Mayors are warning of the death of inner cities if small stores are not allowed to reopen. Some states have reopened schools, while others remain shuttered. Germany’s stringent data protection laws prevent Germans from using U.S.-based digital learning platforms, but local solutions do not always function smoothly. In many public schools, education now consists of teachers sending lessons as email attachments for students to work through on their own. Small businesses have been hit harder than the industrial sector as the German economy has contracted by 5 percent over the past year.

Source: New York Times February 20, 2021 14:18 UTC