Lebanon's Port Of Beirut Comes Back, Despite Devastating 2020 Blast And Economic Meltdown

BEIRUT, LEBANON - AUGUST 29: A poster of the US Agency for International Development, USAID, is stuck to a light pole, to mark the US donation for to rebuild lighting infrastructure near Lebanons Port of Beirut, three years after an explosion of an illegal ammonium nitrate store produced the second-largest non-nuclear blast in recorded history, killing more than 200 people, forcing 300,000 from their homes, and causing an estimated $15 billion in damage, on August 29, 2023 in Beirut, Lebanon. The impact of the August 4, 2020 blast has been one of multiple crises for Lebanese citizens, which includes an economic meltdown that since 2019 has pushed half the population below the poverty line, chronic shortages, power cuts, surging prices, and political paralysis from political elites who have so far refused to make reforms that would dent their power. Tens of thousands of Lebanese citizens took to the streets during a self-declared October Revolution in 2019, demanding an end to corruption and sectarian political structures, but the Covid-19 pandemic and port blast helped quell that momentum for change. (Photo by Scott Peterson/Getty Images)