The Middle East’s Captagon crisis
In April 2021, customs officers in the Saudi city of Jeddah searched a shipment of Lebanese pomegranates. Hidden inside the fruit were more than five million circular, beige Captagon pills – illegal a...
26 Aug 202128min
How Kabul fell to the Taliban
Afghanistan has seen war for decades, but none of them has involved so decisive a military takeover of the country as the latest. The speed with which the Taliban swept the country has shocked the wor...
19 Aug 202123min
A new era for Iran
On August 5th, Iran inaugurated a new president putting an end to the 8-year presidency of reformist Hassan Rouhani and ushered in a new, hard-line government. The new president, Ebrahim Raisi is sai...
11 Aug 202116min
Ep 4. The Blast - Fallout
In the final episode, we follow the volunteers who took to the shattered streets of Beirut in the hours and days after the explosion of August 4, 2020. Host Finbar Anderson delves into the ongoing inv...
5 Aug 202137min
Ep 3. The Blast - Zero Hour
In Episode 3 of The Blast, The National’s Finbar Anderson recounts the day of the explosion. As The fire in Warehouse 12 grows in intensity, a fire crew arrives to try to tackle the blaze, but it’s li...
4 Aug 202127min
Ep 2. The Blast - The Six-Year Wait
In Episode 2 of The Blast, The National’s Finbar Anderson and Sunniva Rose head down to the docks of Beirut port. They try to piece together what was happening in the six years the ammonium nitrate sa...
3 Aug 202131min
Ep 1. The Blast - The Russian and The Rhosus
On August 4, 2020 the heart of Beirut was ripped apart by a huge explosion caused by 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate detonating at the city’s port. The National’s Finbar Anderson was one of the thou...
2 Aug 202127min
The Blast from Beyond the Headlines
On August 4, 2020 the heart of Beirut was ripped apart by a huge explosion caused by 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate detonating at the city’s port. The National’s Finbar Anderson was one of the thous...
1 Aug 202129s
