Gavin Williamson to announce schools overhaul when pupils return after summer

PressNewsAgency
-
0
Gavin Williamson to announce schools overhaul when pupils return after summer

Schools in England are expected to be told to overhaul the curriculum, stagger break times and group children into “bubbles” when they return to the classroom in September, according to guidelines to be published by the Government.

ducation Secretary Gavin Williamson is due to announce the plans for getting all pupils back after the summer following up to six months at home – on the same day schools in Leicester close again as part of the city’s lockdown extension.

The Daily Telegraph reported that a draft of the official guidance also bans the mixing of year groups – such as in assemblies – as well as school choirs, and suggests teachers also stagger the start and end of the day.

Contingency plans must also be in place in case of a local lockdown, the paper said, and schools will be required to liaise with their local health protection team if there are two or more confirmed coronavirus cases within a fortnight.

A general rise in sickness or absence where Covid-19 is a suspected cause could lead to a year group or the whole school being told to stay at home and self-isolate as a precaution.

Details are expected to be set out at a Downing Street press conference on Thursday – the first time one has been held since daily briefings were scrapped last week.

Meanwhile, schools in Leicester will be closed on Thursday and will not reopen until after the summer break.

Close

Cumulative deaths involving Covid-19 in the UK (PA Graphics)

Figures released in Public Health England’s preliminary investigation into the Leicester outbreak – released on Wednesday evening – suggested a slight drop in the infection rate in the city from the week to June 20 to the seven days prior to June 27 – down from 140.2 to 135.7 per 100,000 people.

The data also suggests the overall infection rate in England fell over the same period from 10.7 to 6.7 per 100,000 – despite the easing of some lockdown restrictions.

Rates in Bradford, Barnsley and Rochdale declined more sharply over the same period. Officials in regions with high infection rates have said they are working hard not to follow Leicester into lockdown.

The report also suggested the majority of recently confirmed cases are in people aged 18 to 65 years – with the median age of those infected standing at 39 years. And 50.9% of the cases reported in June in the city were in women.

Close

Leicester lockdown boundary (PA Graphics)

The wards of North Evington, Belgrave and Stoneygate had the highest number of cases reported between June 11 and 25.

But the report concluded evidence for the scale of the outbreak was limited and an increase in reported cases could be partly due to a rise in the availability of testing.

The Office for National Statistics will on Thursday provide new figures from the coronavirus infection survey for England, and the latest data on the NHS Test and Trace programme will also be published.

It comes as the economic challenges of the pandemic were laid bare by a continuing jobs bloodbath.

The John Lewis Partnership warned over store closures and job cuts and Sir Philip Green’s Topshop empire revealed redundancy plans on Wednesday.

Upper Crust owner SSP announced up to 5,000 roles could go following plunging passengers numbers at railway stations and airports.

And Unite the union said its research revealed that almost 12,000 aerospace job losses have been announced in recent months at some of the UK’s biggest companies, including 1,700 by Airbus earlier this week.

PA

Source link

Coronavirus: Education secretary to set out detailed guidance for all schools to return full-time from September

PressNewsAgency
-
0
Coronavirus: Education secretary to set out detailed guidance for all schools to return full-time from September

School leaders are set to be told there is no need for pupils of any age to sit apart when they return to class in September.

Boris Johnson has promised a full return to the classroom five days a week from the autumn term – with the government facing intense pressure to ensure children do not lose any more school time.

Under new guidance to be set out by Education Secretary Gavin Williamson today, self-contained classes or “bubbles” – which cannot mix – will be expanded to allow all children back.

In primary schools, the maximum size of bubbles is expected to be raised from the current level of 15 to 30 children. The pupils and their teacher must still maintain distance from other classes.

For secondary schools, where older pupils choose multiple subject options, it is expected that whole year groups – of up to 200 pupils – will be permitted to form bubbles, with social distancing optional.

But schools are expected to be advised on how to minimise the numbers of pupils in each group with measures such as staggered start times and extra hygiene precautions.

Mr Williamson, who confirmed this week that attending school will be compulsory from September, is likely to face intense questions about safety from MPs and teaching unions.

Headteachers say there has been confusion about the social distancing requirements for children who are already back at school. Guidance to schools in May said two-metre distancing should be followed “where possible”, and many schools have been trying to enforce it, but the Department for Education insist it is not compulsory.

Keeping pupils in bubbles of up to a maximum of 15 has meant that extra teachers and classroom space are required for each year group that returns.

Claires Court school in Maidenhead is a private school charging fees of up £6,000 a term. It has brought back its entire primary school and some secondary pupils with distancing.

Executive headteacher Justin Spanswick said the school was “very lucky” to have the space and resources to do so, adding that local state schools with larger class sizes had found it very difficult.

The school plans to keep all pupils in smaller bubbles of 10 to 12 children, even if permitted to include the whole year, to avoid large numbers having to isolate if one child develops COVID-19 symptoms.

Mr Spanswick said the school – where every child is issued with their own laptop and headphones – was running live lessons online for pupils who are shielding or unable to return.

There is growing evidence that the gap between the most and least advantaged pupils has been widening during the lockdown, with huge variations in online learning.

A 20-minute drive from the school, in Slough, 15-year-old Bilal Mohammad, who shares a laptop with his three brothers, is worried about falling behind ahead in his GCSEs next year.

He has not attended his state school for more than three months and says the online work he is sent is limited: “I’ve lost loads of months, from March onwards, all of that time and all of that content I’ve lost. I feel the stress is on me to catch up with all this work.”

:: Listen to the Daily podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Spreaker

Professor Calum Semple of Liverpool University, a consultant in paediatric respiratory medicine, supports a full return to school but says pupils should distance from their teachers and other staff.

He said: “It would be best practice if children could maintain a one-metre distance from their schoolteachers and other adults.

“You have to remember that if anyone is at risk in the schools it’s going to be the adults, not the children. One of the good things that’s come out of all the research we’ve been doing is that we understand that children are not at risk of severe COVID.”

Source link

Peter Meehan Resigns as Los Angeles Times Food Editor

PressNewsAgency
-
0
Peter Meehan Resigns as Los Angeles Times Food Editor

Peter Meehan, the editor of The Los Angeles Times food section, announced Wednesday afternoon that he was stepping down.

His resignation comes after a series of tweets posted on Monday by Tammie Teclemariam, a freelance food-and-drinks writer, alleging a pattern of verbal abuse and workplace harassment by Mr. Meehan.

In a statement on Twitter, Mr. Meehan wrote that Ms. Teclemariam’s messages “alleged a number of things I don’t think are true, but they also compelled my staff to speak out.”

He continued: “In my tunnel-vision commitment to making the best thing we could, I lost sight of people and their feelings. That is a terrible failing on my part.”

He declined a request for comment.

On Twitter, Ms. Teclemariam (who has contributed to Wirecutter, which is owned by The New York Times) wrote that there had been multiple human-resources complaints against Mr. Meehan. She also alleged that Mr. Meehan verbally abused employees during his time as the editorial director of Lucky Peach, a food magazine started by Mr. Meehan, Chris Ying and the chef David Chang that stopped publication in 2017.

The Twitter thread also pointed out that Mr. Meehan continued to live in New York while working as food editor for the California paper.

In his statement, Mr. Meehan offered “non-PR apologies” to the people he had hurt. “I’m sorry to everybody that I’ve let down directly or indirectly and the last thing I’ve ever wanted to be is some sort of institutionalized problem,” he wrote.

Kimi Yoshino, a Los Angeles Times managing editor, referred questions and a request for comment to a spokeswoman for the paper, who did not immediately reply.

Mr. Meehan’s departure is the most recent in a wave of resignations at the top of food media. In early June, Adam Rapoport, resigned as editor in chief of Bon Appétit, after Ms. Teclemariam posted a 2004 photo of him wearing a stereotypically Puerto Rican costume. His departure has prompted a broader conversation about race at the magazine’s parent company, Condé Nast.

More recently, John T. Edge, the director of the Southern Foodways Alliance, has faced calls to step down.

Mr. Meehan’s departure comes as The Los Angeles Times is being accused a broad pattern of institutional racism. In a meeting last week, staff members of told upper management that it had failed to adequately hire, promote or retain staff members of color. The meeting came after staff members started using the hashtag #BlackAtLAT to share personal testimonials.

Mr. Meehan, who has written for The New York Times, was also a producer of three shows developed by Mr. Chang, including “Ugly Delicious,” which aired in 2018, the same year Mr. Meehan joined The Los Angeles Times as a contributing editor. In 2019, the paper revived its food section — which had not been a stand-alone section since 2012 — and named him its editor. No replacement has been named.



Source link

Alabama’s Top Health Officer: Without Compliance, Health Orders Can Only Go So Far

PressNewsAgency
-
0
Alabama’s Top Health Officer: Without Compliance, Health Orders Can Only Go So Far

Alabama State Health Officer Dr. Scott Harris updates Alabama’s residents on COVID-19’s spread in March, in Montgomery, Ala.

Taylor Hill/Getty Images


hide caption

toggle caption

Taylor Hill/Getty Images

Alabama State Health Officer Dr. Scott Harris updates Alabama’s residents on COVID-19’s spread in March, in Montgomery, Ala.

Taylor Hill/Getty Images

The surge in COVID-19 infections throughout Alabama is forcing Gov. Kay Ivey to rethink plans to reopen the state.

For the last seven days, Alabama has logged an average of nearly 1,000 new daily coronavirus cases, with hospitalizations at their highest level since the pandemic began.

On Tuesday, in an effort to contain the outbreak, Ivey extended her state’s “safer at home” orders to the end of July. The orders comprise a set of recommendations that include sanitation, hygiene and social distancing practices for individuals and businesses.

Dr. Scott Harris, the state health officer, says Alabama isn’t going so far as to implement mandatory orders because, he says, Alabamans are flouting the orders that are already in place.

“I think we certainly would prefer to have additional restrictions if we felt like they could be effective,” Harris says in an interview with NPR’s All Things Considered. “And, frankly … we don’t necessarily get the compliance we would like to see, even with the current orders in place.”

Here are excerpts from the conversation.

You’re saying that you would put more restrictions in place if you felt like they could be effective? Other states have closed bars, for example. Alabama has not. Are you saying an order to close bars wouldn’t be effective?

I think an order to close bars would be effective in many ways. But not as effective perhaps as things that I wish we could have done a few months ago. We asked a lot from the state originally with our stay-at-home order and for the most part, people complied. But really, at this point, the state does not really have an appetite for a lot more restrictions. And by the time our stay-at-home order was ready to be rescinded, we had quite a number of people who were [flouting] the order. We had law enforcement that had stated publicly they were not going to enforce the order. And frankly, it’s very difficult to put health orders in place if they’re going to be [flouted].

Does the political will exist to do the things that need to be done to keep people in Alabama safe?

I think I think it depends on what things you think need to be done. There’s a lot of opposition to things that people feel like is an infringement of their personal liberties. It’s very frustrating to us in public health. We feel like we have the data to support what we want to do. And we’re trying to make recommendations that keep people healthy. And yet, unfortunately, it feels like the science doesn’t win the arguments all the time — you know, depending on who we’re discussing those with. It’s a really kind of a mixed bag around the state.

NPR’s Gustavo Contreras, Vincent Acovino and Christopher Intagliata produced and edited this interview for broadcast. Emma Bowman adapted it for the Web.

Source link

Coronavirus Australia live: 300,000 Victorians enter lockdown in 36 Melbourne hotspot suburbs – latest updates

PressNewsAgency
-
0
Coronavirus Australia live: 300,000 Victorians enter lockdown in 36 Melbourne hotspot suburbs – latest updates

Spare a thought for more than 300,000 Victorians who suddenly find themselves back in March.

2020 just keeps bringing the goods.

Given that this was the plan developed by national cabinet, the residents of 3038, 3064, 3047, 3060, 3012, 3032, 3055, 3042, 3021 and 3046 could be any of us, if Covid-19 takes hold in our area.

As of midnight last night, people in the hotspots can now only leave their homes for food and supplies, to exercise, to receive or provide care, to study or work, if they absolutely can not do it from home.

Extra testing clinics have been set up in the neighbourhoods, and everyone, absolutely everyone is being urged to get tested –even if you don’t have symptoms.

It’s the level of community transmission that has everyone worried. Of the 73 new coronavirus cases recorded yesterday, three were returned travellers, nine have been linked back to known outbreaks, 19 were from “routine testing” – going to a clinic and 42 are still under investigation.

Melbourne will no longer take international flights and the former judge Jennifer Coate will lead an inquiry into Victoria’s hotel quarantine program, and what went wrong, after at least part of the outbreak was traced back to security staff at two of the hotels.

Meanwhile, the states have sent health staff, and have opened their labs to help process the Victorian tests, which are close to 20,000 a day.

When it comes to the borders, it’s a different story. Victorians have been banned from Queensland and South Australia. NSW has issued “do not travel” guidelines to its residents and also set up fines and possible jail terms, to anyone from a hotspot found to be breaking quarantine in the state. WA isn’t letting anyone in and won’t for some time.

We’ll keep you updated with all the Covid-19 news in Australia, as well as what’s happening politically. There is just a few days left in the Eden-Monaro byelection, which is taking up a lot of Anthony Albanese’s time, with Labor not certain it will hold the bellwether seat.

You have Amy Remeikis at the helm of the good ship blog for most of the day, with the entire Guardian crew onboard.

(It’s Thursday. I haven’t had enough coffee yet, obviously)

Let’s get into it.

Source link

California man who posted regret for attending party died a day later of coronavirus

PressNewsAgency
-
0
California man who posted regret for attending party died a day later of coronavirus

A California man posted his regret on Facebook about contracting the coronavirus after attending a party in June. A day later, he died from COVID-19.

On June 20, Thomas Macias, wrote an impassioned message on Facebook in which he lamented ignoring social distancing guidance.

Thomas Macias died of complications from the coronavirus.

“Some of you may know, but most don’t,” Macias, 51, wrote. “I … went out a couple of weeks ago” and contracted the coronavirus.

Macias, who was a truck driver, expressed guilt for possibly exposing his family to the virus.

“Because of my stupidity I put my mom and sisters and my family’s health in jeopardy,” he wrote. “This has been a very painful experience.”

“Hopefully with God’s help,” he added, “I’ll be able to survive this.”

He died the next day.

An official from the Riverside County Office of Vital Records told NBC News on Wednesday that Macias died from COVID-19.

From late March through early June, Macias was only going out when necessary, his brother-in-law, Gustavo Lopez, said on Wednesday.

“He was quarantining because he was overweight and had diabetes,” Lopez said.

The expletives have been blurred by NBC News.Courtesy Gustavo Lopez

Sometime in early June, however — after Gov. Gavin Newsom indicated that he would loosen the social distancing restrictions — Lopez said Macias attended a party in Lake Elsinore, about 70 miles southeast of Los Angeles.

Afterward, a friend of Macias who was also at the party contacted him to say he had tested positive for COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, Lopez said.

The friend told Macias he was aware of the diagnosis when he attended the gathering, but because he was not showing symptoms, he did not believe he could infect anyone else.

The friend advised everyone who attended the party to get tested.

Naturally, Lopez said, Macias was upset. Still, he said, Macias took accountability for his actions as evidenced in his Facebook post.

Lopez said he was unsure how many people went to the party, but that Macias was among more than a dozen people who contracted COVID-19.

Macias visited his sister Veronica, who is married to Lopez, on June 11 at the couple’s home, before he was tested. Lopez remembers being concerned for Macias after that visit.

“He did not look right,” Lopez said. “He was really sweaty.”

Macias, who never married and did not have any children, soon started to feel sick and believed it was related to his diabetes.

He was tested for COVID-19 on June 16 and received a positive diagnosis on June 18. In his Facebook post two days later, Macias implored people to take the coronavirus seriously.

“This is no joke,” he wrote. “If you have to go out wear a mask and practice social distancing.”

He was rushed to the hospital at about 11 a.m. on June 21. He was put on a ventilator sometime between 6 p.m. and 7 p.m. and died by 9 p.m., Lopez said.

“I think what he wanted people to know, this is a real thing,” Lopez said. “It’s serious and it kills people.”

Macias is remembered by his family as a really good guy with a lot of friends.

“He would do anything for everybody,” Lopez said. “No questions asked.”

He is survived by his mother, two sisters, four nieces and two great-nieces.

Veronica Lopez said her brother always greeted people with a smile and was not one to hold a grudge.

“He used to say opinions don’t matter,” Lopez said. “Relationships do.”

Janelle Griffith

Janelle Griffith is a breaking news reporter for NBC News. 



Source link

Iran warns US of ‘firm response’ after Security Council meeting

PressNewsAgency
-
0
Iran warns US of ‘firm response’ after Security Council meeting

Jul 1, 2020

A new episode of war of words is being waged between Tehran and Washington over the Iran nuclear deal, also known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). A US-proposed resolution formally discussed at the UN Security Council on Tuesday is now at the center of the soaring tensions.

The proposal aims to bring the council members on board to indefinitely extend a contentious arms embargo on Iran, which will be effectively expired under the JCPOA and UN Resolution 2231 in October. Reacting to the US plan and the council discussions, Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani issued a fresh warning to the White House. Rouhani said his country will not allow the US government to deal a “political blow” to the accord, and any such move will be met with a “firm response.” He also acknowledged the economic damage inflicted on Iran after the US departure from the JCPOA in May 2018.

In the Security Council’s virtual session — also attended by Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif — members appeared to show little interest in the US plan, largely expressing support for the full implementation of the JCPOA, while some also urged Tehran to resume its full compliance with the accord. Since last May, Tehran has been walking away from some of its commitments, tripling the size of its stockpiled uranium but at no degree coming close to acquiring a nuclear bomb. In his televised Cabinet meeting, Rouhani once again moved to reassure the other signatories that “any moment they fully honor their obligations, we will also immediately return to our commitments.”

In its last two reports on the status of the JCPOA, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has raised concerns about Tehran’s decision to bar inspection at two of its nuclear sites. The reports triggered an IAEA Board of Governors resolution June 19, the first anti-Iran statement since the multilateral agreement was signed in 2015.

The Security Council meeting, according to Rouhani, also turned into a stage for yet another US political failure. The assertion was shared by various Iranian media outlets, even Rouhani critics, as they unanimously lauded the Islamic Republic’s diplomacy and its “legitimacy” in the dispute. Yet there were also growing fears about how the council will ultimately handle the US plan. Pro-Reform economist and former lawmaker Jalal Khoshchehreh called the US proposal a “tough credibility test” for the Security Council. Any approval of the US plan, he wrote, will be a “privilege” for US President Donald Trump, who considers the collapse of the deal a ticket to reelection. 

Iran’s foreign minister, who has been engaged in unrelenting diplomacy to deter the success of the US plan, concluded his address to the council with a 1951 quote from then Iranian Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh, who advised the same body to resist pressure from Britain, which was pushing to reverse his patriotic plan to nationalize the Iranian oil industry.



Source link

This Is What Racial Trauma Does To The Body And Brain

PressNewsAgency
-
0
This Is What Racial Trauma Does To The Body And Brain

In mental health training and treatment, examining the impact of racism on brains and bodies is largely uncharted territory. And while, in recent years, clinicians who advocate for the study of race-based trauma have made strides in promoting this work, most mental health programs still do not offer official training around racial trauma — a debilitating effect of racism and discrimination.

Racial trauma comprises the mental and physical effects and consequences that Black, indigenous and people of colour experience after being exposed to racism. It does not only occur when a person directly experiences racism; it is also a vicarious phenomenon that can be passed through generations.

“The piece about racial trauma that is really unique is the intergenerational impact,” said Maryam Jernigan-Noesi, a psychologist who studied at Boston College’s Institute for the Study and Promotion of Race and Culture. “So it’s not just me and my lifetime and what I’ve experienced — it’s the stories you heard from family members, it’s witnessing that of colleagues or peers, and now with social media and online mechanisms of folks sharing videos, it’s also witnessing things that you may not experience directly.”

As issues related to race and equality continue to spark self-reflection among non-Black people, the phrase “racial trauma” is being invoked more frequently, and becoming an even more necessary official treatment area in the mental health field.

In order for Black people to address their experiences and ultimately work toward healing, racial trauma needs to be acknowledged and implemented into mental health treatment trainings — because, as the experts we spoke to emphasised, racial trauma has its own set of challenges and effects for victims.

Racial trauma creates irregular sleep patterns.

Within her own mental health practice, Lillian Comas-Diaz, a Washington, D.C.-based clinical psychologist specialising in trauma and multicultural issues, said that she has a number of patients who are coping with fatigue as a result of racial trauma.

“Sleep is a psychological issue and also a physiological issue,” Comas-Diaz said. “It becomes a constant source of even more stress because when you don’t sleep well, you worry more — and that enforces this cycle.”

She noted that sleep issues like nightmares, night terrors and insomnia contribute to the inability to sleep for those who have gone through an immense amount of racism or discrimination.

It results in over- or under-consumption of food.

The term “comfort food” exists for a reason. Often times, when people are feeling down, they reach for certain snacks to try to bring their spirits up — the same goes for people who are trying to cope with racial trauma.

“For some folks, they may find they are eating more. There is research that suggests certain foods kind of trigger the responses in our bodies that improve our mood — things like sweets and carbohydrates. So there is a way in which we can associate that over time,” Jernigan-Noesi said.

She also noted that at the other end of the spectrum, some people don’t eat as much because they are so impacted by their racial trauma. The overwhelming stress they feel results in a lack of physical care for themselves, which directly impacts their food intake.

Racial trauma is triggered through vicarious experiences, too.

A person doesn’t need to be present during a disturbing event in order to be affected by it. By being exposed to videos of police brutality or clips of racist encounters on social media and on the news, people are forced to live vicariously through instances of racism and discrimination. It’s inescapable. And for sufferers of racial trauma, the constant reexposure to racism results in additional levels of stress and unexpected exposure to triggers.

“Differing from many other kinds of stress is vicarious racial trauma, which actually today we are witnessing due to technology,” Comas-Diaz said. “It really adds another layer of trauma for people of colour — the vicarious aspect of racial trauma is affecting many, many people.”

Anyone who watches disturbing video footage that is omnipresent online can be subject to vicarious racial trauma — not just those who have experienced it themselves, but those witnessing it through a screen.

Racial trauma causes an increase in the stress hormone cortisol.

According to Comas-Diaz, those suffering from racial trauma, whether directly or vicariously, experience an increase in the stress hormone cortisol. When a person is dealing with large amounts of stress, the body releases increased amounts of the hormone as a result.

“Even though cortisol can help us deal with challenges — particularly a survivalist kind of thing — a constant volume of cortisol is not good and is actually not healthy,” Comas-Diaz said.

She noted that an influx in cortisol results in weight gain, slowed physical healing and muscle weakness, as well as many other health problems. Furthermore, a stress response also prompts a higher heart rate — and studies show that stress may heighten risks associated with cardiovascular disease.

It generates increased symptoms related to anxiety, depression and hypervigilance.

When looking at racial health disparities, experiences of discrimination that lead to wear and tear on the body can result not only in certain chronic illnesses that are prevalent within the Black community, but can also lead to diagnosable mental health concerns like depression and anxiety, Jernigan-Noesi said.

“Significant experiences of racial discrimination have negative consequences with regard to mental health,” she explained. “People have reported things like increased experiences of anxiety, symptoms that are related to depression and increased hypervigilance.”

“Significant experiences of racial discrimination have negative consequences with regard to mental health.”

– Maryam Jernigan-Noesi

Jernigan-Noesi added that, particularly in light of recent events like the senseless murder of Ahmaud Arbery when he was out for a jog, Black people are forced to be hypervigilant regarding their whereabouts. The Black community is faced with the reminder racism is associated with potential physical threats and lack of safety.

The human body registers racist encounters as experiences of toxic stress.

“When we start looking at racial trauma and, in particular, cumulative racial trauma, the idea is that racism and racial discrimination is usually not a singular experience for many folks,” Jernigan-Noesi said.

“And those experiences are rarely resolved,” she continued. “So, we may survive through them, but when the next experience comes along it can be a reminder or a trigger of previous experiences that we have, such that our body is also registering these as experiences of stress. And when our bodies are stressed out, what ends up happening is, over time, prolonged stressors can lead to, in an extreme level, what we refer to as toxic stress.”

“For Black people in particular, racial stress is something that happens throughout their life course.”

– Lillian Comas-Diaz

The mental and physical consequences of toxic stress largely result in overactivity in the parts of the brain that are associated with fear, anxiety or impulse response. But, Jernigan-Noesi added, there has also been research indicating that toxic stress can also result in underactivity, which affects people’s reasoning, behavior and planning.

“At the same time that you have this heightened sense of awareness that may be registering in the body, it disrupts your ability to go about your day,” Jernigan-Noesi said. “So if you think about all of that happening in the body — you’re not able to really return to a peaceful state. Racism is something that is pervasive.”

It shapes you before you’re even born.

“We are exposed to different kinds of racism historically, collectively, institutionally, systemically, interpersonally and generationally — we inherit a lot of this,” Comas-Diaz said. “For Black people in particular, racial stress is something that happens throughout their life course. And for many, it sadly happens before birth — this is the intergenerational effects of racial trauma. The children of parents who have been exposed to racial trauma become more sensitive to it.”

In some cases, studies show, parents who have gone through trauma resulting in epigenetic alterations — which are inheritable changes in gene expression — can pass those changes onto their children. Even if their child does not have direct exposure to racial trauma, the child will have increased sensitivity to stories of discrimination, witnessing racial trauma and systematic oppression.

In other words, it’s a vicious, nonstop cycle.

If you or someone you know needs help:

Lifeline on 13 11 14

Kids Helpline on 1800 551 800

Beyond Blue on 1300 22 46 36

Headspace on 1800 650 890

Outside of Australia, please visit the International Association for Suicide Prevention for a database of resources.



Source by [author_name]

Brazil deliverymen for Uber, other apps protest amid pandemic

PressNewsAgency
-
0
Brazil deliverymen for Uber, other apps protest amid pandemic

More than a thousand food deliverymen on motorcycles gathered in Sao Paulo, Brazil on Wednesday to protest against working conditions set by Uber and other apps, with their services in high demand due to coronavirus lockdowns.

The drivers sought better pay and improved health measures, as Brazil is now a coronavirus epicentre and delivery workers face exposure to the virus.

Drivers paraded through Sao Paulo’s Paulista Avenue, the city’s main thoroughfare, blocking traffic, and also protested in other Brazilian cities.

The government said this week that half of working-age Brazilians are out of work due to the coronavirus crisis, a record level, pushing more and more citizens into precarious employment options.

Brazilian delivery workers for Uber Eats and other delivery apps protesting as part of a strike to demand better pay and working conditions, amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, in Sao Paulo, Brazil [Amanda Perobelli/Reuters] 

Lockdown measures have drawn more demand for delivered food. One app, iFood, said some of its users were ordering as much as 30 percent more deliveries now than before the crisis.

But drivers complained that the apps pay them less while making them work more, with possible suspension if they do not comply. Several said the apps lure them with high pay at the beginning, which then dwindles over time.

“They are making us work weekends, every day, or we face the risk of getting blocked,” said Felipe Gomes, who delivers for iFood.

It was not the first time delivery workers have taken to the streets to demonstrate against Uber, Colombia’s Rappi and Brazil’s iFood. But the demonstration appeared to be the biggest.

Customers and restaurants took to social media to support the drivers, whose cause was a trending topic in Brazilian Twitter feeds.

Freelancers

Their working conditions have also drawn the attention of prosecutors, who have launched investigations of all the apps and sued iFood.

The companies classify drivers as freelancers, insisting the firms are intermediaries between restaurants and the delivery workforce. They say the apps provide workers with the freedom to set their hours and level of commitment. But workers and prosecutors strongly disagree.

“An algorithm determines everything for them: the value of the work, the duration of their work, even the route they should take, and if you don’t accept, there are penalties,” said Tatiana Simonetti, a Brazilian labour prosecutor.

Uber declined to comment, deferring to a statement by a trade group representing several apps saying it will not punish drivers who strike.

“The flexibility of apps was essential so that hundreds of thousands of people … had an alternative to generate income and support their families,” the statement said.

iFood and Rappi said worker demands have been addressed and would not commit to raising pay in response to the pressure. Rappi said most workers receive 18 reais ($3.38) an hour, although drivers told Reuters they often receive much less.

Rodrigo Gandolfo, iFood’s vice president of logistics, said deliverymen get paid approximately 20 reais ($3.77) an hour at the busiest times, such as lunch and dinner.

“It’s hard to talk about making structural changes,” Gandolfo said. “We can talk about constant improvement, but the majority of driver demands have already been covered by iFood.”

The protests were to continue into the night, with the delivery workers riding their motorcycles through the city while wearing their branded backpack containers bearing the companies’ logos.


SOURCE:
Reuters news agency



Source link

‘Sitting on Millions of Dollars’ and Dying to Blow It: Not This July 4

PressNewsAgency
-
0
‘Sitting on Millions of Dollars’ and Dying to Blow It: Not This July 4

The annual Big Bay Boom over San Diego will be quiet this year. The skies over Lake Tahoe, home to the Lights on the Lake celebration, will be dark.

Also falling silent will be the IPL Downtown Freedom Blast in Indianapolis; the Patriots Point Blast in Charleston, S.C.; and the Legacy Blast in Lee’s Summit, Mo.

Across the country, the coronavirus pandemic has brought to a halt a tradition of summer: Fourth of July fireworks.

As many as 80 percent of community fireworks displays in large cities and small rural towns have been canceled this year over fear that they would create a social distancing nightmare.

For the 150 companies across the country that thrill spectators with their booming, colorful explosions in the skies, the two weeks around the July Fourth holiday make up about three-quarters of their revenue. The numerous cancellations this year, they say, are taking a significant financial toll on their businesses, many of them family owned for generations.

With July Fourth falling on a weekend, giving communities extra days to host events, “we were looking at a record year,” said James Souza, the fifth generation of his family to operate Pyro Spectaculars by Souza from California. “But of the 400 shows we expected to do around the holiday, we’ll be lucky if we do 40,” he said, noting that he had been receiving daily calls with cancellations or program changes from event planners.

Included in the 40 shows that Mr. Souza will produce this year are the Mount Rushmore show in South Dakota and, for the 36th consecutive year, the Macy’s fireworks show in New York City. The Macy’s show has been changed to five-minute displays in undisclosed locations throughout the week that are designed to be watched from outside without leaving home. The grand finale on July Fourth, also from an undisclosed location, will be televised.

A few companies that specialize in large fireworks displays also sell Roman candles, spinners and sparklers for individuals to use in their backyards, a business that is booming this year. But it has also created headaches in cities like New York City, Chicago and Los Angeles, where fireworks are illegal. In Utah, a person setting off fireworks sparked a wildfire over the weekend and forced evacuations of homes 30 miles south of Salt Lake City.

Some of the fireworks display companies have, over the past decade or so, branched out to broader entertainment arenas, creating “ooohs” and “aaahhs” at major- and minor-league baseball stadiums as well as complex pyrotechnics for rock concerts, music festivals, and indoor basketball and hockey games.

The vast majority of those sports games and entertainment events were also canceled this year. When they ultimately resume, they may initially do so without spectators, making fireworks unnecessary.

“I’ve had days where I’ve lost $150,000 of business from cancellations,” said Roberto Sorgi, the fifth generation of the family that runs American Fireworks in Hudson, Ohio. “We’re going to lose 50 to 75 percent of our business from the Fourth of July, and there are no clear signs of when concerts or mass gatherings will be allowed again, so we may not have a third or fourth quarter this year. It is a very scary road ahead for all of us.”

Most of the fireworks companies received money through the federal Paycheck Protection Program and the Economic Injury Disaster Loan program. But they said it wasn’t enough.

That’s because the fireworks industry has a ton of upfront expenses. The companies start buying millions of dollars’ worth of fireworks nearly a year in advance, and paid hefty insurance premiums this year to cover the planned events.

“I’m sitting on millions of dollars, tons and tons of explosives, that have to be stored very specifically,” Mr. Souza said, “which, for us, is in 24 military-style bunkers that we have to lease, and those leases are now at a premium.”

He added: “We’ve maxed out all of our lines of credit. I don’t know how I’m going to cover expenses this year.”

The industry hopes Congress will earmark $175 million for it in another stimulus bill, if one is passed.

“We’re asking for relief in the next Senate Covid package to address the unique and specific costs to this industry,” said Julie Heckman, the executive director of the American Pyrotechnics Association. “Fireworks display companies will be one of the last industries to reopen, and that may not happen until May of 2021.”

Even before the coronavirus outbreak, the year was shaping up to be a challenging one for many in the fireworks industry.

Last summer, the top-of-mind concern for many was whether President Trump would include fireworks in his tariffs on Chinese imports. About 95 percent of the world’s fireworks are made in China.

Fireworks were eventually excluded from the tariffs, but then China halted manufacturing late last year after an explosion in a factory in Liuyang, where most of the world’s fireworks are made. Then, the coronavirus outbreak in China affected key ports where fireworks are shipped all over the world.

“The first wave of coronavirus hit in China and we were like, ‘Oh, my god, we’re not going to get any of our products,’” Mr. Sorgi said. “Everyone started to put in backup orders. Then, all of the sudden, they open up and there’s no way to cancel the orders because they’re already on the boats from China. Every fireworks display company is overstuffed with product.”

And in the days leading up to the holiday, firework display companies say they have been receiving calls from civic leaders, changing where and how the fireworks will be staged in order to maintain social distancing among spectators.

Some, like Seven Springs Mountain Resort in Champion, Pa., are hosting drive-in fireworks, where visitors park and stay by their cars. Others, like West Palm Beach, Fla., and New York City, are planning to have multiple shows that can be seen from homes.

“We’ve changed a number of the displays to have the fireworks go off at a high level so that people can see the entire display from different locations,” said George Zambelli, the third generation of the family that runs Zambelli Fireworks in Warrendale, Pa. The Zambelli family has put on shows at the White House for presidents including John F. Kennedy and Jimmy Carter, as well as for the Bush family at its Kennebunkport estate in Maine.

This year, Mr. Zambelli said, 80 percent of the company’s July Fourth shows have been canceled.

Stephen Vitale, the fourth generation of the family to run Pyrotecnico in New Castle, Pa., said about 160 of the 600 shows he expected to do this Fourth of July would happen.

“The first 15 days of May were incredibly devastating,” Mr. Vitale said. “Every call was a bad call, a cancellation.”

Noting that many clients are municipal parks and recreation departments and that an 18- to 20-minute show can cost anywhere from $5,000 to $200,000, Mr. Vitale and others are worried about what may happen next year.

“Right now, the cancellations are pandemic driven,” he said. “But next year, I believe it will be more money driven. Budgets are going to get cut.”

Source link

1...65,35365,35465,355...66,738Page 65,354 of 66,738