Amid Pandemic, the World's Working Poor Hustle to Survive

In this April 13, 2020, photo, brothers Mohammed and Khalil Yousef pose in front of a pickup truck in the Palestinian refugee camp of al-Wehdat in Jordan's capital of Amman. The brothers used to make a living as drivers working day to day, but work has stopped since Jordan ordered a nationwide lockdown to halt the spread of the coronavirus. (AP Photo/Omar Akour)
In this April 13, 2020, photo, brothers Mohammed and Khalil Yousef pose in front of a pickup truck in the Palestinian refugee camp of al-Wehdat in Jordan's capital of Amman. The brothers used to make a living as drivers working day to day, but work has stopped since Jordan ordered a nationwide lockdown to halt the spread of the coronavirus. (AP Photo/Omar Akour)
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Amid Pandemic, the World's Working Poor Hustle to Survive

In this April 13, 2020, photo, brothers Mohammed and Khalil Yousef pose in front of a pickup truck in the Palestinian refugee camp of al-Wehdat in Jordan's capital of Amman. The brothers used to make a living as drivers working day to day, but work has stopped since Jordan ordered a nationwide lockdown to halt the spread of the coronavirus. (AP Photo/Omar Akour)
In this April 13, 2020, photo, brothers Mohammed and Khalil Yousef pose in front of a pickup truck in the Palestinian refugee camp of al-Wehdat in Jordan's capital of Amman. The brothers used to make a living as drivers working day to day, but work has stopped since Jordan ordered a nationwide lockdown to halt the spread of the coronavirus. (AP Photo/Omar Akour)

From India to Argentina, untold millions who were already struggling to get by on the economic margins have had their lives made even harder by pandemic lockdowns, layoffs, and the loss of a chance to earn from a hard day´s work.

The toll for families is hunger and poverty that are either newfound or even more grinding than before. Hunkering down at home to ride out the crisis isn´t an option for many, because securing the next meal means hustling to find a way to sell, clean, drive or otherwise work, despite the risk.

Here are six stories collected by the Associated Press from six corners of the world of people whose lives were upended by the same invisible menace.

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NAIROBI, KENYA

Judith Andeka has seen tough times before, but nothing like this.

The 33-year-old widow and mother of five used to earn $2.50 to $4 a day washing clothes in Nairobi´s Kibera, one of the world´s biggest slums. With people not going to work because of restrictions on movement, neighbors can´t afford her services.

She´s been forced to send her kids to live with relatives who are slightly better off: "I had no choice, because how do you tell a 2-year-old you have no food to give them?"

Each time she goes out looking for food or a chance to earn, she risks being robbed of the few belongings she owns in her shack. Her most prized possessions are a small gas burner and an old black-and-white TV.

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BUENOS AIRES, ARGENTINA

Rosemary Páez Carabajal usually pushes a coffee cart on the streets of Argentina´s capital, but the lockdown forced her to stop. Páez Carabajal, her blacksmith husband who´s also out of work and their two children rent a single room in a two-story brick building for the equivalent of $119 a month.

Now the cart sits idle in the hall, and the home is stacked with textbooks as the couple try to home-school their lone school-age child, a 7-year-old son.

The coronavirus came at a time of already painful recession in Argentina, with more than a third of its 44 million residents in poverty, according to figures from late 2019.

"When the quarantine was coming," Páez Carabajal recalled, "I said: `We´re all screwed, us day-to-day vendors.´"

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JAKARTA, INDONESIA

When Budi Santosa lost his job as a cook in a Chinese fast food restaurant, the father of two toddlers became one of nearly 2 million who´ve been put out of work in Indonesia as a result of the pandemic. Restrictions to contain the virus also impacted the 32-year-old's side job where he earned extra cash moonlighting as a driver.

Santos hasn´t had much time to dwell on his misfortune because he has to think about essentials: food, rent and paying down the debt on his motorcycle. He now averages a little over $4 a day making deliveries.

"The government told us to stay at home," he said, "but if I stay home my wife and children will have no food to eat."

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CAIRO

When the government shuttered traditional coffee shops, or "ahwas" as they're famously called in the Middle East, it cost Hany Hassan his job. He had been earning just $5 a day, but at least it was enough to feed his family.

"It´s a very difficult situation ... We are financially ruined," the 40-year-old father of four said.

With no chance of finding another job in Cairo, he returned to his family and hometown in the province of Minya, south of Cairo. But chances of finding work are slim in the villages, too. He goes out daily looking for a job, but he´s come up empty-handed. He´s borrowed money to keep his family afloat.

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AMMAN, JORDAN

Jordan´s wide-reaching lockdown has hit hard in al-Wehdat, a crowded, impoverished refugee camp in the capital. Brothers Mohammed and Khalil Yousef used to scratch out a day-to-day existence as truck drivers hauling construction supplies and produce. Each earned between 10 and 20 dinars, or $14 to $28, a day.

Between them they have nine children, all under 16. In Khalil´s cement shack, the refrigerator is bare save for some tomatoes, onions, and a few bags of pita bread.

After being idled for weeks, they are now only partially getting back to work as some restrictions on drivers are eased.

Mohammed said residents usually help each other out in hard times, but borrowing from neighbors isn´t an option today. "The whole camp is without work now," he said. "Everyone is broke."

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LUCKNOW, INDIA

Mahesh and Gita Verma ran a flower stall outside a Hindu temple honoring the monkey god Hanuman in this northern Indian city. When authorities ordered a lockdown, they found themselves indefinitely sidelined just like others in the informal sector, which makes up 85% of India´s labor force.

The Vermas and their five children, ages 8 through 20, were already living hand to mouth before the coronavirus. Now they´ve restricted themselves to mainly potato-based dishes.

Mahesh borrowed money from friends to convert the flower stall into a milk and bread stand, a business exempt from the lockdown restrictions.

Still, "we cannot have food like we used to have," Gita said.



Mohsen Rezaei: Israel Planned to Overthrow Iranian State in 7-Stage Plan

 Former IRGC Commander-in-Chief Mohsen Rezaei during the televised interview on Tuesday 
 Former IRGC Commander-in-Chief Mohsen Rezaei during the televised interview on Tuesday 
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Mohsen Rezaei: Israel Planned to Overthrow Iranian State in 7-Stage Plan

 Former IRGC Commander-in-Chief Mohsen Rezaei during the televised interview on Tuesday 
 Former IRGC Commander-in-Chief Mohsen Rezaei during the televised interview on Tuesday 

Former IRGC Commander-in-Chief Mohsen Rezaei said on Wednesday that Iran exposed a 7-stage Israeli plot designed to overthrow the state.

In a televised interview, Rezaei said his country will set the timing of any future war with Israel and warned against falling into “the trap of negotiation” with the US on the country’s nuclear program.

Rezaei, now a member of the Expediency Council, unveiled a new account of the 12-day war with Israel that started on June 13.

“We shot down 80 Israeli drones during the recent aggression, and the wreckage of 32 of them is now in Iran's possession, including highly advanced Hermes and Heron drones. Our radars have recorded 80 hits,” he said.

Commenting on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's meeting with US President Donald Trump in Washington this week, the Iranian General said, “It was an organized advertisement campaign in the White House.”

Following the 12-day war, Rezaei said due to popular pressure, the US and Israel had to launch a campaign claiming they won the war.

“Israel and America were defeated,” he said, adding that to cover this defeat, Trump had to lash out at some international media outlets like CNN, saying, 'You are lying, we won.’”

He said to examine whether Israel won, one should look at what the war has achieved and what it cost.

“According to an Israeli Finance Ministry report, the 12-day war cost approximately $20 billion. In just 12 days, the Israeli military used US-made THAAD missiles equivalent to two years of manufacture,” he said.

Seven Targets

Rezaei then uncovered a plan, in which Israel, in coordination with the US, spent over a year in training from Greece to the Mediterranean with an aim to first assassinate the Leader of the Iranian Revolution and Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) figures, then trigger nationwide chaos, infiltrate counter-revolutionaries into Tehran, divide Iran into several regions, and attack Iranian military and economic infrastructure.

“Their final goal,” Rezaei stated, “was controlling skies from the Mediterranean to China’s borders.”

However, the Iranian official said their scheme collapsed spectacularly: Israeli strikes on the site of the SNSC meeting caused “zero casualties” due to strategic relocation, while border incursions failed utterly, he said.

Rezaei assessed that the enemy achieved only 10% of their first-stage objectives, while suffering 65% at the military level and 80% at the political and social levels.

Commenting on Iran’s indirect negotiations with the US, he said military readiness must go in line with the diplomatic efforts but added that “the field must be ahead of diplomacy. That's what the Houthis did.”

Strategic Opportunity

On Monday, Trump said he would like to lift sanctions on Iran at some point.

And in an eye-catching post on X suggesting Tehran sees economic ties as a potential element in any deal, President Masoud Pezeshkian said on Monday that Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei believed American investors can come to Iran with “no obstacles to their activities.”

Reuters reported on Tuesday that Iranian rulers face two unpalatable options: renewed strikes if they do not surrender their nuclear ambitions and humiliation at home if they do.

That means they may try to make talks drag out, unwilling to fully quit their nuclear project and presenting a difficulty for a US president impatient for a deal and its economic benefits for the US, Western and regional officials say.

For Israel, the fallback option is clear, the person familiar with Netanyahu's strategy said: a policy of sustained containment through periodic strikes to prevent any nuclear resurgence.

In the wake of its air war against Iran, Israel has reasserted itself as the region's unrivalled military power, more willing than ever to use force and more capable of doing so with precision and relative impunity.

Washington, meanwhile, is hedging its bets. While Israeli and US hawks still hope for regime change in Tehran, Trump appears unwilling to shoulder the huge military, political and economic costs that such a project would demand.

Trump rapidly claimed victory after the US attack. And while he has said he would consider bombing Iran again if it continued to enrich uranium to worrisome levels, he has portrayed the June 22 operation as a bold, surgical one-off.

The US may support Israel’s military actions, even supplying advanced weaponry, but it is betting mainly on economic pressure and diplomatic leverage to force Tehran’s hand. The result is a fragile standoff, with no clear endgame, the diplomats said.

Netanyahu sees a fleeting strategic opportunity, one that demands acceleration, not hesitation, the source close to him said. In his calculus, the time to strike harder is now, before Iran regains its footing, the source said.

Iran's air defenses are battered, its nuclear infrastructure weakened, its proxies decapitated and its deterrence shaken. But Tehran’s window to regroup and rebuild will grow with time, says the person familiar with Netanyahu's strategy.

So for Netanyahu, this is unfinished business -- strategic, existential, and far from over, the diplomats and the two Middle East officials said.