From the WashPost: Beirut urgently needs aid. But residents fear the state’s involvement will make matters worse.
How do you respond to a humanitarian crisis and rebuild a devastated capital when no one trusts the corruption-plagued state apparatus — and while a collapsed banking system and a pandemic loom in the backdrop? That is the billion-dollar question Lebanon is facing.
A very detailed article from BuzzFeed: FEMA Told Congress It Had “Very Little Knowledge” About The Coronavirus Response Before March. New Documents Show It’s Been Deeply Involved Since The Beginning.
Definitely recommended reading.
From NYCity: this 57 page handbook titled Mental Health Toolkit for Faith and Community Leaders. (Updated April 6, 2021)
Thanks to Peter B. Gudaitis of NYDIS for the citation.
From E&ENews: WHITE HOUSE: Trump wants to use FEMA disaster funds for unemployment .
President Trump made plans Saturday to help pay for a new round of unemployment benefits by siphoning money from Federal Emergency Management Agency disaster funds.
The move — one of several pandemic-related steps Trump took over the weekend — comes amid one of the busiest hurricane seasons in recent memory. Trump also announced that he would take executive action to mitigate evictions and defer payroll tax payments.
Update: the Diva is still struggling to understand this matter. For more information see Eric Holdeman’s blog on this topic.
From the AP: US Coronovirus Response Met With Alarm Abroad.
From The Conversation: Beirut explosion: the disaster was exceptional but events leading up to it were not – researchers
Update: Here is a link to a 3-page background piece on U.S. interest in Lebanon done by the Congressional Research Service.
Update on 8/10: How Beirut Blast Compared with Similar Explosions in Texas, China, and France.
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From Politico: Governors find their moment — and peril. The political stars of the pandemic are facing nearly unprecedented challenges in the months ahead.
From the NYTimes: The Unique U.S. Failure to Control the Virus
From Nature: Two decades of pandemic war games failed to account for Donald Trump. [Thanks to Chris Jones for the citation.]
From the WashPost: To fight covid-19, Congress has to reward state cooperation
As the August recess looms, Congress is running out of time to do right by the American people with regard to the coronavirus. The craziest thing is that the most important part of what should be in the expected multi-trillion-dollar relief package is the least expensive: the estimated $75 billion necessary for public health infrastructure.
We are not in a recession arising from internal failures of the financial and market system. It’s the real economy that’s been shocked, by illness and fear, and addressing those shocks is the only way out. Only a full and effective public health response will put our economy and society back on a sound footing. And the most important thing Congress could do costs no additional money: It should distribute some portion of that needed public health appropriation in the form of bonus funds to states that establish formal regional collaborations for addressing the crucial matter of testing.
Recovery Diva 