UK Schools, Swiss Burqa Ban, Senegal Protests
March 8, 2021
Yesterday’s Newsletter / March 8, 2021
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UK schools to reopen, backed by frequent virus testing
Summary: After a two-month closure, schools in the United Kingdom will open again today, as part of a “re-normalization” process that’s planned to culminate with the whole economy reopening and all restrictions lifted in June.
Context: The UK suffered the worst COVID-outcomes in Europe, but they’ve recently rolled out far more vaccines than most of the rest of the world—nearly 22 million first-doses, and a little over 1.1 million second-doses, thus far—and they hope to have all adults in the UK vaccinated by July.
—The Associated Press
Swiss agree to outlaw facial coverings in ‘burqa ban’ vote
Summary: A proposed ban on the public wearing of burqas and other predominantly Muslim-worn face-coverings has narrowly passed in Switzerland, 51.2% to 48.8%, after a sustained push by far-right organizations and politicians.
Context: This vote follows a 2009 Swiss ban on the building of new minarets, which traditionally top Muslim mosques, and happened in a larger European context in which France, Denmark, Austria, the Netherlands, and Bulgaria all have partial or total bans on face-coverings in public spaces; this is generally considered to be an ideological victory for those who supported the ban rather than a practical one, as very few women wear burqas in Switzerland, and only around 30 wear a similar garment called the niqab, which is also now banned in public in the country.
—Reuters
Senegal erupts in protests, with a rape charge serving as the spark
Summary: Young people threw stones at the police and the police fired tear gas back at them in the Senegalese capital of Dakar—the protests breaking out in response to the president, Macky Sall, jailing an opposition candidate, Ousmane Sonko, after Sonko was accused of rape; a charge he denies.
Context: Sall was carried into power by young people who wanted to keep the previous president from digging in and never leaving office, and now that same demographic is supporting Sonko and opposing Sall, who they claim is attempting to hold on to power and lock up his opposition as part of that effort—this rape case is being seen by Sonko’s supporters as one more attempt by Sall to accomplish those ends, though the truth of the claim is unclear at the moment, as is whether Sonko had anything to do with the airing of the accusation, true or not.
—The New York Times
Visual
$500
Amount of money given to each of 125 Stockton, California-based families each month for two years, to assess the impact a guaranteed basic income has on recipients.
The findings were all fairly positive, in the sense that the payments didn’t seem to disincentivize working, and mostly served to reduce stress, anxiety, and debt in those who were part of the experiment.
Quoting Michael Tubbs, the former Mayor of Stockton who initially set up the experiment: “Cash is a better way to cure some forms of depression and anxiety than Prozac. So many of the illnesses we see in our community are a result of toxic stress and elevated cortisol levels and anxiety, directly attributed to income volatility and not having enough to cover your basic necessities. That’s true in the public-health crisis we’re in now.”
—The Atlantic (and here’s direct info on the study)
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Yesterday’s Newsletter is published by analytic journalist and host of the Let’s Know Things podcast, Colin Wright.