Amid mass layoffs, Congress is still stuck on stimulus

The US economic picture remains dire; Bolsonaro rejects aid to help the Amazon. Tonight's Sentences was written by Benjamin Rosenberg TOP NEWS The unemployment rate is decreasing, but still nowhere near pre-pandemic levels Jeff Gritchen/MediaNews Group/Orange County Register via Getty Images - Friday's jobs report is expected to show the national unemployment rate dropped slightly to 8.2 percent in September — still the highest jobless rate on record. After states emerged from their Covid-19 lockdowns in the spring, economic recovery was initially sharp but has slowed significantly since. [[CNN / Anneken Tappe](] - Consumer spending increased for the fourth straight month in August, but at a slower rate than previous months; the rate is still 4 percent lower compared to the month before the pandemic. [[MarketWatch / Jeffry Bartash](] - Several major companies announced mass layoffs this week. The Walt Disney company said it was cutting 28,000 employees, Allstate announced that roughly 8 percent of its workforce will be cut, and Goldman Sachs plans to eliminate about 400 jobs. [[Bloomberg / Olivia Rockeman and Scott Lanman](] - The airline industry is being hit especially hard, with far fewer people traveling by plane. Although passenger airlines got $25 billion in payroll funding from the CARES Act, American and United Airlines have said they will furlough more than 32,000 employees (though they plan to reverse course if lawmakers allocate sufficient funding). [[NYT / Niraj Chokshi](] - Millions of Americans are also at risk of losing their utilities due to unpaid bills. The National Energy Assistance Directors’ Association estimates that 179 million Americans could lose access to water and electricity. [[Washington Post / Tony Romm](] - House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin are trying to put together a new stimulus package, but Democrats and Republicans are at odds on the numbers. The House’s $2.2 trillion bill is unlikely to pass the GOP-controlled Senate. [[CNBC / Jacob Pramuk](] [Learn more about RevenueStripe...]( Brazil’s Bolsonaro rejects Biden’s $20 million offer to help the Amazon - During Tuesday’s US presidential debate, Democratic nominee Joe Biden said he would lead a global effort to allocate $20 billion for Brazil to stop deforestation of the Amazon rainforest. But Brazil’s far-right president Jair Bolsonaro rejected that aid a day later. [[CNN / Flora Charner and Ivana Kottasová](] - Biden said Brazil would face “economic consequences” if it does not use the money to stop deforestation in the Amazon. Bolsonaro, whom President Trump has expressed admiration for in the past, responded by saying his government will not accept “bribes” or “coward threats.” [[Reuters / Jake Spring](] - “What some have not yet understood is that Brazil has changed,” Bolsonaro said Wednesday, while also calling Biden’s remarks “regrettable” and “disastrous and gratuitous.” “Our sovereignty is non-negotiable.” [[AP / Mauricio Savarese](] - At last week’s United Nations General Assembly, Bolsonaro — who campaigned on opening up more of the Amazon to commercial use — tried to defend his administration’s environmental record, claiming Brazil is a victim of a “brutal disinformation campaign.” [[AP / David Biller and Mauricio Savarese](] - Bolsonaro also defended his response to the coronavirus pandemic to the UN, although he downplayed the threat of the virus for several months (he also tested positive for it in July). Brazil currently has the third most confirmed Covid-19 cases in the world and the second most deaths. [[Vox / Jen Kirby](] MISCELLANEOUS Twenty-one people died in ICE custody during fiscal year 2020, which ended Wednesday, nearly double the 2019 rate and the highest number since 2005. Eight of the deaths were from Covid-19. [[CNN / Catherine E. Shoichet](] - Greenland’s ice sheet is receding at a rate four times faster than at any other point in the past 12,000 years. The only way to reverse this, experts warn, is with a global reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. [[Washington Post / Andrew Freedman and Brady Dennis](] - Madrid, the epicenter of Europe’s second major Covid-19 outbreak, has reinstituted a stay-at-home order, becoming the first European capital to do so. Madrid has 859 cases per 100,000 people. [[Reuters / Marco Trujillo and Ingrid Melander](] - The Trump administration on Wednesday announced it will refugee admissions to 15,000 for the next fiscal year, the lowest cap since the refugee program was established in 1980. [[Vox / Nicole Narea](] - Halloween canceled? Not in Chicago: Mayor Lori Lightfoot outlined guidelines for celebrating while staying socially distant, including advising trick-or-treaters to remain in groups of six or fewer and not stick their hands into candy bowls. [[Chicago Tribune / Gregory Pratt and Alice Yin](] [Learn more about RevenueStripe...]( VERBATIM “Bolsonaro’s relationship is with Trump, not the US. If Brazil wants to keep a relationship with a Biden administration it will have to make many concessions in the environmental area, beef up the enforcement on deforestation, wildfires issues, and show that it is taking the criticism seriously.” [[Maurício Santoro, political science professor at the State University of Rio de Janeiro](] WATCH THIS A new episode of Missing Chapter explores the forgotten “wade-ins” that transformed the civil rights movement in the 1950s and ’60s. [Sign up for the Missing Chapter newsletter]( to get a behind-the-scenes look at our reporting process and updates on new episodes. [[Vox / Ranjani Chakraborty](] [Read more from Vox](#) [The definitive case for ending the filibuster]( [The Proud Boys, explained]( [Democratic Party leaders are “banging their heads against the wall” after private meetings with Facebook on election misinformation]( [A TikTok house divided]( [Existential mysteries to read over the long winter to come]( [Learn more about RevenueStripe...]( [Facebook]( [Twitter]( [YouTube]( This email was sent to {EMAIL}. Manage your [email preferences](, or [unsubscribe]( to stop receiving all emails from Vox. If you value Vox’s unique explanatory journalism, support our work with a one-time or recurring [contribution](. View our [Privacy Notice]( and our [Terms of Service](. Vox Media, 1201 Connecticut Ave. NW, Washington, DC 20036. Copyright © 2020. All rights reserved.