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According to this article, political discontent is destabilizing the political world. The Pew Research Center Core in Washington DC found that large numbers of people in a long list of countries are dissatisfied with how their democratic governments are working which has the potential to duel for more radical change. According to the statistic, 56 percent across 17 advanced economies say their political systems need major change. Two-thirds of this statistic includes the countries Italy, Spain, the US, South Korea, Greece, France, Belgium, and Japan. Country's individuals have these opinions because of discontents of their own respective country. Examples of this include the US having President Donald Trump be elected present which was a problem for the Democrats who have moved left on cultural issues and the UK voting on Brexit because of overly intrusive bureaucrats in Brussels. The simultaneous rise in dissatisfaction across so much of the globe also points to a single change or set of changes at work nearly everywhere. The author of this article then speaks out her opinion that the biggest candidate to these issues stems from social media because it both helped unite and divide people within and across national boundaries which causes political instability. Her statistic on this topic is very surprising to me because I did not know that that amount of the world is upset with their government. Her opinion on where these opinions are branched, social media, is something I agree with. Social media has torn the world apart especially in many countries, but I do believe that it is for the better because it shows/informs people of the problems we have in each other's respective countries. Without social media, the world could be grimmer with more injustices happening without the world seeing. I believe social media helps give people a major stride for change.

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We have many ways to describe the turbulent character of the political present: the populist moment, democratic backsliding, the authoritarian turn. But if a new analysis of global trends in public opinion from the Pew Research Center is correct, it might be more accurate to say that ours is primarily a time of rising political discontent.

Pew's core finding is that large numbers of people in a long list of countries are dissatisfied with how their democracies are working - and this restlessness is fueling a drive for more radical change. As Pew puts it, "A median of 56 percent across 17 advanced economies surveyed in 2021 say their political system needs major changes or needs to be completely reformed. Roughly two thirds or more express this opinion in Italy, Spain, the U.S., South Korea, Greece, France, Belgium, and Japan."

That's a lot of discontent and a lot of potential political radicalism directed against an unhappy status quo.

The most pressing and mysterious question left unanswered by these findings is: Why is this happening now, and why in so many different places at once?

Journalistic and scholarly examinations of present gloominess tend to focus on the specific discontents of single countries: Americans elected former President Donald Trump because Democrats moved left on cultural issues, alienating working-class voters. The U.K. voted for Brexit because of overly intrusive bureaucrats in Brussels. A plurality of Hungarians support Viktor Orban's antiliberal nationalism in reaction to post-Cold War depopulation. And so forth.

Yet the simultaneous rise in dissatisfaction across so much of the globe seems to point to a single change or set of changes at work nearly everywhere. One possibility is that governments trulyare becoming worse at getting things done and representing people's interests. Another is that publicexpectations for competence and representation are rising, leading to increasing discontent with fairly typical outcomes. Both things could, of course, be happening at the same time as well.

But why would that be? What could be making governments more inept or democratic citizens more impatient (or both) in so many places at once?

As I've argued on previous occasions, the single most likely candidate is social media. It helps both to unite and divide people within and across national boundaries in new, expected ways that can cause political instability. It's possible the ubiquity of smart phones and social media apps is behind much of the rising discontent, though more study and analysis will be required to establish the truth of the thesis, let alone to begin devising effective responses.

In the meantime, Pew's trove of data is a great place to start.

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Why is political discontent destabilizing the democratic world?

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We have many ways to describe the turbulent character of the political present: the populist moment, democratic backsliding, the authoritarian turn. But if a new analysis of global trends in public opinion from the Pew Research Center is correct, it might be more accurate to say that ours is primarily a time of rising political discontent.

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This article talks about the hypocrisy of young people or "Gen Z", people younger than 26, care so much about the planet, yet ruin it with their materialistic lifestyles mainly in the clothing or fashion industry. According to the statistic within the article, "The global fashion industry itself contributed to 2.1 billion metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions in 2014...50% of fashion garments are reportedly disposed... and the average American throws out an estimated 70 pounds of textiles and clothes every year." Companies in the Fashion Industry keep lowering prices on clothing allowing for bigger profits and production which is heavily affecting our planet. This article's opinion is faulty in my perspective because it does not provide a solution for young people to solve this crisis other than calling them hypocritical for being materialistic. It feels as if the author of this article is trying to justify their actions with the actions of others who preach good and waste management about the world with a topic that most are probably not familiar with. Myself included is within this oblivious age group of how damaging materialistic lifestyles are to the Earth. Though I do not buy the most clothing, I find it believable that such materialistic lifestyles can scar the Earth without much thought into it. If this article is trying to say that we should buy less clothing and stop these monopolistic companies then sure I can agree with that, but it does not clearly state that it should instead it just blames it on other people.

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The most eco-conscious generation? Gen Z’s fashion fixation suggests otherwise.

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Can Depop and Shein coexist in a principled closet?

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In this article, they talk about the high poverty rate in the Philippines which is more than 16% of the population living there. The people of the Philippines are reliant on agriculture for income which causes inequality in wealth distribution. This article also talks about 5 steps to combating poverty in the Philippines. the first step is to give the people greater access to education. The helps the people become more encouraged to enroll in higher education. The country is helping this step by subsidizing the cost of tuition for state universities and colleges and also giving the people access to a tuition subsidy. The second step is to give the people greater access to healthcare which has been shown to lessen debts on people who have experienced medical debt. The country is helping this step by giving more funds to organizations like PhilHealth to improve the quality of service and to lower the cost of medicine. The third step is family aid to further help citizens, the government implemented the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program which is a conditional cash transfer program for impoverished households. The next step is an economic improvement with the goal of reducing poverty. The government signed the Rice Tarriffication law which places a 35% tariff on imported trice to prioritize local rice production which benefits local farms and creates a more efficient and competitive agricultural system. The last step is to build more infrastructure to stimulate the economy and to create more jobs. These 5 steps would've helped the Philippines in a major way, but the poverty has increased because of the coronavirus crisis which lead to a decrease in consumption growth and further economic loss. Because the Philippines is the home country of my family and me, I do agree with the incoming change happening there. I think the message in this article is clear that the government is doing better than the previous years in trying to decrease this percentage of impoverished people. But it is sad to hear that much-needed progress was halted because of the pandemic.

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The Philippines has a fairly high poverty rate with more than 16% of the population living below the poverty line. Because of the many people reliant on agriculture for an income and inequality in wealth distribution, about 17.6 million Filipinos struggle to afford basic necessities. From 2015 to 2020, the rate of poverty declined from 21.6% to 16.6%. Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte aims to reduce the rate of poverty to 14% by 2022. Through its strategy, AmBisyon 2040, the Philippine government plans to eradicate extreme poverty by 2040. Furthermore, the government has implemented various programs and reforms to reduce poverty by targeting education, healthcare and the overall economy. Here are five ways the program is combating poverty in the Philippines.

Combating Poverty in the Philippines

1. Greater Access to Education: A factor of systemic poverty is a lack of access to education in impoverished areas. People gain basic skills and increased job opportunities through education, which can help to combat poverty in the Philippines. Therefore, the Philippines signed the Universal Access to Quality Tertiary Education Act in 2017 to encourage more people to enroll in higher education and to address the issue of education inequality. The government subsidizes the cost of tuition for State Universities and Colleges (SUCs) students as well as other expenses such as school supplies. Private institutions also have access to a tuition subsidy. The Act aims to decrease the number of dropouts in higher education and promote the idea that higher education is available to all.

2. Greater Access to Healthcare: In an effort to improve the healthcare system, President Duterte signed the Universal Healthcare Act in February 2019. The UHC Act provides access to the full spectrum of healthcare by enrolling citizens in the National Insurance Program and granting health coverage to all. While healthcare is not completely free, those in poverty will have more access to health services. To ensure the effectiveness of healthcare, the Act will form the Health Technology and Assessment Council (HTAC). The Council will consist of health experts who will assess health developments, such as technology, vaccines and other advancements. Additionally, the Philippines will allocate more funds to PhilHealth, which will improve the quality of service and lower the cost of medicine.

3. Family Aid: To further efforts to support citizens, the government implemented the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) in 2007. The 4Ps is is a conditional cash transfer program for impoverished households. The program gives households grants so long as they meet certain requirements, including keeping the children in school, having regular health check-ups and having parents or guardians attend Family Development Sessions. The 4Ps program benefits about 20 million Filipinos, 9 million of whom are children. Therefore, the program reaches about 20% of the population with the goal of greater poverty reduction.

4. Economic Improvement: With the goal of reducing poverty by strengthening economics, President Duterte signed the Rice Tariffication Law in February 2019, amending the Agricultural Tariffication Act of 1996. The Law places a 35% tariff on imported rice with the goal of prioritizing local rice production for the population by stabilizing the supply. The tariff also aims to benefit local farmers by creating a more efficient and competitive agricultural system.

5. Build, Build, Build: Additionally, the Duterte administration created the "Build, Build, Build" infrastructure plan in 2017. The initial goal of the program was to complete 75 projects, but Duterte revised the plan to instead target finishing 100 projects. Some projects include new public transportation and airport renovations. The government has put about 34% of the projects into action and is expecting to complete 56% by 2022. By 2019, the government had completed two of the initial 75 projects. With support from loans, the Philippines will rely on Build, Build, Build as a strategy to aid the country in recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic. The government's hope is that combatting the effects of the pandemic by improving the country's infrastructure will stimulate the economy and create more jobs. However, the program has received criticism due to its slow execution as a result of underspending.

Unfortunately, poverty is expected to increase in the Philippines because of the coronavirus crisis. This will lead to a decrease in consumption growth and further income losses. Therefore, greater efforts are necessary to combat poverty in the Philippines amid the pandemic, which has hit the impoverished the hardest.

One young and ambitious entrepreneur is rising to the occasion in response to the Philippines' problem of poverty with the invention of bamboo houses.

Poverty in the Philippines

Although the island's poverty rate has recently fallen from 26.6 percent in 2006 to 21.6 percent in 2015, it still saw approximately 22 million living below the national poverty line. That is over one-fifth of the population.

The creation of jobs outside of agriculture is helping lift the nation out of impoverishment. Unfortunately, constraints like inequality of income and opportunities, the effects of natural disasters and an increasing population prevent many families from achieving a higher quality of life.

Homelessness is something that many Filipino citizens contend with. The Philippines has a rapidly increasing population. In fact, it is estimated to reach 12 million by 2030. Currently, 44 percent of people residing in urban environments live in slums. Furthermore, 1.2 million children are homeless throughout the islands. Manila, the capital, holds 3.1 million homeless Filipinos. Of these residents, 70,000 are children. An imminent need for affordable and durable houses is upon the nation.

The invention of bamboo houses is an innovative solution to finally aid this country's poverty and homeless crisis.

Cubo Bamboo Houses in the Philippines

A recent graduate from Ateneo de Manila University, Earl Forlales, has conceptualized a fast way to easily assemble affordable houses out of bamboo. Bamboo grows quickly and abundantly on the islands. It is able to be processed into sturdy building material. Forlales said he got the idea for what he's named "Cubo units" from the structure of nipa huts. These are native houses popular in the rural Philippines.

"The Cubo unit itself is a standard three-by-four-meter studio meant to house two residents," Forlales explained. "The prefabricated modules only take four hours to install on-site and would only cost roughly Php 4,200 (around $82) per square meter."

These bamboo houses may be compact, but they are designed to last for around 50 years. Aside from the residential units, Cubo blueprints for daycare and community centers are also being designed. With the versatility of these designs, a small neighborhood will be able to be revitalized in a matter of days.

Today, Forlales' Cubo units are closer to actual construction than ever before. The young entrepreneur recently won the United Kingdom's Cities for Our Future competition, winning over 1,200 entries and walking away with enough prize money to help him jump-start his business. Now, Forlales has a website up-and-running for the company. Additionally, he is working to assemble a five-star team that will help his award-winning visions into reality.

Bamboo Houses: The Big Picture

Although Cubo bamboo houses were created with low-income Manila neighborhoods in mind, the designs are applicable to any region where bamboo can be grown. The potential of the idea has no limit and can help hundreds of disadvantaged families live comfortably where they had once been victimized.

Forlales' vision is something to be admired. He is more than ready to set his plans into motion and begin construction.

"My ultimate dream [is a] Philippines with no slums...I really just want to do something that would impact peoples' lives, and ideally that something would outlive me."

Though it may be too early to tell, it seems that his bamboo houses may just set the new norm for living conditions in urban Manila. One idea will positively affect its residents for generations to come.

As of 2015, poverty in the Philippines was prevalent with 22 million Filipinos living in the depths of poverty. That equates to one-fifth of the population. Poverty presents itself in a vicious cycle affecting mainly the uneducated population who tend to live in large family units. These family units usually have only one head of the household who provides income for the entire family.

The Filipino government is actively trying to speed up its poverty reduction plan. Its long-term goal is to be able to provide more economic prospects, which in turn would help many of their citizens earn a higher and more stable income. A World Bank report has shown how this economic growth helped decline the rate of poverty. Poverty in the Philippines dropped from 26.6% in 2006 to 21.6% in 2015.

Key Programs to Help Reduce Poverty in the Philippines

Some factors that resulted in the drop in poverty are the expansion of jobs outside the agriculture sector, government transfers and getting qualified Filipinos to help through the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program. This particular program which is a government cash-handout project has helped reduce poverty by 25%.

Most of the Philippines experience massive typhoons and armed conflict. These scenarios are a real struggle for the everyday worker who, even after a long day, still goes back home poor. Due to these factors, many citizens end up leaving behind farm work and going to find work in manufacturing hubs in the urban areas of the country. These jobs outside the agricultural dome have accounted for two-thirds of the progress in reducing poverty in the Philippines.

One of the key strategies to help bring down poverty in the Philippines is providing birth control to the poor. In a radical move for the heavily populated Catholic country, the President made readily available birth control to nearly 6 million women who cannot afford it.

Providing birth control is a powerful tool for families who now have full control over family planning. The hope is that by giving the women and family units more control, they will have fewer children. This, in turn, will mean that families can provide more responsibly. This new policy will help the government reach its goal of reducing poverty by 13% by 2022.

The current Filipino population is at 104 million and continues to rise at an alarming rate of 1.7% each year. This new law will enable families to control how many children they want. It will also hopefully take down the population rate to 1.4% each year once the law undergoes full execution.

Government Hopeful About Achieving its Aim

Even though the Philippines have worked hard in the past to reduce their poverty and keep up with their neighbors China, Vietnam and Indonesia, they still have a long way to go. Marak K. Warwick of The World Bank believes that with a solid foundation there is a reason to be optimistic that the Philippines can achieve its goal.

The goal of the Philippine government is to create more jobs, improve productivity, invest in health and nutrition while focusing on reducing poverty. If the government is able to execute its plans successfully, it is capable of reducing poverty in the Philippines by 13% to 15% by 2022.

The South China Sea represents more than just a geopolitical struggle; it is a hotspot for fishing. Beijing claims that its historic rights give it ownership inside the so-called Nine-Dash Line, covering around 80 percent of the South China Sea. These claims contradict maritime laws, among them The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, and have received backlash from several Southeast Asian countries.

For example, China, Taiwan, the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei and Vietnam all hold overlapping claims over the Spratlys Islands, a group of islands, archipelagos and reefs. Aggression from all sides and a lack of cooperation on fishing regulations have endangered the livelihoods of fishermen, who rely on the South China Sea for sustenance. Here are seven facts about fishermen poverty in the South China Sea:

7 Facts about Fishermen Poverty in the South China Sea

1. The South China Sea fisheries constitute the economic lifeblood of claimant states. They are the home of upwards of 3,365 species of marine fish, and 55 percent of marine fishing vessels operate in the South China Sea. Moreover, approximately 12 percent of global fishing catches occur there. In addition to being a source of nutrition, the fisheries provide employment to at least 3.7 million people.

2. Overfishing has depleted the fishing reserves of the South China Sea. A Stimson report released in December 2012 found that shallow reefs and shoals have been exploited to their limit. Relative to other regions of Earth, portions of the South China Sea are among the most highly affected marine ecosystems.

3. Coastal development has further aggravated marine species. Mangroves, for example, occupy a mere 70 percent of their original land area in the South China Sea, and seagrass beds have shrunk to 50 percent of pre-industrial levels. Industrial pollutants, tourism and sediment runoff have endangered marine species, which use coastal habitats for spawning purposes. When these coastal habitats become depleted, fishermen venture beyond national limits, leading to confrontations at sea.

4. Overexploitation of stocks has forced fishermen to turn to dangerous fishing techniques. In order to make up for economic losses, fishermen have used explosives and cyanide to boost yields. Some have resorted to blast fishing, in which dynamite is used to kills schools of fish. This allows for easy collection, but it seriously harms the coral reefs and seabed in the process. In Indonesia alone, fishing explosives have cost up to $3.8 billion between 1980 and 2000.

5. Fishermen poverty is a common type of poverty in countries surrounding the South China Sea. 80 percent of Indonesian fishing households earn incomes below the country's poverty line. In the Tay Ninh province of Vietnam, people working in the fisheries sector made up 88 percent of very low-income households in 1999. Moreover, poverty is more prevalent in Filipino fishing households than in the average Filipino household.

6. Legal uncertainty about the status of artificial islands and false claims in the South China Sea have exacerbated tensions between fishermen from different Southeast Asian nations. Maritime border disputes have prevented countries from establishing a framework for cooperation. With no regulation of fishing activities, illegal and unreported fishing has gone rampant in the South China Sea.

7. Border disputes have put the lives of Southeast Asian fishermen in danger. CNN reported that, in 2015, Chinese vessels attacked 200 Ly Son (Vietnamese) fishermen and 17 fishing boats. Starting in 2005 and lasting seven years, Chinese government ships kidnapped Vietnamese fishers for ransom near The Paracel Islands. Romel Cejuela, a Filipino fisherman, explained that the Chinese Coast Guard personnel "board our boats, look at where we store the fish and take the best ones." China is not the sole perpetrator of these acts of violence and robbery. In 2017, Reuters article Indonesia's navy shot four Vietnamese fishermen on a fishing boat in the South China Sea.

On June 27, 2018, representatives from the member states of The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and China met in Changsha to negotiate a "code of conduct" for vessels traveling through the South China Sea. For the first time, China and ASEAN reached a consensus on a set of maritime rules and planned to hold joint maritime exercises in the future. While some critics dismiss the meeting as a Chinese ploy, agreements like this one are necessary for fishermen whose lives depend on stability in the South China Sea.

To alleviate fishermen poverty and create an environment more conducive to cooperation and sustainable fishing, it is essential that Southeast Asian nations delineate territorial claims and abide by a rules-based international order. With the negotiations currently underway, this may occur sooner than originally anticipated.

Poverty in the Philippines is more persistent than in other countries in Southeast Asia. Consisting of 7,641 islands, the Republic of the Philippines is a country located in the western Pacific Ocean. Despite a declining poverty rate in recent years, 21.6 percent of the country's population still live below the national poverty line.

Rural areas in the Philippines show a poverty rate of 36 percent in comparison with the 13 percent of urban areas. However, urban poverty has also shown a steady increase in recent years, possibly due to the unemployed and low-income migrants who are unable to afford housing.

Other key contributors to the poverty rate include vulnerability to shocks and natural disasters, an underdeveloped agricultural sector, high population growth and moderate economic growth. Here are 10 facts about poverty in the Philippines, including the causes, outcomes and improvements.

10 Facts About Poverty in the Philippines

1. Agriculture is the main source of income for rural inhabitants, primarily in farming and fishing. Most farmers and small landholders live in areas that are prone to natural disasters or conflicts. Declines in agricultural productivity, unsuccessful small landholder farming operations and unsustainable practices have caused deforestation and weakened fish stocks.

2. Over a third of the rural inhabitants in the Philippines are impoverished. Indigenous people residing in these areas experience higher rates of illiteracy, unemployment and poverty. A lack of access to productive capital and limited market access has created slow economic growth and underemployment. The rural poor have limited options for off-farm employment and low access to inexpensive financial services.

3. The majority of poor Filipino households have only achieved basic levels of education. At least two-thirds of poor households are headed by an individual with an elementary level education or below. Additionally, most poor families have minimal access to health and education services.

4. Poverty levels in the Philippines are affected by unrestrained population growth. The average poor family in the Philippines consists of six or more members. Similar to other countries, impoverished regions typically have higher birth rates. In rural areas in the Philippines, the average woman will have 3.8 children compared to the cities where the average woman will have 2.8.

5. Four out of 10 poor families in urban areas do not have decent living conditions. Most of the poor households in urban areas reside as informal settlements in slum areas of major cities like Manila. These homes do not include proper facilities and also are bad for the environment. These settlers typically move to major cities from other provinces in search of better economic opportunity and livelihood.

6. Moderate economic growth has not resulted in poverty reduction. The average annual GDP increased by only 0.63 percent per person between 1980 and 2005. Incidents of inequality among regions have also continued to increase, hindering the reduction of poverty. The country's economic growth is directed at Manila and the two bordering provinces. This prevents distant provinces from sharing the benefits of prosperity.

7. The Government of the Philippines utilizes social protection programs to provide poor families with direct assistance. Impoverished families can receive cash assistance through a conditional cash transfer program. The program requires all families to enroll their children in school and vaccinate their children with government-provided immunizations.

8. The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) is working in the Philippines to improve the incomes and food security of rural populations. IFAD primarily focuses on women, fishers, small landholders and indigenous people residing in fragile ecosystems. Recent projects and programs are intended to improve the environment with natural resource management and sustainable access to land. Projects also include skills for managing soil and water along with support for fishing communities.

9. President Rodrigo Duterte has been focused on improving poverty-related issues for the country's poor. President Duterte signed an executive order to pass a law that makes contraception free and more easily accessible to the poor. Duterte is also improving infrastructure with new roads, bridges and airports as a result of a planned increase in expenditure. Such improvements will better connect impoverished communities to Manila and thus bring opportunities for better jobs.

10. The government of the Philippines created AmBisyon 2040 and The Philippine Development Plan 2017-2022 in efforts to reduce poverty. Both plans aim to improve living conditions for the poor and reduce poverty by 15 percent by 2022. To achieve this goal, it is recommended these policies work towards creating more jobs, improving productivity in all sectors and educating Filipinos with the necessary skills for work in today's economy.

The Republic of the Philippines has made and continues to make improvements in poverty reduction. However, overpopulated urban areas and lack of economic opportunities for rural populations still create a need for more progress. The fact that such issues are receiving recognition from political leaders and various organizations is creating hope for the Philippines and its people.

Amidst the 7,107 western Pacific islands known as the Philippines, poverty is uniquely endemic. A country of scattered landmass, the Philippines is ranked the third most disaster-prone country in the world, as its close proximity to the equator encourages destructive weather such as earthquakes and storms. Natural disasters disproportionately and recurrently hit the poorest regions of the country, coursing them into higher levels of poverty.

This, along with uncontrolled population growth, exacerbates the reality of poverty within this collection of islands. Fortunately, there are significant plans in the works that focus on kicking such insufficiency to the curb, solutions that include the advancement of infrastructure in the Philippines.

Historically, insufficient infrastructure development has stunted both economic growth and poverty reduction, but there is an active movement toward improvement. Within the past couple of years, proposals have been met with action to pave the way for a change. The following are four important facts regarding infrastructure in the Philippines.

Four Facts About Infrastructure in the Philippines

1. $7.6 billion has recently been approved to establish new infrastructure in the Philippines. President Rodrigo Duterte has plans for robust projects such as bridges, roads and the Metro Manila Subway. Under the national "Build, Build, Build" initiative, the country is looking to spend $180 billion to renovate and build airports, railways, roads and ports over a six-year period.

2. Additional financing for the Rural Development Project for the Philippines was approved January 11, 2018. Costing over $2 million, this project aims to promote job creation, especially within rural development. It seeks to boost rural incomes and enrich both farm and fishery productivity in specified regions, as well as to establish essential pieces of infrastructure, like a network of roads, that allow farmers to sell products at market and connect to the urban areas.

3. The Mindanao Trust Fund-Reconstruction and Development Project Phase II (MTF-RDP2) was approved April 4, 2018. Costing over $3 million, this project focuses on post-conflict reconstruction, improving labor market policy and programs, promoting social inclusion for ethnic minorities and appeasing forced displacement. The objective of the MTF Facility is to advance development in conflict-affected areas in Mindanao by assisting in social and economic recovery within these communities.The MTF-RDP2's objective focuses on improved access for conflict-affected communities to basic socioeconomic structure and alternative learning systems. According to Xubei Luo, Senior Economist at the World Bank's Poverty and Equity Global Practice, "Making a difference in Mindanao makes a big difference to the Philippines. Increasing public investment in Mindanao to boost development there would expand opportunities for conflict-affected communities, broaden access to services and create more and better jobs."

4. From 2006 to 2015, poverty in the Philippines took a dive. A recent report by the World Bank states that economic growth is responsible for poverty levels dropping by five percent. From 26.6 percent in 2006 to 21.6 percent in 2015, such a decrease in numbers is also a result of the expansion of job opportunities outside the agriculture sector.The Filipino government has a goal to reduce poverty from 13 to 15 percent by 2022. According to the World Bank, plans include the Philippine Development Plan 2017-2022 and AmBisyon 2040, a long-term vision to reduce poverty and recover the lives and wellbeing of the most marginalized regions and communities of the nation.The World Bank's Poverty Assessment report recommends the following policy directions to achieve the proposed targets: "Create more and better jobs; improve productivity in all sectors, especially agriculture; equip Filipinos with skills needed for the 21st century economy; invest in health and nutrition; focus poverty reduction efforts on Mindanao; and manage disaster risks and protect the vulnerable."

The sizeable collection of Filipino islands has an undying potential to continue reducing poverty through its infrastructure advancement efforts. Although an extremely complex process, both the booming Filipino economy and government project initiatives are projected to gradually alleviate cyclical Filipino poverty. The future of infrastructure in the Philippines is looking bright.

Poverty in the Philippines has declined from 26.6 percent in 2006 to 21.6 percent in 2015. A report released by the World Bank on May 30, 2018 titled 'Making Growth Work for the Poor: A Poverty Assessment of the Philippines' reveals the major factors that contributed to this decrease.

Factors for Poverty Decline in Philippines

A rise in income and introduction of new job opportunities beyond the agricultural sector led to about two-third of decline in poverty.

The Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program, a cash transfer program of the Philippine government, enhanced the living conditions of 1.5 million people thereby reducing national poverty by 1.5 percent. The program works towards alleviating poverty by providing financial assistance to 77 percent of poor households.

Houses that received foreign or domestic remittances experienced significant changes in their living conditions. Around 15 million households in the Philippines receive money through domestic or foreign employment sources; this helped reduce poverty by up to 4 percent.

However, though these positive developments helped reduce poverty in the Philippines, the rate of decline has been very slow compared to East Asian countries. Between 2006 and 2015, there has only been a 0.9 percent decline in poverty as per the international poverty line ($1.90/day), while the East Asian countries - including China, Indonesia and Vietnam - have shown 2-2.5 percent in poverty reduction.

Education, Employment and Disaster Relief

Lack of education is one of the main reasons for this slow decline. Since a majority of the poor lack an education, they lack access to better employment opportunities; this trend thus keeps the majority of citizens trapped in the poverty cycle.

Many poor households also have only one earning member in the family, who is generally employed as a laborer in the agricultural sector. Such households are often the poorest and remain extremely vulnerable to the frequent changes in production rates.

Another reason for poverty in the Philippines is the deterioration of the quality of employment over the years. A report reveals that although the Philippines has experienced economic growth, it has failed to maintain consistently high standards in various sectors. In addition, poor disaster management skills have often lead to failure of timely protection and evacuation of people.

The Need for Productive Employment

The U.N. clearly highlights the link between economic growth, high-paying jobs and poverty eradication. The group states that economic growth of the country as a whole on its own will not help in reducing poverty; rather, economic growth has to be combined with an increase in the number of "productive employment" made accessible to the poor.

As mentioned in the report, "The vicious cycle of inequitable investment in human capital and lack of well-paying job opportunities traps the poor in poverty generation after generation." What is needed then is to transform the pattern of growth to make it more inclusive, and to provide better jobs to achieve higher and more stable incomes. The vice chairman of the labor committee, Senator Juan Edgaro Angara states that "jobs remain the key to poverty. If there is enough income, a permanent and decent job, the lives of Filipinos would be surely uplifted."

The Public Employment Service Office of Philippines (PESO) held a job expo on June 2, 2018, at which around 103 people were hired on the spot. This gathering is considered to be one of the biggest job fairs in Visayas, Philippines and this year it presented people with around 33,000 positions. Sen. Juan Angara commended the expo and said that every province, city and municipality in the Philippines has its own PESO - this prevalence should ensure that every Filipino gets a job to help them rise out of poverty.

Just days after this job expo, another job fair was organized at Rizal Park, Manila on June 12, 2018, to mark the 102nd anniversary of Philippine Independence. According to the Department of Labor and Employment, around 30,000 jobs were offered which included 45 local, 25 overseas and eight government agency positions. Generally, though, it was the transportation and domestic construction sectors that offered a majority of the vacant positions.

New Initiatives to Alleviate Poverty in the Philippines

The Philippines has around 22 million people - or around one-fifth of its population - still living below the poverty line. The launch of AmBisyon 2040 by the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) is a long-term commitment to uplift the underprivileged sections of the society.

Functioning parallel to such an effort is also the Philippines Development Plan 2017-2022. Both these initiatives have set out ambitious goals to eradicate poverty in the Philippines by transforming the country into a prosperous middle-class society where "people will live long and healthy lives, be smart and innovative and will live in a high-trust society."

To make this a reality, the government has taken up the task of reducing poverty by one percent every year to see a reduction of 13-15 percent by 2022. In addition to these two initiatives, the poverty assessment stresses the following to catalyze the rate of poverty decline:

Focusing on creating a greater number of high-paying jobs

Improving the business environment to attract more investment

Making means to improve productivity in all sectors, mainly agriculture

Ensuring skill development to make the Filipino population highly capable for the 21st century economy

Improving health and nutrition

Placing special emphasis on initiatives to reduce poverty in Mindanao

Making better provisions to manage disasters and protect the vulnerable sections of the society

Thus, with new initiatives and a greater focus on creating more well-paying jobs, the government hopes to reduce poverty in the Philippines and bring about a permanent change in the lives of the Filipino people.

The world is experiencing rapid population growth and urbanization. Advances in medicine have allowed for increased life expectancy as well as decreased infant mortality, while birth rates have largely remained unchanged. This combination of circumstances has lead to great growth; between 1999 and 2011, the population increased by nearly one billion people.

The population increase has led to rapid urbanization. People migrate to cities with the promise of economic or educational opportunity, technological advancement and access to health care. It is estimated that by 2050, 66 percent of the world's population will live in urban areas.

This urbanization of cities that are neither prepared nor equipped to deal with overcrowding places strain on both natural and manmade resources alike. The following is a list of five cities suffering from both poverty and overcrowding.

Five Major Cities Dealing With Poverty and Overcrowding

Mumbai, India: With a population density of 171.9 people per square mile, India is notorious for overcrowding. Mumbai is no exception, with a population near 23 million and a population density of almost 70,000 people per square mile.Mumbai serves as India's commercial hub and is home to the Bollywood industry, making it prone to migration. Yet, those with hopes of Bollywood often end up in prostitution or organized crime. The population has doubled in 25 years, leading to many slum neighborhoods.In fact, half of the population of Mumbai lives in overcrowded, unsanitary slums that comprise only eight percent of the city's geographic area. Although great wealth exists throughout Mumbai, poverty and overcrowding continue to increase.

Dhaka, Bangladesh: Being named the most densely populated city in the world in 2015, Dhaka suffers from overcrowding and poverty alike. It has also been named to lists of least livable cities and fastest growing cities.Its population is over 18 million, with a density of 114,300 people per square mile. Roughly one-third of Dhaka's residents live in poverty, with two million inhabiting slums or without any form of shelter.

Lagos, Nigeria: Lagos is Africa's fastest growing city. In 2017, the population was 21 million; the U.N. predicts that this number will rise to over 24 million by 2030.Situated between the Atlantic Ocean and a lagoon, Lagos is Nigeria's commercial capital. Yet, 300,000 people live in slum neighborhoods and make a living by fishing out of hand-built canoes. One-fifth of the city's residents live in poverty.The slum houses are fashioned from scrap-metal and elevated on stilts to protect against flooding. There is little access to clean water, electricity or quality education. The majority of slums are built along the coast, causing friction with the wealthy as well as the government, which has evicted many communities on faulty logic in order to seize the land.

Manila, Philippines: Manila has a population of 1.7 million and a land area of less than 10 square miles, leading to a high population density of over 170,000 people per square mile. Manila serves as the Philippines capital and home of its banking and commerce industries.In Manila, 600,000 people live in slum districts, which are ridden with disease and malnutrition. Many kids do not attend school, as parents are often forced to choose between feeding the family or sending the kids to school.

Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia: Ulaanbaatar boasts the highest population density on this list, with over 760,000 people per square mile. The influx in population resulted in unplanned neighborhoods known as "ger" areas, which house 60 percent of Ulaanbaatar's population but are vulnerable to natural disasters and lack water and sanitation sources as well as electricity.A number of expensive apartment buildings mark the city's skyline, yet many of these buildings remain empty due to the high cost of living. The government intervention has tended to benefit the upper-income subgroups, rather than those living in poverty.

Poverty and overcrowding are endlessly entwined. Rather than placing a halt on migration and urbanization as many cities have attempted, lack of affordable housing, quality water and sanitation facilities, education opportunity and food shortages ought to be addressed. Cities must respond to the growing demands that come with overcrowding in order to help alleviate poverty and decrease hardship.

With a population of 1.78 million, Manila is the capital of and second largest city in the Philippines. It has 42,857 people per square kilometer, making it is the world's most densely populated city. Manila struggles with crime, overpopulation and pollution. Here are 10 facts about poverty in Manila.

Facts About Poverty in Manila

1. There are 3.1 million homeless people living in Manila. The city has the highest homeless population of any in the world. In the Philippines, more than 1.2 million children are homeless and over half of these are found in Manila.

2. One-tenth of slum dwellers live in the capital of Manila. The Tondo District, a neighborhood in Manila, is one of the most densely populated places with 80,000 people per square kilometer. According to the United Nations, many of them lack adequate water, housing, sanitation, education, health and employment.

3. The annual average of air pollution in Manila is 70 percent more than the recommended safe level. Dangerously high levels of air pollution are more threatening to urban areas such as Manila and come with multiple health risks.

4. Nearly 10 percent of the estimated 39 million Filipinos ages six to 24 is an Out of School Child and Youth (OSCY) in Manila. This is equivalent to one in ten Filipinos, with OSCY referring to those who are not attending formal school, are not currently out of school, have not gained employment and have not finished college or post-secondary courses.

5. There are an estimated 6,000 slum-dwellers from 800 families living in cemetery slums in Manila North. These communities have existed since the 1950s. Manila North is the city's oldest and largest cemetery, encompassing an expansive 133 acres.

6. Within these cemeteries, frequent, violent anti-drug raids by the Philippine National Police (PNP) have killed more than 12,000 people since June 2016. These killings are linked to President Rodrigo Duterte's "war on drugs" campaign. The PNP claim that crime and drug use is prevalent in these cemeteries, which is liked to the high levels of unemployment of those living in the cemeteries.

7. In Manila, 3.4 million children are stunted with over 300,000 underweight, all of whom are under the age of five. Poor nutrition has remained a constant problem and has made the Philippines has the ninth highest prevalence of stunted kids of all countries in the world. Studies show that this number is expected to grow if the government does not boost support for social services.

8. "Happyland," a slum area of Tondo, has more than 12,000 people living in shelters built around a garbage dump. Residents of "Happyland" look through garbage daily for anything of value. One common finding is chicken scraps which are collected in bins and then recycled through boiling. This is referred to as "pagpag," which is then sold to hungry families in slums for a few pesos.

9. Slums are scattered over 526 communities in all cities and municipalities of Metro Manila. These communities house 2.5 million people in either vacant private or public lands, usually along rivers, near garbage dumps, along railroad tracks, under bridges and beside industrial establishments.

10. On average, three-quarters of the households in Manila's slums are long-term, or more than five years, residents of the area. The average settlement is 19.2 years, with the majority of households migrating to the areas from other cities within the metro or the city.

These facts about poverty in Manila illustrate some of the extremes that people in the city live under, but this does not mean that there is no opportunity for change. Organizations such as CARE are working in the Philippines to help the urban poor in Manila and other cities, and in 2017, they aided more than 30,000 individuals in improving their quality of life. Continued assistance can ensure that these facts about poverty in Manila affect fewer people in the future.
- Ashley Quigley
Photo: Google

Despite the rising
economic growth rates in the Philippines, poverty in the Philippines continues to prevail nationwide. According to the Asian Development Bank (ADB), 21.6 percent of Filipinos live below the national poverty line.

There are many factors that create and maintain the cycle of poverty in the Philippines. Unemployment is one of the main reasons that poverty reduction has not kept up with the country's growth. Alongside an increasing population, job resources remain insufficient for millions of Filipinos.

The Philippine poverty condition remains a challenge due to the government's lack of capacity to establish sustainable poverty reduction programs. Governments from other countries, alongside international institutions, have implemented strategies aimed to tackle the Philippine poverty crisis. These programs share the common goal of alleviating poverty in the Philippines by addressing unemployment in the country.

The World Bank

The World Bank plays a large role in working towards eradicating poverty in the Philippines. One of the projects financed by the World Bank is the 'Philippine Rural Development Project.' The goal of the project is to create greater work opportunities for Filipinos in the rural areas by supporting farmers and fishermen through improving their access to markets.

As of last year, results from The World Bank reported an increase in household incomes for farmers and fisherfolk beneficiaries. As of January 2018, this project has been approved for additional financing to continue its contribution in addressing poverty in the Philippines.

The United States of America

USAID has established the Philippine-American Fund (Phil-Am Fund) as a strategy to tackle poverty in the Philippines. One of the program's objectives is to develop solutions to the country's economic challenges. The Phil-Am fund financially supports Philippine organizations to support business start-ups.

This strategy to address the poverty crisis promotes entrepreneurship by offering a self-sufficient facility for citizens who do not have the capacity to take part in the province's economic activities.

As of last year, the Phil-Am fund has managed to support the establishment of start-up businesses, provide training in standards for food-related establishments and has integrated more efficient farming technology in the Philippines.

Australia

Australia's foreign aid to the Philippines includes 'The Philippines' Sustainable Livelihood Program' (SLP), which helps Filipino families by providing employment assistance. The SLP also helps Filipino citizens start at enterprise - an approach that encourages self-sufficiency.

Australia's aid program aligns with the Philippine government's goal to tackle poverty and promote development. Sustainable livelihood is the primary goal of this program, and includes micro enterprises, skills training and pre-employment assistance.

Filipinos who take part in this program have agency and decision-making responsibilities by providing access to microenterprise development and employment. SLP has become an efficient platform for productivity and development and since its establishment in 2011, SLP has achieved 97 percent of targeted program participants.

Promotion of Autonomy

The above-mentioned programs designed to address the Philippine poverty crisis all share one feature: the encouragement of self-efficiency. Rather than providing charity to the Filipino citizens living in poverty, these programs empower the people by giving them access to opportunities. The citizens are provided with the agency to take control of their work, promoting an inclusive form of development.
- Dane de Leon
Photo: Flickr

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Poverty in the Philippines - The Borgen Project

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The Philippines has a fairly high poverty rate with more than 16% of the population living below the poverty line. Because of the many people reliant on agriculture for an income and inequality in wealth distribution, about 17.6 million Filipinos struggle to afford basic necessities.

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According to this article, the administration's mandate requiring certain health care workers to be vaccinated has been stopped across the country by a federal judge in Louisiana. In many other cases, the Justice Department is asking an appeals court to reinstate the mandate. The administration's mandates have been blocked by judges in Kentucky, Ohio, and Tennessee. The Justice Department has requested for the mandates to be reinstated by higher courts. I feel like vaccine mandates especially for those in health or medical jobs should go into effect. I think for a job of helping people, the one thing you should not do is not help them by getting them sick with the coronavirus and hospitalizing them.

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court blocks vaccine mandate for federal contractors in 3 states

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in latest blow to biden administration - cnnpolitics

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Court blocks vaccine mandate for federal contractors in 3 states, in latest blow to Biden administration

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A federal judge on Tuesday blocked the Covid-19 vaccine requirement for federal contractors in Kentucky, Ohio and Tennessee -- the third time in recent weeks that President Joe Biden's federal mandate has been blocked in some capacity in certain parts of the country.

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According to this article, Philadelphia surpasses 500 homicides in a single year. Frida Ghitis says, "Not all crime is surging, but homicide is way up in many cities.  In Philadelphia, for example, 83 percent of those 506 homicide victims were Black; victims were 88 percent male. A political system that can't protect its citizens from murder is a political system failing at the most rudimentary function of government." I do agree with her statement that the political system is failing to protect the citizens of this country. The statistic show that the people are affected are part of minorities which seems like a racial upset that the government should act upon.

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President Biden won't be the leader who rethinks the wisdom of America's global military footprint. The Pentagon announced Monday it had exhaustively reviewed all U.S. military deployments around the world - roughly 170,000 individuals in more than 150 countries - and decided its previous decisions were nearly perfect.

Oh, there will be a few changes: Some bases and airfields in the Pacific need beefing up, in preparation for a possible war with China. And we'll probably send some more personnel back to Germany. Otherwise, things are pretty much fine. "There was a sense at the outset that there was a potential for some major force posture changes," an unidentified official told the Wall Street Journal. "Then, as we got deeper and deeper into the work, we realized in the aggregate that the force posture around the world was about right."

That can't be right, can it? "A force posture whose nucleus derives from the Cold War just so happens to be ideal for 2021?" asked Stephen Wertheim of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. It's a good question.

Ostensibly, the United States puts its arms around the world to protect Americans and American interests. But that meddling often creates the very problems it is intended to mitigate: Al Qaeda attacked on 9/11 in part because of Osama bin Laden's rage at U.S. troops remaining in Saudi Arabia after the first Gulf War in 1991. More recently, American forces in Iraq have occasionally come under attack from Iran-backed militias, which has led to American retaliation, which in turn has ramped up the possibilities of a more intense, widespread conflict.

The sheer mass of America's military might also makes it more difficult to summon up the resources or willpower to seek "non-kinetic" solutions to other pressing problems. "This is the peril of creating such a large force: The annual budget for the U.S. military has grown to more than a gargantuan $700 billion, and we are more likely to use it, and less likely to build better substitutes," University of Texas professor Jerami Suri wrote earlier this year. "We send soldiers where we need civilians because the soldiers get the resources."

Biden was probably never going to be the president to challenge this state of affairs. He's an establishment guy, after all. Yes, he got us out of Afghanistan - and that was an incredibly brave act. But it also coincided with the plunge in his approval ratings. Maybe the next president can reserve some political capital for a bigger reconsideration of America's imperial reach.

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Biden won't reconsider America's imperial reach

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President Biden won't be the leader who rethinks the wisdom of America's global military footprint. The Pentagon announced Monday it had exhaustively reviewed all U.S. military deployments around the world - roughly 170,000 individuals in more than 150 countries - and decided its previous decisions were nearly perfect.

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According to this article, conservatives have accused Biden of hypocrisy after he announced travel restrictions against 8 African countries. The intent of this travel ban to South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Lesotho, Eswatini, Mozambique, and Malawi and is intended to slow the spread of the new Omicron variant of the COVID-19 virus. I don't agree with what conservatives are saying against Biden who are in support of Trump because Trump called the Coronavirus the "China Virus" which caused racial tension and xenophobic actions against the Asian community. Biden never racially charged Africans in his announcement of the travel ban and provided solid reasoning with trying to stop the spread of the Omicron virus.

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Conservatives are accusing President Biden of hypocrisy after he announced travel restrictions against eight African countries.

During the 2020 campaign, critics noted, Biden accused former President Donald Trump of racism and xenophobia for enacting similar travel bans.

Remember when Trump temporarily banned travel to and from China and "Trump racist" trended on Twitter for a week? Well now Biden just did the exact same thing in Africa and everyone wants to talk about Seth Rogan. It's easy to see who's right if you pay attention.
- Gary Sheffield Jr. (@GarysheffieldJr) November 27, 2021

Despite the way it is being framed in some outlets, however, the tweet embedded below does not actually address the COVID-19 pandemic:

Trump further diminished the U.S. in the eyes of the world by expanding his travel ban. This new "African Ban," is designed to make it harder for black and brown people to immigrate to the United States. It's a disgrace, and we cannot let him succeed. https://t.co/oePD5eSAWY
- Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) February 2, 2020

Instead, it was posted in response to a Trump administration policy that would make it more difficult for citizens of Nigeria, Sudan, Tanzania, Eritrea, Myanmar, and Kyrgyzstan to obtain immigrant visas. When asked by reporters what the rationale was for the policy, Department of Homeland Security officials cited concerns about passports and information sharing, not COVID-19.

The Biden campaign's official response to the policy (from which the tweet is excerpted) did not mention the virus either.

Other tweets, one posted the same day and two in mid-March, did appear to refer to travel bans implemented in response to the coronavirus, denouncing them as either xenophobic or ineffective.

We are in the midst of a crisis with the coronavirus. We need to lead the way with science - not Donald Trump's record of hysteria, xenophobia, and fear-mongering. He is the worst possible person to lead our country through a global health emergency.
- Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) February 1, 2020

A wall will not stop the coronavirus.Banning all travel from Europe - or any other part of the world - will not stop it.This disease could impact every nation and any person on the planet - and we need a plan to combat it.
- Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) March 13, 2020

Biden staffers told the Washington Postthat references to xenophobia in the posts concerned Trump's record and to his use of terms like "China Virus," not to the travel restrictions themselves. By April of 2020, the Biden campaign had come out in support of Trump's ban on travel from China.

The new travel ban includes South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Lesotho, Eswatini, Mozambique, and Malawi and is intended to slow the spread of the new Omicron variant of the COVID-19 virus, CNN reported. The restrictions take effect Monday.

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Conservatives cry hypocrisy after Biden bans travel from 8 African countries

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Conservatives are accusing President Biden of hypocrisy after he announced travel restrictions against eight African countries. During the 2020 campaign, critics noted, Biden accused former President Donald Trump of racism and xenophobia for enacting similar travel bans. Remember when Trump temporarily banned travel to and from China and "Trump racist" trended on Twitter for a week?

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In this article, David Faris explains how, "its logical that hundreds of millions of people around the world are going to choose not to get vaccinated and that best thing we could do is reduce the likelihood of new variants emerging." The best thing we could do right now is to inoculate poorer countries where vaccination and health restrictions are not overly forced like they are in more richer countries like the US and European countries. I agree with his statement, the world will never be fully onboard on something and the best we could do is minimize the damage these new variants can cause. I also believe think richer countries should heavily support poorer ones if they can severely affect them, which they can.

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Vaccinating Africa won't stop the next Omicron

When news of the new coronavirus variant, now dubbed Omicron by the World Health Organization, intruded on Thanksgiving weekend like a most unwelcome guest, there were widespread calls to accelerate global vaccination efforts to reach poor and remote populations. And because the variant was identified by the extraordinary scientists of South Africa, where the vaccination rate is under 25 percent, these calls had an I-told-you-so element that, while well-intentioned, is probably counterproductive in the long run.

"The new variant is exactly what the experts I've talked to have warned about over and over and over again," wrote New York Times COVID writer Apoorva Mandavilli, a critic of booster shots in rich countries. She warned that giving third jabs to young people in wealthy nations while "leaving millions of vulnerable people elsewhere without a single dose is dangerous. For everyone." On the one hand, Mandavilli is right that variants are inevitable as long as COVID-19 is circulating freely among the human population of Earth. But expanding the global vaccine push is unlikely to rid us of the threat of new, holiday-wrecking mutations anytime soon.

The United States and its wealthy allies should absolutely invest substantially more resources in getting vaccines to countries that need them in Africa, Latin America, the Middle East, and Asia. But we also shouldn't be operating under any illusions that this effort will end the menace of further variants. For one thing, we don't know, and may never know, where Omicron came from. It could have originated in one of the relatively highly vaccinated countries of Europe before marauding through South Africa and neighboring countries. Or it could have originated in South Africa itself, where hesitancy, rather than supply, is largely (though not exclusively) the issue.

A more important reason to be skeptical of "vaccinate the world to protect ourselves" logic is that hundreds of millions of people around the world are going to choose not to get vaccinated no matter what we do, and nothing short of forced vaccination is really going to get us to the kind of herd immunity that we once dreamed of. The best we can probably hope for is to reduce but not eliminate the likelihood of dangerous new variants emerging, because the cold reality is that we would be years from vaccinating the whole population of Earth even if everyone was on board. And everyone is very much not on board.

Almost 12 months since shots starting going into arms worldwide, there isn't a single country that has even sniffed full vaccination of its population. Those countries closest (the United Arab Emirates and Singapore) are tiny dictatorships that have implemented sweeping restrictions on unvaccinated people that would likely not withstand legal challenges in many democracies, and which would be functionally unenforceable in poorer countries.

In the United States, close to a quarter of the adult population - tens of millions of people - expresses hardened hostility to the jabs and seems unlikely to ever get vaccinated. Domestic anti-vaxxers will provide plenty of bodies to incubate mutations, and they already have - the "Iota" variant was first identified in New York City in November 2020, and countless others have likely come and gone without much notice, either because they were unable to displace dominant strains of the virus, or because the U.S. is not doing enough genomic surveillance in the first place. Either way, even with 59 percent of the population of the United States vaccinated, there is massive community spread almost everywhere. Pointing our fingers at "Africa" is mostly a way of absolving ourselves of responsibility for the pandemic's persistence.

Globally, the story is mostly worse. Just 44 percent of the global population is vaccinated, and while a disproportionate number of the lowest-vaccinated countries are in Africa, there are countries with dreadful numbers elsewhere. Just 1.2 percent of Yemenis, 4.3 percent of Syrians, and 13 percent of Armenians, for example, are fully vaccinated. Many of the worst-off countries also happen to be conflict zones, like South Sudan (1.2 percent), Ethiopia (1.3 percent), and Afghanistan (9.1 percent), where it may be difficult if not impossible for aid workers and health care professionals to do their jobs. Tweeting about the necessity of vaccination campaigns in such countries is not particularly helpful in the absence of an operational plan.

Another uncomfortable truth is that there are nearly as many people who aren't fully vaccinated in India and China as there are adults in Africa. India in particular faces resistance from large segments of its population. After a long pause due to the country's horrific Delta wave, India has once again become a vaccine exporter, meaning that hundreds of millions will likely remain unvaccinated indefinitely no matter what richer countries do. Combating that resistance is likely to be as important in the coming months as anything else.

Of course, that doesn't mean that we shouldn't identify every possible avenue to increasing vaccination rates around the world, focusing in particular on countries that lack the resources to buy or produce their own. Pharmaceutical giants must be compelled to share their intellectual property, and the most useful thing that the U.S. could do might be to finance and construct factories and supply chains so that other countries needn't rely on our fickle generosity in the first place. Doing so would save millions of lives and avoid significant disruption to global commerce for a fraction of what the United States spends on the Air Force in a single year. It would also insulate the needy from the wild swings in American foreign policy that are the new normal for the foreseeable future.

By couching a global vaccination effort in purely self-interested terms, we also risk collapsing support for it should another variant emerge despite our best efforts. If we are only vaccinating people in Africa to save ourselves from the next Omicron, then the whole project is vulnerable to backlash and retrenchment when a variant pops up in India, China, Europe, or the United States. A better strategy would be to treat other people as equal and deserving human beings entitled to relief from the terrifying threat of COVID-19 regardless of whether it helps anyone in the United States or Western Europe. Given the long history of horrific, destructive colonialism and exploitation perpetrated by Western countries, our best bet is to keep ourselves out of the lens as much as is possible.

The bottom line is that we need to prepare for a world of continually evolving variants. While the history of viral epidemics might give us some hope that the now-inevitable endemic version of COVID-19 will be less deadly, we should be ready for all eventualities. The coronavirus has already defied confident predictions and models from the world's finest epidemiologists and virologists. In addition to helping boost vaccine uptake around the world, we must also ready ourselves for a new reality of occasional disruptions, and that means creating the regulatory and manufacturing capacity to rush new vaccines to anyone who wants them in time to avoid prolonged lockdowns and widely loathed interventions like distancing and masks.

The bleak message that Omicron has sent is this: Almost two years into this unceasing nightmare, the coronavirus still has new tricks up its sleeve, and we should all be wise enough not to fall for pat solutions designed to make us sleep better. An end to the most horrific phases of the pandemic is still in sight, at least for wealthier countries.

Ultimately, the most important reason to redouble our efforts to inoculate poorer countries isn't to head off variants, but rather to avoid the sadly predictable long-term outcome of rich people living mostly without fear of COVID while those in the developing world continue to get sick and die from it.

10 things you need to know today: November 30, 2021

10 things you need to know today: November 30, 2021

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Vaccinating Africa won't stop the next Omicron When news of the new coronavirus variant, now dubbed Omicron by the World Health Organization, intruded on Thanksgiving weekend like a most unwelcome guest, there were widespread calls to accelerate global vaccination efforts to reach poor and remote populations.

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According to this article that due to an increase in Coronavirus infections and stalled vaccination campaigns, two nations of the European Union are warning their citizens they will face financial consequences if they do not get the COVID-19 vaccine. The Greek government announced Tuesday that everyone 60 years of age and older must receive a vaccine by mid-January or face a fine of 100 euros. Earlier this month, Austria announced that it would require its entire adult population to be vaccinated by February 1. Those who refuse are set to pay up to 3,600 euros. I believe government mandates are the necessary step forward in achieving triumph over this virus. I like how this article shows statistics such as the percentages of the two countries being vaccinated and the push for unvaccinated people to get their shots.

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Greece will mandate the COVID-19 vaccine for anyone over 60, or make them pay fines

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Anyone who refuses to get vaccinated will face monthly fines of 100 euros, or roughly $114. The monthly fine is substantial for retirees — the average pension is 730 euros a month.

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In this article it says that 3% of kids in the age range of 5-11 have received their first dose of the Pfizer vaccine. Vaccines for kids in this age group came out late last week. In total that is about 900,000 kids. The vaccines given to these kids come in a smaller dose and with different packaging. According to the statistic in this article, "a recent Kaiser Family Foundation poll found that only 27% of parents planed to o rush right out and get their 5- to 11-year-olds vaccinated for COVID-19. A full 30% said they definitely would not get their children vaccinated." I like how this article gives statistics on how big insignificant numbers can be. The push for kids getting their vaccines is a positive and I do believe that the number of kids getting their shots will keep rising through the next upcoming week.

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Beloved stuffed animals in hand, they lined up at schools, pop-up clinics and children's hospitals to do something that little kids generally hate to do: get a shot. COVID vaccinations for 5- to 11-year-olds began in earnest late last week, ramping up over the weekend and early this week.

By the end of the day on Wednesday, about 900,000 elementary school-age children will have gotten their first doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine, a White House official shared with NPR in advance of an announcement expected later in the day.

That represents about 3% of children ages 5 to 11. About 700,000 more have appointments scheduled in the days ahead at pharmacies like CVS and Walgreens.

"This does not include appointments being made, for example, at places like pediatricians' offices, children hospitals and other sites," the official said.

For the White House, this is an early and encouraging sign in the effort to vaccinate 5- to 11-year-olds, though it is impossible to tell from these initial numbers whether vaccinations will continue apace or hit a plateau of hesitancy as has happened with other age groups. Unlike previous expansions of vaccine availability, the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for these younger children comes in a smaller dose with different packaging and smaller needles.

Vaccines for this age group couldn't be packaged and shipped until the Food and Drug Administration gave emergency use authorization on Oct. 29, and it's been a dash ever since.

To rapidly reach this new population, the official says Minnesota has set up 1,100 vaccination sites including one at the Mall of America at which 1,500 children can be vaccinated a day. Children's hospitals have set up family-friendly events with pets, stuffed animals and adults in costume. New York City has more than 1,000 clinics planned in schools, with flexible hours.

Because it is a new program, comparisons are imperfect. A week after authorization of vaccines for 12- to 15-year-olds, a larger share of the eligible population had gotten their first dose than 5- to 11-year-olds so far. But adolescents were getting the same vaccine doses already widely available to adults in pharmacies and doctor's offices all over the country, so there was no ramp-up time needed.

A recent Kaiser Family Foundation poll found that only 27% of parents planned to rush right out and get their 5- to 11-year-olds vaccinated for COVID-19. A full 30% said they definitely would not get their children vaccinated. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy has raised alarms about misinformation, pleading with parents to do their research using reliable sources and to talk to their children's pediatricians if they have questions.

Some parents have complained about having trouble finding appointments. Still, over the weekend, social media was flooded with pictures of masked children sporting brightly colored band-aids.

"And it's going to give millions of American parents peace of mind," President Biden said at a virtual political fundraiser Tuesday night, touting the newly available vaccines for children.

First lady Jill Biden is expected to travel across the country in the coming weeks, visiting schools and making direct appeals to parents to protect their children through vaccination.

The secretaries of education and health and human services earlier this week sent letters to school leaders, encouraging them to set up vaccine clinics on campuses, to distribute high-quality information about the vaccines to students' families and to hold Q-and-A sessions for parents with local pediatricians. The letter also flagged that there is money in the American Rescue Plan passed by Congress earlier this year to help fund these efforts.

If enough parents vaccinate their children, it could go a long way to restoring normalcy for elementary schools. Many have had to put students on "pause" after close contact with an infected classmate, disrupting in-person learning. Some school districts have even had to shut down entirely for a week or more to try to break the chain of infection.

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Nearly 1 million kids ages 5-11 will have their first COVID shots by the end of today

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Beloved stuffed animals in hand, they lined up at schools, pop-up clinics and children's hospitals to do something that little kids generally hate to do: get a shot. COVID vaccinations for 5- to 11-year-olds began in earnest late last week, ramping up over the weekend and early this week.

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According to this article, the stock market plummeted on Tuesday because of the possible economic consequences of the new Omicron variant. Powell warned that rising concerns about the coronavirus variant, Omicron, may cause people to be hesitant to return to in-person occupations. This might stymie labor market recovery and prolong supply-chain bottlenecks that have contributed to the highest inflation rate in over three decades. I don't agree with this statement because I think our government is doing it's best trying to leave the variant out of the US. The variant was only found a few days ago and not much information is known about it yet, but varients like the Delta virus have caused stocks to plummet before. The Delta for example did not have the biggest impact on the stock market and people still went out.

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Stocks tumbled on Tuesday as investors weighed the potential economic fallout from the new coronavirus variant.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down more than 600 points at noon ET.

In testimony before the Senate Banking Committee, Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell warned that growing concern over the coronavirus, including the new omicron variant, could make people wary about returning to in-person jobs. That could slow the recovery of the labor market and prolong the supply-chain bottlenecks that have contributed to the highest inflation in more than three decades.

Powell said elevated inflation is likely to continue well into next year.

Fed policymakers are set to meet in about two weeks. Powell said by then, they may have more information about the possible health effects of the omicron variant and how it responds to existing vaccines.

With rising price pressures, the central bank has begun to dial back its aggressive bond-buying program, which was put in place in the early part of the pandemic to support the financial markets. But Powell suggested that the process could be accelerated, so bond purchases would end a few months earlier than next summer.

Ending the bond purchases early would give the Fed more flexibility to raise interest rates, if necessary, to keep inflation from spiraling out of control.

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Stock selloff worsens on worries over omicron impact, Powell comments

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Stocks tumbled on Tuesday as investors weighed the potential economic fallout from the new coronavirus variant. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down more than 600 points at noon ET. In testimony before the Senate Banking Committee, Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell warned that growing concern over the coronavirus, including the new omicron variant, could make people wary about returning to in-person jobs.

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This article talks about how the global tourism industry is going on slow recovery and improvement after its historic loss from the Coronavirus pandemic. According to the statistic, this year's profit will be $1.9 trillion which is still far lower than the $3.5 trillion the industry earned in 2019, but it is still a step up. This slow recovery is due to the continuing pandemic and the newly found Omicron variant. The tourist industry is very regional as places in Europe and Central/North America saw international tourism increase over the last year. This article was very informative and I didn't really get much from it other than it makes me want to travel less if others still think it is still too unsafe to travel.

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The U.N. predicts that 2021 global tourism losses will barely improve over last year

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The recent emergence of the highly transmissible omicron variant presents another potential hurdle as the tourism industry prepares for the upcoming winter holiday season.

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According to this article, a man with the name of Ahmad Al Aliwi Alissa, 22 is charged with killing 10 people at a Colorado supermarket at a King Soopers in the college town of Boulder. The Judge, Ingrid Bakke, revealed the result of Alissa's examination deeming him incompetent and ordered him to be sent to the mental hospital. The next hearing for the case will be on March 15, 2022. Competency issues have also delayed the prosecution of a man accused of killing three people in a 2015 attack on a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado Springs. This article sheds light on the competency problem that halts cases such as this but does not provide any solution to such a problem. I think this article is just trying to provide knowledge to the people of why this case and many others take so long for a court hearing to limit the public's frustration over the need for a speedy conviction.

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DENVER - Experts have found a man charged with killing 10 people at a Colorado supermarket earlier this year is mentally incompetent to stand trial for now, attorneys said during a court hearing Friday.

Ahmad Al Aliwi Alissa, 22, is accused of opening fire at a busy King Soopers in the college town of Boulder in March - killing a police officer, shoppers and several store employees including an Olympic hopeful distance runner.

District Attorney Michael Dougherty said four doctors have now determined that Alissa isn't mentally competent to participate in court proceedings. He requested that Alissa be sent to the state mental hospital for treatment.

Dougherty did not disclose why the experts determined that Alissa is not competent. Alissa's defense attorney, Kathryn Herold, said Friday her client has a "serious" mental illness but did not provide more details

Judge Ingrid Bakke ruled after Dougherty revealed the result of the examination that Alissa was incompetent and ordered him to be sent to the mental hospital.

The ruling halts virtually all proceedings in the case indefinitely. Bakke scheduled another hearing for March 15, 2022, nearly a year after the shooting, to discuss whether any progress has been made treating Alissa and to decide what should happen next.

An earlier evaluation found Alissa was not mentally competent, but prosecutors asked for a second evaluation to be conducted.

Bakke ordered the first evaluation after Alissa's attorneys questioned his competence based on an evaluation by their own expert.

Competency issues have also delayed the prosecution of a man accused of killing three people in a 2015 attack on a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado Springs.

Robert Dear was repeatedly found incompetent to proceed in his state case. Federal prosecutors then charged him in 2019, but the competency issue has continued to delay the case in federal court.

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A man charged with killing 10 at a Boulder supermarket is incompetent for trial

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DENVER - Experts have found a man charged with killing 10 people at a Colorado supermarket earlier this year is mentally incompetent to stand trial for now, attorneys said during a court hearing Friday.

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In this article, the famous boxer and 12 major world titleholder Manny Pacquiao says he will run for the presidential election of 2022 in the Philippines. Manny has been the boxing icon and senator for the Philippines for many years. Pacquiao accepted the nomination of his PDP-Laban party at its national convention on Sunday, saying that the Filipino people have been waiting for a change of government. Pacquiao is now the president of the PDP-Laban faction. The rival party faction supporting Duterte earlier said it will petition the Commission on Elections to declare Pacquiao and his allies illegitimate officers of the ruling party. My stance on this announcement is in support of Manny Pacquiao because I do believe he has a strong chance of winning the election for the Philippines. Rodrigo Durterte is known as a dictator and corrupt leader and should be ousted as president.

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Boxer-senator Manny Pacquiao to run for Philippine president | AP News

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MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Philippine boxing icon and senator Manny Pacquiao says he will run for president in the 2022 elections. Pacquiao accepted the nomination of his PDP-Laban party at its national convention on Sunday, saying that the Filipino people have been waiting for a change of governmen…

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According to this article, in the Philippines in the face of accusations of ineptitude and corruption in its management of the epidemic, the Philippine government has launched a vaccine program that any of its Southeast Asian neighbors would envy. This week, 7.6 million individuals aged 12 and above were vaccinated in only three days across the country. A total of 34.53 percent of the population has been completely immunized. This article focuses on the achievement of the Philippines of its recent vaccination accomplishments from the past few days. It shows how the government and people are working towards a better life after the pandemic greatly affected their people in death and in the economy. This article also paints how large the Philippines is, with a population of 110 million, and how many are vaccinated which accounts for a third of their population.

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The Philippines vaccinated 7.6 million people in 3 days. Duterte demands even more

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Hit hard by the pandemic, the Philippines has vaccination rates far lower than neighbors like Vietnam and Cambodia. Here’s how the country is trying to up its numbers.

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According to this article debt collectors can now text, email, and message you on social media in order to collect your money. Officials believe the new restrictions are a necessary update to an out of date statute. Consumer groups are now concerned that borrowers would miss important information or become victims of fraudsters. I can't really get much from this article other than the fact that there will probably be a lot of drama because of this news. Debt collectors now coming online don't seem like a good sign for the public, but if it's necessary then you gotta do what you gotta do. But I do like the fact that debt collectors have to identify themselves as debt collectors.

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The next time someone tries to friend you on Facebook or follow you on Instagram, it could be a debt collector.

New rules approved by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau that took effect on Tuesday dictate how collection agencies can email and text people as well as message them on social media to seek repayment for unpaid debts.

Kathleen L. Kraninger, the former CFPB director who oversaw the rule changes, said last year that they were a necessary update to the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, which is more than four decades old.

"We are finally leaving 1977 behind and developing a debt collection system that works for consumers and industry in the modern world," Kraninger said in a blog post.

But consumer advocates say borrowers risk missing key information about their debts or falling prey to illegal scams if they're contacted online.

"The rules are really disappointing and concerning in a number of ways," said April Kuehnhoff, a staff attorney at the National Consumer Law Center.

The new rules set limits for debt collectors

Under the new rules, debt collectors who contact you on social media have to identify themselves as debt collectors but can attempt to join your network by sending you a friend request. Collectors must give you the option to opt out of being contacted online, and any messages they send have to be private - collectors can't post on your page if it can be seen by your contacts or the public.

Collection agencies can also email and text message debtors, but must still offer the ability to opt out. Industry officials praised the move as a welcome change to the outdated methods currently used by the collections industry.

"Consumers in the collections process deserve to be on a level playing field with others in the financial services marketplace with recognition of their preference to use email and text messaging over other outdated methods, such as faxes as outlined in the current law," Mark Neeb, CEO of ACA International, a trade association for debt collectors, said in a statement.

Advocates say consumers will pay the price

Kuehnhoff said consumers should have been given the ability to opt into electronic messages rather than being forced to opt out of them. She suggested that consumers who don't check social media regularly or miss an email may fail to see critical information about a debt. Many people don't have regular access to the internet either, she added.

Allowing debt collectors to email, text and use social media to contact consumers also gives criminals a new avenue to try to swindle people out of their money, a practice Kuehnhoff expects to increase in the future.

"I have actually already gotten my first spam debt collection email even before the new rules took effect," she said. "So certainly we should anticipate more bad actors who are trying to scam people into paying them money on alleged debts."

Kuehnhoff suggested that consumers shouldn't click on links from people they don't know and said they could report any problems with debt collection messages to the CFPB.

The new rules were devised during the Trump administration, when the bureau became more business-friendly than it had been in the past. Kraninger resigned in January at the request of President Biden, who nominated Rohit Chopra to be the agency's new director.

The new rules also set a limit for the first time on how often debt collectors can call you. Agencies will be restricted to seven calls per week per account in collection.

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Debt collectors can now text, email and DM you on social media

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The next time someone tries to friend you on Facebook or follow you on Instagram, it could be a debt collector. New rules approved by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau that took effect on Tuesday dictate how collection agencies can email and text people as well as message them on social media to seek repayment for unpaid debts.

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According to this article, representative Thomas Massie draws criticism after posting a photo of himself and his family smiling in front of a Christmas tree while holding a gun. This sparks controversy because it was only four days after a school shooter killed 4 people in Michigan. He also captioned the photo with the words, "Merry Christmas! ps. Santa, please bring ammo." He is also known for introducing a bill that would make the legal purchase age of a handgun 18. I understand why this would spark controversy, I don't agree with his views of lowering the gun purchasing age. I like how this article sheds light on this topic and gives us the information and reasoning behind this controversy.

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packin' around the christmas tree

Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) has drawn criticism after posting a photo of himself and his family smiling in front of a Christmas tree while holding guns only four days after a school shooter killed four people in Michigan, Reuters reports.

Massie captioned the photo, which he tweeted Saturday, with the words "Merry Christmas! ps. Santa, please bring ammo." Massie is well-known for his libertarian views. In April, he introduced a bill that would make it legal for 18-year-olds to purchase handguns.

Massie has yet to comment directly on the media furor that has sprung up around his post, but he did respond to one critic on Twitter, who wrote that "the bar" - meaning standard of expected behavior - "was on the floor, but somehow you managed to tunnel underneath it." Massie replied, "The BAR is under the couch. #sassywithmassie," referring to the abbreviation for a Browning Automatic Rifle.

Manuel Oliver, the father of one of the victims in the 2018 Parkland school shooting, called the post "very nasty" in an interview with CNN's Jim Acosta. Rep. John Yarmuth (D-Ky.) posted a tweet calling Massie an "insensitive a--hole."

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GOP congressman under fire after posting gun-toting Christmas pic four days after school shooting

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packin' around the christmas tree Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) has drawn criticism after posting a photo of himself and his family smiling in front of a Christmas tree while holding guns only four days after a school shooter killed four people in Michigan, Reuters reports.

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According to this article, since May of 2021, people living in counties that voted heavily for Donald Trump during the last presidential election have been nearly three times as likely to die from the coronavirus. Those who live in areas that went for Biden have much lesser coronavirus death rates. This is according to a new analysis by NPR that examined political polarization and misinformation that drive a share of the deaths in the pandemic. I like how this article also supports its claim using statistics within it. The stats show how lower vaccination rates are within trump communities and that they also show higher death percentages. I agree with this article that political polarization and misinformation do play a factor in the death toll of this virus.

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Since May 2021, people living in counties that voted heavily for Donald Trump during the last presidential election have been nearly three times as likely to die from COVID-19 as those who live in areas that went for now-President Biden. That's according to a new analysis by NPR that examines how political polarization and misinformation are driving a significant share of the deaths in the pandemic.

NPR looked at deaths per 100,000 people in roughly 3,000 counties across the U.S. from May 2021, the point at which vaccinations widely became available. People living in counties that went 60% or higher for Trump in November 2020 had 2.73 times the death rates of those that went for Biden. Counties with an even higher share of the vote for Trump saw higher COVID-19 mortality rates.

In October, the reddest tenth of the country saw death rates that were six times higher than the bluest tenth, according to Charles Gaba, an independent health care analyst who's been tracking partisanship trends during the pandemic and helped to review NPR's methodology. Those numbers have dropped slightly in recent weeks, Gaba says: "It's back down to around 5.5 times higher."

The trend was robust, even when controlling for age, which is the primary demographic risk of COVID-19 mortality. The data also reveal a major contributing factor to the death rate difference: The higher the vote share for Trump, the lower the vaccination rate.

The analysis only looked at the geographic location of COVID-19 deaths. The exact political views of each person taken by the disease remains unknowable. But the strength of the association, combined with polling information about vaccination, strongly suggests that Republicans are being disproportionately affected.

Recent polling shows that partisanship is now this single strongest identifying predictor of whether someone is vaccinated. Polling also shows that mistrust in official sources of information and exposure to misinformation, about both COVID-19 and the vaccines, run high among Republicans.

"An unvaccinated person is three times as likely to lean Republican as they are to lean Democrat," says Liz Hamel, vice president of public opinion and survey research at the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan health policy think tank that tracks attitudes toward vaccination. Political affiliation is now the strongest indicator of whether someone is vaccinated, she says: "If I wanted to guess if somebody was vaccinated or not and I could only know one thing about them, I would probably ask what their party affiliation is."

It was not always this way. Earlier in the pandemic, many different groups expressed hesitancy toward getting vaccinated. African Americans, younger Americans and rural Americans all had significant portions of their demographic that resisted vaccination. But over time, the vaccination rates in those demographics have risen, while the rate of Republican vaccination against COVID-19 has flatlined at just 59%, according to the latest numbers from Kaiser.By comparison, 91% of Democrats are vaccinated.

Being unvaccinated increases the risk of death from COVID-19 dramatically, according to the CDC. The vast majority of deaths since May, around 150,000, have occurred among the unvaccinated, says Peter Hotez, dean for the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine.

While vaccine hesitancy exists in many different groups, Hotez suspects that the deaths are "overwhelmingly" concentrated in more politically conservative communities. "How does this make sense at any level?" he asks.

More than 90% of Republicans surveyed believe or are unsure about at least one false statement about COVID-19

The consequences for individuals are real. Mark Valentine still remembers when his brother called him to tell him he had contracted coronavirus. Valentine is a trial consultant in North Carolina. His brother Phil, 61, was a well-known conservative talk show host in Nashville, Tenn., who often expressed skepticism about vaccination.

Neither brother was vaccinated, and neither one was particularly worried about Phil's positive result. His brother said he was trying several alternative therapies commonly promoted in conservative circles. "He said, 'I've got the ivermectin, I started it this morning, and I don't think it's going to be a big deal,' " Mark Valentine recalls. "And frankly I didn't think about it anymore."

But a week later, Mark said he got a call from his brother's wife saying that the two were going to the hospital. "Before I knew it, he was in there and I couldn't get to him, couldn't talk to him," Valentine recalls. "His situation took a nosedive like you can't believe."

Phil Valentine died in August about five weeks after he announced he had tested positive for COVID-19.

Misinformation appears to be a major factor in the lagging vaccination rates. The Kaiser Family Foundation's polling shows Republicans are far more likely to believe false statements about COVID-19 and vaccines. A full 94% of Republicans think one or more false statements about COVID-19 and vaccines might be true, and 46% believe four or more statements might be true. By contrast, only 14% of Democrats believe four or more false statements about the disease.

Belief in multiple false statements highly correlates with vaccination status, Hamel says. "If you believe that the vaccines can damage your fertility, that they contain a microchip and that the government is inflating the number of COVID-19 deaths, you're going to think really differently about whether to get vaccinated."

The most widely believed false statement was that 'the government is exaggerating' the number of COVID-19 deaths

Perhaps the most pernicious pieces of misinformation have to do with the perceived severity of COVID-19 itself. The most widely believed false statement was: "The government is exaggerating the number of COVID-19 deaths."

Hamel says that underestimating the severity of COVID-19 appears to be a major reason why Republicans in particular have fallen behind in vaccination: "We've seen lower levels of personal worry among Republicans who remain unvaccinated," she says. "That's a real contrast with what we saw in communities of color, where there was a high level of worry about getting sick."

Complacency around the risks of contracting COVID-19 certainly seemed to be a major reason why the Valentine brothers avoided vaccination. While not conspiracy theorists, they were staunch Trump supporters. The arrival of coronavirus just ahead of the presidential election of 2020 seemed like "the most fortuitous pandemic in the history of the world" for the Democratic Party, recalls Mark.

Despite the media coverage, Phil Valentine didn't believe COVID-19 was serious as long as you were healthy: "He said, 'The likelihood of me getting it is low. In the unlikely event that I do get it, the likelihood that I will survive it is 99-plus %,' " Mark Valentine recalls.

Vaccine researcher Peter Hotez is deeply troubled by the current state of affairs. A winter surge in COVID-19 cases is brewing, and the newly discovered omicron variant has the potential to make things far worse.

He thinks the elements of the Republican Party that are endorsing anti-vaccine ideas need to take a big step back. "I'm not trying to change Republican thinking or far-right thinking," he says. "I'm trying to say: 'The anti-science doesn't belong; it doesn't fit. ... Just stop it and save lives.' ''

Before his illness, Phil Valentine had sometimes promoted unproven alternative therapies and taken a mocking tone toward vaccination. As his situation deteriorated, Mark says the talk show host realized he needed to encourage his listeners to get vaccinated. Phil told his brother, "'My fear is that because I didn't get it, other folks may not get it," Mark Valentine recalls. The family put out a statement in support of vaccination, and Mark went on to his brother's talk show to encourage listeners to take the shot.

He also headed to his local Walmart to get vaccinated. "The guy comes out; he said, 'Do you have any questions or concerns?' " Mark Valentine recalls. "I said, 'Hell yeah, I've got both, but do it anyway.' "
Vaccination rate data are the rate of vaccination among all people 18 years of age or older, as of Nov. 30. They are from the COVID-19 deaths per 100,000 residents are calculated by dividing the deaths from COVID-19 in a county since May 1 by the county's population. County population data come from the 2020 election result data are from Alaska does not report election results by county-equivalent area, so it is excluded from the analysis. Nebraska is excluded from the analysis because it does not report county-level COVID-19 statistics. Hawaii is excluded because it does not report county-level vaccine data. Some counties that have reported no COVID-19 deaths since May 1 may have stopped reporting. These counties generally have very small populations and have a negligible impact on the weighted averages. Erring on the side of caution, we include all data unless it is known that they are in error. All averages are weighted by county population. The overall average represents the average of the 3,011 counties included in the analysis. Thanks to Emily Gurley, Professor of the Practice and Emily Pond, Research Data Analyst, both of Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health for discussions about our methodology. NPR's Huo Jingnan contributed to this story. MIT Election Data and Science Lab. U.S. Census Bureau's 2020 decennial census. May 1 was chosen as the start date of our analysis because that is roughly the time when vaccines became universally available to adults ages 18 and older. COVID-19 death data is collected by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) at Johns Hopkins University and is current as of Nov. 30. COVID-19 death data for Florida and Utah are from the May 2 and December 1 editions of the COVID-19 Community Profile Report, produced by the White House COVID-19 Team. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

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Pro-Trump counties now have far higher COVID death rates. Misinformation is to blame

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Since May 2021, people living in counties that voted heavily for Donald Trump during the last presidential election have been nearly three times as likely to die from COVID-19 as those who live in areas that went for now-President Biden.

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According to this article, at the Tokyo Olympics, diver Tom Daley won fans for his habit of knitting between events. He has now turned his hobby into a business, selling knitting kits for sweaters, blankets, accessories, and even a pink flamingo named Elvis. When Daley won his first gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics, he used the moment to encourage young LGBT people to dream big. I like the guy for what he is doing. This article sheds light on his positivity and the joy he brings to the people including the LGBTQ when he called them out to dream big.

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British diver Tom Daley won fans for his habit of knitting between events at the Tokyo Olympics. Now he's converted that hobby into a business, launching a website that sells knitting kits for sweaters, blankets, accessories and even a pink flamingo named Elvis.

Daley's Made with Love site recently went live, giving his fans - many of whom have long followed his knitting exploits on Instagram - a new chance to purl along with the 27-year-old gold medalist.

After the diving star was spotted knitting in Tokyo, he said it helped him cope with the stress of Olympic competition. He was prolific enough to create a knitting-specific account, where he sold doggie jumpers and other projects to benefit charities. That account is now devoted to his online store, which also carries a line of clothing.

"Whether you're looking for a way to calm the mind or you want a new hobby, knitting offers something for everyone," Daley said in a post about his new business. "My new knit kits are here to spark your creativity and are designed by yours truly with love."

When Daley won his first gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics, he used the moment to encourage young LGBT people to dream big. Even if they don't yet have the support they need, he promised, it will come.

"I feel incredibly proud to say that I am a gay man and also an Olympic champion," Daley said.

Daley's teammates on Britain's Tokyo Olympics team recently voted him the Olympians' Olympian, an honor reserved for "the athlete that best demonstrates what it means to be part of Team GB."

Daley was just 14 when he competed in his first Olympics, at the Beijing 2008 Games.

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Olympic diver and knitter Tom Daley launches his own online knitting shop

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British diver Tom Daley won fans for his habit of knitting between events at the Tokyo Olympics. Now he's converted that hobby into a business, launching a website that sells knitting kits for sweaters, blankets, accessories and even a pink flamingo named Elvis.

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According to this article, Wendy Arnold will succeed Robert Iger as Walt Disney's chairman of the board, the first woman to hold the position at the company, starting December 31st. Disney also aims to redefine how its female characters act and behave, exchanging damsels in distress for independent, strong, and diverse characters that celebrate female ambition. This article is mainly informative but also paints a bright future for the people. The promotion of change is very prevalent in this article.

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Disney appoints its first female board chair

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Susan Arnold has been elected as chairman of the Walt Disney Co. Arnold will be the first woman to hold the position at Disney.

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According to this article, Ji-Young makes history as the first Asian American muppet in the "Sesame Street" canon despite being only 7 years old. Her two passions are rocking out on her electric guitar and skateboarding. The children's TV show, which aired for the first time 52 years ago, gave The Associated Press a first look at its adorable new occupant. Kim Ji-Young will be formally introduced in "See Us Coming Together: A Sesame Street Special." Simu Liu, Padma Lakshmi and Naomi Osaka will all appear in the special, which will air Thanksgiving Day on HBO Max, "Sesame Street" social media platforms, and local PBS stations. Ji-Young's personality is influenced by her puppeteer Kathleen Kim, age 41 and also Korean American. This article paints the idea of change and what may come for the future. I think its great that a kids network is changing to include a wider audience.

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What's in a name? Well, for Ji-Young, the newest muppet resident of "Sesame Street," her name is a sign she was meant to live there.

"So, in Korean traditionally the two syllables they each mean something different and Ji means, like, smart or wise. And Young means, like, brave or courageous and strong," Ji-Young explained during a recent interview. "But we were looking it up and guess what? Ji also means sesame."

At only 7 years old, Ji-Young is making history as the first Asian American muppet in the "Sesame Street" canon. She is Korean American and has two passions: rocking out on her electric guitar and skateboarding. The children's TV program, which first aired 52 years ago this month, gave The Associated Press a first look at its adorable new occupant.

Ji-Young will formally be introduced in "See Us Coming Together: A Sesame Street Special." Simu Liu, Padma Lakshmi and Naomi Osaka are among the celebrities appearing in the special, which will drop Thanksgiving Day on HBO Max, "Sesame Street" social media platforms and on local PBS stations.

Some of Ji-Young's personality comes from her puppeteer. Kathleen Kim, 41 and Korean American, got into puppetry in her 30s. In 2014, she was accepted into a "Sesame Street" workshop. That evolved into a mentorship and becoming part of the team the following year. Being a puppeteer on a show Kim watched growing up was a dream come true. But helping shape an original muppet is a whole other feat.

"I feel like I have a lot of weight that maybe I'm putting on myself to teach these lessons and to be this representative that I did not have as a kid," Kim said. But fellow puppeteer Leslie Carrara-Rudolph - who performs Abby Cadabby - reminded her, "It's not about us ... It's about this message."

Ji-Young's existence is the culmination of a lot of discussions after the events of 2020 - George Floyd's death and anti-Asian hate incidents. Like a lot of companies, "Sesame Street" reflected on how it could "meet the moment," said Kay Wilson Stallings, executive vice-president of Creative and Production for Sesame Workshop, the nonprofit organization behind "Sesame Street."

Sesame Workshop established two task forces - one to look at its content and another to look at its own diversity. What developed was Coming Together, a multi-year initiative addressing how to talk to children about race, ethnicity and culture.

One result was 8-year-old Tamir. While not the show's first Black muppet, he was one of the first used to talk about subjects like racism.

"When we knew we were going to be doing this work that was going to focus on the Asian and Pacific Islanders experience, we of course knew we needed to create an Asian muppet as well," Stallings said.

These newer muppets - their personalities and their looks - were remarkably constructed in a matter of a months. The process normally takes at least a couple of years. There are outside experts and a cross-section of employees known as the "culture trust" who weigh in on every aspect of a new muppet, Stallings said.

For Kim, it was crucial that Ji-Young not be "generically pan-Asian."

"Because that's something that all Asian Americans have experienced. They kind of want to lump us into this monolithic 'Asian,'" Kim said. "So it was very important that she was specifically Korean American, not just like, generically Korean, but she was born here."

One thing Ji-Young will help teach children is how to be a good "upstander." "Sesame Street" first used the term on its "The Power of We" TV special last year, which featured Tamir.

"Being an upstander means you point out things that are wrong or something that someone does or says that is based on their negative attitude towards the person because of the color of their skin or the language they speak or where they're from," Stallings said. "We want our audience to understand they can be upstanders."

In "See Us Coming Together," Sesame Street is preparing for Neighbor Day where everyone shares food, music or dance from their culture. Ji-Young becomes upset after a kid, off screen, tells her "to go back home," an insult commonly flung at Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. But she feels empowered after Sesame Street's other Asian American residents, guest stars and friends like Elmo assure her that she belongs as much as anyone else.

The fact that Ji-Young was created to counter anti-Asian sentiment makes her more special to Kim in some ways.

"I remember like the Atlanta shootings and how terrifying that was for me," Kim said. "My one hope, obviously, is to actually help teach what racism is, help teach kids to be able to recognize it and then speak out against it. But then my other hope for Ji-Young is that she just normalizes seeing different kinds of looking kids on TV."

Vanessa Leung, co-executive director of Coalition for Asian American Children and Families, is excited about Ji-Young. The organization was not involved in Ji-Young's creation but previously consulted on anti-racism content for Sesame Workshop. It matters when Asian American families, especially with many of them being immigrant families, can see themselves reflected in an institution like "Sesame Street," Leung said.

"It sparks curiosity and early understanding of the diversity of our community, the beauty in the diversity of our community," Leung said.

Ji-Young will be heavily present throughout the new season, Stallings reassured. She also won't just be utilized for content related to racial justice. She will pop up in various digital programs, live-action and animated.

As the new kid on the street, Ji-Young is looking forward to showing her friends and neighbors aspects of Korean culture such as the food. She loves cooking dishes like tteokbokki (chewy rice cakes) with her halmoni (grandmother). And she already has one "Sesame Street" friend who wants a sample.

"I would love to try it," said Ernie, who joined Ji-Young's interview. "You know, I've tried bulgogi. I really like bulgogi. I'm gonna guess that maybe old buddy Bert has not tried Korean food."

Having already made several famous friends on "Sesame Street," is there anyone Ji-Young still really wants to meet?

"The Linda Lindas because they're so cool," Ji-Young said, referring to the teenage punk rock band. "And they rock out and they're cool girls and most of them are Asian. They're my heroes. If we can get the Linda Lindas on 'Sesame Street,' I would show them around."

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Sesame Street makes history with the debut of its first Asian American muppet

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What's in a name? Well, for Ji-Young, the newest muppet resident of "Sesame Street," her name is a sign she was meant to live there. "So, in Korean traditionally the two syllables they each mean something different and Ji means, like, smart or wise.

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According to this article, Charges have been filed against the parents of a suspect in a school shooting in Michigan. Prosecutors outlined a timeline of "Egregious" actions and missed opportunities. The parents themselves purchased a gun for their son for Christmas and refused to take him home after school officials expressed concerns. Jennifer and James Crumbley, the parents of the 15-year-old accused of killing four students at a Michigan high school, have been charged with four counts of involuntary manslaughter each. The father, James Crumbley, called 911 to report the gun as missing and that it was his son who committed the shooting. This article outlines how unusual and rare the charges for the school shooting are. The kid, Ethan Crumbley is facing 24 felony accounts and will be tried for them once he is an adult. This article is mostly factual and doesn't give much of an opinion of the situation. Its main point is the outline of the rare charges which include terrorism and several accounts of assault. I do agree that it is rare to see such felonies be attributed to the shooter, but there is still more information to be put out before we learn the whole story.

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Jennifer and James Crumbley, the parents of the 15-year-old accused of murdering four students at a high school in Michigan, have been charged with four counts each of involuntary manslaughter -an exceptionally rare move the prosecutor said was warranted by laying out a timeline of "egregious" mistakes and missed opportunities to prevent the shooting.

Early Saturday, they were captured after a Detroit business owner spotted their car and tipped off police.

The parents of Ethan Crumbley purchased the handgun used in Tuesday's shooting at Oxford High School, apparently as a Christmas gift for their son on Black Friday, and stored it improperly, said Oakland County prosecutor Karen McDonald at a news conference midday Friday.

Then, when called to a meeting Tuesday morning by school officials to discuss a disturbing, violent drawing made by their son, the parents did not inquire about the whereabouts of the gun or inform the school that they had recently purchased a gun for him, said McDonald.

After the meeting, the younger Crumbley was allowed to return to class. Shortly afterward, authorities say, he fatally shot four fellow students and wounded six others and a teacher.

"These charges are intended to hold the individuals who contributed to this tragedy accountable and also send a message that gun owners have a responsibility. When they fail to uphold that responsibility, there are serious and criminal consequences," McDonald said.

Law enforcement authorities in Michigan had searched for the Crumbleys on Friday afternoon after the charges were announced, according to the Oakland County Sheriff's Office, which released images of the couple and details of their vehicle in an alert urging the public to help locate them.

"The action of fleeing and ignoring their attorney certainly adds weight to the charges," Sheriff Michael Bouchard said in a statement.

The U.S. Marshals Service said Friday that it was also involved in the search for the parents.

A lawyer representing the parents said they had not fled but rather left town for their own safety, according to The Daily Beast.

"They are returning to the area to be arraigned. They are not fleeing from law enforcement despite recent comments in media reports," lawyer Shannon Smith told the site.

However, The Associated Press reported early Saturday that the Crumbleys "appeared to be hiding" in the building where they were found, according to Detroit Police Chief James E. White.

If convicted, Jennifer and James Crumbley face up to 15 years in prison for each count. Ethan Crumbley has been charged with 24 felonies, including four counts of murder and one count of terrorism. The younger Crumbley was arrested after the shooting Tuesday.

Asked whether prosecutors were considering charges against any other parties, including school officials who allowed Crumbley to return to class, McDonald declined to answer, saying only that "the investigation is ongoing."

The prosecutor describes the parents' conduct before the shooting

The 9 mm Sig Sauer SP2022 pistol used in Tuesday's shooting at the high school in Oxford township, a small community north of Detroit, was purchased by James Crumbley at a local gun shop, authorities said. His son, Ethan Crumbley, was with him at the time of the purchase, they said.

Jennifer Crumbley referred to the gun as their son's "new Christmas present" in a social media post, McDonald said during Friday's news conference. She added that the gun was stored unlocked in a drawer in the parents' bedroom.

The day before the shooting, an Oxford High School teacher reported Ethan Crumbley, a sophomore at the school, after the teacher spotted him using his phone to search for ammunition, the prosecutor said.

School officials left a voicemail and email for Jennifer Crumbley, who did not respond, according to McDonald. But Crumbley sent a text message to her son that said, "LOL I'm not mad at you. You have to learn not to get caught."

Then, on the morning of the shooting, the prosecutor said, Ethan Crumbley's teacher found a drawing on Ethan Crumbley's desk of a handgun, bullet and shooting victim, with the words "blood everywhere" and "the thoughts won't stop, help me."

Disturbed, the teacher informed school authorities, who called both James and Jennifer Crumbley to the school; they were told they would be required to seek counseling for their son.

"Both James and Jennifer Crumbley failed to ask if their son had his gun with him or where his gun was located, and failed to inspect his backpack for the presence of the gun, which he had with him," McDonald said.

The parents "resisted the idea" of Ethan Crumbley leaving school at that time, McDonald said. Afterward, Crumbley returned to class. Just before 1 p.m., he entered a bathroom wearing a backpack, then came out with the pistol in his hand and began shooting, authorities have said.

"When the news of the active shooter at Oxford High School had been made public, Jennifer Crumbley texted to her son at 1:22 p.m., 'Ethan, don't do it,' " McDonald said. Fifteen minutes later, James Crumbley called 911 to report that the gun was missing and that it may be his son who committed the school shooting.

"I have tremendous compassion and empathy for parents who have children who are struggling and at risk for whatever reason," McDonald said. "But the facts of this are so egregious."

Four students have died: Tate Myre, 16; Hana St. Juliana, 14; Madisyn Baldwin, 17; and Justin Shilling, 17. Authorities do not believe any students were targeted in particular.

Six other students and a 47-year-old teacher were wounded, authorities said.

"Gun ownership is a right. And with that right comes great responsibility," McDonald said.

The case has seen rare charges for a school shooting

The involuntary manslaughter charges for the suspect's parents are highly unusual for a school shooting. But Michigan's criminal code does not give prosecutors more straightforward options: The state is not among those with laws that specifically target children's access to guns, nor does it have a negligent gun storage statute, according to the Giffords Law Center, a research group that advocates for gun control laws.

The Oakland County prosecutor advocated for strengthening the state's gun laws at her news conferences this week, calling the laws "woefully inadequate."

In addition to the rare step of charging the shooter's parents,prosecutors' decision to charge the younger Crumbley with terrorism is unusual in Michigan. The criminal complaint accuses Crumbley of "intending to intimidate or coerce" the high school community.

"What about all the children who ran, screaming, hiding under desks? What about all the children at home right now, who can't eat and can't sleep and can't imagine a world where they could ever step foot back in that school? Those are victims too, and so are their families and so is the community," McDonald said at a news conference Wednesday. "The charge of terrorism reflects that."

Ethan Crumbley currently faces 24 felony counts, including four counts of first-degree murder and seven counts of assault with intent to murder, in addition to the terrorism charge. He has pleaded not guilty to all. He will be tried as an adult and faces life in prison if convicted.

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Parents of Michigan school shooting suspect are charged with involuntary manslaughter

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Jennifer and James Crumbley, the parents of the 15-year-old accused of murdering four students at a high school in Michigan, have been charged with four counts each of involuntary manslaughter -an exceptionally rare move the prosecutor said was warranted by laying out a timeline of "egregious" mistakes and missed opportunities to prevent the shooting.

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According to this article, a new Gallup Poll, Republicans are growing less confident about the medical profession. The percentage of those who say they trust their doctor's advice has dropped, "13 points since 2010." Almost twenty percent report they have less trust in their doctor than they did one year ago. Forty percent of self-identified Republicans remain unvaccinated against the Coronavirus. Expertise has long been a source of contention for conservatives. It is likely that this war will significantly harm the health of the Republican Party and its voters. I do not understand this way of thinking, but maybe it's because I live in a democratic left state that did not grow up with the knowledge or people who help educate me on these topics.

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What would happen if GOP voters just stopped trusting their doctors?

It's not an idle question. A new Gallup poll indicates that Republicans are feeling increasingly shaky about the medical profession: The number who say they are confident in their physician's medical advice has dropped 13 points since 2010. Twenty-two percent report they trust their doctor less than they did just a year ago.

Those numbers won't surprise Americans who have watched COVID vaccines take center stage in our partisan culture wars. Roughly 40 percent of self-identified Republicans remain unvaccinated against the coronavirus, egged on by hypocritical conservative "thought leaders" - like Fox News' Tucker Carlson - who have promoted anti-vax hysteria. (The results have been deadly: The death toll in counties that voted for Donald Trump is higher than in those that supported Joe Biden.) Conservatives have spent the last year being told they can't trust their doctor's advice on vaccines. Clearly they're listening.

The question now is whether the new Gallup poll is a blip, or if it reflects a wider, longer-term trend. The latter looks likely - Gallup reported in July that Republican confidence in science itself has declined from 72 percent in the mid-1970s to 45 percent this year, withering under decades-long conservative assaults on questions like climate change and the teaching of evolution. Doctor mistrust might be part of the same phenomenon.

That's a problem: Trust between physicians and patients is an essential component of health. One 2017 study revealed that patients who have confidence in their doctors tend to adopt healthier behaviors and report fewer symptoms of illness. Another study the same year showed that breast cancer patients who had less trust in the health-care system were less likely to complete their course of treatment.

When Republicans distrust their doctors, in other words, the more likely it is they'll get sick and stay sick.

That could lead to other ramifications. Republican and Democratic voters tend to sort themselves by geography - Democrats to the cities, GOP voters in rural areas. Those rural areas already have a tough time attracting doctors, and the result is that many sick people go without care. Gallup's poll makes it easy to imagine a vicious cycle where even more doctors would decide not to take jobs in places where they'll be ignored, which would lead to more sick people, which in turn would help hasten the decline of those rural Republican communities.

It's difficult to think that would be good for the GOP. But conservatives have been waging a war on expertise for a long time. Unfortunately for them, that war could take a serious toll on the health of the Republican Party and its voters.

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Republicans' trust in doctors is eroding. It's a symptom of a larger disease.

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What would happen if GOP voters just stopped trusting their doctors? It's not an idle question. A new Gallup poll indicates that Republicans are feeling increasingly shaky about the medical profession: The number who say they are confident in their physician's medical advice has dropped 13 points since 2010.

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According to this article, some children in the capitol of the Philippines, Manila, have returned tp school after a two year suspension. The country as a whole has imposed some of the world's toughest coronavirus scrubs to get life back to normal. The children are part of a trial of 28 schools in the capital region. The Philippines daily infection rate has fallen below 1,000 which is a major difference from its peak of over 20,000 in September. As of December 2, thirty-four percent of its 110 million population has been fully immunized. I agree putting kids back in school will create a sense of normalcy again, it's astonishing what the statistic says about the number of covid cases in the country and I'm excited to hear what better thing may come out of my home country.

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By Eloisa Lopez and Jay Ereño

MANILA (Reuters) - Some children in the Philippines' capital Manila returned to school on Monday after a near two-year suspension as the country, which has imposed some of the world's toughest coronavirus curbs, tries to get life back to normal.

Wearing face masks and sitting at desks fitted with plastic screens, the children are part of a trial at 28 schools in the capital region. The government aims to reopen all schools in January.

Against the backdrop of mass vaccination drives and falling virus cases, parents cautiously welcomed the move.

"I also feel scared since there is still COVID, but we have to brave it so my child can learn," said Lara Vedasto as she waited for her daughter outside the campus. "I can't focus on helping her with her studies and her modules because I also have work."

The reopening of the schools in the capital region is an expansion of a trial of 100 schools in lower-risk areas which started last month. Precautions remain for pupils, however, such as class sizes capped at 15 to avoid overcrowding.

The Philippines, which has has recorded 2.84 million COVID-19 cases and 49,499 deaths in total, is among the last countries globally to reopen schools.

Daily infections have fallen sharply to below 1,000 since Nov. 24, from a peak of over 20,000 in September, paving the way for a wider economic reopening.

The Philippines last week held a three-day mass vaccination drive to boost its vaccine roll out, which has been slower than many neighbours. As of Dec. 2, around 34% of its 110 million people had been fully immunised.

(Additional reporting by Adrian Portugal; Editing by John Geddie and Angus MacSwan)

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Philippines tentatively reopens schools as COVID-19 cases ease

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Some children in the Philippines' capital Manila returned to school on Monday after a near two-year suspension as the country, which has imposed some of the world's toughest coronavirus curbs, tries to get life back to normal. Against the backdrop of mass vaccination drives and falling virus cases, parents cautiously welcomed the move.

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According to this article, twenty percent of the US electricity production is nuclear. Nuclear fission is a nuclear reaction in which atomic nuclei of low atomic numbers fuse to form a heavier nucleus with the release of energy. This week the Commonwealth Fusion Systems startup from MIT has raised 2 billion USD in private investments. These investors include mega billionaires like Bill Gates and George Soros. Nuclear fission would be clean, cheap, and abundant which can help produce hydrogen for fuel, power big machines, and pull carbon monoxide from the atmosphere. Physicist Arthur Turrell, author of The Star Builders: Nuclear Fusion and the Race to Power the Planet said in an interview, "If you look at what realistic trips outside of our kind of solar system's backyard would have to be powered by - or even the Earth's backyard, I should say - fusion is one of the best candidates for that because it packs a lot of energy into a very small amount of space." The limits are not known for this field and many billionaires are interested in the idea of this getting them money. This move by billionaires seems reasonable and the ideas behind nuclear fission look genius. I do believe that this should be funded by the government so that the rich don't grow to have too big of an influence on the people, especially in politics.

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All we have to do is solve one of the trickiest engineering problems in human history: recreating the sun here on Earth

America's first Atomic Age ended on March 28, 1979, with the partial meltdown of the Three Mile Island Unit 2 reactor, near Middletown, Pennsylvania. Despite the negligible radiation release, the accident led to canceled projects, industry bankruptcies, and a further public souring on nuclear energy. Nuclear's share of U.S. electricity production has been flat, around 20 percent, for decades.

But the dreams of the most optimistic nuclear proponents were always far bigger than an America dotted with fission reactors, where power is produced by the controlled splitting of uranium atoms. Eventually, fission would be replaced by fusion, the melding of hydrogen isotopes which produces more - much more - energy than it consumes. Then we would have energy's Holy Grail: pollution-free power produced using common (and therefore cheap) elements like hydrogen. No carbon emissions, no long-lived radioactive waste. All we have to do is solve one of the trickiest engineering problems in human history: recreating the sun here on Earth.

That project has been stalled by long years of technical frustration. But now, some of the world's richest people are betting the fusion problem might be solvable sooner rather than later. Earlier this week, Commonwealth Fusion Systems (CFS), a startup spun off from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said it had raised nearly $2 billion in private investment, including from mega-billionaires Bill Gates and George Soros. This is the biggest bet on fusion so far, even amid record funding for some two other dozen startups.

The CFS haul doubles the investor dough devoted to those firms, and that includes the previous record of $500 million invested early last month into Helion, a startup backed by well-known tech investors Sam Altman and Peter Thiel. As for CFS, CEO Bob Mumgaard said the new investment would allow it to demonstrate a net-energy fusion reactor by 2025 as well as begin work on the first commercial fusion power plant by the early 2030s.

Replacing dirty fossil fuels with clean power doesn't fully capture the potential of nuclear fusion. Clean, cheap, abundant energy could, for instance, help produce hydrogen for fuel, power giant machines to pull carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, and desalinate water on a large scale. No longer would concerns about energy and climate change limit our aspirations, even if they just involve energy-intensive Bitcoin mining.

And that's just here on Earth. While one could make an argument in favor of other emerging power sources - including advanced fission, enhanced geothermal, even space-based solar power - fusion would be especially helpful if humanity is going to become a space-faring civilization. As physicist Arthur Turrell, author of The Star Builders: Nuclear Fusion and the Race to Power the Planet, told me in a recent interview: "If you look at what realistic trips outside of our kind of solar system's backyard would have to be powered by - or even the Earth's backyard, I should say - fusion is one of the best candidates for that, because it packs a lot of energy into a very small amount of space."

Critics point to past hype cycles and failure, which is totally fair. But the level of private interest, in addition to recent technical advances, should give special reason for hope this time around. Hard-headed, results-oriented investors are sinking big money into the sector because they really think breakthroughs are imminent in a way they haven't been before. Maybe, a decade from now, the world's first $3 trillion company will be a fusion company rather than an online retailer or social media platform.

Moreover, this wouldn't be the first time a long-gestating energy technology suddenly burst on the scene and changed everything. The recent surge in gasoline prices has some politicians recalling the 1970s energy shocks. But there's a more recent example of an energy price spike, although many of us seem to have forgotten it.

A combination of strong demand and stagnant production caused an oil shock in 2007 and 2008, with oil prices hitting a record high of $145 a barrel on July 3, 2008. It was a great time for books and blogs about "peak oil" and how the world was running out of cheap fossil fuels. But then the global financial crisis crushed economies and demand while the "shale revolution" - the combo of hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling - simultaneously came into its own. The U.S. significantly increased domestic oil and natural gas production. We innovated our way out of peak oil.

But there are no guarantees fusion will follow that pattern. Sometimes the smart money gets it wrong. The artificial intelligence sector is famous for its boom and busts (also known as " AI winter") where interest soars and investor cash floods in - and then floods out again when the tech fails to deliver. Where are all the self-driving cars that were supposed to be on American roads by now?

The same could happen with fusion. Yet compared to the odds of humans dealing with climate change by consuming less and accepting a slower increase (or even a decline) in living standards, the chances for an Age of Fusion look pretty good.

The daily business briefing: December 8, 2021

The daily business briefing: December 8, 2021

A breezy answer to the pandemic

A breezy answer to the pandemic

Mace vs. Greene is the fight for the future of the GOP

Mace vs. Greene is the fight for the future of the GOP

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Is nuclear fusion finally for real? Some very rich people seem to think so.

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All we have to do is solve one of the trickiest engineering problems in human history: recreating the sun here on Earth America's first Atomic Age ended on March 28, 1979, with the partial meltdown of the Three Mile Island Unit 2 reactor, near Middletown, Pennsylvania.

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The cloud computing unit of Amazon, Amazon Web Services, has reported that there were no longer any network issues following a major outage that disrupted access to a wide range of apps on Tuesday. According to the company, the outage began around 11 am Eastern Time and affected mainly the East Coast. According to the message, "we are seeing an impact on multiple Amazon Web Services application programming interfaces in the US-EAST-1 region." AWS is a cloud computing service that enables companies to rent computing, storage, and network capabilities, which is why the outage has affected so many websites and apps around the world. This article is mainly informative, but it caught my attention because my cousin from the East Coast was complaining about this issue on Facebook.

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Amazon Web Services, the cloud computing unit of Amazon, reports its "network device issues [are]resolved" after suffering a major outage on Tuesday, leaving thousands of users unable to access huge portions of the internet, including a broad range of apps.

The outage, which caused slow loading or access failures, began at around 11 a.m. ET and was largely concentrated along the East Coast, according to the company.

It explained, "We are seeing impact to multiple [Amazon Web Services] APIs [application programming interfaces] in the US-EAST-1 Region."

"We are now working towards recovery of any impaired services," an Amazon update said later.

AWS is a cloud computing service that allows companies to rent computing, storage and network capabilities, which is why the outage has shut down or slowed access to such a wide variety of sites and apps across the internet.

Users reported problems logging on to not just Amazon's products - Amazon.com, Prime Video, Alexa AI and Kindle - but also Netflix, Venmo, Disney+, Ring, Roku, Duolingo, Chime, Fidelity Investments and NPR's own news apps.
Editor's note: Amazon is among NPR's financial supporters.

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Amazon announces progress after an outage disrupted sites across the internet

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Amazon Web Services, the cloud computing unit of Amazon, reports its "network device issues [are]resolved" after suffering a major outage on Tuesday, leaving thousands of users unable to access huge portions of the internet, including a broad range of apps. The outage, which caused slow loading or access failures, began at around 11 a.m.