Beirut explosion: UK and international community must help Lebanon in its hour of need - The Yorkshire Post says

With hundreds feared dead, thousands injured and around 300,000 people left homeless, the nation’s recovery in both the short and long-term will require international help, including from the UK. An investigation is under way into how the explosion happened, which Lebanon President Michel Aoun has said was caused by 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate being stored unsafely in a warehouse.

The consequences of the explosion are appalling in themselves but are made even more serious by existing difficulties in the country, where there have been daily power cuts and a lack of safe drinking water.

Just last week, Minister for the Middle East James Cleverly warned Lebanon needed to take “urgent and drastic action to avoid economic catastrophe”.

One particularly concerning issue is the impact of the blast on food security given that Lebanon is reliant on imports, much of them through the now-destroyed port where large quantities of grain had been stored.

The UK has been a long-standing partner to Lebanon, providing almost £700m in aid in the past eight years to help the nation of six million deal with the consequences of the humanitarian crisis caused by the conflict in neighbouring Syria.

Now Britain must further help this country as best it can in what is an even more dire hour of need.

Editor’s note: first and foremost - and rarely have I written down these words with more sincerity - I hope this finds you well.

Almost certainly you are here because you value the quality and the integrity of the journalism produced by The Yorkshire Post’s journalists - almost all of which live alongside you in Yorkshire, spending the wages they earn with Yorkshire businesses - who last year took this title to the industry watchdog’s Most Trusted Newspaper in Britain accolade.

And that is why I must make an urgent request of you: as advertising revenue declines, your support becomes evermore crucial to the maintenance of the journalistic standards expected of The Yorkshire Post. If you can, safely, please buy a paper or take up a subscription. We want to continue to make you proud of Yorkshire’s National Newspaper but we are going to need your help.

Postal subscription copies can be ordered by calling 0330 4030066 or by emailing [email protected]. Vouchers, to be exchanged at retail sales outlets - our newsagents need you, too - can be subscribed to by contacting subscriptions on 0330 1235950 or by visiting www.localsubsplus.co.uk where you should select The Yorkshire Post from the list of titles available.

If you want to help right now, download our tablet app from the App / Play Stores. Every contribution you make helps to provide this county with the best regional journalism in the country.

Sincerely. Thank you.

James Mitchinson

Editor