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The Intelligence from The Economist

A broken system, a broken city: Beirut

The Intelligence from The Economist

The Economist

Global News, Daily News, News

4.53.7K Ratings

🗓️ 6 August 2020

⏱️ 23 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Some 300,000 people are homeless after an explosion of unthinkable size. The culprit appears to be sheer negligence, brought on by a broken system of governance. The Economist’s data team has updated its excess-death tracker, giving ever-better insight into just how deadly covid-19 is. And the tricky trade-offs for both bosses and workers as they return to the office. For full access to print, digital and audio editions of The Economist, subscribe here www.economist.com/intelligenceoffer

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Transcript

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0:00.0

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0:06.0

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0:24.0

Canon Maxify GX, the range of printers that work for you and your team.

0:30.0

Hello and welcome to the Intelligence on Economist Radio.

0:39.0

I'm your host, Jason Palmer.

0:41.0

Every weekday we provide a fresh perspective on the events shaping your world.

0:49.0

Among the unknowns early in the pandemic was just how fatal COVID-19 was.

0:55.0

The economist's excess death tracker was the first to parse mortality data,

1:00.0

distinguishing different causes of death, and now it's got more and better numbers to work from.

1:06.0

And workers can return to the office in England this week, but few are rushing back.

1:11.0

We look at how the view of working from home has changed, both among bosses and worker bees,

1:17.0

and how compelling the draw of water cooler chat may end up being.

1:25.0

First up, though.

1:39.0

In Beirut yesterday, countless people began the painful work of fixing homes devastated by a massive explosion on Tuesday.

1:47.0

One woman, Huda Melke, posted a video of her mother-in-law playing the piano as others swept up broken glass.

1:54.0

The music is better sweet. The city is reeling.

2:00.0

The moment of the blast, no one was quite sure what had happened.

2:04.0

There was a sort of deep bass sound for seven or eight seconds, there was a rumbling.

2:09.0

And we thought it was a localized explosion, maybe a gas main that had blown up across the street or a car bomb in the neighborhood.

...

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