Tag Archives : Build House

Megan Rapinoe, Jay Ellis to host rally for Michelle Obama voter registration group

U.S. women’s soccer star Megan Rapinoe and actor Jay Ellis will host a rally later this week for former first lady Michelle Obama’s voter registration organization. 

Thursday night’s virtual rally for When We All Vote, which Obama founded in 2018, is meant to build momentum among volunteers who will work to register thousands of new voters during the group’s National Voter Registration Week of Action next month. 

“While Election Day isn’t until November 8th, voters must start now to prepare themselves and their communities to use their voices and get out to the ballot box,” a release from the group states. 

During the rally, attendees will be asked to check their voter registration status, reach out to three friends to check theirs and host voter registration events in September, according to the group. 

Rapinoe, who serves as the co-chair of the organization, and Ellis will host the event along with more than a half-dozen leaders of the organization and advocates. 

The rally is scheduled for 8 p.m. ET.

Source: TEST FEED1

The viruses are winning: There’s still time to fight back

In the last 103 years, viruses with pandemic potential have arisen at least 10 times. Five of these occurred in just the last 14 years. SARS-CoV-2, Monkeypox virus (MPxV) and now the re-emergence of poliovirus, appeared in less than three years. This suggests not only an increasing rate of emergence of novel zoonotic viruses (viruses that jump from animals to humans) but also the startling reemergence of known viruses.

The viruses are winning unless something changes.

Just two and half years after the World Health Organization (WHO) declared SARS-CoV-2 a public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC), MPxV has risen as the newest virus with the designation. Until recently, Monkeypox was an endemic virus of rodents in western and central Africa. It occasionally infected humans, predominantly children that played among wild animals in endemic areas. However, the present outbreak is different; infections are widespread globally and the virus seems to have acquired a better ability to spread from human to human.

COVID should have taught us lessons about attacking emerging viruses early, hard and fast.

Dr. Li Wenliang, a Wuhan physician, raised early alarms of a SARS-like illness based on a cluster of cases that occurred before SARS-CoV-2 was identified. His early warnings were silenced, although the full pandemic potential that he had warned about came to be. The resulting COVID-19 pandemic was destructively politicized and mishandled in numerous countries. Despite a heroic effort by the international scientific community to develop effective vaccines and treatments, continued high-level transmission of SARS-CoV-2 pushes the generation of new variants of concern.   

In another case of missed opportunity, five years ago, Dr. Dimie Ogoina, a physician in Nigeria, noted an unusual increase in monkeypox infection in men ages 20-40. His early warnings were also dismissed and silenced. Now the belated, sluggish implementation of monkeypox mitigation, and the slow rollout of vaccines, jeopardize controlling the virus. This provides MPxV with time to spread, increasing the risk of infecting indigenous animals where it can become endemic; then a new human virus will be established and impossible to contain.

The situation gets worse. The only other virus that has public health emergency of international concern designation is poliovirus. Typically considered a historical childhood disease, poliomyelitis (polio) is an ongoing threat. Polio is controlled by widespread vaccination and global vaccination campaigns by the Global Polio Eradication Initiative. Thus, it is alarming that in July the first case of paralytic polio since 2013 was reported in the U.S. Studies suggest that the unvaccinated patient was infected in the U.S. by a virus that originated outside of the country, meaning that it was brought here in an infected individual. Most poliovirus infections are mild or asymptomatic, not paralytic, suggesting that there are many more infected people in the U.S. than we are aware of. The virus is silently spreading communally, particularly among the unvaccinated, likely in several countries.

The accelerating emergence of zoonotic viruses and reemergence of known viruses are harbingers of a future where epidemics and pandemics occur with increasing frequency. There are many causes, but low vaccination, climate change and encroachment on animal habitats rank high. A large reservoir of worrisome viruses with the potential to jump to humans exists in many different animals, particularly bats, rodents and birds. The woefully inadequate response to COVID and, so far, to monkeypox, makes this future foreboding.

This has laid open for view a profound dysfunction of our society and institutions to deal with a global public health crisis, and a shocking lack of care for each other, especially the most vulnerable. We must apply lessons of the current pandemic and its challenges to implement increased surveillance and rapid response plans in the face of increasing viral threats.

We have a fighting chance if we quickly become aware of emerging viruses at the point of their emergence, then respond to squelch the virus before it becomes epidemic or pandemic. The overarching infrastructure at the level of governments, the United Nations and the WHO is critical for this effort. However, we should learn from the effectiveness of the global collaborative response by scientists that arose during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic; it must be maintained, broadened and formalized. This can be done through the establishment of a virus response infrastructure which would include global virology organizations and societies, academic and industrial researchers and nonprofit global health agencies. This group can direct early detection initiatives, guide collaborative research efforts, disseminate data-driven information and aid in local mitigation efforts and equitable vaccine distribution.

Importantly, we must deeply engage scientific communities in nations where potential zoonotic viruses exist. Early alerts, like those of Drs. Li and Ogoina, cannot be ignored — they are our window to early response. These measures require significant national and international investment. However, the costs for early detection and prevention pale compared to the immense economic, social and personal costs of pandemics.

James Alwine is a virologist and a fellow of the American Academy for Microbiology and of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He is a professor emeritus at the University of Pennsylvania and a visiting professor at the University of Arizona. Felicia Goodrum is a fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology and a professor of immunobiology and the BIO5 institute at the University of Arizona College of Medicine. The authors are members of the Global Partnerships and Advocacy Committee of the American Society for Virology.  

Source: TEST FEED1

Defense Department again turns down DC mayor's request for help with arriving immigrants

The Department of Defense on Monday denied a second request from Mayor Muriel Bowser to deploy the D.C. National Guard (DCNG) and use of the D.C. Armory to help with migrants being bussed into the city from Texas and Arizona. 

In a letter reviewed by The Hill, Pentagon Executive Secretary Kelly Bulliner Holly said deploying the Guard would be “inappropriate to the task, regardless of the duration or number of personnel involved.” 

“The DCNG has no specific experience in or training for this kind of mission or unique skills for providing facility management, feeding, sanitation, or ground support,” Holly continued.  

In response to the denial, Bowser said on Twitter that the city will “move forward with our planning to ensure that when people are coming through DC on their way to their final destination that we have a humane setting for them.”  

The D.C. Mayor initially asked for help in July as Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) and Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey (R) bussed thousands of migrants into the city to protest President Biden’s border policies.  

The Pentagon initially turned down Bowser’s request to deploy Guard troops earlier in August, citing concerns that doing so would negatively impact the Guard’s readiness.  

Bowser later renewed her request for the DCNG and Armory on Aug. 11, saying that the Guard would work with the D.C. government to help establish and manage “respite sites,” which would support migrants as they travel to their final destination, outside of Washington, D.C.  

The mayor also said that assistance would begin on Monday and would be reevaluated in December.  

In turning down the request again, Holly reaffirmed the agency’s concerns about how deploying Guard troops would impact its readiness and reiterated that non-governmental organizations were assisting with migrants. In the event that local organizations can’t meet requirements, D.C. could apply directly to FEMA for emergency funding, the letter said.  

As for use of the D.C. Armory, Holly said its design and suitability “rules it out as an option,” as it is not air conditioned and has to undergo “substantial remediation” for a number of issues.  

Bowser said the city would “continue working with federal partners and local NGOs on the best way to set up systems that allow us to manage an ongoing humanitarian crisis.”  

“As we do that, we remain focused on working with District agencies and local providers to ensure our local systems can continue to function and that we can continue to meet the very real and significant needs of DC residents,” she added.  

Source: TEST FEED1

Are we ready for when dictatorships implode over rising food prices?

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, impeding access to two of the world’s most important agricultural nations, has caused food prices to skyrocket across the globe. Even commodities the combatants do not export have become more expensive, as people substitute away from the wheat and sunflower oil that is no longer available. Moreover, with energy prices also soaring, many developing countries have even less money available for food at the very time they need more.

Rapidly rising food prices historically have spurred numerous popular rebellions against otherwise stable despots. People who otherwise would fear repression if they challenged their corrupt regime become frightened and desperate when they cannot feed their families. We have every reason to expect such explosions of national anger at any moment.

Unfortunately, our short-sighted policies have contributed to the persecution and often eradication of pro-democracy movements in many of these countries. Secular democratic opposition figures could assume leadership of popular revolts and channel the anger into positive paths. If we do not begin aggressively defending these courageous but embattled figures, any upheavals that occur are likely to be hijacked by intolerant religious extremists or a new generation of corrupt, opportunistic despots.

Although the Arab Spring revolutions of a decade ago are widely seen as efforts to democratize and modernize despotic regimes, they were triggered by rapidly rising bread prices. The pivotal Egyptian revolution’s leading slogan was “Bread, Freedom, and Social Justice.” Shortages of state-subsidized bread at a time of rising unemployment and food price inflation of 18.9 percent helped bring people to the streets. Similar price hikes triggered rebellions throughout the region, during the Arab Spring and since.

Affluent Western countries often underestimate the importance of food prices to economically insecure people in the developing world. People struggling to feed their families, particularly under repressive regimes, may feel that politics is a luxury they cannot afford. When food prices soar, however, they may feel they have no choice but to take to the streets.

Few countries have more potential to lead, in positive or negative directions, than Egypt. Egypt is home to roughly a quarter of the world’s Arab population and a key player in military, political, cultural, and religious affairs. It is also a top wheat importer.

Decades ago, President Anwar el-Sadat reversed a bread price increase after popular anger risked toppling his government. Since then, successive governments have kept the price of basic bread low to ensure its availability to low-income Egyptians.

With the Egyptian economy in tatters because of corruption and the pandemic, Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, the current president, last year suggested raising bread prices. He met a hailstorm of criticism, and his government quickly back-pedaled. Now, it may have no choice. Other governments in the region are in a similar bind.

Lebanon is in even worse shape. Although nominally much more democratic than Egypt, its politics remain corrupted by blocs serving as proxies for rival foreign powers.

Hungry people filled the streets in Sri Lanka, which can no longer afford food after its economy largely collapsed.

Protesters have roiled Guinea’s capital.

The list goes on.

Under these conditions, it is all too easy for a demagogue promising “easy” solutions, or blaming familiar scapegoats, to push their way to the front of the mob. Demagogues will not, of course, bring their people any lasting relief, but before that becomes clear they will have cemented themselves into power.

Egypt, again, provides a classic example: When millions of Egyptians rose up against Mohamed Morsi, the elected but repressive and incompetent Muslim Brotherhood president, Gen. al-Sisi claimed to represent their aspirations and seized power. Only after killing thousands of peaceful Brotherhood and secular protesters and jailing or exiling any opposition figures that could threaten him did Gen. al-Sisi hold tightly controlled sham elections.

There is a better way.

Rather than having popular uprisings over food prices trigger yet another phase in the endless dichotomy between military despots and Islamist despots, these rebellions could provide the opportunity for meaningful, lasting change. Secular, democratic governance could destabilize the corruption that saps economies of their potential to grow. It also could redirect public funds from endless military build-ups to meeting the needs of the people. And when, as is inevitable, incompetents manage to enter the presidential palace, democratic transitions can show them the door before they do the kind of lasting damage that Gens. Mubarak and al-Sisi have done in Egypt.

Unfortunately, the food rebellions are unlikely to take a positive turn if these countries’ secular democratic leaders remain in prison.

After belatedly and briefly supporting the Arab Spring protests, the Obama administration largely lost interest. The Trump administration, too, had its moment of sanctioning the repressive al-Sisi regime, but then the two presidents bonded.

President Biden can do better.

Egyptian democratic activist and blogger Alaa Abdel-Fattah, a key leader in the Arab Spring, has been jailed repeatedly since al-Sisi seized power. He is now on a hunger strike, his health reportedly failing.  Gen. al-Sisi claims he wants a broad national dialogue, but imprisons rather than speaking to genuine opposition voices like Abdel-Fattah.

President Biden can and should send a clear signal to Gen. al-Sisi that progress in bilateral relations will be impossible as long as he imprisons legitimate opposition voices. He should specifically insist that Abdel-Fattah be released and given the medical treatment he needs.

Standing up for imprisoned secular democrats is worth it. Just as a democratic, prosperous Ukraine will inevitably cause Russians and Belarusians to question their dictatorial regimes, a free democratic Egypt would undermine the many despotic regimes in the region. An Egypt that allows its people, many highly educated, to realize their potential would rapidly achieve sustainable prosperity in a region known for economic stagnation and dependence on fossil fuels.

David A. Super is the Carmack Waterhouse Professor of Law and Economics at Georgetown University Law Center. He also served for several years as the general counsel for the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. Follow him on Twitter @DavidASuper1

Source: TEST FEED1

Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine 73 percent effective in children under 5

Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine was 73.2 percent effective against the disease in children under five, the company said Tuesday.  

The company touted the data as reinforcing the importance of the vaccine, which was authorized in June, after months of waiting for a vaccine for the youngest children.  

The effectiveness is for after three shots of the vaccine. The Pfizer vaccine’s authorization was delayed earlier this year to allow time to study a third shot, with the idea that two shots was not enough.  

The results, based on 34 cases, came when the strain of the virus circulating was primarily the omicron subvariant BA.2, slightly different than the BA.5 omicron subvariant that is largely circulating now.  

Pfizer said Tuesday that it is working on a vaccine for children under 12 specifically targeting BA.5, matching its approach for adults 12 and over.  

“Building on the strong safety and immunogenicity data that led to FDA authorization of our COVID-19 vaccine for children 6 months through 4 years, we are pleased to share confirmatory evidence that a full course of vaccination helps protect against symptomatic disease, particularly during a time when the Omicron BA.2 strain was predominant,” said Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla.  

Getting parents to vaccinate their young children is an ongoing challenge. Only about five percent of children under 5 have been vaccinated so far, ABC News reported last week.  

Source: TEST FEED1

Most Americans value civil rights movement but lack 'robust knowledge' of the era, survey finds

Most Americans support teaching a thorough history of the civil rights movement and appreciate the historical significance of the era. But few can name pivotal figures or moments apart from Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks and the March on Washington, according to a new survey. 

The survey released by More in Common found that most Americans remember the period for its non-violent protests and leaders, including King and Rosa Parks. Yet most “appear to lack robust knowledge” of the era and memories are murky when an event experienced pushback or encountered riots and violence. Many surveyed were unable to list five events from the period. 

After King and Parks, Americans listed Brown v. Board of Education, the Selma march and the Civil Rights Act of 1964 among the top five events they remember. 

“The anniversary of the March on Washington on August 28 is a moment to remember the voices and events from that era,” Coco Xu, the research analyst for More in Common U.S. who led the study, said in a statement. “But it’s clear to us that there are many civil rights leaders whose roles in the struggle are unknown to most Americans.” 

America is changing faster than ever! Add Changing America to your Facebook or Twitter feed to stay on top of the news. 

Despite their own knowledge of the era, most Americans believe in a robust teaching of the civil rights movement. Around 77 percent of those surveyed agreed that all students should learn about leaders other than King and Parks. Another 80 percent agreed that students should learn both successes brought by the movement and the struggles faced by those involved.  

Overall, more than three-quarters believe the movement “advanced the values of freedom and equality” in the U.S. and view it as an “important example of Americans exercising their right to protest.” Sixty four percent believe that it is always appropriate to engage in non-violent protests. 

“The civil rights movement isn’t a static event in our history but the collection of decades of events, leaders and activists pushing for change,” Xu said.  

“The broad support among Americans for learning more about the movement suggests that there are opportunities to deepen our shared understanding and honor the movement’s legacy,” Xu concluded.

Source: TEST FEED1

US urging citizens to leave Ukraine ahead of holiday

The United States Embassy in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Tuesday urged U.S. citizens to leave the country, citing intel that Russia is ramping up its aggression. 

“The Department of State has information that Russia is stepping up efforts to launch strikes against Ukraine’s civilian infrastructure and government facilities in the coming days… The U.S. Embassy urges U.S. citizens to depart Ukraine now using privately available ground transportation options if it is safe to do so,” the embassy wrote in an alert.

“The security situation throughout Ukraine is highly volatile and conditions may deteriorate without warning. U.S. citizens should remain vigilant and take appropriate steps to increase their security awareness.”

Nearly six months into the Russia-Ukraine conflict, the conflict wages on, with no end in sight. Concerns of violence have been heightened ahead of Ukraine’s Independence Day.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has warned of potential Russian escalation ahead of the Aug. 24 celebration.

“We should be aware that this week Russia may try to do something particularly nasty, something particularly cruel,” Zelensky said in a recent address.

The concerns also come in the wake of the reports that Russian commentator Daria Dugina, the daughter of a prominent nationalist philosopher, was killed outside Moscow over the weekend.

Russia has accused Ukraine of planting the car bomb that killed Dugina, though Ukraine has denied any involvement.

“Dear Ukrainians, especially these days, when we celebrate the day of our flag and the day of our independence, if you are somewhere abroad, please remind about Ukraine there, be there with the Ukrainian flag and spread the truth about the crimes of the occupiers,” Zelensky said Monday.

Source: TEST FEED1

Former Twitter security chief alleges vulnerabilities risk national security, privacy

Former Twitter security chief Peiter Zatko is alleging that the social media company has major security deficiencies that threaten privacy on the platform and national security more broadly, according to a whistleblower complaint obtained by CNN and The Washington Post. 

Zatko’s complaint reportedly alleges that Twitter made false claims about its security setup, violating a settlement with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), and that the company’s leadership misled the government and its own board about the security issues. 

Some of the security issues allegedly leave the company vulnerable to disinformation, hacking and foreign spying, CNN reported.

The Post added that Zatko filed the complaint with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Department of Justice and the FTC last month, after warning Twitter colleagues about his security concerns.

“Twitter is grossly negligent in several areas of information security. If these problems are not corrected, regulators, media and users of the platform will be shocked when they inevitably learn about Twitter’s severe lack of security basics,” Zatko wrote in a company analysis, included in the complaint as an exhibit, according to the newspaper.

Among several concerns, Zatko reportedly alleged that some of Twitter’s servers were operating outdated software, that many employees had internal access that could jeopardize user accounts and that the company had problems controlling spam on the platform. User data was also allegedly not properly erased after individuals deleted their accounts, according to the news outlets.

“Take a tech platform that collects massive amounts of user data, combine it with what appears to be an incredibly weak security infrastructure and infuse it with foreign state actors with an agenda, and you’ve got a recipe for disaster,” Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa), whose office has reportedly discussed the security complaints with Zatko, said in a statement to CNN and the Post. “The claims I’ve received from a Twitter whistleblower raise serious national security concerns as well as privacy issues, and they must be investigated further.”

Zatko, identified as a hacker himself, was hired by Twitter in 2020.

A Twitter spokesperson in a statement to the news outlets stressed that security and privacy are top priorities at the company, adding that Zatko was fired months ago for “poor performance and ineffective leadership.”

–Developing

Source: TEST FEED1

Putin’s war is shattering views of Russia and Ukraine

Russians, Americans and Europeans are rarely of one mind about anything, but there’s one thing they all agreed on in early 2022: that the Ukrainians wouldn’t fight and the Russian armed forces would control Ukraine in a few days or weeks. Everyone knew that the Ukrainian army was a joke and the Russian army was superb.

For the military and intelligence establishments of so many highly developed countries to have been so wrong is surely remarkable. Not unprecedented, of course, but simply remarkable. Everyone thought World War I would be over in a few months. Almost everyone figured the Russian invasion of Afghanistan and the American invasion of Iraq would succeed. In these cases, as in so many others where one side grossly miscalculates its chances of success, some form of ignorance — usually in combination with hubris — is at work.

The recently published Washington Post story about the prelude to the Russo-Ukrainian War shows that Washington possessed detailed intelligence about Russia’s plans for aggression months before the attack. The Kremlin spent billions of dollars on trying to establish a fifth column in Ukraine and had routinely penetrated Ukrainian military and intelligence institutions since 1991. The British, French and Germans possess serious intelligence agencies with long records of keeping tabs on the Russians. Despite all this talent, no one foresaw Ukrainian resilience and competence and Russian boneheadedness and incompetence.

Clearly, the inability of Russians, Americans and Europeans to imagine a successful Ukrainian resistance and — worse still — any kind of sustained Ukrainian resistance bespeaks jaw-dropping ignorance of Ukraine and Russia. After three decades of independence, after three decades of Ukraine enthusiasm alternating with Ukraine fatigue, neither the West nor the Russians knew Ukraine. And after more than two decades of Vladimir Putin and his rabid pursuit of empire and fascism, neither the United States nor Europe knew Russia. Only the Ukrainians knew they would fight, even though many, including President Volodymyr Zelensky, believed that war was highly unlikely.

Such systemic ignorance cannot be explained by someone’s statistical miscalculations or factual mistakes. The fact that everybody who had a stake in Russo-Ukrainian relations couldn’t imagine the Russians doing so poorly and the Ukrainians doing so well indicates a deeper source of ignorance, one that goes beyond facts and addresses their interpretation. In other words, the problem concerns our mental mapping — the assumptions, values and predilections — that framed our understanding of Ukraine and Russia.

Mappings aren’t just an academic concern. They matter because they tell us how to view things and how to gauge their importance. If we think of Russia’s Vladimir Putin as a grandmaster at chess, whereas he may in fact be a poor player, we will inevitably misinterpret his moves and make the wrong decisions. If we think of Zelensky as a comedian, we will fall into the same trap.

These two examples nicely illustrate the larger and deeper problem. Until their valiant resistance to Putin’s genocidal war, Ukrainians, like Zelensky himself, weren’t taken seriously by America, Russia and Europe. In contrast, Russia, like Putin, was taken very seriously. Now, some of this obviously has to do with size and resources: Russia is huge and powerful by any measure, while Ukraine is a middle power at best.

But there’s more to it than that.

It is only now, as a direct result of the war, that the world is discovering Ukrainian culture, history and language. Mirabile dictu, they actually exist. The culture is rich and dynamic, the history goes back at least a millennium, and the language is different from Russian. In fact, Ukrainians aren’t really Russian, after all.

The two things about Ukraine we all knew were that the country is irredeemably corrupt and therefore couldn’t get any reforms right and that it is irrevocably divided between a pro-Ukrainian west and a pro-Russian east. As the war has amply shown, there’s much more to Ukrainian elites than corruption; they can and do get many things done — such as stopping the world’s second largest army — and the question of identity is far more complex than simplistic notions of a warring east and west would suggest. In fact, most of the soldiers fighting on Ukraine’s fronts usually speak Russian with one another.

Is it any wonder that a corruptible nation without much of a culture, history or language was expected to fold in a few days?

By the same token, we take Russia and all it stands for with the utmost seriousness. Its leader may be a thug, but he’s supposedly a grandmaster at chess, able to outwit and outfox any checkers-playing American, European or Ukrainian. Russian culture, history and language are the stuff of legend, naturally, and Russian identity is rock solid — despite the fact that Russians aren’t sure about what to do with their minorities and whether they are a European nation or a Eurasian empire, or neither or both.

The operative term for Russia in the Western and Russian imagination is “great.” Since everything about the place is great, every other country is necessarily less than great.

Is it any wonder that such a great country couldn’t be imagined to lose a war, or even a battle, to the risible Ukrainians — when in fact Putin’s aggression must count as one of history’s greatest strategic blunders and the equivalent of sacrificing a queen for a pawn after five moves?

The good news is that we now know these mental mappings are inaccurate, even though it has taken thousands of dead Ukrainians and scores of devastated cities to bring that point across. The bad news is that these images have survived 30 years of Russian and Ukrainian independence. It will take time for these stereotypes finally and fully to be expunged.

The best news is that nothing would shatter these delusional views like a decisive Ukrainian victory and a humiliating Russian defeat — outcomes that look increasingly more likely as Putin continues to demonstrate that he’s a lousy chess player.

Alexander J. Motyl is a professor of political science at Rutgers University-Newark. A specialist on Ukraine, Russia and the USSR, and on nationalism, revolutions, empires and theory, he is the author of 10 books of nonfiction, as well as “Imperial Ends: The Decay, Collapse, and Revival of Empires” and “Why Empires Reemerge: Imperial Collapse and Imperial Revival in Comparative Perspective.”

Source: TEST FEED1

Rebuilding Ukraine means building homes, a sense of belonging and civic engagement

The U.S. has committed more than $8.7 billion in recent military aid for Ukraine, as well as more than $1.45 billion in humanitarian aid for immediate support to local governments to help Ukrainians displaced by Russia’s war. That is a lot of money, but nowhere in our reading can we find mention of aid for housing reconstruction. To be sure, we must support critical military needs and lay the groundwork for reconstruction. But without support for rebuilding society, the billions of dollars spent on military aid will lose significance.

Following a meeting in July on reconstruction, sponsored by Ukraine and Switzerland, the German government will host a meeting at the end of October to move forward with a reconstruction agenda. Some experts are calling for reconstruction aid to promote democracy and thoughtful rebuilding. We urge the U.S. and the international community to target aid to rebuild Ukrainian civil society and make the region more stable by rethinking housing construction for the displaced, returnees and Ukrainians who did not lose their homes.

Russia’s destruction of Ukrainian housing is not collateral damage; it is “domicide,” a strategy to destroy a nation or community by targeting the population’s sense of home and place. The strategy — also employed by Russia in Chechnya and Syria — leaves its victims with a sense of hopelessness and disorientation, and little to return to but memories now tainted with images of war. But housing reconstruction is critical to defending and reinforcing the Ukrainian nation. 

Free, mass privatization of state housing after the breakup of the Soviet Union made housing the most important — and often only — source of household wealth. Through more than two decades of economic and political upheaval, homes have been a source of everyday security and stability, as well as a material asset for most Ukrainians. Russia knows this and went for the jugular. As calls for a new “Marshall Plan” for Ukraine’s reconstruction gain traction, cultural aspects of rebuilding Ukraine need to be central from planning through building. 

Our research on the experiences of Ukrainians displaced from the Donbas since 2014 shows the consequences of home loss. Even after finding jobs and housing, internally displaced persons (IDPs) are heavily disadvantaged relative to their new neighbors. They pay high rates for often substandard private rentals, eating up income that most other Ukrainians reserve for other expenses. Now too, many IDPs without financial resources are living in places never meant to be homes. 

Losing a home harms living standards and erodes a sense of belonging and civic engagement — the very characteristics a society needs to rebuild. Homeowners in Ukraine and other formerly Soviet countries have stronger senses of belonging, well-being and civic engagement relative to renters. The prospects for becoming owners after displacement from the Donbas have been poor: affordable mortgage finance is unavailable, while homes left behind lost market value and are at risk of expropriation by Russian-backed separatists. As a result, some returned to a war zone — or never left — specifically to hold onto their homes. Indeed, a young volunteer at the Hrebenne Polish-Ukrainian border crossing in April noted that his parents remained in Kryvyi Rih (Krivoy Rog) under attack because, “They have a big, beautiful house that they built. They won’t leave. They will not leave their home.”

The scale of Ukraine’s housing and displacement catastrophe since February 2022 dwarfs that of the period since 2014. Rebuilding will be a very heavy lift: According to a May 2022 report by the Kyiv School of Economics, residential buildings and roads account for about $60 billion, or nearly 10 percent of economic losses to date (and counting). As the region appears on course for long-term conflict concentrated in the east, Ukraine risks being further pushed into a society of housing haves and have nots. Already, stark housing inequalities are emerging among recent IDPs who are navigating exorbitant rental costs and eviction, without practical or legal recourse. 

Ukrainian housing advocates are proposing ways forward for long-term housing solutions (all of which will require major international assistance). For example, Cedos, the premier Ukrainian NGO conducting research-informed advocacy on housing policy, recommends investment in social (public) housing stock, which practically disappeared after privatization, plus measures to support and regulate private renting. We agree with these suggestions. Stable and affordable social and private rentals, which were lacking in Ukraine even before the war, are critical components of a healthy housing system. In Ukraine, an estimated 8 million internally displaced and 7 million refugees outside of Ukraine means that an estimated 37 percent of the total population is displaced — after only five months of war. 

Housing is a precondition for Ukraine to survive and rebuild. According to our research, the psychosocial benefits of homeownership in post-Soviet contexts, including Ukraine, are strongest among those who can purchase a home. Shared or subsidized homeownership models (e.g., with subsidized interest rates and insurance to protect borrowers from unemployment or inflation) would enable rebuilding a housing system with Ukrainian ownership norms, while expanding access so that options to own are not simply a function of family or (mis)fortune. 

This will require massive, Marshall Plan-level investment and technical support from wealthier democracies. In our view, rebuilding housing in multiple ownership models in Ukraine is not only the right thing to do, but the smart thing to do. Building “permanent” housing in less-than-ideal locations, as was done in Georgia after the 2008 Russian invasion, will not promote the sense of belonging that is so necessary to rebuild Ukraine. We can combat domicide by focusing on building new homes that solve problems, rather than create new ones.  

Housing, of course, is a basic human need and an economic asset. But it is more than that — it is the foundation of family, community and belonging. 

Beth Mitchneck is a professor emerita in the School of Geography, Development & Environment at the University of Arizona.

Jane Zavisca is an associate professor of sociology and associate dean for research and graduate studies in the College of Social & Behavioral Sciences at the University of Arizona. 

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