I don't now what exactly is intended with "recorded" in this context; the others seem "recorded" to me(?) I think it's more likely they read over or misinterpreted "one of the largest", or something like that.
> But despite the responsibility held by the country's army and judiciary, from the moment the blast happened until today, western-friendly officials and news outlets have placed the blame on Lebanese resistance movement Hezbollah, alleging that the group stored the dangerous materials in the port – which is controlled by the US-funded army.
I have never heard a western news outlet place blame on Hezbollah. The same corruption and government disfunction cited in this article is what I have heard from western news outlets.
I read through the history of the material that caused the blast a while back. I was struck by how people just obeying laws despite the obvious, extreme danger to the city. Judges, the executive, groups like the port operator and the cargo owner all ignored the obvious risk. For years. Until risk became fact.
Notably the customs officials repeatedly warned of the danger and the fact they were ignored just increases the culpability of the rest.
There are more important things than safety. I'm not trying to excuse corruption here, but authoritarian leaders have used "public safety" to justify all manner of horrible acts. If protecting freedom, civil rights, and the rule of law means that some people die then that is an acceptable price to pay.
There's a review of a recent, impassioned book on the explosion and its causes in the current New York Review of Books [1]. The reviewer [2] is an outstanding journalist who focuses on North Africa and the Middle East.
"Sixth-largest accidental artificial non-nuclear explosion in human history" according to [1]; other explosions listed in [2].
Hardly the main point of the article of course, but seems odd they got this so wrong.
[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_Beirut_explosion#Yield
[2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Largest_artificial_non-nuclear...