Risk of Collapse

Although final numbers of the dead and missing have still not been tallied, the collapse of the Champlain Towers South building in Surfside, Florida may prove to be the most lethal building failure in American history. Although 37 survivors were pulled from the wreckage in the hours soon after the twelve-storey condominium tower fell, there have been very few rescues since. Now there are questions over whether warning signs of damaged concrete in the twelve-storey structure were taken seriously enough when they were reported – and how safe residents might be in other high-rise structures in Miami and beyond. Will Grant spoke to the families of some residents still unaccounted for. The results from France’s regional elections seemed to be pointing to many political currents at once. The sitting government was drubbed – some called it an “implosion” for Prime Minister Emmanuel Macron’s party La Republique en Marche. Traditional parties on the left and at the centre-right did unexpectedly well. The turnout was dismal – a record low of around 35% . But there was particular disappointment for the hard right Rassemblement National (formerly the Front National) which saw none of its predicted gains materialise in Provence and the south. Fleur McDonald is in one town near Avignon where the party of Marine Le Pen had expected to do well. Eastern Australia is still struggling to contain a cyclical natural plague… of mice. Apart from the danger to human health, the surge also means serious financial losses for Australian farmers - some properties still have thousands of rodents rampaging across their grain stores every night. But the Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority has just rejected an application from the government of New South Wales to allow the use of one of the most effective poisons available. Steve Evans reports from Canberra. From day to day, citizens of Lebanon watch how their crumbling pound is doing against the dollar, and fret over the cost of basic essentials like food and petrol. Many of them also wonder whether their leaders will manage to form a new Cabinet and a functioning government. Lebanon is now one of the world’s diaspora nations, with more citizens living outside the country than within it. Many of them were driven to distrac tion – and then driven out – by the frustration of having to deal with a dysfunctional state. Mo Chreif [went home to investigate the causes of the huge blast which rocked Beirut ten months ago, and uncovered even more than he’d suspected. And following the historic result of the England-Germany game at Wembley, might both countries start reinventing their stereotypes of each other? Damien McGuinness has been thinking it over in Berlin. Producer: Polly Hope