Lebanese prosecutor to question ministers over Beirut blast, amidst public outrage



Issued on: 13/08/2020

Demonstrators wave Lebanese flags during protests near the site of a blast at Beirut's port area, August 11, 2020. © REUTERS/Goran Tomasevic/File Photo

Text by:NEWS WIRES

Lebanon's judiciary will question several ministers, a judicial official said Wednesday, over a massive chemical blast at a Beirut port warehouse that ravaged the capital.

Survivors and volunteers were still sweeping pulverised glass off rubble-strewn streets a week after a large depot of industrial chemicals blew up at Beirut's port, a blast President Michel Aoun estimated had caused more than $15 billion-worth of damage.

The official death toll rose to 171, while 6,500 were injured and 300,000 left temporarily homeless in the country's worst peacetime disaster.

Top diplomats streamed into Lebanon to show solidarity and urge reforms to curb the corruption blamed for allowing a vast stock of ammonium nitrate, a compound often used in homemade bombs, to rot for years at the port despite repeated warnings.

An AFP investigation found that up until the day before the deadly blast, officials had exchanged warnings over the cargo, but did nothing despite experts' fears it could cause a massive conflagration.


A judicial official said Wednesday that the prosecution would question several ministers and former ministers over the disaster.

Meanwhile, at Beirut's main fire station, a stone's throw from the charred and ruined port, firefighters held an emotional funeral for one of 10 comrades they lost in the catastrophe.

"May God be with you, our hero," firefighters cried as they saw off the coffin of their lost friend Jo Noun during their fourth such ceremony since the August 4 disaster.

Ten firefighters are confirmed to have died, and six more are still among the missing, including three members of the same family.

Rina Hitti, the mother of one and related to the two others, said: "In one piece or several, we want our sons back."

Direct aid

Emergency crews on Wednesday were still searching the dusty "ground zero" where the explosion pulverised buildings and left a water-logged 43-metre-deep crater where a quay and warehouses once stood.

The human error that sparked devastation worthy of a major earthquake has sparked public rage, matched only by the speed at which officials are seen to be passing the buck.

Around 100 of the wounded were recently still listed in critical condition and it was feared the death toll could yet rise as Beirut's hospitals treat the casualties.

More than half of 55 healthcare facilities evaluated by the World Health Organization were "non-functional," the agency said Wednesday, adding that three major hospitals were out of operation and another three running at well below normal capacity, he said.

Among those killed was a diplomat from Germany, whose Foreign Minister Heiko Maas arrived in Lebanon Wednesday for a short visit of support.

In a social media message, he stressed the need for "profound economic reform".

He also announced a one million-euro donation directly to the Lebanese Red Cross, in line with a pledge that emergency aid should bypass a government that has lost its people's trust.

Jockeying

Angry protesters demonstrated for a third night running Tuesday to demand the wholesale ouster of a ruling political elite they see as directly responsible for the port tragedy.

Mock gallows and nooses have become the symbols of the new wave of protests, which have rekindled a revolutionary street movement that had lost steam in recent months amid economic hardship and the coronavirus pandemic.

Under intense domestic and foreign pressure, Prime Minister Hassan Diab announced his government's resignation on Monday.

Many have bitterly dismissed his efforts to cast himself as a champion of the fight against corruption, labelling him instead as a puppet of the long-standing political elite.

Some saw the government's departure as a victory and a sign that continued pressure could finally force change in a country ruled by the same cartel of former warlords and their relatives since the 1975-1990 civil war.

Others feared that the resignation could herald the return of old faces such as former prime minister Saad Hariri.

According to the Al-Akhbar newspaper, Nawaf Salam, a former judge at the International Court of Justice, is favoured by some of Lebanon's top foreign partners, including France.

However, the paper said, Salam is not an acceptable choice for powerful Iranian-backed Shiite movement Hezbollah.

French President Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday warned Tehran against interfering in Lebanon, urging his Iranian counterpart Hassan Rouhani "to avoid any outside interference and to support the putting in place of a government which can manage the emergency," the Elysee said.

Meanwhile, a return of Hariri, who resigned under pressure from the street late last year, could spark even more outrage among a protest camp re-invigorated by the disaster.

Parliament was due to convene on Thursday to approve a state of emergency, which would give security forces heightened powers to curb the street demonstrations.

(AFP)

Lebanese protesters call for downfall of president and political elite over Beirut blast

Angry and grieving protesters on Tuesday read aloud the names of at least 171 people killed in last week's explosion at Beirut port and called for the removal of Lebanon's president and other officials they blame for the tragedy.

Gathered near "ground zero", some carried pictures of the victims as a large screen replayed footage of the mushroom cloud that rose over the city on August 4 after highly explosive material stored for years detonated, injuring some 6,000 people and leaving hundreds of thousands homeless.

"HE KNEW" was written across an image of President Michel Aoun on a poster at the protest venue. Underneath, it read: "A government goes, a government comes; we will continue until the president and the parliament speaker are removed."

The president and prime minister were reportedly warned in July about the warehoused ammonium nitrate, according to documents and senior security sources.

Aoun, who has pledged a swift and transparent investigation, tweeted on Tuesday: "My promise to all the pained Lebanese is that I will not rest until all the facts are known."



Lebanon: Beirut falls silent to remember victims
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At 6:08pm in Beirut (15:08 GMT) Tuesday, church bells rang and mosques called for prayer to mark the precise moment that a portside fire ignited a vast stock of ammonium nitrate fertiliser, sparking a huge explosion that was felt as far away as Cyprus.

The fireball and subsequent shockwave, caught in dramatic videos posted on social media, wrought devastation across entire neighbourhoods of Beirut.

Watershed moment

A week later, the blast that left 6,000 people injured and made an estimated 300,000 people temporarily homeless looked like a potential watershed in Lebanon's troubled political history.


Beirut protesters clash with police outside Lebanon's parliament
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On Tuesday, Ali Noureddin joined thousands of people to march solemnly by the wreckage of Beirut port, where his brother Ayman had been stationed as soldier when the blast went off.

"My brother died because of state negligence and corruption," he said, holding a picture of his late brother, who was 27.

Ali dismissed the resignation of Hassan Diab's government on Monday as insignificant unless it were followed by the wholesale removal of Lebanon's hereditary political elite.

"Change will only happen when the entire regime changes," he said, holding back tears. "But I hope all these young people here and my brother's death can bring about change."

In his resignation speech, the 61-year-old Diab cast himself as a champion of the struggle against corrupt political overlords, despite the fact many see him as a puppet rather than a victim.

Some saw his departure as a victory for the protest movement that forced out the previous government last year.

But others warned that given the power of Lebanon's factions and clans, the same old faces may be back before too long.

"It's a long fight that won't end in a month or two," said Hussein El Achi, an activist and lawyer defending the protest camp.

"But (the political elite) are weak, they have never been weaker, even among their own people," he said.

Protests continued for the fourth consecutive night Tuesday, as dozens of demonstrators clashed with security forces and tried to break down barriers leading to the parliament in central Beirut.

The Lebanese Red Cross said 10 people had been taken to hospital while 32 were treated at the scene.


EN NW PKG F24 AR BEIRUT WITNESSES
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The blast rocked a country already on its knees, with an economic collapse sending poverty levels soaring even before the coronavirus pandemic hit.

Some observers argue that deep public anger over the tragedy will reduce Lebanese politicians' room for manoeuvre as foreign pressure grows to pass reforms as a condition for a bailout.

"They will find it very difficult to avoid the kind of structural reforms that the international community has made a precondition for any aid," said political science professor Bassel Salloukh of the Lebanese American University.

France has taken the lead in the international emergency response, organising an aid conference which raised a quarter of a million euros.

President Emmanuel Macron visited blast-ravaged neighbourhoods of Beirut two days after the disaster, adopting a tough tone with Lebanese officials and warning that they needed to strike "a revamped pact with the Lebanese people".

For now Diab's team will continue in a caretaker capacity, but negotiations were underway for a successor.

According to the Al-Akhbar daily newspaper, veteran diplomat Nawaf Salam is favoured by Paris, Washington and Riyadh, three of the key outside power brokers in Lebanon.

Iran, sponsor of Lebanon's dominant Hezbollah movement, also appeared to be on board with such a scenario, which would see Salam head up a neutral government not hostile to the Shiite group.

It was not clear how other factions viewed that solution.

Food 'catastrophe' looms

In the blast zone, the increasingly hopeless search for survivors continued, but rescue teams were only pulling lifeless bodies from the rubble.

The UN refugee agency said that 34 refugees were among the dead.

The blast ripped the sides off towering grain silos that shielded part of the city from the shockwave. But the blast spilt thousands of tonnes of grain, vital to the import-dependant country's food security.

On Monday, the head of the World Food Programme, David Beasley, said Lebanon needed all the help it could get because 85 percent of Lebanon's food used to come in through the port.

He warned that unless port operations resumed quickly, Lebanon would be without bread in two weeks.

Further adding to its woes, the country on Tuesday recorded its highest-yet daily number of deaths and new infections from the novel coronavirus, with seven fatalities and 309 new cases.

Health officials have warned that the chaos caused by the blast risked leading to a spike in infections.

The head a major public hospital warned that the next few days would be critical.

"The events of the previous week have, understandably, shifted attention away from the pandemic," Firass Abiad said on social media.

But, he said, "we cannot afford to allow the virus to go unchecked."

(FRANCE 24 with REUTERS and AFP)

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MARTIAL LAW
Lebanon lawmakers debate emergency imposed after blast

Issued on: 13/08/2020 - 

RESISTANCE GAMES--TEARGAS TENNIS

Lebanese lawmakers are debating a state of emergency imposed by the government following last week's deadly explosion in the capital that critics say will allow it to snuff out renewed protests 

PATRICK BAZ AFP


Beirut (AFP)

Lebanon's parliament convened Thursday to approve a two-week state of emergency in Beirut declared by the government following a deadly explosion that has reignited angry street protests.

If endorsed, the state of emergency law will give the military exceptional powers to snuff out renewed protests demanding the overthrow of a political elite widely held responsible for the devastating blast, human rights groups said.

Calls had circulated on social media networks for protesters to gather near parliament to prevent lawmakers from joining the session.


"We are taking to the streets to stop the criminals from meeting," said one post on social media networks.

"You have destroyed us! Leave!" said another.

The government had already declared a two-week state of emergency on August 5, the day after the explosion that killed 171 people and ravaged the heart of the capital.

But as the measure lasts more than eight days, Lebanese law requires that it be approved by parliament, according to human rights watchdog The Legal Agenda.

The state of emergency allows the army to close down assembly points and prohibit gatherings deemed threats to national security, and expands the jurisdiction of military courts over civilians.

The army can also raid homes at any time and impose house arrest on anyone engaged in activities considered to threaten security, the watchdog said.

This would give authorities legal cover to crack down on a protest movement that first emerged in October last year demanding deep-seated political reform.

There has been widespread anger against authorities who allowed a large shipment of ammonium nitrate fertiliser to rot for years in a warehouse at the port despite repeated warnings.

Protests have rocked central Beirut on successive nights leading to scuffles with security forces who have fired tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse the crowds.

Prime Minister Hassan Diab's government stepped down on Monday after several ministers said they would quit over the explosion.

Around 10 of parliament's 128 lawmakers have also handed in their resignations.

Thursday's parliament session comes as French Defence Minister Florence Parly is due to arrive in Lebanon for a two-day visit.

David Hale, the top career diplomat at the US State Department, was also expected in Beirut on Thursday.

Japan fans hail Hong Kong 'Goddess of Democracy' Chow

Issued on: 13/08/2020 -

Hong Kong democracy activist Agnes Chow has gathered a large following in Japan Daniel SUEN AFP/File

Tokyo (AFP)

She has been dubbed the "Goddess of Democracy" and found fans among politicians and actors. There is little doubt that Hong Kong activist Agnes Chow is big in Japan.

The 23-year-old's arrest this week was headline news and lit up social media in Japan, far eclipsing the detention of other high-profile figures under Hong Kong's new national security law.

Media-savvy, telegenic and fluent in Japanese to boot, Chow has managed to cut through the relative apathy with which foreign affairs are sometimes regarded in Japan, winning unprecedented attention for Beijing's crackdown on her home city.


After her arrest this week, the Japanese hashtags "#FreeAgnes" and "#I protest against the arrest of Agnes Chow" quickly went viral, with public figures from across the country's political spectrum, as well as writers and actors, tweeting their support.

Veteran ruling party lawmaker Akihisa Nagashima posted a string of tweets on the arrest, saying Chow had "spent her entire youth for the freedom and democracy of Hong Kong".

Opposition lawmaker Renho, who uses one name, actress Sayaka Akimoto and sports writer Hirotada Ototake were among others who hailed the activist and condemned her arrest.

"She's young but she's brave," one Twitter user wrote, with many praising Chow's Japanese language ability.

- Twitter, tunes and takoyaki -

Chow's popularity in Japan stems in large part from a savvy campaign directed at the country, which includes running a Japanese-language Twitter account with more than 470,000 followers and appearing in Japanese media.

Her language skills have given her rare unmediated access to the Japanese public, and she has endeared herself to many with her love of anime and J-pop music.

Chow was released on bail on Tuesday, and told reporters -- in Japanese -- that the song "Fukyowaon" by J-pop group Keyakizaka46 was playing in her head while she was detained.

She also paid tribute to the support she received from Japan, saying in a YouTube live stream that she "felt Japanese people were cheering for her during the arrest".

Chow is also a fan of Japanese food, even sharing pictures of her failed attempts at the popular octopus ball dish takoyaki.

Last year, she made Forbes Japan's list of the 50 most influential social media accounts in the country, alongside a group of mostly Japanese celebrities and public figures.

For all her popularity, it is unclear if Chow has had much influence on Japanese government policy.

Chief spokesman Yoshihide Suga has made no specific comment on her arrest, though the government has expressed more general concern over the application of the national security law, which outlaws subversion, terrorism and foreign collusion in the semi-autonomous city.

Japan had been in the process of rehabilitating ties with Beijing, with Chinese President Xi Jinping previously scheduled to make a state visit this year to cement the warming relations.

But the visit has been delayed, seemingly indefinitely, and while the government has blamed the coronavirus pandemic for the decision, there has been growing discomfort among some Japanese lawmakers about the country's relationship with Beijing.

© 2020 AFP

US to ease water rules after Trump's shower moan

WERE THE RUSSIAN GIRLS WITH HIM AGAIN?!

Issued on: 13/08/2020 

President Donald Trump has often complained about shower water pressure not being to his liking 

MANDEL NGAN AFP/File

Washington (AFP)

The US government is looking at easing regulations on showerfittings following complaints from President Donald Trump who has regularly railed against water conservation rules in his quest for "perfect hair."

On Wednesday the Department of Energy (DOE) said it was proposing to amend the definition of a showerhead to allow multiple shower heads on a single fitting, which would get around water conservation measures brought in under president George H.W. Bush.

The 1992 rules established a maximum water use of 2.5 gallons per minute for showers but the amendment means that will apply to each showerhead rather than a single shower fitting.

The announcement comes after Trump complained about the lack of water pressure in showers.

"Showerheads -- you take a shower, the water doesn't come out," he said in July at the White House announcing a rollback in regulations.

"You want to wash your hands, the water doesn't come out. So what do you do? You just stand there longer or you take a shower longer? Because my hair -- I don't know about you, but it has to be perfect. Perfect."

Bathroom fittings and water pressure have long been a bugbear for the president.

In December he told reporters the Environmental Protection Agency would be "looking very strongly at sinks and showers and other elements of bathrooms."

"They take a shower, the water comes dripping out, it's dripping out very quietly, people are flushing toilets 10 times, 15 times as opposed to once, they end up using more water," Trump said.

"So EPA is looking at that very strongly, at my suggestion."

Andrew deLaski, executive director of the energy conservation group Appliance Standards Awareness Project, said the plan was part of Trumps' "repeated false complaint that toilets, faucets, and other household fixtures have been ruined by federal efficiency standards."

"DOE proposed a rule to approve new showerheads that waste enormous amounts of water and energy, which would increase utility bills and greenhouse gas emissions," he said in a blog post.

© 2020 AFP

Belarus confirms protester's death amid violent crackdown on post-election unrest

Issued on: 12/08/2020 -

A demonstrator holding an image of Belarus' President Alexander Lukashenko protests against the results of Belarusian presidential election outside the Belarusian embassy in Moscow on August 12, 2020. AFP - DIMITAR DILKOFF

Text by:NEWS WIRES

Belarus on Wednesday confirmed the death of a jailed protester as demonstrators took to the streets for a fourth night of clashes with riot police over a disputed presidential election.

Riot police have roughly detained thousands at street protests across the country after long-serving leader Alexander Lukashenko claimed a landslide victory in Sunday's poll.

The strongman's opponents accuse him of rigging the election against his main rival, massively popular opposition candidate Svetlana Tikhanovskaya.

The Belarusian Investigative Committee said in a statement that a 25-year-old man died after he was detained on Sunday for taking part in illegal protests in the southeastern city of Gomel and sentenced to 10 days in prison.

Investigators said the cause of death was unclear, while Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty quoted the man's mother as saying he had heart problems and was held for hours in a police van.


She said her son, Alexander Vikhor, was not taking part in protests and had gone to meet his girlfriend.

Previously police said one protester died when an explosive device went off in his hand on Monday.

The latest death came as opposition protesters took to the streets to condemn police violence.

In the capital Minsk, several hundred women joined hands to form a human chain, many wearing white and holding flowers.

"The riot police are beating up people, brutally beating them, and all we can do is come out for such a peaceful protest," said 29-year-old protester Darya, who works in advertising.

'Leave before it's too late'

On Wednesday evening, Minsk saw scattered protests in suburbs, with flag-waving opposition supporters blocking roads. A tight police cordon surrounded the city centre while metro stations were closed.

Riot police used rubber bullets and stun grenades to break up protests. They also patrolled residential areas, firing at vehicles and grabbing people hiding inside the entrances of blocks of flats, local media reported.

Belarusian writer Svetlana Alexievich, winner of the 2015 Nobel Literature Prize, condemned the police violence and urged Lukashenko to go peacefully in her first interview since the protests broke out.

"Leave before it's too late, before you've thrown people into a terrible abyss, into the abyss of civil war," she told her long-term foe in an interview with Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.

Western governments also criticised the ongoing violence.

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet accused Belarus of deploying "unnecessary and excessive force".

French President Emmanuel Macron said he was "very worried" while US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo urged the European Union to "take action," saying: "We want the people of Belarus to have the freedoms that they are demanding."

I will call an extraordinary Foreign Affairs Council meeting this Friday afternoon.

We will discuss urgent issues and address the situation in the Eastern Mediterranean, the Belarus Presidential elections, as well as developments in Lebanon.— Josep Borrell Fontelles (@JosepBorrellF) August 12, 2020

EU foreign ministers are set to discuss Belarus at an extraordinary meeting on Friday.

Tikhanovskaya 'recovering'

The protests broke out after authorities said Lukashenko, who has been in power since 1994, won 80 percent of the vote in Sunday's election.

The interior ministry reported more than 6,000 detentions after the first three days of protests.

Protesters and witnesses said riot police have used indiscriminate force, firing stun grenades and rubber bullets.

State television aired footage of detained young protesters with bloodied and bruised faces being asked if they wanted a "revolution".

Lukashenko, 65, on Wednesday dismissed the demonstrators as "people with a criminal past who are now unemployed" and told them to get jobs.

Police acknowledged opening fire on demonstrators and wounding one in the southwestern city of Brest on the Polish border on Tuesday night.

They said the protesters were armed with metal bars and ignored warning shots.

The protest movement arose in support of Tikhanovskaya, a 37-year-old political novice who ran for president after potential opposition candidates including her husband were jailed.

The official results gave her 10 percent of the popular vote, but Tikhanovskaya said the election was rigged and claimed victory, demanding that Lukashenko hand over power.

She left Belarus for neighbouring Lithuania on Tuesday as allies said she came under official pressure.

Tikhanovskaya "is recovering from this stress... and feels better," Lithuanian Foreign Minister Linas Linkevicius told Russia's Echo of Moscow radio station.

"She herself will say what her future plans are."

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Fresh protests over presidential election leave one dead in Belarus

Issued on: 10/08/2020

Belarusian law enforcement officers detain people during a rally of opposition supporters following the presidential election in Minsk, Belarus August 10, 2020. 

© REUTERS - Vasily Fedosenko

Text by:FRANCE 24Follow|

Video by:Camille NEDELEC

At least one person died as Belarusian police clashed with protesters on Monday after the opposition accused President Alexander Lukashenko of rigging his re-election victory amid a chorus of criticism from Western leaders.

Police fired tear gas and stun grenades and used batons to disperse thousands of people in Minsk in a second night of violence. Protesters set up barricades in several parts of the capital.

One man died while trying to throw an unidentified explosive device at police that blew up in his hands, the government said. Local media reported clashes breaking out in other towns.

In power for more than a quarter of a century, Lukashenko claimed a landslide win against Svetlana Tikhanouskaya, a former English teacher who emerged from obscurity to lead the biggest challenge to his rule in years.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the vote was “not free and fair” and condemned “ongoing violence against protesters and the detention of opposition supporters.”

Foreign observers have not judged an election to be free and fair in Belarus since 1995, and the run-up to the vote saw authorities jail Lukashenko’s rivals and open criminal investigations of others who voiced opposition.

Events are being closely watched by Russia, whose oil exports run through Belarus to the West and which has long regarded the country as a buffer zone against NATO, and by the West, which has tried to lure Minsk from Moscow’s orbit.

Germany called for the European Union to discuss sanctions on Belarus that were lifted in 2016 to foster better relations.

France on Monday urged “the greatest restraint” in Belarus after the security forces cracked down on protesters.

“We watch with concern the violence against Belarusian citizens who demonstrated after the closing of polling stations and call for the greatest restraint,” the French foreign ministry said in a statement.

Russian President Vladimir Putin used a congratulatory telegram to nudge Lukashenko to accept deeper ties between the two nations, which the Belarusian leader has previously rejected as an assault on his country’s independence.

Riot police used force on Sunday night to disperse thousands of protesters who had gathered to denounce what they said was an electoral farce.

Tikhanouskaya, whose campaign rallies drew some of the biggest crowds since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, told reporters she considered herself the election winner.

“The authorities are not listening to us. The authorities need to think about peaceful ways to hand over power,” said Tikhanouskaya, who entered the race after her blogger husband was jailed. “Of course we do not recognise the results.”





‘No revolution’

The opposition said it was ready to hold talks with the authorities. There was no immediate response to that offer from Lukashenko, a former Soviet collective farm manager who has kept Belarus under tight control since 1994.

He faces discontent over his handling of the economy, the Covid-19 pandemic and human rights abuses. But Lukashenko signalled he would not step down.

“The response will be appropriate. We won’t allow the country to be torn apart,” the 65-year-old leader was quoted by the Belta news agency as saying.

Lukashenko repeated allegations that shadowy forces abroad were trying to manipulate protesters he called “sheep” in order to topple him, something he said he would never allow.

“They are trying to orchestrate mayhem,” said Lukashenko. “But I have already warned: there will be no revolution.”

The European Union’s foreign policy chief and its commissioner for enlargement said the election had been marred by “disproportionate and unacceptable state violence against peaceful protesters”.

“We condemn the violence and call for the immediate release of all (those) detained during last night,” Josep Borrell and Oliver Varhelyi said in a joint statement.

Neighbouring Poland said it wants a special EU summit on Belarus.

(FRANCE 24 with REUTERS)

Thousands in Belarus decry president's reelection as rigged

AP , Wednesday 12 Aug 2020

Police officers push protestors outside the Belarusian embassy during a protest against the results of Belarusian presidential election in Moscow on August 12, 2020 (Photo: AFP)

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Protests erupt in Belarus as leader wins sixth term with over 80% of votes


Thousands of protesters rallied in Belarus' capital and other cities for a fourth straight night Wednesday, decrying an election they say was rigged to extend the 26-year rule of the country's authoritarian leader and a subsequent brutal police crackdown on demonstrations.

In several parts of Minsk, groups of hundreds of people formed human chains to protest President Alexander Lukashenko's reelection and the ruthless response to peaceful protests. Motorists blared horns in support and, in some sections of the city, slowed to a crawl to block police vehicles.

Similar protests were held in at least five other cities, according to the Viasna rights group.

On Minsk' Dzerzhinsky avenue, people stood on balconies, clapping in an expression of support. A group of riot police arrived and fired rubber bullets at them.

Earlier in the day, groups of hundreds of women formed human chains in several districts of the capital, chanting ``Shame!'' and calling for an end to the crackdown. Hesitant to use force against all-women rallies, police dispersed them without violence.

Protesters are contesting the official count showing Lukashenko winning a sixth term with 80% of Sunday's vote and the main opposition challenger with 10%. Crowds have taken to the streets every night since to demand a recount.

Authorities have responded with a level of brutality remarkable even for Lukashenko's authoritarian rule. Police have dispersed protesters with tear gas, stun grenades, water cannons and rubber bullets and severely beat them with truncheons.

Black-uniformed officers chased protesters into residential buildings and deliberately targeted journalists, beating many and breaking their cameras.

``We stand for a peaceful protest,'' said Ksenia Ilyashevich, a 23-year-old IT specialist who joined other women at a Minsk protest earlier Wednesday. ``We worked up the courage and came out to rally. We stand here for all.''

In three previous nights of protests, at least 6,000 people have been detained and hundreds injured, according to the official count, but even that high toll appeared to downplay the crackdown's scope. Anguished relatives were besieging prisons across Belarus trying to find their missing relatives.

``Even those who were loyal saw the real face of this government during the past three days,'' said 63-year-old Galina Vitushko, who stood outside a jail in Minsk, trying to find her son, a 43-year old doctor. She said that she desperately needs to give him insulin since he has diabetes.

``How can you treat your own people like that?'' she asked, breaking into tears. ``The real winners don't behave like that.''

The 65-year-old Lukashenko has led the former Soviet state of 9.5 million people with an iron fist since 1994, relentlessly stifling dissent and winning the nickname ``Europe's last dictator'' in the West.

This year, the economic damage caused by the coronavirus and the president's swaggering response to the pandemic, which he airily dismissed as ``psychosis,'' has fueled broad anger, helping swell the opposition ranks _ but that has only elicited a more forceful crackdown from the Belarusian leader.

``The core of these so-called protesters are people with a criminal past and (those who are) currently unemployed,'' Lukashenko said during a Wednesday meeting with security officials.

His top challenger, a 37-year-old former teacher and political novice Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, managed to unite fractured opposition groups and draw tens of thousands to her campaign rallies after two top potential challengers were barred from the race.

She entered the race to replace her husband, an opposition blogger who aspired to run but has been in jail since his arrest in May.

But she left for neighboring Lithuania on Tuesday in an abrupt about-face, hours after submitting a formal request for a recount. In a video recorded before departure that her associates said was filmed under pressure from law enforcement officials, she urged her supporters to end protests.

Protesters have not heeded her call, and Maria Kolesnikova, a top figure in Tsikhanouskaya's campaign, urged the government Wednesday to ``stop waging a war against its own people and begin a dialogue.''

On Tuesday in Brest, near the border with Poland, police shot at protesters who attacked them with metal rods, wounding one person, the Interior Ministry said. One demonstrator died Monday in Minsk, when an explosive device he attempted to throw at police exploded in his hands, according to the ministry.

Journalists, in particular, have been targeted. Boris Goretsky, vice president of the Belarusian Association of Journalists, said more than 20 reporters are currently in custody, waiting to see a judge, and several more have already been sentenced to jail terms ranging from 10 to 15 days.

``A deliberate hunt for journalists with independent Belarusian and foreign media has begun,'' said Goretsky.

Reporters from several Belarusian and international outlets were beaten up Tuesday in Minsk. Officers seized memory cards from a group of photographers, including one for the AP, as they took shots of the police crackdown.

On Wednesday, Vital Tsyhankou, a journalist for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, was severely beaten by police and detained along with two reporters from an independent Belarusian TV station after covering a protest by medical workers in the capital who rallied against police violence.

The Viasna rights group said many injured protesters were afraid to seek medical help, fearing prosecution for participating in the rallies.

Eduard Kukhterin, a 56-year-old publisher, was injured with two rubber bullets overnight as he was entering his apartment building but decided not to go to a hospital. ``Medical workers report such injuries to the law enforcement,'' Kukhterin told the AP.

The crackdown has drawn harsh criticism from the European Union and the United States.

Speaking during a trip to the Czech Republic on Wednesday, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the Belarusian vote was neither free nor fair. ``We want the people of Belarus to have the freedoms that they're demanding,`` he said.

The European Union foreign ministers scheduled a meeting on Friday to discuss the crackdown.

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell called the meeting a day after saying that the 27-nation bloc could impose sanctions against ``those responsible for the observed violence, unjustified arrests, and falsification of election results.''

In 2016, the European Union lifted most of the sanctions it slapped on Belarus in 2004 after Lukashenko freed political prisoners and allowed protests.

Jeff Bezos offers a clue to his $10 billion climate change strategy

Bezos has quietly started a new company that appears involved in the historic push.

By Theodore Schleifer@teddyschleifer Aug 7, 2020,

Jeff Bezos, the world’s richest man, is spending $10 billion to help combat climate change. Paul Morigi/Getty Images for Amazon


Amazon founder Jeff Bezos quietly created a new company to help execute his $10 billion pledge to combat climate change, Recode has learned, offering a clue into the plan known as the Bezos Earth Fund, which has been shrouded in secrecy since it was announced half a year ago.

Bezos’s team has started a new limited liability company, Fellowship Ventures LLC, that appears to be involved in the historic philanthropic commitment, according to public records reviewed by Recode. That LLC applied for the trademark — with Bezos’s hand-signed authorization — for the “Bezos Earth Fund” in July, a move that suggests the LLC will be key to his plans, or perhaps even run the charitable program outright.

A screenshot from the trademark application filed by Fellowship Ventures LLC. United States Patent and Trademark Office

The creation of the company is the first glimpse into the most serious philanthropic play yet by the world’s richest man, even as other details remain hidden. Bezos aides have consistently declined to share any information about his climate change giving — including basic questions about how it will be structured — since it was first announced in February.

The details are essential because the $10 billion pledge, one of the largest individual charitable commitments ever, is expected to remake the world of climate change philanthropy. Questions abound: Will Bezos use any of the $10 billion to make donations to pro-climate-science political candidates or advocacy groups? Over what time period will Bezos give the money away? And what type of disclosures will Bezos share with academics, researchers, and reporters about where the money goes?

If Bezos does plan to use this LLC to make the donations, it would limit transparency into the Earth Fund as LLCs are not required to file publicly available tax documents. Trademark experts tell Recode that it’s also possible, however, for the LLC to merely end up owning the trademark to the “Bezos Earth Fund” name and then lend that trademark to another to-be-created Bezos entity that may be structured in a more transparent way, such as a traditional foundation.

Bezos’s team isn’t saying. Amazon declined to comment on Fellowship Ventures, and Bezos’s personal lawyers who signed the documents didn’t return Recode’s requests for comment. Bezos previously said he would start making grants to climate change organizations this summer.

The Amazon founder isn’t done clinging to secrecy. The trademark application by Fellowship Ventures was filed first in Jamaica, a trick sometimes used by companies to shield information about their plans, trademark experts say, because Jamaica makes it impossible to access applications online.

(A side note: Bezos’s ex-wife, MacKenzie Scott, made headlines last week by announcing her own $1.7 billion in charitable donations. Scott is one of the world’s wealthiest people. And she, too, is using a less-transparent vehicle — a donor-advised fund — to make at least some of those gifts, two grantees tell Recode.)

It’s likely that Fellowship Ventures is working on other projects on Bezos’s behalf, too, although the full scope of its work isn’t clear. Billionaires — and especially billionaires like Bezos, who is nearing a net worth of $200 billion — oversee vast empires to manage their personal affairs and family offices. They’ll create new LLCs to execute a particular real-estate deal, for instance, or to manage the work of a new contractor.

Bezos’s empire includes his space-exploration company Blue Origin, his ownership of the Washington Post, and a clock in a hollowed-out Texas mountain that Bezos is building to last 10,000 years.

That’s what makes the creation of yet another LLC all the more intriguing. Bezos already controls LLCs that help oversee his existing charitable work, including Zefram LLC, which owns the trademark to the “Bezos Day One Fund,” his philanthropy to combat homelessness and support education unveiled in 2018. One possibility is that a new vehicle was needed after Bezos’s costly — and no doubt financially complicated — divorce last summer. Fellowship Ventures was incorporated in Delaware last summer, too, according to records obtained by Recode.

Zefram, for what it’s worth, is named after a fictional spaceship designer on Star Trek, a favorite of the Amazon founder. And the words “fellowship” and “venture,” too, have long held special meaning for Bezos — so much so that they’re part of his customary toast: “To adventure and fellowship!”

“The word ‘fellowship’ conjures a vision of traveling down the road together. It has more ‘journey’ in it than friendship,” Bezos shared when interviewed by his brother in 2017. “Friendship is great too, but fellowship captures friendship and traveling down that path together.”

Details like the name and the structure are some of the few scraps of insight into how the world’s wealthiest person is going to spend his billions. And that’s one of the big criticisms of billionaire philanthropy, that the mega-rich can release as much or as little information about their charitable gifts as they choose.

Concrete, a Centuries-Old Material, Gets a New Recipe

NYTIMES 8/12/2020

On any given day, Central Concrete, in San Jose, Calif., does what concrete companies have been doing for centuries: combining sand, gravel, water and cement to create the slurry that is used in construction.

But Central — one of a handful of companies at the forefront of a movement to make a greener concrete — is increasingly experimenting with some decidedly new mixtures.

In one part of the plant, carbon dioxide from a chemical gas company is injected into the concrete, locking in that greenhouse gas and keeping it out of the atmosphere, where it would contribute to global warming. Elsewhere, engineers tinker with the recipe for concrete, trying out substitutes for some of the cement, which makes up about 15 percent of the mix and functions as the glue that holds it all together. Cement, however, is also responsible for most of concrete’s carbon emissions — emissions so high that some have abandoned concrete for alternative building materials like mass timber and bamboo.

Concrete, it turns out, has a serious pollution problem.
Image

and in storage at a plant owned by Central Concrete, which is experimenting with new processes for concrete manufacturing to cut carbon emissions.Credit...Jason Henry for The New York Times


The most widely used construction material on the planet, it has given us sculptural buildings, sturdy bridges and dams, parking garages and countless other structures that surround us. But concrete is also responsible for about 8 percent of global carbon emissions. If concrete were a country, it would rank third in emissions behind China and the United States.

In the United States alone, 370 million cubic yards of concrete was produced last year, with nearly 40 percent of it going into commercial real estate, according to the National Ready Mixed Concrete Association, a trade group.

In recent decades, architects, developers and policymakers seeking to lower the carbon footprint of buildings have focused on reducing energy use by improving the efficiency of lighting, heating and other systems. To lower emissions even further, they are looking beyond such operational matters to the carbon emitted in the production and transportation of the materials that make up the structures, or so-called embodied carbon. All eyes are on concrete because buildings use so much of it, from foundations to the topmost floors.

“People are getting smarter about where global-warming impacts are coming from,” said Amanda Kaminsky, principal of Building Product Ecosystems, a consulting firm in New York. “Concrete is responsible for a disproportionate chunk.”

Randy Lastinger, a load manager at Central Concrete, watching trucks from a control room.Credit...Jason Henry for The New York TimesAlana Guzzetta, the head of U.S. Concrete’s national research laboratory in San Jose, Calif.Credit...Jason Henry for The New York Times


Central, part of U.S. Concrete, a manufacturer based in Texas, is making progress tackling the problem: Low-emission concrete makes up 70 percent of the material the company produces annually, up from 20 percent in the early 2000s. The plant’s push to decarbonize “has really accelerated in the last three years,” said Herb Burton, vice president and general manager of U.S. Concrete’s west region.

Guiding Central’s effort is U.S. Concrete’s national research laboratory at the plant in San Jose. Headed by Alana Guzzetta, an engineer, the lab scrutinizes technology and products developed by other companies, deciding whether to put them to the test and, ultimately, incorporate them into its operations.

Fiddling with concrete’s recipe is not new, however. The Romans used a formula involving lime and volcanic rock. In the early 19th century, an English bricklayer invented Portland cement, still the most widely used type, whose production involves combining limestone and clay and heating it to blistering temperatures. Each construction project today has its own concrete mix, designed by structural engineers to take into account how and where it will be used.

Samples of Portland cement; slag, a byproduct of steel manufacturing; and fly ash, a byproduct of coal, at the U.S. Concrete lab.Credit...Jason Henry for The New York Times

Before climate change became a pressing issue, concrete producers sought to reduce the amount of cement in their mixes for the simple reason that it tended to be expensive, in part because of the energy-intensive heating in producing it.

Decades ago, they began substituting some of the cement with cheaper fly ash, a byproduct of coal-burning plants, and slag, a byproduct of steel production. Using such materials had the added benefit of diverting them from landfills, and they were also found to improve concrete’s performance. Only in recent years has concrete with fly ash and slag been promoted as a greener product.

But now there’s a hitch: With coal plants being retired, fly ash is not as plentiful as it once was. The decline of steel production in some parts of the country has made slag scarcer. The shortages have set off price increases for these materials, adding to the urgency of experimentation with alternative concrete mixes.

The experimentation has also been driven by demand from architects and developers who want their buildings to be green, companies seeking to achieve ambitious carbon goals and governments instituting low-carbon policies. The movement is playing out on a variety of fronts.

Recycled post-consumer glass — which otherwise might be sent to landfills — is being crushed into a powder, known as ground-glass pozzolan, that can be used in place of some of the cement in concrete.

The cement industry is promoting Portland-limestone cement, which reduces carbon 10 percent, according to the Portland Cement Association, a trade group.

Several new ways to make concrete greener employ waste carbon dioxide.
A CarbonCure Technologies computer that automates the process of injecting carbon dioxide into concrete.
Credit...Jason Henry for The New York Times

CarbonCure Technologies, a company based in Halifax, Nova Scotia, invented a process that involves shooting liquid carbon dioxide into concrete during mixing. Doing so not only keeps the greenhouse gas out of the air but also strengthens the concrete and reduces the amount of cement needed.
So far, CarbonCure concrete has a net carbon reduction of only 5 to 7 percent, but the technology has already been installed at 225 plants in the United States. Recently, Central used the CarbonCure technology for the concrete it supplied to LinkedIn for the 245,000-square-foot headquarters the networking company is building in Mountain View, Calif.
Belts delivering sand and other materials to be mixed together to create concrete at the Central Concrete plant in San Jose.Credit...Jason Henry for The New York Times

A CarbonCure tank containing the carbon dioxide that is injected into concrete as it is loaded into delivery trucks.Credit...Jason Henry for The New York Times

Blue Planet, based in Los Gatos, Calif., uses carbon dioxide collected from the exhaust stack of a power plant to produce a synthetic limestone that functions as a substitute for the sand and gravel in concrete. Although Blue Planet is still piloting its technology, Central has already used its aggregate in concrete poured at San Francisco International Airport.

Other companies — including Solidia Technologies in Piscataway, N.J., and BioMason in Durham, N.C. — have developed processes that are being used for cast-concrete products like pavers and tiles.

Central is keeping tabs on all the action.

That is the right approach, said Jeremy Gregory, the executive director at the Concrete Sustainability Hub, an industry-funded group at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. “I don’t see a single game-changer technology,” he added. “It’s going to be a combination of things.”

Green concrete can be more expensive, said Jay Moreau, chief executive of the U.S. aggregates and construction material division of LafargeHolcim, a Swiss company. Last month, LafargeHolcim made a concrete mix that lowers carbon 30 percent a standard part of its offerings. But as the company creates mixes that reduce carbon by 50 percent, the concrete could cost 5 percent more, Mr. Moreau said.

Central said it had kept the price of its low-emissions concrete on a par with conventional concrete, hoping to attract customers that want to reduce the carbon footprint of their buildings.

“We see it as a market differentiator and a way to win more projects,” Mr. Burton said.

The TikTok drama shines a spotlight on the rare tech investor who backs Trump
Doug Leone, who has backed both TikTok and Trump, could be the bridge between the two.

By Theodore Schleifer@teddyschleifer Aug 10, 2020, 

Doug Leone and his wife have donated $400,000 to boost Trump. Drew Angerer/Getty Images

The ultimate fate of TikTok could be shaped in part by the efforts of one billionaire tech investor who has earned the distinction of being a particularly rare type of Silicon Valley unicorn: a major donor to Donald Trump.

ByteDance, the Chinese parent company of the hit video sharing app, is in a boxing match with the Trump administration, which has threatened to ban it from the United States next month. But TikTok has an investor who looms large in the drama because of his personal ties and access to the White House.

Doug Leone, one of the leaders of one of Silicon Valley’s most celebrated firms, Sequoia Capital, and his wife together have given about $400,000 over the past two years to Trump’s campaign and affiliated groups such as the Republican National Committee and a pro-Trump super PAC. That makes the Leones two of the very biggest donors to Trump in Silicon Valley, where business leaders have almost entirely run away from publicly backing the president.

Now the links between Leone and Trump may shape the ending of one of the most complex business and geopolitical stories of 2020. Leone has told “people he could use his influence with Trump to help the company,” the Washington Post reported this weekend. Leone planned to reach out to Steven Mnuchin and Jared Kushner, two top Trump aides who have both been integral to Trump fundraising efforts, “to see what it would take to save TikTok,” the Wall Street Journal added.

The stories show how cultivating ties with the White House can pay dividends, even if the donations were not born from a premeditated lobbying push.

Leone declined to comment. Trump’s campaign didn’t return a request for comment.

TikTok and Microsoft — the company that is seeking to purchase it and circumvent a threatened ban of the app — both have built-out Washington operations with professionals that twist arms for a living. After all, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella spoke with Trump directly about the potential deal. But one hallmark of Trump’s Washington has been that convincing the administration to take a certain action can be a highly irregular process, driven by personal relationships and access to Trump advisers, both formal and informal. Plus, Trump has displayed a well-documented obsession with whether someone has shown loyalty to his “team” or not.

Leone, a longtime Republican, reportedly has that access. And while Trump might not know Leone well enough to pick him out of a lineup, suffice it to say that not every Silicon Valley venture capitalist can jawbone the secretary of the Treasury or the president’s son-in-law to help a portfolio company.

It’s still unclear whether Leone’s outreach has actually accomplished anything. And there’s no evidence that Leone only gets an audience because of a few hundred thousand bucks in donations. To be sure, Sequoia’s global managing partner is a prominent business leader in his own right. Precisely why someone gets a call returned — Is it the donations? His stature? A little bit of both? — is impossible to know.

Leone is an exception in tech. The liberal tech industry has been fighting with Trump since his first day on issues like immigration. In fact, Leone’s co-leader at Sequoia for a long time, Michael Moritz, this cycle has given millions to boost Democrats. Silicon Valley has made supporting Trump something of a scarlet letter, so much so that even the few leaders who do back him now feel pressure to do so quietly. That’s what makes Leone’s public donations unusual, especially in the image-conscious world of venture capital.

When Recode wrote last year about the Leones’ gifts to Trump — then measuring only about $100,000 — some leading voices in tech spoke to the liability that the donations could pose to Sequoia, even though it is generally regarded as the highest-performing investing firm in Silicon Valley.

Swati Mylavarapu, a former venture capitalist who is now a top Silicon Valley Democratic fundraiser, put it this way on Sunday:



Hi every entrepreneur who wants to raise money from Sequoia.

You get to make a choice.

Do your investors reflect your and your company's values? https://t.co/0POQLyx6oV— Swati Mylavarapu (@Swatipedia) August 10, 2020

That liability remains very real. But what the news over the weekend makes clear is that there is an upside — less obvious, to be sure — that complements it. One of Sequoia’s most lucrative investments is in ByteDance, with Sequoia’s stake said to be worth as much as $15 billion. And while the gifts from Leone have been made in a personal capacity and officially have nothing to do with Sequoia, his firm could benefit from the personal donations if they help maintain the value of TikTok.

The few other Silicon Valley marquee names who have supported Trump have reaped some rewards. Peter Thiel, who braved significant blowback to give over $1 million to boost Trump during his 2016 run, has stocked the administration with his allies and former aides. Larry Ellison, who hosted a fundraiser that brought $7 million to Trump’s coffers earlier this year, has pressed Trump to publicly push hydroxychloroquine, an experimental drug treatment for the coronavirus that Ellison favors.

Leone is a much lower-profile billionaire than those two titans. Some Trump fundraisers outside of Silicon Valley say they haven’t even heard of him.

But with this much money on the line — and this much international intrigue at play — having him on TikTok’s side can only help.