No bread, no heat, no hope: Life in Lebanon after the Beirut blast

Once again, crisis comes to Lebanon. Once again, people are dying young in the Middle East. Last night an explosion in the port of Beirut killed at least 100 people and injured more than 4,000 others. They say the blast was heard almost 150 miles away in Cyprus. They say it shook the earth all the way across the eastern Mediterranean. It was colossal; first one bang, then another, before a mushroom cloud fanned out over the capital – yet one more tragedy to smother those beneath.

Even for a country on as intimate terms with tragedy and as long inured to bombs (one killed its former president Rafik Hariri) as Lebanon, this is a day to remember. The country is already in chaos. Coronavirus has intensified long-standing social and economic woes. In June 2020, its inflation rate was 20 per cent, month-on-month – that is to say, prices were 20 per cent higher than in May, and almost double June 2019.