TikTok: The story of a social media giant - BBC News

President Donald Trump has warned that he will ban TikTok unless an American firm buys its US operations. So how did an app attract millions of users but come to be seen as a national security risk in just two years?

Alone it stands, a red gummy bear atop a dimly lit stage, and the unmistakable voice of Adele singing. Then, as the unseen crowd joins in with the next line, the camera pans out to reveal hundreds more gummy bears singing along to Someone Like You.

It's silly and cute and extremely watchable. And for the fledgling video app TikTok, it did more in 15 seconds than marketing budgets of millions.

Posted in December 2018, it quickly racked up millions of views on the app but - more importantly - was picked up by thousands of copycats on other social networks.

The world was alerted to the app and TikTok has since attracted a vibrant, creative and young audience of hundreds of millions.

TikTok's origins are different to the fairytale start-up story we have heard before. This is not an empire built by a couple of friends with a great idea in their mum's garage.

It actually started life as three different apps.

The first was a US app called Musical.ly, which launched in 2014 and picked up a healthy following in the country.

In 2016, Chinese tech giant ByteDance launched a similar service in China called Douyin. It attracted 100 million users in China and Thailand in the space of a year.

ByteDance decided it was onto something and wanted to expand under a different brand - TikTok. So, in 2018 it bought Musical.ly, folded it in, and began TikTok's global expansion.

Media playback is unsupported on your device

TikTok's secret lies in its use of music and an extraordinarily powerful algorithm, which learns what content users like to see far faster than many other apps.

Users can choose from a huge database of songs, filters and movie clips to lipsync to.

It's inspired some huge trends like Lil Nas X's Old Town Road or Curtis Roach's Bored in the House. Even the BBC News theme tune went viral as Brits made light of daily coronavirus briefings.

Many people will spend most of the time on the For You Page. This is where the algorithm puts content in front of users, anticipating what they will enjoy based on content they have already engaged with.

It's also where it shows content it thinks could go viral. The idea is that if the content is good it will travel, regardless of how many followers the creator has.

Many TikTok communities have emerged, brought together by the types of content they enjoy.

Other users, including LGBT and non-influencer creators, are on the platform to make informative or funny content for like-minded people.

The growth of TikTok and its sister app Douyin have been rapid.

In July last year the apps already had one billion downloads worldwide, of which 500 million were active users. A year later they were on two billion downloads and about 800 million active users.

The app's rapid growth has also put TikTok at the forefront of the minds of politicians. What does it mean to have a Chinese app so quickly become a large part of modern life?

Although the accusations are vague, India and the US have concerns that TikTok is collecting sensitive data from users that could be used by the Chinese government for spying. It has been alleged that every major Chinese enterprise has an internal "cell" answerable to the ruling Chinese Communist Party, with many of its agents tasked with gathering secrets.

India initially banned TikTok in April 2019, after a court ordered its removal from app stores amid claims it was being used to spread pornography. That decision was overturned on appeal.

When it banned TikTok again, along with dozens of other Chinese owned apps in June 2020, the Indian government said it had received complaints about apps "stealing and surreptitiously transmitting users' data".

The US government opened a national security review of the platform in late 2019, after both a Democrat and a Republican lawmaker suggested it posed a risk.

More recently, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo claimed TikTok was among a number of Chinese apps "feeding data directly to the Chinese Communist Party".

The UK's Information Commissioner's Office and Australian intelligence agencies are currently probing the app but haven't revealed what they are looking for.

It's of course worth noting that relations between these countries are tense, with the US at odds with China over trade, Indian and Chinese forces involved in border clashes, and the UK opposing new security laws in Hong Kong.

Exactly what TikTok does with data is contested.

We know from its privacy policy that it collects a huge amount, including:

• Which videos are watched and commented on
• Location data
• Phone model and operating system
• Keystroke rhythms when people type

It was also revealed that it reads the copy-and-paste clipboards of users, but so do dozens of other apps including Reddit, LinkedIn and the BBC News app, and nothing nefarious was discovered.

Most evidence points to TikTok's data collection being comparable to other data-hungry social networks such as Facebook.

However, unlike its US-based rivals, TikTok says it is willing to offer an unprecendented level of transparency in order to ease some of the fears about its data collection and flow.

TikTok's new CEO Kevin Mayer, an American former Disney executive, said it would allow experts to examine the code behind its algorithms. This is hugely significant in an industry where data and code is closely guarded.

However, the concerns aren't just about what data is collected, it's also more theoretical - could the Chinese government compel ByteDance to hand over data?

The same concerns have been raised about Huawei.

The 2017 National Security Law in China compels any organisation or citizen to "support, assist and co-operate with the state intelligence work".

However, like Chinese telecoms giant Huawei, bosses at TikTok have repeatedly said that if this ever happened, "we would definitely say no to any request for data".

Another concern is of the possibility of censorship, or of the app being used to influence public debates.

TikTok is one of the first platforms many young people will come to to share social activism content.

In May it promoted #BlackLivesMatter as a trend. But even as the hashtag drew in billions of views, there were criticisms that content from black creators was being supressed and that hashtags related to the protests were being hidden.

It is not the first time TikTok's algorithm has been criticised for the way content is chosen.

A report by The Intercept suggested that moderators had been encouraged to deprioritise content from anyone deemed too "ugly", or poor.

Last year, the Guardian reported that TikTok censored material deemed to be politically sensitive, including footage of Tiananmen Square protests and Tibetan independence demands.

Further reporting from the Washington Post suggested moderators in China had the final say on whether videos were approved.

ByteDance said such guidelines had since been phased out and that all moderation was independent of Beijing.

Media playback is unsupported on your device

Yet the discussions taking place with Microsoft about the possibility of buying TikTok's US operations show it is one of the most significant technology products in years.

TikTok has emerged as a meeting place for under-25s, whereas apps like Twitter and Instagram are often seen as being for older users.

But for those who use TikTok to have their voices heard, the possibility of a ban feels like a loss.

Downloads of shortform video app competitors Byte and Triller have spiked in the US as users prepare themselves for jumping ship.

But many, it seems, will hang on to TikTok until the very last moment - if that moment comes.

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2020-08-05 06:18:59Z
52780967412114

TikTok: The story of a social media giant - BBC News

President Donald Trump has warned that he will ban TikTok unless an American firm buys its US operations. So how did an app attract millions of users but come to be seen as a national security risk in just two years?

Alone it stands, a red gummy bear atop a dimly lit stage, and the unmistakable voice of Adele singing. Then, as the unseen crowd joins in with the next line, the camera pans out to reveal hundreds more gummy bears singing along to Someone Like You.

It's silly and cute and extremely watchable. And for the fledgling video app TikTok, it did more in 15 seconds than marketing budgets of millions.

Posted in December 2018, it quickly racked up millions of views on the app but - more importantly - was picked up by thousands of copycats on other social networks.

The world was alerted to the app and TikTok has since attracted a vibrant, creative and young audience of hundreds of millions.

TikTok's origins are different to the fairytale start-up story we have heard before. This is not an empire built by a couple of friends with a great idea in their mum's garage.

It actually started life as three different apps.

The first was a US app called Musical.ly, which launched in 2014 and picked up a healthy following in the country.

In 2016, Chinese tech giant ByteDance launched a similar service in China called Douyin. It attracted 100 million users in China and Thailand in the space of a year.

ByteDance decided it was onto something and wanted to expand under a different brand - TikTok. So, in 2018 it bought Musical.ly, folded it in, and began TikTok's global expansion.

Media playback is unsupported on your device

TikTok's secret lies in its use of music and an extraordinarily powerful algorithm, which learns what content users like to see far faster than many other apps.

Users can choose from a huge database of songs, filters and movie clips to lipsync to.

It's inspired some huge trends like Lil Nas X's Old Town Road or Curtis Roach's Bored in the House. Even the BBC News theme tune went viral as Brits made light of daily coronavirus briefings.

Many people will spend most of the time on the For You Page. This is where the algorithm puts content in front of users, anticipating what they will enjoy based on content they have already engaged with.

It's also where it shows content it thinks could go viral. The idea is that if the content is good it will travel, regardless of how many followers the creator has.

Many TikTok communities have emerged, brought together by the types of content they enjoy.

Other users, including LGBT and non-influencer creators, are on the platform to make informative or funny content for like-minded people.

The growth of TikTok and its sister app Douyin have been rapid.

In July last year the apps already had one billion downloads worldwide, of which 500 million were active users. A year later they were on two billion downloads and about 800 million active users.

The app's rapid growth has also put TikTok at the forefront of the minds of politicians. What does it mean to have a Chinese app so quickly become a large part of modern life?

Although the accusations are vague, India and the US have concerns that TikTok is collecting sensitive data from users that could be used by the Chinese government for spying. It has been alleged that every major Chinese enterprise has an internal "cell" answerable to the ruling Chinese Communist Party, with many of its agents tasked with gathering secrets.

India initially banned TikTok in April 2019, after a court ordered its removal from app stores amid claims it was being used to spread pornography. That decision was overturned on appeal.

When it banned TikTok again, along with dozens of other Chinese owned apps in June 2020, the Indian government said it had received complaints about apps "stealing and surreptitiously transmitting users' data".

The US government opened a national security review of the platform in late 2019, after both a Democrat and a Republican lawmaker suggested it posed a risk.

More recently, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo claimed TikTok was among a number of Chinese apps "feeding data directly to the Chinese Communist Party".

The UK's Information Commissioner's Office and Australian intelligence agencies are currently probing the app but haven't revealed what they are looking for.

It's of course worth noting that relations between these countries are tense, with the US at odds with China over trade, Indian and Chinese forces involved in border clashes, and the UK opposing new security laws in Hong Kong.

Exactly what TikTok does with data is contested.

We know from its privacy policy that it collects a huge amount, including:

• Which videos are watched and commented on
• Location data
• Phone model and operating system
• Keystroke rhythms when people type

It was also revealed that it reads the copy-and-paste clipboards of users, but so do dozens of other apps including Reddit, LinkedIn and the BBC News app, and nothing nefarious was discovered.

Most evidence points to TikTok's data collection being comparable to other data-hungry social networks such as Facebook.

However, unlike its US-based rivals, TikTok says it is willing to offer an unprecendented level of transparency in order to ease some of the fears about its data collection and flow.

TikTok's new CEO Kevin Mayer, an American former Disney executive, said it would allow experts to examine the code behind its algorithms. This is hugely significant in an industry where data and code is closely guarded.

However, the concerns aren't just about what data is collected, it's also more theoretical - could the Chinese government compel ByteDance to hand over data?

The same concerns have been raised about Huawei.

The 2017 National Security Law in China compels any organisation or citizen to "support, assist and co-operate with the state intelligence work".

However, like Chinese telecoms giant Huawei, bosses at TikTok have repeatedly said that if this ever happened, "we would definitely say no to any request for data".

Another concern is of the possibility of censorship, or of the app being used to influence public debates.

TikTok is one of the first platforms many young people will come to to share social activism content.

In May it promoted #BlackLivesMatter as a trend. But even as the hashtag drew in billions of views, there were criticisms that content from black creators was being supressed and that hashtags related to the protests were being hidden.

It is not the first time TikTok's algorithm has been criticised for the way content is chosen.

A report by The Intercept suggested that moderators had been encouraged to deprioritise content from anyone deemed too "ugly", or poor.

Last year, the Guardian reported that TikTok censored material deemed to be politically sensitive, including footage of Tiananmen Square protests and Tibetan independence demands.

Further reporting from the Washington Post suggested moderators in China had the final say on whether videos were approved.

ByteDance said such guidelines had since been phased out and that all moderation was independent of Beijing.

Media playback is unsupported on your device

Yet the discussions taking place with Microsoft about the possibility of buying TikTok's US operations show it is one of the most significant technology products in years.

TikTok has emerged as a meeting place for under-25s, whereas apps like Twitter and Instagram are often seen as being for older users.

But for those who use TikTok to have their voices heard, the possibility of a ban feels like a loss.

Downloads of shortform video app competitors Byte and Triller have spiked in the US as users prepare themselves for jumping ship.

But many, it seems, will hang on to TikTok until the very last moment - if that moment comes.

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2020-08-05 04:47:24Z
52780967412114

Coronavirus: UK made serious mistake over border policy, say MPs - BBC News

The spread of coronavirus in the UK could have been slowed with earlier quarantine restrictions on arrivals, a group of MPs has said.

The Home Affairs committee said a lack of border measures earlier in the pandemic was a "serious mistake".

It added ministers had underestimated the threat of importing the virus from Europe as opposed to Asia.

But a Home Office spokeswoman said the committee were "incorrect in their assertions".

She added: "All of our decisions throughout the pandemic have been guided by the science, with appropriate measures introduced at the right time to keep us all safe."

In their report, the committee backed a decision not to close the UK's borders in the early stages of the crisis, given the "large number" of returning British nationals.

But it added that a requirement for people arriving from certain countries to quarantine, introduced in early June, should have come in earlier.

Since then, those arriving in the UK have to self-isolate for 14 days or face the threat of fines, with each of the UK's four nations compiling a lists of exempted countries where this does not apply.

During February and early March, all passengers from China, Iran, South Korea and later Italy were asked to self-isolate for 14 days on arrival.

The MPs criticised a decision not to include Spain on this early list, adding that government advice had initially focused on Asian countries and did not "recognise soon enough" the risk of importing the virus from Europe.

They added that a later decision - on 13 March - to end self-isolation advice for international arrivals not displaying symptoms had been "inexplicable".

'Serious error'

Citing evidence from scientific studies, they said it was likely that thousands of infected people then arrived in the UK before full lockdown came in 10 days later.

"It is highly likely that this contributed to the rapid increase in the spread of the virus in mid-March and to the overall scale of the outbreak in the UK," they added.

"The failure properly to consider the possibility of imposing stricter requirements on those arriving - such as mandatory self-isolation, increased screening, targeted testing or enforceable quarantine - was a serious error."

This is the second Parliamentary report in a week that's accused the government of serious errors. Last week's criticised how hospital patients were discharged to care homes without a Covid test.

That and today's report amount to the same accusation - poor or inexplicable decisions that didn't help slow the march of the pandemic.

The MPs cite examples from around the world where countries were requiring passengers arriving in that country to comply with stringent quarantine or monitoring measures.

The government insists that its general message from 13 March to the public to stay at home, if they had symptoms, worked.

But that recommendation was not the same as clear guidance, or an absolute legal requirement, for passengers to self-isolate even if they were feeling perfectly well.

And that, say the MPs, meant travellers in March were able to arrive and move about much more freely at a critical moment in the spread of the virus across the UK.

The committee added that the decision to withdraw self-isolation advice was "very different from countries in similar circumstances".

It concluded that countries that instead introduced tougher border measures, such as Singapore, had been "proved justified in doing so".

It said an official estimate used to justify the UK's approach - stating that only 0.5% of domestic infections had been imported from overseas - was not calculated until late March.

But the MPs point out that the proportion of cases was likely to have been "substantially higher" when blanket quarantine advice was lifted earlier that month.

They backed the mandatory quarantine rules introduced in June, and said ministers should consider greater testing of arrivals at the UK's borders.

Labour MP Yvette Cooper, who chairs the committee and is a former shadow home secretary, said that not introducing quarantine rules in March had meant the virus "spread faster and reached more people".

"The UK was almost unique in having no border checks or quarantine arrangements at that time," she added.

"We are concerned that border measures just weren't taken seriously enough at the beginning of the crisis, either in the discussions among scientific advisers or in ministerial decision making".

But a Home Office spokeswoman said the government had followed the scientific advice.

"And with passengers numbers significantly reduced, the scientific advice was clear that quarantine measures for those entering the country from abroad would be most effective when the UK has a lower level of infection," she added.

"Therefore, as the virus was brought under control here, border measures were introduced on 8 June to protect public health and help avoid a second peak that would overwhelm the NHS."

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2020-08-05 03:34:47Z
52780977978240

Beirut blast: Lebanon in mourning after massive explosion - BBC News

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Lebanon is in mourning after a huge explosion in the capital Beirut killed at least 78 people and injured more than 4,000 others on Tuesday.

The whole city was shaken by the blast, which began with a fire at the port which exploded into a mushroom cloud.

President Michel Aoun said 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate had been stored unsafely in a warehouse for six years.

He scheduled an urgent cabinet meeting for Wednesday, and said a two-week state of emergency should be declared.

The country will observe an official period of mourning for three days from Wednesday.

President Aoun also announced that the government would release 100 billion lira (£50.5m; $66m) of emergency funds.

"What we are witnessing is a huge catastrophe," the head of Lebanon's Red Cross George Kettani told local media. "There are victims and casualties everywhere."

Rescue workers are continuing to search through rubble and the death toll is expected to rise.

• In pictures: Chaos and destruction in Beirut after blast
• Lebanon: Why the country is in crisis

Officials said on Tuesday that an investigation was under way to find the exact trigger for the explosion. Lebanon's Supreme Defence Council said those responsible would face the "maximum punishment" possible.

The ammonium nitrate had reportedly been unloaded from a ship impounded at the port in 2013, and then stored in a warehouse there.

The explosion comes at a sensitive time for Lebanon, with an economic crisis reigniting old divisions as the country struggles with the coronavirus crisis. Tensions are also high ahead of Friday's verdict in a trial over the killing of ex-Prime Minister Rafik Hariri in 2005.

What happened?

The explosion occurred just after 18:00 (15:00 GMT) on Tuesday. A BBC journalist at the scene reported dead bodies and severe damage, enough to put the port of Beirut out of action.

Local media showed people trapped beneath rubble. A witness described the explosion as deafening, and video footage showed wrecked cars and blast-damaged buildings.

"All the buildings around here have collapsed. I'm walking through glass and debris everywhere, in the dark," one witness near the port told AFP news agency.

Hospitals were said to be overwhelmed and many buildings were destroyed.

The blast was also felt 240km (150 miles) away on the island of Cyprus in the eastern Mediterranean, with people there saying they thought it was an earthquake.

'Hard to imagine a worse time for this to happen'

By Rami Ruhayem, BBC News, Beirut

Their sirens wailing, ambulances inched their way through heavy traffic to get to the site of the blast. Shards of glass blanketed the highway leading into Beirut from the north, as a tractor cleared the rubble.

There's never a good time for such terror to strike a city, but for Beirut, it's hard to imagine a worse time than this.

With Covid-19 infections on the rise, hospitals were struggling to cope. Now, they're faced with thousands of injuries and expecting thousands more.

Hundreds are now displaced; their homes reduced, in a split second, to a twisted, uninhabitable mess of glass and debris.

Lebanon imports most of its food; its economy has been in freefall for almost a year, amid fears of widespread food insecurity to come.

Now all the grain that was stored in the port is gone. In fact, Beirut port itself "is no more", one official said.

Even after the shock fades away, the impact will be hard to fathom.

'Glass going down from all over the building'

Hadi Nasrallah, eyewitness speaking to the BBC

I saw the fire, but I didn't yet know there was going to be an explosion. We went inside. Suddenly I lost my hearing because apparently I was too close. I lost my hearing for a few seconds, I knew something was wrong.

And then suddenly the glass just shattered all over the car, the cars around us, the shops, the stores, the buildings. Just glass going down from all over the building.

Literally all over Beirut, people were calling each other from different areas kilometres away and they were experiencing the same thing: broken glass, buildings shaking, a loud explosion.

Actually we were shocked because usually when it happens, just one area will experience those happenings after an explosion, but this time it was all of Beirut, even areas outside of Beirut.

Sunniva Rose, journalist

"Driving into Beirut early evening when it was still light, it was absolute chaos. The streets were literally covered in glass. It's hard for ambulances to go through - there's bricks, cement slabs. Houses have collapsed.

"When I got to the port it had been closed off by the army. The army said to stay away in case there was a second explosion.

"There was still smoke going up into the sky late into the evening. The whole city was black. It was very hard to walk around, people were covered in blood. I saw an 86-year-old woman being treated by a doctor who had just run out of his home with a first aid kit. Cars were entirely smashed by rocks. These old-style houses with big cuts of rock had just fallen down on the street.

"It's pandemonium in my own flat, all the glass is shattered. The extent of the damage is extreme. Even in a mall 2km away - the whole facade was shattered."

What is ammonium nitrate?

Ammonium nitrate has a number of different uses, but the two most common are as an agricultural fertiliser and as an explosive.

It is highly explosive when it comes into contact with fire - and when it explodes, ammonium nitrate can release toxic gases including nitrogen oxides and ammonia gas.

Because it's so flammable there are strict rules on how to store ammonium nitrate safely - among the requirements are that the storage site needs to be thoroughly fire-proofed, and there can't be any drains, pipes or other channels in which ammonium nitrate could build up, creating an additional explosion hazard.

What's the situation in Lebanon?

Lebanon is experiencing political turmoil, with street demonstrations against the government's handling of the worst economic crisis since the 1975-1990 civil war.

Many blame the ruling elite who have dominated politics for years and amassed their own wealth while failing to carry out the sweeping reforms necessary to solve the country's problems. People have to deal with daily power cuts, a lack of safe drinking water and limited public healthcare.

There has also been tension on the border with Israel, which said last week that it had thwarted an attempt by Hezbollah to infiltrate Israeli territory. But a senior Israeli official has told the BBC that "Israel has no connection" to the Beirut blast.

The blast happened close to the scene of the huge car bombing which killed ex-PM Hariri. Tuesday's blast also came days before the long-awaited verdict in the trial at a special court in the Netherlands of four men accused of orchestrating the attack.

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2020-08-05 03:45:31Z
52780977315550

Coronavirus: Quarantine delay let up to 10,000 travellers bring COVID-19 to UK - senior MPs - Sky News

Ministers let up to 10,000 travellers with coronavirus spread it across the country at the start of the pandemic by failing to bring in quarantine rules early enough, senior MPs have said.

The government was accused of making "critical errors" over how it treated those arriving in the UK in March, leading to COVID-19 taking hold faster.

Failing to catch "imported infection" then left the country with a "far worse" experience of the disease, the cross-party Commons home affairs select committee found.

Image: A senior MP said the policy was a 'grave error'

So far coronavirus has killed 46,299 people in the UK, and the ONS found recently England suffered the highest levels of excess deaths of any country in Europe over the first half of 2020.

The government said it has "followed the science" and that once sustained community transmission began, more border measures would have had "a very marginal impact on the epidemic within the UK".

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But Yvette Cooper, a Labour MP and chair of the committee behind a new report, claimed it was a "grave error" to have no quarantine policy in mid-March.

"The UK was almost unique in having no border checks or quarantine arrangements at that time," she said on Wednesday.

More from Covid-19

Image: Quarantine was introduced on 8 June

"That alone should have rung loud alarm bells for ministers and made them think again.

"Many times ministers told us they were following the science.

"But we cannot find any science at all behind their completely inexplicable decision to lift all the self-isolation guidance for travellers on March 13 - a full 10 days before lockdown - just at a time when other countries were introducing stronger border measures.

"We were told that thousands more people with COVID-19 came back to the UK after that guidance was lifted.

Angry tourists vent over quarantine

"So in the middle of March, at a time when the number of people with COVID coming back into the UK was at its peak, they were going back to work or onto public transport or seeing family without any quarantine in place."

The government's failure to provide the scientific advice behind its decisions - despite repeated requests and promises to do so - was "completely unacceptable", the committee said.

"A large number of instances of the virus - up to 1,356 importation strains and up to 10,000 cases - were imported during the period leading up to, and following, the abandonment of special measures for international arrivals on 13 March," it added.

Several recommendations were made, including for ministers to investigate carrying out testing at the border - like Iceland, Hong Kong and South Korea.

And the government was also urged to publish a traffic light system to show rates of virus prevalence for different countries.

Image: Spain has been re-added to the quarantine list

A government spokesperson said in response that the committee was "incorrect in their assertions".

They continued: "All of our decisions throughout the pandemic have been guided by the science, with appropriate measures introduced at the right time to keep us all safe.

UK 'vulnerable' to infections from abroad

"And with passenger numbers significantly reduced, the scientific advice was clear that quarantine measures for those entering the country from abroad would be most effective when the UK has a lower level of infection.

"Therefore, as the virus was brought under control here, border measures were introduced on June 8 to protect public health and help avoid a second peak that would overwhelm the NHS."

They also pointed out to national "stay at home" orders applying to everyone, meaning there did not need to be an explicit policy just for travellers arriving in the UK.

Quarantine measures were brought in on 8 June for travellers from all countries - meaning anyone arriving in the UK had to self-isolate for 14 days.

A group of several dozen countries were then exempted for being deemed low risk - but one of them, Spain, has now been re-added to the list given a growth of cases in some regions.

The government has said it will take swift action to add other countries to the list, and Prime Minister Boris Johnson has warned there are signs of a second wave beginning to build in Europe.

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2020-08-05 03:00:43Z
52780977978240

Beirut blast: Lebanon in mourning after massive explosion - BBC News

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Lebanon is in mourning after a huge explosion in the capital Beirut killed at least 78 people and injured more than 4,000 others on Tuesday.

The whole city was shaken by the blast, which began with a fire at the port which exploded into a mushroom cloud.

President Michel Aoun said 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate had been stored unsafely in a warehouse for six years.

He scheduled an urgent cabinet meeting for Wednesday, and said a two-week state of emergency should be declared.

The country will observe an official period of mourning for three days from Wednesday.

President Aoun also announced that the government would release 100 billion lira (£50.5m; $66m) of emergency funds.

"What we are witnessing is a huge catastrophe," the head of Lebanon's Red Cross George Kettani told local media. "There are victims and casualties everywhere."

Rescue workers are continuing to search through rubble and the death toll is expected to rise.

• In pictures: Chaos and destruction in Beirut after blast
• Lebanon: Why the country is in crisis

Officials said on Tuesday that an investigation was under way to find the exact trigger for the explosion. Lebanon's Supreme Defence Council said those responsible would face the "maximum punishment" possible.

The ammonium nitrate had reportedly been unloaded from a ship impounded at the port in 2013, and then stored in a warehouse there.

The explosion comes at a sensitive time for Lebanon, with an economic crisis reigniting old divisions as the country struggles with the coronavirus crisis. Tensions are also high ahead of Friday's verdict in a trial over the killing of ex-Prime Minister Rafik Hariri in 2005.

What happened?

The explosion occurred just after 18:00 (15:00 GMT) on Tuesday. A BBC journalist at the scene reported dead bodies and severe damage, enough to put the port of Beirut out of action.

Local media showed people trapped beneath rubble. A witness described the explosion as deafening, and video footage showed wrecked cars and blast-damaged buildings.

"All the buildings around here have collapsed. I'm walking through glass and debris everywhere, in the dark," one witness near the port told AFP news agency.

Hospitals were said to be overwhelmed and many buildings were destroyed.

The blast was also felt 240km (150 miles) away on the island of Cyprus in the eastern Mediterranean, with people there saying they thought it was an earthquake.

'Hard to imagine a worse time for this to happen'

By Rami Ruhayem, BBC News, Beirut

Their sirens wailing, ambulances inched their way through heavy traffic to get to the site of the blast. Shards of glass blanketed the highway leading into Beirut from the north, as a tractor cleared the rubble.

There's never a good time for such terror to strike a city, but for Beirut, it's hard to imagine a worse time than this.

With Covid-19 infections on the rise, hospitals were struggling to cope. Now, they're faced with thousands of injuries and expecting thousands more.

Hundreds are now displaced; their homes reduced, in a split second, to a twisted, uninhabitable mess of glass and debris.

Lebanon imports most of its food; its economy has been in freefall for almost a year, amid fears of widespread food insecurity to come.

Now all the grain that was stored in the port is gone. In fact, Beirut port itself "is no more", one official said.

Even after the shock fades away, the impact will be hard to fathom.

'Glass going down from all over the building'

Hadi Nasrallah, eyewitness speaking to the BBC

I saw the fire, but I didn't yet know there was going to be an explosion. We went inside. Suddenly I lost my hearing because apparently I was too close. I lost my hearing for a few seconds, I knew something was wrong.

And then suddenly the glass just shattered all over the car, the cars around us, the shops, the stores, the buildings. Just glass going down from all over the building.

Literally all over Beirut, people were calling each other from different areas kilometres away and they were experiencing the same thing: broken glass, buildings shaking, a loud explosion.

Actually we were shocked because usually when it happens, just one area will experience those happenings after an explosion, but this time it was all of Beirut, even areas outside of Beirut.

Sunniva Rose, journalist

"Driving into Beirut early evening when it was still light, it was absolute chaos. The streets were literally covered in glass. It's hard for ambulances to go through - there's bricks, cement slabs. Houses have collapsed.

"When I got to the port it had been closed off by the army. The army said to stay away in case there was a second explosion.

"There was still smoke going up into the sky late into the evening. The whole city was black. It was very hard to walk around, people were covered in blood. I saw an 86-year-old woman being treated by a doctor who had just run out of his home with a first aid kit. Cars were entirely smashed by rocks. These old-style houses with big cuts of rock had just fallen down on the street.

"It's pandemonium in my own flat, all the glass is shattered. The extent of the damage is extreme. Even in a mall 2km away - the whole facade was shattered."

What is ammonium nitrate?

Ammonium nitrate has a number of different uses, but the two most common are as an agricultural fertiliser and as an explosive.

It is highly explosive when it comes into contact with fire - and when it explodes, ammonium nitrate can release toxic gases including nitrogen oxides and ammonia gas.

Because it's so flammable there are strict rules on how to store ammonium nitrate safely - among the requirements are that the storage site needs to be thoroughly fire-proofed, and there can't be any drains, pipes or other channels in which ammonium nitrate could build up, creating an additional explosion hazard.

What's the situation in Lebanon?

Lebanon is experiencing political turmoil, with street demonstrations against the government's handling of the worst economic crisis since the 1975-1990 civil war.

Many blame the ruling elite who have dominated politics for years and amassed their own wealth while failing to carry out the sweeping reforms necessary to solve the country's problems. People have to deal with daily power cuts, a lack of safe drinking water and limited public healthcare.

There has also been tension on the border with Israel, which said last week that it had thwarted an attempt by Hezbollah to infiltrate Israeli territory. But a senior Israeli official has told the BBC that "Israel has no connection" to the Beirut blast.

The blast happened close to the scene of the huge car bombing which killed ex-PM Hariri. Tuesday's blast also came days before the long-awaited verdict in the trial at a special court in the Netherlands of four men accused of orchestrating the attack.

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2020-08-05 02:24:20Z
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Prince Andrew 'used Spitting Image puppet of himself to grope Virginia Roberts and another woman' - Daily Mail

Prince Andrew 'used Spitting Image puppet of himself to grope Virginia Roberts and another woman in Jeffrey Epstein's New York House of Horrors', bombshell new court documents claim

• Duke of York is accused of using latex puppet of himself to grope the women 
• Virginia Roberts made the claim in a manuscript a judge has ordered released 
• It states that Andrew groped Roberts and another woman in front of Epstein
• Prince Andrew has always strenuously denied any allegations of wrongdoing 

By Danyal Hussain For Mailonline

Published: 02:24 BST, 5 August 2020 | Updated: 02:51 BST, 5 August 2020

Prince Andrew has been accused of using a Spitting Image puppet of himself to grope two of Jeffrey Epstein's sex slaves, shocking court documents have revealed. 

The stunning accusations are from Virginia Roberts, who claims the Duke of York had sex with her when she was 17. 

They were revealed after New York Judge Loretta Preska released an unpublished manuscript of a book written by Roberts, now Giuffre. 

In it, she alleges that Epstein and his 'madam' Ghislaine Maxwell presented Andrew with a Spitting Image puppet from the satirical TV show in April 2001. 

He then used the puppet to grope Roberts and Johanna Sjoberg in Epstein's opulent first floor study in his New York home, dubbed the 'House of Horrors', before being taken to 'the dungeon' for an erotic massage from Roberts. 

The Duke has always strenuously denied having sex with Roberts and any other wrongdoing, though he is yet to comment in the latest allegations.

Prince Andrew, Virginia Roberts, aged 17, and Ghislaine Maxwell at her townhouse in London on March 13, 2001

The Duke is accused of using a Spitting Image puppet of himself to grope Virginia Roberts and another woman

Epstein and his 'madam' Ghislaine Maxwell presented Andrew with a Spitting Image puppet from the satirical TV show in April 2001

Buckingham Palace has been contacted for comment.  

In bombshell documents revealed by the Mirror, Roberts wrote in her unpublished book that she was summoned to the property by Maxwell.

She wrote: 'Prince Andrew had that notorious cheesy grin slapped over his face, as he looked me up and down like a shiny new car on display and he was about to take it for a test drive.

'Ghislaine led me to the decadent sofa he was lounging on and twirled me around to give him a good look over before sitting me down on his lap. 

'It was easy to give them the reaction they desired, all I had to do was pretend to be entertained by their lewd gestures, and when Andrew cupped my breast with a doll made in his image, I only giggled away.' 

She added that another woman, Johanna Sjoberg, was also made to sit on Andrew's lap and was also fondled with the puppet.  

Sjoberg has previously described the encounter with Andrew and his Spitting Image puppet.

She made the comments in a 2016 deposition in Roberts' civil defamation case against Maxwell, from which the newly released documents are taken.

Sjoberg said on oath: 'I sat on Andrew's lap... they took the puppet's hands and put it on Virginia's breast, and so Andrew put his on mine.'

Afterwards, Roberts claims that she was forced to take the Duke to 'the dungeon' for an erotic massage, describing how Andrew 'disrobed' and showed signs of 'arousal'. 

Pictures of the room in which the women claim to have been abused emerged after Epstein's New York home, dubbed the House of Horrors, was put up for £69 million. 

The latest claims come after a royal insider dismissed a new witness's claims Prince Andrew was in a nightclub with Virginia Roberts on the night he is accused of having sex with her and not at Pizza Express. 

Miss Roberts says she was forced to have sex with Andrew after they left the Tramp nightspot (file photo) in central London in 2001

Pictures of the room in which the women claim to have been abused emerged after Epstein's New York home, dubbed the House of Horrors, was put up for £69 million 

Shukri Walker claimed the duke danced and chatted with the Jeffrey Epstein victim – and says she is certain it was the prince because she stepped on his foot and then apologised. 

But today a royal insider dismissed her claim, telling MailOnline: 'It's interesting to see how many people have razor sharp recollections of events that took place some 20 years ago – it's difficult to believe that these events can be remembered with such clarity at this distance.'    

Miss Roberts, 36, says she was forced to have sex with Andrew after they left the Tramp nightspot in central London in 2001. 

The prince denies the claims and says he was not even in the Mayfair club on the evening in question because he had taken daughter Beatrice to Pizza Express in Woking, Surrey.

The events of March 10 are at the heart of the allegations against Andrew. Miss Roberts – now Giuffre – was a 'sex slave' of the duke's friend, paedophile Epstein.

Miss Walker told The Sun: 'I remember him dancing and chatting with the young girl.'

She said she remembered the night well because at one point she trod on Andrew's foot. 

Miss Walker said she had decided to speak out after seeing Andrew's now infamous Newsnight interview with Emily Maitlis last year, in which he denied having sex with the then 17-year-old Miss Roberts.

She contacted Lisa Bloom, an American lawyer who represents some of Epstein's victims. The lawyer has reportedly passed on the witness account to the FBI. 

Inside the 'House of Horrors'

Visitors to Jeffrey Epstein's 'House of Horrors' were confronted by 'creepy' interior decor, including artificial eyeballs and a portrait of Bill Clinton in a dress.

The entry foyer to the Manhattan mansion was decorated with fake eyeballs. 

Even more bizarre is a portrait of former US president Clinton – a friend of Epstein – in heels and the infamous stained blue dress worn by Monica Lewinsky when she performed a sex act on him.

There were prosthetic breasts on the wall of a bathroom for Epstein to play with, according to one of his victims.

His study had photos of his famous friends – including Woody Allen, who has been accused of child sexual assault – as well as a stuffed tiger and a poodle. 

Behind his desk was a painting of a topless woman by artist Kees van Dongen, bought for $6million in 2004.

But Epstein's sinister 'pride and joy' was a gigantic chessboard with scantily-clad figurines modelled on his female staff.

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2020-08-05 01:24:31Z
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