I first learned about neurons from a lecture by physicist and now newly minted Nobel Prize winner John Hopfield at Bell Telephone Laboratories in 1985. Hopfield was a senior scientist there, while I was as junior as possible. Bell Labs — the inventors of the transistor — had sponsored a set of lectures focusing on Hopfield’s new mathematical discovery that physics equations could explain neural circuits.
In his lecture, Hopfield showed diagrams of networks now called “Hopfield networks.” Bell Labs was hosting a Hopfield network day honoring him and his new-fangled ideas of using relaxation-energy equations from physics to design networks that “solved” certain difficult problems. Some of his diagrams looked just like the operational amplifiers (op-amps) in electronic circuit diagrams, which I had tinkered with for years — but now he called them neurons. So, my skill at making circuits now applied to brains. I was hooked, and within three years I was accepted as a student in the brand-new academic program called Computation and Neural Systems (CNS) that Hopfield was founding at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech).
An example of a Hopfield network with four nodes. Via Zawersh on English Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 3.0).
I attended Caltech in the CNS program’s second year. The first words I heard in a classroom were from Hopfield: roughly, “If you can explain how you do something, say solve an equation, odds are computers can already do it better. If you have no idea how you do it, say how you recognize your mother’s voice, odds are we have no idea how it works, and computers can’t get close.” That insight explains, among other things, why computers are better at following rules than at making sense of real life.
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Hopfield himself was imposing, in a grandfatherly way. Six feet tall, he seemed even taller when tipping back on his heels, clasping his hands, looking benignly down his nose and speaking in a booming bass voice. When graduate student Mike Vanier performed an imitation of Hopfield in a skit during our first year, it brought down the house.
That core class Hopfield taught on Neural Nets (in 1988) was difficult in an epic way. Homework for the very first week — the same week students were still getting computer accounts and finding the bookstore — involved a set of three different kinds of supremely hard problems: solving a difficult set of differential equations, writing and testing a computer program to simulate a simple neural circuit and constructing that same working “neural” circuit by wiring a battery, op-amps, resistors and capacitors up to blink LEDs. Neither programming nor soldering was a stated class requirement. Lucky for me, I already knew how to program and build circuits, so I passed.
In fact, the little circuit I built in Hopfield’s class proved to be a key to my PhD project, and key to his final question for me. Hopfield sat on my committee and approved my thesis — even though I had proved that real neurons can’t possibly operate like those circuits. (Real neurons have to be hundreds-fold faster, at least.)
An interdisciplinary paradise
By world standards, Caltech is a tiny and very exclusive university, having only about a thousand undergrad and another thousand graduate students. Caltech specializes in leading scientific trends; the new CNS program (started with silicon guru Carver Mead) was meant to create an entirely new field by using mathematical techniques from physics, electronics and computer science to understand how information moves in biological systems like brains, muscles, eyes and ears.
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Psychology, psychophysics, optics, silicon design, algorithms, neuroscience, robotics — a score of scientific disciplines overlapped in lecture halls, classrooms and labs. It was an interdisciplinary paradise. Caltech’s philosophy is to base nearly everything (even biology) on physics principles. Hopfield and Mead’s common treatment of biological information processing as continuous equation accessible to physics, following in this tradition, made the CNS program a scientific innovation.
Hopfield’s contribution to physics, and to science in general, was to link well-established math about molecules and crystals to poorly understood computation problems like parallel processing and machine intelligence. His key scientific invention (the Hopfield network) was complex enough to solve real and interesting AI-like problems but simple enough to explain through equations initially designed to describe crystal formation. Hopfield created a whole new form of analog computation with his nets and a whole new way of describing neurons with the math behind them.
(While they make the math easier, it turns out that Hopfield’s smoothly responding mathematical “neurons” are nothing like real neurons in brains. Real neurons make irregular pulses whose noisy crackle must, in fact, carry information — a point first made in my dissertation under Christof Koch. [You can read the PDF here.] This fact undermines the one thing neuroscience thought it knew about the neural code.)
The Caltech CNS program was a university-wide expansion of Hopfield’s approach, bringing together math-wielding theorists with lab-bench experimentalists. As a member of both camps, I was in my element, and everyone around me was, too. It was exhilarating to bring humanity’s last 50 years of technological progress in audio, radio, circuits and computers to bear on explaining how brains work and what they do. With CNS, Hopfield and Mead had built a whole new discipline around their visions of mathematically simple neural nets.
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I benefitted directly from a major initiative of Hopfield’s. While he was on my committee, Hopfield wrote to the Caltech faculty at large, advising that he would require any grad student getting a PhD with him (e.g., me) to write a single-author paper. Usually, every paper a grad student writes has their advisor’s name on it too. That meant no one was sure whose ideas were whose. Hopfield’s point was that if a student submits a paper entirely on their own, it proves the ideas are theirs. I don’t know how my advisor responded, but I heard the faculty collectively was in a rage: Junior professors needed those extra papers to fill out their publication lists. Publish-or-perish was very real to them, and Hopfield’s principled stand for intellectual integrity made life tougher.
But not for me. Hopfield had “forced” me to do what I always wanted to do anyway: publish my most radical ideas as clearly as possible, in my own voice. So, I wrote a paper pretty much proving that neurons could operate a hundred-fold faster (i.e., 10,000% faster) than anyone thought at the time, which means a hundredfold more bandwidth. That paper started my career as a renegade and bandwidth advocate, a lonely position now utterly validated by research I presented in Tucson this April. Thanks to John Hopfield’s principled vision of science, I was not pressured to water down a good clean idea, which has now been vindicated.
A true physicist
The last conversation I remember with John Hopfield was when I defended my Ph.D. dissertation (the one “disproving” his model of neurons) in the old, storied East Bridge building at Caltech.
This room was nearly sacred to physicists. Steven Hawking had answered questions on these tiles a couple of years before. An alcove across the hall displayed a working micro-motor, less than a tenth of one millimeter on a side, inspired by nano-tech founder (and Nobelist) Richard Feynman. Around the corner were (not-yet-Nobelist) Kip Thorne’s framed bets about black holes. In a tiny room just down the hall, their common advisor John Wheeler had derived quantum mechanics from information theory on a chalkboard — “It from Bit.” On the floor in front of me (I had arrived early) sat his former student Kip Thorne.
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In this hallowed place, I had not expected more questions. I had already been answering questions for hours in the seminar room next door, and I frankly expected Hopfield to say something different. I expected him to say “Congratulations, Dr. Softky.” This was supposed to be the end of my dissertation exam.
“We’d like to ask you some more questions,” Hopfield told me.
This wasn’t how it was supposed to work. Moments before, during my PhD defense, I had proved a popular body of knowledge wrong by invoking undisputed math. The panel had accepted the debunking, as CNS co-founder Carver Mead had accepted it weeks before. But I hadn’t debunked physics itself; I had debunked neuroscience. To my committee, that was a lower form of science, and they wanted to make sure I actually knew physics.
So, Hopfield asked me a question that hit the heart of my dissertation. He drew a little diagram of a circuit on the chalkboard: a battery, a capacitor, a resistor and a tiny neon bulb. He asked me what it would do.
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I remembered that little circuit from my childhood as a relaxation oscillator. It charges up until it hits the voltage where the bulb lights and then dumps the charge, starting the cycle anew. In other words, it goes blink-blink-blink. That little circuit was exactly the model of a neuron that my dissertation had disproven (such a circuit can’t produce the “noisy” pulses that real neurons produce). It was also the one Hopfield had inflicted on his students in our very first week of class, to solve, program and simulate with wires. Now I got to tell him how it worked, and didn’t work, as I became one of his own program’s very first PhDs.
Very few people create whole new forms of science and technology. Hopfield was the first to use laws of physical energy flow to calculate information flow, just like Mead was the first to use laws of physical structure to design integrated circuits.
Combined, those two ideas now let computers act like dumb or clumsy people. Soon, they will also let us know how brilliant, graceful human beings do what we do best.
The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Fair Observer’s editorial policy.
As support from Western governments continues to prop up Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza, people of conscience continue to mobilize at the grassroots to pressure their political leaders to change course. On Friday, Sept. 27, students, NGO staff, and workers from over 200 unions across Spain waged a 24-hour general strike to demand the Spanish government cut ties with Israel and end all forms of military aid. The Real News reports from the streets of Madrid.
Producer, Videographer, Editor: María Artigas Assistant Producer: Sato Díaz Translation, Narrator: Pedro Rubio
Transcript
Protesters: Resistance! Resistance! Long live the Palestinian people’s fight!
Reporter: Tens of thousands of people across Spain took to the streets to protest the ongoing genocide in Palestine. The CGT and Solidaridad Obrera unions called a general strike, backed by hundreds of associations and organizations. The MATS union (Health Workers Assembly Movement) joined the protests with a gathering at the 12 de Octubre Hospital in Madrid, demanding an end to the genocide and the military, commercial, and diplomatic relations between the Spanish government and Israel.
Edurne Prado: From the union we have called for this rally because we are seeing a live genocide of the Palestinian people. Now also to the Lebanese people. And we, as health workers, cannot forget not only the thousands of families and children who have died, but also that we have colleagues there risking their lives day by day, without any resources and working out of pure vocation and saving people’s lives. And for us it is also important today to call names, to denounce the complicity of all European governments, of our own government, which claims to be progressive but then does not break commercial or diplomatic relations with the state of Israel. And for us today is also a day to denounce.
Reporter: Pickets, marches, and various protests were held throughout the morning. Around 150 towns and cities across the country organized actions in support of the general strike, with notable mobilizations in cities like Barcelona, Granada, Valencia, Zaragoza, and Seville.
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In Madrid, hundreds of participants gathered at the doors of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to demand action from the Spanish government.
Protesters: Boycott, boycott, boycott Israel! Military budgets for schools and hospitals! Break, break, break with Israel!
José Luis Carretero: We called for a general strike and a day of protest because we understand that, in the first place, public services must be defended. In the face of the fact that public money is being used to sustain wars, to sustain a situation of growing warlike confrontation in Europe and the Mediterranean as a whole. And we also raise it in defense of human rights, of children’s rights in Palestine, in Gaza, in Lebanon, especially in Palestine. We raise it because, at the end of the day, we workers have the right to state that our interests are not only limited to wage increases or working conditions, vacations, and leaves, but also in the defense of fundamental rights and what was traditionally known as workers’ internationalism. And in that sense we also defend the right of workers to express their solidarity with all subjugated peoples. We ask the Spanish government to do everything possible to stop this genocide. We understand the severance of relations with the state of Israel, the severance of diplomatic relations with the state of Israel and also the denunciation of the international trade treaty that it has with the European Union, with the state of Israel, we understand that it is absolutely necessary, and also to do everything possible to comply with international arrest warrants that are already on the table by the International Criminal Court and the International Court of Justice against those responsible for this genocide.
Protesters: It is not a war, it is genocide! No more complicity! Israel murders, Europe sponsors!
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Carmen Arnaiz: We are here mainly because Palestinian workers sent a call many months ago to all European workers asking us what we were going to do about the genocide that was taking place in their land. So, based on that call, from our organization we initially decided that the biggest response we could give as a union is to call a general strike. But obviously it had to be with other comrades, because otherwise it would not have made sense for us to call a strike. In the end, 218 organizations have adhered to the call. And what we intended with this day of general strike and struggle, because they are organizing rallies, marches, as well as picket lines and other things, is to denounce that the Spanish government is spending enormous amounts of money on arms, much more than on social services, much more than on education, health, aid for dependency, fair pensions, regularization of so many comrades who are in an irregular situation, migrants, and yet it is redirecting all that money to the arms business, to the sale of arms — and, on top of that, with a genocidal state that, according to all international legislation, we should have broken off all diplomatic relations of all kinds with it. The embassy is still open here, arms are still being sold, despite the fact that they say it is not true and they have recognized the state of Palestine. But it has been an act of posturing, because at the moment of truth they continue negotiating with Israel, they continue supporting all that barbarity that is there with our taxes. They are making us accomplices of a genocide. So, as civil society, as many people around the world outraged by this, we have organized ourselves to try to raise our voices and demand, of course, that the genocide ends and for all and that, in the meantime, as a means of pressure, immediately cut off all relations with any government that is committing genocide against a people.
Protesters: From the river to the sea, Palestine shall overcome!
Reporter: Universities also responded to the strike call. After the sit-ins in May, students and professors organized again for this day of action. Under the slogan “We will no longer study to the sound of bombs,” the Complutense Professors’ Network and the students from the Madrid sit-in took to the streets to condemn the genocide in Gaza. The day featured roundtable discussions, campus walkouts, rallies, and protests.
Rub: We have come out to argue against the responsibility of the Spanish government for continuing to send economic and military support to the genocidal state of Israel, and also to denounce the complicity of our university, which continues to maintain relations with Israeli universities. It continues to keep companies that finance Israel’s genocide on the social councils and university boards of directors. Following the internationalist wake that the encampments were having and also picking up the fighting spirit of the students who were already going out to fight directly against governments as in the case of Sri Lanka, we decided to have an encampment also in Madrid, which denounced the complicity of our universities and, again, Spanish imperialism and how our government participates in it. And I think it is important to reemphasize all the struggle against the repression that took place in our encampment, but above all in the United States and in France and in Germany, where the repression was terrible, people were arrested, they tried to charge them as terrorists. And I think it is very important that we recover that spirit of struggle in the student movement and in the Spanish workers’ movement.
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Eva Aladro: The University cannot stand still in the face of a genocide of the size we are witnessing, which we are also seeing spreading to other countries and which continues with the same line of massacring civilian populations under the excuse of wanting to put an end to terrorism, as more terrorist acts are carried out by Israel. We professors started mobilizations together with the students, and our idea is to continue in the same line, because we believe that both the academics and the students, as well as the whole youth community in our country, which is mobilized, are the social conscience. And they are the ones who really have to make an effort in some way to awaken society, so that they refuse to accept a situation such as we are living, of hundreds of dead human beings, children, women, etc. every week. Unfortunately, the only way to stop the war is to make the war unprofitable. So there are three things to achieve this that are the key. The first is to disinvest in the companies, businesses, and universities that are contributing to a massacre like the one in Gaza. There is another option, which is also to block all the activities that have to do with and whose interest is based on that massacre. And another very important thing is to mobilize society and public sensibility not to accept products, etc. from communities or countries that are carrying out genocide. There is a very important legislative initiative that we, the professors of all the public universities of Madrid, are carrying out, which is a letter that we have sent to the high commissioners of both the European Parliament and the Committee on Research and Innovation, asking them to respect their own Euro-Mediterranean Cooperation Agreement, which states that no treaties or agreements or principles of cooperation can be established with countries that are violating democratic rights and democratic principles.
Therefore, the European Union has very specific legislation that must prevent any treaty of friendship and cooperation, with a country that is committing genocide. So we, the professors, have received a response letter in which they tell us that they are going to try to convene a meeting with Israel, but we want to force that, really, if the Euro-Mediterranean agreement itself is not complied with, we are going to take it to the European courts. And from there we will continue, because we believe that this is one of the initiatives that we believe must be developed, because it is at the legislative and court level where perhaps we will achieve the respect for international legality that we do not achieve at the political level or at the level of institutions.
Protesters: Gaza, hang on, Madrid rises up!
Reporter: Thousands attended the afternoon mass march through the heart of the capital, from Atocha Station to Callao Square. The organizing unions put the number of participants in the afternoon marches nationwide at more than 150,000 people. And more than 200 trade union and social organizations supported the strike call.
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Deva Mar Escobedo: I came here today with my colleagues from trans in fight quite excited about the strike. I was following the picket lines and the marches in other cities. I think they can be the most powerful things of today and of this new political course, that we can do more pressure, get a real change of positions in the government and stop this genocide. Because I think it is very important as citizens that we come to all protests, all mobilizations that we can, because, after all, we are witnessing a genocide live. I believe we have a duty as individuals to stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people.
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Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.
Rachel Reeves is considering an increase in capital gains tax as part of a multibillion-pound effort to fill a “black hole” in the public finances in her Budget later this month, according to government insiders.
The chancellor has been examining Treasury modelling on the impact of a range of changes to the capital gains tax regime, as part of an effort by the new government to ensure individuals with the “broadest shoulders” bear the burden of efforts to raise revenue.
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Capital gains tax, or CGT, is charged on increase in the value of assets such as second homes and shares and raises around £15bn a year.
Reforming CGT is highly complex given it is levied at a range of rates across different asset classes, and also because of wealthy individuals’ ability to shift assets to income or change jurisdiction to mitigate the impact. The Institute for Fiscal Studies previously suggested that levying CGT at the same levels as income tax could raise high single-digit billions in revenue.
Officials have suggested the Treasury will need to raise upwards of £20bn a year from a range of tax measures as it attempts to tackle the legacy of an overspend in 2024-25 and address resulting spending pressures in future years. Reeves also needs to find ways to keep her promise not to return to “austerity” by mitigating real-terms cuts to departmental spending over the course of the decade.
The Treasury has begun notifying its key Budget measures to the Office for Budget Responsibility, the fiscal watchdog, after receiving an updated set of economic and fiscal forecasts this week.
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While the Budget package to be presented on October 30 has yet to be settled, Reeves has been looking for ways of ensuring wealthy taxpayers are part of the solution — even as Labour seeks to woo global investors ahead of a closely watched investment summit on Monday.
As part of her efforts to raise taxes on the wealthiest, Reeves is also expected to consider changes to inheritance tax.
The Treasury is not, however, considering the introduction of a so-called exit tax on investors who decide to leave the country to avoid the impact of big gains on asset values, insiders said.
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Earlier on Thursday, the Guardian reported Reeves had examined increases in CGT to as high as 39 per cent. A Treasury spokesperson said the figure “is not based on government modelling — we do not recognise it. This is pure speculation.”
Previous Conservative chancellors repeatedly tested whether capital gains tax rates should be moved closer to income tax rates.
However, people who served in the Treasury under Tory chancellors said their modelling showed that big rises in CGT could lead to a loss of revenue, due to the relatively small number of people who paid the tax.
“The issue is whether you actually raise money given 350,000 people is such a small number and they can change behaviour,” said one senior Treasury official, in a reference to the narrow CGT tax base.
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One Tory Treasury veteran said: “We were constantly trying to find the optimum rate to incentivise investment because that would increase tax revenues. Modelling took place all the time.”
Jeremy Hunt, former chancellor, raised £300mn a year — although only in the short term — by reducing capital gains tax rates on property sales from 28 per cent to 24 per cent, thus bringing forward transactions.
However the Treasury will need to raise far more than is likely to be yielded from any CGT changes if it is to tackle the wider budgetary pressures it now faces.
The IFS said this week that the government would need to raise £25bn in tax if it wants to boost spending increases to a rate that is line with the growth of the overall economy — far higher than current plans.
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This week Sir Keir Starmer, the prime minister, opened the door to a multibillion-pound increase in employer national insurance contributions as the government scrabbles for new sources of revenue.
Labour is, however, hamstrung by manifesto pledges to protect working people by not raising income tax, national insurance or VAT.
Senior Conservatives suspect slightly higher growth forecasts from the OBR could help Reeves shelve some tax rises.
The 50p piece started entering general circulation at the end of 2023 as part of a new series of coins marking the ascension of King Charles to the throne.
As the least common 50p in circulation, it has been in high demand from coin collectors.
One of the pieces recently sold for more than 280 times its value on eBay.
After 23 competitive bids for the coin, it eventually sold for £142.
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The Royal Mint has revealed 200,000 of the pieces were sent to banks and post offices across the UK at the end of last year.
There were 210,000 Kew Gardens 50p coins put into circulation 15 years ago which had made it the rarest of the 50ps for over a decade.
How to spot a 50p worth £50 and mule 20p that sells for £30
But the latest mintage figures from The Royal Mint show its spot has now been taken by the Atlantic Salmon 50p.
Rebecca Morgan, director of commemorative coins at The Royal Mint said: “The releasing of mintage figures is an eagerly anticipated event among the coin collecting community – and this year is particularly exciting as we reveal the Atlantic Salmon as the rarest 50p in circulation.
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“For the first time in 15 years, the highly collectable Kew Gardens 50p loses its top spot as the rarest in circulation with the Atlantic Salmon 50p splashing its way to number one.”
Casualties from the air strike were brought to the local al-Aqsa hospital
At least 28 people have been killed and 54 injured in an Israeli air strike on a school sheltering displaced families in the central Gaza Strip, the Palestinian Red Crescent says.
Videos from the scene at Rufaida al-Aslamia school in the town of Deir al-Balah show a cloud of smoke and dust rising up as people rush to help the injured.
Witnesses said there were two air strikes that hit two rooms in the school where food aid was being stored and distributed.
The Israeli military said the “precise strike” targeted Hamas fighters operating inside a “command-and-control centre” at the school.
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It also said it had taken numerous steps to mitigate harm to the civilians living there.
“This is a further example of the Hamas terrorist organisation’s systematic abuse of civilian infrastructure in violation of international law,” it added. Hamas has denied the allegation.
Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry also put the death toll at 28 and denounced what it called a “new massacre” by the Israeli military.
A list published by al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital in Deir al-Balah suggested that at least two of those killed were children, five were women and three were men in their 60s.
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Another person named on the list was Ahmed Adel Hamouda, 58, whose widow said he had worked in the school’s administration.
“They killed my only support in life. They killed the support of our three disabled daughters, Rahab, Alaa and Reem,” she said.
Eyewitness Khaled al-Sultan told BBC Arabic’s Gaza Today programme that he saw “horrible things that are beyond description”.
“We were not able to retrieve one complete body because all the victims’ bodies turned into pieces. The number of martyrs is shocking,” he added.
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Another man, Taha Majad, asked: “Why would a shelter school like this be bombed by F-16 jets? We are humans, aren’t we?”
Many schools have been turned into shelters for the 1.9 million Palestinians who have fled their homes since the war in Gaza started a year ago.
Despite that, the UN says more than 200 schools have been hit, with at least 50 being completely destroyed.
Rufaida school is located inside the Israeli-designated al-Mawasi “humanitarian area”, where the Israeli military has told Palestinians to flee despite it being overcrowded and lacking basic services.
They include all of the estimated 400,000 people currently living in the north of Gaza, where Israeli forces are continuing a ground offensive on Jabalia and its urban refugee camp.
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Reuters news agency cited Palestinian health officials as saying that at least 130 people had been killed since Sunday, when the Israeli military announced it was launching an operation in response to intelligence that Hamas fighters were regrouping there.
The Israeli military said on Wednesday morning its forces had killed “more than 50 terrorist operatives” and located large quantities of weapons in the Jabalia area over the previous 24 hours.
Israel launched a campaign to destroy Hamas in response to the group’s unprecedented attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.
More than 42,060 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the territory’s health ministry.
Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.
Lebanon’s practically worthless US dollar bonds have rallied following Israel’s invasion of the country, as investors bet that the weakening of Hizbollah raised the chances of a ceasefire as the first step to ending its long default.
Prices for debts that were once worth $30bn at face value rose above 8.5 cents on the dollar on Thursday, extending their gains from 6 cents last month following Israel’s killing of Hassan Nasrallah, the militant group’s leader.
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The advances pushed the bonds to their highest levels since before Hizbollah began firing rockets towards Israel last year, after the outbreak of war between Israel and Hamas. Even so, the prices still indicate that investors will receive very small repayments on their bonds, more than four years after Lebanon defaulted.
Lebanon has been unable to restructure the debt while it has lacked a government and a plan to fix the country’s broken financial system, which precipitated the default when it collapsed in late 2019.
The bonds remain thinly traded, meaning a handful of deals can move prices. Their near worthlessness also has left them primed to increase on signs of even minor improvement in the country’s financial situation.
“Right now, the correct way to think about this is that we have two stages, solving the ceasefire and solving the political stalemate. Current valuations are putting higher chances on moving forward with the ceasefire,” said Bruno Gennari, emerging markets strategist at KNG Securities.
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Israeli bombings and displacement orders targeting one quarter of the country’s territory have piled more ruin on to Lebanon’s shattered economy in recent days, after half a decade of near constant crisis.
Lebanon heavily borrowed on the eurobond market to bankroll massive deficits before the freezing of tens of billions of dollars in foreign currency deposits in 2019 set off a financial crisis.
Some analysts have estimated that an eventual writedown of the dollar bonds could be over 80 per cent, given the likely costs to the state to resolve the banking system.
But a restructuring will be impossible without political leadership to begin negotiations with creditors and the IMF. Lebanon has yet to enact economic and political reforms demanded by the international community to unlock billions of dollars in investment and aid. Fitch Ratings even stopped rating the eurobonds in July because Lebanon no longer publishes up to date fiscal information.
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“Lebanon’s fragmented political environment, the caretaker government’s limited legal capacity to enact legislation, and delays in appointing key officials — including a new president — continue to impede the reforms necessary to kick-start economic recovery and emergence from default,” credit rating agency S&P Global said this week.
This week the US signalled its support for the election of a new president, which some in Lebanon’s fractured political system have called for but has been held back by Hizbollah’s veto for two years.
But analysts said even if a president could soon take office, progress on restructuring the debt would also need commitment to reforms and talks with the IMF.
“It could be read as positive news in the long term for addressing the political stalemate, but I think that is looking too much into the future,” Gennari said. “There are many steps in between.”
MILLIONS suffering from long-term health conditions or disabilities get extra help through Personal Independence Payment (PIP).
The payments can be worth as much as £108.55 a week, so if you don’t claim it already, it could be a good idea to check if you’re eligible.
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People with long-term health conditions can get help through PIPCredit: Alamy
PIP is available to those aged 16 or over but have not yet reached the state pension age.
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Crucially, you must also have a health condition or disability where you either have had difficulties with daily living or getting around – or both- for three months.
You should also expect these difficulties to continue for at least nine months (unless you’re terminally ill with less than 12 months to live).
But even if you’ve got an active claim for PIP, there are some scenarios where they can be stopped.
Tom Farquhar, benefits information specialist at disabilitycharity Scope, has shed light on four of them.
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He said last year: “When it comes to your PIP there are certain changes that you might need to report to stop your benefit being cut off by the DWP.
“There are risks associated with not reporting a change in your situation, including overpayment or even prosecution.
“That’s why it’s important to report the following changes to DWP as soon as possible.”
Going into hospital
If you have to go into hospital for more than 28 days, the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) will pause your PIP.
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However, if you are under 18 or paying for a private hospital stay, payments won’t be stopped.
Ireland AM host Tommy Bowe slams government for ‘breaking own rules’
It’s worth noting if you leave the hospital before the 28 days is up, you can still have payments stopped if you go back.
Tom said: “If you go back to hospital within 28 days of leaving, it will count as the same stay and add up.”
As an example, someone might go to hospital for 20 days and then go home.
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After 10 days at home, they might go back into hospital.
The DWP would stop paying this person PIP if they were in hospital for more than eight days.
The same 28-day rule applies if you go into a care home.
Again, if you are paying for the care home privately this rule won’t affect you.
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Going to prison
The DWP will stop PIP payments if you are in prison or held in custody for 28 days or longer.
Once you are no longer in prison or custody it is your responsibility to contact the DWP and tell them you are out.
Tom said: “Once you are no longer in prison or custody you’ll need to contact the them and they’ll start payments up again.”
You go abroad
If you leave England, Scotland or Wales, for more than 13 weeks the DWP will stop any PIP payments.
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If you leave these same countries because you need medical treatment, you have longer until you stop receiving payments.
Tom said: “If you leave Great Britain for longer than 13 weeks, or 26 weeks if you go for medical treatment, the DWP will stop your PIP payment.”
Your personal circumstances change
If your personal details change, such as name or address, or your doctor changes you could see PIP payments stop.
So you should tell the DWP as soon as possible about any changes to avoid this.
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Any changes to your personal circumstances might impact what elements of PIP you can receive too.
Tom said: “It’s important to report these changes so that you can get the correct amount of PIP for your needs, and to avoid being cut off or prosecution for not relaying updates.”
You can update the DWP on any change in circumstances via their enquiry line – 0800 121 4433.
If your PIP payments have stopped and you don’t know why, you can call Scope for help on 0808 800 3333.
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The helpline is open seven days a week, Monday to Friday between 9am and 6pm, and 10am to 6pm at the weekends.
Alternatively, you can email helpline@scope.org.uk.
What is PIP?
PIP is a benefit given to people suffering from a long-term physical or mental health condition or disability.
This condition might make it hard for you to carry out certain everyday tasks or get around.
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You can get the benefit even if you’re working, have savings or are getting most other benefits.
There are two parts to PIP – the daily living part and the mobility part.
You might be entitled to the daily living part of PIP if you need help with:
PIP is made up of two parts and whether you get one or both of these depends on how severely your condition affects you.
How much you get also depends on how your condition affects you.
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You may get the mobility part of PIP if you need help going out or moving around. The weekly rate for this is either £26.90 or £71.
While on the daily living part of PIP, the weekly rate is either £68.10 or £101.75 – and you could get both elements, so up to £172.75 in total.
You’ll be assessed by a health professional to work out the level of help you can get and your rate will be regularly reviewed to make sure you’re getting the right support.
Who is eligible?
PIP is available to people aged 16 or over but not yet at the state pension age.
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You must have lived in England or Wales for at least two of the last three years, and be in one of these countries when you apply.
The process is different in Northern Ireland, and there are additional rules if you live abroad or if you’re not a British citizen.
In Scotland, you will need to apply for Adult Disability Payment (ADP) instead.
Crucially, you must also have a health condition or disability where you either have had difficulties with daily living or getting around (or both) for three months, and you expect these difficulties to continue for at least nine months (unless you’re terminally ill with less than six months to live).
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You can claim PIP at the same time as other benefits, except the armed forces independence payment.
If you receive constant attendance allowance you will receive less of the daily living part of PIP.
If you get war pensioners‘ mobility supplement you will not get the mobility part of PIP.
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