By Courtney Yamada
● On May 6, 2021, Palestinians protested in Jerusalem over a planned decision of the Supreme Court of Israel regarding the eviction of Palestinian residents in Sheikh Jarrah, a neighborhood of Jerusalem. The Al Aqsa Mosque has been bombed by Israeli police during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan. Israel is launching strikes through the Gaza Strip and Israeli defenses are intercepting rockets fired by Hamas. Recent strikes by Israel killed dozens of Palestinians including 9 children. According to the Congressional Research Service, Israeli military occupation has been supported by US aid with $3.8bn a year paid for U.S. tax dollars since 2016 for the next 10 years.
● On May 13, 2021, the CDC states that fully vaccinated people can stop wearing face masks and end physical distancing in most settings. Fully vaccinated people don’t need to wear a mask or physically distance themselves during outdoor or indoor activities, large or small. They should, however, continue to wear a mask while traveling by plane, bus, or train, and certain places require a face mask. The CDC recommends people who are fully vaccinated to wait two weeks after receiving their second dose of Pfizer Inc. and partner BioNTech SE or Moderna Inc or two weeks after getting the first dose of Johnson & Johnson.
● More than half of US adults (58%) have gotten at least one COVID-19 vaccine dose. Biden’s goal is for 70% of Americans to get the first dose by July 4th. In other parts of the world, there are outbreaks in lower and middle-income countries. Since March in India, new variants and loosened restrictions have caused infections to spread extraordinarily. In early May, there were over 20 million coronavirus cases. This has a huge impact because India is the sixth-largest economy and many countries rely heavily on goods such as clothing, pharmaceuticals, textiles, and technology.
● On Thursday, March 13, Georgia said it’s cutting the $300 weekly federal unemployment bonus made available during the pandemic. 15 other states are doing the same. This means that nearly 2 million Americans could be seeing smaller unemployment paychecks as early as next month. State leaders are citing a labor shortage for change. State governments are hoping that this will drive people back to work and boost the economy.
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