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.

US President Donald Trump has signed a series of executive orders giving extended economic relief to Americans struggling economically during the Covid-19 pandemic after negotiations with Democrats broke down.

Trump announced the orders at a press conference at his Bedminster, New Jersey golf club on Saturday, the same location where he warned such action would be taken a day earlier.

The orders will give a payroll tax holiday to Americans earning less than $100,000 a year. A second order will "protect people from eviction," Trump said.

A third order will extend unemployment benefits, giving Americans out of jobs $400 a week on top of the unemployment benefits they would have been entitled to before the pandemic, which is a decrease from the previous $600 per week benefit Democrats were looking to extend through the end of the year.

Trump also said that student loan repayments would be deferred and that any accrued interest would be forgiven indefinitely.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has said that while immigration advocates may disagree, all illegal immigrants trying to enter Hungary during the Covid-19 pandemic pose a possible health threat and should be treated as such.

The PM, known for his tough approach to undocumented migrants, made the comments during an interview with Hungary's Kossuth Radio on Friday. He said all of those attempting to enter the country "pose a biological and health risk to Hungary" due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.

Orban clarified that he didn't consider every individual migrant "a biological bomb," but said some of them may be infected with Covid-19 and not even realize it themselves. In that case, while the dignity of people trying to cross the border should be respected, Hungary has every reason to see them as a potential threat.

Facebook and Twitter have taken down the US president's claims on the insusceptibility of children to Covid-19 - a fact on which the science supports him - proving that Big Tech is increasingly acting in a nakedly political way.

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!

The United States on Friday slapped sanctions on Hong Kong's leader Carrie Lam and 10 senior figures, in a major new step against China's clampdown in the semi-autonomous city.

In the most significant US action since China imposed a tough security law, Lam and the other leaders of the Asian financial hub will have any assets in the United States blocked. The move also criminalizes any US financial transactions with them.

"The United States stands with the people of Hong Kong and we will use our tools and authorities to target those undermining their autonomy," Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in a statement.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the United States was acting because Beijing had violated its promise of autonomy that it made to Hong Kong before Britain handed back the territory in 1997.

"Today's actions send a clear message that the Hong Kong authorities' actions are unacceptable and in contravention of the PRC's commitments under 'one country, two systems' and the Sino-British Joint Declaration, a UN-registered treaty."

Washington has already imposed sanctions on Chinese officials involved in the crackdown on Uighur Muslims in the region of Xinjiang.

US President Donald Trump said during a press conference that if he wins the presidential election Iran and North Korea will make deals with the United States very quickly regarding their nuclear weapons programs.

Tensions between the US and Iran around the latter's nuclear program re-emerged after Washington unilaterally withdrew from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) - better known as the Iran nuclear deal - and reintroduced sanctions on Tehran in 2018.

"If and when we win, we will make deals with Iran very quickly, we'll make deals with North Korea very quickly", Trump said on Friday. Trump also said that if not for his administration, the US will be now at war with Pyongyang. "Everybody said, 'Oh, Trump will get us at war'. No, just the opposite".

President Trump promised to enact a variety of financial policies through executive action amid the coronavirus pandemic if Congress fails to negotiate a federal aid package.

On Friday night, the president delivered an unexpected press conference in Bedminster, New Jersey, promising to act unilaterally to alleviate financial problems caused by the coronavirus pandemic. Among those policies include deferring the payroll tax until at least the end of 2020, extending eviction moratoriums, enhancing unemployment benefits until the end of the year, and deferring student loans.

"If Democrats continue to hold this critical relief hostage, I will act under my authority as president to get Americans the relief they need," Trump said.

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During a Friday night press conference, President Trump dished out one of his most stinging burns against the liberal media, telling CNN and Washington Post reporter Toluse Olorunnipa that the large crowd of members from his Bedminster, New Jersey golf club watching them weren't violating any social distancing measures because they were engaging in "political activity" and "a peaceful protest" against the press.

Olorunnipa began his question by noting Trump has often claimed the coronavirus pandemic would eventually "disappear," but then added: "We lost 6,000 Americans this week and just in this room, you have dozens of people who are not following the guidelines in New Jersey, which say you should not have more than 25 people [in a room]."


The Phil Rucker underling tried to ask about the supposed disconnect, but the crowd (which had largely remained quiet through both Trump's remarks and the Q&A) erupted in boos and drowned him out.

Trump interjected and began the trolling, telling him why the golf course didn't have to cap the size of the gathering or socially distance: "No, they don't have to. It's a political activity."

Full speech by Hezbollah Secretary General, Sayed Hassan Nasrallah, on August 7, 2020, devoted to the explosion at the port of Beirut
Source

Translation: resistancenews.org

Key points

• 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.