What stands behind escalation of the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan? – Modern Diplomacy

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What describes a nation, or more importantly who describes a nation? Nations like to tell about heroic, victorious events of their history, it is pleasant; they are proud of their famous compatriots. Moreover, they are flattered to be highly estimated by foreign prominent people for two and a half thousand years and sometimes that words have been even overestimated. But the first-hand sources confirm, consequently, they are real. Accordingly, it is needed to understand why they expressed glorious opinions about Armenians as the authors include famous thinkers of different nations and world greats.

There are many scientific hypotheses known in the history of science, which have been rationally explained for many, even hundreds of years. Great thinkers often come to intuitive conclusions that are incomprehensible to most of their contemporaries, they are even being criticized for their ideas. For decades, I kept viewing an approach by Joseph Pitton de Tournefort (16561708), a great French thinker and member of Paris Academy who noted; Armenian nation is the best nation in the world; they are moral, polite, full of chastity and decency.

At first sight, one may take this kind of statement as unreasonable and exaggerated. Armenians are patriotic, proud, but they are very critical to themselves; even a nationalist Armenian will not express such ideas. At the same time, another French thinker, historian, famous geographer Jacques lise Reclus (18301905) claims: The Armenian villager can be attributed to what Turnefor said; Armenians are the best people in the world without much exaggeration, which, in its turn, means that there are still serious grounds for such opinions.

More than a hundred years after Tournefort, the great English poet Lord George Gordon Byron wrote. The virtues of Armenians are their own, and the shortcomings are taken from others. In short, Armenians are decent and perfect and the like.

At first glance, it seems that such opinions require a lot of different knowledge on many nations, which will let us come to a certain conclusion through comparison. In other words, it was necessary to study a certain set of knowledge, which was still quite narrow at the times of the mentioned authors. Accordingly, the conclusions had to have a different starting point.

From our point of view, that starting point could have been based on several notorious historical facts, in particular:

1) Testimonies of ancient Greek and Roman historians about the Armenian people and Armenia,

2) Although several dozen peoples lived in the Armenian Highlands and Mesopotamia in ancient times, but few survived, including the Armenian people,

3) Starting from the ancient Roman and Persian periods and throughout the Middle Ages, Armenia was the scene of savage invasions (Arabs, Mongols, Seljuks, Ottomans, etc.), but Armenians continued to keep their existence in the Armenian Highlands,

4) the last mentioned outstanding peace-loving characteristic of the Armenian people, which was manifested both during the powerful Armenian kingdoms and after the loss of statehood

5) Existence of Armenian colonies in many countries, including European ones, where Armenians, have both preserved their national identity, and, at the same time, having been integrated in the new national environment, have contributed to the prosperity of those countries,

6) The process of preserving and continuously developing the Armenian language, the theological, philosophical, scientific, literary heritage created in Armenian, and the publishing heritage, too,

7) Existence of unique Armenian culture, civilization, and also contribution of Armenians to world civilization.

These basic ideas, of course, are not exhaustive; there are and there will possible be other ideas, too. It is necessary to understand the main thing: who is the Armenian, what are his peculiarities and what it was that ensured his existence for millennia?

I will emphasize the following description of Immanuel Kant (1724-1804), a great German thinker about Armenians: Hardworking and intelligent people, they have a special origin, all the nations accept Armenians with open arms, they have excellent mettle, it is impossible for us to talk about their preliminary formation.

Till today, modern historiography, linguistics, and ethnography are not able to fully present the preliminary formation of the Armenian nation, but there are certain assumptions. But first, let us consider the special origins of the Armenian people. One thing is certain; the origin, development and formation of the Armenian people are hidden in the thick fog of thousands of years. At all events, according to the modern genetic research, scientists confirm that Armenians have lived in their highlands for more than 7-8 thousand years. The Armenian language and culture also testify to the mentioned facts. It is clear that the perfection of the language, the elaboration, the rich vocabulary, the ability to express thoughts, ideas, knowledge, human emotions could not be created even for centuries, it has, surely, taken millennia. Differently, the development of the language also has required a rich culture, the development of which also took millennia. Language and culture, complementing and enriching each other, as well as creatively assimilating and synthesizing the best values and traditions of neighboring languages and cultures, have become, one may say, a dominant language and culture of regional significance. Thanks to that, the Armenian people have survived in the Armenian Highlands for millennia.

When talking about the special origin of the Armenian people, one cant help drawing attention to the Armenian Highlands. Generally, living in the mountains is viewed to be one of the best ways of protections from outside attacks, but limiting yourself to it does not yet give answers to many questions. The inhabitants of the mountainous regions have to constantly struggle and adapt to the harsh climatic conditions, and in order to achieve the result they need the joint efforts of the people, which, in its turn, forces them to develop special and stricter forms of coexistence as compared with the conditions in the valleys. On the contrary, mountains devote people certain advantages, such as working tools, raw materials for housing (obsidian, copper, tin, iron, various non-metallic building materials, and the like), easier means of self-protection, and all the rest. And finally, the mountains give people spiritual charge, spirituality, and also form a uniqueway of thinkingand a way of life which corresponds to it. The One for all, all for one thinking is typical, first of all, to the mountaineers. The evidence of the last mentioned is not only the way of life, behavior and manners of Armenians, but also of all mountain peoples.

There is not any coincidence that the civilizations formed in Mesopotamia, more specifically in the valleys of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, have constantly been changed, and the Armenian civilization having been formed in the Armenian Highlands has kept maintaining its existence and developing steadily.

The mountaineer, whether he wants it or not, must be honest, decedent, hospitable, hardworking and inquisitive, physically and mentally healthy, conservative, apologist of public and individual order, initiative and courageous, and so on and so forth. Just as he receives guests with open arms, so he will be received with open arms, too. The mountaineer is in need of accepting guests just because he is isolated from the world and needs to be informed about what is going on in the world around him. This is how the excellent mettle, mentioned by Kant, has been formed. It is obvious that the bearer of all this is first of all the villager, to whom Reclu rightly attributes Turnefors words about Armenians.

The open-arms feature is also hardened in the cold. Armenians have also been involved in trade for centuries, which comes to say that they have not cheated in doing business, no matter how much they pursued personal interests, on the contrary, they have been able to attract customers, including members of royal families, great princes and feudal lords, nobles, local big merchants, and also to prove their honesty, kindness, without which they would have never been welcomed with open arms. Armenian merchants often also acted as royal translators, diplomats, achieved high positions in some countries, and became foreign ministers.

It is obvious that during the long contacts the Armenian merchants have not been engaged only in trade, but, simultaneously, have introduced Armenian culture, art, crafts to foreigners, participated in various events of the given country and the like. With their involvement, the Armenians have built churches, schools, established printing houses in the colonies, and came up with charitable initiatives. They have even had a special costume-suit worthy of the time and it is not accidental that Rousseau wore the clothes of an Armenian merchant to avoid political persecution. And, of course, the establishment of that country was well aware of all that.

Another characteristic Armenians have, is their peace-loving nature. Turnefor writes that Armenians consider themselves to be happy when not dealing with weapons, in contrast with other nations, they take up arms only to defend themselves against any attacks. Another thing that is worth mentioning is the assurance of the Russian historian Sergei Glinka (1775 / 6-1847). I am not writing praise, and how far are all stories(about Armenians) from praise? Armenians were not carried away by violent outbursts of conquest by the moral features of their national spirit as all that have been transitory.

Defending the homeland, preserving their own independence, withstanding external violence attempts-these are the main goals for them to get armed. Here is why Mihr, one of their pagan Gods, was a spiritual fire that preserved and would not harm the nature and man. Lets apply to J. Byron again. It is difficult to find a chronology of a nation that is free from vicious crimes than that of the Armenians, whose virtues are the product of peace and whose vices are the result of repression. An English politician, statesman William Ewart Gladstone (1805-1898) is also needed to be mentioned as a known person having written about Armenians; According to him, Armenians are one of the oldest peoples of the Christian civilization and one of the most peaceful, entrepreneurial and sensible one in the world, he also mentions that diligence, striving for peace, common sense are the main reasons why slavery was not formed in Armenia as a society.

We may continue the series of glorifying Armenians may be continued remembering the German orientalist V. Belkin member of the French Academy, Russian military historian Viktor Abaza (1831-1898) and others. Just let me mention that the biggest proof of the Armenians love of/ towards peace is their history, full of episodes of their struggle for independence and liberation, also known in the East for its arrogance, pages about great generals, war heroes and, finally, the best evidence is the epic poem Sasna Tsrer. An example of peace-loving feature of the Armenian people is the King Artashes I of the mighty empire of Greater Armenia, who marked the borders of the Armenian kingdom not through force of arms, but through the presence of an Armenian-speaking population. Generally, peace-loving is conditioned with diligence and the ability to acquire wealth on ones own. For thousands years having lived in the strict conditions of the highlands, Armenians have learned to earn their own living, to work hard, to know the laws of nature, and also to realize that by robbing someone elses property, you impoverish yourself. Having always been constant victim of the surrounding robbers, Armenians have forever realized that robbery is not the right way to live well. Robbery, theft, taking someone elses property always causes resistance and as a result of robbery one should be ready not only to gain, but also to lose; one loses his children, his peace of mind, and often becomes a victim of robbery. There have existed many powerful empires, which have disappeared with their peoples before the eyes of Armenians. Every war, even a victorious one, gives birth to a new war and, predominantly, the winner becomes the loser. This is how the Sumerians, Akkadians, Assyrians, Roman and Parthian empires disappeared from the face of the earth.

Since the ancient times, plunder has been an important part of the way of life of the peoples having in the European continent, but having adopted the ancient Greek philosophical rationalism, the Europeans did manage to greatly promote education, science, technology, develop the arts, and inherit the cruel, malevolent and arrogant path concentrating on urgent political and economic interests and due to that, they succeeded in ensuring a prosperous life for the golden billion of their citizens and subjects.

The thinkers of the European Enlightenment, who advocated the ideas of human rights, freedom, equality, fraternity proclaimed by the French Revolution, in fact did not have worthy followers and did not guarantee the embodiment of the idea of fraternity. It was all this that led archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann Johann Ludwig Heinrich Julius Schliemann (1822-90) to come to the conclusion according to which the tragedy of Europe is that its civilization is stood on the Greek rather than the Armenian culture.

Today, the West is reaping the fruits of its sins; international terrorism and international migration. They are just germs and still Europe has a lot to pay for the atrocities, looting, wars, and damage to hundreds of peoples.

Above we mentioned about the Armenian colonies, which have a history of thousands of years, and not only multilingual literature, references-studies exist but also significant traces of material culture have been preserved. Some Armenian colonies have been created by the migration of Armenians, when for various reasons the Armenians were forced to leave their homeland, others by the forced resettlement or deportation of savage states. The forcible deportation had several goals: first, to evict the Armenian territories in order to appropriate them once and for all, on the other hand, to make those territories unattractive or unsuitable for the enemy neighboring countries. Our immediate neighbors, Byzantium, Persia, Rech Pospolita, Transylvania, Russia, India, have forcibly or peacefully populated villages, towns, and regions with Armenians. By deporting, sometimes taking advantage of, providing land, economic privileges, national educational, cultural, religious freedoms, granting internal autonomy, Armenians settled their uninhabited or occupied territories, using their commercial and craft potential for their own security and development. What was the reason for this kind of friendly attitude towards Armenians? The answer is obvious. Armenians are hardworking, progressive and, also, peace-loving/peaceful.

On this subject, I would love to remind a part from the history of the Crimea. When Russian Empress Catherine II (1762-96) instructed Prince Potemkin to seize the Crimea, he took the following step: invited the Greeks and Christian Armenians, granted tax and property privileges to his country. The caravans of Christian Armenians and Greeks moved to Christian Russia, as a result of which the short-lived worker collapsed economically and lost his resistance on the eve of the Russian invasion.

Byzantium once weakened the Armenian kingdoms, evicted Armenians, paved the way for the Turkish troops to the depths of the country, to Constantinople and perished, so the Turks did not shy/keep away from any means, even resorting to genocide and statelessness, depriving themselves of a viable Christian element.

The West will also greatly contribute to this, as soon as it gets rid of Britains We have no fixed allies, we have no eternal enemies. Only our interests are immutable and eternal(Henry Temple, Lord Palmerson, 1848) destructive philosophy. It is necessary to have permanent friends, which can be achieved only through mutually beneficial cooperation.

Although, at first sight, the words of praise from many famous foreigners about the Armenian people may seem to have been exaggerated, they are really justified. However, this does not still mean that Armenians are the best people of the world, at least because there are many good nations, who have greatly contributed to the development of human civilization. For centuries, Armenians, having been under the brutal rule of foreigners, have taken many of their flaws and now they have left the national-moral image of their ancestors out having lost many values. Accordingly, I am sending a message to Armenians not only to be proud of the glory and praise of the past, but also to make efforts to restore the special majesty and virtue of the Armenian nation, and to get rid of foreign flaws. Only with that self-purification and exaltation you will be able to consider yourself a virtuous people, which is more important than the praise of others.

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What stands behind escalation of the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan? - Modern Diplomacy

Bland Fanatics by Pankaj Mishra review both obscures and illuminates – The Guardian

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What is it, the Austro-Hungarian novelist Joseph Roth asked rhetorically in 1927, in a preface to his book The Wandering Jews, that allows European states to go spreading civilisation and ethics in foreign parts but not at home? Forty years later, as American cities burned while American bombs rained down on Vietnam, James Baldwin made a similar point, though reversing Roths formulation. A racist society, he wrote, cant but fight a racist war this is the bitter truth. The assumptions acted on at home are also acted on abroad.

The relationship between the internal and the external policies of western liberal democracies lies also at the heart of Pankaj Mishras work. The Indian-born novelist and essayist has, over the past decade, become an important and illuminating critic of liberalism and globalisation.

Bland Fanatics is a collection of essays published over that time that range from excoriations of Niall Ferguson and Salman Rushdie, to a study of US president Woodrow Wilsons hypocrisy over his support for national self-determination, to an unpacking of the irrationality of western attitudes to Islam.

Two themes link the essays. The first is the hollowness and bad faith of liberalism. In the early 1960s, the Irish academic and politician Conor Cruise OBrien observed that those in former colonies in Africa and Asia were sickened by the word liberalism, seeing it as an ingratiating moral mask which a toughly acquisitive society wears before the world it robs. Had more western intellectuals paid attention to such hostility, Mishra suggests, had they recognised liberalisms complicity in western imperialism, they might have been better prepared for the current challenges facing the liberal tradition.

Mishras writings have been important in exposing the narrow parochialism of western intellectuals

This leads to the second theme in Bland Fanatics the significance of the non-western world in shaping history and blindness of western liberals to that world. Mishra takes aim at prettified histories of the rise of the democratic west in which centuries of civil war, imperial conquest, brutal exploitation and genocide are glossed over in accounts of how westerners made the modern world and became with their liberal democracies the superior people everyone else ought to catch up with.

Mishras writings have been important in exposing the narrow parochialism of western intellectuals and in bringing the history of the rest of the world into discussions of European and American history and politics. There is, though, a narrowness to his own approach, which raises as many questions about Mishras critique as he does about liberalism.

It is striking, for instance, that there is barely a mention of class in Bland Fanatics, except for the odd line deriding the Brexit pretensions of the British ruling class. To write 16 essays on the problems of liberalism, and the character of its current crisis, without discussing its impact on the working class or the role of the working class in the contemporary anti-liberal tumult, not only in Europe and America, but globally, seems extraordinary.

In an essay on the African-American writer Ta-Nehisi Coates, Mishra chides him for viewing the rise of Donald Trump as an expression of a whitelash from those who feared the black man in the White House, pointing out that Trump also benefited from the disappointment of white voters who had voted, often twice, for Obama, and of black voters who failed to turn out for Hillary Clinton.

Yet Mishras own account of the rise of Trump, and of populism more broadly, seems implausible and contradictory, too. In his previous book The Age of Anger, Mishra linked the fury that had brought populist leaders to power to that which underlies Islamist terror and sectarian violence, seeing them all as expressions of what Kierkegaard and Nietzsche called ressentiment, the existential resentment of other peoples being, caused by an intense mix of envy and sense of humiliation and powerlessness. The roots of such resentment Mishra traced back to the backlash against Enlightenment rationalism and the refusal of liberals to acknowledge the importance of community, identity and authenticity.

It was a provocative thesis, exhilarating in parts but infuriating, too, in its flattening of historical nuance. It is, for instance, one thing to recognise the importance of community and identity and the anger created by the atomisation of societies. It is quite another, though, to view the desire for community as an expression of what Mishra calls the persistent power of unreason or to see all forms of inchoate and half-articulated rage as drawing upon the same historical source.

In any case, in Bland Fanatics the argument has shifted. Mishra argues here (in an essay written the year after The Age of Anger was published) that the election of Trump represents the last and most desperate phase of a journey that moves through colonialism, slavery, segregation, ghettoisation, militarised border controls and mass incarceration. This is a very different historical lineage to that in The Age of Anger and one shaped by the actions of the elite, not by the feelings of those who resent their exclusion from the world created by that elite.

What is missing in Bland Fanatics is any attempt to analyse liberalism in the round. Were there any historical gains from the emergence of liberalism? What, if anything, is worth saving from the liberal tradition? How should we assess the tension between Enlightenment ideals, from which many anti-colonial movements drew inspiration, and the practice of European colonialism that denied those ideals to the majority of people in the world? Such questions are ignored by Mishra.

There is much that is valuable in Mishras writings, opening up as they do new perspectives in the debate about liberalism and about the relationship between the west and the global south. Its a pity that there is also much that obscures even as it illuminates.

Bland Fanatics: Liberals, Race and Empire by Pankaj Mishra is published by Verso (16.99). To order a copy go to guardianbookshop.com. Free UK p&p over 15

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Bland Fanatics by Pankaj Mishra review both obscures and illuminates - The Guardian

‘It’s no wonder they come here’ – Kent Online

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As hundreds descended on Dover beach to bask in the sun on the hottest day of the year, scores of migrants, just metres away, took their first step on British soil.

In a designated corner of the marina - inconspicuously separate from the beach, the ferry berths, and Dover's celebrated cruise terminal - Border Force speed vessels ferry boatload after boatload of foreign nationals in to the harbour.

The migrants have attempted the perilous journey to the Kent coast in self-piloted inflatable boats and this group is lucky enough to have averted tragedy by being rescued by Border Force and taken into the safety of immigration authorities.

One small child, wearing a standard issue Border Force life jacket, is seen clapping his hands in relief, as one of the government agency's rigid hull inflatable boats (RHIB) pulls up at the dockside.

The RHIB is carrying what, from a distance, looks like women and children only.

They arrive in numbers far fewer than the horrifying videos we've seen in recent months, where up to 18 people are crammed into inflatable crafts, with waves lapping mid channel over the dangerously weighted down hull.

The voice of a crying child carries over the hum of traffic and boat engines towards the cargo terminal where I stand watching with a press photographer.

Border Force personnel work quickly to disembark them and the women walk with the children up a white steel gangway where waiting officials meet them.

It's a scene I've seen countless times, in pictures and videos taken by sailors and media, but this is my first time seeing with naked eyes migrants entering the country.

Minutes before the RHIB had entered the harbour, another search and rescue speed boat CPV Speedwell prepared to leave the marina from where she was berthed next to Dover Lifeboat Station.

Her skipper waited for sister ship CPV Hunter to arrive.

Hunter came in towing a small red dinghy, and on board were a number of males, all in orange/red life jackets.

As the men prepare to disembark from the safety of Hunter they show more restraint than the clapping boy.

Still I suppose the moment their foot touches the tarmac a sense of achievement, triumph or catharses must be evoked after possibly months travelling from their country of origin.

After all, this successful attempt might not have been their first.

In recent years the small boat crosses have overtaken daily attempts to break into and hide in HGVs.

At first the clandestine boat trips were under the cover of darkness, facilitated by gangs of people smugglers charging thousands for passage per person.

Now migrants with means are choosing the more brazen route, in calm seas and in broad daylight. Without the traffickers enlisting experienced men to drive the boats, the groups are risking passage alongside one of the busiest shipping lanes in the world and sometimes they try in kayaks and makeshift rafts.

We've reported before how the French are accused of watching on as the small boats power into British waters and into the interception of Border Force without first apprehending and returning them to France. Video and radar images would certainly suggest that.

But the Home Office replies to each of these claims by explaining that the priority at sea is to preserve lives - thus our authorities take responsibility for the boats in our waters.

This, and the operation inside Dover Marina is a cycle that repeats itself with no sign of stopping.

Predictably it intensifies when the weather is fine - this week's figures are proof of that.

Today's operation, which I observed for little more than an hour, follows a new record set for migrants yesterday.

The Home Office revealed 235 cases had been intercepted.

Border Force cutter Seeker and patrol boats Speedwell and Hunter intercepted 17 vessels, one of which was carrying 26 people.

This new figure is up 34 from the past record of 201 set last week.

Today 130 migrants in 13 vessels were intercepted.

And weeks after Home Secretary Pritti Patel met with her counterpart to arrange for more migrants to be returned to France, we await the figures of how many of yesterday's and today's arrivals will be returned.

Ben Bano from migrant welfare charity Seeking Sanctuary this afternoon attributed the influx to the conditions in Calais and their treatment in police clearances.

He told KentOnline: "Its not surprising that so many people, including children are coming across the Channel in these flimsy and dangerous boats.

"The conditions for hundreds of people in Calais are appalling, with daily clearances by the police and no access to water and sanitation during this heatwave.

"This is a situation in which the traffickers who exploit vulnerable people can thrive.

"This situation would stop if the British and French authorities work to create safe and legal ways to claim asylum in the UK.

"It cannot be right that people make dangerous trips in order to exercise their legal right to claim asylum once in UK territorial waters."

Yesterday KentOnline reported how an activist was arrested while filming migrants being loaded into coaches which he claimed, were taken to four star hotels.

I followed in his footsteps today and found three coaches waiting at the dockside. I wasn't challenged as I approached and filmed.

From what I saw at the Marina today Ms Patel's threats that Royal Navy assets may be deployed have had no impact on migrants' momentum.

It seems despite threats of Naval intervention, and the perilous 23-mile journeys across the world's busiest shipping lanes, the small boats will keep on coming.

And as fine weather continues, that cycle will carry on.

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'It's no wonder they come here' - Kent Online

After a Lull, the Number of Migrants Trying to Enter the U.S. Has Soared – The New York Times

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The shelters population reflected the recent shifts in the migratory flow. Last year, during the peak of the migration crisis, as many as 200 migrants slept there a night, most hoping to present themselves at the border and apply for asylum, said Gilda Irene Esquer Flix, who runs the shelter.

But since the Trump administration had effectively suspended access to the asylum program, nearly all of those migrants who had been waiting for an opportunity to cross had left the shelter, returning to their home countries, melting into Mexican society or trying to find an illegal route across the border.

In recent months, only a handful of migrants have been showing up at the shelter each day, Ms. Esquer said, with most being failed border crossers who needed a place to rest for a night or two after being caught in the United States and sent back to Mexico.

Two Mexican women traveling together were among about a dozen residents there one night last week. They had met during a failed crossing several weeks ago and had since tried three other times, to no avail.

Various friends have been successful, lamented Dinora, 24, who allowed publication of only her first name. She had been compelled to migrate, she said, after she lost her job as a seamstress in a factory in her home state of Campeche on the Gulf of Mexico.

She had heard that the Americans were not detaining people, making it much easier to try again. But after four failed crossings, and the duress of trying to cross the desert, she had decided to head back home.

No more, she said.

Her friend, however, was determined to try again.

Zolan Kanno-Youngs contributed reporting from Washington, D.C.

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After a Lull, the Number of Migrants Trying to Enter the U.S. Has Soared - The New York Times

No foreseeable end to the strain on Border Force – Kent Online

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Kent's Border Force officers are enduring scorching temperatures as they battle to process around 200 migrants a day while government continues to struggle to stop the crossings.

Priti Patel visited Dover today and was seen getting off a police boat after a short trip out to sea. She was seen walking up the gangway to the Border Force hub the same gangway that hundreds of migrants are taken up every week.

Border Force are working continuously rescuing asylum seekers from the Channel

The people dealing with these new arrivals are under increased pressure, as this present crisis intensifies, they are working longer hours to get new arrivals registered with the authorities.

That's according to Lucy Moreton, professional officer for ISU, the union for borders, immigration and customs workers.

She told KentOnline that staff are struggling to process the sheer scale of cases and the significant and unprecedented pressure on the force shows no signs of letting up.

Before last week's record day of cases, Dover based officers would see an average of 100 arrivals a day. Now they are seeing 200.

She said: "As a force, we have peaks and troughs, things happen and you get different changes in the patterns of traffic. The issues that have come up most recently is that folk can't be searched out at sea because they are being picked up by other agencies including the RNLI and the Coastguard.

"It means the immediate intercepting team have to wear body armour on a quay with no shelter - and in the temperatures we've had recently - it has been horrendous.

"They are already working long hours, with no cold water but now they're wearing 10 kilos of body armour."

Our reporter observed on Friday how search and rescue vessels operated a continuous cycle, bringing migrants ashore, discharging them and going straight out on patrol as another vessel came in to follow the same protocol. There were no visible breaks for the boat staff and the Mercury continued to soar to over 30 degrees.

The officers, based on the quay at Dover Marina, are under the same pressure and bring the migrants to shore where they enter a quayside welfare unit.

This is where their needs are assessed.

They are given water, food and, if needed, they can shower and put on fresh jumpsuits or tracksuits to wear.

Once they have been initially processed they are loaded into coaches from the Marina to an intake unit for fingerprinting.

According to Ms Moreton, staff are arduously working long hours on this early identifying process to get the new arrivals ready to be taken on by the relevant authorities.

Kent currently takes responsibility for migrants with children and unaccompanied children. Any others that come ashore - like single males, who make up the majority, are shipped off to authorities like Birmingham, Manchester, London, Cardiff.

There, like with many homeless people in their care, they are housed in hotels until accommodation becomes available.

Covid-19 screening is adding to the burden when somebody presents with virus symptoms.

She said there are difficulties in fingerprinting with gloves on, and the masks exacerbate the heat.

Arrivals can not be forced to wear masks.

Her insight comes as Home Secretary Priti Patel faced pressure to tackle the crisis - and today she returned to Dover.

Meanwhile Prime Minister Boris Johnson said we need to look at the legal framework for migrants crossing the English Channel and being allowed to stay here despite entering illegally.

It comes as 20 men, identifying as Syrian, were intercepted in the channel by border force speed boat Hunter this morning.

Despite a formal request to the Ministry of Defence for military assistance to deter foreign nationals from undertaking journeys to Dover in small boats, Ms Moreton says: "I can't see a let up in the foreseeable future.

"We were able to get some things like water and shelter on Friday but this slipped over the weekend.

"These numbers are going to continue."

Read more: All the latest news from Kent

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No foreseeable end to the strain on Border Force - Kent Online

Mood of the nation: Majority believe Centre and states responsible for migrant crisis – India Today

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A majority of Indian citizens -- 43 per cent -- believe that both the central and state governments are responsible for the migrant crisis. This is according to the findings of August 2020 round of India Today Mood of the Nation Survey.

FULL RESULTS OF THE INDIA TODAY MOOD OF THE NATION AUGUST 2020

43 per cent of the 12,021 respondents surveyed in the MOTN poll said both the central and state governments were responsible for the mass exodus of migrant workers. Another 14 per cent blamed only the state governments for the migrant crisis, while 10 per cent pointed fingers at the Centre.

However, 13 per cent of the respondents feel it was the fault of employers of the migrant workers and labourers due to which they suffered. Meanwhile, 12 per cent put the blame on rumour and misinformation that the migrants 'fell prey to'.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's March 24 announcement stoked panic. Migrant workers everywhere began their long march home.

Migrants were walking thousands of kilometres on foot, with many hitch hiking on trucks or rode bicycles.

The Shramik special trains announced by the government finally came as a relief in May.

On June 6, the Railway Board said that 58 lakh migrant workers stranded across the country were ferried to their native places during the Covid-19 lockdown. The Indian Railways operated 4,286 Shramik special trains till June 6. Following which, the demand for the trains started to decrease. The government said that workers who were found walking on roads were provided with transportation to the nearest railway stations.

METHODOLOGY OF MOTN POLL

The India Today Mood of the Nation (MOTN) poll was conducted by Delhi-based market research agency between July 15, 2020 and July 27, 2020. This poll has traditionally been conducted using face-to-face interviewing method. However, in this edition of the survey, due to the unprecedented situation arising out of Covid-19 pandemic, all interviews were conducted telephonically using a standard structured questionnaire, which was translated into regional languages.

A total of 12,021 interviews were conducted-67 per cent in rural and 33 per cent in urban areas-spread across 97 parliamentary constituencies and 194 assembly constituencies in 19 states-Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Delhi, Gujarat, Haryana, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha, Punjab, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal. In each of the assembly constituencies, a fixed number of interviews were done.

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Mood of the nation: Majority believe Centre and states responsible for migrant crisis - India Today

The SWAN reports: Records of heroism by migrant workers – Frontline

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Sujit Kumar, a worker from Bihar stranded in Bathinda, Punjab, had not eaten in four days when a volunteer from Stranded Workers Action Network (SWAN) spoke with him on April 3.

Two tribal women from Jharkhand had been told they would be paid Rs.9,000 a month to work in an incense factory in Bengaluru. They were beaten up, paid Rs.200 and made to work for 15 hours a day. One woman was even raped inside the factory premises twice. Civil groups managed to rescue and secure their passage home.

Sanoj was part of a group of 15 people who had been living on the pavement post-lockdown. They had difficulty accessing food and received no help from the police in finding shelter. Fortunately, a SWAN volunteer chanced upon the group and helped it.

Several such stories of suffering and rescue have been chronicled by SWAN, a network of volunteers who banded together very quickly in the early days of the lockdown to help thousands of migrant workers in distress. The network has released reports with information and data that could prove valuable in shaping labour policies.

When Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a janata curfew on March 22 in a bid to curb the spread of COVID-19 infections, there was a hint that the country would soon have to enter a complete lockdown. However, the announcement shockingly came just three days later and the authorities gave a four-hour deadline to begin a complete shutdown.

It is well documented that millions of people were left confused. The working class was, and continues to be, among those worst affected by the lockdown. The country was witness to heart-wrenching images of men, women and children walking long distances to reach their villages, seeking food and shelter, with some dying en route.

At the time, the unfolding migrant worker tragedy had no impact on the Centre or the State governments. Until early May, little help was given. The failure of the state was so glaring that it was left to civil society organisations, trade unions and ordinary citizens to provide immediate help, even if it was something as minimal as giving just Rs.200 to buy groceries.

On March 27, under the banner of SWAN, a group of academics, social workers, students, union members and concerned citizens spread across the country and began helping workers from various States who were stranded, hungry and shelterless and in need of money to return to their villages.

Over two months, SWAN used an extensive web of humanitarian organisations, trade unions and social workers to help 35,000 migrant workers reach home. This was a drop in the ocean no doubt, given that lakhs of migrant workers were stranded all over the country.

But the point is not about numbers and how many lives were saved but how a group of empathetic and knowledgeable people came together to deploy an effective solution at a time when the government, with all its resources, did not get its act together and even refused to acknowledge the existence of such a crisis.

Furthermore, SWANs efforts were not limited to helping the migrant workers reach home. The data collected and analysed by a division of volunteers have been published as three comprehensive reports, which were released at intervals during the lockdown.

Each one is a substantial resource that provides moving accounts by migrants, insights into the crisis, and statistical and data analysis. The reports also include recommendations on handling such a crisis.

A disclaimer says that the exercise was never meant to be a research project but was only aimed at providing immediate help to those badly in need of it.

Yet, because the scale of the tragedy was staggering, the reports findings went a step beyond being just a record of the initial days of the lockdown.

The reports were deliberately published during the lockdown so that policy makers could take cognisance of the plight of migrant workers. Unfortunaley, they were not given much consideration.

Speaking to Frontline about SWANs genesis and its future plans, Bengaluru-based Rajendran Narayanan, one of the main convenors of SWAN and assistant professor at Azim Premji University, said that the entire operation was a collaborative effort by several organisations, collectives, students and even a few committed bureaucrats.

According to him, SWAN as an entity grew organically for a specific purpose for a specific period of time. Its journey began when Sanjay Sahni, a social worker with the Samaj Parivartan Shakti Sangathan (SPSS) in Muzaffarpur, Bihar, received distress calls during the early days of the lockdown from a group of 50 migrant workers from Bihar who were stranded in Mangaluru, Karnataka.

Sahni, who had worked with Narayanan, contacted him and sought his help.

A few well-wishers sent money to the workers so they could just subsistbuy food, medicines, recharge phones, etc. Word probably got around and soon calls were coming from various sources in different States. Sahni realised the scale was huge and very quickly a group of us realised we had to put together a system to address the crisis, said Narayanan.

According to him, the system was built on the concept of providing assistance by primarily linking stranded workers with local organisations.

Volunteers set up a helpline that took details of the callers problems. These would be verified by the local link, which would then provide help such as food and government facilities for shelter and later, journey home.

Each callers information was put on a spread sheet so that the network could track the person and ensure they were safe.

By March 30-April 1 we had a system in place. A team was looking into finances, another manning helplines, teams [were looking] into verification of information, logistics, technology, social media, etc. Volunteers worked on a shift system so that someone was available at all hours. It was a mind-numbing and emotional experience, said Narayanan.

He added: All of it was done purely on a voluntary basis. I tapped into the Azim Premji University alumni [network] for help and the response was amazing. SWAN had approximately 120 volunteers during the peak of the crisis.

Explaining the operation, Narayanan said that there were people working with SWAN in every troubled State. As the crisis grew, teams were responsible for zones across the country.

Yet, the reality was that cash in hand was the need of the hour. Reaching out to friends, work associates, anyone who would help, SWAN was able to collect funds that were distributed among stranded migrant workers, he said.

Responding to word-of-mouth appeals, people donated small and large amounts. The finance team provided directions to the donor on where to send the money; most of the time it was directly to the person in distress.

There were cases where the bank would charge a penalty as the account did not have the minimum balance; to reactivate it, an automatic debit would take place.

Over two months, we disbursed approximately Rs.50 lakh, which is a reasonable amount, said Narayanan.

SWANs reports include several letters to the Ministry of Home Affairs and the State governments of Maharashtra, Gujarat, Bihar, Tamil Nadu, and Uttar Pradesh, indicating its efforts to bring the crisis to the notice of the authorities. Other than Karnataka, the response from the States was poor. In fact, the Maharashtra government was particularly hostile, said Narayanan.

Narayanan, who is actively involved in the Right to Food and Right to Work campaigns, said that the lack of social protection measures and safety nets was glaring.

Interestingly, he said, poorer States such as Bihar and Odisha helped their people, while richer States such as Maharashtra and Gujarat shut their doors on those who kept their economies alive.

There are an estimated 10 crore migrant workers in the country, according to available data, although migrant workers do not enjoy formal recognition.

Also, the warehouses of the Food Corporation of India now have 2.5 times the buffer stock norms, and there is no reason why rations should not be universalised, Narayanan said.

According to him, it was a good time to empower the panchayat and form a federation at that level. They are the only ones who know how many members of the village have left and where the workers have gone. Unfortunately, the Central government has reduced federalism to monopolising decisions and socialising losses.

Anoushka Kale, a graduate from Azim Premji University and SWAN volunteer based in Pune, said that the experience was an eye-opener. She was fielding 30-40 calls a day in the early days of the crisis. The conversations were mostlyabout securing food. But I felt speaking to a person in distress humanised them. They may have been desperate but they spoke with dignity and respect.

The SWAN reports are small repositories of data and a documentation of the migrant crisis. Each one also provides a set of recommendations, including creating a safety net for migrant workers and specifics such as depositing Rs.7,000 into each workers accounts until they gain employment again.

The network released its first report, titled 21 Days and Counting: COVID-19 Lockdown, Migrant Workers, and the Inadequacy of Welfare Measures in India, on April 15.

In the introduction, the report said: The first three weeks of the lockdown have been utterly distressing for stranded workers and goes far beyond mere pareshaani as the PM put it. Despite the immense hardships that millions of stranded workers continue to endure, there was still no announcement on economic relief measures for them. Unless a combination of universal rations and money transfers are implemented in letter and spirit, India is staring at alarming levels of destitution and despair.

The first report deals largely with immediate problems such food and starvation issues. Here are some glimpses of data tabulated from the distress calls in the first report: 50 per cent of workers had rations left for less than one day; 96 per cent had not received rations from the government and 70 per cent had not received any cooked food; and 89 per cent had not been paid by their employers at all during the lockdown.

The numbers are alarming both in absolute and in relative terms. Half of those who have reached us would not be able to eat the next day without immediate intervention, the report said.

With 78 million tonnes of grains in FCI warehouses, its a now-or-never situation. Governments have had two weeks to ensure a robust ration supply network, doorstep delivery, etc., to reduce hunger. However, figures indicate very few have benefited even in the third week of lockdown.

The second report, titled 32 days and counting, is an extension of the first and was released on May 1. By then, SWAN had helped 16,863 people. The report describes the various appeals made to the establishment to release support, including a petition filed by SWAN in the Supreme Court. The petition was dismissed on the grounds that the Central governments programmes were adequately covering migrant distress.

The chapters titled Rate of hunger and distress exceeding the rate of ReliefOverview and Neither one nation nor one ration card, migrants fall between contain relevant and topical matter within the pandemic context.

Statistics in the second report showed that 32 days after the lockdown began, four out of five workers who reached out did not have access to government rations while 68 per cent did not have access to cooked food.

With no cash relief, 64 per cent of the migrant workers had less than Rs.100 left with them. With no change since April 14, about 78 per cent of people have Rs.300 or less left with them. As on April 26, only about 6 per cent of all those who have reached out to us have received their full wages during the lockdown. About 78 per cent have not been paid at all. More than 99 per cent of the self-employed have had no earnings during this period. These include street vendors and rickshaw pullers.

The third report, titled To leave or not to leave? Lockdown, migrant workers and their journeys home, looks at the fourth phase of the lockdown and gives detailed accounts of workers trying to get home.

The report said that 67 per cent (of 1,963) migrants were still in the same place when the lockdown was announced; only 33 per cent had left. Some 44 per cent of those who left took buses and 39 per cent managed to get on a Shramik Special train. About 11 per cent travelled by trucks, lorries and other such modes of transport, while 6 per cent made the perilous journey on foot.

The first-person accounts and case studies in this report are gripping. The stories speak of starvation, police brutality, physical abuse and government apathy, revealing the colossal tragedy of the migrant exodus.

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The SWAN reports: Records of heroism by migrant workers - Frontline

Asia-Pacific to bear the brunt of COVID-19 crisis, may see $31.4-54.3 billion remittance losses: ADB – The Financial Express

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Asia Pacific, which accounts for a third of the global migrant workforce, is likely to face remittance losses of USD 31.4-54.3 billion due to the coronavirus pandemic, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) said in a report.

The governments need to come up with policy measures to reduce the economic and social fallout arising out of it, the ADB said.

Job losses stemming from COVID-19 are hurting households around the world, but for Asia and the Pacifics 91 million migrant workers a third of the global migrant workforce the impacts will be particularly severe, the ADB said in August 2020 brief on COVID-19 Impact on International Migration, Remittances, and Recipient Households in Developing Asia.

ADB economists estimate that the region faces remittance losses ranging from USD 31.4 billion to USD 54.3 billion. To reduce the economic and social impacts, policy responses are proposed in areas such as social protection, immigration, labour, and health, it said.

In 2019, six of the 10 largest remittance recipients globally were from this region-India, China, the Philippines, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Vietnam, the Manila-headquartered multi-lateral funding agency said.

The countries likely to face more severe effects from the pandemic-induced decline in remittance inflows are the ones where remittance shares to gross domestic product (GDP) and per capita remittances are high.

These include Tonga, Samoa, and other Pacific countries, with remittances relative to the size of their economies and populations very high.

Central Asian countries such as Georgia, the Kyrgyz Republic, and Tajikistan, sending a large number of seasonal and long-term migrants mainly to the Russian Federation and Europe, will also be hard-hit, along with some of the major migrant origin countries such as Nepal and the Philippines, it added.

Remittances to Asia and the Pacific, amounting to USD 315 billion in 2019, are an important and stable source of income for families back home and help strengthen external financing alongside foreign direct investment and tourism recipients in many developing economies, said the report penned by four ADB economists.

They boost general consumption as well as investment and help sustain government debts by contributing to the foreign currency revenue base, said the economists.

Jobs and worker welfare are severely affected by the pandemic globally but some sectors are hurt more than others such as retail and wholesale trade, hospitality and recreation, manufacturing, and accommodation and food service sectors.

These are the sectors largely in non-essential services with frequent face-to-face interactions and the migrant and informal workers are among those facing the most severe impacts, as they often do not have regular contracts nor strong bargaining power, said the report.

Migrant workers are more vulnerable from layoffs once prolonged lockdowns and production breaks drive companies out of business. Also, uncertainty looms about the timing of full recovery, even as lockdowns are lifted, with concerns about persistent weak demand in some economic sectors.

The wide-scale economic cost of the COVID-19 pandemic is expected to reach between USD 5.8 trillion and USD 8.8 trillion globally, equivalent to 6.4 per cent to 9.7 per cent of global GDP, reflecting the spread of the pandemic to Europe, the United States, and other major economies, said the report.

The ADB said that employment in host economies of Asian migrants is contracting significantly.

The remittance flows to developing Asia is to plunge amid the pandemic as during the first months 2020, remittances began to contract in major migrant source countriesWhile some migrant workers may feel altruistic and send more money to their families in extremely difficult situations, prevailing weak economic forecasts are pointing toward declining remittances.

However, relative increase in remittance inflows is observed in June in selected countries which can be attributed to lifting of lockdowns in destinations that allowed migrants to remit over the counter and introduction of policy measures that incentivise transfer by reducing restrictions and transaction fees, the ADB said.

Citing a study of 10 migrant sending countries in Asia, the ADB said remittance dependent households are at risk of falling into poverty, as it is estimated that a 1 percentage increase in the share to GDP to remittances inflow from overseas is associated with a reduction in poverty gap by 22.6 per cent and poverty severity by 16 per cent.

A study based on microdata from selected economies in South Asia and Southeast Asia suggests that a 10 per cent increase in remittance inflows leads to a 3-4 per cent rise in real GDP per capita, it said.

Recommending policy actions to the host and source countries, ADB economists said governments of host countries of migrants need to ensure that migrant workers have access to social protection, including employment-related support and social assistance, as well as health services.

They should support employers to help retain and hire laid-off workers, including migrant workers.

Such effort contributes to the smooth recovery of the economy by ensuring workforce availability and the reduction of contagion risks, said the report.

Among others, the host and source countries should continue to recognise remittance service providers as one of the essential businesses to allow migrants and families to transact without disruption as remittance money is a lifeline for many poor and vulnerable families left behind.

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Asia-Pacific to bear the brunt of COVID-19 crisis, may see $31.4-54.3 billion remittance losses: ADB - The Financial Express

ICC, IOM Launch COVID-19 Guidance for the Protection of Migrants – World – ReliefWeb

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Geneva/ Paris - The International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) and the International Organization for Migration (IOM) this week are releasing employer guidance for measures to protect migrants during COVID-19.

Migrant workers are a crucial part of the global workforce, accounting for 3.5% of the worlds population, according to IOM. Worldwide, micro-, small-, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs), rely upon migrant workers, including sectors providing essential commodities and services, as well as industries hard-hit by COVID-19.

As the economic and human consequences of COVID-19 continue to shape local communities, businesses can play a decisive role in addressing the unique challenges faced by migrant workers.

Migrant workers are susceptible to job loss, salary cuts, and various health and safety concerns. Unlike local populations, migrant workers often are far from family support networks. They face language and/or cultural barriers and often lack social protection. Many suffer from discrimination. Meanwhile, overseas economies that rely on financial contributions from migrant workersespecially low- and middle-income countriesface a steep decline in cross-border remittances.

In response, ICC and IOM have published a set of guidelines for employers highlighting the private sectors role in addressing the specific challenges of migrant workers during the COVID-19 pandemic. The guidance includes a set of general principles for employerssuch as treating all workers with equality, dignity, and respectnotwithstanding their gender or migratory status. This guidance is presented in five categories: physical and mental health, living and working conditions, economic support, ethical recruitment and supply chain transparency.

COVID-19 has exposed and heightened existing inequalities within our global economic system, including the daily challenges faced by migrant workers around the world, said ICC Secretary General John W.H. Denton.

By establishing inclusive policy responses, businesses can assure the health, well-being, and safety of all employees, while at the same time, lay the foundations for a more resilient economic recovery, he added.

The ICC-IOM guidance document has been adapted from theIOMs COVID-19 guidance for employers and businesses to enhance migrant worker protection during the current health crisis and complements other ICC recommendations on health and safety measures for employees.

Migrant workers continue to be on the front lines of our collective response to the COVID-19 pandemic: not only as doctors, nurses and other health care professionals, but as the agricultural, transport and retail workers that keep our cities and towns functioning, said Marina Manke, Head of IOM Labour Mobility and Human Development Division.

Employers are in a unique position to ensure full protection for these workers both at the workplace and in their communities of operation and supply chains. We hope this guide will serve them well, she explained

ICC and its network of national committees are working with IOM to raise awareness of the specific needs and support measures for migrant workers during COVID19 among businesses in different regions. Most recently, IOM and ICC along with its regional offices in Argentina, Colombia, Guatemala, and Mexico hosted a webinar directed at employers in Latin America in Spanish.

Download the ICC-IOM Guidance on Protection for Migrant Workers during the COVID-19 Pandemic.

For more information, please contact:

IOM:Safa MsehliSpokespersonEmail: smsehli@iom.int Tel: +41794035526

ICC:Timothy ConleyGlobal Communications OfficerEmail: timothy.conley@iccwbo.org Tel: +336451282Daphne Yong d'HervDirector, Peace and Prosperity

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ICC, IOM Launch COVID-19 Guidance for the Protection of Migrants - World - ReliefWeb

Working at the forefront, scribes wish to be deemed warriors – The Tribune India

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Aparna Banerji

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, August 9

There is a journalist in the district who has attended 50 funerals of Covid victims. Then, there are photojournalists getting shots of people undergoing swab tests inside the Covid test centres even during the lockdown. They are vulnerable all along.

Recently, a 70-year-old photojournalist recently lost his life to the virus a few days ago. His nephew, also a photojournalist, tested positive. Meanwhile, after another media professionals wife succumbed, he was hounded in the name of isolation protocol.

Frontliners: This word says enough for itself nowadays. But after all, it is the actions what gives the word the essence. And journalists here have ticked all the boxes requisite of being considered among the likes of healthcare workers, police personnel, sanitation staff etc. Amid all the lashing of praise, the one community which has constantly been on the ground bringing the Covid updates in the district to the populace from the very first day has been desperately feeling excluded.

Positive persons looked upon as culprits

The mediapersons, like others, have suffered from the beginning. While it was in April that the first positive case surfaced, since then there has been a spate of cases among the group across various major publications. An organisation, which didnt wish to be named, revealed that a considerable number of employees were recorded positive. Following which, the main office of the said organisation remained closed for three weeks.

Allegations that biometric attendance was being held even during the pandemic have been denied by the organisation claiming it was unduly targeted. On the flip side, many of the hospitals, whose staff had tested positive, continued operations without facing sealing or suspension of work.

Refusing to be named, the authorities of a vernacular media organisation while speaking with The Tribune, said: We were stigmatised by the media itself and many put out articles ascribing things which didnt happen at the organisation. We were the prime target and at one point of time the coverage made it look as if we were responsible for the spread in Jalandhar. We had stopped biometric attendance well in time and employees were marking attendance with magnetic cards.

The contemporaries too werent spared. Following the lifting of curbs, police personnel, the DAC complex, health staff, ITBP and various other establishments and communities have taken turns emerging as the Covid hotspots.

Press-ing conferences?

Even during the thick of the lockdown, the tradition of press conferences and press meets never ceased in the district. The newspersons were exposed to the risk every time covering such meets. The declaration of the lockdown was announced by the then Jalandhar DC itself at a press meet, and was heavily attended by journalists. All political parties have also regularly been holding press meets. The threat looms large even as they indulge in covering events sporting masks, visiting high risk zones in face shields complimented with sanitisers.

Migrant crisis management

The lockdown affected the day-to-day life of the populace giving way to a huge migrant crisis and their long, taxing walk back home across the country being documented all the while. Jalandhar was no different.

The district also saw a huge migrant exodus with lakhs of factory and farm workers travelling back home to safety and food. And the journalists led from the front bringing to light their plights. Some even chased migrants on foot in the sweltering conditions and documented their overwhelming stories.

The numbers that one sees in the newspapers is not easily received. It is easier said than done. The district Health Department continues to share the daily round-up. However, neither the Health Department nor the public relations department ever reveal information about VIPs or prominent figures testing positive. This is usually leaked or received through sources. To add to work, consistent unresponsive numbers of some of key health officials proves another spring of consternation for the journalists.

In Jalandhar, the information mechanism also demands more work from us. Since all the health and administrational PR facilities close at 5 pm, journalists often have to scurry for information. The PR department isnt responsibly disseminating late night updates and information. It is their responsibility to do their job as we do ours, said Surinder Pal, president Print and Electronic Media Association Jalandhar, who himself tested positive and came out of isolation period on Thursday.

The information flow

The numbers that one sees in the newspapers is not easily received. The district Health Department continues to share the daily round-up. However, neither the Health Department nor the public relations department ever reveal information about VIPs or prominent figures testing positive. This is usually leaked or received through sources. To add to work, consistent unresponsive numbers of some of key health officials proves another spring of consternation

Unheard voices

After a recent death, it was claimed that a delay of seven days in results stalled the treatment of a deceased mediaperson. Another claim was that after his wifes death at a private hospital, it didnt allow her sample to be tested from a different lab. While risking their lives to bring truth to the public, some journalists faced social stigma when they themselves tested positive.

Kudos to portals

Apart from newspapers and journals, a steady stream of online portals kept the information flowing. The portals are often the first ones to anticipate the major breaks. These news are lapped up by citizens and also act as a source of information before newspapers hit the stands, Many of the employees, who quit various publications, opened their own portals. The online access of news through these plethora of online portals have also been the key source of information amid the lockdown when most of the people discontinued newspapers.

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Working at the forefront, scribes wish to be deemed warriors - The Tribune India

Virus-linked border moves raise fears on free travel in EU – The Republic

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BRUSSELS As European countries struggle to manage spikes in coronavirus cases, concern is mounting about a second wave of uncoordinated border restrictions within Europe that threatens the free movement of goods and people a foundation that the worlds biggest trading bloc is built on.

Despite repeated warnings about the dangers of unannounced checks, some countries have imposed new restrictions, or demanded that travelers quarantine, recalling the panic border closures after Europes first outbreak emerged in Italy in February, blocking traffic and medical equipment.

Beyond the economic impact of uncoordinated measures, experts fear that countries are becoming so used to lowering the gates at their frontiers as they see fit that the future of Europes ID-check free travel zone known as the Schengen area is in real peril.

In a letter to national governments, seen by The Associated Press, the European Commission warns that while we must ensure that the EU is ready for possible resurgences of COVID-19 cases we should at the same time avoid a second wave of uncoordinated actions at the internal borders of the EU.

The re-establishment of ineffective restrictions and internal border controls must be avoided. Rather, the response should be to have targeted, proportionate and coordinated measures, informed by scientific evidence, said the letter, sent to the 27 EU member countries and Britain.

Belgium where EU headquarters are based does not allow travel to some regions in Spain, notably Catalonia in the north, and also has bans on people coming from parts of France, Britain, Bulgaria, Croatia, Lithuania, Romania and Switzerland.

Scandinavian nations are notably quick to react to any rise in infection rates. Denmarks foreign ministry now has Spain, Bulgaria, Luxembourg, Romania and Andorra on its so-called red list. Norway, which is not an EU member but is part of the Schengen area, has not hesitated either.

Unfortunately, developments in several European countries are not moving in the right direction, Norwegian Foreign Minister Ine Eriksen Soereide said. She says that people arriving from France, Monaco, Switzerland and the Czech Republic must now self-quarantine for 10 days.

The use of compulsory COVID-19 testing is also growing. Germany is testing people arriving from high-risk areas, including parts of Bulgaria and Romania, which are EU partners but not members of the Schengen area. Greece and Italy are taking similar steps for the two countries.

But its the constant tinkering with travel restrictions that is of greatest concern. EU governments can impose border restrictions for reasons of public security including health concerns as they see fit. However, the measures should be targeted and limited in time, and governments should warn of their plans.

Since 2015, the Schengen rules have been routinely flouted, mostly due to distrust among European countries who doubted that their partners would do the right thing. First some countries relied on closures to help cope with the arrival of hundreds of thousands of migrants, many fleeing conflict in Syria or Iraq, seeking better lives in northern Europe. Some of those restrictions are still in place.

The big challenge to Schengen these days is the coronavirus pandemic.

Scenes of backed-up borders and checkpoints would have been unthinkable just five years ago. Yet today, the unilateral reintroduction of border checks and border closures has become an accepted part of member states toolkits to respond to cross-border emergencies, according to the Migration Policy Institute.

A side-effect of the virus border restrictions which might be welcomed by countries such as Austria, Denmark, Hungary or Poland that are still worried about migrant arrivals is that the number of people applying for asylum also plummeted.

The danger, the institute said, is that the instinct to return to national borders at times of crisis may only grow stronger, particularly as second or third waves of the virus necessitate the reintroduction of some level of travel restrictions.

Jan M. Olsen in Copenhagen contributed to this report.

Follow AP pandemic coverage at http://apnews.com/VirusOutbreak and https://apnews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak

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Virus-linked border moves raise fears on free travel in EU - The Republic

JCPenney, Pier 1 Imports, Chuck E. Cheese and 13 other chains that have filed for bankruptcy this year – PennLive

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In 2019, large companies like Forever 21, Avenue, Destination Maternity, Freds, Charming Charlie, Payless ShoeSource, Things Remembered, Charlotte Russe and Gymboree all filed for bankruptcy. And while Chapter 11 bankruptcy by itself doesnt mean that a company will close, many retailers do.

This year there has been no shortage of large chains filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy hoping to restructure without closing. And with the impact of COVID-19, it almost feels like every week if not more another major retailer or other major company files for bankruptcy.

Chapter 11 bankruptcy provides the businesses or large investors with protection from creditors while they continue operating and develop a repayment plan. Both creditors and owners must agree on a reorganization plan, which ultimately must be approved by a federal bankruptcy judge.

Here are 16 large companies, most of which have locations in the midstate that have filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy this year.

One of Destiny USA's original businesses that opened when Carousel Mall opened in October 1990. Justice opened in Carousel as Limited Too. The store is seen here in 2016. (Photo by Sarah Moses Buckshot, Syracuse.com)Sarah Moses Buckshot | syracuse.com

Ascena Retail Group - Ann Taylor, Catherines, Loft, Lane Bryant and Justice

On July 23, the Ascena Retail Group, the owner of Ann Taylor, Catherines, Loft, Lane Bryant, Justice and Lou & Grey, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Virginia. The company also owned the Dress Barn and closed all of the Dress Barn stores last year. In July, the company said it would reduce its footprint with the closing of a significant number of Justice stores and a select number of Ann Taylor, Loft, Lane Bryant and Lou & Grey stores including the exit of all stores across brands in Canada, Puerto Rico and Mexico and the closure of all Catherines stores.

And among the closings in the midstate for girls clothing retailer, Justice include store closures at the Capital City Mall in Lower Allen Township; The Outlet Shoppes at Gettysburg in Mount Joy Township, Adams County; the Park City Center in Lancaster; at Tanger Outlets Lancaster in East Lampeter Township, Lancaster County and at 2819 Concord Road in Springettsbury Township, York County, according to USA Today. The Justice store at Tanger Outlets Hershey will remain open.

The only Catherines store in the midstate is located at the Paxton Towne Centre at 5125 Jonestown Road in Lower Paxton Township. There are also stores in the Easton, Monroeville, Pottstown, Springfield, Whitehall and Wilkes-Barre areas as well as three in the Pittsburgh area. Those stores are all closing.

Ann Taylor has 13 stores in Pennsylvania, six of which are factory stores including stores in the Hershey and Lancaster areas.

Loft has 35 stores in Pennsylvania including stores in the Harrisburg, Lancaster and York area. Of the 35 stores, eight are factory stores including stores in the Hershey and Lancaster areas.

There are Lane Bryant stores in the Harrisburg, Hershey, Mechanicsburg, York, Lancaster and Gettysburg areas.

These Lane Bryant stores in Pennsylvania are closing, according to the USA Today.

The New York & Company store at the Destiny USA mall in Syracuse is closing after the clothing retailer filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection July 13, 2020. (Rick Moriarty | rmoriarty@syracuse.com)Rick Moriarty | rmoriarty@syracuse.com

Retailwinds - New York & Company

On July 13, Retailwinds, the owner of New York & Company, Fashion to Figure, and Happy x Nature, filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of New Jersey. The Company will close all of its stores, according to Footwearnews.com. New York & Company stores at the Harrisburg Mall in Swatara Township, the Capital City Mall in Lower Allen Township and at the Shoppes at Susquehanna Marketplace in Susquehanna Township are the stores the company has in the Harrisburg area.

In this Aug. 4, 2011, file photo, a man passes a Brooks Brothers store on Church Street in New York's financial district. The 200-year-old fashion retailer that says it's put 40 U.S. presidents in its suits, is filing for bankruptcy protection on Wednesday, July 8, 2020. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan, File)AP

Brooks Brothers

Last month, Brooks Brothers filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy, according to Market Watch. The company said it would close about 51 stores. Locations were not announced, but most of the closures have reportedly already begun with inventory moving from targeted stores to distribution centers; eight stores were permanently closed last month, including in NYC, Boston and Washington, D.C., according to Business Insider. Brooks Brothers has more than 500 stores worldwide and 4,025 employees, including an outlet store at Tanger Outlets Lancaster. The Brooks Brothers store at the Outlet Shoppes at Gettysburg has permanently closed, according to the company website.

GNC (Shutterstock)

GNC

GNC filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on June 23. Over the past year, GNC has been closing underperforming stores. GNC expects to accelerate the closure of at least 800 to 1,200 stores. As of March 31, 2020, GNC had approximately 7,300 locations, of which approximately 5,200 retail locations are in the United States (including approximately 1,600 Rite Aid store-within-a-store locations).

The stores that GNC has announced that it is closing in Pennsylvania include:

Tuesday Morning opened in June, 2019 at 5098 Jonestown Road in the Colonial Commons shopping center. Businesses along Jonestown Road/Allentown Boulevard.July 24, 2019. Dan Gleiter | dgleiter@pennlive.com

Tuesday Morning

Discount retailer, Tuesday Morning filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in May and blamed it on COVID-19.

The prolonged and unexpected closures of our stores in response to COVID-19 has had severe consequences on our business, CEO Steve Becker said in a statement.

The company at the time said it expected to permanently shutter 230 of its 687 locations and said it would be closing underperforming stores over the summer. The stores to close include those at the Carpet Mart Plaza in Hampden Township and Colonial Commons shopping center in Lower Paxton Township, according to a list published by CNBC. Tuesday Morning stores in other parts of Pa. are also on the list, including Wilkes-Barre, Pittsburgh and Quakertown.

The JCPenney at Capital City Mall in Camp Hill, PA on June 12, 2020.Dan Gleiter | dgleiter@pennlive.com

JCPenney

JCPenney filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in May. The company said at the time it expected to close 192 locations by February 2021 and 50 more would close in its 2022 fiscal year. In June it announced the locations of 151 of those stores including four in Pennsylvania:

Star-Ledger photo by (Jerry McCrea) Short Hills 6-20-95) The Neiman Marcus logo on the exterior wall of the store in Short Hills. Jerry McCrea

Neiman Marcus

Luxury retailer, Neiman Marcus filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in May. The retailer has commenced voluntary Chapter 11 proceedings in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas in the Houston division. The company will continue operations and says it expects to emerge from the bankruptcy process in the early fall. There is a Neiman Marcus store at the King of Prussia Mall.

A woman walks past a J. Crew retail store in Baltimore in 2013. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)

J. Crew

J. Crew filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy in May.

Modell's Sporting Goods (Photo by Michael Mancuso, NJ.com)TT Michael Mancuso | For NJ.com

Modells Sporting Goods

Modells Sporting Goods filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy protection in March and said it was closing all of it stores, according to Bloomberg. The family-owned business chain had 153 stores in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia and Washington D.C., according to a report by Bloomberg.

Loves Furniture Inc. announced they have acquired the inventory and assets of 27 former Art Van Furniture, Levin Furniture and Wolf Furniture stores in five states, 17 of which are in Michigan. (MLive file photo)Sarahbeth Maney | MLive.com

Art Van Furniture/Wolf Furniture

AVF Holdings Inc. announced in March that it had made the decision to wind down operations and begin liquidation sales at all of its company owned stores in Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, Missouri, and Ohio. The company operates under the brands Art Van Furniture, Art Van PureSleep and Scott Shuptrine Interiors. The company announced on March 6 that Levin Furniture and Wolf Furniture in Ohio and Pennsylvania would be sold to Robert Levin, pending court approval. Eight Wolf Furniture stores in Maryland and Virginia would also be liquidated. Two weeks later Art Van Furniture said it would not sell the eight stores to Robert Levin. In July Robert Levin announced that Levin Furniture would reopen 17 stores in Pittsburgh and Cleveland.

Pier 1 Imports is closing its store in Camp Hill. (Daniel Urie, PennLive)

Pier 1 Imports

Pier 1 Imports announced in February that it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and announced it was closing more than 400 stores including its store on Jonestown Road in Lower Paxton Township. But, in May it announced it was closing its remaining 540 stores including its store in Camp Hill.

Gold's Gym at Phillipsburg Mall announced Monday, Sept. 30, 2019 it would be closing its doors for good. It encouraged members to go to the franchise's Hackettstown location. (Pamela Sroka-Holzmann, Lehighvalleylive.com)

Golds Gym

Golds Gym announced in May that it was filing for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy and said it would close about 30 company owned stores. None of the company-owned stores are in Pennsylvania, Adam Zeitsiff, president and CEO of Golds Gym confirmed to PennLive in June.

JoS. A. Bank location in Arborland Center at 3783 Washtenaw Avenue (MLive file photo)AnnArbor.com

Tailored Brands - Mens Wearhouse, Jos. A. Bank, Moores Clothing for Men and K&G

Tailored Brands filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on August 2. In July it said it would close more than 500 stores. As of Aug. 3, the company had announced only one store closing in Pennsylvania, a Jos. A. Bank store in Philadelphia, according to USA Today.

A Wendy's fast food restaurant opened on July 1, 2020, in Palmer Township near the Route 33 interchange. (Rudy Miller, Lehighvalleylive.com)Rudy Miller | For lehighvalleylive.com

NPC International - owner of hundreds of Wendys and Pizza Hut franchises

This summer, Kansas-based NPC International, which owns hundreds of Pizza Hut and Wendys franchises, including numerous Wendys locations in the Harrisburg area, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The company has 39 Wendys location within 40 miles of Harrisburg, including multiple locations on the East shore and the West Shore, according to its website. NPC currently operates more than 1,225 Pizza Hut units in 27 states and more than 385 Wendys units in eight states.

JOHN C. WHITEHEAD/The Patriot-News THE PATRIOT-NEWSTHE PATRIOT-NEWS

Chuck E. Cheese

CEC Entertainment, the parent company of Chuck E. Cheese and Peter Piper Pizza filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on June 24. As of that date there were 266 company-operated Chuck E Cheese and Peter Piper Pizza restaurant and arcade venues.

In this Friday, Dec. 7, 2018, photo, a Hertz "Fast Lane" sign directs rental car drivers to a biometric scanning machine at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Jeff Martin)AP

Hertz

Hertz Global Holdings Inc. filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on May 22.

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JCPenney, Pier 1 Imports, Chuck E. Cheese and 13 other chains that have filed for bankruptcy this year - PennLive

Fewer Wisconsin Farms Filed For Bankruptcy During the Height Of The Pandemic – Wisconsin Public Radio News

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Fewer Wisconsin farms filed for bankruptcy this spring, despite low commodity prices and supply chain problems caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Over the last year, both of the state's federal court districts had more Chapter 12 bankruptcies, which are used by family farmers or fishermen, compared tothe same period in 2019.

There were 45 Chapter 12 filings in the Western District of Wisconsin during the 12-month period ending June 30. Thats up from the same period last year, when 32 farms filed for bankruptcy.

In the Eastern District, there were 24filings over the last year, compared to 13 filings in 2019.

But the number of farm bankruptcies filed during the second quarter of 2020 was lower than the same period last year, following a national trend.

The data shows the Western District had 7 Chapter 12 filings during the second quarter, compared to 10 filings in spring 2019.Only one farm filed for bankruptcy in the Eastern District during the quarter, down from five Chapter 12 filings last year.

Christopher Seelen is an attorney based in Eau Claire who represents creditors in bankruptcy court. Hesaid Gov. Tony Evers 60-day moratorium on new foreclosures allowed some farms to put off filing for Chapter 12 bankruptcy, which is used to restructure debts.

He said some farms also received an influx of cash from the federal governments coronavirus relief programs.

"In general during the lockdown, I think people were less interested in leaving their houses and visiting an attorney. And some of the bankruptcy firms werent taking in-person meetings anyway,"Seelen said. "I think the lenders were doing their best to work with debtors in these unprecedented times to try to forbear and help the farmers along as best they could. But at some point, all of those things are going to come to an end."

Seelen said many bankruptcy attorneys are preparing for a spike in filings at the end of this year, both from farms that put off filingearlier in the year and new farms struggling under continued low commodity prices.

He points out that the Western District of Wisconsin has had some of the highest numbers of farm bankruptcies in the country for several years.

"When youve had that many farm bankruptcies, it's difficult to think that they would increase beyond that," Seelen said."But certainly theyre going to be steady and if they do increase a little bit over the last 6 months, I think you're catching those farmers that maybe didn't have to file 6 months ago."

Seelen cautions that looking at bankruptcy numbers is only one part of the farm sector thats struggling.

"Chapter 12 is only for those farmers that want to try to continue with their business, try to reorganize," he said. "Certainly, there's probably a lot more farmers that just file the Chapter 7 liquidation bankruptcy or maybe just threw the keys and the equipment and the cattle back to the lender and just walked away."

Steve Deller, agricultural and applied economics professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said he agrees that the high number of Chapter 12 filings will likely continue this year.

But he said many farms were in a better financial position before the pandemic because of price improvements at the end of 2019.

"If (the pandemic) had hit two years ago, I think we would see a lot higher farm bankruptcy rates. But we did have a short period of recovery, taking some of the pressure off of farms,"Deller said.

He said farms continue to make a choice between increasing production to minimize cost or choosing to down-size to smaller markets.

"Farmers are making the decision that at this kind of middle-size operation, we can't really make a go of it,"Deller said. "Either we keep farming and we have to go bigger or we kind of shift and go a little bit smaller to cut our costs. Were still in farming but that's not our primary source of family income."

Deller said the pandemic has brought more attention to the countrys reliance on large farms and processors, especially in the meat industry. He said there could be new opportunities to grow local meat processing capacity for small farms in response.

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Fewer Wisconsin Farms Filed For Bankruptcy During the Height Of The Pandemic - Wisconsin Public Radio News

Fashion World Slammed By Retail Bankruptcies – MMG Explains The Process – Forbes

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British actor Laurence Olivier and American Dustin Hoffman on the set of Marathon Man, directed by ... [+] John Schlesinger. (Photo by Paramount Pictures/Sunset Boulevard/Corbis via Getty Images)

The coach said no-pain no-gain, which aligns with the current thinking on Fashion Avenue these days. Announcements of retail bankruptcies pop up daily - there is little explanation, and no end in sight.

To experience financial pain without a proper coach is not advisable. Solid planning and strategy help navigate the issues of the moment and they also align your business to a better path. Enter New Yorks prestigious consulting firm MMG Advisors, one of the industrys premier sources for intelligent financial information during these difficult times for fashion brands and retailers.

Truth be told, when discussing the word uncomfortable, dental chairs in Manhattans garment district know the secrets. Perhaps it is the threat of pain that encourages patients to spill proprietary beans, when the dentist says: Hows your retail business - are you safe from bankruptcy?

Hoping that you have chosen the right path for your issue of the moment; attention turns to the dentist. I understand that you are here for a routine exam, but there is a problem. Your tooth is cracked. We should yank that tooth. You will wait a few weeks, there will probably be a bone graft, and then an implant. Are you ready?

As the words spill from the dentists lips, fear turns to horror. Your stomach churns, you are immediately spun into a new and confusing web when ironic as it may seem, all you wanted was an dental exam and a cleaning. Strange thoughts circulate. A vision of Dustin Hoffman suddenly appears in the dental chair (Marathon Man?) How will this end? Can the dentist be trusted? How did I get in this situation in the first place?

Eventually, the vision clears, fear subsides, and the conversation turns back to getting proper advice. The dental experience parallels the complex web of bankruptcy. To avoid unnecessary pain, it is best to work with experts like the fashion industrys 30-year old investment bank, MMG Advisors. Truth be told, MMG knows, understands, and has experienced all types of financial issues, and they work with clients to anticipate appropriate steps - so that all the parties can navigate this difficult terrain. MMG, like the dental chair, hears the industry secrets.

Led by former retail executives with decades of combined operational experience, MMG Advisors understands how to leverage consolidation opportunities. The team finds solutions for companies requiring either an in-court or out-of-court process whether for M&A or for raising capital. Bankruptcy for any retailer may not be the only solution in todays complex world, but in our COVID-19 environment, it has become the fashionable way to ease the pain.

MMG Managing Director Mary Ann Domuracki indicates that (as a process) developing a restructuring plan requires careful up-front consideration from experienced people who understand the wide spectrum of potential business solutions. Not everyone needs to file for bankruptcy. When advisers are allowed into the picture, they challenge the viewpoints of the client and work to build consensus. Companies experience a full range of available options even before a bankruptcy filing is put on the table.

From a retail perspective, in COVID-19 world, the cash crunch has become overwhelming. There are several reasons that a retailer (or a brand) feels the summer heat, and bankruptcy is looking (more and more) like a viable option. Perhaps there is too much debt, or too many store leases, or vendors are not being paid. Perhaps consumer habits have changed, or maybe there is litigation that didnt transact as planned. Whatever the case, at some point its time to call in industry experts for technical advice and for problem solving.

For any remaining retail doubters (that are just tuning in to the crisis), the bankruptcy list keeps getting longer and longer. Some of the notables are: Brooks Brothers, Lord & Taylor, Mens Warehouse, Jos. A. Banks (Tailored Brands), Lucky Brand, Neiman Marcus. J.Crew, J.C. Penney, Stage Stores SSI , Modells, Ann Taylor (Ascena), Sur La Table, J.Hilburn, GNC, True Religion, John Varvatos, and Chuck E. Cheese.

MMG explains that while Chapter 11 is not the only solution, its utilization potentially ensures that a companys creditors and stakeholders will recover their maximum value (whatever that might be). The filing is very public - as it runs through the bankruptcy court docket system. Information is exposed to scrutiny, and company secrets are laid bare for all to see. MMGs Mary Ann Domuracki also explains that, if the process is not handled properly, bankruptcy can result in owners losing control of their company, or losing control of the very outcome they seek.

The first question MMG Advisors will ask is: What solutions exist for the business? The next step is to identify what the core business would look like after the process completes. A retailer may want to cut stores, or a brand may want to discontinue some fashion lines. Whatever the change, the process starts with a plan. The team then works towards achieving consensus among the parties, since everyone involved loses some value from the original company.

If the business decides to file, they will approach the court with a plan detailing how they plan to operate, whether they need to liquidate assets or, (sadly) whether they can exist at all. The earlier that a plan is filed, the less costly for all concerned. The longer it takes, the harder it is to finish the deal. In the case of J.Hilburn (which was advised by MMG), they filed a reorganization plan on the first day in court. Their plan included their lenders, vendors, unsecured creditors, and equity holders and it allowed J.Hilburn to exit Chapter 11 in only 60 days.

When contemplating a Chapter 11, the choice exists to utilize section 363 of the bankruptcy code - which is a more common and faster method, allowing the company to sell assets in Chapter 11 with notice to potential buyers. There is a timeline, and the process could complete within 60 days (like J.Hilburn). In the absence of an upfront agreement, the bankruptcy could take 12 months to resolve.

Chapter 11 is generally referred to as reorganization bankruptcy. The company will be restructured, and it gets to live another day. Chapter 7 of the code is liquidation bankruptcy, and assets are sold to satisfy as many creditors as possible. The company name could potentially live past the bankruptcy - simply as an asset that has been transferred, but the core business is completely dissolved.

The speed of the bankruptcy is accelerated when there is a likely buyer or stalking horse engaged in the process. The potential buyer prepares an Asset Purchasing Agreement (APA) that is given to the court at the beginning of the proceedings. The bid from the stalking horse sets the floor for the asset bidding. An auction is held, others can bid against the stalking horse, and the court generally approves the outcome of that auction.

Allan Ellinger, co-founder and Senior Managing Partner of MMG Advisors, indicated: One of the benefits of Chapter 11 bankruptcy is that it draws a line in the sand, a line that insulates the new owners from any pre-bankruptcy liabilities that the new owner does not want to assume. This is a key component of the procedure, and one of the reasons that bankruptcy is becoming such a powerful resolution tool in this difficult retail environment.

During bankruptcy, the Company directors and officers maintain a fiduciary responsibility to protect the creditors and shareholders. Typically, the creditors will form an unsecured committee of volunteers who then approve (or disapprove) all the key steps. The committee is public, has an attorney, an accountant, and sometimes even a financial advisor. When Chapter 11 is filed, the company is finally free of liens and will exist as an ongoing operation.

In Americas COVID-19 economy, the restructuring process has become a bit more complex. Companies planning to file now have to deal with stores and offices that may not be open, find records that may not be available, and deal with people who may not be working. All this complicates an already difficult situation.

Eventually, the fashion industry will look back on these strange times and wonder how everything finally got resolved. While the federal government has helped employees during the COVID-19 crisis, they have left most employers to fend for themselves. With federal aid lacking, many credit markets have run completely dry, and several of todays prominent retailers have been forced to take matters into their own hands. Some have chosen to sell assets, some have pared back staff, and others hold open the option of bankruptcy which would (in most cases) allow them to start over with a clean slate.

The fashion industry is working really hard to survive these difficult times. COVID-19 is challenging the industry, and forcing retailers to face situations that they have never experienced before. Proper guidance is welcome, and looking at next steps, it is helpful to summon the sage wisdom of Warren Buffet who said:

In a chronically leaking boat, energy devoted to changing vessels is more productive than energy devoted to patching leaks.

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Fashion World Slammed By Retail Bankruptcies - MMG Explains The Process - Forbes

Senate Bill Proposes To Expand Paycheck Protection Program To Businesses In BankruptcyBut With A Significant Catch – JD Supra

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Late last month, Senators Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and Susan Collins (R-Maine) introduced Senate Bill 4321 (S-4321), titled Continuing Small Business Recovery and Paycheck Protection Program Act (Bankruptcy Access Bill), which, if enacted, would permit businesses in bankruptcy to qualify for Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans. Unfortunately, as currently drafted, the Bankruptcy Access Bill appears to be of limited practical use, since participation in the PPP by debtors in bankruptcy would be subject to the Small Business Administrations (SBA) acceptance of their PPP loan applications, which is far from likely.

The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act) created the PPP under Section 7(a) of the Small Business Act, which authorizes the SBA to guarantee loans to qualified small businesses, with the goal of helping them keep their employees working during the pandemic. While the CARES Act eliminated for the PPP the 7(a) loan requirement that a business demonstrate it was unable to obtain credit from commercial sources, in favor of a good-faith representation that the current economic uncertainty makes the PPP loan request necessary to support its ongoing operations absent statutory direction to the contrary, the SBA treated the PPP like any other 7(a) loan by requiring an applicant to not be presently involved in any bankruptcy (Bankruptcy Exclusion). In support of the Bankruptcy Exclusion, the SBA argues that permitting debtors in bankruptcy to qualify for PPP loans would create unnecessary risk, which would limit the salability of PPP loans on the secondary market. This argument is significantly undercut given that, as created, PPP loans are to be forgiven to the extent the loan proceeds are used to pay payroll and other operating expenses of the business. Indeed, when the $350 billion PPP was created, it was thought that more than half of the aggregate principal amount of all PPP loans would be forgiven. Recent statutory changes to the PPP are likely to result in a greater percentage of the now $660 billion PPP being forgiven.

The Bankruptcy Access Bill was likely precipitated, at least in part, by the entry of numerous conflicting court orders regarding the enforceability of the Bankruptcy Exclusion. (See our related alert here.)

In an attempt to eliminate the above-mentioned confusion, the Bankruptcy Access Bill would amend the Bankruptcy Code to expressly authorize bankruptcy courts to allow debtors to obtain PPP loans. Specifically, a new provision, Subsection (g) of 11 U.S.C. 364, would provide that bankruptcy courts,

after notice and a hearing, may authorize a debtor in possession or a trustee that is authorized to operate the business to obtain a [PPP loan], and such loan shall be treated as a debt to the extent the loan is not forgiven, with priority [over administrative claims].

If the PPP loan is not entirely forgiven, the Bankruptcy Access Bill would grant the remaining principal amount of the PPP loan super-priority administrative claim status and thereby place the remaining PPP loan ahead of the claims of most unsecured creditors, including any other administrative claims.

Unfortunately, the foregoing Bankruptcy Code amendments would not be effective on enactment of the Bankruptcy Access Bill. Rather, the effectiveness of the Bankruptcy Code amendments would be entirely contingent on the SBAs agreement to process such PPP loan applications. In other words, the availability of PPP funds to bankruptcy debtors hinges on the cooperation of the very entity that created and has sought to enforce the Bankruptcy Exclusion.

It is not clear why the SBA would favor the potential marketability of PPP loans to third-party investors over the need of small businesses to gain access to funds to keep their employees employed and the business operating during this severe economic dislocation. Indeed, it can be argued that debtors in bankruptcy, particularly those seeking bankruptcy protection during the pandemic, would have a greater need than other qualified small businesses for the PPP, and the oversight of the bankruptcy court and the bankruptcy trustee would ensure proper use of PPP proceeds to keep the business operating and the employees on the jobthe principal goal of the PPP in the first instance.

While debtors may view the Bankruptcy Access Bill with a sense of optimism, the bill falls short of its lofty goals of expanding PPP access to bankruptcy debtors. As the SBA has spent the better part of four months seeking to enforce the Bankruptcy Exclusion in courts across the country, it is uncertain whether the SBA will soften its stance and accept PPP loan applications from debtors were the bill to be enacted. At a minimum, passage of the bill would telegraph to the SBA Congresss express intent to permit bankruptcy debtors to benefit from the PPP. However, desperate times call for bold action. The Bankruptcy Access Bill would be more effective were the bill to side with the needs of struggling businesses over those of the fledging secondary trading market for PPP loans by eliminating the SBAs buy-in requirement and instead instructing the SBA to accept PPP loan applications from bankruptcy debtors.

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Senate Bill Proposes To Expand Paycheck Protection Program To Businesses In BankruptcyBut With A Significant Catch - JD Supra

Wave of retail bankruptcies may sink landlords – BetaBoston

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As bankrupt firms like J.C. Penney and Brooks Brothers look to jettison leases, landlords are already feeling the consequences. CBL & Associates Properties Inc., owner of more than 100 shopping centers in the United States, is preparing its own bankruptcy filing after rent collections cratered. And 16 percent of retail property loans bundled into CMBS were delinquent in July, according to research firm Trepp.

At least 25 major retailers have filed for bankruptcy this year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

The most recent additions include Tailored Brands Inc., owner of Mens Wearhouse and Jos. A. Bank, which is seeking to close about a third of its more than 1,200 stores, and Lord & Taylor parent company Le Tote, which said it could shut down all of the department stores remaining locations.

Its economical, its efficient, and it allows retailers to rationalize their footprint quickly, said Fred Ringel, co-chair of the business finance and restructuring practice at the law firm Robinson Brog Leinwand Greene Genovese & Gluck P.C. Ringel, who works for landlords, said hes busier than ever renegotiating leases and in some cases persuading tenants to forgo cancellations and stay under modified terms.

Take vitamin retailer GNC Holdings Inc. It operates hundreds of stores across the country, mostly in strip malls. Since filing for bankruptcy in June, GNC has asked to reject at least 500 leases, along with more than 50 franchise agreements and subleases, according to court records.

Meanwhile, CEC Entertainment Inc., the parent company of Chuck E. Cheese, is negotiating with its landlords after its June bankruptcy filing. It won court approval this week to defer rent payments as it evaluates which locations it wants to keep open.

And the US unit of Spanish retailer Desigual said it was forced to file after struggling to get rent abatements from its landlords. Unfortunately, DUSA had little success in getting landlords to realize the new reality that most tenants especially those in retail cannot afford to pay pre-COVID-19 rent, a representative for the firm said in court papers.

Landlords, in turn, have their own mortgages to worry about, which were also underwritten with pre-pandemic assumptions about rent collections. Amid the stress, Barry Sternlichts Starwood Capital Group missed payments on securitized debt linked to five shopping malls, and Saks owner Hudsons Bay Co. also skipped interest due on certain CMBS. Delinquencies on retail mortgages bundled into bonds climbed to 16 percent in July, from 3.8 percent in January, according to Trepp.

Some retailers can work out rent abatements and other lease modifications including terminations without filing for bankruptcy.

However, negotiating hundreds of deals outside of a court process can be challenging, especially for big retail chains that may have hundreds of landlords to deal with, said Navin Nagrani, an executive vice president at Hilco Real Estate.

Bankruptcy flips the power from landlords to tenants. Retailers can legally reject a swath of leases in court, sometimes leaving building owners to collect just pennies on the dollar.

Firms can also sell off favorable contracts to other parties to help repay creditors.

Sometimes a bankruptcy is the most advantageous way to get out of those leases, Nagrani said.

As many as 25,000 stores are expected to close in the US in 2020, mostly in shopping malls, according to Coresight Research. Department stores and fashion boutiques are seen as the most endangered.

More than half of mall department stores could close for good by the end of 2021, according to an April report from real estate research firm Green Street Advisors. J.C. Penney said last month that it would shutter more than 150 locations, while Neiman Marcus plans to pull out of New Yorks Hudson Yards development and close three other US locations.

The closures so far are just the tip of the iceberg, said Garrick Brown, head of Americas retail research for Cushman & Wakefield. Over the next two years, at least 1.2 billion of square feet 10 percent of already-occupied store real estate will go vacant, he said. Worst-case scenario, that could double.

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Wave of retail bankruptcies may sink landlords - BetaBoston

Here comes the next wave of chain bankruptcies – Restaurant Business Online

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Last week, California Pizza Kitchen declared bankruptcy, and in the process revealed that it hadnt paid most of its leases, or interest payments, for four months and still lost a ton of money.

And on Monday, Matchbox Food Group filed for debt protection and made it known it wants better deals from its landlords or it would use the bankruptcy process to close some of its 12 restaurants.

Oncoming lease negotiations between restaurant chains and landlords represent the next major hurdle in the industry. Chains, particularly those owned by private equity groups and other investors, could end up filing for bankruptcy in considerable numbers in the coming months as they look at close locations.

To be sure, a lot of the restaurant chains currently struggling to pay off leases also happen to have private equity sponsors and, not coincidentally, a lot of debt.

Private equity groups frequently take risky financial strategies. The coronavirus has exposed that risk for a lot of them, putting chains that might have weathered the storm into bankruptcy, like, say, CEC Entertainment or the aforementioned California Pizza Kitchen, or CPK.

Still, the relationship between restaurants and landlords has become a major focal point during the pandemic.

When states began shutting down dine-in service in March, many expected a rash of bankruptcies as companies, with a fraction of their pre-coronavirus revenues, were unable to make rent or debt payments.

They frequently received breaks from both landlords and lenders, which has helped keep many companies out of bankruptcy. Of course, some bigger chains like The Cheesecake Factory and then Starbucks forced the issue, but for the most part companies were willing to work together.

But that only goes so far, and landlords in particular have bills of their own to pay. Ultimately, leases come due, and restaurants have to think hard about their locations. Thats setting up a situation in which many companies have to get out of leases.

Theres going to be a bloodbath, Aziz Hashim, chairman of Ruby Tuesday owner NRD Capital, told me back in May. His own chain has sped its closing timeline.

The problem is most acute with casual dining restaurants, which rely most heavily on in-restaurant dining and beverage service. In most of the country, such restaurants are at 50% capacity at best, and while they can add outdoor seating thats not always available or convenient, depending on the location.

Yet some fast-casual chains are in the same situation. As we reported last month, Potbelly told landlords for 100 locations it wants to close that it could file for bankruptcy if enough of them refused to buy out their leases.

Edwin Sheridan, a board member at Matchbox, basically told landlords in the companys announcement of its bankruptcy filing on Monday that if they didnt give out better terms the chain would close some of its units.

We aim to work with the landlords for each of our locations to find agreeable terms that will allow us to keep our restaurants open and continuing serving our customers, Sheridan said. If that is not possible, we will be forced to close locations.

California Pizza Kitchen also suggested that it has been negotiating with landlords. But it also has a heavy debt load and has struggled to generate cash going into the pandemic.

The casual dining pizza chain operated with more than $400 million in debt. The company said in a bankruptcy filing it has faced a liquidity crunch for the past two years. It was also looking for a buyer.

COVID-19 interrupted the sale process, sales plunged, and the company lost money. While CPK generated cash in June, even with same-store sales down 40%, it still generated a cash-flow deficit of negative $18.9 million between March and June, despite not having paid any interest on prepetition debt or rent on the majority of the restaurant portfolio.

To weather the current environment, the company said, it needed cash and a marked adjustment to its operations.

CPK has worked with Hilco Real Estate to negotiate with landlords and has received some $6.1 million in concessions over the next three years. However, the company is still on a path to right-sizing its lease footprint and is still in negotiations.

California Pizza Kitchen is certainly not the last bankruptcy, either. One name to watch: Red Lobster.

In March, Moodys Investors Service downgraded Red Lobsters credit rating, citing material deterioration in its earnings and credit metrics. Last week, Debtwire reported that the company hired an advisor to explore strategic alternatives.

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Here comes the next wave of chain bankruptcies - Restaurant Business Online

Experts: Wave of bankruptcies likely in S.D. as pandemic stifles incomes and aid runs out – KELOLAND.com

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The COVID-19 pandemic and the economic hardships it is causing will likely result in a wave of personal, farm and small-business bankruptcies in South Dakota and beyond in the coming months that will be both a result and a cause of a wider economic crisis spurred by the coronavirus.

So far, federal aid and unemployment programs, and several months of restricted access to the court system, have delayed a rise in bankruptcies from showing up in court filings.

But increased rates of unemployment, reduced incomes of people at all levels of the economy and a coming debt crisis will all play a role in the anticipated bankruptcy storm that could affect a wide range of individuals and businesses, including people who long saw themselves as financially stable, said Breck Miller, community relations director for Lutheran Social Services Center for Financial Resources in Sioux Falls.

It would not surprise me at all if we do see an increase in the number of bankruptcy filings, Miller said. The pandemic really put a lot of people in a financial bind, and I think its going to strike across the demographics. Its not just a low-income thing.

Federally backed financial assistance programs have helped keep food on many familys tables during the pandemic and have so far helped many of the hardest-hit South Dakotans stave off bankruptcy.

Mortgage forbearance, which allows for a delay or reduction in house payments, was granted as part of the federal CARES Act, and helped some homeowners manage debt. Temporary aid was also provided through new payment options from credit-card companies, and some borrowers were granted a pause in student loan payments.

But as federal assistance programs expire, and private lenders start seeking back payments on home and car loans, experts say many people in financially vulnerable positions will soon find that the debt they took on during the worst of the pandemic has become too much to handle.

The scariest thing for us in our office was that payment options werent necessarily laid out, or at least not understood clearly when people took the forbearances, said Miller.

It would not surprise me at all if we do see an increase in the number of bankruptcy filings and I think its going to strike across the demographics. Its not just a low-income thing. Breck Miller, Lutheran Social Services

Mortgage payments delayed through forbearance still must be paid, sometimes as soon as the forbearance period ends. A homeowner could be on the hook for hundreds or even thousands of dollars in back payments that must be made and carry the risk of defaulting on loans.

Back payments alone will drive more people to seek bankruptcy protections in the coming months, said Clair Gerry, a bankruptcy attorney from Sioux Falls.

For that reason alone I would expect to see a big uptick in Chapter 13s, Gerry said of the personal bankruptcy filings.

As of late July, 16,000 South Dakota residents were unemployed, and many were forced to turn to credit cards or drawing down savings to survive, Miller said. As of August, those unemployed workers lost the $600 weekly enhanced unemployment benefit created by Congress as part of its pandemic relief efforts.

A rising wave of bankruptcies could lengthen the pandemics economic recession as small businesses and consumers struggle to restructure their debts or sell off what they own or write off debts they cant pay. The burden has already been immense for many families at all income levels in South Dakota, many of whom have said they couldnt withstand an unexpected $400 expense without taking on more debt even before COVID-19 hit.

Consumer spending, meanwhile, is sure to fall and the economy overall will suffer, said Joe Mahon, an economist and outreach director at the Minneapolis Federal Reserve Bank.

Think of all those people who lost their jobs and lost their incomes, Mahon said. Even with the unemployment benefits that they might have been receiving, theyre probably thinking more about hanging on to their discretionary money rather than going out and spending on appliances and clothing and things like that.

If consumers are stuck paying off debts, they cant spend their money at local businesses, many of which also took on additional debt to survive the pandemic and which will be less able to expand. That will result in fewer job openings for people trying to return to work as their unemployment runs out and the economy continues to open up

We know that that large of a shock to employment is going to have a long and persistent feedback effect on the economy, Mahon said.

Exactly when the bankruptcy bomb will go off is anybodys guess at this point, economists and bankruptcy experts say, but they worry it is only a matter of time before filings rise rapidly.

My phone calls right now, a substantial part of them, are asking about what happens when this is over, with people asking, Should I come see you?, Gerry said. Based on those calls, I just know theres a storm looming everybody is predicting that theres going to be a lot of bankruptcies filed by fall or winter.

Relief efforts stemming bankruptcy flood, for now

So far, 2020 has been a relatively slow year for bankruptcy courts. Nationwide, total bankruptcy filings were down about 23% compared to the first six months of 2019. In South Dakota, by the end of July, bankruptcy filings were down about 16% compared to the first seven months of 2019, said South Dakota Bankruptcy Court clerk Frederick Entwistle.

Much of the decline is due to a near total shutdown in bankruptcy activity at courts that went dark during the last half of March and all of April, Entwistle said. But by the end of May, bankruptcy filings had returned to near-normal levels in South Dakota. By the end of June, 416 personal bankruptcies had been filed in South Dakota during the calendar year, according to data from the American Bankruptcy Institute.

There are several reasons bankruptcy filings have yet to rise. One of the biggest reasons may actually be the relatively high unemployment rate. At the end of June, 7.2% of the South Dakota workforce was unemployed, which is more than double the pre-pandemic unemployment rate of 3.1% recorded in March.

Bankruptcy attorneys and financial counselors have recommended to clients that they hold off on filing for bankruptcy until the worst of their financial losses have ended. Often, that meant waiting until finding a job and figuring out what their new monthly income would be. If an individual files for bankruptcy but has to keep living off of credit cards or other forms of debt, any debt incurred after the initial filing wont be discharged or reorganized as part of the bankruptcy proceeding.

There are other good reasons to hold off on filing for bankruptcy right now, Gerry said. Sometimes waiting until after a tax return has been received and spent is a good idea, for example. Spending down one-time payments such as stimulus checks or other state or federal financial assistance is also a good idea to do before filing for bankruptcy.

When COVID hit, everyone was kind of holding their breath. Thats why were waiting for the storm to break, until people get back to work and we find out what the new norm is, Gerry said. When they dont have a paycheck coming in, theyre not being garnished. And right now, theres a lot less collection-type action because collectors know theres not much they can do at this point.

South Dakotans, in general, also tend to avoid bankruptcy. The state currently ranks 45th lowest in the per-capita rate of bankruptcy filings out of the 50 states and has had one of the lowest per-capita bankruptcy filing rates for more than a decade. Over the past five years, there have been fewer than 1,100 personal bankruptcies filed in the state each year. In 2019, just 964 people or married couples filed for either chapter 7 or chapter 13 bankruptcy.

Recessions, though, tend to push people beyond their financial limits faster and farther than they can cope with. In 2010, when the effects of the Great Recession of 2008 peaked in South Dakota, 2,000 people filed for bankruptcy protection, nearly double the number from before the Great Recession began.

Only a matter of time before a crash

Experts cannot predict just how bad the COVID-19 economic fallout will be, but the picture is not likely to be pretty. Unlike the Great Recession, which took years to play out and left agriculture relatively unscathed, the COVID-19 economic crisis has hit every state at roughly the same time and in much the same way.

South Dakota, despite its lack of state government mandated business closures or other mandated social distancing measures, fell off the same economic cliff as its more restrictive neighbors, Mahon said. Traffic at businesses of all types, but most especially bars, hotels and restaurants, cratered in April and didnt return to pre-pandemic levels until July.

You still had people losing their jobs. We know employment has fallen in the state. So you would expect that to have that feed-through effect on household finances, that will ultimately show up in bankruptcies, Mahon said.

COVID-19 also came at a time when farmers and ranchers, South Dakotas economic bedrock, were struggling against a trade war and low prices for grain, soybeans and cattle. In fact, January and February of 2020 saw overall bankruptcy filings in South Dakota increase over the same period in 2019 due to a jump in farm bankruptcies, said Gerry.

We were doing a lot of restructuring or mediation for farms near the first part of the year to get ready for spring planting, he said.

The news isnt all bad, though. More South Dakota small businesses have reopened and have started hiring again when compared to other states. South Dakota also boasts slightly more new job postings than in its neighbors, according to data from the Minneapolis reserve bank.

Much of what happens over the next few months will depend on what Congress comes up with as far as economic stimulus, and how long it takes those currently unemployed to get back to work. Avoiding a surge in bankruptcies, though, will take a lot more stimulus and far faster employment and wage growth than is likely to occur.

It would take more than the stimulus that was talked about last time, Gerry said. That just kept people fed, basically doing that again and taking care of emergencies is not going to cure the future.

Individuals can file forChapter 7orChapter 13bankruptcies. Chapter 7 is typically used when a debtor doesnt have a home or car theyre trying to keep. All debts that cant be settled after a debtors major assets are sold are discharged under Chapter 7. Under Chapter 13 bankruptcy, debtors are allowed to restructure past due payments in order to avoid such things as foreclosure on a home or repossession of a car. Municipalities, including cities, towns, villages, taxing districts, municipal utilities, and school districts, may file aChapter 9bankruptcy that allows them to reorganize. Businesses may file bankruptcy underChapter 7to liquidate and shutdown or underChapter 11, which allows them to reorganize and restructure debt so they can continue to do business. AChapter 12bankruptcy allows family farmers and fishermen to propose and execute a plan to pay past due debts over the course of three to five years and thus avoid foreclosure. Bankruptcy filings that involve parties from more than one country are filed underChapter 15.

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Busted retailers use bankruptcy to break leases by the thousands – Crain’s New York Business

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As bankrupt firms like J.C. Penney Co. and Brooks Brothers Group Inc. look to jettison leases, landlords are already feeling the consequences. CBL & Associates Properties Inc., owner of more than 100 shopping centers in the U.S., is preparing its own bankruptcyfilingafter rent collections cratered. And 16% of retail property loans bundled into CMBS were delinquent in July, according to research firm Trepp.

Filing surge

At least 25 major retailers have filed for bankruptcy this year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The most recent additions include Tailored Brands Inc., owner of Mens Wearhouse and Jos. A. Bank, which is seeking tocloseabout a third of its more than 1,200 stores, and Lord & Taylor parent companyLe Tote, which said it could shut down all of the department stores remaining locations.

Its economical, its efficient and it allows retailers to rationalize their footprint quickly, said Fred Ringel, co-chair of the business finance and restructuring practice at the law firm Robinson Brog Leinwand Greene Genovese & Gluck P.C. Ringel, who works for landlords, said hes busier than ever renegotiating leases and in some cases persuading tenants to forgo cancellations and stay under modified terms.

Take vitamin retailer GNC Holdings Inc. It operates hundreds of stores across the country, mostly in strip malls. Since filing for bankruptcy in June, GNC has asked to reject at least 500 leases, along with more than 50 franchise agreements and subleases, according to court records.

Meanwhile, CEC Entertainment Inc., the parent company of Chuck E. Cheese, is negotiating with its landlords after its June bankruptcy filing. It won court approval this week to defer rent payments as it evaluates which locations it wants to keep open.

And the U.S. unit of Spanish retailer Desigual said it was forced to file after struggling to get rent abatements from its landlords. Unfortunately, DUSA had little success in getting landlords to realize the new reality that most tenantsespecially those in retail -- cannot afford to pay pre-Covid-19 rent, a representative for the firm said in court papers.

Landlords, in turn, have their own mortgages to worry about, which were also underwritten with pre-pandemic assumptions about rent collections. Amid the stress, Barry Sternlichts Starwood Capital Groupmissedpayments on securitized debt linked to five shopping malls, and Saks owner Hudsons Bay Co. alsoskippedinterest due on certain CMBS. Delinquencies on retail mortgages bundled into bonds climbed to 16% in July, from 3.8% in January, according to Trepp.

Tenant power

Some retailers can work out rent abatements and other lease modifications including terminations without filing for bankruptcy. However, negotiating hundreds of deals outside of a court process can be challenging, especially for big retail chains that may have hundreds of landlords to deal with, said Navin Nagrani, an executive vice president at Hilco Real Estate.

Bankruptcy flips the power from landlords to tenants. Retailers can legally reject a swath of leases in court, sometimes leaving building owners to collect just pennies on the dollar. Firms can also sell off favorable contracts to other parties to help repay creditors.

Sometimes a bankruptcy is the most advantageous way to get out of those leases, Nagrani said.

As many as 25,000 stores are expected to close in the U.S. in 2020, mostly in shopping malls, according to Coresight Research. Department stores and fashion boutiques are seen as the most endangered.

More than half of mall department stores could close for good by the end of 2021, according to an April report from real estate research firm Green StreetAdvisors. J.C. Penney said last month that it wouldshuttermore than 150 locations, while Neiman Marcus plans to pull out of New Yorks Hudson Yards development andclosethree other U.S. locations.

The closures so far are just the tip of the iceberg, saidGarrick Brown, head of Americas retail research for Cushman & Wakefield. Over the next two years, at least 1.2 billion of square feet10% of already-occupied store real estatewill go vacant, he said. Worst-case scenario, that could double.

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The Increase In Corporate Bankruptcies Is Bad News For Workers And Job Seekers – Forbes

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LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA - APRIL 17: Savannah B. shows the pasta that California Pizza Kitchen sells ... [+] as groceries to stay afloat in reaction to the coronavirus on April 17, 2020 in Burbank, California. (Photo by Amy Sussman/Getty Images)

Theres an alarming amount of well-recognized, long-standing companies that have filed for bankruptcy protection during the Covid-19 pandemic. Maybe because the announcements have been spread out over time, this big issue hasn't received the appropriate media coverage. When the corporations file for bankruptcy, stores, factories and facilities are closed down and tens of thousands of workers are laid off. As several sectors have been hit hard, there may not be any jobs available for those whove been downsized. For instance, over the last couple of months, we have witnessed bankruptcy filingsranging from retail stores to oil and gas producers.

Lord & Taylor, the oldest retailer in the nation, founded in 1826, filed for bankruptcy protection. Previously, J.C. Penney, J. Crew, Brooks Brothers, Lucky Dungarees, Neiman Marcus, Lucky Brand, True Religion, the parent company of Ann Taylor, Loft, Lane Bryant, Catherines stores and Tailored Brands, which owns Men's Wearhouse and Jos. A. Bank.

Retailing has always been a tough market to operate. Profits can be razor thin and if shops miss a trend or have a bad holiday selling season, theyre in trouble. Now, they have to compete against the Amazon juggernaut. Its almost impossible for these mostly mall-based chains to survive and compete against Amazon when they were forced to close down their operations. Even when opened, fear of contracting the virus made many people stay away. Those who bravely went to the malls and stores had to wear masks and felt uncomfortable trying on clothes that may have been worn by a number of other folks.

Collectively, these companies will shutter thousands of their stores throughout the country. With the closures and less business, significantly large numbers of workers will lose their jobs. Theres a huge dilemma for the newly unemployedwhere can they go if all of the other department and retail stores have either closed or are not faring well in this environment? Theyll join the ranks of the over 53 million Americans whove already filed for unemployment benefits. For now, the newly jobless wont receive the enhanced $600 per week that was part of the federal governments stimulus package, which ended in July.

Retailers are just one example. The shutdowns stopped many businesses from operating and put millions of people out of work. Companies saw their revenue plummet and people lost their salaries. This results in a significant worrisome decline in tax revenue for a large number of cities. They are now asking the federal government for bailouts, as they risk financial ruin and possible bankruptcy. As thousands of companies were forced to shut down, some are now permanently closed, along with millions of people out of work. Tax revenue has fallen off of a cliff. Local governments revenues are thought to be down by about $11.6 billion in 2020with no end in sight. For cities in the poorest shape, the pandemic could mean bankruptcy. Those who are a little better off will see a degradation in the quality of the lives of their citizens, as police, teachers, garbage collectors, firefighters and other public employees will be terminated to save costs.

The 35-year-old casual-dining chain, California Pizza Kitchen, recently filed for bankruptcy. The pizza chain, similar to other restaurants and chains, were told to close, thereby losing business, revenue and profits. Even when opened, with fewer patrons allowed to dine, it's nearly impossible for the food establishments to turn a profit. If restaurants did not have a robust delivery service, their situations worsened.To stay afloat, in response to changing consumer needs and less patrons, California Pizza Kitchen started selling grocery items during the pandemic.

Similar to the retail space, there was a slew of bankruptcies, including Chuck E. Cheese, Italian food chain Vapiano, Le Pain Quotidien's U.S. unit, the parent company of Bravo and Brio and the largest franchisee of Pizza Hut and Wendy's with thousands of locations.

The oil and gas industry was slammed, as travel stopped and business and factories closed down. Similar to the retail space, a large number of oil and gas companies filed for bankruptcy protection. Noble Corporation, an offshore oil-and-gas driller, filed for bankruptcy last Friday. Nobles just the most recent victim of the economic fallout from the outbreak. It joins the ranks of some of the largest, most well-known oil and gas companies that have also filed for bankruptcy, including Chesapeake Energy, Ultra Petroleum, Whiting Petroleum, Denbury Resources, Extraction Oil & Gas and others.

No one is safenot even the company that provides us with the soft, pleasant and sometimes irritating elevator music. The owner of Muzak has filed quick bankruptcy to cut $400 million in debt.

In addition to the thousands of store closures and the large numbers of people out of work, theres a dark side to all of this thats gone underreported. A large number of the companies that have filed for bankruptcy protection handed out lush bonuses to their CEOs and executives, according to Reuters. These bonuses are paid out via a loophole. Bankruptcy law bans this practice while companies are undergoing the process. However, theres no rule for doling out money months before the filing.

The bankruptcy trend will further weaken companies and some may never recover. Amazon, Walmart and a small handful of other companies will take their market share and become bigger and stronger. This will end up with fewer choices for consumers and less jobs available for those seeking employment. With a small number of corporations dominating their respective sectors and millions of people out of work, it's only a matter a time before wages are pushed down and expectations of employees vastly increase. It's time that attention is paid to this problem.

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The Increase In Corporate Bankruptcies Is Bad News For Workers And Job Seekers - Forbes