“It is no exaggeration to say the republic of Lebanon—as it was founded in 1920 and reconstituted at the turning points of 1943, 1958, and 1989—is falling apart,” according to the report. “The country’s ongoing economic crisis has metastasized into a five-alarm bell crisis with wide-reaching political and social consequences. Half of the population has sunk below the poverty line since the financial crash began over a year ago.”