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.



North Korea's Kim Fires New Sniper Rifle while Visiting Troops

This picture taken on April 4, 2025 and released from North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) via KNS on April 5, 2025 shows North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un (C) looking through a rifle scope as he visits a training base of the Korean People's Army's special operations forces to observe a comprehensive training session, at an undisclosed location in North Korea. (Photo by KCNA VIA KNS / AFP)
This picture taken on April 4, 2025 and released from North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) via KNS on April 5, 2025 shows North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un (C) looking through a rifle scope as he visits a training base of the Korean People's Army's special operations forces to observe a comprehensive training session, at an undisclosed location in North Korea. (Photo by KCNA VIA KNS / AFP)
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North Korea's Kim Fires New Sniper Rifle while Visiting Troops

This picture taken on April 4, 2025 and released from North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) via KNS on April 5, 2025 shows North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un (C) looking through a rifle scope as he visits a training base of the Korean People's Army's special operations forces to observe a comprehensive training session, at an undisclosed location in North Korea. (Photo by KCNA VIA KNS / AFP)
This picture taken on April 4, 2025 and released from North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) via KNS on April 5, 2025 shows North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un (C) looking through a rifle scope as he visits a training base of the Korean People's Army's special operations forces to observe a comprehensive training session, at an undisclosed location in North Korea. (Photo by KCNA VIA KNS / AFP)

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has test-fired a newly developed sniper rifle, state media said Saturday, as he inspected special forces whose training he said bolstered "actual war capability for guaranteeing victory".

Such units are among the thousands of troops that South Korea's spy agency says Pyongyang has deployed to Russia to support Moscow's war against Ukraine.

During the visit to a special operations unit on Friday, Kim said the "actual war capability for guaranteeing victory in the war field is bolstered up through intensive training," the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported.

He added that their training is "the most vivid expression of patriotism and loyalty to the country," according to the agency.

Images released by state media showed Kim peering through the scope of a sniper rifle that KCNA said was going to be "newly supplied to special operation units".

Other images showed him pointing to the bullseye of a target, crouching alongside heavily camouflaged soldiers, and smiling and waving to troops.

Kim supervised "automatic rifle firing drills and sniper rifle firing drills" and, after personally test-firing the weapon, expressed "great satisfaction over the performance and power of the sniper rifle developed in our own way", KCNA said.

Kim's visit to the special forces came on the same day that South Korea's Constitutional Court upheld president Yoon Suk Yeol's impeachment over his disastrous martial law declaration, booting him from office and triggering fresh elections.

Yoon had defended his December 3 attempt to subvert civilian rule as necessary to root out "anti-state forces" and what he claimed were threats from North Korea.

KCNA reported Yoon's dismissal for the first time on Saturday, citing foreign media.

South Korea's opposition leader Lee Jae-myung is seen as a frontrunner in the next election, experts say, and his party has taken a more conciliatory approach towards North Korea.

US President Donald Trump, who met Kim three times during his first administration, said this week that he is in "communication" with Kim and intends to "do something at some point", according to Seoul's Yonhap news agency.