Lebanon: Drowning in rubbish

The Sunni telecoms tycoon secured enough votes from lawmakers to become Lebanon's prime minister. France and the US have expressed support for the move.

German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said lawmakers could face EU sanctions unless they moved to form a government and enact key economic reforms. Lebanon is currently gripped by its worst economic crisis in decades.

The monster explosion at Beirut's port has "chattered children's sense of normalcy and robbed them of safety," says UNICEF regional director Ted Chaiban during a press conference in the al-Karantina neighbourhood. A year after, one in three families in Lebanon have children still showing signs of trauma, according to a UN survey. The August 4, 2020 explosion killed more than 200 people, wounded at least 6,500 others and damaged swathes of the capital.

Pope Francis returns to work full-time following a colon operation, urging the international community to help a struggling Lebanon on the anniversary of the explosion that killed over 200 people.

Palestinian groups inside Lebanon are thought to be behind the attack that saw one rocket land on open ground and start a fire. The Iron Dome missile defense system intercepted another rocket.

US President Joe Biden has promised $100 million in additional aid for Lebanon as he pressed the crisis-wracked nation to undergo reforms. "No amount of outside assistance will ever be enough if Lebanon's own leaders do not commit to do the hard but necessary work of reforming the economy and combating corruption," he tells a UN-backed donor conference for Lebanon led by France.

The Lebanese currency has lost up to 90% of its value, and prices are soaring. Most Lebanese are fighting a daily battle for survival and only a few profit from the skyrocketing exchange rates for the US dollar.

The move has heaped more misery on consumers, amid a deep economic crisis that has seen the Lebanese pound lose 90% of its value.

Performers dressed in cans, tubes, mirrors and other materials salvaged from rubbish bins parade through the streets of Kinshasa, in the Democratic Republic of Congo, for the 5th edition of the "KinAct" festival, which aims to raise awareness of the environment as well as art.

The numbers of children in Accra picking through rubbish for scrap metal and plastic to sell to recycling dealers has surged during the COVID-19 pandemic.

A new Syrian-Jordanian deal on energy for Lebanon is being seen by some as another step towards the international rehabilitation of the brutal Assad regime.

Most of Lebanon is set to lose access to state-generated electricity, forcing residents to buy electricity from private providers or be plunged in darkness.