ankara on Sunday. Police carried out raids in 64 Turkish provinces to detain people suspected of forming part of the intelligence structure of the outlawed Kurdish Workers’ Party.

India tells Canada to withdraw 41 diplomats (Reuters) India has told Canada that it must repatriate 41 diplomats by Oct. 10, the Financial Times reported on Tuesday. Ties between India and Canada have become seriously strained over Canadian suspicion that Indian government agents had a role in the June murder in Canada of a Sikh separatist leader and Canadian citizen, Hardeep Singh Nijjar, who India had labeled a “terrorist”. The Financial Times, citing people familiar with the Indian demand, said India had threatened to revoke the diplomatic immunity of those diplomats told to leave who remained after Oct. 10.

Communist rappers are luring young disgruntled Chinese (Economist) To mark china’s National Day on October 1st, the Communist Youth League sent a message to its nearly 18m followers on Weibo, a microblog platform. “Today, as protagonists of this era, we will write new legends on this sacred land!” it urged. Attached was a music video, its lyrics suffused with similar patriotic rhetoric and interspersed with clips of speeches by Mao Zedong and the country’s current leader, Xi Jinping. So far, so predictable. The surprise was the singer and his style: a rapper whose early songs about drugs and violence were deemed unfit for public airing. gai, as he is known, has turned a new leaf. He is now the league’s mc. The Communist Party’s youth wing is a vast organisation that plays a big role in China’s political life. It indoctrinates people aged between 14 and 28 in the party’s ideology, provides a training ground for potential party members and helps the party to identify talent that can be groomed for high office. It also has an outward-facing task: spreading the party’s message among young people with no political ties. After he assumed power in 2012, Mr Xi clearly worried that the league was not up to the job. Officials admitted that it had become out of touch with young Chinese. The Party has begun to turn to rappers, including gai, to make itself appear more in tune with the country’s youth.

Israeli Herders Spread Across West Bank, Displacing Palestinians (NYT) In the abandoned sheep pens of Al Baqa, a remote Palestinian hamlet in the West Bank, you can still smell the livestock. But the sheep themselves, as well their shepherds, have vanished. The 54 Palestinian residents of the hamlet pulled down most of their huts and left with their animals en masse after a group of Israeli herders set up a rival farmstead a few dozen yards away in June. The Palestinians said the Israeli herders, who often carry guns, tried to intimidate them by wandering around the hamlet and sometimes through their homes at night. On the eerie, arid mountainside, only the Israelis remain. “Their job was to provoke us,” said Muhammad Mleihat, 59, one of the village leaders, who decamped to a valley five miles away. “They want to empty the area,” he added. Across remote parts of the West Bank, the mountainous territory occupied by Israel since the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, Palestinian herding communities are abandoning their homes at a rate that has no recorded precedent, according to the United Nations. Simultaneously, Israeli settlers are establishing wildcat herding outposts at close to record levels. The result has been the accelerated expansion of an Israeli civilian presence across large and strategic tracts of the territory—more than 140 square miles, according to Kerem Navot—and the simultaneous retreat of Palestinians from the same rural areas.

Hunching Over Your Computer Like a Buzzard Is Not Helping Your Back (NYT) My fragrance of choice for the past year is eau de menthol pain patch. I’ve had chronic back pain, but the cause is not a mystery: I hunch over my computer for hours at a time. Call it “online spine,” “computer-generated back pain,” or, in my case, “Mac back.” Unlike “tech neck,” a common term for repetitive strain caused by looking down at phones and tablets, back pain caused by hunching over a computer can afflict the neck, shoulders and entire back, said Dr. Nnaemeka Echebiri, a physiatrist who specializes in spine and musculoskeletal medicine at Hospital for Special Surgery in New York. A 2021 study of 2,000 people who worked on computers found that 48 percent had back and neck pain. And a 2021 meta-analysis suggested that prolonged sitting was a “significant risk factor” for lower back pain. If you really want to reduce chances of dealing with “online spine,” set a timer to get up and move every half-hour, if only for a few minutes, said Cara Prideaux, assistant professor of physical medicine and rehabilitation at the Mayo Clinic. “Any activity is better than none,” Dr. Prideaux said. And, for the more sedentary among us, “micro-movement strategies,” like fidgeting, might help stave off certain kinds of back pain.

Sprinters in the wind after anti-doping officials arrive at Delhi meet (Reuters) A competitive runner at the Delhi State Athletics Championship in India found himself all alone at the starting line for the final men’s 100-meter race last week after his seven opponents withdrew from the event at the last minute. Although they cited “muscle strains” and “cramps” as reasons for their absences, organizers suspect it had a lot more to do with the fact that government anti-doping officials had shown up to give the runners surprise mandatory tests. One junior steeplechase athlete apparently didn’t get the memo in time for her race, though—so when she crossed the finish line, she just kept going, hoping to outrun the anti-doping officials who were waiting to test her. They caught her … eventually.

[brendanmoviedate]

We fought in an immoral war that wasn't ours for rights we didn't have.

I’ve been trying to write the blog post for 4 months but haven’t been struggling to find the motivation after a terrifying 2020 that’s drained me of the will to do much of anything. So far, 2021 has been much of the same, except it seems like the solidarity that my community shared in 2020 has given way to frustration and defiance. Social distancing and community safety seem to be the furtherest thing from many people’s minds all while our COVID cases are constantly breaking single-day records. While the hope that we’ll soon be out of this is bright, the accumulating darkness and death we’re experiencing right now really nails home how trivial it is to be watching and writing about movies.

Normally, watching a good movie is one of the best ways to escape the banality of everyday life, but without theatres, the movie-going experience is inextricably tied to the banality of being locked down in your own home. For that reason, a number of the movies that I would have enjoyed seeing in the theatre, or even with home viewing in a different context, didn’t resonate with me. Films like Nomadland, which has received unanimous acclaim, or I’m Thinking of Ending Things, which is totally in my wheelhouse, didn’t resonate with me. 

Originally I excused my lateness in writing this post as an opportunity to catch up on 2020 releases that I hadn’t gotten around to (like Minari or Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom), but with April almost over, I still haven’t been able to find the energy to watch them. Instead, I’ve been watching mostly 90′s junk thrillers or pure escapist action movies. Quickly realizing that I probably wasn’t going to get around to the rest of my 2020 watchlist anytime soon, I set the Oscars as my next goal. If I missed that deadline, then nothing was going to get me motivated to write this (I’m actually just finishing it up after a break to watch the Oscars).

Every year I put together a collage image of 30 films that make up my short list. Normally finding the last couple of films to fill it out to 30 is a struggle as is narrowing down the list to the top 10. Oddly, this year, there was no shortage of films for my short list, but I had a hell of a time finding enough of them that I wanted to put in the top 10. So a couple of films that might not have made it in past years have popped into the top 10 because I actually got to see them in theatres (you’ll know when you see them).

10. The Trial of the Chicago 7

Aaron Sorkin’s sophomore directorial effort was one of the biggest films to be sold to streaming because of the theatre shutdown. Featuring a stacked cast and the typical Sorkin pacing and dialogue, The Trial of the Chicago 7 is an actors showcase, with Yahya Abdul-Mateen II and Mark Rylance standing out.

9. Never Rarely Sometimes Always

Never Rarely Sometimes Always is a hard film to describe. It’s essentially a road movie about the difficulty of having an abortion as a minor. The film’s mood is played sullenly for the most part, so when the emotion breaks through in the second act during the questionnaire that the film takes its name from, the impact it has is immeasurable. 

8. The Invisible Man

The Invisible Man was the last movie I saw in theatres before theatres were shut down. Being the only movie on this list from the “before times” probably endears me to it, but nevertheless it was a solidly crafted film. It’s brutal, mean, and scary in a way that horror thrillers too often fail to be. Director Leigh Whannel had a really solid debut with 2018′s Upgrade and proves that wasn’t a fluke with a worthy followup. 

7. Tenet

A new Christopher Nolan movie will always be an event for me. As one of the only blockbuster auteurs, his movies are spectacular and uncompromising at the same time. Tenet came out in theatres at a time where COVID seemed to be under control in Vancouver, allowing me a chance to see it twice on the big screen. My first screening was in IMAX and was rife with the sound problems that made the dialogue unintelligible. However, my second viewing at a different theatre had no such issues, allowing me to fully appreciate the intricate plot. 

Tenet is a much more stylized Nolan film, with the whole thing feeling like a riff on a Bond movie. Despite some of the heavy-handed dialogue (”including my son!”), awkward backwards walking, and underwhelming final set piece, Tenet was the biggest event film of 2020 and was one that I’ll be glad to revisit.

6. Bacurau

Bacurau is a modern day Western set in a fictional town in Brazil that I went into knowing nothing about beforehand, which is the best way to see it. All I’ll say is that Udo Kier comes to town and things get weird. Bacurau made me feel horrified, uncomfortable, and celebratory at different times. 

5. Palm Springs

Palm Springs follows the surprisingly growing trend of Groundhog Day style time loop movies. While Happy Death Day and Edge of Tomorrow apply it to another genre, Palm Springs stays firmly within the romantic comedy genre of its predecessor and provides a goofy yet sentimental story. The timing of Palm Springs’ release couldn’t be more appropriate, as it unintentionally depicts what being in lockdown feels like while simultaneously providing a lighthearted break from it.

4. Undine

As one of the films I watched as part of VIFF’s at home event, Undine was the most compelling of the dozen I watched. It’s a film about jilted lovers, underwater welders, and mermaids that threads the line between romantic drama and fairytale expertly.

3. Da 5 Bloods

Da 5 Bloods is the latest in Spike Lee’s exploration of being black in America throughout different periods of time. Like with BlackkKlansmen, Lee crosscuts real life footage from present day to nail down the connection between the treatment of black people in the United States in the present and the past. While the film is a little shaggy and shifts tone and genre, it’s incredibly compelling and features the best performance of the year in Delroy Lindo’s Paul.

2. Possessor

Brandon Cronenberg’s Possessor has all of the body horror of his father’s early work with a meanness that feels appropriate for such a shitty year. The film looked great and featured a great lead performance from Andrea Riseborough who, between this and Mandy, seems to be the new star of weird horror.

1. Another Round

As much as I love Mads Mikkelsen’s Hollywood work, he’s on a whole other level in his Danish work. In Another Round, he plays a jaded school teacher who starts to appreciate life once he and his friends start maintaining a constant blood alcohol level. It’s funny, tragic, and powerful and the best movie I saw in 2020.

Honourable Mentions

As I mentioned earlier, I had a hard time filling the top 10, so I don’t really have any honourable mentions. However, Mank was originally in there before I actually started to write the list.

2021

Dune, No Time to Die, and Last Night in Soho are holdovers from last year that I’m still dying to see in theatres. Other than that, I’m not super excited about much, as I don’t want to look forward to a movie only to have it delayed or released on a streaming platform. 

At this point I’m more looking forward to a post-COVID world and being able to watch movies in theatres again. I don’t care what the film is, I’ll watch it.

[sinrau]

As Covid-19 cases surge, it is clear many governors underestimated the coronavirus and rushed to reopen before their states were ready.

An empty restaurant in Orlando, Fla., in May.Credit…Eve Edelheit for The New York Times

By Sabrina Tavernise, Frances Robles and Louis Keene

Published June 27, 2020Updated June 28, 2020, 3:13 p.m. ET

WASHINGTON — More than four months into fighting the coronavirus in the United States, the shared sacrifice of millions of Americans suspending their lives — with jobs lost, businesses shuttered, daily routines upended — has not been enough to beat back a virus whose staying power around the world is only still being grasped.

The number of new U.S. cases this last week surged dangerously high, to levels not ever seen in the course of the pandemic, especially in states that had rushed to reopen their economies. The result has been a realization for many Americans that however much they have yearned for a return to normalcy, their leaders have failed to control the coronavirus pandemic. And there is little clarity on what comes next.

“There has to be a clear coherent sustained communication, and that has absolutely not happened,” said Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious-disease specialist at Vanderbilt University in Nashville. “We’ve had just the opposite and now it’s hard to unring a whole series of bells.”

There was “real hubris” on the part of public health officials at the very start, Dr. Schaffner said, that the United States could lock down and contain the virus as China had. That futile hope helped create an unrealistic expectation that the shutdown, while intense, would not be for long, and that when it was lifted life would return to normal.

That expectation was reinforced by President Trump, who has downplayed the severity of the crisis, refused to wear a mask and began calling for states to open even as the virus was surging. A lack of federal leadership also meant that states lacked a unified approach.

With no clear message from the top, states went their own ways. A number of them failed to use the shutdown to fully prepare to reopen in a careful manner. As Americans bought precious time trying to keep the virus at bay, experts advised that states urgently needed to establish a robust system for tracking and containing any new cases — through testing, monitoring and contact tracing. Without this, the pandemic would simply come roaring back.

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Customers waiting to enter restaurants in Austin, Texas, on Friday.Credit…Tamir Kalifa for The New York Times

Testing and contact tracing efforts were ramped up, but not enough in some places. Even states that did embark on ambitious plans to do contact tracing struggled. Health officials in Massachusetts, which has one of the country’s most established tracing programs, said in May that only about 60 percent of infected patients were picking up the phone.

Just as the country needed to stay shut down longer, many states — mostly with Republican governors — took their foot off the brake, and Mr. Trump cheered them on.

In early May, when more than half of the states had begun reopening parts of their economies, most failed to meet the nonbinding criteria recommended by the Trump administration itself to resume business and social activities.

The White House’s nonbinding guidelines suggested that states should have a “downward trajectory” of either documented coronavirus cases or of the percentage of positive tests.

Yet most states that were reopening failed to adhere to even these ill-defined recommendations. They had case counts that were trending upward, positive test results that were rising, or both, raising concerns among public health experts.

The virus has proved formidable around the world, resisting global efforts to find a treatment, refusing to fade in summer weather and unrelenting in exploiting weaknesses in government responses, even in countries whose responses to the virus have been considered a success — and where the threat seemed tamed.

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Supporters cheering for President Trump at a rally in Tulsa, Okla., this month.Credit…Doug Mills/The New York Times

Germany, whose handling of the virus was considered a success, had to reimpose lockdowns on two counties where there was a spike of cases in slaughterhouses and low-income housing blocks. Singapore experienced a second wave of infections in April.

And in China, which adopted some of the world’s strictest measures to contain the virus, Beijing suffered this month a new surge of cases, causing flights to be canceled and schools to be closed.

Much of the challenge stems from major gaps in knowledge about how the virus works. In addition to chasing a vaccine, scientists around the world are still trying to unravel important mysteries, including how long immunity lasts after infection and why some people get so much sicker than others.

For Americans, a troubling new reality set in this week: Even as some parts of the country, like New York, were finally getting the virus under control, it was surging anew in others, like a terrifying sequel, threatening lives and livelihoods.

New virus cases were on the rise in 29 states on Friday as the outlook worsened across much of the nation’s South and West.

On Saturday, Florida reported more than 9,500 new coronavirus cases, beating its record for the second consecutive day. At least 980 new cases were added in Nevada, more than double the state’s previous daily high. And in South Carolina, officials announced more than 1,600 new cases, nearly 300 more than the previous record, set a day before.

In Florida and Texas, governors closed bars on Friday, as they scrambled to control what appeared to be a brewing public health catastrophe. All this is leaving people with a strange sense of déjà vu and a bitterness at public officials for what felt like a fumbling of people’s sacrifices.

Nearly empty streets in Houston in May. Cases are now surging there.Credit…Brandon Thibodeaux for The New York Times

“Are we doing a full circle? Yes,” said Judy Ray, 57, a cosmetologist and hairdresser in Florida who was laid off from her job at a barbershop at Walt Disney World Resort in March.

“Everyone is passing the buck,” she said of political leaders in Florida. “You don’t see the chain of command actually working.”

Ms. Ray, a Disney employee for 13 years, said she had not received any unemployment benefits — federal or state, in the 10 weeks she has been off. She has called the unemployment office hundreds of times since March, including this week, when she said she broke down into tears of frustration after being told her case was still pending. She has sliced $200 out of her monthly budget and has been paying her mortgage from her savings.

“I don’t think they care about what we’ve had to go through,” Ms. Ray said of state authorities. “It means that we are the ones that hurt. You know?”

Many Americans started in the pandemic with a strong feeling of solidarity, not unlike the days after Sept. 11, 2001. They closed their businesses, stayed inside, made masks and wiped down their groceries. In a country often riven by politics, polls showed broad agreement that shutting down was the right thing to do.

But months of mixed messages have left many exhausted and wondering how much of what they did was worth it.

Tony Jacobs, owner and proprietor of Sideshow Books, a used book store in Los Angeles, said in the early weeks of the lockdown he had taken to delivering books by bike around the neighborhood in a mask and gloves.

“I thought it would be an effective way to stop the virus — if we just locked down for two or three weeks, we could knock it out of L.A.,” he said. “I felt that was the civic duty, and that everybody was going to be compensated for doing the civic duty.”

The plight of California has served as a warning that even states that were more aggressive in their strategies have not been entirely successful.

California, which had the first stay-at-home order in the United States this spring, allowed businesses to reopen weeks ago as the state felt it had the virus under control. That seems to be changing: California reported its highest single-day total this week and announced more than 5,600 new cases on Friday.

The rise comes despite the fact that the state has hired and trained thousands of contact tracers. It has also dramatically ramped up testing. And the millions of face masks that were promised early on have begun to finally materialize.

Mr. Jacobs felt the lockdown had been squandered and his business hung out to dry. As for whether Mr. Jacobs’s sacrifices were worth it, he said, “Oh God, no.”

In recent weeks, some conservatives said they had an additional concern: After weeks of being told that going to church, attending funerals and participating in protests was a willful, careless spurning of science, political leaders and some public health officials condoned — and even joined — the crowds protesting the killing of George Floyd.

“It’s just a real social whiplash,” said Philip Campbell, vice president of a pest control company in Central Michigan, who took part in the first protests against the lockdown in Lansing in April from the cab of his truck. “Two weeks ago you can’t go out because you are going to kill grandma. Now it’s ‘you have an obligation to go out.’ It leaves me feeling that the science and the public health authorities have been politicized.”

Americans’ trust in the federal government has been falling for decades, but the recent months of muddied messaging have left many even more skeptical of public officials.

“I’m not angry, I’m disappointed, disappointed in the government, very much so,” said Gail Creary, who owns Humble Care, an assisted living facility in south Miami-Dade County, Fla. She and her sister take care of six older adults in a three-bedroom house in the suburbs. “I think they should really have taken better control of this.”

She laments that there is not more widespread testing and contact tracing. She wonders why other countries have done a better job than the United States has. Her home country of Jamaica did better, she said.

“We have a governor who can’t even say, ‘Hey we’re making wearing a mask mandatory,’” she said.

“What did America do with that time?”

Dr. Schaffner offered a bleak prognosis for the country’s next chapter with the virus. He said he did not expect the country to return to a full lockdown, so in order to contain the infection people would have to begin to change behaviors in ways that were uncomfortable, unfamiliar — wearing masks, not gathering in large groups indoors, staying six feet apart.

“The only alternative until we have a vaccine is all of these behavioral interventions that we know work,” he said. But, he added: “The governors are all on different pages. It is no wonder that the average person is confused.”

Silvana Salcido Esparza, 59, chef and owner of Barrio Café in Phoenix, said a group of restaurant owners asked the governor to keep the state closed for longer, but it opened anyway — as did most restaurants. Now when she drives by, she sees “they are packed, there’s no social distancing inside.”

She said she spent her retirement money trying to keep her business afloat, but in April, had to close her newest restaurant, Barrio Café Gran Reserva.

“I had to sacrifice it,” she said, noting ruefully that it had been nominated for a James Beard Foundation Award. “I’m almost 60. I was going to retire in two years. That’s not going to happen now.”

Sabrina Tavernise reported from Washington, Frances Robles from Miami, and Louis Keene from Los Angeles. Reporting was contributed by Tim Arango from Los Angeles, Shawn Hubler from Sacramento, David Montgomery from Austin, Texas, and Bryant Rousseau from New York.

[thewrosper]

Kashmir: The Lockdown Within the Lockdown

The coronavirus left the world freaking out in quarantine – and left Kashmir laughing. It was a bitter laugh, half at itself and half at everyone else. In part schadenfreude towards nations long indifferent to besieged people, and in part, a genuine sympathy from the eternally locked-down. Partly in spite and partly in solidarity, a question rang through many young Kashmiris’ social media feeds: How is the lockdown, world? After a six-month-long lockdown from August 5, 2019, just as a desolate, war-worn Kashmir was limping back to life, it entered another one this March. Again, Kashmiris queued up for essentials and groceries like they always had during military crackdowns or identification parades. This time too the same emptiness filled the streets, the same fear of getting thrashed and abused at any corner. But it was with an intrepid sense that prevailed over the foreboding – a sense that no viral epidemic could be worse than the endemic of ever-lasting death they had witnessed for the past thirty-one years. In addition to the default indulgence of binge-watching movies and Netflix, the global quarantine has been inventive enough to make people write quarantine diaries. One blushes at the idea of writing a lockdown diary when we have been writing or reading prison notebooks, torture testimonies and a daily bleeding reportage. A popular Facebook game – chain-mailing a question about what you’ll do “once quarantine is over”  – makes little sense to people used to quarantines, shutdowns, lockdowns, crackdowns and clampdowns all their lives. Kashmir is a place that personifies a systemic, normalised clampdown – and right now, a lockdown within a lockdown. It’s a land with just around 200 ventilators for 6.8 million people, but one armed-to-the-teeth soldier for every ten. It’s a region where an insidious epidemic need not stop you from implementing unconstitutional laws and barricading neighbourhoods as you wage artillery wars. The lockdowns of my childhood, in the nineties, lasted between a hundred and two hundred days a year. No siege can be a more vivid memory than the three-month curfew of 1992 that reduced me and my extended family to meals of boiled rice served with salt and pepper. My cousins tried to distract themselves from empty stomachs with random and back-to-back storytelling. Or passed the night just staring at the blinking electrical indicator in the purplish darkness of the room. At the top of the formidable category of “-downs” were the crackdowns. Incomprehensible, pre-dawn loudspeaker announcements from mosques would ask the menfolk of the community to assemble in frosted playgrounds or vast wintry fields for identification parades. The “cats” (spies) sat masked behind the obscured windscreens of military jeeps, honking at doomed men who would then be plucked from the queue, their pherans ghoulishly pulled over their heads. Gradually, the “–down” terminologies were replaced with the more sophisticated alternatives. “Curfew” with “restrictions”. “Crackdown” with “CASO” (Cordon and Search Operation). In a funny twist, the same GPS procedure was used in COVID times to track down the suspected infected persons who absconded, fearing lonesome, animalistic isolation. Then there are the self-imposed, inescapable shutdowns, replacing the childhood Urdu word hartaal, to protest oppression or mourn the dead. Decades of these downs acculturated Kashmiris to what could be self-loathingly called “restricted” celebrations and mournings; birthdays, weddings and funerals conducted with “restricted” fervour or frenzy. Coming-back-alive is a question that has intrigued people in every ominous circumstance to miraculous proportions of hope.

A Kashmiri man shows tear gas shells and stun grenades fired by Indian security forces during protests in Anchar neighbourhood during restrictions following the scrapping of the special constitutional status for Kashmir, In Srinagar, September 19, 2019. Hashtagged slogans like #StayAtHome and #WorkFromHome sound hollow to those whom the downs have rendered homeless and jobless. For pellet-blinded, 28-year-old bodybuilder Maroof Ahmad Bhat, the corona scare “is nothing in front of what he is suffering”. With around 400 pellets lodged in his body and only one eye with eight percent vision to see, monocled, he has razor-nicked his wrists many times to try to bleed to death. That would save his labourer father the burden of single-handedly taking care of the family— which includes a daughter and wife—and spending Rs 3,500 a month on his medicines. Once a macho man with the title of Mister Budgam 2015, he worked as a plumber and earned an income he was proud of. On the eve of Eid ul Azha, in 2016, on his way to distribute a lamb dish to relatives and friends in Ompora, he lost his eyesight, work and hope to a cartridge of 650 pellets. Ever since he has shut himself indoors, quit the gym and occasionally attended a school for the blind to learn night-walking and how to use the Talkback app. “My own disease is way beyond coronavirus,” he told me in a voice edged with despair. “My social distancing is ahead of everyone else in the world.” Support The Wrosper to get the latest updates! Stay tuned Read the full article

[brajeshupadhyay]

Family regroups after vandalism hits Santa Monica restaurant

The activity inside the Santa Monica location of Sunnin felt urgent on late Monday morning. Community volunteers, in their protective masks, had spread out through the restaurant’s dining room: They picked up shards of broken planters and swept spilled soil, righted turned-over furniture and stacked it against the wall, scrubbed sky-blue paint from toppled cans off the concrete floor. Several of them worked to nail plywood over the shattered window where pillagers had entered the day before.

In Sunnin’s kitchen, Nicole Chammaa packed food furiously with her family and employees, carefully stacking rolled grape leaves in containers and tumbling sliced tomatoes and shredded lettuce into huge plastic bins. Two upright shawarma rotisseries sat still and empty.

Chammaa came out from behind the kitchen line to take in the scene. “This was my life, my baby,” she said, shaking her head.

Sunnin was among the businesses vandalized in Santa Monica on Sunday, after largely peaceful protests turned chaotic with break-ins and destruction. Chammaa’s restaurant stands 2½ blocks from Sake House, a sushi bar on the corner of 4th Street and Santa Monica Boulevard that was set on fire. On Monday business owners of all kinds were securing boards to their storefronts, hurrying to meet a 1 p.m. curfew in anticipation of another round of protests. (On Monday night demonstrations mostly ended up migrating to Hollywood; ransacking occurred in Van Nuys.)

Nicole Chammaa, owner of Sunnin Lebanese Cuisine, shows where the front window of her Santa Monica restaurant was broken on May 31. A laptop, four iPads, two cash registers filled with money and a bicycle were stolen.

(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

Like many restaurateurs, Chammaa and her family — she is one of five siblings who, with their mother Fayeza, own the original location of Sunnin in Westwood — say they stand in solidarity with protests over the killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer, acknowledging the systemic racism that endangers black lives.

“I’m not a white American,” said Nicole’s brother, George Chammaa. “I don’t have blond hair and blue eyes — but I’m not black, I can’t know what it’s like to be targeted like that.”

Still, the violence that wrecked the Santa Monica restaurant this week stirred memories of their childhood in Lebanon. “I grew up during the civil war,” Nicole said. The conflict lasted from 1975 to 1990. “I came here when the war ended. Now I’m witnessing a different kind of war.”

Her father was employed by the Port of Lebanon when the fighting began; when he lost his job her mother mastered cooking large stews — dishes like fassuliah bil lahme (lima beans with meat) or loubieh bil zeit (green beans in olive oil with tomatoes) — that could feed her family for several days.

After moving to the United States, Fayeza channeled her expertise to open the Westwood Sunnin in 1996. It’s become a Los Angeles institution for falafel, hummus and shawarma, and also specials like koussa (summer squash stuffed with ground beef and rice and simmered in tomato sauce) and kibbeh maklieh (crisp beef and bulgur croquettes in yogurt sauce).

Nicole spun off the Santa Monica location 4 1/2 years ago, in part to create a second restaurant as another income stream for younger generations of her family. Lunch was her big business. Dinner could lag, so she was in the process of renovating the interior, to make it bolder in color and richer in textures — an inviting environment similar to the Westwood location.

“Then this happened,” she said.

“This” began with the COVID-19 shutdown in mid-March. Nicole had closed the Santa Monica location for the first couple months and had only begun serving takeout, setting up a table in front of the door to place orders for contactless pickup. Even with permission to reopen last week, she wasn’t yet feeling ready to have customers in the dining room.

The Westwood location has offered takeout since the shutdown’s inception. Business had dropped 65% at the beginning, George said, but has grown busier, particularly on the weekends; he estimated the restaurant was currently bringing in 45% less revenue than usual. On Monday afternoon he studied table diagrams, part of the protocol materials for reopening that he’d received from the County of Los Angeles Department of Public Health. “I’ll be able to fill the restaurant to 60% capacity if I’m lucky,” George said.

The night before, he’d boarded up the windows in Westwood out of an abundance of precaution. There were no protests planned in the area — no other businesses nearby had covered their windows — but life had taught the Chammaa family to anticipate calamity. “The Westwood restaurant employs a lot of people; the payroll feeds a lot of mouths.” Nicole said.

Nicole Chammaa kisses her niece Leila Chammaa, who helped her clean her vandalized restaurant in Santa Monica.

(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

It was 1 p.m. now on Monday. A police car rolled by the Santa Monica restaurant; a voice announced the curfew over a tinny speaker and urged people off the street. All the food from the kitchen had been relocated to Westwood. Fouad Georges, a Lebanese designer who’d been working on the interior renovation, helped carry out a Turkish chandelier that had been spared.

Nicole didn’t know what was next. Her rent, she said, was more than $26,000 a month. She was attempting renegotiations with her landlord.

“I struggled here. I did good,” she said. “Maybe this is a sign for me. Maybe I need to let it go.”

Georges stood by her side. “We will make it more beautiful than ever next time,” he said.

Nicole kept her eyes on the floor. She didn’t respond.

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Film Festivals Bridging the Void

“My son turns around to me and says, take it online, go for it”

A record number of Australian Film Festivals have now either transitioned events or gone entirely online in 2020, with two new Festivals in this day past announcing digital programs the length of traditional runs and five events set for this very evening.

“We were all very happy planning for our second Festival and of course COVID came along,” continued Sydney South African Film Festival Co-Director Claire Jankelson; today announcing a heft of features set to stream from May 16-26. “We ran our first Festival in 2019, we played at Event Cinemas and we sold out six out of eight films.”

“The essence of our Festival is that we are a not for profit and are funding Education Without Borders, a project in the Western Cape in South Africa. It was announced that cinemas are going to shut and I was completely devastated and upset because we have a commitment to Education Without Borders.”

Originally slated for May 7-17, the turnaround of several weeks saw the Festival crew and Claire’s immediate family developing the online platform to deliver flicks only 8 days later than originally scheduled. Permitting patrons to access features and indeed an all-in pass, for the first time SSAFF will go national, with a focus, much like the recently announced We Are One, very much on getting the support to those who need it most.

“This time of COVID has brought everybody much closer to their screens; there have been people approaching us from Melbourne and Perth and other places already after last year’s Festival longing to get the Festival to those places,” said Claire. “We haven’t had the wherewithal to take it there but we’re so excited it now has this reach; we would have liked for it to have an international reach but there are of course so many restrictions because of the licensing agreements with the filmmakers given fears about piracy and security – at this stage it’s only Australia wide.”

“We’re so strongly driven by our commitment to the infrastructure that has been created through Education Without Borders, that was our strong motivating factor; not knowing when the shutdown would end. We didn’t know if and when we would be able to get the money that is needed to South Africa – we’re holding out for a really fantastic response.”

Melbourne’s St Kilda Film Festival have too only just announced an online run for June 12-20; set to replace the beach-side Fest previously scheduled to commence only two weeks prior.

“The screen culture environment is a dynamic one and in recent years it has seen massive changes in digital exhibition and a trend toward embracing streaming services – as audiences have changed, so have how to reach them,” said Festival Director Richard Sowada. “It’s up to Festivals – and the film industry at large – to keep moving, experimenting, seeking out new audiences and shape-shifting accordingly in this new landscape.”

“For us, it’s become a great opportunity and something the team were able to launch into by virtue of our collective experience. It’s quite exciting for us to explore new directions, new contexts and new audiences despite the challenges. Our program content naturally contains a high level of experimentation and motivation, so the filmmakers are right behind everything we’re doing.”

Slated to screen dozens of shorts, the communal atmosphere essential to audience participation at any Festival and moreover continued investment online has remained no small factor, with fixtures at Festivals across the country too poised to reflect, thematically and technically, the challenges uncommon to filmmakers beset by the current circumstance.

“We’re taking that spirit and giving what we can a red-hot crack by re-interpreting the Festival with talks, professional development, retrospective and curated programs, all of which are free to view on the website,” continued Richard. “The most important thing for us is providing access to an already intelligent and sophisticated program that speaks to the high standard of Creative Play short-form filmmaking in this country.”

With a record number of online events scheduled to take place tonight from numerous Festivals that have either gone online or had runs postponed or cancelled, Tasmania’s Breath of Fresh Air Film Festival will become the first major regional Festival to go online, with three weekends worth of screenings commencing this evening. Monster Fest will continue their Friday Fright Night Watch Parties with ‘Sheborg Masscare,’ SF3 will host multiple screenings of 2019 Feature Winner ‘Blue Moon,’ Static Vision will for the first time join Film Club in any evening of Canadian-centric Canuxploitation and the Melbourne Queer Film Festival will too host the Fest’s first virtual watch party.

“We have ‘Freak Show’ playing this Friday; it was actually our Opening Night film a couple of years ago at the Festival,” said MQFF CEO Maxwell Gratton. “We’ve got so far a thousand people interested to join, we’re expecting a reasonable patronage.”

“What we’re really hoping to do is engage with our audience during this challenging time. It can be isolating for many people, particularly those living alone and the elderly, but anyone during this time needs to reach out to other people and we’re hoping to create a forum where people can connect with each other. The moving image is such a powerful medium to build communities and we’re hoping to do this for those who may be isolated, who are alone, who may be vulnerable and everyone who misses that contact and connectivity; hopefully we can help build a little bit of solidarity.”

MQFF called off the remaining 8 days of their 12-day run originally scheduled for March 12-23. Devastated to do so, the Festival underlines that it was the correct decision to ensure the safety of those in the community including those with compromised immune systems, even if the sense of community the Festival engenders couldn’t be realised in its traditional form.

“COVID-19 caused us to look at our online and innovative offerings; I suspect into the future these would be good mediums and avenues to build on our existing audiences and to reach out to audiences who are unable to engage with the Festival say due to geographical constraints, for people in regional areas or for those who are for whatever reason unable to attend in person,” said Maxwell, who is hoping for a physical event in the fourth quarter of the year. “We create safe spaces, a community vibe – for that reason online offerings wont necessarily replace anything we do but can very much complement our activities in the times ahead.”

MQFF have too instigated Couch Critic; a forum where MQFF devotees can still share any and all of what they’re watching.

“It’s a lighthearted way to encourage our audience to remain connected and to share with each other queer films they’re currently seeing in isolation,” continued Maxwell. “We encourage you to do your own review, you can do it on your phone, as fancy or as simple as you’d like; what’s good about it, what’s bad about it, what’s funny, then share it with the MQFF audience.”

“We’re going to have a finale where the weekly winners will become the finalists and there will be a judging panel to present the winner who will become the MQFF Couch Critic at the 2021 Festival, write further reviews and attend films and signature events with an all-in-pass.”

Not alone, the Setting Sun Film Festival, a stalwart of Melbourne’s Sun Theatre, will too venture online for it’s seventh edition and prize-giving with an abridged series of shorts set to screen during the Fest’s original dates of May 6-12, now accessible via the Festival’s website. tilde Melbourne will likewise bring it’s community together for an online event on May 15. The Human Rights Arts and Film Festival will screen online, only four days later than its originally planned run, from May 18-24. Slated to feature one film per day each with an allotted themed, the initiative has been named ‘Humankind.’

With so many Festivals going online, the lack of technical expertise, resources and indeed tight turnovers can be hugely prohibitive. Responding to the barrier, Screen Queensland have launched the V-Fest initiative to reach Festivals where they’ve found themselves.

“The $50,000 V-Fest initiative is intended to help Festival organisers develop and deliver online experiences for existing events, or for entirely new virtual events,” said Screen Queensland via Zoom. “We believe that V-Fest has the potential to help existing events retain audiences that enjoy their physical events, but also engage with people that may have never connected with them before – this is incredibly exciting for us to be in a position to expand the reach and engagement for screen culture in Queensland.”

Helping the successful applicants address the costs involved in running and delivering a virtual screen Fest in the next 6-12 months, no doubt with a reach not limited to the north, the initiative is now open.  

“V-Fest is part of our core Screen Culture funding program that promotes and highlights screen content that inspires, entertains, informs and connects audiences. While the focus for V-Fest is primarily for Queensland-based audiences, we hope to support events that may also reach a larger virtual audience across Australia and potentially the world and that V-Fest will ignite the passion for Queensland-made screen stories in local, national and international audiences.“

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New cancellations prove lifting coronavirus restrictions won’t be easy

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New cancellations prove lifting coronavirus restrictions won’t be easy

Even with many former coronavirus hotspots seeing a reduction in new deaths and hospitalizations, a flurry of cancellations of major events made it clear Wednesday that efforts to return to normal life could still be a long and dispiriting process.

In just the past day, the U.S. scrapped the national spelling bee in June, Spain called off the Running of the Bulls in July, and Germany cancelled Oktoberfest five months away. Singapore, once a model of coronavirus tracking and prevention, saw an explosion of new cases and announced it would extend its lockdown into June.

READ MORE: Coronavirus pandemic raises question: Is it time for a basic income?

Nevertheless there was growing impatience over virus-related shutdowns that have thrown tens of millions out of work, and more countries and U.S. states began taking steps to get back to business.

Business owners in the U.S. who got the go-ahead weighed whether to reopen, and some hesitated, in a sign that commerce won’t necessarily bounce back right away.

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Mark Lebos, owner of Strong Gym in Savannah, Georgia, where Gov. Brian Kemp announced that gyms and salons can reopen this week, said Tuesday that it would be professional negligence to do so right now.

0:48 Coronavirus outbreak: NY governor heads to Washington to discuss state situation with the federal government

Coronavirus outbreak: NY governor heads to Washington to discuss state situation with the federal government

“We are not going to be a vector of death and suffering,” he said.

With deaths and infections still rising around the world, the push to reopen has set off warnings from health authorities that the crisis that has killed more than 177,000 people globally — including more than 45,000 in the U.S. — is far from over and that relaxing the stay-at-home orders too quickly could enable the virus to come surging back.

The economic damage mounted as oil prices suffered an epic collapse and stocks registered their worst loss in weeks Tuesday on Wall Street. Asia markets continued their slide on Wednesday.

The U.S. Senate on Tuesday approved nearly $500 billion in coronavirus aid for businesses, hospitals and testing after a deal was reached between Congress and the White House. President Donald Trump urged House members to quickly pass the measure.

READ MORE: Live updates: Coronavirus in Canada

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said that while some big businesses obtained access to government loans under an earlier aid package, its intent was to help mostly companies with 10 or fewer workers. He and the president said bigger businesses should return those funds.

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Trump also said he will stop issuing certain immigration green cards for 60 days to limit competition for jobs and “protect American workers” already suffering in an economy devastated by the pandemic.

In Europe, Denmark, Austria, Spain and Germany began allowing some people back to work, including hairdressers, dentists and construction workers, and some stores were cleared to reopen or will soon get approval.

[ Sign up for our Health IQ newsletter for the latest coronavirus updates ]

But in an indication that it will be a long time before life returns to normal, Spain cancelled its Running of the Bulls in Pamplona, the more than 400-year-old event. It was also called off during the Spanish Civil War in the 1930s.

0:55 Coronavirus outbreak: New York to adopt regional reopening approach

Coronavirus outbreak: New York to adopt regional reopening approach

The Scripps National Spelling Bee in the U.S. was cancelled. The competition has been held since 1925 and was last scrubbed during World War II.

Germany called off the Oktoberfest beer festival in Munich, which draws about 6 million visitors each year. It was previously cancelled during the two world wars; during a period of hyperinflation in Germany in 1923; and twice because of cholera outbreaks in the 1800s.

Praised for its swift response and meticulous tracing of contacts in the early stage of the outbreak, Singapore was grappling with an explosion of cases in foreign worker dorms that were largely overlooked earlier.

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The tiny city-state reported 1,111 new cases Tuesday to increase its total to 9,125, the most in Southeast Asia. It marked the second straight day of over 1,000 new cases.

Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said measures that shut down nonessential businesses and schools until May 4 would be extended to June 1 or until infections ease.

READ MORE: Ontario says COVID-19 community cases peaked. What does that mean for Canada?

In Italy, Premier Giuseppe Conte confirmed that businesses can start reopening on May 4 but dashed any hopes of a full end to the country’s strict lockdown any time soon, saying: “A decision of that kind would be irresponsible.”

In the U.S., some states, including Tennessee, West Virginia and Colorado, announced plans this week to begin reopening in stages in the coming days. Sunbathers quickly flocked to the sand after some South Carolina beaches reopened with the governor’s backing.

Political tensions were high.

4:03 Coronavirus around the world: April 20, 2020

Coronavirus around the world: April 20, 2020

Some sheriffs in Washington state, Michigan and Wisconsin said they won’t enforce stay-at-home orders. Angry protesters demanding the lifting of restrictions marched in Alabama, North Carolina and Missouri with signs like “Enough is enough.” And Wisconsin Republicans asked the state’s high court to block an extension of the stay-at-home order there.

During an online ceremony Tuesday to donate masks, ventilators and other desperately needed medical supplies to hard-hit New York City, Chinese Consul-General Huang Ping indirectly appealed to Trump to tone down his recent rhetoric against the Asian country where the virus first emerged.

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After weeks of elaborate praise of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s response to the pandemic, Trump has turned to blaming China and halting U.S. contributions to the World Health Organization, accusing it of parroting misinformation from Beijing.

READ MORE: Second COVID-19 wave in the U.S. could be worse, CDC chief warns

“This is not the time for finger-pointing,“ Huang said. “This is the time for solidarity, collaboration, co-operation and mutual support.”

Trump, meanwhile, said he had a “very productive” meeting with New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo at the White House on Tuesday during which they discussed how they could work to expand screening “with the goal of doubling testing” in New York in the next few weeks.

The meeting marks a sharp shift in rhetoric between the two politicians. Days earlier, Trump had called on Cuomo to work harder to secure testing material for his state, while Cuomo pushed back that the president should turn off his television and get back to work.

Numerous governors and local leaders have said that before they can relax social distancing restrictions, they need help from Washington in expanding testing to help keep the virus in check.

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UAW calls for two-week shutdown of Big 3 auto plants

The United Auto Workers union has asked the Big Three Detroit automakers to shut down production for two weeks to safeguard its members from the coronavirus outbreak. 

In a letter to union members, UAW President Rory Gamble said Ford, General Motors and Fiat Chrysler have been willing to pause production. 

“They asked for 48 hours to put together plans to safeguard workers in their facilities,” Gamble said, adding that the window expires this afternoon.

A task force meeting is scheduled for later today, and its members “have been working diligently since Sunday and that work continues,” GM spokesman Jim Cain said in an emailed statement. More information will be provided after the meeting, he added. 

In response to UAW’s letter, executives at Ford told CNBC they are considering production cuts at the company’s U.S.-based factories as a possible solution. The company is trying to determine if a plant would need to closed down completely in order to sufficiently reduce risk, or if it could be kept operating with reduced staffing.

One of Ford’s employees at a product development office in Dearborn, Michigan, was exposed to coronavirus after leaving work several days ago, and was diagnosed before returning to work, the company said. 

GM confirmed earlier on Monday that an employee at its Cole Engineering Center outside Detroit tested positive for COVID-19. The company said it is working with local officials to clean the area, and it directed some employees to self-quarantine for 14 days. 

The UAW confirmed the first known confirmed case of COVID-19 in an employee of a Detroit automaker on March 12. The worker was employed at a Fiat Chrysler plant in Indiana, although a spokesperson said production at the plant would continue as normal. The company said an undisclosed number of employees who may have come into direct contact with the person were quarantined.

The company also announced Monday that it will halt operations at a majority of its plants in Europe, which the World Health Organization considers the new epicenter for the disease. 

“FCA has already implemented extensive protocols to ensure the health and welfare of our workforce,” Simon Sproule, a spokesman for the company, said in an email Tuesday. “We are continuing to carefully monitor the situation and are making improvements as needed.”

Last week, Ford Motor and General Motors instructed employees who can work from home to do so beginning Monday due to the coronavirus outbreak that is now spreading through the U.S.

In Canada, Fiat Chrysler halted production at its minivan plant after workers refused to work amid concerns of an employee contracting the coronavirus. 

The coronavirus has infected more than 183,000 people across the globe and has killed at least 7,100, according to Johns Hopkins University data. In the U.S, it has infected more than 5,000 and killed at least 85. 

Read the UAW’s letter to membership is below:

Brothers and Sisters, I’m going to get right to the point. I want you to know exactly where we are with our discussions with the Big 3 leadership and protecting our members and their facilities during this international crisis.

I announced this past Sunday that the International UAW had formed a COVID-19/Coronavirus task force with GM, Ford and FCA to implement enhanced protections for manufacturing and warehouse employees at all three companies.

I want to be very transparent about what happened during our conversation Sunday with the Big 3. The UAW leadership, based on the World Health Organization (WHO) and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommendations on how to protect ourselves and our communities, requested a two-week shutdown of operations to safeguard our members, our families and our communities. Your UAW leadership feels very strongly, and argued very strongly, that this is the most responsible course of action.

The companies, however, were not willing to implement this request.

They asked for 48 hours to put together plans to safeguard workers in their facilities. (Ford Motor Company has indicated this week that they are willing to rotate down shifts and are planning to shut down all European operations next week.) The 48-hour window is up this afternoon. We will be evaluating what the companies submit today and there will be a meeting this evening at 6 p.m., where the Task Force will review plans for the safety and health of all members, their families and our communities.

I want to be very clear here: If the UAW leadership on the task force, myself and Vice Presidents Cindy Estrada, Terry Dittes and Gerald Kariem, are not satisfied that our members will be protected, we will take this conversation to the next level.

These companies will be put on notice that the UAW will use any and all measures to protect our brothers and sisters who are working in their facilities. And make no mistake, we have powerful allies who have stepped up to help us. Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, despite what you might have heard in some recent erroneous reports, was instrumental in assisting us in bringing the Big 3 to the table, as was U.S. Representative Debbie Dingell.

I know these are very difficult days for all of us. Please know that my #1 priority, and the #1 priority of the entire UAW leadership, is the safety and well-being of our UAW family and our communities.

I will be sending another update very soon on what we see from the Big 3 today.

I’d like to ask that we all remember that we are all in this together.

In Solidarity,

Rory

—CNBC’s Phil LeBeau contributed to this report. 

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Thursday, March 11, 2021

Traffic (Washington Post) In 2019, the average commuter spent 99 hours in traffic congestion, according to traffic analytics firm Inrix. In 2020, that crashed to just 26 hours, about a fourth of the time. All told, traffic delays across the country fell 50 percent, with the aggregate time wasted costing Americans an estimated $39 billion, down from $88 billion in 2019. The biggest beneficiary was Washington D.C., which saw traffic delays drop 77 percent in 2020. New York, where commuters still lost 100 hours last year, remains the greatest city in the country [when it comes to the amount of human life squandered to traffic congestion].

Hawaii declares emergency due to floods, orders evacuations (Reuters) Hawaii Governor David Ige declared an emergency in the U.S. state after heavy rains brought floods, landslides and fear of dam failures, and authorities ordered the evacuation of several thousand people from communities threatened by rising waters. The move came after a dam overflowed on the island of Maui, forcing evacuations and destroying homes, with the dam’s “unsatisfactory” condition leading to it being scheduled for removal this year, the land department has said. Poor weather was expected to run until Friday.

Southwest drought (WSJ) The American Southwest is locked in drought again, prompting cutbacks to farms and ranches and putting renewed pressure on urban supplies. Extreme to exceptional drought is afflicting between 57% and 90% of the land in Colorado, New Mexico, Nevada, Utah and Arizona and is shriveling a snowpack that supplies water to 40 million people from Denver to Los Angeles, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor. The team of government and academic agencies that produces the monitor defines a drought as a period of unusually dry weather that causes problems such as crop losses and water shortages. The current drought, which began last year, is already shaping up as one of the most severe on record in the Southwest.

Wave of retirements signals battles ahead for Republicans (AP) Missouri’s Roy Blunt on Monday became the fifth Republican senator to announce he will not seek reelection, a retirement wave that portends an ugly campaign season next year and gives Democrats fresh hope in preserving their razor-thin Senate majority. “Any time you lose an incumbent, it’s bad news,” said Republican strategist Rick Tyler, who briefly worked for failed Missouri Senate candidate Todd Akin nearly a decade ago. “Missouri’s not necessarily a safe state for Republicans. Democrats have won there.” The 71-year-old Blunt’s exit is a reminder of how the nation’s politics have shifted since the rise of Donald Trump. Blunt and his retiring GOP colleagues from Ohio, Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Alabama represent an old guard who fought for conservative policies but sometimes resisted the deeply personal attacks and uneven governance that dominated the Trump era. Their departures will leave a void likely to be filled by a new generation of Republicans more willing to embrace Trumpism—or by Democrats.

Covid-19 relief bill clears final hurdle (Bloomberg) U.S. President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion Covid-19 relief bill cleared its last hurdle Wednesday, with the House passing the final version. Biden plans to sign the legislation, his first major victory, on Friday. Included in the package: $160 billion for vaccine and testing programs, $360 billion in state aid, $25 billion to help restaurants, $170 billion to reopen schools, and yes, $1,400 checks for eligible Americans. A study from the Tax Policy Center found incomes of the lowest fifth of earners will jump 20%, the highest among income groups. While it’s a political victory for Biden and the razor-thin Democratic majority in Congress, the partisan vitriol over the bill foreshadows difficulty enacting the multi-trillion dollar, longer-term economic program Biden wants next. Not one Republican in Congress voted in favor of the Covid rescue bill, having attacked it as too expensive. Democrats were happy to point out the $1.5 trillion tax overhaul Republicans passed in 2017 that largely benefitted corporations and the rich.

Palace Breaks Silence on Meghan and Harry Interview, Saying ‘Whole Family Is Saddened’ (NYT) Buckingham Palace broke nearly 48 hours of silence Tuesday about a bombshell interview with Prince Harry and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, saying “the whole royal family is saddened” and expressing concern about the issue of racism the couple had raised. Assertions that a member of the royal family had raised concerns about the skin color of the couple’s son, Archie, and that a desperate Meghan had contemplated suicide dominated national discussion in Britain, where the interview with Oprah Winfrey was broadcast Monday evening. In a brief statement, Buckingham Palace said that the issues raised by the couple, “particularly that of race,” were concerning. It didn’t deny the allegations, and said that “while some recollections may vary, they are taken very seriously and will be addressed by the family privately.” In saying that the allegations would be addressed privately, it indicated that the family would deal with the aftermath of the interview, and the bruised relationship that Meghan and Harry exposed, behind closed doors.

COVID-19 and the European Union (Les Echos/France) COVID-19 will eventually be defeated. But before it goes down, it could take a collateral victim with it: the European project. The virus is attacking the Union in two ways: by exposing the lack of solidarity between its members, on the one hand, and on the other by highlighting its cumbersome red tape. Faced with “the Union’s slowness,” Denmark and Austria are turning to Israel to produce vaccines together. The Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary are ordering large quantities of Russian and Chinese vaccines, even though they don’t yet have EU authorization. And many other European countries, including Germany, say they are ready to resort to the Russian vaccine, Sputnik V—undoubtedly a victory for Moscow in terms of public image. Faced with the scale of the pandemic, scientists (China’s ambiguity and other exceptions aside) have been forced to unite and share information very quickly in an increasingly global and interdependent universe. In contrast, politicians have chosen the opposite path, sometimes yielding to the temptation of “vaccine nationalism.” Citizens are the ones who are paying the price. We must hope that access to vaccines will no longer be a problem in the coming weeks or months. If not, European citizens—faced with an existential question, literally—will feel abandoned, if not betrayed by the EU.

Myanmar police raid housing of striking railway workers (AP) Myanmar security forces early Wednesday raided a neighborhood in the country’s largest city that is home to state railway workers who have gone on strike to protest last month’s military coup. Police sealed off the Mingalar Taung Nyunt neighborhood in Yangon where the Ma Hlwa Kone train station and housing for railway workers are located. Photos and video on social media showed officers blocking streets and what was said to be people escaping. The raid comes just days after several Myanmar unions, including the Myanmar Railway Worker’s Union Federation, issued a joint call for a nationwide work stoppage. The statement said the strike would be part of a broader effort for “the full, extended shutdown of the Myanmar economy.” State railway workers were among the earliest organized supporters of the protest movement and their strike began soon after the coup. Police last month made an effort at intimidating railway workers in Mandalay, the country’s second-biggest city, by roaming through their housing area one night, shouting and randomly firing guns.

Myanmar coup: The shadowy business empire funding the Tatmadaw (BBC) Myanmar’s military—the leaders of its recent coup—are funded by a huge chunk of the national budget. But the armed forces also draw a vast and secretive income from sprawling business interests. At Yangon’s popular Indoor Skydiving Centre, visitors can experience the thrill of jumping out of a plane from the safety of a vertical wind tunnel. But few people spiralling through this high-flying attraction may realise that it is part of a huge, military-run business empire—one completely woven into the fabric of national life. Critics argue that this lucrative network has made Myanmar’s coup possible and put the military’s accountability into free fall. Civilian businesses talk of an environment like “Sicily under the Mafia”, while activists say that democratic reforms can only be possible only when “the military [is] back to barracks”. A UN report in 2019, spurred by Myanmar’s crackdown on Rohingya communities, concluded that business revenues enhanced the military’s ability to carry out human rights abuses with impunity. Through a network of conglomerate-owned businesses and affiliates, the UN said the Tatmadaw had been able to “insulate itself from accountability and oversight”.

Westerners are increasingly scared of traveling to China as threat of detention rises (CNN) Jeff Wasserstrom is a self-proclaimed China specialist who is seriously considering never returning to China—at least, he says, not while President Xi Jinping is in power. The American professor, who for decades made multiple trips a year to China and was last there in 2018, hasn’t focused his career on Tibet or Taiwan—lightning-rod issues which attract Beijing’s ire at lightning-quick speed—but he has written about cultural diversity and student protests in mainland China, and appeared on panels with people he says the Communist Party is “clearly upset with.” That makes him consider whether crossing the border risks his indefinite arbitrary detention. The chance of that outcome, Wasserstrom says, might be “pretty minimal,” but the consequences are so grave—those detained can be locked up for years without contact with their families or a trial date—he is not willing to gamble. And he is not alone. More than a dozen academics, NGO workers and media professionals CNN spoke to, who in pre-Covid times regularly traveled to China, said they were unwilling to do this once the pandemic restrictions lifted, over fears for their personal safety. Several in the international business community said they would significantly modify their behavior while outside China to avoid attracting the ire of authorities in the country, where they need to do business.

Communist Party seeking China’s ‘rejuvenation’ (AP) The catchword “rejuvenation” has been tucked into the major speeches at China’s biggest political event of the year, the meeting of its 3,000-member legislature. It encapsulates the ruling Communist Party’s overriding long-term objective: To build the nation into a truly global power, one that commands respect from the rest of the world. That goal is intertwined with another one: retaining a hold on power. The party keeps a tight grip by censoring the digital space, controlling the news media and locking up those who publicly challenge its line. But it also tries to woo the public by stoking national pride in the country’s growing global clout to justify its continued rule after more than 70 years at the helm. “By enabling the Chinese nation to make another giant stride toward rejuvenation, the (Communist Party) Central Committee has delivered impressive results that our people are happy with and that will go down in history,” Li Zhanshu, the party’s No. 3 official, told lawmakers this week. Rejuvenation is repeated like a mantra, even woven into a sprawling exhibit at the national art museum marking the Year of the Ox in the Chinese zodiac. The exhibit’s introduction invokes the diligent ox and credits party leader and head-of-state Xi Jinping for deepening “the understanding of the great striving of the Chinese nation.”

Researchers Reveal France’s Devastating Nuclear Effects (The Guardian) From 1966 to 1996, France conducted 193 nuclear tests at Moruroa and Fangataufa atolls in French Polynesia. The tests included 41 atmospheric tests until 1974 that exposed the local population, site workers, and French soldiers to high levels of radiation. Now groundbreaking new research shows that France has consistently underestimated the devastating impact of its nuclear tests and that more than 100,000 people may be able to claim compensation. Fallout from the tests was far greater than officially acknowledged. “The state has tried hard to bury the toxic heritage of these tests,” said one of the researchers. “This is the first truly independent scientific attempt to measure the scale of the damage and to acknowledge the thousands of victims of France’s nuclear experiment in the Pacific.”

South Africa’s economy shrank by most in a century last year (Bloomberg) South Africa’s economy contracted the most in a century in 2020 as restrictions to curb the spread of the coronavirus pandemic ravaged output and disrupted trade. Gross domestic product shrank 7%, compared with a 0.2% expansion in 2019, according to a report released by Statistics South Africa Tuesday in the capital, Pretoria. That’s the biggest decline since 1920. The economy may only return to where it was at the end of 2019 by 2024, due to longstanding constraints such as electricity shortages, a slow reform agenda and repeated waves of Covid-19 infections, according to Mpho Molopyane, an economist at FirstRand Group Ltd.’s Rand Merchant Bank.

Miami janitor quietly feeds thousands, and love’s the reason (AP) Doramise Moreau toils long past midnight in her tiny kitchen every Friday—boiling lemon peels, crushing fragrant garlic and onion into a spice blend she rubs onto chicken and turkey, cooking the dried beans that accompany the yellow rice she’ll deliver to a Miami church. She’s singlehandedly cooked 1,000 meals a week since the pandemic’s start—a an act of love she’s content to perform with little compensation. Moreau, a 60-year-old widow who lives with her children, nephew and three grandchildren, cooks in the kitchen of a home built by Habitat for Humanity in 2017. Her days are arduous. She works part-time as a janitor at a technical school, walking or taking the bus. But the work of her heart, the reason she rises each morning, is feeding the hungry. She borrows the church truck to buy groceries on Thursday and Friday and cooks into the wee hours of the night for Saturday’s feedings. “She takes care of everybody from A to Z,” said Reginald Jean-Mary, pastor at the church. “She’s a true servant. She goes beyond the scope of work to be a presence of hope and compassion for others.” With her janitorial job and all her work at the church, people often ask Moreau if she’s exhausted. But she says she is fueled by her faith. “I can keep all the money for myself and never give anyone a penny,” she said. “But if you give from your heart and never think about yourself, God will provide for you every day. The refrigerator will never be without food.”