https://news.yahoo.com/lebanon-loses-defender-heritage-architecture-191121620.html




Damaged windows are seen at Sursock Palace (1860) following the colossal port explosion in the Lebanese capital Beirut

ANWAR AMRO

August 31, 2020, 3:11 PM EDT·2 mins read

A veteran advocate of the arts and Lebanon's cultural heritage, Yvonne Sursock Cochrane died Monday aged 98, four weeks after the devastating Beirut blast in which she was injured.

Born into a wealthy Greek Orthodox family -- famed for their Sursock Museum -- and married to an Irish nobleman, Lady Cochrane died on the eve of the centenary of Lebanon, friends and family said on Facebook.

As head of the Association for the Protection of the Sites and Ancient Homes of Lebanon (APSAD), she devoted her life to the preservation of her country's rich architectural heritage.

She had labelled the capital's chaotic and profit-driven reconstruction after its devastating 1975-1990 civil war as little more than an "archaeological massacre".

"Beirut, once a joy of the Mediterranean, has been turned into a junkyard," she said of the decade that followed the war.

But she voiced confidence that Beirut would once again become "the garden of the Middle East".

</snip>

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aerom%C3%A9xico_Flight_498


The DC-9, missing its horizontal stabilizer as a result of the collision, plummeting into Cerritos

Aeroméxico Flight 498 was a scheduled commercial flight from Mexico City to Los Angeles, with several intermediate stops. On Sunday, August 31, 1986, the McDonnell Douglas DC-9 operating the flight was clipped in the tail section by N4891F, a Piper PA-28-181 Archer owned by the Kramer family, and crashed into the Los Angeles suburb of Cerritos, killing all 67 on both aircraft and an additional fifteen on the ground. Eight on the ground also sustained minor injuries from the midday crash.

Blame was allocated equally between the Federal Aviation Administration and the pilot of the Piper. No fault was found with the DC-9 or the actions of its crew.

Aircraft


An Aeroméxico DC-9, similar to the aircraft involved in the accident

The larger aircraft involved, a McDonnell Douglas DC-9-32 with tail number XA-JED named Hermosillo, was delivered in April 1969 to Delta Air Lines as N1277L before entering into service with Aeroméxico in November 1979. It was en route from Mexico City to Los Angeles International Airport (with intermediate stops in Guadalajara, Loreto, and Tijuana).


A Piper PA-28-181 Archer, similar to the aircraft involved in the accident

N4891F was a privately operated Piper PA-28-181 Archer owned by the Kramer family, which was en route from Torrance to Big Bear City, California. The Piper aircraft with pilot William Kramer and two passengers aboard, had departed Torrance around 11:40 am PDT. Kramer had 231 flight hours and had moved to southern California within the last year from Spokane, Washington.

The cockpit crew of Flight 498 consisted of Captain Arturo Valdes Prom, 46, First Officer Jose Hector Valencia, 26. The captain had 4,632 hours of flying experience in the DC-9 (technically referred to in an accident report as "in-type" ) and a total of 10,641 flight hours. The first officer had flown 1,463 hours in total, of which 1,245 hours had been accumulated in-type.

Accident summary
On Sunday, August 31, 1986 at about 11:46 am PDT, Flight 498 began its descent into Los Angeles with 58 passengers and six crew members on board. At 11:52 am, the Piper's engine collided with the left horizontal stabilizer of the DC-9, shearing off the top of the Piper's cockpit and decapitating Kramer and both of his passengers. The heavily damaged Piper fell onto an empty playground at Cerritos Elementary School.

The DC-9, with all of its horizontal stabilizer and most of its vertical stabilizer torn off, inverted and immediately entered a dive. It slammed into a residential neighborhood at Holmes Avenue and Reva Circle in Cerritos, crashing into the backyard of a house at 13426 Ashworth Place, exploding on impact. The explosion scattered the DC-9's wreckage across Holmes Avenue and onto Carmenita Road, destroying four other houses and damaging seven more. All 64 passengers and crew on board the DC-9 were killed, and fifteen people on the ground; a fire added to the damage.


An annotated aerial view of the Aeroméxico DC-9 crash site

Passengers and crew
Thirty-six of the passengers were citizens of the United States. Of the twenty Mexican citizens, eleven lived in the United States and nine lived in Mexico. The Salvadoran citizen lived in the Bay Shore area of the town of Islip, in Suffolk County, New York. Ten of the passengers were children.

Of the passengers and crew on the Tijuana–Los Angeles leg of the flight:

Two passengers and six crew members boarded in Mexico City.
Six boarded in Guadalajara.
Thirty-one boarded at Loreto Airport.
Nineteen boarded in Tijuana.

Investigation and aftermath
The National Transportation Safety Board investigation found that the Piper had entered the Los Angeles Terminal Control Area airspace without the required clearance. The TCA included a triangular slab of airspace from 6,000 to 7,000 feet (1,800 to 2,100 m) altitude, reaching south to 33.714°N 118.007°W, across the Piper's intended flight path. The Piper could legally fly beneath this airspace without contacting air traffic controllers, but instead climbed into the TCA. The air traffic controller had been distracted by another unauthorized private flight – a Grumman AA-5 Tiger – entering the TCA directly north of the airfield, that also did not have clearance.

The Piper was not (and was not then required to be) equipped with a Mode C transponder, which would have indicated its altitude, and LAX had not been equipped with automatic warning systems. Apparently, neither pilot attempted any evasive maneuvers because neither pilot sighted the other aircraft, though they were in visual range. When an autopsy revealed significant arterial blockage in the heart of the Piper's pilot, public speculation existed that Kramer had suffered a heart attack, causing incapacitation and contributing to the collision; further forensic evidence discounted this, and error on Kramer's part was determined to be the main contributing factor to the collision.

As a result of this accident and other near midair collisions (NMAC) in terminal control areas, the Federal Aviation Administration required that all jets in US airspace be equipped with a traffic collision avoidance system (TCAS), and required that light aircraft operating in dense airspaces be equipped with Mode C transponders, which can report their altitude.

A jury ruled that the DC-9 bore no fault, instead deciding that Kramer and the FAA each acted equally negligently and had equal responsibility. U.S. District Judge David Kenyon agreed with the notion that the FAA shared responsibility. Federal Air Regulations 14 CFR 91.113 (b) require pilots of all aircraft to maintain vigilance to "see and avoid" other aircraft that might be on conflicting flight paths. The relative positions of both aircraft at the moment of collision showed no sign of any attempt at avoidance maneuvering by either aircraft.

One of the lawsuits involving victims on the ground had the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit apply the Supreme Court of California's ruling in Thing v. La Chusa to extend recovery for negligent infliction of emotional distress to Theresa Estrada, whose husband and two of four children were among the 15 on the ground killed in the crash. Although she did not witness the crash (which was a major requirement for recovery under Thing), she returned minutes after to witness the home consumed by fire and surrounded by burning homes, cars, and aircraft debris. In a separate trial on damages, the Estrada family was awarded a total of $868,263 in economic damages and $4.7 million in noneconomic damages, including $1 million for the negligent infliction of emotional distress.

The flight number has been put back into service. Flight number 498 is now the flight from Mexico City International Airport to McCarran International Airport via Monterrey International Airport using an Embraer 190 operated by Aeromexico's subsidiary Aeromexico Connect.

</snip>

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Diana,_Princess_of_Wales


Flowers left outside Kensington Palace in tribute to Diana, Princess of Wales

On 31 August 1997, Diana, Princess of Wales died in hospital as a result of injuries sustained in a car crash in the Pont de l'Alma road tunnel in Paris, France. Her companion, Dodi Fayed, and the driver of the Mercedes S280, Henri Paul, were pronounced dead at the scene. A fourth passenger in the car, bodyguard Trevor Rees-Jones, was seriously injured but survived.

Although the media blamed the behaviour of the paparazzi who followed the car, a French judicial investigation in 1999 found that the crash was caused by Paul, who lost control of the Mercedes at high speed while he was intoxicated and under the effects of prescription drugs. As a result, it was confirmed that no criminal charges would be issued against any of the pursuing photographers.

Paul was the deputy head of security at the Hôtel Ritz at the time of the crash and had goaded the paparazzi waiting outside the hotel earlier. His inebriation may have been made worse by anti-depressants and traces of an anti-psychotic in his body. The investigation concluded that the photographers were not near the Mercedes when it crashed. After hearing evidence at the British inquest in 2008, a jury returned a verdict of "unlawful killing" by Paul and the paparazzi pursuing the car.

Diana's death caused a substantial outpouring of worldwide grief, including numerous floral tributes, and her funeral was watched by an estimated 2 billion people. The Royal Family were criticised in the press for their reaction to Diana's death.

Circumstances
Events preceding the crash


A car similar to that involved in the accident.

On Saturday, 30 August 1997, Diana left Sardinia on a private jet and arrived in Paris with Dodi Fayed, the son of Mohamed Al-Fayed. They had stopped there en route to London, having spent the preceding nine days together on board Mohamed Al-Fayed's yacht Jonikal on the French and Italian Riviera. They had intended to stay there for the night. Mohamed Al-Fayed was and is the owner of the Hôtel Ritz Paris. He also owned an apartment in Rue Arsène Houssaye, a short distance from the hotel, just off the Avenue des Champs Elysées.

Henri Paul, the deputy head of security at the Ritz Hotel, had been instructed to drive the hired black 1994 Mercedes-Benz W140 in order to elude the paparazzi; a decoy vehicle left the Ritz first from the main entrance on Place Vendôme, attracting a throng of photographers. Diana and Fayed then departed from the hotel's rear entrance, Rue Cambon at around 00:20 on 31 August CEST (22:20 on 30 August UTC), heading for the apartment in Rue Arsène Houssaye. They did this to avoid the nearly 30 photographers waiting in the front of the hotel. They were the rear passengers; Trevor Rees-Jones, a member of the Fayed family's personal protection team, was in the (right) front passenger seat. It was believed that Diana and Dodi were not wearing seat belts. After leaving the Rue Cambon and crossing the Place de la Concorde, they drove along Cours la Reine and Cours Albert 1er – the embankment road along the right bank of the River Seine – into the Place de l'Alma underpass.

The crash
At 00:23, Paul lost control of the vehicle at the entrance to the Pont de l'Alma tunnel. The car struck the righthand wall and then swerved to the left of the two-lane carriageway before it collided head-on with the 13th pillar that supported the roof. The car was travelling at an estimated speed of 105 km/h (65 mph). It then spun and hit the stone wall of the tunnel backwards, finally coming to a stop. The impact caused substantial damage, particularly to the front half of the vehicle, as there was no guard rail between the pillars to prevent this. Witnesses arriving shortly after the accident reported smoke. Witnesses also reported that photographers on motorcycles "swarmed the Mercedes sedan before it entered the tunnel."

The aftermath


The entrance to the Pont de l'Alma Tunnel, the site where Diana was fatally injured

As the four occupants lay in the wrecked car, the photographers, who had been driving slower and were some distance behind the Mercedes, reached the scene. The photographers were on motorcycles. Some rushed to help, tried to open the doors and help the victims, while some of them took pictures. Airbags were deployed. Police arrived on scene around 10 minutes after the crash at 00:30 and an ambulance was on site five minutes after the police, according to witnesses. France Info radio reported that one photographer was beaten by witnesses who were horrified by the scene. Five of the photographers were taken into custody. Later, two others were detained and around 20 rolls of film were taken from the photographers. Police also impounded their vehicles. Firemen also arrived to help remove the victims.

Still conscious, Rees-Jones had suffered multiple serious facial injuries and a head contusion. The front occupants' airbags had functioned normally. The occupants were not wearing seat belts. Diana, who had been sitting in the right rear passenger seat, was still conscious. Critically injured, Diana was reported to murmur repeatedly, "Oh my God," and after the photographers and other helpers were pushed away by police, "Leave me alone." In June 2007, the Channel 4 documentary Diana: The Witnesses in the Tunnel claimed that the first person to touch Diana was Dr. Maillez, who chanced upon the scene. He reported that Diana had no visible injuries but was in shock. Diana was removed from the car at 01:00. She then went into cardiac arrest and following external cardiopulmonary resuscitation, her heart started beating again. She was moved to the SAMU ambulance at 01:18, left the scene at 01:41 and arrived at the Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital at 02:06.

Fayed had been sitting in the left rear passenger seat and was shortly afterwards pronounced dead. Paul was declared dead on removal from the wreckage. Both were taken to the Institut Médico-Légal (IML), the Paris mortuary, not to a hospital. Paul was later found to have a blood alcohol level of 1.75 grams per litre of blood—about 3.5 times the legal limit in France.

Despite attempts to save her, Diana's internal injuries were too extensive: her heart had been displaced to the right side of the chest, which tore the pulmonary vein and the pericardium. Despite lengthy resuscitation attempts, including internal cardiac massage, she died at 04:00. Anesthesiologist Bruno Riou announced her death at 06:00 at a news conference held at the hospital.

Later that morning, Jean-Pierre Chevènement (French Minister of the Interior) visited the hospital with French Prime Minister Lionel Jospin. At around 17:00, Diana's former husband, Charles, Prince of Wales, and her two older sisters, Lady Sarah McCorquodale and Lady Jane Fellowes, arrived in Paris. The group visited the hospital along with French President Jacques Chirac and thanked the doctors for trying to save her life. Prince Charles accompanied Diana's body home on Sunday. Her body was taken to the Hammersmith and Fulham mortuary in London for a post-mortem examination later that day.

Initial media reports stated Diana's car had collided with the pillar at 190 km/h (120 mph), and that the speedometer's needle had jammed at that position. It was later announced the car's speed on collision was about 95–110 km/h (60–70 mph). The car was certainly travelling much faster than the speed limit of 50 km/h (31 mph). In 1999, a French investigation concluded the Mercedes had come into contact with another vehicle (a white Fiat Uno) in the tunnel. The driver of that vehicle has never been conclusively traced, although many believe the driver of the Fiat was Le Van Thanh but the specific vehicle has not been identified.

It was remarked by Robin Cook, the British Foreign Secretary, that if the accident had been caused in part by being hounded by paparazzi, it would be "doubly tragic." Diana's brother also blamed tabloid media for her death. An 18-month French judicial investigation concluded in 1999 that the crash was caused by Paul, who lost control at high speed while intoxicated.

</snip>

https://www.miamiherald.com/news/coronavirus/article245241965.html

BY MICHELLE MARCHANTE AND JIMENA TAVEL

AUGUST 29, 2020 03:13 PM , UPDATED 7 MINUTES AGO

The Florida Department of Health accidentally released a report on COVID-19 outbreaks at schools across the state — from daycare centers to colleges — and found that nearly 900 students and staffers had tested positive during a two-week period in August as schools had just begun or readied to reopen.

State officials published the six-page draft online on Monday, but then quickly wiped it away a day later. The Herald obtained a copy before it disappeared.

Florida International University infectious disease epidemiologist Dr. Mary Jo Trepka said the detailed data was one of the most valuable reports the DOH has produced because it assesses how the virus is affecting the state’s children as they return to the classroom.

“It’s very good that they are starting to report this now and then going forward as schools start to reopen ... to see what happens as they reopen in terms of the numbers going up or not going up, hopefully,” said Trepka. “This is going to be really important for each county to be closely monitoring these numbers to see the impact of schools’ reopening.”

But because someone tested positive, it doesn’t mean the school was the source of infection: “It just means that the sick person was in one of those institutions; it doesn’t mean that they acquired it there.”

</snip>

https://twitter.com/anylaurie16/status/1299514500102549504
Laurie Kilmartin @anylaurie16

BREAKING: My vagina will be turned into a 2020 voting location.

9:09 PM · Aug 28, 2020

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/secret-service-copes-with-coronavirus-cases-in-aftermath-of-trump-appearances/2020/08/28/fa0e7b6e-e22a-11ea-8dd2-d07812bf00f7_story.html


A crowd of supporters listens to President Trump as he speaks at the Tampa International Airport on July 31, the same day Florida had a record number of covid-19 fatalities. (Tom Brenner/Reuters)

By Carol D. Leonnig

August 28, 2020 at 6:07 p.m. EDT

When President Trump gave a speech to a group of sheriffs in Tampa late last month, his decision to travel forced a large contingent of Secret Service agents to head to a state that was then battling one of the worst coronavirus surges in the nation.

Even before Air Force One touched down on July 31, the fallout was apparent: Five Secret Service agents already on the ground had to be replaced after one tested positive for the coronavirus and the others working in proximity were presumed to be infected, according to people familiar with the situation.

The previously unreported episode is one of a series of examples of how Trump’s insistence on traveling and holding campaign-style events amid the pandemic has heightened the risks for the people who safeguard his life, intensifying the strain on the Secret Service.

In the past two months, dozens of Secret Service agents who worked to ensure the security of the president and Vice President Pence at public events have been sickened or sidelined because they were in direct contact with infected people, according to multiple people familiar with the episodes, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe the incidents.

</snip>

https://twitter.com/duty2warn/status/1293973540555780096
Duty To Warn 🔉 @duty2warn

The truth about Trump's aberrant pathology is STILL not spoken about. And THAT'S the source of our greatest danger! It cuts to why he behaves as he does and what he's capable of. Nobody who understood that pathology would EVER vote for him. Everyone needs to see this film! #UNFIT

2:11 PM · Aug 13, 2020

https://twitter.com/TheNormanLear/status/1299459364915310592

Norman Lear @TheNormanLear

In our nation’s history, there has never been a more #UNFIT President. Everyone should see this film and understand the importance of voting him OUT.

Duty To Warn 🔉 @duty2warn

The truth about Trump's aberrant pathology is STILL not spoken about. And THAT'S the source of our greatest danger! It cuts to why he behaves as he does and what he's capable of. Nobody who understood that pathology would EVER vote for him. Everyone needs to see this film! #UNFIT

5:30 PM · Aug 28, 2020

https://twitter.com/JoeBiden/status/1299451941987078146
Joe Biden @JoeBiden

Donald Trump put our nation on the sidelines. Let’s get back in the game.

5:01 PM · Aug 28, 2020