World faces ‘generational catastrophe’ if school closures continue, U.N. chief warns United Nations Secretary General António Guterres gives a virtual address in Berlin in April. (Pool New/Reuters) The world faces a “generational catastrophe” due to ongoing school closures, U.N. Secretary General António Guterres said Tuesday, calling the coronavirus pandemic “the largest disruption of education ever.” Allowing students to safely return to classrooms must be a “top priority” as countries get local transmission under control, Guterres said in a released early Tuesday morning. As of mid-July, over 1 billion students in more than 160 countries were out of school, and more than 40 million children had stopped receiving education during the critical preschool year. Prolonging that pause “could waste untold human potential, undermine decades of progress, and exacerbate entrenched inequalities,” he said. Guterres noted that parents, and particularly women, “have been forced to assume heavy care burdens in the home” as schooling moves online. Meanwhile, refugees, students with disabilities and people who live in remote areas are less likely to be able to access virtual instruction. A released alongside Guterres’s message emphasizes that nations must “suppress transmission of the virus to control national or local outbreaks” before beginning to reopen schools, calling it “the single most significant step.” By Antonia Farzan
August 4, 2020 at 12:25 AM EDT Analysis: If Congress can’t pass this coronavirus legislation, is the institution broken? The human suffering and loss caused by the novel is most comparable to a major world war, some members of Congress and outside experts say. Congress blew past a deadline Friday to give millions of Americans a continuation of much-needed extra unemployment benefits. And after a week of negotiating, the parties are still not close to a deal that leaders on both sides agree needs to happen. Each side Their inability to act at this moment of crisis raises the question, perhaps more than any other major legislative debate: Is Congress broken? The answer, according to some former and outgoing members of Congress is: Maybe. Read analysis
August 4, 2020 at 12:17 AM EDT Cases are climbing in Midwest states with previously low infections The novel coronavirus is surging in several Midwestern states that had not previously seen high infection rates while average daily deaths remained elevated Monday in Southern and Western states hit with a resurgence of the disease after lifting some restrictions earlier this summer. Missouri, Montana and Oklahoma are among those witnessing the largest percentage surge of infections over the past week, while, adjusted for population, the number of new cases in Florida, Mississippi and Alabama still outpaced all other states, Experts also see worrying trends emerging in major East Coast and Midwest cities, and they anticipate major outbreaks in college towns as classes resume in August.
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