Hungaryâs population shrank by the most in more than a century last year, with the eastern European country notching the worldâs highest death rate during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The plunge of 48,667 was the highest since 1918, when the Spanish flu and World War I were the biggest contributing factors, data released Wednesday showed. The population has shrunk every year since 1982 and stood at 9.7 million at end-2020.
Like much of the continent, Hungary has been trying to reverse demographic decline â doling out subsidies and tax breaks for families. But, despite one of the European Unionâs better vaccination campaigns, Prime Minister Viktor Orban was late in introducing lockdown restrictions during the second and third waves of the pandemic.
Federal disaster relief funding that prioritizes property value over need exacerbates existing racial inequalities, leaving poor neighborhoods and communities of color more vulnerable to extreme weather events, a Houston area official told lawmakers.
Harris County Commissioner Rodney Ellis said Tuesday that equity principles implemented to guide the countyâs response following Hurricane Harvey in 2017 made it harder to secure federal dollars for the recovery.
âThe poorest neighborhoods in Harris County are the hardest hit during storms, floods and other natural disasters, but they received the least amount of resources to recover, rebuild and build resiliency against the next load,â Ellis told lawmakers. Poor and minority families are more likely to live in neighborhoods vulnerable to climate-related disasters because of redlining, he said.
In December, Arizona Republican state Rep. Mark Finchem suffered from flu-like symptoms â headache, fatigue, body aches and chills. But it wasnât the flu; he tested positive for COVID-19. Nearly three months later, his mother, who had recently contracted the coronavirus, died after battling throat cancer for over 40 years.
Those circumstances werenât enough to persuade Finchem, who is in his early 60s, to get a Moderna, Pfizer-BioNTech or Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine. Finchem remains skeptical, he said, because he distrusts the federal government and top public health officials, heâs heard mixed messages about the vaccines on social media and television news, and he worries about long-term side effects.
Itâs starting to feel as commonplace as handwashing: To protect against COVID, people across the globe are skipping trains and buses. Instead, theyâre part of the great car comeback thatâs sending vehicle sales soaring and fueling a demand surge for oil and metals.
Julie Murataj is a reluctant part of the shift. Two of her three kids are now getting dropped off at school instead of taking public transit. Then she drives her Volvo SUV to work, where she helps London schoolchildren cross the road by halting traffic with a bright, red and yellow stop sign that Brits call a âlollipop.â Itâs a front-row seat to the worldâs changing travel habits.