US election and Beirut blast aftermath (E358)

It started out as an entirely fanciful idea that Donald Trump did not lose the presidential election but instead won it. Allegations that were delivered peerlessly from an oil drum on the Four Seasons garden center forecourt by Rudy Giuliani. At that point, the bookmakers were giving odds of 50/1 for Trump emerging as the winner. Ten days later these odds are 10/1. The gravity of the situation is only now beginning to dawn on many people – a hand re-count in Georgia, multiple court cases claiming voter fraud and ballot rigging in Pennsylvania and Michigan. Though the odds remain substantially in favour of Joe Biden becoming president in January, they are shortening. To find out just what is happening in this developing story, we garnered the views of Broadcaster Garland Nixon.

On 4 August, Beirut was ripped apart by an explosion so vast it was assumed to be nuclear. The people of Beirut have paid a heavy price, thousands lost their lives or loved ones, their homes and possessions. And, as the city enters a surprisingly cold winter, an ongoing economic crisis and the pandemic sending the city into lockdown this weekend, the people there need help. Jake Green is from Bournemouth and travelled to Beirut to work at the ‘Nation Station’ – a grassroots organisation which distributes food and aid. He joined Sputnik to tell us how he is working alongside local volunteers, as they try to make a difference.

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