Meltdown in Lebanon

Popular anger was great even before the 2.75-kilotonne explosion last week. The currency has collapsed, most people’s savings have been wiped out, the country has defaulted on its debt, and there are no jobs for the young.

The damage following the explosion in the port area of Beirut. There is a lot of sympathy for the Lebanese, and foreign governments are willing to bail the country out of its troubles—but only on condition that the loans don’t just get pocketed by the same thieves in silk ties.Photograph courtesy of Wikimedia Commons via Voice of America, Anchal Vohra

Opinion

BY GWYNNE DYER

August 10, 2020

LONDON, U.K.—Beirut has been living with car bombs and air raids on a sporadic, but continuing basis for so long that it would probably make sense to rebuild this time with shatterproof glass. The torrent of broken glass falling from a thousand shattered buildings p...

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