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Welcome to Behind the News. My name is Doug Henwood. Two guests today,

Lala Kalili will talk about the role of shipping and capitalist development in the Arabian Peninsula

and the journalist Kayla Popuchet will

analyze the demonstrations in Belarus. A brief economic update, while the stock market

celebrates itself, sings itself, and the rest of us aren't doing so great.

Another million people filed for unemployment insurance last week, down slightly from the

previous week, and well off the highs of late March and early April, but still massively high by historical standards.

Some 25 million people are drawing unemployment benefits now at reduced rates since the

$600 emergency benefits

has had quite predictably little effect.

Since they were shakily financed

and dependent on states to help out, which they can't do because they're broke and their

computer systems are creakingly obsolete.

One of the sources of finance was FEMA's Disaster Relief Fund, which looks especially unwise now that Hurricane Laura is

pummeling Louisiana. And Congress, largely thanks to Republican stubbornness, isn't

stepping in to provide any real relief. Meanwhile, Lyons a mile long are forming at food banks

around the country. Trump is basing his re-election campaign on blaming Biden for

the uprisings against police violence and Biden is basing his campaign on basically

that he's not Trump. Malicious and vigilantes are prowling the streets with

the complicity of the cops cheered on by the president and Tucker Carlson. U.S. society is falling to pieces.

It's hard to remember February before the pandemic and when it seemed like Bernie Sanders could

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