Lebanon’s Lockdown
From Our Own Correspondent
BBC
4.4 • 1.3K Ratings
🗓️ 4 February 2021
⏱️ 29 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Six months ago, an explosion, caused by improperly stored ammonium nitrate, ripped through the city of Beirut. As the country struggles to rebuild amid a devastating economic crisis, a stringent lockdown has been imposed. In Tripoli, people are taking to the streets in protest. Leila Molana-Allen reports. San Francisco’s District Attorney is pioneering a new approach to tackling crime, focusing on the root causes with social care and drug therapy, rather than prison. Police unions are not convinced, and it’s not clear whether this novel approach to tackling crime, adopted in other liberal cities, will prove effective, says James Clayton. Last week the head of the Swedish Public Health Agency Johan Carlson admitted catching a bus during rush hour, without wearing a face mask. Carlson’s failure to adhere to the new restrictions hasn’t gone down well with the Swedish public. This has been compounded by a series of other breaches by ministers and public officials. It’s causing the country’s traditionally high levels of trust in authorities to wobble, as Maddy Savage reports from Stockholm. When China introduced economic reforms and began opening out in the 1980s, English language learning began with fervour. It remains popular today, with a proliferation of private English language learning schools across the country, but authorities are now downplaying its importance. Journalist LiJia Zhang once worked in a missile-factory – for her, learning a second language was the key to a new life. The Seychelles has two main industries that drive its economy: tourism and fishing. The fishing industry is struggling amid the pandemic, with fewer visitors, but it's also suffered years of mismanagement says Michelle Jana Chan.
Presenter: Kate Adie Producer: Serena Tarling
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | VVC Sounds, Music, Radio, Podcasts |
| 0:05.2 | Today, San Francisco is a favourite setting for TV police series, but reality is more complicated |
| 0:12.7 | with the city's district attorney fighting crime with a greater focus on social care and |
| 0:18.3 | therapy, the cops are not completely convinced. |
| 0:22.7 | In a pandemic, make a rule, then a rule make her breaks it, not something which improves |
| 0:28.6 | trust in the political class as they've now found in Sweden, when some people go skiing |
| 0:35.0 | or head for the beaches of the Canary Islands. |
| 0:38.4 | A journalist in Nanjing in China found that learning a second language opened new doors |
| 0:44.1 | for her, but has found that the official attitude to English is shifting with English |
| 0:49.8 | learning being downgraded. |
| 0:52.3 | And we head for the Seychelles, where tourism has taken a battering in the last year, |
| 0:57.7 | but the fishing industry is also in long-term decline. |
| 1:02.9 | First to Lebanon, six months since the explosion in the port area ripped through the city, |
| 1:08.3 | causing damage and more than 200 deaths. |
| 1:11.3 | The Parliament is still wrangling about political appointments, and the economy is a mess. |
| 1:16.8 | A quarter of full-time private sector employees had lost their jobs by the beginning of the |
| 1:22.0 | year, and many part-timers have seen their ours dwindle to nothing. |
| 1:27.2 | If the population says Leila, Malana, Alan, is now living in poverty. |
| 1:32.8 | Maffi Sharan, Maffi Akhil, Maffi Dauli, there's no work, there's no food, there's no state. |
| 1:40.8 | The petite woman screams, seeming to go taller as she trembles with anger. |
| 1:45.8 | There are several dozen heavily armed soldiers in front of her, decked out in full riot gear |
| 1:50.5 | and backed up by menacing tanks, but she barely seems to notice. |
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