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Photos: Protesters fill Beirut’s streets one year after devastating port explosion

At dusk, a fire glows behind a man in a mask holding a flag high over his head.
On the one-year anniversary of the deadly Beirut port explosion that killed more than 200 people, protesters gather in the city’s streets.
(Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)
By Marcus YamForeign Correspondent and Photographer 

BEIRUT — Thousands of Lebanese took to the streets Wednesday to protest on the first anniversary of the port explosion that killed at least 200 people and decimated whole neighborhoods of Beirut.

The one-year anniversary comes after the country has suffered an unprecedented economic crisis, currency devaluation, and a political deadlock that has left the people of Lebanon without a proper functioning government for the past year.

People wave Lebanese flags. In the background is a port.
Lebanese flags are raised during a march to honor the victims of the Aug. 4, 2020, explosion at the port of Beirut.
(Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)
A woman, amid a rally, hold up a picture of a victim of the port explosion.
A mourner holds up a picture of a victim of the blast, which occurred when 2,755 tons of carelessly stored ammonium nitrate ignited. It was one of the largest non-nuclear explosions ever recorded.
(Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)
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A dense crowd of people march, lifting their arms and shouting; a fire burns on the street in the background.
Protesters march toward parliament in Beirut as they clash with Lebanese security forces on Aug. 4.
(Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)
In a city street, men prepare to throw rocks.
Anti-government protesters lob rocks at Lebanese police defending a compound near the parliament building.
(Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)
Closeup of a man amid a crowd and wearing mask and goggles hurling a rock.
Following an earlier memorial event, protesters threw rocks and clashed with security forces.
(Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)
A woman grimaces and a man covers his nose and mouth with a flag as they run.
Two people flee after security forces use tear gas on the crowd.
(Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)
Seen through barbed wire, people, some wearing gas masks, stand amid a haze on a city street.
Beirut protesters, some of whom skirmished with security forces, decried last year’s explosion, which has been followed in the country by economic and political crises.
(Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)
A police vehicle and officers in riot gear move through purplish haze and past flames leaping on the street.
In riot gear, law enforcement officers push back protesters near the parliament.
(Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)
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At night, a man lies on his stomach on a concrete block as people walk in the street behind him.
A Lebanese protester takes a break amid the upheaval.
(Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)

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Marcus Yam

Marcus Yam is a foreign correspondent and photographer for the Los Angeles Times. Since joining in 2014, he has covered a wide range of topics including humanitarian issues, social justice, terrorism, foreign conflicts, natural disasters, politics and celebrity portraiture. He won the Pulitzer Prize for breaking news photography in 2022 for images documenting the U.S. departure from Afghanistan that capture the human cost of the historic change in the country. Yam is a two-time recipient of the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Journalism Award, notably in 2019, for his unflinching body of work showing the everyday plight of Gazans during deadly clashes in the Gaza Strip. He has been part of two Pulitzer Prize-winning breaking news teams.

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