In the aftermath of the blast, residents took to the streets to sweep the shards of glass and piles of rubble. Meanwhile, politicians bickered and resigned. Judges were appointed to investigate the blast but one year on, had yet to publish their case. In this series finale of our 2020 Beirut port blast investigation we hear how people feel about their politicians, their country and their lives a year later.

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Ghassan Hassrouty was working with his colleagues at the port’s grain silos. Sarah Copland, an Australian UN employee, was feeding her son Isaac, 2. And then, it’s zero hour, the moment the blast tore through the city on August 4, 2020. This episode is the third of a four-part investigation into the 2020 Beirut port explosion. It tells that story through witness accounts of people who were there.

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After the cargo was moved to a warehouse at the port, it sat there for years. This episode connects the dots to understand why the chemical, commonly used in fertilisers and explosives, was neglected for so long. We hear from officials and workers at the port, and we try to establish who knew about the ammonium nitrate all this time, and whose responsibility it was to make sure it was safe.

This episode is the second of a four-part investigation into the 2020 Beirut port explosion that follows events before, during and after the incident.

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