Wednesday, August 05, 2020



'An earthquake': Beirut blasts heap further misery on crisis-wracked Lebanon

For the Lebanese people, who have watched helplessly as their economy has collapsed in recent months, the devastation wrought by Tuesday's blasts in Beirut is one disaster too many.

The deadly blasts struck at a time when Lebanon's currency has plummeted against the dollar, businesses have closed en masse and poverty has soared at the same alarming rate as unemployment.

"It's an earthquake," said Kamel Mohanna, founder of the Amel Association International charity founded during the 1975-1990 civil war.

"I've been working in humanitarian aid in Lebanon for 47 years, and I've never seen anything like this," he said as hospitals were overflowing with wounded and the capital was reeling in shock.

Lebanon's government has declared a two-week state of emergency following Tuesday's devastating blasts, which killed more than 100 people and injured thousands more.


For months already, many Lebanese struggling in the country's worst economic crisis in decades have turned to charities once largely dedicated to the nearly two million Syrian and Palestinian refugees living in Lebanon.

Amid the economic turmoil, cash shortages, pandemic and street protests, Lebanon's middle class — teachers, civil servants, nurses — have already seen their lives turned upside down.

>> Lebanon’s neo-liberal wheels sped to a dream future, but the past applies the brakes

Now, after the massive explosions that ravaged Beirut's port, officials estimate that an additional 300,000 residents will be left homeless.

And the disaster damage bill for an indebted country that was already asking for help from international donors is expected to range between $3 billion and $5 billion dollars.

'Asking for alms'

Maya Terro, founder of Food Blessed, a local charity that distributes food aid, now expects a huge additional demand. Beirut's port, which was flattened by the explosions, is the main gateway for imports.

"Lebanon imports 80 percent of its food," Terro said. "Immediately I thought: empty supermarket shelves, increased prices due to shortages."


Inflation of basic food goods already soared by 109 percent between September and May, according to the UN's World Food Programme (WFP).

The UN's Food and Agriculture Organization warned Tuesday that, after huge wheat stockpiles at the port were destroyed, "we fear that we will soon have a problem with the availability of flour for the country". 

Even before the explosions, life was a daily struggle against poverty and hopelessness, Gaby, a former civil servant in his fifties living in a suburb of Beirut, told AFP several days before the disaster.

Gaby, who used to fire up the grill twice a month for a family barbecue, said he now has no choice but to go to a charity to get rice and pasta.

"I feel like I am asking for alms," he said.

With hyperinflation, neither his pension — worth $1,600 at official rates, but just $300 on the black market — nor his work as a taxi driver or his wife's salary as a nurse are enough to support family needs.

"We deprive ourselves of a lot," said the father of four. "We used to have meat four times a week. Today, nothing at all, not even chicken."

'Everything is difficult'

Nearly half of Lebanese now live below the poverty line, according to official statistics.

Economic difficulties were a key driver of mass protests that began last year against a political system widely seen as corrupt and inept.

The economic crisis has been compounded by the loss of income caused by restrictions to stem the Covid-19 pandemic.

Two-thirds of Lebanese households have seen their income drop, according to a WFP survey in June, while two-fifths of those questioned had gone into debt to buy food or pay rent.

WFP, working with the government, was planning to boost aid to help 697,000 people this year, up from just under 140,000 in 2019, spokesperson Malak Jaafar told AFP before the explosions.


Amel Association International said that, even before the blasts, it was already seeing a rise in numbers of Lebanese citizens seeking aid in its more than 20 centres, especially for its medical services.

"The first three months of 2020 saw a 30 percent increase in the number of Lebanese beneficiaries," said health programme coordinator Mohammed Al-Zayed.

"In Lebanon the healthcare is based on the private sector. As a result, services are expensive, and people have reached a point where they can no longer pay."

Doctors Without Borders in June received 81 Lebanese patients, about three times the normal number, said Axelle Franchomme, medical director of the Bar Elias hospital in the eastern Bekaa region. 

One of those patients was Ihsane, a woman in her thirties, who had turned to the medical charity for their free gynaecological surgery due to a lack of funds.

"My husband has been out of work for a while," said Ihsane, explaining how they had already sold one of their two cars to raise cash.

"Everything has become difficult, everything is expensive," she said. "We cannot have the same life as before".

(FRANCE 24 with AFP)

#KEEPSCHOOLCLOSED

The Truth Behind A Viral Picture Of A Reopening School Is Worse Than It LookedImage
An alarming photo of a hallway crowded by mostly maskless students in a Georgia high school raises issues with reopening schools all around the country.


Last updated on August 5, 2020




🇯🇲Black🇭🇹Aziz🇳🇬aNANsi🇹🇹@Freeyourmindkid
This is the first day of school in Paulding County, Georgia.12:31 PM - 04 Aug 2020
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Day two at North Paulding High School. It is just as bad. We were stopped because it was jammed. We are close enough to the point where I got pushed multiple go to second block. This is not ok. Not to mention the 10% mask rate.
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I was just informed that the student who took these pictures from inside of the school has been suspended.
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One staffer attended pre-planning for days while symptomatic. She later texted colleagues to say she'd tested positive for COVID-19. "That was exactly one week ago, so we are all waiting to see who gets sick next week,” a North Paulding teacher said.



The Truth Behind A Viral Picture Of A Reopening School Is Worse Than It Looked
An alarming photo of a hallway crowded by mostly maskless students in a Georgia high school raises issues with reopening schools all around the country.


Behind a viral photo of a crowded hallway at a high school in Georgia, a potentially dire situation is brewing. Students, teachers, and parents fear the Paulding County school’s rushed reopening plans may be spiraling out of control just two days after students — who said they were told they could face expulsion for remaining home — returned to class despite reports of positive coronavirus cases among students and staff.

North Paulding High School, about an hour outside Atlanta, reopened Monday despite an outbreak among members of its high school football team, many of whom, a Facebook video shows, worked out together in a crowded indoor gym last week as part of a weightlifting fundraiser.

Within days of that workout, several North Paulding players had tested positive for the coronavirus. The school’s parents were notified just hours before the first day of class.

And multiple teachers at North Paulding say there are positive tests among school staff, including a staff member who came into contact with most teachers at the school while exhibiting symptoms last week. Teachers and staff said the school won’t confirm coronavirus infections among district employees, citing privacy reasons.

"That was exactly one week ago, so we are all waiting to see who gets sick next week,” a North Paulding teacher told BuzzFeed News of her exposure to the virus.

Despite recommendations from CDC health officials, the district has called mask-wearing a “personal choice” and said that social distancing “will not be possible to enforce” in “most cases.” While the school provided teachers with face shields and masks and encouraged staff and students to wear them, they are not required and not all teachers have chosen to use them. One North Paulding teacher resigned last month over concerns about virus safety.

“Days before school even started, they knew that many of the football players were sick,” said a person familiar with the issues at the high school. “They knew from before day one that it wasn't going to work.”

Some students at North Paulding say they were forced to attend school in person because all of the slots for the district’s virtual learning option were filled. A narrow sign-up window for virtual classes meant many parents missed their opportunity to enroll their children online.

James, a North Paulding senior, said he came to school Tuesday because his mother was unable to enroll him in virtual learning. He wore a mask, but many of his classmates did not. And while some classes practiced distancing, in one, a teacher had pushed together students’ desks to allow for group work. His name has been changed in the story because of concerns about retribution from the school.

“It’s the hallway situation that has me most paranoid,” he said. “There’s a lot of people in the hallways, and you can’t do nothing about it, so it’s scary.”

“There’s a lot of people in the hallways, and you can’t do nothing about it, so it’s scary.”

It was a photo of one of those hallways, crammed with largely maskless students and with just a handful of masks in sight, that spread across the internet Tuesday.

The district superintendent, Brian Otott, sent a message to parents in the wake of the photo. He offered “context” for the photograph: “Class changes that look like this may happen, especially at a high school with more than 2,000 students.” There was little the district could do, he said, beyond encouraging masks.

Neither North Paulding High School nor Paulding County Schools responded to multiple requests for comment.

According to a person familiar with North Paulding High School, the plan shared with teachers said hallways were supposed to be one-way; the photograph was taken in one of the only two-laned hallways in the school. But the one-lane hallways had their own downsides, causing students to walk long routes between classes — spending more time in exposed common areas.

James’ parents saw the photograph that had been circulating Tuesday and told him, “You are not going back to school again,” he said. But a few hours later, his mother had spoken to the school and was told that students who “chose not to go to school” could face suspension or expulsion.

On Wednesday, he went back to school. “I had no choice,” he said.


Brynn Anderson / AP

Students arrive at Dallas Elementary School for the first day of school amid the coronavirus outbreak on Aug. 3, in Dallas, Georgia, in Paulding County.

North Paulding teachers said they too felt they had no choice but to show up to work, even after a staff member texted colleagues saying she had tested positive for the virus. The staffer had attended planning sessions while exhibiting symptoms, one teacher said.

She did not attend school after testing positive. But teachers have heard nothing from the school, they said, which won’t confirm that staff members have tested positive, citing privacy concerns.

“A lot of us are terrified, and they won't let us know if we have been exposed until a state contact tracer has contacted us,” one teacher said.

“These teachers are deeply concerned for their health, especially the older ones and those with major health problems,” said a family member of a North Paulding teacher.

Amy, a school nurse, resigned from Paulding County Schools in July over concerns about virus safety. She said under the school district’s plan, school nurses were supposed to act as contact tracers for thousands of kids and staff, and that a district plan to sequester children believed to be exposed until their parents could pick them up seemed insufficient.

“I did not want to have any part of that,” she said. “It was completely and totally irresponsible.”

In a resignation letter she shared with BuzzFeed News, she wrote, “Masks are not a ‘personal choice’ during a pandemic. I cannot return knowing I am not supportive of your decision to open so quickly and not at least mandate masks.”

Many other parents and family members of students in Paulding County, however, are not concerned about the risk of attending school in person. The district said the majority of parents had chosen in-person schooling, despite the overfilling of its virtual schools.

“We have faith in our governor,” said Mary Wells, the grandmother of multiple students in the district, referring to Republican Gov. Brian Kemp. “He has done a great job and the school administrators in Paulding are doing the best they can in this insane time.”

Anthony Fauci, the country’s top infectious disease official, has been openly critical of Kemp for his decision this spring to reopen the state, allow indoor dining, and not mandate masks. The school district cited the fact that the rate of infection in Paulding County is lower than elsewhere in Georgia as part of its reason for deciding to reopen, but cases throughout the state have been high and the case numbers in counties that border Paulding — including Polk, Cobbm, and Bartow — are high. Many other districts have delayed reopening. Meanwhile, in Cherokee County, Georgia, a second-grader who went back to school there on Monday has tested positive for COVID-19, according to CBS News.

Chelsea Gibson has two children attending grade school in Paulding County. In June, Gibson, her husband, her mother-in-law, and two children all contracted COVID-19, and her husband’s breathing grew so labored that she said she nearly took him to the emergency room. In the end, the family recovered, although Gibson said she still has residual breathing issues.

The whole family recovered from the virus several weeks before school started. On Monday, both of her kids went back to school in person. Because she works full-time and the entire household shares a single desktop computer, Gibson said she didn’t even consider the virtual learning option.

“We couldn’t do online at all,” she said. “It wasn’t feasible.”

The mother is on the school council at Northside Elementary, where her kids are enrolled, and she said she feels very confident that the school’s plan for keeping students and teachers safe is a good one. There’s limited passing in the halls, most teachers have opted to wear masks, and students’ lunches are delivered to their classrooms so they don’t eat together in the cafeteria.

“They are going above and beyond,” she said.

But she’s worried the unfolding disaster at North Paulding High School will make the precautions taken in the grade schools moot and force her kids back home, where they’ll once again pick up paper packets from school and be unable to learn from a teacher for months.

“I feel like they handled that completely wrong,” she said of the coronavirus outbreak among the football team. “These individual schools that are handling it wrong are going to mess it up for the entire district.”

“In the end it’s going to hurt all the students who can’t go back to school,” she continued. “My kids need to go back to school so they can learn.”

Any student found criticizing the school on social media could face disciplinary consequences.

As they watched the photograph of their school hallway spread across the Internet, some North Paulding students said they felt their school was being treated unfairly.

Virtual learning was not an option for many low-income students without access to devices, or for students in rural areas with poor Internet access, one student pointed out. And Kemp himself has refused a mask mandate.

Steven, a North Paulding student who asked that only his middle name be used, said he felt safe going to school without a mask. Most of the hallways he encountered, he said, were far less crowded than in the one in the photograph. And the virus itself, he said, didn’t seem like “much of a problem” in Paulding County.

“I’ve only known three people to get it, other than the football players, obviously,” Steven said. “If I get it, I get it. I believe that’s what most people in my area's ideology is — if we get it, we get it.”

Steven said he didn’t want to let worries about spreading the virus to his family control his life.

“Most of my family, including my grandparents, think the same as well,” he said. “We just go on about our business and keep it out of our mind.”

On Wednesday, the school addressed the controversy that had swirled around the viral photograph via an intercom announcement from North Paulding High School principal Gabe Carmona. In it, according to two people familiar with the situation, he stated that any student found criticizing the school on social media could face disciplinary consequences.



Molly Hensley-Clancy is a politics reporter for BuzzFeed News and is based in Washington, DC.

Caroline O'Donovan is a senior technology reporter for BuzzFeed News and is based in San Francisco
Horrifying Photos Show The Devastating Aftermath Of The Explosion In Beirut
SEE GALLERY HERE

https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/katebubacz/photos-aftermath-beirut-lebanon-explosion





A man with a bandaged head sits in the middle of a destroyed street
Two soldiers search in a destroyed house for survivors with a flashlight at night
Cars are buried in rubble and buildings destroyed on a street at night
#KASHMIR IS #INDIA'S #GAZA

Jammu and Kashmir imposes curfew over protest concerns


Indian paramilitary soldiers patrol the village of Beighpora in south Kashmir's Pulwama district on May 6. File Photo by Farooq Khan/EPA-EFE
Aug. 4 (UPI) -- Administrators in Muslim-majority Jammu and Kashmir have imposed a curfew that will run through Wednesday over concerns about violent protests.

Srinagar officials said they received intelligence that separatists and groups supported by rival Pakistan were planning violent protests to mark the one-year anniversary of India stripping the region of autonomy.

Wednesday marks exactly one year since New Delhi surprised India's portion of the Jammu and Kashmir region by ending its autonomous rule and cutting phone and Internet services for months. The curfew took effect Monday night.

"There are specific inputs about violent protests endangering public life and property," an order issued by Srinagar District Magistrate Shahid Chaudhary states. "The report has further made a case that to prevent such violence and loss of life and property, it is essential to impose curfew in the district."

When it stripped autonomy, India arrested many Kashmir leaders and relations have done little to thaw since. Former Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti is still in detention and leader Omar Abdullah was jailed for several months before he was released.

India's lockdown is estimated to have cost them more than $5 billion and 500,000 jobs. Pakistan and China, which share borders with India-controlled Kashmir, opposed the lockdown.

Hindu-led India and Muslim-led Pakistan have fought two major wars over Kashmir since their independence and currently divide the Kashmir region in two.

Read MoreNarendra Modi's aggression against Muslims must be stoppedIndia police: Security forces kill top militant commander in Kashmir
Locusts plunder crops in southwest China

Authorities in Yunnan Province, China said Tuesday the region has been battling locusts that have damaged local crops in Pu'er and other areas. File Photo by Stephen Shaver/UPI | License Photo

Aug. 4 (UPI) -- Swarms of locusts have destroyed crops in China's southwestern Yunnan Province, as the country braces for more flooding in other regions.

The Forestry Department of Yunnan Province said farmers in Pu'er, a city in the province, and other areas have reported severe damage to crops over nearly 40 square miles of land, China Central Television and Xinhua news agency reported Tuesday.

The locusts have caused trouble for Chinese farmers every summer for the past three years, according to Caixin Global. But the damage that began in July was on a "scale not seen in years," the report says, quoting farmers in the province.

The locusts have been multiplying in number, while ravaging local crops of bamboo, corn and plantains, according to Yunnan authorities.

The insects have been identified as yellow-spined bamboo locusts, found in China, Myanmar, Laos and Vietnam.

"Because the weather had cleared and the temperature was right, a second round of locusts made their move," authorities said, according to Chinese state media.

Provincial authorities have deployed dozens of drones to monitor crops and have mobilized a team of 57,000 emergency workers to fight the pests, according to Caixin.

Farmers in southwest China are struggling with locusts at a time when the country is coping with heavy rains, with more torrential downpours expected in the coming days.

Water levels at the Three Gorges Dam reached nearly 530 feet on Tuesday, Chinese authorities said. Some of the water was let out in July, flooding areas downstream, according to eyewitnesses.

The maximum reservoir water level for the dam is 574 feet, according to Xinhua.

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Gold surpasses $2,000 threshold for first time in history


Aug. 4 (UPI) -- Gold closed above the $2,000 threshold for the first time in history Tuesday and markets rose slightly amid low-interest rates and optimism surrounding additional federal stimulus.

Spot gold rose 1.4% to $2,004.35 an ounce while gold futures ended the day 1.7% higher at $2,021 as governments worldwide have pushed a surge of financial aid into their economies in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The rally in gold prices comes as the Federal Reserve left the benchmark lending rate unchanged at 0% to 0.25% last week, saying the economy is still "well below" pre-pandemic levels.

Congress is also continuing negotiations for another coronavirus stimulus bill that would provide an additional round of $1,200 payments and an extension to federal unemployment benefits although Democrats disagree with Republicans and the Trump administration on the amount that should be provided.

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Markets also showed modest gains Tuesday as the Dow Jones Industrial Average ended the day up 164.07 points, or 0.62%, while the S&P 500 gained 0.36% and the Nasdaq Composite increased 0.35%.

Netflix stock helped to lead the way for tech stocks, rising 2.21%, while Apple stock rose 0.67%.

Disney stock also increased 0.81% before releasing its earnings report after markets closed on Tuesday.

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Consumer spending in U.S. rises for 2nd month in a row

The company announced it experienced a $3.5 billion hit to operating income after its parks were closed during the quarter as revenue for the Parks, Experience and Products segment, fell 85% to below $1 billion.

On the other hand, Disney reported strong streaming numbers announcing it now has 100 million paid subscribers across it streaming services, including Disney+, Hulu and ESPN+, with more than half coming from Disney+ which launched last year.

Additionally, the company said it would allow Disney+ subscribers to watch its live-action remake of Mulan on the service for $29.99 in the United States beginning Sept. 4.

Following the report, Disney stock rose 4.71% in after-hours trading
interpol6878
Interpol warns of 'alarming rate' of cyberattacks amid pandemic

Aug. 5 (UPI) -- The International Criminal Police Organization said in a new report that it has observed an "alarming rate" of cyberattacks targeting governments and corporations as employees and companies around the world are forced to work remotely amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The report published by Interpol on Tuesday states that cybercriminals are shifting from targeting individuals and small businesses to major corporations, governments and infrastructure in order to maximize their potential financial gain by seeking to take advantage of increased security vulnerabilities caused by the sudden shift to teleworking.

In the four-month period of January to April, Interpol detected some 907,000 spam messages, 737 malware-related attacks and 48,000 malicious URLs, all related to COVID-19.

"Cybercriminals are developing and boosting their attacks at an alarming pace, exploiting the fear and uncertainty caused by the unstable social and economic situation created by COVID-19," Interpol Secretary-General Jurgen Stock said in a statement that accompanied the report, which was based on data from 194 member countries and private partners.

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Among its member countries, 59% reported significant increases in online phishing scams, which the Federal Trade Commission describes as email or text messages sent to a target in hopes of tricking them into providing personal information to the cybercriminal.

"Seizing the pandemic as an opportunity to give their attacks a better chance of success, threat actors have revised their usual online scams and phishing schemes," the report states. "By deploying COVID-19 themed phishing emails, often impersonating government and health authorities, cybercriminals entice victims into providing their personal data and downloading malicious content."

A large portion of these attacks reported to law enforcement involved attempts to gain access to user credentials and passwords, the report said, adding that emails appearing to be sent from health ministries or the World Health Organization contained malicious attachments that exploited vulnerabilities to run malicious code.

RELATED Google tightens ad rules on hacked information

More than 35% of member countries also reported malware and ransomware as a main cyberthreat with several reporting attacks against critical government infrastructure.

The FTC describes malware as a category of malicious cyberattacks that include viruses, spyware and other software that is installed on one's computer or electronic device without their consent that can be used to steal personal information, send spam or commit fraud.

Interpol said that in the first two weeks of April, it saw a spike in such attacks by multiple groups that have seen gone quiet, suggesting organizations have been infected with malware that has yet to be activated.
RELATED U.S. offers $2M reward for 2 men who hacked SEC



Malicious domains and misinformation were also identified as significant threats, the report said.

Interpol said that it expects "the cyberthreat landscape" to only worsen as more cybercriminals will be attracted to the vulnerabilities related the significant increase in people working from home.

Cybercrime is also increasing due to lockdowns, it said, as criminals search for new revenue streams.

To thwart the increase in attacks, Interpol recommends member states to stay up-to-date on newly identified cybercrimes, enhance police collaboration and cooperation among countries and increase cybercrime investigative capabilities, among a slew of other suggestions.

"The report's findings, again, underline the need for closer public-private sector cooperation if we are to effectively tackle the threat COVID-19 also poses to our cyberhealth," Stock said.
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