George Floyd suffocated to death with a Minneapolis Police Officer’s knee to his neck on May 25th, 2020. Video of Floyd’s murder released by the Washington Post clearly shows the police lied about Floyd resisting arrest. Murdered as someone who “looked like a suspect,” the events surrounding George Floyd’s death expose the casual yet deadly brutality of the police.
The announcement that the primary-secondary school transfer tests will proceed in the autumn is a source of anxiety for parents and pupils alike. School closures as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic have meant that the same level of preparation and teaching resources will not be available to those pupils scheduled to sit the tests. This is obviously a serious cause for concern, as the selection of secondary education is a major life event for young people.
The Covid-19 pandemic and the subsequent shutdown – which came in the context of an already developing global economic downturn and an especially weak and failing British economy – has had massive and unprecedented consequences. According to the Office for Budget Responsibility, Britain’s GDP has fallen by an estimated 35% in the immediate aftermath of the lockdown being announced.
While states order workers to “stay home”, the country battles a nationwide crisis to remain housed that started far before the pandemic. One in four Americans spend more than half of their monthly income on housing to keep up with rents that have increased more than 150% on average since 2010. As a result, on April 1, only a third of U.S. tenants paid their rent — the unconscionable predicament that tens of millions of working people find themselves in after just one missed paycheck.
