HE LEFT OUT AREA 51

Michael Flynn doubles down on conspiracy theory that COVID-19 was created by George Soros, Bill Gates, and WHO to steal the 2020 election from Trump

bdawson@insider.com (Bethany Dawson) 

Former General Michael Flynn, President Donald Trump’s recently pardoned national security adviser, speaks during a protest of the outcome of the 2020 presidential election outside the Supreme Court on December 12, 2020 in Washington, DC. 

Photo by Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images

Michael Flynn appeared on Alex Jones' Infowars show and said COVID-19 was created to steal the 2020 election.

He added the virus was created by the WHO, UN, and Bill Gates to control the world.
Michael Flynn's recent conspiracy comments have led to his honorary degree being stripped from him.

Michael Flynn, Donald Trump's former security advisor, has developed a new angle to COVID-19 conspiracy theories, claiming the virus was a hoax created to steal the 2020 US election.

He told Alex Jones' Infowars show that COVID-19 was created by "global organizations" such as the World Health Organization (WHO) and the UN "for a couple of reasons, one of the big reasons was to steal [the 2020] election"

The baseless claims of election fraud in the 2020 presidential election have been investigated and debunked repeatedly.

Flynn told Infowars that the World Health Organization, the United Nations, and global organizations "see themselves as 'this is how we can rule the world, this is how we can control societies, this is how we can control humanity.'"

"So let's introduce something called Covid, and they did it," he said.

Flynn, a retired US Army lieutenant general, who resigned from Trump's administration when it was learned he had lied regarding conversations with a Russian diplomat, also claimed that COVID-19 was created by financier George Soros, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, and Klaus Schwab, the head of the World Economic Forum.

Flynn, who has become a prominent figure in the QAnon conspiracy theory, said in an interview in May 2021 that the virus was made up before November 3 "to gain control" of society, according to a report by Insider's Sophia Ankel.

COVID-19 has so far killed over 5.6 million people across the world, according to the WHO.

The WHO also noted, in September 202o that as well as the public health risk of COVID-19, there was also an "infodemic" spreading misinformation that cost lives.

There is yet no confirmed understanding of exactly how the COVID-19 pandemic started. However, a report from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) states that the virus most likely came from a lab outbreak or infected animal.

Flynn also alleged that the January 6 Capitol insurrection and the foiled kidnapping plot of Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer were events staged by the Biden administration.

Meanwhile, Flynn and Rudy Giuliani, had their honorary degrees from the University of Rhode Island stripped from them, last week.

Announcing the news on the University website, URI President Marc Parlange said: "Revoking these honorary degrees reinforces our values and allows us to lead with truth and integrity."

US Jewish movements ‘outraged’ by Israeli PM’s decision to quash Western Wall deal

The prime minister said members of his right-wing Yamina Party opposed the plan, which would expand the current mixed-gender section of the Western Wall and create a joint management committee with leaders of the Conservative and Reform movements.

Men pray at the Western Wall in Jerusalem’s Old City on Nov. 22, 2009. Photo by Kyle Taylor/Creative Commons

January 31, 2022

By 

Yonat Shimro

(RNS) — The two largest Jewish religious movements in the United States expressed outrage at news that Israel’s prime minister was reneging on an agreement to create a mixed-gender prayer space at the Western Wall, Judaism’s holiest site, known in Hebrew as the “Kotel.”

In an interview with The Jerusalem Post last week, Israel’s Prime Minister, Naftali Bennett, said his government would not be able to implement the plan inked by his predecessor, Benjamin Netanyahu.

Bennett said members of his right-wing Yamina Party opposed the plan, which would expand the current egalitarian section of the Western Wall and create a joint management committee with leaders of the Conservative and Reform movements.

The Orthodox Rabbinate in Israel now controls access to the site, which is divided into separate men’s and women’s prayer spaces. Women, however, are not allowed to read from a Torah scroll at the site, in line with traditional Orthodox practice.

The U.S. Jewish movements, which have granted women equal rights for decades, have long sought to be recognized in Israel alongside the Orthodox establishment.

“The Conservative/Masorti movement organizations feel betrayed by Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett’s government’s ongoing refusal to implement the 2017 Kotel Agreement,” wrote Conservative leaders in a statement.

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RELATED: Future of prayer site in doubt under Israel’s fragile government

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In an interview with RNS, Rabbi Jacob Blumenthal, CEO of the movement’s rabbinical assembly and congregational arm, added that the Conservative movement was “profoundly disappointed” in Bennett’s decision.

“The government has bowed to religious extremists and threats of violence instead of taking up a leadership position on behalf of the entire Jewish people around the world,” Blumenthal said.

Rabbi Rick Jacobs, president of the Union for Reform Judaism, the largest Jewish organization in the U.S., was equally blunt.

“There has been an aggressive public campaign by the ultra-Orthodox to demonize Reform and Conservative Jews and misrepresent the Kotel agreement,” he wrote. “Giving in to this pressure will exacerbate divisions in Israel, risks intensifying the alienation of Diaspora non-Orthodox Jews and will only embolden and empower those anti-democratic, anti-religious equality forces — both in their antagonistic vitriol and actions against non-Orthodox Jews and in their use of such pressure tactics to pursue other alterations in the coalition’s decisions.”

The two movements consider the current space — a raised platform that does not allow visitors to approach the wall — substandard. The agreement called for a larger mixed-gender space at an archeological site south of the prayer site controlled by the rabbinate.

The so-called “Kotel agreement” was approved by the previous Israeli government six years ago. In 2017, then-Prime Minister Netanyahu scuttled the agreement under pressure from his Orthodox Party coalition members. Those Orthodox parties are not members of today’s governing coalition, but several members of right-leaning parties have also refused to sanction the agreement.

A member of the Women of the Wall clutches a Torah scroll, as she is surrounded by Israeli security forces holding back protesters at the Western Wall, the holiest site where Jews can pray, in the Old City of Jerusalem, Friday, Nov. 5, 2021. Thousands of ultra-Orthodox Jews gathered at the site to protest against the Jewish women’s group that holds monthly prayers there in a long-running campaign for gender equality at the site. (AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo)

For years the wall has been the site of sometimes violent clashes between Women of the Wall, a liberal Jewish group that wants the right to pray at the wall — including reading from the Torah and conducting services — and Orthodox men who have attempted to block them.

Both the Reform and Conservative seminaries require rabbinical students to spend an academic year studying in Israel.

The Western Wall is the last intact retaining wall that surrounded the second Jerusalem Temple, which was destroyed in the year 70 A.D. when the Romans reclaimed Jerusalem.

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RELATED: Israeli police protect women’s prayer group from ultra-Orthodox protesters

Hamas: Bennett's remarks about Palestinian state 'slap in the face'

January 29, 2022 

Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett on 23 November 2021

 [Israeli Government Press Office/Anadolu Agency]

January 29, 2022

The Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement Hamas has statedthat the remarks made by Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett,that he will not allow the creation of a Palestinian state, are a "slap in the face" of the negotiation team.

In a statement, Member of Hamas Political Bureau Izzat Al-Rishq explained: "The remarks made by the Israeli occupation's Prime Minister Naftali Bennett that he will not allow any talks leading to the creation of a Palestinian state discloses the reality of our enemy and its war on our people."

He added: "This proves that those running after a Palestinian state given by the occupation are merely running after a mirage."

Al-Rishq stressed that the Palestinian state could not be created without sacrifices: "It could only be achieved via resilience and steadfastness."

On Friday, Bennett repeated previous remarks in which he stressed that he would never meet with Palestinian negotiators, namely Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas.

"I am from the right wing, and my positions are unchangeable," he asserted, stressing: "There will be no new Oslo (accords). If there were talks with the Palestinians, there would not be a government."

He added: "I reject the creation of a Palestinian state. I will never allow carrying out political talks on the borders."

Regarding the meetings between Abbas and Israeli Defence Minister Benny Gantz and Foreign Minister Yair Lapid, Bennett stated: "They do not have any power to discuss this political issue with the Palestinians."

Swedish film festival puts audiences under hypnosis

Fredrik Praesto and his hypnotic spiral at the Gothenburg Film Festival 

(AFP/Valeriia Altareva)


Mon, January 31, 2022, 12:13 PM·2 min read

To add another dimension to the cinematic experience, Scandinavia's largest film festival introduced 20 minutes of hypnosis ahead of the featured movies.

"We have built this hypnotic cinema to experiment with the film experience, to challenge our ideas about how to watch a film," Jonas Holmberg, director of the Gothenburg Film Festival in southwest Sweden, said.

The first experimental session took place on Sunday evening in front of just a few dozen people -- due to Covid-19 restrictions.

In lieu of trailers the audience got a live session with hypnotist Fredrik Praesto, before a viewing of "Land of Dreams", by the Iranian-American director Shirin Neshat.

Standing on stage in front of a large hypnotic spiral, Praesto began with physical exercises - such as asking audience members to bringing their hands together as if they were magnets and to close their eyes.

After a 20-second countdown, the audience reopened their eyes and the film began. After the credits started rolling, there was another countdown for the audience to break the hypnosis.

The viewers said the sensations they experienced ranged from a form of stupor to a much stronger concentration, the volunteers reported.

"You get rid of all the noises and the distractions and all of that and also with the sound you really get into the movie," Jonna Blumborg, a young audience member, said.

"I tried to do those things that he told us, like feel the textures of fabrics, skin, hair and so on and it was easier to focus because of the environment, total black, just the light screen," her friend Louise Nilsson added.

Another spectator, Fredrik Sandsten, explained it as entering "a sort of very pleasant state of mind.

The Gothenburg Film Festival has made a habit of offering unusual experiences to its audiences.

Last year, to follow Covid rules, it offered a week of screenings to just one person, in the lighthouse of a deserted island off the coast.

A nurse exhausted by work during the pandemic was selected as the lone viewer.

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US lacks moral authority to criticize rights abuses: Cuba

Katell ABIVEN
Mon, 31 January 2022

Cuba's Deputy Minister of Foreign Relations, Carlos Fernandez de Cossio, hit out at what he described as US cruelty and immorality in an interview with AFP 

(AFP/ADALBERTO ROQUE) 

Cuba, marking six decades under American sanctions this week, has lashed out at US "cruelty" against the island nation and said Washington lacked the moral authority to criticize rights violations in other countries.

Deputy Foreign Minister Carlos Fernandez de Cossio, in an interview with AFP, said the effects of the US blockade against communist Cuba were now "greater than ever."

"The United States has a disastrous record in terms of human rights, it has a disastrous record in terms of its people's democratic rights, and the United States has no right to give lessons to anyone," he said.

"Above all, it doesn't have the right to manipulate a subject as sensitive as human rights to attack countries it doesn't agree with," added Fernandez de Cossio, while conceding that "all countries, Cuba included, have much to improve in the area of human rights."

The deputy minister's comments come on the eve of the 60th anniversary of Washington's embargo against Cuba, announced on February 3, 1962, after the revolution that gave rise to a communist regime.

It also comes as the United States has ramped up criticism of Cuban authorities following the arrest of hundreds of people for taking part in anti-government protests last July.

Last week, Cuban authorities acknowledged for the first time that more than 700 people had been charged over the protests, and 172 already convicted.

- 'We are hungry' -

Washington has been vocal in its condemnation of the crackdown.

"Freedom of expression & the right to a fair trial are universal human rights that all countries should protect & uphold," Brian Nichols, the US Assistant Secretary for Western Hemisphere Affairs, wrote on Twitter.

Fernandez de Cossio, who is in charge of relations with Washington, retorted that Nichols' criticism was based on "false pretenses" being used "to justify a policy that the international community and a significant part of the people of the United States reject."

Thousands of protesters turned out countrywide, shouting "Freedom" and "We are hungry" in July's unprecedented, spontaneous demonstrations.

The government response left one person dead, dozens injured and 1,300 arrested.

Havana says all defendants had access to defense lawyers but critics, including Human Rights Watch, say the attorneys were not independent and decry the proceedings as sham trials.

Havana blames the United States and its sanctions for the misery of the Cuban people, who have to stand in long queues daily for food and other essentials, always with the risk of leaving empty handed.

Former US president Donald Trump ramped up financial and diplomatic sanctions during his four-year term, putting Cuba back on a list of state sponsors of terrorism.

- 'Cruel and immoral' -

Hit by a sharp drop in tourist numbers due partly to the blockade and partly to the coronavirus pandemic, Cuba recorded an 11 percent economic decline in 2020, followed by a modest two percent recovery last year.

It recorded an official inflation rate of 70 percent in 2021 amid its worst economic crisis in almost three decades, with food imports slashed due to dwindling government reserves.

There were hopes of a change of direction when President Joe Biden entered the White House, but not one sanction has been lifted during his first year in office.

During his presidential campaign, Biden had promised a "new policy towards Cuba" and the lifting of certain restrictions.

"The Cuban government had reason to believe that... the president would carry out what he promised," said Fernandez de Cossio.

But "life has shown us that it wasn't the case."

He said the United States was either unable or unwilling to change its "failed" policy towards Cuba.

"If there is something that demonstrates the cruel and immoral nature of the embargo, it is that in 2020 and 2021, the toughest period of the Covid-19 pandemic when the whole world was calling for solidarity and support, the United States government decided to ramp up sanctions," said Fernandez de Cassio.

This "cruelty," he added, was "something that for several generations of Cubans will be difficult to forget."

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More than 9,000 tree species still undiscovered: study

Agence France-Presse
Posted at Feb 01 2022

Photo by Aldino Hartan Putra on Unsplash

WASHINGTON, United States - Researchers estimate there are significantly more species of trees on Earth than currently known, with more than 9,000 species yet to be discovered, according to a study published Monday.

"Estimating the number of tree species is essential to inform, optimize, and prioritize forest conservation efforts across the globe," said the study, which was published in the US National Academy of Sciences journal PNAS and involved dozens of scientists.

About 64,100 tree species have already been identified.

But according to the study, which is based on a more complete database and uses a more advanced statistical method than previous ones, the total number of tree species is about 73,300 -- 14 percent more.

That means about 9,200 species have not yet been discovered.

Overall, the study said that "roughly" 43 percent of all tree species are found in South America, followed by Eurasia (22 percent), Africa (16 percent), North America (15 percent) and Oceania (11 percent).

Half to two-thirds of all known species are found in tropical or subtropical rainforests on five different continents, the researchers estimated.

A large proportion of the species yet to be discovered should therefore be found in these same regions, where fewer surveys are conducted.

Additionally, nearly a third of the world's tree species are scientifically classified as rare, with low populations in limited regions. These species are therefore more vulnerable to the threat of extinction.

Only 0.1 percent of species are found in all five of the regions identified by the study.

South America also has the highest proportion of endemic species, or species only present on that continent, at 49 percent.

"These results highlight the vulnerability of global tree species diversity," the study authors said, especially in the face of changes to the land due to human activity, and "future climate."

"Losing regions of forest that contain these rare species will have direct and potentially long-lasting impacts on the global species diversity and their provisioning of ecosystem services."

Species surveys are very time-consuming and present many challenges, including lack of access to certain areas and consistency of identification, and several botanists may characterize the same species slightly differently.

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770-km US megaflash sets new lightning record: UN

The technology used to detect the length and duration of lightning flashes has improved dramatically in recent years, enabling records far greater than what was once the norm. (File photo: AFP/Pascal Pochard-Casabianca)

01 Feb 2022 

GENEVA: A single flash of lightning in the United States nearly two years ago cut across the sky for nearly 770km, setting a new world record, the United Nations said on Tuesday (Feb 1).

The new record for the longest detected "megaflash", measured in the southern US on Apr 29, 2020, stretched a full 768km, across Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas.

That is equivalent to the distance between New York City and Columbus, Ohio, or between London and the German city of Hamburg, the UN's World Meteorological Organization (WMO) pointed out in a statement.

That lightning bolt zig-zagged about 60km further than the previous record, set in southern Brazil on Oct 31, 2018.

The WMO's committee of experts on weather and climate extremes also reported a new world record for the duration of a lightning flash.

A single flash that developed continuously through a thunderstorm over Uruguay and northern Argentina on Jun 18, 2020, lasted for 17.1 seconds - 0.37 seconds longer than the previous record set on Mar 4, 2019, also in northern Argentina.

Related:


Lightning strikes kill 27 during India monsoon storm

"EVEN GREATER EXTREMES"

"These are extraordinary records from single lightning flash events," Randall Cerveny, the WMO rapporteur of weather and climate extremes, said in the statement.

"Environmental extremes are living measurements of the power of nature, as well as scientific progress in being able to make such assessments," he said.

The technology used to detect the length and duration of lightning flashes has improved dramatically in recent years, enabling records far greater than what was once the norm.

The previous megaflash records, from 2018 and 2019, were the first verified with new satellite lightning imagery technology, and were both more than double the prior records using data collected from ground-based technology.

"It is likely that even greater extremes still exist, and that we will be able to observe them as lightning detection technology improves," Cerveny said.

The WMO highlighted that the new record strikes happened in the Great Plains in North America and the La Plata basin in South America, known as hotspots for so-called mesoscale convective system thunderstorms, which enable megaflashes.

It stressed that the flashes that set the new records were not isolated events, but happened during active and large-scale thunderstorms, making them all the more dangerous.

"Lightning is a major hazard that claims many lives every year," WMO chief Petteri Taalas said in the statement.

"The findings highlight important public lightning safety concerns for electrified clouds where flashes can travel extremely large distances."

WMO pointed out that the only lightning-safe locations are big buildings with wiring and plumbing, or fully enclosed, metal-topped vehicles.

The UN agency maintains official global records for a range of weather- and climate-related statistics, including temperature, rainfall and wind.

All such records are stored in the WMO Archive of Weather and Climate Extremes.

The archive currently includes two other lightning-related extremes.

One is for the most people killed by a single direct strike of lightning, when 21 people died in Zimbabwe in 1975 as they huddled for safety in a hut that was hit.

The other is for an indirect strike, when 469 people died in Dronka, Egypt, when lightning struck a set of oil tanks in 1994, causing burning oil to flood the town.

Source: AFP/kg

Rescuers Dig Desperately In Mud For Brazil Flood Survivors

By Florence GOISNARD
01/31/22 

Knee-deep in the mud left by a horrific landslide in southeastern Brazil, dozens of rescue workers and volunteers raced Monday to find any remaining survivors before it was too late.

Floods and landslides triggered by torrential rains have killed at least 24 people, including eight children, since Friday in the state of Sao Paulo, Brazil's industrial hub and home to 46 million people.

In the city of Franco da Rocha, where a landslide killed at least eight people, residents said they could still hear victims stuck in the mud calling out for help Sunday.

Floods and landslides triggered by torrential rains have killed at least 24 people, including eight children, in the state of Sao Paulo, Brazil's industrial hub and home to 46 million people Photo: AFP / FILIPE ARAUJO

But their cries could no longer be heard on Monday, turning the search for 10 people who are still missing increasingly desperate.

"We've managed to pull out 13 people. Unfortunately, only five of them were still alive," said rescue officer Alessandro da Silva, as his team dug through the abyss left by a tidal wave of brown and ochre mud that wiped out everything in its path in Franco da Rocha, located 40 kilometers (25 miles) north of Sao Paulo city.

"We'll keep up the search until all the missing are found," he told AFP.

Rescue workers and volunteers search for survivors of a deadly landslide in Franco da Rocha, Brazil Photo: AFP / FILIPE ARAUJO

The disaster zone was strewn with red bricks, corrugated-metal roofs and other remains of overturned and eviscerated houses.

Above, other houses were perched precariously at the edge of the newly formed abyss.

As a dozen rescue workers in helmets and yellow uniforms shoveled through the ruins, volunteers formed a long chain to carry out buckets filled with mud.

Rescue workers in helmets and yellow uniforms shovel through the ruins left behind by a landslide in Franco da Rocha, Brazil Photo: AFP / FILIPE ARAUJO

"There are three bodies by my neighbor's place, in a ravine behind a wall. There's a father clutching his child. They'll have to break the wall to get them out," said resident Julio Bezerra da Silva, speaking before rescue workers extracted the bodies.

"The rescue workers think there are still more people in the mud. I pray to God there are survivors," said Da Silva, a 57-year-old resident of Parque Paulista, the working-class neighborhood hit by the tragedy.

"Yesterday, we could still hear people calling for help. But not today."

Deadly landslides are a frequent occurrence in Brazil during the rainy season.

As in Franco da Rocha, they often hit shoddily built hillside houses that are the homes of the poor.

Sao Paulo Governor Joao Doria released 15 million reais ($2.8 million) in emergency funds to help the state's 10 hardest-hit cities.

Brazil has been swept by heavy storms since the rainy season started in October, notably in the northeastern state of Bahia, where 24 people died, and in Minas Gerais, in the southeast, where at least 19 were killed and thousands forced from their homes.

Experts say the heavy rains are being caused by La Nina, the cyclical cooling of the Pacific Ocean, and by the impact of climate change more broadly.

ECOCIDE
Oil spill pollutes nature reserve in Ecuadoran Amazon

Neither the Ecuadoran government nor OCP Ecuador have quantified the extent of the spill (AFP/Handout)

Mon, January 31, 2022

An oil spill in eastern Ecuador has reached a nature reserve and polluted a river that supplies water to indigenous communities, the country's environmental ministry said Monday.

Nearly two hectares (five acres) of a protected area of the Cayambe-Coca national park have been contaminated, as well as the Coca river -- one of the biggest in the Ecuadoran Amazon, the ministry said in a statement.

The park of some 400,000 hectares is home to a wide variety of protected animals and holds important water reserves.

Heavy rains caused a mudslide in the eastern Napo province on Friday, during which a rock struck and ruptured a pipeline owned by private company OCP Ecuador.

Neither the government nor OCP Ecuador have quantified the extent of the spill, but the environmental authority has described it as a "major" pollution event.

"Our staff are monitoring 210 kilometers (130 miles) of the Coca River and its tributaries and coordinating containment and remediation where traces of hydrocarbon are identified," the ministry said.

Emergency committees, it added, were deployed to Napo province and neighboring Orellana to "guarantee safe water for consumption of the population".

- 'Water cannot be used' -

OCP Ecuador said Monday that "small traces" of oil had reached water sources.

"We are in the process of remediation of the affected soil and also of the vegetation, as well as those small traces that remained in the watercourse," OCP president Jorge Vugdelija said.

The company had built retention pools in which to collect the spilled oil, and managed "to contain the vast majority," he added.

The recovered crude was transported in tankers to storage warehouses elsewhere.

OCP's pipelines can transport up to 450,000 barrels a day from the Amazon to ports on the Pacific coast, although the company only extracted 160,000 barrels between January and November 2021.

In May 2020 in the same area, a mudslide damaged pipelines, resulting in 15,000 barrels of oil polluting three Amazon basin rivers, affecting several riverside communities.

Indigenous organizations and environmental NGOs insist on more information.

"We demand to know the number of barrels spilled and what the process of delivery of water and food will be for the communities," the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of the Ecuadorian Amazon (Confeniae) said on Twitter.

"It is clear that the river water cannot be used or consumed," it added.

OCP said it had begun providing clean water to affected communities, and would follow up with food and medical care shortly.

Crude petroleum is Ecuador's biggest export product. Between January and November 2021, the country extracted 494,000 barrels per day.

The oil leak is the second to mar South American ecosystems in two weeks, after nearly 12,000 barrels of crude spilled into the sea off Peru on January 15.

The spill, described as an "ecological disaster" by the Peruvian government, happened when a tanker was unloading oil at a refinery owned by Spanish company Repsol.

It polluted beaches, killed wildlife and robbed fishermen of their livelihood.

On Monday, the government in Lima ordered Repsol to freeze the transfer of oil between ships and the refinery "until technical guarantees are given that no other damage will occur in the Peruvian sea."

On Friday, the Peruvian justice system banned four Repsol executives from leaving the country for 18 months and ordered the seizure of the tanker involved.

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Lebanon power cuts turn cafes into co-working spaces

Clara Guillard
Mon, 31 January 2022

Beirut's cafes now serve as substitute workplaces for people grappling with drastic electricity shortages and internet cuts (AFP/JOSEPH EID)


Cafes are among the few businesses to have largely bucked the wider meltdown driven by corruption, capital flight and would-be donors' reluctance to throw good money after bad (AFP/JOSEPH EID)

The power cuts, extending to 23 hours a day, have left many already deprived of an office by Covid restrictions with no option but to plant themselves in cafes all day (AFP/JOSEPH EID)


For many patrons filling Beirut's cafes these days, the most important things are good lighting and stable wi-fi (AFP/JOSEPH EID)

The music is often hushed and the atmosphere studious -- for the patrons filling Beirut's cafes these days, the most important things are good lighting and stable wi-fi.

That's because they now serve as substitute workplaces for people grappling with drastic electricity shortages and internet cuts stemming from Lebanon's unrelenting economic crisis.

Aaliya's Books, in the heart of the capital's once-fabled nightlife spot of Gemmayzeh, is one such sanctuary.

"Most of the time, if I come here, it's because I don't have electricity at home," said Maria Bou Raphael, nestled on a sofa.

The power cuts, extending to 23 hours a day, have left many already deprived of an office by Covid restrictions with no option but to plant themselves in cafes all day, especially as the quality of many internet connections has also plummeted.

Generators -- the only way to keep devices charged and connected -- are too expensive for many Lebanese, as they grapple with an economic crisis that has seen the local currency lose more than 90 percent of its black market value in recent years.

Cafes are therefore among the few businesses to have largely bucked the wider meltdown driven by corruption, capital flight and would-be donors' reluctance to throw good money after bad.

Aaliya's Books manager Niamh Flemming Farrell said that on weekdays her establishment feels more like a co-working space, with some customers staying for a full day.

The sense of community created by the service that she provides to the neighbourhood is reviving a cafe culture that had faded in recent years.

Doubling up as a bookshop, the cafe takes its name from Aaliya Saleh, the central character in "An Unnecessary Woman", a novel by acclaimed Lebanese-American author Rabih Alameddine.

The narrative focuses on a 72-year-old who lives secluded in her Beirut flat, in the sole company of her books while the 1975-1990 civil war rages outside.

- 'Relaxed spot' -

"We noticed that... our customers started working additional hours in our branches, fancying the locations that provide a higher level of comfort," said a spokesman for Cafe Younes, a roastery with 10 coffee shops mostly in the capital.

Cafe Younes opened a new large branch in Beirut's central Hamra district a year ago that includes a multi-purpose study room with large desks each equipped with power sockets.

Barzakh is another multi-purpose cafe that opened recently on the first floor of a busy building on the Hamra thoroughfare.

Hamra used to epitomise a Beirut cafe culture that had its heyday in the 1960s but was gradually wiped out by bars conducive to more boisterous socialising.

"I can see people running and yelling (outside) but I'm sitting here quietly in a relaxed spot," said fashion design student Mustafa al-Sous said, sitting beside a large window.

The young man sees Barzakh as a haven from the doom and gloom that has been so pervasive across Lebanon in recent years, but also as a place where he can work.

Notebooks and laptops clogged the tables in this cafe, while tangled charger cables strewn across the floor threatened to trip waiters.

"Originally we wanted to ban laptops," Mansour Aziz, the founder of the cafe-cum-library, which also hosts live shows in the evenings, recalls with a disbelieving smile.

Many here, dragged out of their homes by the electricity crisis, now rely on the cafes for their social life, especially those who can no longer afford to party in the evenings.

At Barzakh, patrons will often greet each other with a nod from across the room and come to know each other gradually.

"I'm a very sociable person," Mustafa said. "I like it when people walk over to ask me what I'm working on."

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