Daily Archives: February 27, 2021

Brooklyn Nets star Kyrie Irving thinks the NBA's logo needs an update. Irving posted a picture on Instagram on Wednesday suggesting the league alter its logo to honor Los Angeles Lakers legend Kobe Bryant.

What would that look like? Irving has an idea.

Irving added his reasoning to the post, saying "Gotta Happen, idc what anyone says. BLACK KINGS BUILT THE LEAGUE."

Bryant's widow, Vanessa Bryant, is on board with the idea. She shared Irving's picture of the logo, saying "love this. @KyrieIring."

The current NBA logo is modeled after Jerry West a Hall of Fame guard who spent all 14 seasons of his career with the Lakers. West who is white joined the Los Angeles Clippers as an executive board member in 2017.

West has discussed changing the logo in the past, and is receptive to the idea.

Changing the NBA logo to a silhouette of Bryant isn't a new idea. In the days following Bryant's death in a helicopter crash, a number of people suggested the league honor Bryant with a new logo.

That said, it's probably not going to happen. Following Bryant's death, the NBA reportedly did not want to highlight an individual player in its logo. Despite Alan Siegel, who designed the league's current logo, admitting he modeled the logo after West, the NBA has never acknowledged the logo is designed to be a specific player. The league reportedly doesn't want to highlight a specific player in its logo because it would be impossible to choose one person.

A case could be made for Bryant but it could also be made for Larry Bird, Michael Jordan, Bill Russell and many others. That was the league's stance following Bryant's death. It's unlikely to change now, even if Irving isn't the only current player who would support the idea.

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Kyrie Irving wants NBA to honor Kobe Bryant with new logo and Vanessa Bryant is on board - Yahoo Sports

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Workers whose states denied them unemployment aid during the COVID-19 pandemic may be able to retroactively access benefits back to Feb. 2, 2020, according to a new Labor Department rule issued Thursday.

The Department of Labor (DOL) broadened access to the federal pandemic unemployment assistance (PUA) established under the CARES Act, and comes in response to a Jan. 22 executive order seeking clarification on who qualifies for it.

The DOL rule expands eligibility to certain workers who refused to show up based on unsafe conditions, education workers who lost work due to volatile work schedules, and employees whose hours were reduced or who were permanently laid off. The department also clarified that primary caretakers for children whose schools have closed have a valid, pandemic-related reason for not working.

Todays guidance from DOL is a huge relief and welcomed news to all those who were essentially forced by their state to choose your money or your health when they were called back to work, Andrew Stettner, a senior fellow with The Century Foundation, a progressive, independent think tank, wrote in an email to Yahoo Finance.

For workers who are primary caregivers to children, the DOL is requiring that states allow the circumstances where a child is not permitted to attend in-person school as a qualifying, pandemic-related reason (under PUA) to certify that an applicant is unable to work. Alexa Tapia, a coordinator for National Employment Law Project, told Yahoo Finance on Friday that this provision could particularly aid female workers.

Glen Newswanger and Dwight Newswanger prepare beef orders at Newswanger Meats in Shiloh, Ohio, U.S., May 13, 2020 as the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak continues. Picture taken May 13, 2020. REUTERS/Dane Rhys

We've seen throughout this crisis that, for one, women have borne the brunt of it. They've taken on the caregiving, they've consistently shown the biggest proportion of job losses, with Black and Latina women having the highest losses in the December jobs filings, Tapia said. This empowers workers to not be fearful of leaving their employment and pursuing unemployment."

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For workers who refused to show up to a job based on unsafe conditions, the DOL said that an employers failed safety precautions such as those related to wearing facial masks, physical distancing measures, and personal protective equipment (PPE) consistent with public health guidelines can also justify refusing work. Roughly 40,000 Americans have been turned down for unemployment because of refusal to work over unsafe conditions, according to Andrew Stettner of the Century Foundation.

The job refusal piece is so important because we've seen a lot of the workers on the frontlines...being forced to work in unsafe working conditions, Tapia said, citing Kansas meatpacking employees who were exposed to COVID-19 and told to report to work. Still, Tapia cautioned that employers retain the right to contest and defend an employee's claim of an unsafe environment.

Another group of workers now eligible for federal benefits are full-time and part-time employees who were denied state unemployment benefits because their employers declined to participate in work sharing, an elective unemployment program.

Yet another previously ineligible group that can now apply for assistance includes school and school services workers, such as bus drivers and school cafeteria workers, who were denied benefits over the summer, or told that they would need to repay benefits if their work resumed in the fall. With many schools experiencing volatile schedules, the DOL said, workers whose hours have been decreased can apply.

Newly eligible workers based on Thursdays guidance must file for the federal benefit through their state unemployment division. However, they must be careful to specify their claim is under the PUA program, rather than their state's program. The maximum number of weeks of eligibility will also be based on the state maximum where the applicant applies, according to Tapia.

Prior guidance opened the federal unemployment benefit to those who did not qualify for regular unemployment compensation and were unable to continue working as a result of COVID-19, such as self-employed workers, independent contractors, and gig workers.

The DOL did not respond to a request asking for an estimate of the number of Americans it expected to become eligible for federal unemployment insurance, based on its updated guidance.

Alexis Keenan is a legal reporter for Yahoo Finance and former litigation attorney.

Follow Alexis Keenan on Twitter @alexiskweed.

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Labor Department expands jobless aid for those forced to choose 'your money or your health' - Yahoo Finance

The U.S. government needs to invest in infrastructure both domestically and internationally to keep pace with China, a former Clinton administration official told Yahoo Finance.

The Chinese are all over the world in Latin America and Africa and other parts of Asia, building everything from dams and rail systems and communication systems," Henry Cisneros, who served as secretary of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) from 1993 to 1997 in the Clinton administration, told Yahoo Finance. "So infrastructure is becoming one of the currencies for international economic competition.

China has invested heavily both domestically through modernization and overseas through the massive Belt and Road Initiative (known as the New Silk Road).

China's Silk Road project involves billions of dollars. (Graphic: David Foster/Yahoo Finance)

The Chinese not only have invested in their own infrastructure within the country everything from high-speed rail, modernized communications, new city developments, in effect new town planning, water supply questions, power supply issues, materials, but theyve also engaged in a strategy of helping other nations with whom they work have exclusive trading relationships in their development of infrastructure, Cisneros said.

The U.S. created the International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) to counter that global influence, but the relative lack of investment compared to Beijing means that Washington is playing catch up on 21st century developmental finance.

There are nations that have made all-out commitments to growth... they have geared their foreign policy, their economic policy, their trade policy, even their military strategies around economic dominance, Cisneros noted.

President Clinton listens to Housing Secretary Henry Cisneros in the Old Executive Building in Washington Dec. 19, 1994. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Researchers at Boston Universitys Global Development Center, which closely monitors Chinese overseas investments, noted that the country provided billions of dollars in loan commitments to Latin American and Caribbean countries since 2005. These include countries like Venezuela, Brazil, Ecuador, and others.

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Chinas development finance tends to be concentrated in the infrastructure [and] given the lack of major new incomes and capital and the lack of attention to infrastructure Chinese development finance has been very welcomed in the world, Kevin Gallagher, a professor of global development policy at Boston University, said during a webinar on Feb. 24.

Energy projects are part of that portfolio, which includes coal, oil, gas, hydropower, and other types of energy, the group detailed in a dataset. And while China's investments abroad slowed in 2020, Beijing provided more than $200 million in COVID-19 aid to the Latin American region.

Workers from China Railway No.2 Engineering Group screw the welded seamless rails of the China-Laos railway in the northern suburb of Vientiane, Laos, on June 18, 2020. (Photo by Kaikeo Saiyasane/Xinhua via Getty) (Xinhua/ via Getty Images)

Margaret Myers, director of the Asia and Latin America Program at Inter-American Dialogue, noted that China has pumped a lot of funds into the Latin America region previously, that activity has slowed more recently, according to

Instead, Chinese government banks were addressing pandemic-induced delays in other projects, and the reluctance to lend could also possibly be due to concerns over debt sustainability, Myers added.

Beyond policy bank lending, two more Latin American countries Brazil and Uruguay have also joined the China-led AIIB, Rebecca Ray, also at Boston University, said.

U.S. agencies are aware of the problem and have been ramping up investments abroad.

President Joe Biden also unveiled his $2-trillion Build Back Better Recovery Plan, a domestic infrastructure plan that Biden described as a new foundation for sustainable growth, compete in the global economy, withstand the impacts of climate change, and improve public health.

Cisneros noted that the investments at home and abroad are connected in that the U.S. must improve airports and other travel hubs to compete with ambitious economies like China.

The other way in which infrastructures playing a role in economic competition is the sheer reality that you have to have upgraded systems to function, which means ports that can handle the larger ships, trains that can move people efficiently, Cisneros said. We dont have one single line in the United States that you could call true high-speed rail. The Chinese have 6,000 miles. The Japanese have 1,600 miles. Countries like France and Germany and Spain all have long systems of high-speed rail. We do not.

The new, next generation Acela train arrives June 01, 2020 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Katherine Frey/The Washington Post via Getty Images)

Cisneros noted that the fastest rail in the U.S. is the Northeast Corridor, which runs at approximately 70 miles an hour through Amtraks Acela service, which operates between Washington, D.C. and Boston. In comparison, other countries he mentioned can safely run between 150-200 miles an hour through their rails.

In 2017, the American Society of Civil Engineers gave the U.S. infrastructure a D+ grade and predicted that it would cost approximately $4.6 trillion over the next decade to improve roads, bridges, schools, and ports across the country. The report called for infrastructure investment to increase to 3.5% of U.S. GDP by 2025, and increase from the current level of roughly 2.5%.

And while transportation might not seem like an important asset to compete with China for, the former HUD secretary stressed that moving people and information today is as important as moving cargo was in the past.

My point is all of these are underpinnings of economic competitiveness of the future, where we have slower broadband communications than, say, European countries and Japan and Korea, he said. Were at a disadvantage when our airports are not at the quality of many of the new airports in the Middle East and Europe and Asia. Again, were at a disadvantage.

Aarthi is a reporter for Yahoo Finance. She can be reached at aarthi@yahoofinance.com. Follow her on Twitter @aarthiswami.

Adriana Belmonte is a reporter and editor covering politics and health care policy for Yahoo Finance. You can follow her on Twitter @adrianambells and reach her at adriana@yahoofinance.com.

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Infrastructure is increasingly becoming 'one of the currencies for international economic competition' - Yahoo Finance

Activists wearing masks of the IOC President Thomas Bach and Chinese president Xi Jinping pose in front of the Olympic Rings during a street protest against the holding of 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing in Dharmsala, India, Wednesday, Feb. 3, 2021. Five effigies represent Taiwan, Tibet, Hong Kong, Inner Mongolia and the region ethnic Uyghurs call 'East Turkestan', under Chinese control. (AP Photo/Ashwini Bhatia)

In October, after decades of dismissal, and amid crescendoing opposition to the Genocide Games, the International Olympic Committee finally sat down and listened. Sixteen months before Beijing 2022, officials opened their ears. And they heard voices that represented the oppressed. Voices that spoke for millions unheard. Voices of Uyghurs; Hong Kongers; Tibetans; democratically-inclined Chinese. Victims of Beijings authoritarianism.

Activists had long sought the meeting. Five of them huddled on that October day to tell the IOC why the 2022 Winter Olympics could be so damaging. They shared first-hand testimony and widely reported facts: That the Chinese government has arbitrarily detained millions of Xinjiang Muslims, and cracked down on freedoms throughout the region. Years earlier, Olympic officials had promised that the 2008 Beijing Olympics would enhance human rights. Instead, the Chinese government has gotten exponentially more repressive, says Sophie Richardson, the China director at Human Rights Watch. The kinds of abuses that we are writing about now even we would have found them unthinkable back then.

The IOC heard evidence of all of this in October. Unfortunately, that dialogue didn't lead to anything, says Zumretay Arkin of the World Uyghur Congress. They were quite dismissive, she says of IOC officials. Theyve done nothing to assuage concerns of activists and politicians alike that the Games will legitimize and fortify a government which the U.S. and Canada have since accused of genocide.

We left the meeting, Arkin says, with an impression that the IOC just didn't really care.

So with 12 months to go, opposition to the Beijing Olympics is beginning to take other forms. A variety of politicians and leaders have called on the IOC to relocate the Games, but relocation, at this point, is near-impossible. Those calls, experts say, have become futile and even counterproductive. Which is why activists and politicians and even some Olympic stakeholders are devising alternative plans. The most explosive ones invoke a word that represents the IOCs biggest fears: Boycott.

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Its been four decades since the last Olympic boycott. Ahead of 2022, some organizations, politicians and opinionists have been calling for another. To attend a Beijing Olympics can be seen as an endorsement of genocide and crimes against humanity, says Teng Biao, a Chinese lawyer and activist. A refusal to attend, experts say, would send a strong message to the Chinese government that abuses must cease.

Most activists, however, are not advocating for a 1980-style boycott, because often boycotts can harm innocent bystanders, Richardson says. And in this case, that would be athletes. Athletes whove toiled for years with a singular goal in mind. A government-enforced boycott, says Rob Koehler, director general of Global Athlete, puts athletes as pawns. Most activists understand that and respect it. They say ripping the Games away would be cruel.

But there is nuance within the term boycott. Advocates and allies are on board with the strategy if individuals and governments are making decisions for themselves, rather than imposing boycotts on athletes. A coalition of 180 human rights groups has called for a diplomatic boycott of the Beijing Games, to ensure they are not used to embolden the Chinese governments appalling rights abuses and crackdowns on dissent. And experts believe a diplomatic boycott of some scale seems likely to materialize.

I have trouble imagining various governments sending high level people at the moment, says Richardson, the Human Rights Watch director. The key here is to not give the Chinese government any particular legitimacy around this event.

There is the separate possibility that individual athletes or groups of athletes could independently threaten to boycott, if they see competing in Beijing as complicity in genocide. Any boycott, Biao says, would be welcome and impactful and the more far-reaching, the more impactful.

Biao accepts, though, that most athletes will choose to compete. He and others would rather discuss more realistic options.

If they want to come and attend the Games, and publicly boycott the opening ceremony and closing ceremony, that would be good, Biao says of athletes. Simply a Tweet would be helpful. That's the way. That's an easy way to not be the accomplice.

President of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Thomas Bach opens the envelope announcing that Beijing has won the bid to host the 2022 Winter Olympic Games in 2015, 2015. (AP)

Except its not easy. Thats the problem for athletes wishing to take a human rights stand in Beijing. The IOC has strict rules governing demonstrations and advocacy during the Games. According to its latest Rule 50 guidelines, athletes have the opportunity to express their opinions, including during press conferences and interviews or on social media. But if an athlete did criticize Chinas many abuses, would experts fear reprisal from Chinese authorities?

Yes, Richardson says matter-of-factly.

Absolutely I'd be concerned, Koehler says.

Multiple European athletes who have spoken out against Chinas treatment of Uyghurs, such as soccer star Mesut Ozil, have received intense backlash. NBA GM Daryl Moreys 2019 tweet in support of democratic freedoms in Hong Kong incited a multi-hundred-million-dollar firestorm. Chinese authorities have a long history of retribution against those who dissent domestically. And at the moment, Richardson says, the Chinese government is arbitrarily detaining a number of foreign citizens.

Koehler says hes spoken to athletes who have been encouraged not to publicly talk about the human rights abuse happening in China. And he suspects athletes will be appropriately warned before going to Beijing for the Olympics. The IOC could support athletes freedom of expression by offering protection to any attending the Games. But when asked on Wednesday whether the IOC would offer that protection to an athlete who criticized Chinas human rights record, IOC president Thomas Bach did not directly answer the question. In response to follow-ups via email if that athlete faced consequences from Chinese authorities, would the IOC protect the athlete? an IOC spokesperson again did not directly answer the question.

We have received from the organizing committee and the Chinese partner all the assurances contained in the host city contract, Bach said.

The 2015 contract signed by Olympic organizers guarantees the freedom of the media to provide independent news coverage of the Games, and the editorial independence of the material broadcasted or published. But it does not include a single mention of human rights. Advocacy groups have described that as an astonishing" omission. In 2017, the IOC added a human rights clause to its host city contracts, but it has not said that Beijing must comply with the new standards.

Public statements or demonstrations would indeed aid the activists causes, and allow athletes to fulfill both sporting and moral duties. But without guarantees from Olympic organizers, Richardson believes, national governments might have to step up and negotiate protections.

It's both that governments are going to have to do a lot more work in a consular sense before people go to these Games, she says. But also to be on deck to help people if they do run into trouble.

People walk by a police station is seen by the front gate of the Artux City Vocational Skills Education Training Service Center in Artux in western China's Xinjiang region. (AP)

The IOC has not publicly addressed the accusations of genocide, nor has it addressed any of Chinas abuses with any specificity. And no activist expects that the IOC will. The IOC just seems to have closed its eyes and wished this had gone away, Richardson says.

In doing so, its forced athletes to consider whether their pursuit of Olympic dreams is implicitly harmful. The IOC, Koehler says, is first and foremost to blame for putting athletes in this position.

Everybody interviewed for this story, activists included, clarified that athletes arent obliged to speak up. Many will go to the Games and enjoy them without a single thought of genocide. Doing so is their choice, and their right.

Activists do, however, want to make sure athletes are informed. Arkin, the World Uyghur Congress leader, says theyve asked for dialogue with national Olympic committees, and spoke with Germanys last month. They also have to know what is happening on the ground, and they have this responsibility to give that information to athletes, she says in case the athletes do want to send a message.

A governments role, then, is twofold: Secure protections for its athletes who do speak up, and geopolitic without weaponizing unwilling athletes, in conjunction with the rest of the free world.

And Koehler believes the focus should stretch beyond Beijing 2022. Governments, he explains, could push Olympic organizations to codify human rights in everything they do, to ensure that a Beijing-like dilemma never arises again.

And maybe that's a condition for engagement in 2022, he says. Instead of just saying, 'We're gonna boycott,' say, 'We'll go, but here's the conditions of engagement. He mentions rescinding the IOCs Rule 50, which constrains protest; and introducing human rights score thresholds as prerequisites for hosting the Olympics.

These things must be done, and we will go to the Games, Koehler continues, paraphrasing the message governments could send. But we're doing this because we want to see it improved. We want to see our athletes' rights respected.

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China will host the 2022 Winter Olympics while accused of genocide. Should the world boycott? - Yahoo Sports