Lebanon
Lebanon’s staggering economic crash, called the world’s worst in 150 years by the World Bank, has been covered in several previous newsletters. More than two-thirds of the population now live in poverty, according to the UN. Electricity is patchy, hospitals have run out of medicine and violence breaks out at gas stations as people fight over fuel. It is not surprising that a mental health crisis has now developed. The country’s only suicide hotline is receiving about 1,100 calls a month, double the number last year, and experts expect the figures to keep growing amid a shortage of drugs to treat depression, anxiety, psychosis and other mental health conditions.
More from AFP via France 24 here.
Brazil
Brazil’s health minister Marcelo Queiroga has tested positive for COVID-19 at the UN General Assembly in New York. The entire Brazilian delegation, including President Jair Bolsonaro, is now in isolation. Bolsonaro has previously contracted the virus and boasts that he is unvaccinated. Almost 600,000 Brazilians have died from COVID-19, the second highest number in the world after the United States.
More from Al Jazeera here.
Yemen
A group of cavers from Oman has made what is believed to be the first descent into Yemen’s infamous “Well of Hell”, a huge 30m wide and 112m deep hole in the desert, believed by some locals to be the gates of hell or a prison for demons or genies.
More from phys.org here.