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The Fifth Floor: Beirut port blast: Five months on

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Lebanese army members walk near the damaged grain silo at the site of the blast at Beirut's port area, Lebanon (August 7, 2020)

15/01/2021 GMT

Beirut port blast: Five months on

BBC World Service - The Fifth Floor, Beirut port blast: Five months on

A search for truth and repairing the blast's physical, political and psychological damage

The search for truth, and repairing the physical, political and psychological damage after the blast.

On 4th August last year 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate blew up in a Beirut port warehouse.  The explosion killed 200 people, injured thousands, and destroyed the port.  Last month the public enquiry into the blast charged four politicians with negligence, including Prime Minister Hassan Diab. BBC Arabic’s Carine Torbey got an exclusive interview with him.

Cuba’s “sovereign” vaccine
Cuba has entered a new partnership with Iran to trial a new coronavirus vaccine. Its high hopes are summed up in the name, Soberana O-2, or "sovereign".  BBC Monitoring's Luis Fajardo in Miami considers what the vaccine and its name mean to Cubans.

Kashmiri papier-mâché 
Srinagar in Indian-administered Kashmir used to be famous for its papier-mâché artefacts. But decades of insurgency and lockdowns have left producers struggling to survive, as BBC reporter Aamir Peerzada discovered.

The beach that lost the sun
The BBC’s Fernando Duarte tells us about Balneário Camboriú in Brazil, where shadows cast by the skyscrapers that line the sands make it impossible to sunbathe for most of the afternoon.  Is the answer to widen the beach?

South Africa’s alcohol ban
Following South Africa's re-imposition of an alcohol ban as part of Covid-19 restrictions, the BBC's Vumani Mkhize reflects on the impact this is having, and the background to his country’s toxic relationship with drink.



(Image: Lebanese army member by damaged grain silo, Beirut port blast site (August 7, 2020)
Credit: REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir/File Photo)

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