The World Bank said on Tuesday that Lebanon’s economic and financial crisis could rank as one of the three most severe the world has seen since the mid-19th century.

By BASSEM MROUE Associated Press  -- BEIRUT -- Lebanon’s severe economic and financial crisis is likely to rank as one of the worst the world has seen in more than 150 years, the World Bank said in a report released Tuesday. The World Bank said that since late 2019, Lebanon has been facing compounded challenges, including its largest peace-time economic and financial crisis, the spread of coronavirus and a massive blast at Beirut’s port last year that is considered as one of the largest non-nuclear explosions in history. The crisis has worsened in recent months amid a paralyzing power struggle between the president and prime minister-designate that has delayed the formation of a new government, The Cabinet of outgoing Prime Minister Hassan Diab resigned days after the Aug. 4 blast, and the country has been without a fully functioning government since. The explosion in the Port of Beirut killed 211 people, wounded more than 6,000 and damaged entire neighborhoods.

In the face of these colossal challenges, continuous policy inaction and the absence of a fully functioning government threaten already dire socio-economic conditions and a fragile social peace with no clear turning point in the horizon, the World Bank report said. “The economic and financial crisis is likely to rank in the top 10, possibly top 3, most severe crises episodes globally since the mid-nineteenth century,” it added. The report said the country’s gross domestic product is projected to contract 9.5% in 2021, after shrinking by 20.3% in 2020 and 6.7% the year before. Lebanon’s gross domestic product plummeted from close to $55 billion in 2018 to an estimated $33 billion in 2020, while GDP per capita fell by around 40% in dollar terms, the report said. “Such a brutal contraction is usually associated with conflicts or wars,” the World Bank said.

Beirut (CNN) -- By Salma Abdelaziz --Inside a tiny middle school classroom, Georgette Abushahla has crammed all of her life's belongings. Two small sofas double as beds for her and her husband. "Right now, I don't have a home because it was destroyed in the port blast," she told CNN, referring to the explosion that ripped through Beirut's harbor last August. "What can I say? I thank God for what we have." Pots and pans sit idle on shelves meant for schoolbooks. She has no kitchen in the closed school and relies on Nation Station, a grassroots charity, to bring her hot meals three times a week. The group's young and trendy volunteers zip around on orange mopeds, knocking on the doors of their neighborhood's neediest and most vulnerable.

Izzo, 78, greets her visitors with a smile and the bustle expected of a generous host. "I am sorry! We have no power. I don't have a generator. Please come in," she said. Lebanon's national grid is failing, leaving the poorest without electricity for hours every day. "I tell them may God give them strength. Knock on wood," Izzo said as she emphatically knocked on her table and gestured at the volunteers, "I wouldn't eat without them." Nation Station co-founder Josephine Abou Abdo said the group started when she and a few friends began handing out donations from an abandoned gas station two days after the port blast. Now, nine months later, that gas station has been transformed into a community kitchen that supports about 1,000 families. "We thought that slowly, slowly after the blast the need would diminish, but to our surprise, with the economic situation, the need actually increased," Abou Abdo explained.

by reuters — BEIRUT — Lebanon’s national airline will require payment for tickets in U.S. dollars based on the central bank’s latest …

By Courtney Mares - cna -- Pope Francis has invited Lebanese Christian leaders to the Vatican for a day of prayer on July 1 for “the worrying situation in the country.” The pope made the announcement from window of the Vatican’s Apostolic Palace on May 30 after praying the Angelus with pilgrims gathered in St. Peter’s Square. The leaders of the main Christian communities present in Lebanon will “pray together for the gift of peace and stability,” Francis said. “I entrust this intention to the intercession of the Mother God, so venerated at the Shrine of Harissa, and from this moment, I ask you to accompany the preparation of this event with solidarity in prayer, invoking a more peaceful future for this beloved country.” Lebanon has faced a financial and political crisis for months, as political leaders have failed to form a government to implement reforms after the devastating explosion in Beirut’s port on Aug. 4. The blast killed nearly 200 people, injured 600 others, and caused more than $4 billion in damage. Before the explosion, the country was already facing severe economic pressure. Unemployment had soared and the national currency had lost at least 80% of its value against the U.S. dollar since 2019, according to AP.

Pope Francis met with Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri on April 22 at the Vatican, where the Lebanese leader also met with Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin and Secretary for Relations with States Archbishop Paul Gallagher. Saad Hariri was given the task of forming a new government last October following the resignations of the leaders Hassan Diab in August and Mustapha Adib in September. This development came less than a year after Hariri himself had resigned as prime minister, on Oct. 29, 2019, in the wake of mass protests. Cardinal Bechara Boutros Rai, the leader of Lebanon’s Maronite Catholics, has repeatedly urged the country’s political leaders to “overcome the logic of partisan interests” and form a government to rescue the country. Rai said in February that the international community had a responsibility to help prevent Lebanon’s collapse. The cardinal said that there was a “great chasm” between the people in political power, with their “personal interests and calculations,” and those who suffer “poverty, deprivation, and hunger.” The pope said March 8 that he promised Cardinal Rai that he would visit Lebanon in the future. Pope Francis also called for a renewed political commitment to fostering the stability of Lebanon in this year’s speech to diplomats accredited to the Holy See.