Getting COVID-19 Payments to Vulnerable Americans, Hong Kong in Jeopardy, and More

August 27, 2020

Many Americans trying to access their benefits from the CARES Act have experienced long delays, confusion, and frustration. To help improve future COVID-19 relief legislation, Stephen Roll and Michal Grinstein-Weiss shed light on the exact groups of people who had issues receiving the program’s expanded unemployment benefits and Economic Impact Payments.

Following the imposition of a new national security law and crackdown by Beijing, Hong Kong is now confronted with a terrible and real possibility: that the crucial qualities that have made the city strong and globally relevant over the past generation will now irretrievably dissipate. In a new piece for our Global China series, Kurt Tong details what happened to Hong Kong’s autonomy and what the city’s residents and the international community can do about it now.

Protests against police brutality continue this week after an officer in Kenosha, Wisconsin shot Jacob Blake in the back multiple times—with his children watching. Rashawn Ray writes that the standard procedures to hold police officers accountable are not sufficient in rooting out structural racism and proposes several reforms.

A note on the Brookings response to COVID-19:

The Brookings Institution campus in Washington, D.C. will be closed through at least January 4, 2021. For more information, read our full guidance here. As Brookings experts continue to assess the global impacts of COVID-19, read the latest analysis and policy recommendations at our coronavirus page or stay up to date with our coronavirus newsletter.

The conclusions and recommendations of any Brookings publication are solely those of its author(s), and do not reflect the views of the Institution, its management, or its other scholars.

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