Lebanon declares emergency after protests, violence in wake of blasts

Debris is seen at the port of Beirut on Wednesday, more than a week after two explosions and fire heavily damaged a section of the downtown area of Beirut, Lebanon. Photo by Mustafa Jamaleddine/UPI | License Photo

Aug. 13 (UPI) -- The Lebanese Parliament declared a state of emergency Thursday, more than a week after two explosions rocked the port of Beirut and killed more than 200 people.

The emergency is a response to a large outpouring of opposition in Beirut for several days, which have demanded accountability for the Aug. 4 disaster and factored into the resignation of several top government officials, including Prime Minister Hassan Diab.

Under the emergency declaration, the Lebanese army has power to prosecute activists in military courts for "crimes related to breach of security." The law can also bar threatening gatherings, close assembly sites, establish curfews, censor media, enter homes and deport suspects.

Parliament speaker Nabih Berri said the army has not suppressed television channels or taken other steps some had feared with the emergency declaration.

Critics have said the state of emergency isn't needed and some suspect it's a ruse for the government to increase its power.

Eight members of parliament have resigned since the explosions and elections to replace them are expected within months.

Thousands arrested in Belarus amid outcry over election

Supporters attend a campaign rally for Belarusian opposition presidential candidate Svetlana Tikhanovskaya in Minsk, Belarus, on July 30. Photo by Tatyana Zenkovich/EPA-EFE

Aug. 12 (UPI) -- Belarus authorities have arrested more than 6,000 demonstrators over the past three days amid substantial opposition to election results that declared President Alexander Lukashenko the winner of another term.

Lukashenko's opponents say police have used violence to quell the protests since election officials said the president won re-election in a landslide Sunday.

Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, Lukashenko's chief opponent, fled to neighboring Lithuania for her own safety, Lithuanian Foreign Affairs Minister Linas Linkevicius confirmed Tuesday.

Belarus's interior ministry said about 3,000 arrests were made after rallies on Monday night, another 2,000 on Tuesday and 1,000 early Wednesday. Officials shut down Internet service this week but it appeared to improve on Wednesday.

Tikhanovskava had taken her husband's place as the leading opposition candidate after he was put in prison before the election. She rejected the preliminary results before fleeing Belarus.

U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy called on President Donald Trump to withdraw his nominee for ambassador to Belarus due to the unrest.

"Right now, this would be a huge mistake," Murphy tweeted. "It would look like an endorsement of Lukashenko's crackdown. The Senate should set aside this nomination."

Poll: Most in U.S. don't think women have achieved equality


Two women wearing beauty pageant sash and head crowns applaud while they listen to speakers at the United Nations Observance of International Women's Day 2020 at U.N. headquarters in New York City on March 6. File Photo by John Angelillo/UPI | License Photo

Aug. 10 (UPI) -- Women still have a ways to go to achieve equality with men in the workplace and in politics, a new Gallup survey said Monday.

According to the survey, just 31% of U.S. adults believe women have achieved equality in the workplace and 34% in politic

About a third said women can achieve workplace equality within 20 years and 28% said the same for politics.

Almost 80% of women said they have not achieved workplace equality and the figure was 58% among men. For politics, the split was 75%/57%.

The split is similar among political groups.

"While majorities of Republicans believe women have achieved equality in the workplace and politics, Republican women are less certain of these achievements than are Republican men: 56% of Republican women contrasted with 75% of Republican men say women have achieved equality with men in the workplace," Gallup wrote.

"Sixty-three percent of Republican women versus 82% of Republican men believe women have equality with men in politics. Meanwhile, more than nine in 10 Democratic women and men alike think women have not achieved equity in both the workplace and politics."

Gallup polled more than 3,400 U.S. adults for the survey, which has a margin of error of 3 points.
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Gallup: Fewer in U.S. satisfied with treatment of women

Activists march in the streets toward Bryant Park in New York City on August 25, 2019, at the Go Topless Day Parade, which encouraged women to proudly bare their chests in support of gender equality. File Photo by John Angelillo/UPI | License Photo

Aug. 13 (UPI) -- While slightly more than half of Americans say they're satisfied with society's treatment of women, a new survey Thursday showed the share is way down from where it was five years ago -- especially among females.

According to the Gallup poll, conducted from June 8 to July 24, 54% of respondents said they're "very" or "somewhat" satisfied with the treatment of women -- a decline of 10% from 2015.

The share is also well below record highs in the upper 60s and low 70s Gallup found between 2001 and 2013.

Gallup's record low for satisfaction was 53% in 2018.

"Three years after the #MeToo movement brought sexual assault and harassment against women into the open and contributed to a historically large number of women being elected to Congress in 2018, there has been no rebound in Americans' satisfaction with how women are treated," Gallup wrote.

The survey showed that more men (62%) are satisfied with the treatment of females than are women (46%). Four years ago, that split was 66%/61%.

Thursday's poll found significant divides politically; 80% of Republican women and 83% of Republican men said they're satisfied -- compared to 26% and 33% for Democratic women and men, respectively, and 51% and 63% among independents.

"While the slight majority of all Americans are satisfied, this is owing to the majority of men feeling this way versus less than half of women," Gallup noted. "But there is also a strong partisan aspect to this, with most Republican women satisfied, but not politically independent or Democratic women."

Gallup polled more than 1,200 U.S. adults for the survey, which has a margin of error between 4 and 5 points. The survey included an oversample of Black adults, weighted to represent racial and ethnic groups proportionately to their share of the U.S. population, the pollster noted.

Senate group details plan for college athletes' 'bill of rights'

NOT JUST COLLEGE BUT HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL

TOO


The Ohio State Buckeyes take the field against the Maryland Terrapins at Ohio Stadium in Columbus, Ohio, on November 9, 2019. File Photo by Aaron Josefczyk/UPI | License Photo

Aug. 13 (UPI) -- Student-athletes at colleges and universities nationwide would be covered by a "bill of rights" that guarantees compensation and other benefits under a proposal outlined Thursday by a group of Democratic senators.

The group, led Sens. Cory Booker of New Jersey and Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, said the legislation would also provide long-term healthcare, lifetime educational scholarships and more eligibility freedoms for athletes at NCAA member schools.


The plan, which does not yet have the backing of Republicans, is the most comprehensive effort yet to reform the NCAA, its authors say.

"The present state of college athletics is undeniably [exploitative]," Blumenthal tweeted. "We want to give college athletes the tools to protect their economic rights, pursue their education, prioritize their health/safety, and most critically, hold their schools and organizations like the NCAA accountable."

RELATED NCAA to allow athletes to profit from names, images

Booker, a former college football player at Stanford University, said he wants to roll the bill of rights into existing name, image and likeness (NIL), legislation that's now being crafted in both of chambers of Congress.

Booker said, however, the new proposal includes benefits that go well beyond NIL and contain legal remedies to ensure the NCAA follows through with reforms.

"We have to create a system that clearly the NCAA has not been willing to do on its own," he told USA Today. "We're talking to a lot of athletes who have painful stories. These are courageous young people who right now are speaking out -- and often facing retribution for speaking out -- about their basic rights."

RELATED NCAA: California SB 206 will 'upend balance' in college sports

Booker said the full proposal will be unveiled "in the coming months."

Co-authors of the bill include Sens. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, Kirstin Gillibrand of New York and Kamala Harris of California, who was chosen Tuesday as Joe Biden's running mate on the 2020 Democratic presidential ticket.

RELATED California passes law allowing college athletes to be paid

$400,000 fence to be built around S.D. Gov. Kristi Noem's home



President Donald Trump meets at the White House with a group of governors-elect on December 13, 2018. New South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem is seated to Trump's left. File Photo by Chris Kleponis | License Photo

Aug. 13 (UPI) -- Officials in South Dakota say $400,000 will be spent to put a security fence around Gov. Kristi Noem's mansion in the coming months, but the reason for the barrier hasn't been specified.

Senior adviser Maggie Seidel said the fence will be built this fall around the governor's mansion and added that getting the barrier built is a priority.

"It's no secret that a few individuals don't like some of the decisions the governor has made on behalf of the people of South Dakota during [the COVID-19] pandemic and otherwise," Seidel added.

"The governor's security team believes it is critical," she added.
RELATED Trump brings back fireworks to Mount Rushmore; faces criticism



Noem has drawn criticism for opting against stay-home orders and has not mandated face coverings in public or for students returning to classes this fall.

To date, there have been fewer than 10,000 COVID-19 cases and 150 deaths in South Dakota. According to CDC data, only nine other states have had fewer cases.

Critics say the Republican governor as adopted a dismissive outlook on the pandemic, similar to President Donald Trump's.

Noem, who took office in 2019, welcomed Trump to South Dakota last month when the president visited Mount Rushmore for the Fourth of July weekend. A television broadcast of fireworks at Mount Rushmore showed some attendees not complying with distancing recommendations.

Seidel said a private fundraising campaign and federal security grant will pay for the security fence. The governor's mansion in Pierre was built during the administration of Gov. Mike Rounds in the 2000s.

The project has been in the planning stage since last year, and a contractor was paid more than $35,000 to draw up the plan.

Poll: Confidence in medical system way up; at record low for police

Nurses and healthcare workers stage a "Juneteenth action" to peacefully protest the lack of police accountability and demand justice for local communities and an end to systemic racism, in Los Angeles, Calif., on June 19. File Photo by Jim Ruymen/UPI | License Photo

Aug. 12 (UPI) -- Americans' confidence in the medical and public school systems have reached double-figure highs while confidence in law enforcement reached an all-time low, according to a new Gallup survey Wednesday.

The findings come from a Gallup public confidence tracking poll taken June 8-July 24 that initially started during the Watergate scandal in 1973. The statistics are based on the percentage of U.S. adults who said they have either "a great deal" or "quite a lot" of confidence in the institutions.

Confidence in the medical system, which covers the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, jumped 15 points over last year, from 36% to 51%. The sector -- which includes doctors, nurses and many on the front lines -- saw its greatest one-year increase since the poll started.

Confidence in public schools saw a 12-point increase to 41%. Many schools are making major adjustments to teaching as the new school year approaches, from teaching remotely or changing how they educate in the classroom. The survey result was public school's highest mark since 2004.

For police, Americans' confidence declined to a record low 48%, down 5 points from last year. It marks the first time in 27 years the mark dipped below 50%. The low mark, Gallup said, is a reflection of ongoing unrest that began with the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis.

Other institutions that saw noticeable confidence increases over the past year include banks (+8 points to 38%), small business (+7 points to 75%) and church or organized religion (+6 points to 42%).

Gallup polled 1,200 U.S. adults for the survey, which has a margin of error of 4 points.

COVID-19 deaths in NYC 'comparable' to 1918-1919 flu pandemic


"Excess deaths" in New York City in the first two months of the COVID-19 outbreak were about 70% as high as those recorded during the peak of the 1918-1919 flu pandemic, likely because of population growth.

 Photo by John Angelillo/UPI | License Photo

Aug. 13 (UPI) -- Deaths from COVID-19 in New York City during the first two months of the outbreak were "remarkably comparable" to those seen in the city at the height of the 1918-1919 flu pandemic, according to an analysis published Thursday by JAMA Network Open.

"Excess deaths" in the city in the first two months of the new coronavirus outbreak were about 70% as high as those recorded during the peak of the 1918-1919 flu pandemic, likely because of population growth, the researchers said.

While some have suggested the 1918-1919 flu pandemic was far worse than the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, researchers said that deaths for the two are comparable. But without modern medicine, the new coronavirus likely would be killing far more people.

The city reported more than 33,000 total deaths from all causes between March 11 and May 11 -- for a death rate of 202 deaths per 100,000 people in the general population.

The death rate for New York City during the height of the 1918-1919 flu pandemic -- October and November of 1918 -- was 287 deaths per 100,000 people in the general population, researchers said.

"These crises caused death rates along the same order of magnitude," study co-author Dr. Jeremy Faust told UPI.

"They were remarkably comparable in their effects on death rates in New York City in the time periods we assessed," said Faust, an emergency medicine physician at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston. "I only hope what we had in March and April [with COVID-19] was the worst of it."

New York City has an estimated 8.28 million residents in 2020, compared with population of 5.5 million in 1918, Faust and his colleagues said.

Through Thursday, the city reported more than 225,000 cases of COVID-19, with more than 22,000 deaths linked to the virus, according to New York City's health department. That makes it the hardest-hit community in the country in terms of total deaths.

More than 5.2 million Americans have been infected with the virus, and nearly 170,000 have died, according to the latest figures from Johns Hopkins University.

An estimated 675,000 Americans died in the 1918-1919 flu pandemic, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
However, "excess deaths" -- the number of deaths reported during the COVID-19 pandemic compared with a "normal" year -- could provide a more accurate picture of the virus' impact, researchers have suggested.

For their analysis, Faust and his colleagues analyzed CDC death statistics for both pandemics, comparing them to population and death figures from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The researchers then compared figures from March 11 through May 11 of this year -- the first 61 days of the COVID-19 outbreak in New York City -- to the worst 61 days of the 1918-1919 flu pandemic in New York, October and November 1918.

New York City reported 33,465 deaths between March 11 and May 11 of this year, compared to 31,589 deaths in October and November 1918, the researchers said.

The death rate for the city in the years before the 1918-1919 pandemic was roughly 100 per 100,000 people, the researchers said.

New York City's death rate in March through May of this year -- 202 deaths per 100,000 people -- exceeded the "normal" death rate for the same period in 2018 and 2019 by roughly 150 deaths per 100,000.

In 2018 and 2019, the death rate for that same two-month period was 50 deaths per 100,000 people, they said.

The 1918 flu death rate of 287 deaths per 100,000 exceeded the normal death rate at that time by 187 deaths per 100,000, the researchers said.

The city's higher population in 2020 accounts for the lower rate of deaths from COVID-19, they said.

In addition, enhancements in medical care -- including intensive care units, mechanical ventilators and drugs like steroids -- "gives us advantages that our predecessors did not have," Faust said.

"We can also save lives caused by secondary bacterial infections that respond to antibiotics that they did not have 100 years ago," he said. "If it were not for that, it could be that COVID-19 is a more lethal virus than 1918 was."

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Free spread of COVID-19 in Sweden didn't lead to 'herd immunity'
People stroll, sunbathe and swim at a bathing jetty in Malmo, Sweden, in June. The country attempted to achieve COVID-19 "herd immunity" by skipping lockdowns and other measures most countries around the world are using to limit spread of the disease. 

Photo by EPA-EFE/Johan Nilsson/TT

Diverging from much of the world, Sweden let COVID-19 spread in hopes the population would develop "herd immunity." But the risky strategy failed, a new report finds.

Rather than imposing a hard lockdown in March as other countries did, the Scandinavian nation relied on individual responsibility to stop the spread of the deadly coronavirus. This is the idea of "folkvett" -- common sense of the people -- and the approach made headlines at the time.

Gyms, stores and restaurants remained open schools were open for kids up to age 16 while gatherings of more than 50 people were banned.

Authorities predicted that 40% of the people in Stockholm would get the disease and develop protective antibodies by May. The actual prevalence, however, was around 15%, according to the study published Aug. 11 in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine.

"It is clear that not only are the rates of viral infection, hospitalization and mortality [per million population] much higher than those seen in neighboring Scandinavian countries, but also that the time-course of the epidemic in Sweden is different, with continued persistence of higher infection and mortality well beyond the few critical weeks period seen in Denmark, Finland and Norway," said researcher Dr. David Goldsmith, a retired physician in London.

Experience suggests that severely infected COVID-19 patients acquire antibodies immediately and during early recovery, but antibodies are much less common in only mildly ill or asymptomatic patients.

This means they are likely not immune, and can't prevent the spread of the virus, the study noted. This is central to the concept of herd immunity.

In the other Scandinavian countries, rapid lockdown appeared more successful in stopping the spread of infection, Goldsmith said.

The findings are a cautionary tale for the world, and for the United Kingdom in particular, he indicated.

"We in the U.K. would do well to remember we nearly trod the same path as Sweden, as herd immunity was often discussed here in early March. Right now, despite strict [but tardy] lockdown in the U.K., and the more measured Swedish response, both countries have seen high seven-day averaged COVID-19 death rates compared to other Scandinavian and European countries," Goldsmith said in a journal news release.

Only a year or two after the pandemic, however, can experts fairly judge what was done correctly, the authors said.

More information

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more on COVID-19.

RELATED CDC: U.S. COVID-19 case count 6 to 24 times higher than reported

Copyright 2020 HealthDay. All rights reserved.

Shinzo Abe under fire for coronavirus response, survey shows

A recent survey indicates the Japanese public may not be satisfied with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe (R) and his handling of the coronavirus. 

File Photo by Kezio Mori/UPI | License Photo

Aug. 13 (UPI) -- Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe received the lowest approval rating in a recent survey covering six countries and their response to the global coronavirus pandemic.

The poll shows Abe is under fire for his handling of the health crisis as speculation grows in Japan that Abe could leave office before the end of his term in September 2021.

According to U.S.-German communications consultancy Kekst CNC, Abe's ratings are lower than that of U.S. President Donald Trump or British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, the Tokyo Shimbun reported Thursday. Both the United States and Britain have confirmed higher numbers of COVID-19 cases than Japan.

The survey, which polled 1,000 respondents from the United States, Britain, Germany, Sweden, France and Japan, shows Abe scoring minus 34 points. Trump scored minus 21 points and Johnson received minus 12 points, according to Kekst.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel received the highest score, or 42 points, for her response to the virus, the poll shows.

Respondents in Japan also voiced concerns about losing their jobs amid COVID-19. More than one-third of the respondents said they are worried their companies could go bankrupt, the survey shows.

Jochen Legewie, the Japan head of the consultancy, said the results show extremely strong dissatisfaction among Japanese with the government's business policies. Abe's popularity has plummeted because of policies that have not worked to turn around the economy, according to the analyst.

Japan's daily confirmed cases of COVID-19 exceeded 1,000 on Thursday. More than 1,000 people have died from the virus, and the country has reported a total of 53,287 cases.

Abe's cabinet is also suffering from diminished support, in the 30% range, according to Japan-based analyst William Pesek.

According to Pesek, Abe has "largely withdrawn from day-to-day decision-making," and raising questions whether "his days are numbered," he said.

Abe has refused to declare another state of emergency for Japan despite the rising number of coronavirus cases.