Soutik Biswas June 23rd, 2020 from BBC News

In one of the world’s most congested shanty towns, social distancing is not a luxury people can afford. And density is a friend of the coronavirus.

Imagine more than 500,000 people spread over 2.5 grubby sq km, less than a square mile. That’s a population larger than Manchester living in an area smaller than Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens.

by Dharmendra Kumar — June 24, 2020 from Counter Currents

It is said that COVID does not differentiate. Yet, people on the margin have been differently impacted by COVID. Street vendors are one such vulnerable group. With lockdown, streets wore a deserted look. Street livelihood vanished all of a sudden. Street vendors, generally outlawed and operating with meagre capital and various kinds of livelihood insecurities and restrictive and punitive regulatory authorities found it hard to survive through the lockdown.

Our hearts fill and bleed watching the police suffocate George Floyd as all of us bear witness. We are there, too, unless we act! We are full of grief for his family and our people, we send prayers, with fists raised and a never-ending commitment to fight for change that will end the United States and the world’s own never-ending pandemic of ardent racism.

ACORN International board members, supported by their staff, convened in a first global Zoom call today. ACORN leaders from 15 countries and 20 affiliates joined the call and participated using translators and translation software.

Covid Maps in San Pedro Sula

Social distancing is impossible, and life is becoming very hard for the slum’s hundreds of thousands of residents

ACORN UK’s Anny Cullum joins BBC Radio’s Money Box to discuss what rights tenants and landlords have as the coronavirus crisis continues.

Photo Gallery: ACORN members in Delhi help transport, prepare, and distribute meals to migrant workers without access to food or government services.

ACORN India members are informal workers, hawkers and vendors, who have to work each day to get shelter and food.