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food / travel

UnCoke: A Fizzy Little Tour Of The World's 'Other' Colas

UnCoke: A Fizzy Little Tour Of The World's 'Other' Colas

We all know how ubiquitous Coca-Cola"s red-and-white logo is around the world. But together with its archrival Pepsi-Cola, these U.S.-based cola giants have had to fend off smaller, locally-produced alternatives. Call it the alter-cola revolution.

Let us take you on a fizzy little tour of the new regional and national cola brands springing up everywhere.

Photo: Ian Muttoo

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Beirut Blast And Us: A New Generation Of The Lebanese Diaspora Finds Its Voice

Lebanese citizens spread around the world have gradually gotten connected in new ways, thanks to the internet and social media. But the author recalls how the massive explosion in the port of Beirut triggered something altogether different.

Photo of Part of Beirut port silos collapses

A Lebanese soldier takes pictures of smoke billowing after a huge part of Beirut port silos collapsing, two years after the original blast in 2020.

Renate Mattar

-Essay-

PARIS — In a Paris emptied by the pandemic’s first summer, I was in the Jardin du Luxembourg when the images of the Beirut explosion started showing up in my Instagram feed.

There was a huge detonation, then an even bigger blast, followed by a massive mushroom cloud — red, white, and orange.

The posts showing images of the wounded and damage in the streets soon followed. It was quickly clear that people had been killed and the magnitude of the blast had destroyed buildings around the city.

We’d find out later that the explosions — which were first triggered on August, 4th, 2020, in 6:07 p.m. local time, — detonated 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate that had been stored at the Port of Beirut. That’s equal to 1.1 kilotons of TNT, and the explosions shook virtually every corner of the country of 6 million people and were heard more than 240 kilometers (150 miles) away on the island of Cyprus.

It is considered the most powerful non-nuclear explosion in history.

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