© satimage
Aftermath in Beirut
The narrative that the Beirut explosion was an exclusive consequence of negligence and corruption by the current Lebanese government is now set in stone,
at least in the Atlanticist sphere. And yet, digging deeper,
we find that negligence and corruption may have been fully exploited, via sabotage, to engineer it.
Lebanon is prime John Le Carré territory. A multinational den of spies of all shades - House of Saud agents, Zionist operatives, "moderate rebel" weaponizers, Hezbollah intellectuals, debauched Arab "royalty," self-glorified smugglers - in a context of
full spectrum economic disaster afflicting a member of the Axis of Resistance, a perennial target of Israel alongside Syria and Iran.
As if this were not volcanic enough, into the tragedy stepped President Trump to muddy the - already contaminated - Eastern Mediterranean waters.
Briefed by "our great generals," Trump on Tuesday said: "According to them - they would know better than I would - but they seem to think it was an attack." Trump added, "it was a bomb of some kind."
Comment: Who benefits? As they say...follow the money, match the fingerprints, sit back and watch.
Darryl Coote
UPIFri, 07 Aug 2020 16:01 UTC
© Ahmad Terro/UPI
Residents inspect the damage of a massive explosion in Beirut, Lebanon, on Wednesday August 5, 2020
Lebanese security forces and protesters clashed in Beirut as demonstrators took to the streets in anger as the death toll from Tuesday's devastating explosion continued to climb.
Officials said the death toll from the blast that damaged several city blocks in downtown Beirut has climbed to at least 157 but it is expected to further rise as search-and-rescue operations continue,
Al Jazeera reported.
The blast near the Beirut port was the equivalent of a 3.3-magnitude earthquake that razed buildings and injured more than 5,000. Officials believe its cause was nearly 3,000 tons of ammonium nitrate stored at a nearby warehouse.
Protesters who blame the explosion on government negligence demonstrated near parliament Thursday night and clashed with security forces who attempted to disperse them with tear gas,
the BBC reported.
Local law enforcement
has arrested 16 people in connection to their investigation into the explosion.
Comment: In the mean time, the number of those killed in Tuesday's huge blast in the port of Beirut has
risen to 158 and over 6,000 have been injured, local media said Saturday, citing the Lebanese Health Ministry.
The police action was taken response to protesters trying to
break into the Parliament Building.
Protesters are calling for the
resignation of the entire Lebanese government
Update 08/08/2020: Clashes between police and protesters in Beirut has
claimed one life, with 240 injured. One government building was set fire amid the chaos, while the Foreign Ministry and Water and Energy Ministry offices were
occupied by protesters.
A local paper reported that
"a smash and burn operation" was underway at the office of the country's Banking Association.
Protesters also built gallows and used nooses
to hang the cardboard cutouts of the country's top political figures. Among others, their 'victims' were Lebanese PM Hassan Diab, President Michel Aoun, and the leader of the country's influential political and military movement Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah.
The military was
called out to attempt to restore order in the capital.
According to Lebanese Red Cross
figures, over 230 protesters have been injured, with 55 transferred to hospital. At least one police officer has been killed and multiple others have also been injured in the unrest.
UPDATE 09/08/2020: The protests have
continued into early Sunday morning. A total of 490 people have been injured, and one law enforcement officer died in the unrest.
© BuzzFeed
When nurse Meleney Gallagher was told to line up with her colleagues on the renal ward at Sunderland Royal Hospital, for her swine flu vaccination, she had no idea the injection she was about to have had not gone through the usual testing process.
It had been rushed into circulation after the swine flu virus had swept across the globe in 2009, prompting fears thousands of people could die. From the moment the needle broke Gallagher's skin, her life would never be the same.
"I remember vividly we were all lined up in the corridor and we were told we had to have it. It wasn't a choice," she claimed. "I was pressured into it. We were given no information."
The date was 23 November 2009 and Gallagher was one of thousands of NHS staff vaccinated with Pandemrix, a vaccine made by pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline (GSK).
BBCFri, 07 Aug 2020 11:57 UTC
Dr Scally is from the govt. He sez: 'wear a muzzle'
The Welsh Government should "think again" about making face masks compulsory in shops,
a member of the Independent Sage group has said.
Dr Gabriel Scally, a visiting professor of public health, said
wearing a face mask "acts as a reminder that these aren't normal times".
"Each individual action adds together," he told BBC Wales.
The Welsh Government has
advised the use of face masks where social distancing is difficult.
On Thursday, Labour leader Keir Starmer
failed to back the Welsh Government's stance on face masks in shops in an interview with BBC Wales, saying it was "for each government to decide".
Comment: This doctor's bio
reads:
Dr Scally is currently visiting Professor of Public Health at both the University of the West of England (UWE) and the University of Bristol. His most recent academic role was as Director the World Health Organization Collaborating Centre on Healthy Urban Environments at the UWE.
Melbourne, that glorious city in the state of Victoria in Australia, granted me some of the best travel days of my life during two separate trips each lasting a full week.
A happy, civilized, highly educated people are here living amidst modern architecture, inspiring bridges, and natural beauty, a place where even the police are kind, and when you ask them for directions they reply with a smile, and when you say thank you, they say "No worries."
Now there are big worries in Melbourne.
© Composite image by FEE (Rigshospitalet, Wikimedia Commons)
From left to right: Professor Henning Bundgaard, Tamara van Ark, Anders Tegnell
Denmark boasts one of the lowest COVID-19 death rates in the world. As of August 4, the Danes have suffered 616 COVID-19 deaths,
according to figures from Johns Hopkins University.
That's less than one-third of the number of Danes who die from pneumonia or influenza in a given year.
Despite this success, Danish leaders recently found themselves on the defensive. The reason is that Danes aren't wearing face masks, and local authorities for the most part aren't even recommending them.
This prompted
Berlingske, the country's oldest newspaper, to complain that Danes had positioned themselves "to the right of Trump."
"The whole world is wearing face masks, even Donald Trump,"
Berlingske pointed out.
Michael Peck
ForbesTue, 04 Aug 2020 20:24 UTC
© Marwan Tahtah/Getty Images
BEIRUT, LEBANON - AUGUST 04: Smoke rises from a port facility after large explosions on August 4, 2020 in Beirut, Lebanon. At least 50 people were killed and thousands more injured when two explosions occurred near the Lebanese capital's port area.
As the smoke clears over Beirut, and rescuers struggle to aid survivors of a massive explosion that killed at least 78 people and wounded more than 4,000, an ominous question hangs in the air:
Was Israel responsible? The answer is, probably not.
Israel denies any involvement. Lebanon's government and Hezbollah militants - never shy about blaming their arch-enemy Israel for any misfortune - say the disaster was an accident caused by volatile explosive material in a warehouse. If Israel were in fact responsible, the result could be a war with Hezbollah and Hezbollah's patron Iran that could even embroil the United States and other nations in a vast Middle East conflagration.
Comment: Well, at least
Forbes asked the question and thereby acknowledged the elephant-in-the-living-room.
See also:
Chris Sweeney
RTSat, 08 Aug 2020 21:21 UTC
© RT UK
RT UK investigative team stopped from interviewing newly-arrived migrants by police
Hundreds of illegal migrants arriving daily on small boats and dinghies are being housed in 3- and 4-star hotels across the country, causing consternation among local residents. Why are officials being so silent over this?
As a journalist in Britain, you don't expect to be shut down by the police. But that's precisely what happened during RT's visit to the 3-star Bell Hotel in Epping, about 17 miles north of London. No blame can be attributed to the officers, who were only responding to a call from the hotel's management.
The question is, why were they even alerted?
The reason for that is unclear, but it's just one of a number of unanswered questions about the controversy surrounding
hundreds of asylum seekers being housed in hotels up and down the country, some operated by well-known chains like Hilton, Holiday Inn and Radisson.
Comment: Between this and the Royal Navy being sent out to
collect, not send back, incoming migrants, it's now clear as day that the British Conservative government has its marching orders from 'on high' to 'stay the course' on illegal immigration.
See also:
Peter Andrews
RTThu, 06 Aug 2020 18:38 UTC
© PanAmPost/Premium Photo
President Donald Trump • Mother removing daughter's mask
In an interview with Fox News on Wednesday, Donald Trump declared that "children are almost immune" from coronavirus. The videos posted online have been deleted, but the trimmed audio is available
here from CNN, which helpfully titled it "Trump falsely says kids are 'almost immune' from Covid-19," just in case its editorial position was in any way in doubt.
In his own inimitable vernacular, Trump says:
"If you look at children, children are almost - and I would almost say definitely - but almost immune from this disease." He adds, "I don't know how you feel about it, but they've got much stronger immune systems than we do somehow for this. And they don't have a problem, they just don't have a problem."
His words may have the cadence of crazed ramblings,
but so does everything he says. The question is rather whether or not he's correct.
Fact check!
Comment: No one elected Facebook or Twitter to adjudicate public conversation, whether it is offered by everyman or the president. Nor were these 'new rules' part of the original platform equations - especially when flying in the face of proven facts.
See
what else has been said about this censoring:
"This video includes false claims that a group of people is immune from COVID-19 which is a violation of our policies around harmful COVID misinformation," Andy Stone, a Facebook policy spokesperson said in a statement. A link to the post now diverts to a page that says, "This Content Isn't Available Right Now."
It is the first time that Facebook has removed a post from Trump entirely, rather than labelling it, as it has done in the past, making it a rare instance in which it has been willing to censor the president.
Twitter also removed a link to the same video clip, which the official Trump Twitter account @TeamTrump shared earlier on Wednesday. Links to the tweet now point Twitter users to a message that the tweet violated Twitter's rules and is no longer available.
The Trump campaign accused Facebook of "flagrant bias." "The President was stating a fact that children are less susceptible to the coronavirus," Courtney Parella, the campaign's deputy national press secretary, said in an emailed statement.
"Another day, another display of Silicon Valley's flagrant bias against this President, where the rules are only enforced in one direction. Social media companies are not the arbiters of truth," Parella said.
See also:
Full speech by Hezbollah Secretary General, Sayed Hassan Nasrallah, on August 7, 2020, devoted to the explosion at the port of Beirut
© AP
- The tragic context requires a sacred union, in order to overcome the humanitarian crisis, and not to settle political accounts; Hezbollah has mobilized all its resources to help the victims
- All the accusations claiming Hezbollah is somewhat responsible are outrageous, because Hezbollah has never had any activity, no warehouse and no role or control over what goes on in the port; this slanders constitutes an incitement to civil war
- At this stage of the investigation, no hypothesis can be ruled out as to the intentional or accidental nature of the explosion, but criminal negligence seems to be proven in all cases.
- An impartial investigation must identify and severely punish all the culprits, and break with the traditional sectarianism of the judicial system which judges people according to their political and religious affiliation; without a fair & transparent trial and full accountability, Lebanon will always be a failed State
- The Lebanese army is the body most able to carry out this investigation, and all the calls to form an international commission of inquiry are only delaying tactics aimed at perpetuating the establishment and impunity.
- Lebanon must use the current opportunities to overcome the US embargo and revive its economy
- All those who hope to weaken Hezbollah through this crisis demonstrate their moral bankruptcy and lack of lucidity
Transcription
Prior to this terrible event, I had announced a speech for Wednesday (August 5), and I intended to speak about several issues which were the hottest news at the time, namely:
- the situation on the border between Lebanon and occupied Palestine, and the ongoing clash between Hezbollah and the Israeli enemy;
- the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (and the expected verdict) on August 7 (concerning the assassination of Rafik Hariri in 2005);
- the coronavirus, its development and the recent increase of cases in Lebanon;
- the oil shortages and the gasoline crisis in the country;
- other questions related to the regional situation.
But when the catastrophic event happened on Tuesday (August 4), I decided to postpone my speech, and today I am not going to bring up any of these topics, but only talk about one point, namely the cataclysmic event that occurred (in the port of Beirut) and the humanitarian crisis that engulfed Lebanon and the Lebanese people in recent days.
Comment: Who benefits? As they say...follow the money, match the fingerprints, sit back and watch.