Devastating explosion in Beirut, Lebanon.

I've seen this a couple of times:

Although currently unsubstantiated, it is possible that legal claims prevented the auctioning of the ammonium nitrates which left on land storage as the only avenue for the safekeeping of the material.

The ship owners had run up substantial debts and there were competing creditors laying claim to the assets, including the ammonium nitrate.

It was apparently being shipped to Mozambique for use as an industrial explosive, rather than for agriculture.

has anyone made a donation to a charity providing aid/relief in Beirut that they would recommend?

evol j, from people on the ground writing on Twitter, they say donate to the Red Cross based there, many other orgs are run through the government and hopelessly corrupt.

cool, thanks!

Those asking how they can help, please consider donating directly to organizations and groups in Lebanon, especially those with strong ties working with local communities, migrant workers and refugees. Here is a list below with donation details

— لميا (@shamshoumah) August 6, 2020

So is no one going to take Trump to task for daring to publically announce this was a planned bomb when it clearly wasnt? Why would he lie about something like that unless he wante to stir shit with Israel or someone?

Nobody is going to take Trump to task for being an idiot about events in foreign countries. Foreign policy doesn’t matter to the American electorate, on the left or the right.

The closest we get to caring about foreign policy, as voters, is what we want included in the inevitable defense appropriations bills.

Where one side pays no attention at all and the other side says “this proves why the democrats are traitors to the cause and we can’t trust anyone, that’s why I’m gonna avoid answering the census and stay punk as fuck”

Got this from a co-worker:

new compilation featuring some friends that benefits NGOs on the ground in Beirut. Featuring fantastic tracks from Monolake, The Bug, Donato Dozzy, Rabih Beaini/Morphosis, Neel, and others https://morphinerecords.bandcamp.com/album/the-sacred-rage

Great explainer and visualisation here:
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/09/09/world/middleeast/beirut-explosion.html

(Did you have anything to do with this, Alba?)

that is a good visualization. I know sometimes the nyt can be slightly reductive on these things, caveats about data journalism and visualizations etc. but I feel like I got something out of it

also, I completely misinterpreted that comment, Tracer, when I read the last line first on accident. yikes

haha

That’s a good piece of journalism. What a sad state of affairs in Lebanon.

Explainer from Forensic Architecture...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-mQ60wNgKrQ