Lebanon’s Basecamp sets the pace for citizens’ initiatives in fragile states

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by CALINE MALEK -- arabnews -- BEIRUT: Volunteers from across Lebanon have flocked to support Basecamp, an initiative offering everything from food deliveries to garbage collection, from home repairs to mental health support. Under the slogan “Together, we’re stronger; we are the real government,” Basecamp unites Embrace (Lebanon’s national mental health hotline), housing project Baytna Baytak, social justice movement Minteshreen and citizens’ organization Muwatin Lebnene. “We came up with the idea of providing alternative housing for medical heroes and Red Cross members who were in touch with COVID-19 patients,” said Bouchra Boustany of Baytna Baytak. “It was launched among people who met during the revolution (in Oct. 2019), and we organized alternative housing for 450 people.”

Following the Aug. 4 Beirut port explosion, the hotlines reopened and members hit the streets once again to assist those affected. Under the slogan The phone started ringing, and I realized people didn’t want to leave their houses because they were mainly elderly, and most of them have been here for ages,” Boustany said. “We are now (providing) alternative housing to around 20 percent of applicants, and 80 percent are only asking for house repairs.” So far, Baytna Baytak has rehabilitated 225 homes, with 127 in progress and another 132 waiting on finance. “We have a double mission because COVID-19 is growing, so now we are receiving calls from medical heroes. Our aim is to reach 1,000 houses within Beirut alone,” Boustany said. And reaching those who are living alone is a high priority. “Those people are really in pain, if not physically, then psychologically. They’re destroyed. What I am doing is part of a therapy — we just can’t let them down, and it’s a struggle because we don’t have any kind of hope that anything is going to be ok.”

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Beirut: 100 days on, the rebuild begins

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From Fionn Shiner and Maria Lozano -- ACN News -- One hundred days after the explosion in Beirut on 4th August, Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) has revealed details of its aid programme which will enable church bells to ring again across the Lebanese capital. The charity announced that its €5million (£4.53m) aid package will be spent mainly on reconstruction, with churches, a cathedral and a convent among the buildings being repaired. The explosion was triggered by 750 tons of ammonium nitrate, creating one of the largest non-nuclear explosions ever recorded, causing more than 200 deaths, 6,500 injuries and leaving 300,000 people homeless. Among the seven projects confirmed by ACN - with a further 19 being considered - is St Saviour's Melkite Greek Catholic church which lost its roof in the explosion.

Parish priest Father Nicolas Riachy told ACN: "We want to give hope for those who still want to remain here. Our mission is to bring light into the darkness through which we are living. There is no Christianity without the Cross. Christ is our example. It is not easy to be Christians, but many of our people are still very much aware that this land is Holy Land and we cannot abandon it." Father Riachy stressed that the roof repairs were vital before the harsh winter months: "If the first of the winter rains arrive, they will spoil everything.

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Macron envoy in Lebanon to save French rescue plan

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by AFP -- BEIRUT — An adviser to French President Emmanuel Macron met top Lebanese officials on Thursday in a desperate bid to save a plan Paris put forward to rescue the country's agonising economy. Patrick Durel, who arrived in Beirut on Wednesday, held talks with President Michel Aoun and other key players, including parliament speaker Nabih Berri. A statement from the presidency quoted Aoun as saying that he “adheres to the French initiative, which is in the interest of the country”. Yet Lebanon’s ruling class has ignored the deadlines set by France, which has spearheaded efforts to stop the country’s collapse since a crushing currency crisis and a cataclysmic explosion at Beirut Port. On September 1, Macron gave political leaders two weeks to form a non-sectarian government of experts tasked with carrying out urgent reforms capable of unlocking billions in aid. On September 27, Macron gave another deadline of “four to six weeks” which also went unheeded.

French officials have voiced their exasperation with Lebanese politicians’ unwillingness to put the interest of the country before their own. After Lebanon’s ambassador to Germany was designated to form a government and failed, Aoun last month asked Saad Hariri to return and attempt to forge a consensus on a Cabinet line-up. Hariri, who has held the position twice, was forced to resign last year, under pressure from an unprecedented popular protest movement. Hariri, Aoun, Berri and others embody the sectarian-driven, corrupt and hereditary brand of politics that protesters, and ostensibly France, say needs to be done away with. Lebanon, which defaulted on its debt this year, is experiencing its worst ever economic crisis and is still reeling from a devastating explosion at the port that gutted entire neighbourhoods of Beirut on August 4.

Lebanon heading for total lockdown as health sector buckles

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by arabnews.com -- NAJIA HOUSSARI -- BEIRUT: Lebanon is expected to head into a total lockdown again as the health sector buckles under the pressure of soaring coronavirus cases, with the head of a doctors’ syndicate warning that the spread of the disease among medical professionals meant there would be nobody left to treat infected patients. The Supreme Defense Council meets on Tuesday, under the chairmanship of President Michel Aoun, to take decisive action about a lockdown in light of increasing complaints from doctors and hospital owners that their resources have been depleted. On Monday, the total number of people infected with the virus was more than 95,000, with daily rates sometimes exceeding 2,000, while the number of deaths has reached 725. The number of COVID-19 cases during the first week of November alone hit 13,000, while the total number of cases in October exceeded 42,000 cases, the highest number recorded since the virus was first detected in Lebanon in February. Sharaf Abu Sharaf, who heads the Doctors’ Syndicate, warned: “Lebanon’s continued abandonment of taking strict measures to contain the spread of coronavirus will mean that no one will remain to treat those infected with the virus in hospitals.” He said 17 doctors were in intensive care units, three doctors had died, and that 100 doctors were under home quarantine.

Mirna Doumit, who is head of the Order of Nurses in Lebanon, said the number of people infected in the medical and nursing body had reached 1,500. On Monday it was announced that the director of Tripoli Governmental Hospital was infected with coronavirus. Hariri Governmental Hospital specializes in receiving coronavirus cases. Its general director, Dr. Firas Al-Abyad, said that one infection in every 125 in Lebanon led to death and that this figure rose to one in 10 among the elderly. “Lebanon will enter a new phase of complete lockdown,” he predicted. “Without a complete lockdown, the economic situation will worsen in light of the spread of the virus.” But the idea of a complete lockdown for two weeks, or even a month, has provoked a negative reaction among the Lebanese public. The consensus is that a lockdown is useless without a clear strategy for the next steps.

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Axios: Trump Plans to Run for 2024 Should He Lose

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by By Solange Reyner -- newsmax.com -- President Donald Trump, should his legal challenges not hold up, is planning to run for president again in 2024, reports Axios. Trump has refused to concede the 2020 presidential election to Democratic challenger Joe Biden, citing voter fraud, though several news outlets, including Fox News, have called the race for the former vice president. Newsmax has not called the race, citing close races in several battleground states, recounts, and legal challenges. Trump's team has filed more than a dozen legal challenges as part of an effort to contest the results of the 2020 election, including in Pennsylvania, Nevada, Georgia, and Michigan. His lawyers have also requested a recount in Wisconsin.

Rick Gates, an aide to Trump in the 2016 presidential election, told USA Today that Trump will continue to play a significant role in the Republican Party, even if he is declared the loser. "He'll have that locked up for at least the next few years," Gates said. Gates also said Trump would likely "seriously consider another run in 2024." Former acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney last Thursday also predicted Trump would "absolutely" stay in politics. "He doesn't like losing," Mulvaney said. "There's actually a non-zero chance that Donald Trump runs again in 2028 and Joe Biden does not . . . simply because of his age."

Shea Says Bassil Told Her of His 'Willingness to Break with Hizbullah

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by naharnet -- U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon Dorothy Shea on Monday said Free Patriotic Movement chief Jebran Bassil had recently expressed to her his “willingness to break with Hizbullah.” “Mr. Bassil may think that it serves his cause to selectively leak information about our exchanges, taken out of context,” Shea said in a video statement. She added: “That’s not how I normally operate, but I’ll put one thing out there: he himself expressed willingness to break with Hizbullah, on certain conditions.” “He actually expressed gratitude that the United States had gotten him to see how the relation is disadvantageous” to the FPM, the ambassador went on to say. “Key advisers even informed me that they had encouraged Mr. Bassil to make this historic decision,” she said.

Shea also clarified that by sanctioning Bassil as an “individual,” the United States is “not sanctioning, or destroying, the Free Patriotic Movement.” As for the evidence Bassil has demanded regarding his alleged involvement in corruption, Shea said: “Everyone seems to want to know what the evidence was and the files that went into his being sanctioned.” “All I can say is that we endeavored to make as much information publicly available as possible when announcing designations, but as is often the case, some of this information is not releasable,” the ambassador added. Also responding to Bassil’s latest remarks, Shea added that the FPM chief is “welcome” to challenge the sanctions decision in U.S. courts. She also stressed that the sanctions “had nothing to do with the U.S. electio