Hong Kong residents awoke Wednesday to a stark new reality: China’s state-security apparatus has them within easy reach following Beijing’s swift and secretive imposition on the territory of a sweeping national security law.          

The new law drew protests by 27 countries at the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva for undermining the freedoms and semiautonomous status of the Asian financial center. Critics say it destroys a legal firewall that had offered some protection for basic rights against the rule of China’s Communist Party.

The top-down enactment of the law on Tuesday night, bypassing Hong Kong’s legislature, belies the “one country, two systems” formula that China pledged to uphold for 50 years after regaining sovereignty over Hong Kong, a former British colony, in 1997.

“It marks the end of Hong Kong that the world knew before,” tweeted pro-democracy campaigner Joshua Wong. He and other activists immediately disbanded their organizations, while vowing to continue their fight in a personal capacity.

Despite the heightened risks, protesters took to the streets to oppose the law on Wednesday, the 23^rd anniversary of Hong Kong’s handover from Britain to China. Riot police arrested about 370 people, including 10 they suspected of breaking the new law – the first of whom, police said, was a man who held a “Hong Kong Independence” flag. Police raised purple flags warning protesters they may be breaching the security law.

“The time for collective self-delusion … is over,” says Alvin Cheung, a Hong Kong barrister and university lecturer now at New York University, predicting prosecutions under the new law of several prominent Hong Kong pro-democracy figures. “We’ve seen that Beijing is able and willing in the current climate to ram this legislation down everybody’s throats. I would imagine they are unlikely to sit on it now that they have obtained it.”

The law broadly defines national security crimes – secession, subversion, terrorism, and collusion with foreign “elements” – with a maximum penalty of life in prison. But it also opens the door wide for not only Hong Kong citizens, but anyone, to be apprehended by Chinese state-security agents, sent to the mainland, tried in courts controlled by the Communist Party, and punished under China’s criminal code.

The law allows Chinese state-security authorities to operate secretly through a new National Security Agency (NSA) in Hong Kong, which can take jurisdiction of any cases it considers “complex,” “serious” or that involve a “major” threat.

High-stakes confusion 

Overnight, Hong Kong residents had to calibrate how to respond to the new risk of prosecution by Chinese authorities.

The full text of the law was withheld from Hong Kongers until just before midnight on Tuesday, when it was published after Hong Kong’s Chief Executive Carrie Lam signed and promulgated it.

Beijing carefully choreographed the move to quash unrest and instill fear in the city of 7 million people on China’s southern coast, say Hong Kong political analysts.

Kin Cheung/AP

Police detain a protester during a march marking the anniversary of Hong Kong's handover from Britain to China on July 1, 2020, in Hong Kong. One day earlier, China enacted a national security law that cracks down on protests in the territory.

“Everything is kept in a black box ... in the dark ... in this shock and awe campaign against Hong Kong,” says Kenneth Chan, associate professor of government at Hong Kong Baptist University. “It is right of Hong Kong people to prepare for the worst.”

Beijing’s aim, analysts say, is to extend to Hong Kong the same psychological control system long used in mainland China, one that relies heavily on self-censorship. People curb their behavior inordinately because they are never sure where the line is that they cannot cross.

“The ambiguity of the law is the most frightening part,” says Hong Kong activist Glacier Kwong. 

This puts at risk civil liberties such as freedom of speech and protest, activists say. For example, posting on social media about organizing protests in Hong Kong could be cast as attempts to overthrow the government and subject to prosecution, Ms. Kwong says.

Dual state danger

In terms of Hong Kong’s autonomy, “this national security law clearly is a lethal blow demolishing the firewall between the two systems,” says Professor Chan, a former Hong Kong lawmaker.

In its place, the law creates a “dual state” inside Hong Kong, with two different legal tracks for prosecuting national security crimes. Beijing holds the prerogative to take jurisdiction of cases as it sees fit.

“This is pretty much a textbook example of the dual state,” says Mr. Cheung, a nonresident affiliated scholar of NYU’s U.S.-Asia Law Institute. “Every single person is left at the mercy of the state, and whether or not you get arrested and prosecuted is entirely dependent on the whims of the [Chinese Communist] Party.”

Hong Kong’s chief executive, Ms. Lam, says the law will only be applied in “rare” cases, and will not be applied retroactively.

Beijing has long sought to tighten its hold over Hong Kong, and the leadership has been frustrated – if not embarrassed – by the open defiance of millions of Hong Kong “compatriots,” experts say.

China’s leadership began calling for strengthening the national security apparatus in October, after months in which Hong Kong failed to quell mass pro-democracy protests. Earlier efforts by Hong Kong lawmakers to pass national security legislation, as required by the Basic Law, were thwarted by popular opposition.

Mass protests erupted in June 2019 over a proposed extradition law, later withdrawn, that would have allowed some criminal suspects in the territory to be tried in the mainland. Millions of citizens of all ages and walks of life took to the streets to oppose Beijing’s erosion of Hong Kong’s autonomy and demand universal suffrage and police accountability.

The protests were largely peaceful, although some protesters clashed with police and vandalized metro stations, government offices, and pro-Beijing businesses. Beijing labeled the protests akin to “terrorism” and said they were instigated by foreign forces, or “black hands.”

The new law echoes such charges and seems tailored to counter the protests – for example by labeling destruction of vehicles as “terrorism” and damaging government facilities as “subversion.” Signaling the unfolding chill, numerous social media accounts of activists are going dark.

Futures here – or elsewhere?

In addition to stifling the protest movement, the law may be timed to prevent anticipated gains by Hong Kong’s pro-democracy candidates in legislative elections scheduled for September. Last November, pro-democracy candidates won a landslide victory in district council elections.

Anyone convicted of violating national security is disqualified from holding or running for public office, allowing for a possible purge of democrats and localists from elected bodies.

Hong Kong public university presidents are required to pledge allegiance to the national security law, Professor Chan says, and some scholars fear self-censorship in classrooms and research will soon follow.

Hong Kong’s foreign business community, meanwhile, worries about how the law undercuts the territory’s independent judiciary, and about its authorization of covert surveillance and the intercept of communications.

The law says national security authorities in Hong Kong will take unspecified “necessary measures to strengthen” the management of foreign organizations, nongovernmental organizations, and news agencies in the territory.

In a June survey taken by the American Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong (AmCham), 83% of respondents said they were “very concerned or moderately concerned” by the impending law. Nearly half expressed pessimism about Hong Kong’s medium- and long-term outlook. But with interests in China and no clear alternative location, most said they had no immediate plans to leave. About 1,300 U.S.-owned companies and 100,000 Americans are based in Hong Kong.

As for Hong Kongers, some are seeking refuge abroad. Taiwan opened a new office Wednesday to help those fleeing, Reuters reported, and the United Kingdom has vowed to create a path to citizenship for many Hong Kongers.

But others such as Professor Chan envision “a new chapter for Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement,” now that the myth of “one country, two systems” has been fully revealed. “Never succumb to the inevitability of dictatorship,” he says. “Live a life as human beings and embrace uncertainty. A lot of people in Hong Kong will continue to do that.”

Tom Brenner/Reuters

White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany is seen holding a daily press briefing from a cellphone live stream, at the White House in Washington, June 30, 2020.

In early May a classified CIA update for officers across U.S. intelligence agencies and others with security clearance reportedly cited evidence of a Russian program suspected of paying Taliban-linked militias to kill American and coalition troops in Afghanistan.

The military and intelligence agencies were investigating whether the bounty program might have played a part in an April 2019 roadside bombing near Bagram Air Base in which three Marine reservists were killed. The United States had evidence – in the form of a half-million dollars in cash found in a Seal Team 6 raid of a Taliban hideout – that bounties had already been paid.

And intelligence from captured Taliban fighters spurred the U.S. to investigate a funding channel connecting money handlers in Afghanistan with sources in Russia. 

Information on the alleged Russian bounty program had already been included in a President’s Daily Brief, or PDB, in late February, according to reporting this week in The New York Times.

But the inclusion of Russia’s bounty plan more than two months later in the CIA update, called the Wire, is raising questions among some former intelligence officers and national security experts: Was it just bureaucratic issues that caused the delay? Did new and better sourcing materialize over those two months to warrant the broader dissemination?

And why was the CIA, which compiles the Wire, acting at that point to disseminate something of such gravity to a broader audience?

Question of consensus

Moreover, the wider dissemination of information on the bounty program along with the hints of sharp differences over it between the Trump administration and parts of the intelligence community reflect what some say is a debilitating lack of consensus in the U.S. government on Russia.

As the U.S. squabbles over how to handle relations with America’s longtime ideological and geopolitical adversary, these voices caution, Vladimir Putin is cannily exploiting the divisions to further his goals vis-a-vis the U.S. Those include weakening America’s democratic system and exacerbating social divisions. For Mr. Putin, who aims to reassert Russia as a global power, damaging U.S. standing in and commitment to regions where American and Russian interests collide – Eastern Europe, Central Asia, the Middle East, and Afghanistan – remains a top priority.

But others say that a broad consensus on Russia that goes back to the Cold War is, in fact, still in place – everywhere but at the very top.

“There is actually a fairly large consensus about the challenge Russia poses and the way the U.S. should respond, and I would say that consensus stretches from the intelligence community and many national security officials to much of Congress,” says Andrea Kendall-Taylor, a former deputy national intelligence officer for Russia and Eurasia in the National Intelligence Council.

“And then there’s a huge gap,” she adds, “between that consensus and the person at the very top.”

Tom Brenner/Reuters/File

President Donald Trump delivers remarks to U.S. troops during an unannounced visit to Bagram Air Base, Afghanistan, November 28, 2019.

It is that gap, a feature of President Donald Trump’s tenure from the beginning – the intelligence community finding substantial evidence of Russian interference in the 2016 elections, and the president dismissing such conclusions as a “hoax” – that appears to be on display once again in the uproar over the suspected Russian bounty program.

Mr. Trump has had very little to say about the Russian plan, other than that he was never briefed on the issue. White House officials do not deny that the intelligence reached the Oval Office, but say it was not confirmed and so was not discussed directly with the president.

A pattern concerning Russia

Still, the absence of White House action on the suspected bounty program or even engagement on it with Russia at any level confirms what some see as a pattern of unwillingness to take to the president any evidence of nefarious Russian activity toward the U.S.

“I do not see that this story is so much about intelligence as it is really about the administration failing to deal with Russia offering to pay the Taliban to kill U.S. troops,” says Katrina Mulligan, a former official in the National Security Council and Office of the Director of National Intelligence who served under both the Obama and Trump administrations.

For Ms. Mulligan, that failure reflects in part the “dysfunction” in the White House national security apparatus, which she notes has been led by six national security advisers and four directors of national intelligence over Mr. Trump’s tenure.

But she also questions why such explosive information about Russian activity, even if not fully confirmed, would have been kept from the president. Noting that in her time in government a lack of consensus across intelligence agencies “was never a reason to not tell the president something of this magnitude,” she says, “I really wonder about what motivated people [in the White House] not to prioritize this with the president.”

Others who have been directly involved in preparing the PDB agree, finding it unfathomable that such information involving force protection and vulnerability would not have reached the commander-in-chief.

“This [intelligence] reporting is so inflammatory and so egregious, it is incomprehensible to me that senior people wouldn’t bring this to the attention of the president,” says Robert Cardillo, a former deputy director of National Intelligence for Intelligence Integration and a PDB briefer to President Obama.

“It’s even more incomprehensible,” he adds, “that no action would have been taken in response.”

Susan Walsh/AP/File

President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin walk to participate in a group photo at the G20 summit in Osaka, Japan, June 28, 2019. The administration has careered between President Trump's attempts to curry favor and friendship with Mr. Putin and longstanding deep-seated concerns over his intentions.

Some of the House Republicans who were invited to the White House Monday to be briefed on the Russian bounty program intelligence suggested they were not fully satisfied with the explanations they received. They also hinted at a higher degree of alarm over Russian activities, specifically in Afghanistan, than what they have seen emanating from the administration.

“It has been clear for some time that Russia does not wish us well in Afghanistan,” two of those Republicans – Reps. Liz Cheney of Wyoming and Mac Thornberry of Texas – said in a joint statement following the briefing. “We believe it is important to vigorously pursue any information related to Russia or any other country targeting our forces.”

The two prominent hawks said they “remain concerned about Russian activity in Afghanistan, including reports that they have targeted U.S. forces,” and said they expect the administration to promptly provide Congress with additional information on the alleged Russian program.

Trump-Putin phone calls

Some Democrats and national security analysts more critical of the administration note that over recent months during which the White House has known about the suspected Russian bounty plan, President Trump has not only refrained from challenging Russia over its activities but has gone out of his way in the other direction. He is known to have had at least four phone conversations with Mr. Putin since late February.

Over that time Mr. Trump has pushed (ultimately unsuccessfully) for the G7 group of most advanced economies to readmit Russia to the elite club. He has also taken everyone by surprise, including Germany, by announcing an imminent reduction in U.S. troops stationed in Germany.

Russia has said very little about the suspected bounty program, but officials have seized on the fact that the U.S. never raised it with them to cast the reporting’s veracity in doubt. Dmitry Peskov, a spokesman for Mr. Putin, told NBC News Monday that not only were the reports incorrect, but that “none of the American representatives have ever raised this question” with their Russian counterparts.

The White House is doubling down on the fact that there was not unanimity on the bounty program’s existence across intelligence agencies to explain why it was not taken up directly with the president.

“There was not a consensus among the intelligence community,” White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said Monday. “And, in fact, there were dissenting opinions within the intelligence community, and it would not be elevated to the president until it was verified.”

This left Representative Thornberry stupefied and irate that something “with even a hint of veracity” concerning the security of U.S. troops would not be taken to the president.

Indeed former officials with experience in highest-level intelligence briefings say “dissenting opinions” would not be a reason to keep information from the president, though the existence of varying assessments would be shared.

“Dissent has a proud tradition in the intelligence community, and it is protected,” says Mr. Cardillo. If he were presenting the president with intelligence that another agency wanted to dissent from, that dissent would be presented to the president, he says.

“The president’s staff has to make decisions with or without perfect information,” says Ms. Mulligan. Waiting for “consensus,” particularly when the lives of U.S. service members are involved, she adds, is not an option.

Courtesy of Daniel González

The owners of the Hotel La Corte de Lugás in Villaviciosa, Spain, shown here, are mulling the benefits of reopening after Spain's coronavirus lockdown with a bare-bones staff, complex and costly hygiene requirements, and only a modest trickle of bookings.

Daniel González and his sister opened their hotel in 2003 in Asturias, northwest Spain, after taking out a loan to remodel an old townhouse. Seven years later, during the financial crisis, they sliced costs, doubled their working hours, and renegotiated their loan terms to stay open.

Now, emerging from Spain’s coronavirus lockdown, they are mulling the benefits of reopening with a bare-bones staff, complex and costly hygiene requirements, and only a modest trickle of bookings. But were it not for the support provided by the government’s response, things might be even grimmer.

“COVID forced us to shut down, but there is government help,” says Mr. González. “We can hold out for the moment. I imagine the problem will come later when we need to start spending more but have no customers, or fewer customers than usual.”

From the beginning of the crisis, Spain’s economic response placed special emphasis on tourism, small and medium-size enterprises, and autonomous (self-employed) workers like Mr. González. Every thread in this patchwork of aid, stretched across six pieces of legislation, represents a lifeline for struggling businesses.

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Mr. González has deferred tax payments, sought reimbursement of the social security contributions he makes as an autonomous worker, and signed up for a low-interest loan in order to keep the hotel afloat. He has even placed one of his hotel workers in a temporary furlough scheme.

“It’s a bit early to assess the government response,” says Mr. González, who is among Spain’s 3.2 million registered self-employed workers. “Many measures have been taken on the fly and the management has been quite chaotic.”

“Every little thing can help”

Tourism has been a key economic sector for Spain since the beginning of modern industry in the 1950s. In 2019, it attracted more than 83 million international visitors, making it the most popular tourism destination in the world after France. Tourism accounts for about 2.5% of gross domestic product and generates nearly 15% of jobs. In many regions, particularly the islands and coastal areas, tourism accounts for an even larger share of economic activity and employment opportunities.

That’s why Spain has focused a significant portion of its safety net efforts during the lockdown toward tourism workers; Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez recently announced a €4.25 billion ($4.75 billion) package to boost the industry.

Courtesy of Daniel González

Daniel González sits in his office at the Hotel La Corte de Lugás in Villaviciosa, Spain, on June 29, 2020. He and his sister survived the 2008 financial crisis and hope to overcome the economic fallout of the coronavirus pandemic with government help.

Early on, the government put in place an extraordinary provision for self-employed workers whose businesses were forced to shut down or lost most of their revenue due to the state of emergency declared on March 13. In principle, Mr. González’s social security contributions of €360 ($400) per month were waived for part of March and all of April, but he still had to pay both months; he only recently had that reimbursement completed. (He was off the hook for May and June payments.)

Meanwhile, the employee on furlough – under a temporary layoff known as ERTE, in which the government covers 70% of the base salary – as of the end of June has received only €1,200, a bit more than half of what he should be due between March 23 and June 15 under the scheme. He got through the lockdown thanks to the salary of his wife. Mr. González wants to bring him back on board in July, but doubts he will have the means to rehire the other two seasonal workers who usually help cover the peak summer months.

“The biggest saving for me is not having to pay an additional salary,” says the hotel owner. “But what gives me peace of mind is the loan. We don’t know yet to what extent this crisis will affect the economy.”

The bank has approved a government-backed loan of up to €50,000 to be paid over five years at 1.6% interest. By the end of 2020, depending on the strength of summer revenues, Mr. González must decide whether to ask for the full amount or part of it. He is leaning toward asking for the lion’s share so he can settle the initial, higher interest loan he took for the hotel.

Jacob Turcotte/Staff

“Every little thing can help save the small enterprises,” notes Professor Enrique Navarro-Jurado, director of the University Institute of Tourism Intelligence and Innovation Research of the University of Málaga. “The key is to reduce their costs as much as possible until activity resumes. And you can’t expect them to hire the entire staff back when activity does resume, because they will not be operating at the same scale.”

The Spanish government forecasts a 10% drop in GDP in 2020 followed by a staggered “square-root shaped” recovery in 2021. Unemployment is expected to skyrocket to 19% this year. Many are hoping that the vital minimum wage announced in May with a goal of reaching 2.3 million people (out of a population of nearly 47 million) will help the most vulnerable. Tourism experts say it is too early to tell how many people from the sector will need that kind of aid.

“Many tourism employees do not have legal contracts. They are working in the dark,” notes Tomas Mazón, an expert in the sociology of tourism at the University of Alicante.

“Tourism companies are not only facing a lower season than in other years but they are coming out of months of losses,” says Luis Miguel Rondón, a member of the board of directors of AECIT, the Spanish Association of Scientific Experts in Tourism. “They already lost Easter, long weekends, and the northern Europeans who come to Spain in the spring.”

The summer tourism season is now officially open for Europeans. The first to arrive were Germans in Mallorca, under a pilot program implementing a special screening process on landing. The target is to open up to the rest of the world – except countries experiencing a high rate of COVID-19 infections – in early July.

Hotel owners large and small are in for challenging times. As many as 45% of hotels and restaurants catering to tourists risk going belly up, according to industry assessments. Spain has considered extending the temporary furlough scheme until September or even the end of the year.

“The impact of the coronavirus pandemic has been brutal,” says Mr. Mazón. The 2008 financial crisis was child’s play compared to this. More people were left unemployed then but this time the whole country has stopped. Everything – hotels, restraints, bars – and everyone stopped.”

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Richard Mertens

Isoo O’Brien walks through a nature preserve on Chicago’s South Side on May 29, 2020. He used to get rare-bird alerts while in class and hope the bird would be in the same area after the school bell rang so he could investigate. Isoo has been contributing to the eBird website since he was 11.

Isoo O’Brien tilts his head toward the exuberant trills issuing from nearby cottonwoods. “That’s a wren,” he says softly. Lifting his binoculars, he scans a reedy pond glinting in the morning sun. “Pied-billed grebe,” he says.

Walking quietly through a nature preserve in the industrial wastelands of Chicago’s South Side, Isoo is all ears, all eyes. In 20 minutes he sees – or hears – 34 species of birds. And just as he’s about to leave, the russet flash of an orchard oriole catches his eye. “That’s probably the most interesting bird I’ve seen,” he says, tapping No. 35 into his iPhone.

The coronavirus shut down university labs, but outside the universities, citizen scientists have been hard at work – and in many places they’ve been busier than ever. EBird, a creation of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology in Ithaca, New York, and since 2002 one of the leading citizen-science projects in the world, reported a 46% increase in submissions in early April compared with last year. On May 9, its annual Global Big Day, a record 50,000 participants recorded more than 2 million bird sightings around the world.

“I’ve been out more than I’ve ever been,” says Isoo, a rising high school senior from Evanston, Illinois. “Having school at home gives me a lot more flexibility.”

Whether people are gathering new information or helping to analyze what’s already been collected, COVID-19 has given them more time to get out in nature and more time to seek it online. Zooniverse is one popular online platform on which ordinary people can search for “clumpy galaxies” in Hubble Telescope photos, identify animals in camera traps on Mont Blanc, and transcribe labels from a collection of Arctic lichens that goes back to 1766. Laura Trouille, vice president of Citizen Science at Chicago’s Adler Planetarium and a co-investigator at Zooniverse, says the platform has seen a fivefold to tenfold increase in participation during the pandemic. With more than 250,000 participants contributing over 5 million entries each week, she says, it’s the equivalent of “a researcher working full time for 48 years straight.”

Indeed, citizen science is thriving as never before. Smart phones have made data collection easier than ever, while increasingly sophisticated methods of analysis are helping to transform mountains of raw data into science. These developments have raised the status of citizen science among professionals and helped them answer questions that would be difficult if not impossible to answer otherwise, shedding light on widespread phenomena like the effects of global warming and changes in land use across continents.

“It’s been totally transformative,” says Leslie Ries, an ecologist at Georgetown University, who studies butterfly populations and relies heavily on data collected by non-scientists. “I cannot say enough about how citizen science has not only changed the way we can do large-scale biodiversity analyses, but also the way we can involve the public.”

A striking example appeared last September in the journal Science, where scientists reported a 30% decline in bird populations across North America over three decades. They came to this startling conclusion in part by studying radar data, but also by using a long record compiled by citizen scientists, including results of an annual breeding bird survey organized by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) as well as data from the granddaddy of citizen science projects, the Audubon Society’s Christmas Bird Count.

“When you fly across the U.S., you see how much land use has changed, how much forest has been turned to agriculture,” says Peter Marra, a biologist at Georgetown University, and one of the study’s authors. “But when you see the actual numbers, you have to do a double take.”

Bird counts since 1900

Citizen science is not new. Before the professionalization of science, all scientists were amateurs: Charles Darwin comparing finches in the Galápagos or Henry David Thoreau recording the flowering dates of plants around Concord, Massachusetts. But science for the masses really took off in the 1990s, when the term “citizen science” first came into widespread use. It’s been flourishing ever since, making scientific research more decentralized and democratic than ever.

For many people it combines a love of the outdoors with the satisfaction of contributing to scientific knowledge. Susan Page, a retired medical technician, became interested in butterflies several years ago while volunteering in the nature preserves west of Chicago. Now, on sunny days from late spring on, she heads out to count them – from lowly cabbage butterflies and gaudy monarchs to great spangled fritillaries.

“I just feel better when I’m outside and I’m in nature,” she says. “I also like that I’m providing the data that can be used on the butterfly populations.”

Citizen science has a worldwide reach. Platforms like eBird, Zooniverse, and iNaturalist are available to anyone with a cellphone or internet service. One of the newer eBirders is Herbert Byaruhanga. Mr. Byaruhanga, who runs a bird safari company out of Rutoto, Uganda, says tourists coming to visit Uganda’s national parks are increasingly interested in eBird. Indeed, most eBird contributions from Africa come from tourists and other Westerners. But Mr. Byaruhanga has been trying to promote eBird among guides in his country, where, he says, “citizen science is not yet fully appreciated.”

The boom in citizen science reflects ongoing efforts to make science fun and easy. At the same time, it has focused attention on improving the quality of data, not just the quantity. Butterfly monitors must follow a protocol developed in England that involves walking the same route at regular intervals over the summer. EBirders, on the other hand, have more liberty; they simply enter the results of whatever walks they take, whenever they feel like it. But there are rules: They are expected to enter all the birds they see and how many of each, whether commonplace sparrows or once-in-a-lifetime warblers. Filters give greater weight to accomplished birders and flag unusual sightings, which local experts then review.

“You try to be tactful,” says Walter Marcisz, a volunteer eBird reviewer in the Chicago area who faces the challenge of vetting thousands of sightings each year. “If you let it go, it’s overwhelming,” he says.

To grow and diversify 

The news for citizen science hasn’t been all good. While the coronavirus has boosted much participation, it’s disrupted activities that bring people together. Mr. Byaruhanga says COVID-19 has hurt bird tourism in Uganda and undermined the livelihoods of some 150 guides, forcing them to sit home or find other work, like farming. The USGS called off its annual survey of breeding birds. The Illinois Butterfly Monitoring Network postponed an outreach effort on Chicago’s South Side intended to extend monitoring to an understudied area but also to recruit a more diverse group of monitors.

Indeed, critics say that while citizen science has flourished, it has not included everyone it could. They say it suffers from the same lack of racial and ethnic diversity that affects scientific enterprise at all levels. This problem came into sharp focus last month when a Black birder, Christian Cooper, was harassed by a white woman while birdwatching in New York City’s Central Park.

“Is citizen science – like environmental issues, like conservation – is it a white space?” asks Jacqueline Scott, a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Toronto who studies race and the outdoors. “Yes it is. They’ve done little outreach to the Black community.”

Dr. Trouille at Zooniverse agrees. “In terms of diversity in STEM, in academia, in museums, in citizen science – there is so much more we need to do,” she says.

What’s the future of citizen science? More participants, undoubtedly, and still more science. As data accumulates, scientists at eBird and elsewhere say they will be able to detect ever longer patterns and trends – and better understand the dynamics of large-scale ecological shifts due to climate change and other factors. They also hope that the enthusiasm for citizen science extends to a wider variety of creatures and phenomena.

“There are so many things we don’t monitor,” says Dr. Marra. “I would think we could be expanding it to other species, insects, mammals, getting people interested in other species.”

As for Isoo, the end of the school year has freed him to pursue one of his current goals: to see as many different birds as he can in Cook County, his home territory, in one year. The record is 281. A thin, serious young man with a shock of brown hair, he shouldn’t be underestimated. Isoo has been a birder since he was 9, an eBirder since he was 11. But he knows that citizen science isn’t for everyone. At Evanston Township High School, his birdwatching gets mixed reviews.

“It’s interesting,” he says. “Some kids are, ‘This is really cool. It’s cool you’re pursuing your passion.’ Some kids don’t understand at all.”

The French get all the credit. Sure, pique-nique is a French word with a history dating back to the 17th century, when the French would gather for a shared meal. And then later in the early 1900s, people from Paris to Provence took those meals into a bucolic outdoor setting.

French impressionists often depicted the picnic tradition on canvas – most famously, Édouard Manet with his iconic “Le déjeuner sur l’herbe.”

And the French are known for picnicking with style – packing baskets brimming with assorted cheeses, charcuteries, pâtés, fruits, and chocolates, and of course the requisite baguette, wooden-handled Opinel knife, and pretty Provençal tablecloth.

But it’s not just the French who can pull off a classy picnic or appreciate the casual, carefree ambiance associated with dining en plein air.

Picnics are plentiful in New England, too, particularly during the summer of 2020, as a pandemic persists, temperatures heat up, and Americans seek ways to gather with friends in a coronavirus-safe manner. Outdoor picnics have become the dinner party of choice.

Ann Hermes/Staff

The French Picnic sandwich is one of the most popular items on the menu at the Cheese Shop, June 27, 2020, in Concord, Massachusetts. The Cheese Shop has taken measures to safeguard staff and customers by limiting the number of patrons in the store to five and requiring masks and gloves.

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“It’s everyone’s preferred way to meet up these days,” says Annie Copps, a cookbook author from the Boston neighborhood of Charlestown, who has been picnicking often now that restrictions in her state have eased and summer weather has arrived. “It feels more important than ever to check in with one another, and eating together outdoors is a safe way to do that.”

Connie Helms, an education consultant in Monkton, Vermont, would concur. Recently, she and her husband reunited for a lakeside picnic with friends they’d only seen on video calls for the past few months. In summers past, she’d gathered for weekly potlucks with the same group, but this time felt different. “The food was less of the focus since we weren’t sharing,” she says, “and being together again was even more special.”

Not that the meal is an afterthought for either of these women. Ms. Helms likes to make “fun food,” as she says, such as deviled eggs or her grandmother’s recipe for baba ghanouj, and Ms. Copps might whip up a beet tzatziki, eaten with pita chips, or her favorite gazpacho, which is smooth enough to be enjoyed without a spoon. (See recipe below.)

But by nixing the potluck aspect to picnics – in keeping with Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines – some pressure can be lifted. People who aren’t inclined to cook or who have been working all day needn’t worry about wowing others with their homemade tagliatelle or gorgeous fig tart.

To simplify and at the same time support a business they care about, they might even pick up a beach-, park-, or backyard-ready picnic box or basket offered by one of the myriad restaurants, markets, or specialty food shops that have pivoted to picnics in response to this timely trend.

Peter Lovis, owner of the 53-year-old Cheese Shop in Concord, Massachusetts, says he’s been selling about 100 custom-prepared picnics each week since March. Customers might order sandwiches or a variety of salads along with a loaf of crusty bread and a couple of wedges of cheese – more often cheddar or Comté than Camembert or chèvre, as harder cheeses can take the heat. Then they often head to nearby Walden Pond, to the Old North Bridge, or for a sunset kayak tour on the Sudbury River.

“The simple act of sharing a great meal outdoors with people you care about nurtures the soul,” says Mr. Lovis. “I hope this renewed interest in picnics is here to stay.” Meanwhile, jokes Mr. Lovis, who can no longer offer his store’s much-beloved samples: “I’m waiting for someone to create a mask that allows for cheese tasting!”

Ann Hermes/Staff

Peter Lovis, owner of the Cheese Shop in Concord, Massachusetts, says he’s been selling about 100 custom-prepared picnics each week since March. “I hope this renewed interest in picnics is here to stay,” he says.

Even some fine-dining establishments are packing picnics, swapping out their silver, china, and white tablecloths for paper and plastic.

The Outermost Inn, one of Martha’s Vineyard’s most exquisite properties with an elegant, special-occasion restaurant, is about to roll out a menu of no-fuss picnics packed in traditional baskets that customers could tote to one of several beaches in Aquinnah, carry onto a boat, or just take back home.

“It’s a massive pivot for us,” says co-owner Alex Taylor. “We were inspired by our staff and how we all choose to enjoy our free time.”

Picnic baskets and price tags will vary, she explains, from the $15 “Kiddo” with such child-pleasers as PB&J and classic ham sandwiches, to the $25 “Low Tide,” starring fresh littleneck clams, lemons, and mignonette sauce and the essential shucking knife and glove. There’s also the similarly priced “West Basin” basket filled with an assortment of drinks and snacks.

Whether one opts to gather with loved ones over chips and salsa in the backyard or clams on the half shell aboard a sailboat, all interviewed shared their hope that today’s dinner party is here to stay and just might be one of those silver linings emerging from the current crisis.

Ann Hermes/Staff

(From left to right) Fatima Franco, David Lemus, and Wendy Franco eat a meal from a local taqueria at a picnic table in Piers Park on June 30, 2020, in East Boston.

Pallavi Mehta, a cooking teacher from Sharon, Massachusetts, certainly feels that. “After being in seclusion for so long,” she says, “I decided to meet this crisis head-on. So my husband and I invited friends to join us on a picnic to my favorite park. What a sheer joy it was to be hanging out outdoors, sharing our meals, exotic or simple, enjoying these precious moments in life and making the most of this situation.”

Even in France the much-celebrated tradition is enjoying a resurgence, says Julie Mautner, a travel planner in St.-Rémy-de-Provence. “My clients ask me often to plan a picnic for them, but especially after staying home for months, they are more excited than ever to share a leisurely meal in a beautiful outdoor setting with nothing to worry about but the occasional mosquito.”

Here is Ms. Copps’ gazpacho recipe, as well as a quinoa salad recipe from Ms. Helms:

Spoon-free gazpacho

1 English cucumber, peeled (or 2 regular cucumbers, peeled and seeded) and chopped

1 red pepper, seeded and chopped

1 green pepper, seeded and chopped

1 small jalapeño pepper, seeded and chopped

2 to 3 garlic cloves

2 tablespoons fresh parsley, plus extra for garnish

4 medium ripe tomatoes, skinned and chopped

1 medium red onion, chopped

4 cups (1 quart) tomato juice

1 1/2 cups plain bread crumbs

1/3 cup sherry vinegar

1 cup extra-virgin olive oil

Kosher or sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

In a blender, purée all ingredients. You might need to blend in two batches. Add salt and pepper to taste. Pour into containers suitable for a picnic. Serves 6 to 8.

– From Annie Copps, cookbook author based in the Boston neighborhood of Charlestown

Tangy quinoa salad

White quinoa has the fluffiest texture and most delicate flavor, but other types of quinoa could be substituted.

1 cup quinoa

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

2 tablespoons rice vinegar

3 to 4 scallions, chopped

1 red bell pepper, diced

Half of one English (long, thin variety) cucumber, diced

1/4 cup carrots, peeled and grated

About 1/4 cup Italian (flat leaf) parsley, chopped (can substitute cilantro or use parsley and cilantro)

Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

In a fine-mesh strainer, rinse quinoa several times. Transfer quinoa to a saucepan, add 1 3/4 cups water, cover, bring to a boil, and then let simmer for 15 to 18 minutes, until water is absorbed. While quinoa is cooking, prepare vegetables. Once quinoa is cooked, release lid to cool and let off steam. When cooled, add olive oil and vinegar, and mix thoroughly. Then add vegetables, and salt and pepper, and refrigerate for a few hours until chilled.

If there are leftovers (unlikely!), add a bit of rice vinegar before eating, as the dish can lose some of its tang over time. Serves 4.

– From Connie Helms, frequent picnicker in Monkton, Vermont

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AP

Mexican National Guard forces watch over the Suchiate River, a popular location for migrants to cross from Guatemala to Mexico.

Even before the coronavirus crisis, Latin America had the world’s slowest economic growth. Now it is also the epicenter for new COVID-19 cases. The combination is driving the region into recession. Mexico’s economy, for example, is expected to dip by about 20% this year. No wonder most of the migrants lately crossing the southwest U.S. border have been single Mexican men seeking work.

Washington’s treatment of border crossers is often seen as a test of how it views Latin America. Under President Donald Trump, the treatment has been strict, even harsh at times, in denying access. After a tsunami of migrants last year – mainly Central American families – Mr. Trump’s new policy of pushing migrants back has cut illegal crossings by nearly half. This is the heart of his reelection pitch.

Yet many economists predict ever larger waves as Latin America’s recession deepens. The new border policies, including more fencing, may not be enough. The time could be ripe for the U.S. and Latin America to again be more neighborly.

One inkling that this idea has taken hold is the administration’s decision in late June to provide $252 million in additional aid to El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras. The money is aimed at addressing the root causes of migration – violence, corruption, and low economic opportunity. It will go toward job creation, economic reforms, and improved security. The U.S. also supports $5.2 billion in emergency aid to Latin America from the International Monetary Fund.

Another focus that addresses root causes is the July 1 launch of the new North American trade accord – the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement. Mexico is so eager to celebrate this “new NAFTA” that its president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, is taking his first official trip abroad by visiting the White House July 8 and 9.

With remittances dropping from Mexicans working in the U.S., Mr. López Obrador is counting on the new treaty to boost investments from the U.S. and revive Mexico’s economy. And in a shift in bilateral ties, he says Mr. Trump’s rhetoric toward Mexico has become more respectful.

The borderless impact of the pandemic is forcing a rethink of the physical and mental borders between the U.S. and Latin America. If a new wave of migration emerges, the two will need more cooperation. Being secure requires being neighborly.