WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Leslie Batson, a white office administrator from Maryland, joined the thousands of marchers protesting the killing of George Floyd in Washington, D.C., last weekend after her children asked why the family had done nothing about racism.

“This is my attempt to help elevate the voices of people of color, people who don’t look like me and who don’t benefit from the status quo,” Batson, 42, said on Saturday, as her 9- and 11-year-old children hid shyly behind her.

In recent days, white Americans have donned “Black Lives Matter” shirts, carried homemade signs, and shouted “Hands up, Don’t shoot” in cities and small towns (here) across the United States. Sometimes they lay down in the streets, just as Floyd, an unarmed black man in handcuffs, lay face down and struggling to breathe as a white police officer knelt on his neck.

Books like “White Fragility” and “The New Jim Crow” are topping U.S. best-seller (here) lists, and social media is flooded (here) with #BlackLivesMatter posts. Fortune 500 companies and sports franchises, predominantly run and owned by white Americans, voiced support (here) for anti-racist activism, and the New York Stock Exchange held (here) its longest moment of silence ever for Floyd.

The United States has a long history of white participation in civil rights protests, but the current outpouring of support is unprecedented, historians and social scientists agree.

That said, many question white Americans’ long-term commitment to do the work to fight racism.

“Historically, when we see higher levels of participation from white folks in movements and moments like this, that participation falls off precipitously after we move away from the protest,” said Charles McKinney, associate history professor and chair of Africana Studies at Rhodes College in Tennessee.

After civil rights activists leading protest marches in Selma, Alabama, in 1965 were beaten bloody by police, twice as many Americans polled expressed sympathy with protesters than with the state of Alabama, Pew Research noted (here).

In a separate opinion poll at the same time, however, 45% believed the U.S. administration of President Lyndon Johnson was moving too fast on the voting rights and integration that protesters advocated.

McKinney is analyzing whether the high white protester turnout will translate into laws that aid the Black Lives Matter movement.

“In order for this to be the last racial inflection point… white America must end its sideline sympathy and assume full ownership of this problem,” said Allyn Brooks LaSure, a former U.S. diplomat, and executive vice-president for communications at the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, a national coalition of civil and human rights groups.

That would include awkward conversations on family Zoom calls, in work conference rooms, and at Thanksgiving dinners, he recommends.

REAL CHANGE OR TALK?

Big companies around the world which have typically stayed away from this debate have pledged (here) over $1.7 billion to advance racial justice and equity. City councils are voting (here) to cut police funding and limit police tactics, and statues to the slave-holding supporters in the U.S. Civil war are coming down.

Reuters research shows (here) some of the same U.S. companies have elevated few African Americans to top jobs; two centuries after it started, the NYSE’s traders and management remain overwhelmingly white; an anti-lynching bill named after a black teen killed in 1955 failed to pass the U.S. Senate on June 5.

On June 8, senior Democrats, including House speaker Nancy Pelosi, donned kente cloth, a Ghanaian fabric that is a prominent symbol of African arts and culture, knelt in the U.S. Capitol building for nearly nine minutes of silence for Floyd.

Charles Preston, a Chicago-based black activist and organizer, called the gesture “ridiculous.”

“I think it’s a charade, it’s hollow, it’s empty and I don’t understand what is the purpose of kneeling,” he said. Politicians, he said, should push for policy changes that help African-Americans instead.

The very gesture, known as “taking a knee,” echoes the “Black Power” raised-fist salute that U.S. Olympic medalists Tommie Smith and John Carlos made on the medal podium at the 1968 Mexico City Olympics.

Half a century later, it was still controversial when San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick took a knee to protest police brutality and racial injustice in 2016. Years after leaving (here) the team, he has yet to be picked up by another.

A NEW GENERATION

Melanie Campbell, president of the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation, said veteran activists have doubts this phase will endure for long. But she said the level of anger and frustration after Floyd’s death is new.

    “This is a generation seeing mass shootings in schools, a divisive president, black people being killed and they are pushing back,” she said.

And the demographics of the country itself are changing.

One in 10 eligible voters in the 2020 electorate, about 22 million Americans, will be part of a new generation that is the most ethnically diverse in U.S. history, Pew reports (here), with just 52% of the generation white.

“This is not an unsurmountable task,” said Kyle Holman, a 21-year-old white student in Washington, D.C., who protested on Saturday. “If we can just start by acknowledging that things can be really bad for people of color, have scales fall from our eyes, we will move this debate forward,” he said.

MANILA (Reuters) – After taking a job in a hospital’s COVID-19 emergency room, Philippine doctor Jan Claire Dorado planned to move out of the family home to protect relatives from the risk of infection.

But Dorado’s parents insisted the 30-year-old keep living at home, so her father constructed a makeshift isolation area in a storage room there.

Now, when she returns from work at one of the country’s main hospitals treating coronavirus patients, her dinner is placed outside the room’s door on a stool.

“The hardest part is being away from them. I miss them a lot,” said Dorado, who greets family members from behind a plastic window on a wall covered in foil.

Her parents are considered high-risk for COVID-19 because of preexisting conditions, and Dorado said she once painfully refused her mother’s request for a hug.

Hundreds of Philippine medical workers have been infected by the coronavirus and more than 30 have died.

Safekeeping loved ones is also a high priority for paediatrician Mica Bastillo, even as she confronts COVID-19 head on.

The 38-year-old took on a new role at a children’s hospital in another part of Manila after it became a COVID-19 referral facility in April.

“My family thought about asking me to resign, but anywhere I go I would still have to face COVID,” she said.

With her father and sister battling medical conditions, the family built a makeshift tent next to their home for Bastillo, which they dubbed a “quarantent”.

Made out of plastic sheets to keep out the rain, it allows Bastillo to be with her family at a safe distance.

“My mother put the curtains and the table cloth to make it look like home… And my brother added the plastic sheet. It was a real family effort,” said Bastillo, who still joins her family for nightly prayers seated beside the front door wearing a mask.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Monday labeled as “shocking” and “disturbing” reports that China’s ruling Communist Party is using forced sterilization, forced abortion and coercive family planning against minority Muslims.

Pompeo highlighted a report about the situation in China’s Xinjiang region by German researcher Adrian Zenz published by the Washington-based Jamestown Foundation think tank.

Pompeo, a persistent critic of China, including its treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, said in a statement the findings were consistent with decades of Chinese Communist Party practices “that demonstrate an utter disregard for the sanctity of human life and basic human dignity.”

“We call on the Chinese Communist Party to immediately end these horrific practices and ask all nations to join the United States in demanding an end to these dehumanizing abuses.”

In his report, Zenz said his findings represented the strongest evidence yet that Beijing’s policies in Xinjiang met one of the genocide criteria cited in the U.N. Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, namely “imposing measures intended to prevent births within the [targeted] group.”

Zenz said analysis of Chinese government documents showed natural population growth in Xinjiang had fallen “dramatically.” He said that in its two largest Uighur Muslim prefectures, growth rates fell by 84% between 2015 and 2018 and further in 2019.

The Chinese Embassy in Washington referred to a statement by Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian, saying that “some institutions are bent on cooking up disinformation on Xinjiang-related issues. … Their allegations are simply groundless and false.” 

Documents from 2019 revealed plans for a campaign of mass female sterilization targeting 14% and 34% of all married women of childbearing age in two Uighur counties, Zenz wrote. The campaign, he said, likely aimed to sterilize rural minority women with three or more children, as well as some with two children – equivalent to at least 20% of all women of childbearing age.

“Budget figures indicate that this project had sufficient funding for performing hundreds of thousands of tubal ligation sterilization procedures in 2019 and 2020,” he wrote.

Zenz said that by 2019, Xinjiang planned to subject at least 80% of women of childbearing age in its four southern minority prefectures to intrusive birth prevention surgeries – placement of intrauterine devices or sterilizations.

He said that in 2018, 80% of all new IUD placements in China were performed in Xinjiang, while only 1.8% of the population live there.

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador on Thursday suggested the tradition of women staying at home to take care of older family members was key to battling the coronavirus pandemic, sparking criticism his comments were sexist.

This is not the first time the 66-year-old leader has been accused of making tone-deaf comments and lacking empathy towards women.

“People want to change women’s role and that is one of the just causes of feminism, but the tradition in Mexico is that daughters are the ones who care the most for parents. We men are more detached,” Lopez Obrador said.

Whereas seniors in nursing homes in Europe had suffered with the pandemic, Mexico’s elders were helped by the custom of being cared for at home, he said, adding that the “Mexican family is the most important social security institution” in the country.

“Translating the president’s nineteenth century thinking when he says: men are more detached, he means irresponsible; daughters take care of their parents, he’s referring to unpaid work; tradition refers to machismo; feminism wants to change roles, true transformation,” Martha Tagle, a lawmaker with the Citizen’s Movement party, said on Twitter.

The hashtag AmloMachista, or sexist AMLO in reference to the president’s initials, was trending.

“AmloMachista insists on sending women to be ‘caregivers’, but we have news for him, we are citizens and we are feminists who will no longer tolerate his presidential misogyny,” Claudia Castello, who describes herself as a sociologist and feminist, wrote on Twitter.

Lopez Obrador’s prickly reaction earlier this year to criticism of his administration over brutal murders of women in Mexico riled feminists and undermined support for him among female voters, helping to fuel protests.

Lopez Obrador has been chastised for not taking the virus seriously enough and pushing for a reopening of the economy too soon.

Mexico has the seventh highest coronavirus death toll in the world with 25,060 deaths and 202,951 cases.

SAO PAULO (Reuters) – Carlos Bilardo, the man who coached Argentina to victory in the 1986 World Cup, has tested positive for the new coronavirus, a source close to his family told Reuters on Friday.

“They carried out a test and it was positive, although he has not shown symptoms and he is good,” said the source.

His former club Estudiantes tweeted in support of Bilardo, their 82-year old former player and manager, who has been living in a nursing home in Buenos Aires since 2018.

He coached a team led by Diego Maradona to the World Cup in Mexico in 1986 and the final four years later and also won three Copa Libertadores titles as a player with Estudiantes between 1968 and 1970.

Argentina has reported 1,184 deaths from COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus, according to Health Ministry numbers.

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador on Thursday suggested the tradition of women staying at home to take care of older family members was key to battling the coronavirus pandemic, sparking criticism his comments were sexist.

This is not the first time the 66-year-old leader has been accused of making tone-deaf comments and lacking empathy towards women.

“People want to change women’s role and that is one of the just causes of feminism, but the tradition in Mexico is that daughters are the ones who care the most for parents. We men are more detached,” Lopez Obrador said.

Whereas seniors in nursing homes in Europe had suffered with the pandemic, Mexico’s elders were helped by the custom of being cared for at home, he said, adding that the “Mexican family is the most important social security institution” in the country.

“Translating the president’s nineteenth century thinking when he says: men are more detached, he means irresponsible; daughters take care of their parents, he’s referring to unpaid work; tradition refers to machismo; feminism wants to change roles, true transformation,” Martha Tagle, a lawmaker with the Citizen’s Movement party, said on Twitter.

The hashtag AmloMachista, or sexist AMLO in reference to the president’s initials, was trending.

“AmloMachista insists on sending women to be ‘caregivers’, but we have news for him, we are citizens and we are feminists who will no longer tolerate his presidential misogyny,” Claudia Castello, who describes herself as a sociologist and feminist, wrote on Twitter.

Lopez Obrador’s prickly reaction earlier this year to criticism of his administration over brutal murders of women in Mexico riled feminists and undermined support for him among female voters, helping to fuel protests.

Lopez Obrador has been chastised for not taking the virus seriously enough and pushing for a reopening of the economy too soon.

Mexico has the seventh highest coronavirus death toll in the world with 25,060 deaths and 202,951 cases.

SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said on Monday a July 10 general election was not about him or a family dispute with his siblings after his estranged brother joined an opposition party.

Lee Hsien Yang, younger brother of Lee Hsien Loong and son of modern Singapore’s founder, Lee Kuan Yew, said last week he had joined the new Progress Singapore Party.

He said the People’s Action Party, which has governed Singapore since independence in 1965, had “lost its way” without his late father.

“He is within his rights as a citizen. This GE is not about me or any family disputes which may involve my brother and me,” the prime minister said when asked about his brother’s decision.

“It’s about Singapore’s future at a very grave moment in our history when we are facing the most serious crisis we’ve seen since independence,” he said.

“Health, jobs and the future” should be the major focus, he said.

Starting next week, you’ll be able to start a video call with multiple contacts by asking your Assistant to “make a group call on Duo” or “make a group call on Meet” or create one via the visual interface on the screen. The feature will support up to 32 people on Duo and a maximum of 100 on Meet. On Duo, you’ll have to create groups in the mobile app, then start calls with those circles by asking Assistant.

Google

On Meet, you can also join existing calls by typing in the room code, or enter scheduled meetings by pulling up calendar entries on the display. You can also ask the Assistant to open a call from a calendar appointment by saying “Hey Google, join my next meeting,” though this only works on personal accounts not enterprise ones for now. Those joining via a room code will have to enter it on the screen.

People aren’t just using their smart displays for family calls — they’re using the devices as second screens for work, too. To support users who want to dial into work conferences on their smart displays, Google is also enabling G Suite meetings on the Nest Hub Max in a beta that’s rolling out over the next few weeks. It’ll be available for G Suite domains enrolled in the Assistant beta program — organizations that want to take part can have their administrators sign up.

Google is also rolling out a speed dial feature that it announced at CES, which should make it slightly more convenient to launch your daily check in with your family, for example. This tool arrives today on Assistant-enabled smart speakers and displays, and once you have your favorite contacts set up, you can tell Google to “Call Mom” or “Call Brian.” On a smart display, you can start a call quickly by tapping a contact’s name.

Google

These new features make Google’s smart displays more useful than before — even though you could conduct video calls on them previously, support for groups was an important feature that was missing. Facebook has been marketing its Portal display as a means to have calls with family members, complete with filters and stickers. With today’s announcement, Google will be giving Facebook more competition on this front and possibly giving smart displays more room to grow.

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SINGAPORE (Reuters) – A public rift between the heirs of Lee Kuan Yew, Singapore’s modern day founder, has shot to the fore with the prospect of his two sons squaring off at a July 10 general election.

Lee Hsien Yang on Wednesday formally joined a new opposition party competing against his brother Lee Hsien Loong’s People’s Action Party, which has ruled the city-state since its independence since 1965.

The move comes amid a long-standing and bitter dispute between the siblings centred around what to do with their late father’s house – demolish it, or let the government decide whether to make it a heritage landmark.

On one side of the dispute stands the eldest son, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, 68, who believes the government must decide what should be done.

On the other are his siblings – Lee Hsien Yang and his sister Lee Wei Ling.

They say their father’s will stated the house should eventually be demolished after his death and they have accused Prime Minister Lee of wanting to preserve the house to build his own political capital.

“His popularity is inextricably linked to Lee Kuan Yew’s legacy,” they said in a 2017 statement.

Prime Minister Lee has said his father was prepared to consider alternatives for the property if the government decided to gazette the site and that he has recused himself from government discussions on the matter.

Lee Hsien Yang last year said the PAP had “lost its way” and threw his support behind the newly-formed Progress Singapore Party, led by a former PAP lawmaker.

While he officially joined the party on Wednesday, he has not confirmed if he will run as a candidate in the upcoming poll. The deadline for nominations is June 30.

THE HOUSE, MORE THAN JUST A HOME?

Lee Kuan Yew, popularly known as LKY, moved into the five-bedroom house at 38 Oxley Road in 1945. He led the country for three decades and it was from his home that his People’s Action Party, which has governed since independence and never seen its vote share drop below 60%, was conceived.

A government panel set up to consider the future of the house said in a 2018 report that a future government should make the final decision. It laid out three options: preserving the house as a national monument, preserving part of it, or demolishing it.

The historic property was valued by estate agents at about S$24 million ($17 million) in 2017.

The family insists the feud is not about the money.

WHO OWNS IT?

The house is owned by the younger brother, Hsien Yang, and his unmarried sister, Wei Ling, lives there. Nothing can happen to the house until she chooses to move out.

Prime Minister Lee says his father bequeathed the property to him, and he later sold it to Hsien Yang at a fair market valuation. The proceeds were donated to charity.

WHAT DID LKY WANT?

LKY, who died in 2015, stated publicly that he wanted the house to be demolished as he did not like the idea of tourists visiting it and that it would cost a lot to preserve.

He also said so in his will, but added that if that could not happen, then he wanted it closed to everyone, except family and descendants.

Lee Hsien Yang’s wife, lawyer Lee Suet Fern, was earlier this year found guilty by a disciplinary tribunal of professional misconduct over her involvement in preparing his will.

Lee Suet Fern said she disagreed with the tribunal’s findings and would fight the allegations in court.

SINGAPORE (Reuters) – A public rift between the heirs of Lee Kuan Yew, Singapore’s modern day founder, has shot to the fore with the prospect of his two sons squaring off at a July 10 general election.

Lee Hsien Yang on Wednesday formally joined a new opposition party competing against his brother Lee Hsien Loong’s People’s Action Party, which has ruled the city-state since its independence since 1965.

The move comes amid a long-standing and bitter dispute between the siblings centred around what to do with their late father’s house – demolish it, or let the government decide whether to make it a heritage landmark.

On one side of the dispute stands the eldest son, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, 68, who believes the government must decide what should be done.

On the other are his siblings – Lee Hsien Yang and his sister Lee Wei Ling.

They say their father’s will stated the house should eventually be demolished after his death and they have accused Prime Minister Lee of wanting to preserve the house to build his own political capital.

“His popularity is inextricably linked to Lee Kuan Yew’s legacy,” they said in a 2017 statement.

Prime Minister Lee has said his father was prepared to consider alternatives for the property if the government decided to gazette the site and that he has recused himself from government discussions on the matter.

Lee Hsien Yang last year said the PAP had “lost its way” and threw his support behind the newly-formed Progress Singapore Party, led by a former PAP lawmaker.

While he officially joined the party on Wednesday, he has not confirmed if he will run as a candidate in the upcoming poll. The deadline for nominations is June 30.

THE HOUSE, MORE THAN JUST A HOME?

Lee Kuan Yew, popularly known as LKY, moved into the five-bedroom house at 38 Oxley Road in 1945. He led the country for three decades and it was from his home that his People’s Action Party, which has governed since independence and never seen its vote share drop below 60%, was conceived.

A government panel set up to consider the future of the house said in a 2018 report that a future government should make the final decision. It laid out three options: preserving the house as a national monument, preserving part of it, or demolishing it.

The historic property was valued by estate agents at about S$24 million ($17 million) in 2017.

The family insists the feud is not about the money.

WHO OWNS IT?

The house is owned by the younger brother, Hsien Yang, and his unmarried sister, Wei Ling, lives there. Nothing can happen to the house until she chooses to move out.

Prime Minister Lee says his father bequeathed the property to him, and he later sold it to Hsien Yang at a fair market valuation. The proceeds were donated to charity.

WHAT DID LKY WANT?

LKY, who died in 2015, stated publicly that he wanted the house to be demolished as he did not like the idea of tourists visiting it and that it would cost a lot to preserve.

He also said so in his will, but added that if that could not happen, then he wanted it closed to everyone, except family and descendants.

Lee Hsien Yang’s wife, lawyer Lee Suet Fern, was earlier this year found guilty by a disciplinary tribunal of professional misconduct over her involvement in preparing his will.

Lee Suet Fern said she disagreed with the tribunal’s findings and would fight the allegations in court.

SINGAPORE (Reuters) – A public rift between the heirs of Lee Kuan Yew, Singapore’s modern day founder, has shot to the fore with the prospect of his two sons squaring off at a July 10 general election.

Lee Hsien Yang on Wednesday formally joined a new opposition party competing against his brother Lee Hsien Loong’s People’s Action Party, which has ruled the city-state since its independence since 1965.

The move comes amid a long-standing and bitter dispute between the siblings centred around what to do with their late father’s house – demolish it, or let the government decide whether to make it a heritage landmark.

On one side of the dispute stands the eldest son, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, 68, who believes the government must decide what should be done.

On the other are his siblings – Lee Hsien Yang and his sister Lee Wei Ling.

They say their father’s will stated the house should eventually be demolished after his death and they have accused Prime Minister Lee of wanting to preserve the house to build his own political capital.

“His popularity is inextricably linked to Lee Kuan Yew’s legacy,” they said in a 2017 statement.

Prime Minister Lee has said his father was prepared to consider alternatives for the property if the government decided to gazette the site and that he has recused himself from government discussions on the matter.

Lee Hsien Yang last year said the PAP had “lost its way” and threw his support behind the newly-formed Progress Singapore Party, led by a former PAP lawmaker.

While he officially joined the party on Wednesday, he has not confirmed if he will run as a candidate in the upcoming poll. The deadline for nominations is June 30.

THE HOUSE, MORE THAN JUST A HOME?

Lee Kuan Yew, popularly known as LKY, moved into the five-bedroom house at 38 Oxley Road in 1945. He led the country for three decades and it was from his home that his People’s Action Party, which has governed since independence and never seen its vote share drop below 60%, was conceived.

A government panel set up to consider the future of the house said in a 2018 report that a future government should make the final decision. It laid out three options: preserving the house as a national monument, preserving part of it, or demolishing it.

The historic property was valued by estate agents at about S$24 million ($17 million) in 2017.

The family insists the feud is not about the money.

WHO OWNS IT?

The house is owned by the younger brother, Hsien Yang, and his unmarried sister, Wei Ling, lives there. Nothing can happen to the house until she chooses to move out.

Prime Minister Lee says his father bequeathed the property to him, and he later sold it to Hsien Yang at a fair market valuation. The proceeds were donated to charity.

WHAT DID LKY WANT?

LKY, who died in 2015, stated publicly that he wanted the house to be demolished as he did not like the idea of tourists visiting it and that it would cost a lot to preserve.

He also said so in his will, but added that if that could not happen, then he wanted it closed to everyone, except family and descendants.

Lee Hsien Yang’s wife, lawyer Lee Suet Fern, was earlier this year found guilty by a disciplinary tribunal of professional misconduct over her involvement in preparing his will.

Lee Suet Fern said she disagreed with the tribunal’s findings and would fight the allegations in court.

LONDON (Reuters) – Lockdowns are sharpening the knives in the cut-throat world of M&A banking.

Stuck at home, armed only with a phone and a laptop, senior advisors are finding out just how strong their relationships with clients really are while frustrated juniors are left to crunch numbers in the shadows, deprived of the personal access to the rainmakers who could give their careers a boost.

With the dreaded “doughnut” – or zero bonus – almost a given this year, and some banks looking to cut jobs to weather the health crisis, the strains on bankers watching multi-billion dollar pre-pandemic deals go up in smoke is taking its toll.

“It’s like a Darwinian selection,” said a senior advisor at a Wall Street bank. “If you’re a senior banker and you don’t win a single pitch you can only blame yourself. You’ve failed to cultivate your relationships and now it’s clear to everyone.”

“If you don’t know them well enough, you will never win a mandate over Zoom,” said the banker, who declined to be named.

A lack of face-to-face contact is not just exposing the shortcomings of some senior financiers, it is also making it harder for junior associates to learn on the job and progress, headhunters, lawyers and bankers said.

“Junior bankers are challenged by old problems – long hours, excessive workload and lack of acknowledgement – but this lockdown has made them more acute,” said Anna Marietta, co-founder and managing partner of headhunter Vici Advisory.

“Juniors – especially analysts and interns – can also learn through osmosis and they need physical interaction in the office. They need to see how their managers are handling client relationships and solving problems,” she said.

RELATIONSHIP CHALLENGE

Global M&A volumes are down 41% so far this year, a far cry from the champagne-popping records of recent years when bankers at Goldman Sachs (GS.N), JPMorgan (JPM.N), Morgan Stanley (MS.N), Citi (C.N) and Bank of America (BAC.N) – the top five dealmakers – were the toast of Wall Street.

Massive government support for companies, particularly in Europe, is keeping many firms afloat and delaying the kind of lucrative takeover deals that have put M&A advisors at the top of the investment banking world, bankers and lawyers said.

    But the pressure to drum up business means the workload – which often involves all-nighters and 100-hour weeks – is as heavy and stressful as ever, ramping up the risks for employers who turn a blind eye to potential burnout.

“Employers have always been responsible legally and financially for harm caused when they didn’t ensure an employee’s mental or physical safety at work,” said Melanie Stancliffe, employment partner at Cripps Pemberton Greenish.

“Ensuring the physical safety of employees is the prime business reason to work from home and in this new normal, the focus needs to shift to protecting employees from other risks so they are well and can support – not sue – their employer.” 

For some bankers, the job stress is compounded by working from home in proximity to their families and juggling chores with conference calls, a shock to the system for people used to jetting around the world to schmooze clients.

“The lockdown for many throws into sharp relief the health of their home lives,” Paul McLaren, consultant psychiatrist at The Priory’s Wellbeing Centre in the City of London.

“For many high achieving City workers that is an area of their lives which they may have neglected, and participated in only from a distance. Rebalancing the power relationships at home with partners is a particular challenge at the moment.”

LOCKDOWN STRAINS

Still, investment bankers, with their bumpers salaries and bonuses from years past, can afford more palatial setups than most employees working from home during the health crisis.

    Some senior bankers in Britain have escaped to their remote country piles while others have hunkered down in spacious pads with attic studies in upmarket London neighbourhoods.

For some, the opportunity to spend more time with their family is a rare gift they relish.

For others, the pandemic is exposing fractures in their personal lives. Well-known lawyers and psychiatrists contacted by Reuters have reported a surge in requests for help with relationships and mental health.

    “Suddenly, a high-powered financial professional is stuck all day at home with someone that they usually barely see from week to week and with whom they’ve learned to co-exist at a distance,” said Ayesha Vardag, known in City circles for winning multi-million dollar divorce settlements for her clients.

Vardag told Reuters that inquiries from financial sector employees and their spouses jumped 170% in the week to May 27 as British lockdown restrictions began to ease, with some choosing to call time on their marriages before bonus cuts and layoffs damaged prospective settlements.

    “Many financial sector clients and their spouses are reactivating divorce enquiries they made before lockdown, left in abeyance because they wanted to work on their marriages,” she said. “Then they found they couldn’t stand it any longer.”

‘THE OLD-FASHIONED WAY’

For junior bankers, who typically range in age from the early 20s to early 30s, the lack of career progress under lockdowns is the main source of stress coupled with an ongoing hiring freeze at most banks.

Shut out of video calls with clients due to digital security concerns, five analysts and associates said their opportunities to learn from – and impress – their bosses were limited.

Instead of knocking on a partner’s door to discuss ideas, some juniors said they had to lobby line managers to set up a call with their bank’s top rainmakers.

    The top two M&A banks, Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan, said they were pulling out the stops to keep junior colleagues engaged.

They pointed to a range of initiatives such as cocktail parties hosted by senior executives on Zoom, wellness programmes, online yoga and virtual choirs to relieve stress.

Banking bosses, meanwhile, are counselling their troops to sit tight and wait, as the deal drought will eventually end.

“From the middle of March until the end of May, nobody felt it was the right time to buy a business. But things have started to change,” said JPMorgan’s co-head of global M&A Dirk Albersmeier.

“Europe is coming out of this crisis faster than the United States. In certain European markets bankers are already sitting in the same room with their clients which may accelerate the recovery. Getting to an agreement is often easier the old-fashioned way.”

G/O Media may get a commission

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Sales of new U.S. single-family homes increased more than expected in May and business activity contracted moderately this month, suggesting the economy was on the cusp of recovering from the recession caused by the COVID-19 crisis.

But a resurgence in confirmed coronavirus cases across the country threatens the nascent signs of improvement evident in Tuesday’s economic data. Many states have reported record daily increases in COVID-19 infections, which health experts have blamed on local governments reopening their economies too soon. The economy has stabilized as businesses reopened after closing in mid-March to control the spread of the respiratory illness.

“The renewed upsurge in COVID-19 cases across the South and the West poses a clear downside risk over the coming months but, with a second wave of state-wide lockdowns appearing unlikely for now, we are assuming this will act as a modest drag on the economic recovery, rather than resulting in a renewed downturn,” said Andrew Hunter, senior U.S. economist at Capital Economics.

New home sales jumped 16.6% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 676,000 units last month, the Commerce Department said. New home sales are counted at the signing of a contract, making them a leading housing market indicator. Last month’s increase left sales just shy of their pre-COVID-19 level.

Sales dropped 5.2% in April to a pace of 580,000 units. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast new home sales, which account for about 14.7% of housing market sales, rising 2.9% to a pace of 640,000 in May.

New home sales are drawn from building permits. Sales surged 12.7% from a year ago in May. The report followed on the heels of data last week showing home purchase applications at an 11-year high in mid-June and permits rebounding strongly in May.

The broader economy slipped into recession in February, leaving nearly 20 million people unemployed as of May.

In a separate report on Tuesday, data firm IHS Markit said its flash U.S. Composite Output Index, which tracks the manufacturing and services sectors, rose to a reading of 46.8 in June from 37 in May. A reading below 50 indicates contraction in private sector output.

The improvement was led by an ebb in the manufacturing sector downturn, with the flash Purchasing Managers Index climbing to 49.6 from 39.8 in May. The survey’s services sector flash PMI rose to 46.7 from 37.5 in May.

Activity is also picking up around the globe. The IHS Markit’s euro zone Flash Composite Purchasing Managers’ Index recovered to 47.5 from May’s 31.9.

Stocks on Wall Street extended gains on the data and hopes of more fiscal stimulus. The dollar fell against a basket of currencies. U.S. Treasury prices were lower.

UNEMPLOYMENT HURDLE

The market for new homes is being supported by historic low interest rates and a preference among buyers for single-family homes away from city centers as companies allow employees more flexibility to work from home amid the coronavirus crisis.

But with record unemployment and companies freezing hiring to deal with weak demand and keep costs under control, a sharp rebound in the housing market is unlikely.

“If the overall economy seems to be slowing, the public may not be quite as confident about putting a down payment on an expensive new home,” said Chris Rupkey, chief economist at MUFG in New York. “Many businesses are insolvent and there will be less spending from unemployed Americans as well that could keep this economic recovery in the slow lane for some time.”

Last month’s increase in new home sales did little to offset a plunge in sales of existing homes in April and May, leaving intact economists’ expectations for a record tumble in residential investment in the second quarter. Homebuilding also rebounded moderately in May after slumping in April.

Last month, new home sales shot up 45.5% in the Northeast and advanced 29% in the West. They rose 15.2% in the South, which accounts for the bulk of transactions, but fell 6.4% in the Midwest.

The median new house price rose 1.7% to $317,900 in May from a year ago. New home sales last month were concentrated in the $200,000 to $400,000 price range.

New homes priced below $200,000, the most sought after, accounted for about 15% of sales.

There were 318,000 new homes on the market in May, down from 325,000 in April. At May’s sales pace it would take 5.6 months to clear the supply of houses on the market, down from 6.7 months in April. Nearly two-thirds of the homes sold last month were either under construction or yet to be built.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday said he met with the relatives of victims of recent police and other violence, including the family of Ahmaud Arbery, the unarmed black Georgia man who was killed while jogging in February.

Trump, speaking at a White House event on policing, offered his condolences to the families and vowed to pursue justice before preparing to sign an executive order, reiterating his emphasis on “law and order” amid protests against racism and police brutality.