For First Time In 22 Years, Global Poverty Levels Expected To Increase With 500 Million At Risk Of Destitution

The New York Times: Millions Had Risen Out Of Poverty. Coronavirus Is Pulling Them Back.
She was just 12 when she dropped out of school and began clocking in for endless shifts at one of the garment factories springing up in Bangladesh, hoping to pull her family out of poverty. Her fingers ached from stitching pants and shirts destined for sale in the United States and Europe, but the $30 the young woman made each month meant that for the first time, her family had regular meals, even luxuries like chicken and milk. A decade later, she was providing a better life for her own child than she had ever imagined. (Abi-Habib, 4/30)

Reuters: As Sweden Goes It Alone, A COVID-19 Survivor And Trucking Boss Balances Risk
Per Arne Fredin has been at the sharp end of Sweden’s policy to buck the norm and avoid a COVID-19 lockdown - a decision that has been hailed as both visionary and irresponsible by public figures around the world. As a 70-year-old with a heart condition, he was in a danger group for the novel coronavirus. He feared the worst when he was diagnosed with COVID-19 in February, but pulled through after 12 agonising days in bed at home to the west of Stockholm. (Ahlander, 5/1)

The Associated Press: Easing Of Lockdown Begs The Question: Who's Family In Italy?
When Italian Premier Giuseppe Conte said the government would relax some parts of a nationwide lockdown, residents entering an eighth week of home confinement to inhibit the coronavirus dove for their dictionaries. Conte announced that starting May 4, people in Italy will be permitted to travel within their home regions for visits with “congiunti,” a formal Italian word that can mean either relatives, relations or kinsmen. Under the lockdown, Italians only have been able to leave home for essential jobs or vital tasks such as grocery shopping. (D'Emilio, 5/1)

The Associated Press: Forbidden City, Parks In Chinese Capital Reopen To Public
Beijing’s parks and museums including the ancient Forbidden City reopened to the public Friday after being closed for months by the coronavirus pandemic. The Forbidden City, past home to China’s emperors, is allowing just 5,000 visitors daily, down from 80,000. And parks are allowing people to visit at 30% of the usual capacity. One Beijing resident said this visit felt different than others, when the Forbidden City was more crowded. “When walking in some areas without others around I felt like getting back to the history,” Bian Jiang said. (5/1)

The New York Times: Rome Has Been Sacked, Conquered And Abandoned. Now It’s The Coronavirus’s Turn.
Rome turned 2,773 last week. To mark the legendary founding of the city and its past glory, there is usually a crowded birthday parade of re-enactors dressed up as gladiators and vestal virgins. The coronavirus took care of that, leaving eerily abandoned streets that evoked something closer to a disastrous sacking in the 6th century, when the population of Rome plunged to zero. The coronavirus has no marauding army breaching the walls, dumping bodies in the Tiber or burning down buildings. In some ways, the city has bloomed under the epidemic. (Horowitz, 5/1)

NPR: Police In India Test Huge Tongs To Nab Suspects From A Distance Amid Coronavirus Outbreak
For police, the new coronavirus poses a dilemma: How do you apprehend a suspect in the era of social distancing? In India, they've come up with a way to lengthen the long arms of the law: giant tongs. In what looks more like a scene from a cops-and-robbers cartoon, this week police in the northern city of Chandigarh tweeted a video of an officer demonstrating how to use a 6-foot pole with a two-pronged claw at the end to detain a suspect. (Frayer and Pathak, 4/30)