"If we didn't lead this fight, nobody would," says a Beirut resident whose 3-year-old daughter was among the 217 killed in the blast. An official investigation has stalled. No one has been prosecuted.
A coronavirus surge is overwhelming hospitals, leading doctors to tell families to care for sick loved ones at home instead. Health workers fear New Year's parties could have led to further spikes.
Dangerous sea crossings are occurring in unprecedented numbers. "I can't believe that we've become that country where people feel like they have to escape," says a Lebanese software engineer.
The fire erupts at a warehouse storing oil and tires in the port's duty-free zone, sending waves of fear through the devastated city. By early Thursday evening, the fire was reportedly under control.
After 72 hours of searching the wreckage of a collapsed building in the Lebanese capital, the Chilean rescue team leading the operation has said they were unable to find a survivor in the rubble.
The effort was launched after a sniffer dog named Flash signaled to his Chilean search and rescue team that someone might be alive under a pile of concrete and debris.
Since the Aug. 4 blast, the number of COVID-19 cases has increased by some 220%, according to the International Rescue Committee. The country is also coping with damage to medical facilities.
"Lebanese people have to help each other in the absence of a functioning state," says Hussein Kazoun of Nation Station, a volunteer disaster relief effort operating out of an abandoned gas station.
After explosions convulsed Beirut, here is a selection of photos showing Beirut residents in their destroyed house or workplace, along with a glimpse of their experiences, in their own words.
Tuesday's blast came against a backdrop of ongoing, unaddressed government dysfunction. Some of the country's chronic problems may help explain how 2,750 tons of explosives were neglected at the port.
The massive explosion leveled the city's port and scattered debris across a road thousands of feet away. The blast killed at least 100 people and injured thousands more.
In Lebanon's devastated capital, at least 137 people are dead and some 5,000 injured. A question looms over the stockpile of 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate believed to have exploded: Why was it there?
Protest organizers, lawyers and rights advocates tell NPR the authorities have adopted surveillance tactics, including allegedly invading chat groups to intimidate and investigate critics.
The notification is a request to law enforcement to locate and hold the former head of Nissan, who jumped bail in Japan, where he faces financial misconduct charges.
Beirut is peaceful now, but political divisions still run deep — and people are still hesitant to look back on the civil war years of the 1970s and 1980s.
The self-declared Islamic State has purportedly claimed responsibility for two blasts on a busy street. Lebanon's Health Ministry says the attack killed at least 43 people and injured 239 more.
