Lebanon

By Walid el Houri | – ( OpenDemocracy) – On 4 August 2020, at 6pm the explosion at the Beirut port sent a destructive shockwave across a radius of more than 7 kilometres. The explosion was heard as far away as Cyprus, but it was felt across the whole world. It is hard to measure […]

Hizbullah

What Impact will the Beirut Ammonium Nitrate Explosion have on Israel and Hezbollah?

Middle East Monitor

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Employment

Will Beirut’s Port Explosion and Economic Crisis Spur Mass Migration from Lebanon?

The Conversation

By Hannes Baumann | – The explosion that tore through Beirut on Tuesday August 4 was so strong that shockwaves were felt on the island of Cyprus, over 200 kilometres away. At least 135 people were killed and 5,000 injured in the blast. Such devastation would be difficult to deal with at the best of […]

Climate Crisis

Beirut’s Destruction was a Crime of Evil Negligence, the same Crime being Committed Against our Climate

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Some 300,000 people in Beirut have been left homeless by the enormous explosion at the city’s port on Tuesday, which left it without a means of importing by sea. Half of the city has been damaged. 80% of Lebanon’s grain is imported, and the grain silos were destroyed. Thousands of […]

Environmentalism

Beirut Catastrophe: Polluters routinely mishandle, illegally trade Hazardous Materials at Sea, in Ports

The Conversation

By Scott Edwards and Christian Bueger | At the time of writing at least 100 people have lost their lives and a further 4,000 have been wounded following an explosion in the Port of Beirut. While the actual cause remains uncertain, the tragedy calls to attention the tremendous consequences of a lack of port security. […]

Donald Trump

Trump nearly provokes International Incident, Wrongly saying Beirut Explosion a “Bomb”

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – A massive ammonium nitrate explosion rocked Beirut’s port on Tuesday, sending up a mushroom cloud that reminded some of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, damaging buildings, blowing out windows, overturning cars, wounding over 3,000 people at least, and leaving dozens dead. Flying glass and debris were responsible for many of the injuries. […]

Donald Trump

A Warning Signal for US? Corruption, Gov’t Gridlock, Pandemic, drive half a Million Lebanese Children into Hunger

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Lebanon, a small country of 4.7 million citizens and another 1.5 million Syrian refugees and 400,000 Palestinian refugees, is facing a perfect storm. Its corrupt political elite has permitted a near-collapse of a once-solid banking system. Government services are paralyzed and there are electricity outages. The country, which is a […]

Featured

Is Netanyahu Wagging the Dog with Claims of Hezbollah Clashes (Which Hezbollah doesn’t Know about)?

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu has been virtually besieged in his prime ministerial mansion on Balfour Street in Jerusalem by protesters for weeks, as the rallies against his mismanagement of the economy and the pandemic have grown ever larger, spreading to Tel Aviv and other cities. It is the largest […]

Banking

Once the “Paris of the Middle East,” Lebanon’s Financial and Health Crises are Tearing it Apart

Jamal Dillman-Hasso

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Lebanon may have survived its bubbles and wars decades ago, but the combination of economic crisis and the coronavirus may have put it in a serious position once again. During the pandemic, Lebanon’s once-vibrant tourist industry is moribund (some two million visited the country of four million in 2019), and […]