A fireplace destroys most of Europe’s largest refugee camp
With greater than 12,000 individuals dwelling in squalid circumstances in a bleak tent camp designed for 3,000, Europe’s largest refugee camp, on the Greek island of Lesbos, has for years appeared prone to a humanitarian tragedy.
On Tuesday evening, that disaster came. Quick-moving flames razed a lot of the camp, often known as Moria, leaving many residents homeless. The fires had been deliberately began by a small group of camp residents, officers stated, in protest of quarantine measures after a minimum of 35 individuals examined constructive for coronavirus on the camp.
Evaluation: The pandemic has exacerbated a longstanding hostility between migrants and Greek islanders, who as soon as welcomed the refugees. The federal government additionally tightened borders. Earlier this yr, Greece abandoned more than 1,000 immigrants in rafts at sea. “This fireplace was anticipated,” Eva Cossé, a human rights researcher, instructed The Occasions. “It’s not shocking. It’s a testomony to the European Union’s negligence and Greece’s negligence.”
The corruption behind the Beirut explosion
Late final yr, a brand new safety officer on the port of Beirut found what appeared like an pressing safety menace behind a damaged door: piles of fireworks, jugs of kerosene and hundreds of tons of ammonium nitrate — in brief, each ingredient wanted to assemble a devastating bomb. However when he warned his supervisors, he discovered that many Lebanese officers already knew. Regardless of an order from a decide, no speedy motion was taken.
Months later, on Aug. 4, an explosion tore via Beirut, killing greater than 190 individuals, injuring 6,000 and inflicting billions of {dollars} in injury.
A Times investigation has revealed the years of corruption that led to the explosion. This, the crew studies, was the results of neglect and bureaucratic buck-passing by a dysfunctional authorities that subordinated public security to the extra urgent enterprise of bribery and graft.
Trump admits to taking part in down the virus
In early March, President Trump took to Twitter to explain the coronavirus as much less deadly than the flu. However in non-public, in accordance with the forthcoming e-book “Rage” by the journalist Bob Woodward, he was well aware of the risks, having been warned in January by his nationwide safety adviser that the virus represented the “largest nationwide safety menace” of his presidency.
“You simply breathe the air and that’s the way it’s handed,” Mr. Trump instructed Mr. Woodward on Feb. 7. “And in order that’s a really tough one. That’s a really delicate one. It’s additionally extra lethal than even your strenuous flu.” Greater than a month later, Mr. Trump stated that he had wished to play it down publicly. “I nonetheless like taking part in it down,” he stated, “as a result of I don’t need to create a panic.”
Listed below are five takeaways from the e-book and our critic’s review of it.
Response: Joe Biden, Mr. Trump’s Democratic opponent, excoriated the president over the report. “He knew and purposely performed it down,” Mr. Biden stated throughout a speech in Warren, Mich., on Wednesday. “Worse, he lied to the American individuals.”
Listed below are the latest updates and maps of the pandemic.
In different virus developments:
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France’s prime minister, Jean Castex, is self-isolating after coming into contact with the director of the Tour de France, who examined constructive for the virus.
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U.S. schools which have reopened for in-person instruction are struggling to include the unfold of the virus. Specialists say insurance policies have damaged down in ways in which may put students and staff members at risk.
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A brand new examine reveals how the virus can invade brain cells, hijacking them to make copies of itself and sucking up the entire oxygen close to the host cells, ravenous different cells to dying.
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An early lockdown spared the Italian island of Sardinia within the spring, however jet-setters — together with the now-infected former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi — flocked there this summer time, turning nightclubs into petri dishes and the island right into a sizzling spot.
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A photograph of an older man having a meal in a pub in Galway, Eire, started a national conversation about virus laws and life’s easy pleasures.
You probably have 5 minutes, that is value it
The brand new sound of Japanese sports activities: Silence
The occasional crinkle of a meals wrapper. A spontaneous burst of applause. And, in fact, the resounding thwomp! of a ball hitting cleats, towards a backdrop of in any other case scrupulous silence.
That is the soundtrack to sports activities occasions in Japan within the pandemic. Whereas the main sports activities leagues within the U.S. and Europe play largely earlier than empty stands or cardboard cutouts, followers in Japan have been attending video games since early July. However they’ve been requested to curb their enthusiasm to maintain the coronavirus in verify, and as with different containment measures in that nation, most individuals have been complying, reports Motoko Rich, our Tokyo bureau chief.
Right here’s what else is occurring
Australia shark assault: Regardless of protecting “shark nets” and drum traces offshore, a 46-year-old surfer died in the first fatal shark attack in 62 years at Greenmount Seashore on the Gold Coast.
Boeing: The U.S. aviation large stated Tuesday that it expected deliveries of its 787 Dreamliner to be delayed because it and the Federal Aviation Administration seemed into quality-control considerations with the wide-body jet. The airplane’s comparatively environment friendly gasoline use has made it fashionable with airways all over the world.
Homeland safety: The previous head of the U.S. Division of Homeland Safety’s intelligence division accused senior leaders of warping the company round President Trump’s political pursuits and downplaying threats from violent white supremacy and Russian election interference.
Seafarers: A minimum of 300,000 cargo staff have been stranded on their ships for months, working previous the expirations of their unique contracts and combating isolation, uncertainty and fatigue.
Snapshot: The San Francisco skyline at 10:25 a.m. on Wednesday, above, with the tops of skyscrapers misplaced in a mixture of smoke and fog. A rare variety of wildfires are burning in California, Oregon and Washington State, destroying a whole bunch of properties.
Lives lived: Forrest Fenn, an eccentric New Mexico art dealer who enticed hundreds to seek for hidden treasure after he introduced in a 2010 e-book that he had stashed a chest stuffed with gold nuggets, diamonds and different jewels someplace within the Rocky Mountains, died at 90 on Monday.
What we’re listening to: The ESPN podcast “Bloodlines.” Taffy Brodesser-Akner, a Occasions Journal author, says, “I misplaced the weekend listening to Wright Thompson’s wonderful new podcast concerning the plague of horse deaths — 49 in only one yr — at Santa Anita.”
Now, a break from the information
Cook dinner: This colorful tart loaded with zucchini and egg is simple, due to store-bought puff pastry. Prime with no matter recent herbs you could have readily available, like parsley, tarragon or dill.
Learn: Study concerning the historical past of cash in a fast-paced, chatty new book by Jacob Goldstein, the host of the NPR podcast “Planet Cash.”
Hear: Songs by Ava Max, Tough, Invoice Callahan and SZA are on our pop critics’ playlist this week.
We now have extra diversions and recipes in our At Home collection.
And now for the Again Story on …
Staying protected on mass transit
As site visitors picks up once more on and under the streets, The Occasions asked experts for the best strategies to stay safe while touring or commuting within the pandemic.
1. Select your methodology properly. Take note of how lengthy you’ll be ready on your chosen vessel to reach and whether or not the station is inside or exterior. In the event you’re driving the bus, attempt to sit close to a window, and maintain it open. Go for the escalator or stairs over the elevator, for those who can.
2. Keep away from touching communal surfaces. Wash your fingers earlier than you allow the home and once more upon reaching your vacation spot. And use sanitizer continuously. Avoid poles and rails, whether or not on the ferry, the subway or the bus. Don’t contact the turnstile as you progress via it; avoid contact screens, keypads and elevator buttons. And make contactless funds in the event that they’re supplied. Paper tickets are additionally finest prevented.
3. Comply with any new instructions. Be aware of the decals on the ground and indicators you may even see shepherding you thru the station, put in place to lower crowding and scale back contact between passengers. Enter buses from the rear to keep away from shedding respiratory droplets on the driving force and different passengers. And for those who’re driving onto a ferry, stay in your automotive in the course of your journey.
4. Don’t eat onboard. Consuming can carry particles from a floor to your face. Moreover, you’d need to take off your masks. Keep away from intensive conversations, too; speaking sprays aerosolized droplets that may carry virus particles.
5. Be strategic about your timing. Attempt to keep away from peak commuting hours. In case your employer will permit for extra versatile hours, you possibly can circumvent, and never contribute to, the rush-hour crush.
Thanks once more for beginning your day with me. Till subsequent time.
— Natasha
Thanks To Melissa Clark for the recipe, and to Theodore Kim and Jahaan Singh for the remainder of the break from the information. You’ll be able to attain the crew at briefing@nytimes.com.
P.S.
• We’re listening to “The Daily.” Our newest episode is the primary a part of a collection about what occurred to Breonna Taylor, a younger, Black medical employee killed in a police raid in Louisville, Ky.
• Right here’s our Mini Crossword, and a clue: “Give or take” (5 letters). You can find all our puzzles here.
• The phrase “violetear” appeared in The Occasions for the primary time on Tuesday, in accordance with the Twitter account @NYT_first_said.
• Our Nationwide editor Marc Lacey spoke to Katie Couric about masking a number of crises directly as a racial reckoning in newsrooms is underway.
