Nezesworld

After a powerful blast on Aug. 4  killed more than 200 people in Beirut and  left  300,000 homeless, Gaëlle Moutran did what many young people in Beirut felt compelled to do in the ensuing days: film what was happening around her. With her iPhone, Moutran, a scenographer working in film and art, documents a city suffering from a pandemic, an economic crisis and a government in upheaval. “It smells like dust, it smells like despair,” the 30-year-old tells TIME, showing where her apartment’s windows had been shattered by the explosion. The devastation was caused when 2750 metric tons of ammonium nitrate stored unsafely in a port warehouse detonated. Armed with a helmet, a tear gas mask around her neck, and phone in hand, Moutran films an evening of violent  demonstrations  as protesters filled Beirut’s Martyrs’ Square, denouncing the corruption and chronic mismanagement of the political elite. Protests  began in October 2019  and the political crisis has...

  On the afternoon of 4 August 2020, two  explosions  occurred at  the port  of the city of  Beirut , the capital of Lebanon. The second explosion was extremely powerful, and caused at least 177 deaths, 6,000 injuries, and  US$ 10–15 billion in property damage, leaving an estimated 300,000 people homeless. The  event was linked to about 2,750  tonnes  (3,030  short tons ; 2,710  long tons ) of  ammonium nitrate  – equivalent to around 1.2  kilotons of TNT  (5.0  TJ ) – which had been confiscated by the Lebanese government from the abandoned ship  MV  Rhosus  and then stored in the port without proper safety measures for six years The explosion was detected by the   United States Geological Survey   as a seismic event of   magnitude   3.3; was felt in   Turkey ,   Syria ,   Israel , and parts of   Europe ; and was heard in   Cyprus ...