A shattered Beirut leaves Lebanese asking if they have a future

Lebanon is enduring its deepest political and financial crisis since the 15-year civil war ended in 1990

Even before the explosion ripped through his butcher’s shop on one of Beirut’s most fashionable streets, Tony Iyami was just about staying afloat.

A lockdown to control the Covid-19 pandemic had hit business, compounding a banking crisis that’s left most Lebanese unable to access their savings or borrow. The government is bankrupt, in talks with the International Monetary Fund for a bailout and barely functioning. Then came Tuesday’s cataclysmic blast that erupted out of the capital’s port area shattering all before it, killing at least 100 people and wounding thousands.
 

“We were already hobbling along, surviving step by step, but now