Since October 5, more than 1,400 suspected cases have been reported in Lebanon, including 381 confirmed cases and 17 deaths, the WHO said in a statement.

While the outbreak was initially confined to the impoverished north, it has “rapidly spread” across Lebanon, it added.

The WHO said it has helped the cash-strapped country secure 600,000 vaccine doses, and efforts to secure more are “ongoing given the rapid spread of the outbreak”.

Cholera is generally contracted from contaminated food or water, and causes diarrhea and vomiting. It can also spread in residential areas that lack proper sewerage networks or mains drinking water.

The outbreak in Lebanon comes on the heels of a recent wave in Syria, where more than a decade of war has damaged nearly two-thirds of water treatment plants, half of pumping stations and one-third of water towers, according to the United Nations.

The Euphrates River, which has been contaminated by sewage, is believed to be the source of Syria’s first major cholera outbreak since 2009.

The cholera strain identified in Lebanon is “similar to the one circulating in Syria,” the WHO said.

Lebanese authorities have said most cases were among Syrian refugees.

Lebanon hosts more than one million Syrian refugees, many of them already poverty-stricken before Lebanon’s economic collapse began three years ago.

Source: WHO warns cholera is spreading ‘rapidly’ across Lebanon — Naharnet

Source: Happy Halloween & National Caramel Apple Day! – Tanooki Homemade Cafe

Source: This is The Worst Flu Season in Over a Decade – Get Your Shot! – Docwire News

Source: Halloween’s unique tradition – DW – 10/31/2022

The researchers facilitated a process called archaeomagnetic dating, a method using magnetism that they say offers more precise ways to date artifacts.

To explain how archaeomagnetic dating works, it’s first important to know that the Earth’s magnetic field changes over time. Second, when they are heated to hundreds of degrees Celsius, microscopic magnetic compounds in materials like clay align themselves with the Earth’s changing magnetic field.

“Cities at that time were built with sun-dried mud bricks. When they are heated up, like in a destructive fire, the ferromagnetic minerals inside the bricks align with a magnetic field like compass needles. When it cools, they become stuck – a time lock of when the fire took place,” Vaknin explained.

By examining these “time locks”, the researchers were able to better pinpoint when certain historical events happened.

Source: Old testament battles confirmed in new study – DW – 10/31/2022

Silas Malafaia, a prominent televangelist who was one of Bolsonaro’s most vocal cheerleaders, tweeted: “The sovereign will of the people has established itself.”

Malafaia tweeted a quote from the British writer CS Lewis as his candidate’s defeat sank in: “It is not your business to succeed, but to do right. When you have done so the rest lies with God.”

The newly elected pro-Bolsonaro governor of São Paulo, Tarcísio de Freitas, also recognized Lula’s win, telling journalists: “The election result is sovereign.”

Another key ally, the lower house leader, Arthur Lira, said: “The will of the majority, expressed at the polls, should never be challenged.”

Even Sergio Moro, the pro-Bolsonaro judge who controversially jailed Lula in the lead-up to the 2018 election before taking a job in Bolsonaro’s cabinet, recognized the leftist’s victory.

“Thus is democracy,” Moro tweeted.

Ricardo Salles, Bolsonaro’s former environment minister, tweeted: “The result of the most polarized election in Brazil’s history prompts many reflections and the need to seek ways to pacify a country that is literally split in half. Now is the time for serenity.”

Source: Bolsonaro remains silent after election defeat to Lula as key allies accept result | Brazil | The Guardian

…three days after Elon Musk bought Twitter, he posted a tweet promoting the baseless allegation that Paul Pelosi, the husband of the speaker of the House, who was assaulted on Friday at the couple’s home, had been drunk and in a fight with a male prostitute.

The police found Paul Pelosi, 82, attacked with a hammer inside his home by a man, David DePape, who had entered through the back door, seeking the speaker.

Musk’s tweet, later deleted, came in response to a tweet posted on Saturday by Hillary Clinton, attacking Republicans for spreading “hate and deranged conspiracy theories” that she said had emboldened the man who attacked Nancy Pelosi’s husband.

In a reply to Clinton’s post, Musk wrote: “There is a tiny possibility there might be more to this story than meets the eye” and then shared a link to an article in a faux newspaper, the Santa Monica Observer, in which the gonzo allegation about Paul Pelosi appeared.

This is the same Santa Monica Observer, by the way, that in 2016 claimed that Clinton had died and that a body double was sent to debate the Republican presidential nominee, Donald Trump.

If Musk’s tweet doesn’t raise bright red warning signs all over the world about his judgment and character, just days after he took over one of the planet’s largest and most influential media machines, I don’t know what will.

Doesn’t Musk know that the world is watching to see how responsible he is, as the new owner of Twitter? The fact that he personally posts such unhinged, dangerous drivel within three days of taking over the platform suggests he doesn’t give a damn.

Source: Elon Musk’s Paul Pelosi tweet proves he has no business running Twitter | Robert Reich | The Guardian

A post-election meeting at which advisers led by Rudy Giuliani attacked campaign lawyers and urged Donald Trump not to accept his election defeat was “a new low” for a president “well acquainted with rough-and-tumble debates”, Mike Pence writes in a forthcoming memoir.

Of the meeting in November 2020, the former vice-president writes: “In the end, that day the president made the fateful decision to put Giuliani and [attorney] Sidney Powell in charge of the legal strategy … The seeds were being sown for a tragic day in January.”

Source: Pence blames Trump for events leading to January 6 in new memoir | Politics books | The Guardian