What's going on in Lebanon

Lebanon is reeling after a devasting explosion in Beirut; Chicago Public Schools announces a switch to remote learning this fall. Tonight's Sentences was written by Cameron Peters. TOP NEWS "No words can describe the horror" Fadel Itani/NurPhoto via Getty Images - In the Lebanese capital of Beirut, at least 135 people are dead and some 5,000 more are injured as the city continues to grapple with the aftermath of a massive explosion that shook the city Tuesday. The death toll is expected to rise. [[Al Jazeera / Ted Regencia, Linah Alsaafin, and Farah Najjar](] - Details of what happened are still emerging, but photos and video show a massive blast that leveled buildings near the Beirut port. According to the city’s governor, the explosion, which was felt as far as 100 miles away in Cyprus, “destroyed more than half the Lebanese capital.” [[NPR / Bill Chappell and Ruth Sherlock](] - The source of the explosion is believed to have been a warehouse storing around 2,750 metric tons of the chemical ammonium nitrate, which can be explosive when mixed with fuel and exposed to heat. [[CNN / Laura Smith-Spark, Sam Kiley, and Rob Picheta](] - As of Wednesday, Beirut port officials have been placed on house arrest, and Lebanese officials told the AP the explosion may have been caused by negligence. An investigation is underway. [[AP / Bassem Mroue and Zeina Karam](] - It’s hard to imagine a worse time for a catastrophe to strike Lebanon. Even before Tuesday, the small Middle Eastern country was buckling under the weight of an accelerating economic crisis and chronic food and medicine shortages, along with the coronavirus pandemic. [[Washington Post / Liz Sly](] - Silos near the harbor holding as much as 85 percent of the country’s grain supply were damaged or destroyed in the blast, according to the New York Times, and debris was flung in a two-mile radius. [[NYT / Anjali Singhvi, Scott Reinhard, Allison McCann, Lauren Leatherby, and Blacki Migliozzi](] - International aid has already started pouring in. France, Qatar, and many other nations have dispatched medical workers, supplies, and search and rescue teams to the stricken city. [[Yahoo News / AFP](] - But that might not be enough to salvage things in Lebanon. Some observers believe the country is headed for a Venezuela-like downward spiral. Unemployment already stands at 25 percent, Lebanon’s currency, the lira, is in free fall, and there’s a political crisis brewing. [[Vox / Alex Ward](] - The result could well be another refugee crisis, with millions of Lebanese — in addition to Lebanon’s sizable population of Syrian refugees — potentially fleeing the country, though with the Mediterranean on one side and Syria on the other, their options are limited. [[Vox / Alex Ward](] [Learn more about RevenueStripe...]( Change of plans for Chicago Public Schools - On Wednesday, Chicago Public Schools became the latest school district to announce a change of plans for the fall: With coronavirus cases still running high across the US, Chicago schools will start the year online-only. [[Chicago Tribune / Hannah Leone, Sophie Sherry, and Claire Hao](] - That decision puts CPS in line with most other large school districts in the US. Of the top 10 districts by enrollment, only those in New York City and Tampa are planning to have an in-person component available when students return to school in the fall. [[Education Week](] - In places like Georgia, where some students are already physically back in school, there are early signs of trouble. One second-grade classroom only made it as far as the second day before the teacher and students were forced to quarantine following a positive Covid-19 test. [[AJC / Ty Tagami and Maureen Downey](] - Nonetheless, President Trump has repeatedly pushed for schools to reopen across the board: On Fox & Friends Wednesday, he told viewers that “my view is the schools should open. This thing is going away. It will go away like things go away,” adding that children are “almost immune” to the virus. [[Twitter / Aaron Rupar](] - But not only is there no evidence that the virus is going away, but the science is still unclear on kids and Covid-19. Though infections in children generally appear to be less severe than in adults, there’s also some evidence that children are “drivers of respiratory viral outbreaks” when schools do reopen. [[Vox / Lois Parshley](] - Despite that, though, the GOP has signaled that it hopes to condition much of the money for schools in the next coronavirus relief package on whether they reopen for in-person instruction. [[CNBC / Megan Leonhardt](] MISCELLANEOUS Joe Biden will now accept the Democratic nomination for president from Delaware, rather than traveling to the convention site in Milwaukee. [[CNN / Jeff Zeleny, Dan Merica, and Kate Sullivan](] - Activist Cori Bush won an upset victory over Rep. William Lacy Clay on Tuesday, ousting the incumbent from a seat his family has held for 52 years. [[St. Louis Post-Dispatch / Nassim Benchaabane](] - Facebook’s fact-checkers say the Trump campaign is running blatantly false ads. Facebook isn’t doing anything about it. [[Washington Post / Craig Timberg and Andrew Ba Tran](] - The acting State Department inspector general resigned on Wednesday after less than three months in the post, amid ongoing scrutiny of conduct by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. [[NYT / Pranshu Verma](] [Learn more about RevenueStripe...]( VERBATIM "The first blast happened, and the whole building shook. My mother ran to me, screaming 'earthquake!' That's what we initially thought … then the second blast happened, and all the glass shattered in my house. My mother's still shell-shocked today. If I lose her to the trauma, I'll lose everything." [[Hussein Al Haq, a Beirut resident, on Tuesday's explosion / USA Today](] LISTEN TO THIS [A chemical blast has made a very bad situation worse for Lebanon.]( A chemical blast has made a very bad situation worse for Lebanon. [[Spotify / Sean Rameswaram](] [Read more from Vox](#) [3 reasons the US is still flying blind in the pandemic]( [Why Sen. Ron Wyden wants to throw Mark Zuckerberg in prison]( [How Portland’s Wall of Moms collapsed — and was reborn under Black leadership]( [Instagram’s answer to TikTok is here]( [Mask enforcement won’t work without education]( [Learn more about RevenueStripe...]( [Facebook]( [Twitter]( [YouTube]( This email was sent to {EMAIL}. Manage your [email preferences](, or [unsubscribe]( to stop receiving all emails from Vox. If you value Vox’s unique explanatory journalism, support our work with a one-time or recurring [contribution](. View our [Privacy Notice]( and our [Terms of Service](. Vox Media, 1201 Connecticut Ave. NW, Washington, DC 20036. Copyright © 2020. All rights reserved.