♪ there's no place else even remotely like it. everything great and all the world's ills all in one glorious messed up magical, maddening, magnificent city.

♪ beirut. it's good to be back. ♪ i took a walk through this beautiful world ♪ ♪ felt the cool rain on my shoulder ♪ ♪ found something good in this beautiful world ♪ ♪ i felt the rain getting colder ♪ ♪ sha la la la la ♪ sha la la la la la ♪ sha la la la la ♪ sha la la la la la la

♪ the mediterranean sea itself trembles. the ground shakes beneath the wheels of our heavy metal thunder. back in beirut, after all these years. the first time i was here did not end well but it made no difference to me. i love it here. in spite of everything, i love it here. ♪

>> nice ride. it's a good way to see beirut. >> this is very similar to that place we went to years ago. baba. this is rizk. this is your traditional chicken sandwich. shwarma. >> deep fried. broasted. >> the broasted chicken was this guy's idea. my british lebanese friend. born, born to be wild ramsey short, who i met back in those bad old days of 2006. apparently he's in with the lebanese chapter of the harley davidson group, or hog for short. so when you roll into some religiously conservative village on these monster bikes with leather jackets, what's the reaction? >> two types. once we were greeted with rice from the balconies. they thought we were like a wedding or something really nice. and the other extreme is stones like at the wheels like just get out of here. >> really? >> yeah. >> i wouldn't throw stones at people on harleys. whoa. look at this. >> let's dig in. >> that'll work.

>> this is a famous neighborhood of the city. >> it was central during the civil war. >> the sheer volume of fire that was poured into some of these buildings is absolutely unbelievable. >> so many battles happened in the same place over and over -- >> over and over again. clearly. >> i notice this every time someone visiting the city, they just point at that. look at that. but you know, we don't see them anymore. we just pass by them. >> beirut, seemingly the world in miniature. 18 religious sects recognized. more than 2 million christians, over a million and a half shiites, a million and a half sunni. nearly 500,000 palestinians. and now by some estimates as

many as 2 million syrians. all living and somehow getting along kind of in a country the size of connecticut. but along its borders the country has what you might call serious neighbor issues. isis in syria threatening to expand its so-called caliphate into lebanon. >> isis in many ways is s something we have never really seen before. a really large well-organized well-equipped terrorist army. >> lebanon's been absorbing refugees for nearly two years now. the country simply can't take anymore. >> a quarter of lebanon's population is now syrian. that is the equivalent of the u.s. taking in 83 million syrians. >> this could be spiraling. and as you said, the real fear is akrcross the border now

violence spilling into an already fragile lebanon. >> beirut struggles to put a lid on the simmering sectarian tensions. ♪ >> the aftermath of that bombing in beirut as well as some of the clashes that took place. ♪ >> exchange of gunfire between sunni and shia. two palestinian brothers were shot. ♪ >> here block by block you see the scars from the 15-year civil war that only ended in the '90s. but also nightclubs, discos, beaches, bikinis, where much of the arab world comes to let their hair down. it is an incongruous mix.

>> all this playing into people's fears the violence is beginning. ♪ >> the bournlg al barajne neighborhood has long been home to principally palestinian refugees, but more recently it's become a refuge for syrians

fleeing the barrel bombs of assad on the one hand and the predations of isis on the other. the camp saw heavy fighting, shelling and outright massacres during the religious conflict known as the lebanese civil war. everywhere you see posters representing a full menu of political factions and affiliations from assad loyalists to the plo to every flavor of extremist. >> either a jihad a victory or martyrism. >> do you know of any other place in the region where all of these groups are co-existing within a confined space? >> it is stunning to be walking down the street with high heels, short skirts, and vast amounts of red wine flowing and then drive straight into an extraordinarily conservative predominantly shia district, the bela district which is run by what the u.s. calls a terrorist organization. it is kind of mind blowing. >> i am not a geopolitical expert. and as much time as i've spent in this part of the world i've spent nowhere near the amount of

time this guy has. nick paton-walsh, cnn's senior international correspondent. >> most of the groups are more terrified of the crazy radicals in syria than they ever have been of each other. >> what do we call this neighborhood? what is it? >> it's one of the mixed refugee areas that beirut has. >> close to 2 million people from syria alone. >> yeah. >> that's a hell of a lot to be absorbed by a tiny little nation of what, 4.5 million? >> it's just loads of people far too many people with nowhere to go. you see it in how cell phones don't sometimes work the way they should. how people have to sheetrock their own homes. bad infrastructure and more. sheer demand on resources. >> we'll follow you. >> okay. for the first time in history a palestinian leads an american.

>> don't let them know. >> in syria, he was an english teacher. needless to say he had a better life back there. >> i came from syria. after the civil war started -- >> yeah. >> many, many problems. sectarian problems and we don't want to add more problems for those people. but what can we do? we live here. imagine the situation here. it is unbelievable. >> he is married, by the way, and he has three kids. and in spite of his wounds he works in construction. his family bought this to protect from the rats. these children need medical operation but this family can't pay for those operation.

because it is very expensive. they wait for godot. they wait for nothing. they wait for the hand of god. >> straining under the weight of all of these unasked for guests the lebanese government has begun making it very difficult for them. >> he doesn't work only because he doesn't have an official residence so, he can't leave the camp. otherwise he will be arrested, you know. >> being stopped at any of the city's ubiquitous military checkpoints could mean a one-way ticket back to syria. trapped, unable to work, they exist invisibly on the margins of society. >> this is military area. you don't want to get involved in any problem. >> syrian food? >> this is syrian. it is called the seven countries. it consists of many kinds of vegetables. seven kinds of fruit.

palestinians in syria, most of them are well educated. doctors, engineers, lawyers, teachers. >> here now it's the opposite. right? >> here in lebanon even if you were a doctor or a lawyer or a teacher, you can work only in the camp. we don't know how to go, where to go, to go back to syria. >> no can do? >> to cross the sea. >> can't. >> suppose the lebanese authority collect us and throw us away to syria. what is going to happen? we have no area in the world. we have no place in this universe. we belong to nowhere. nowhere.

>> welcome to lebanon.

once known as the paris of the middle east, beirut still clings to its glamorous 1960s yulths image, a chic tourist destination where you can famously ski and go to the beach all in the same day. walking the corniche it's easy to forget for the moment anyway what's going on not far from here. ♪

>> all the people who live here feel safe. they expand outside of their houses and this is one of their tradition places. this is the way i live all my life. >> mo is a local security specialist on assignment to keep, well, me and my crew safe from harm. he lives with his daughter bushra and his family in ras beirut, a mixed neighborhood of christians, muslims and jews a little oil in the middle as i recall? >> yes. >> so good. very good fish. i missed this country. i really did. >> you have been here before?

>> this is my third time. my first time was 2006. we came here, we had two perfect days, and then the war broke out. >> during my first trip here in 2006, hezbollah guerrillas killed three israeli soldiers and captured two others in a cross-border raid. in the 34-day war that followed much of beirut was heavily pounded by bombs and naval artillery. >> i fell in love with this city under the worst possible situation. you have this really extraordinary mix of religions and people. how is that? why? what's so special about it? why? >> of course, somebody on friday go it pray, somebody on sunday go to pray. but they go to the same restaurant, have the same food, and the same drink. they have the same traditions. >> there is no place better than lebanon. you have everything. people are friendly. beautiful, fantastic. >> it is a democracy here. >> of course. you have choice to sit down

and talk. i like this. i don't like this. >> so what's it look like now? >> we look like we are two months before 2006. >> wow. that's not good. >> tension is a little bit high but the people, we are very happy. i go with my family outside. >> i was watching the news last night in the hotel. it is genuinely terrifying. >> this is lebanon. raining today. tomorrow is sunny. it's happening all the time. you get used to it. >> you get used to it. are you concerned or optimistic? >> i'm optimistic. yeah. >> do your friends feel the same way? >> not really. not all. >> your friends are less optimistic? >> yeah. >> we have only one good neighbor that don't affect us. it help us all the time. it's the sea. we bring the fish and we have fish. and he never get upset from us.

>> inshalla. >> inshalla. ♪ ♪ ♪

♪ >> booyakas hachlt we are back in the hiz-ouse. this is radio beirut. >> i ain't afraid. >> is that, why yes. yes, i think it is. ironic glasses, vintage clothing and neck beards. it appears the brooklyn strain has spread even to beirut. >> radio beirut. live and direct. >> it is. with cnn and everything.

>> cnn has become the most trusted name in news. same way a broken clock is trusted to be right twice a day. >> cnn changed their slogan from this is cnn to at least it's not fox news. >> how is it possible that this mix of religions, of cultures? >> you know geographically how it is. beirut's so tiny. we've got mountains. we've got the sea. we're surrounded. and then there are so many factions that you have to deal with everybody. ♪ ♪ a small percentage get to exist ♪ ♪ where is the oil where is the wealth ♪ ♪ just need us some help >> syrian filipino rapper chino. >> monday is hip hop at radio beirut. at radio beirut it's like a really awesome place where there's live bands playing all week long. >> we created a platform for emcees to try their skills in front of people without the prejudice, without the judgments.

although we do judge. we do make fun of them. ♪ making magic like my name was copperfield ♪ >> lebanese free style legend hussein, aka aa, the preacher man. >> you were arrested? >> yeah yeah yeah. that's not the first time it happened. >> for what? >> basically i was profiled. like if there's an explosion, oh, the big dude with the beard was involved. he did it, i'm sure. >> these are beard related issues. >> yeah. >> let's talk about hip-hop. >> that's the glue that binds us. >> what is it about hip hop? >> i see it like this. a lot of people do -- it's called the mu-el, a traditional rhyming scheme in which they speak about their profits, their beefs. it's in our core to be poetic. we are poets. >> you come from a background where you have governments that are dictators. we can't really voice anything. ♪ these politicians can't believe because they're getting led on to the slaughter while they're trying to keep the lid on ♪ ♪ pressure makes us squeal but

it blows the lid off and we're robbed, we're robbed ♪ >> we're trying to find our own identity. we don't want to be like our ancestors fighting each other. he's christian, he's shia, i'm syrian sunni. that's nothing. you know? we don't even mention that when we're on stage. ♪ on my own now ♪ to hell with the world ♪ the universe is my home now

♪ afternoon in beirut and the hafez family, like many others across the city, prepares dinner. [ speaking foreign language ] >> extraordinary spread of food. >> yeah. >> all this food, you see, my son, he's crying because he wants to go to burger king. he want some chicken burger from burger king. >> thank you so much for having me in your home. >> this is ice potato. we call it -- deep fried potato with red pepper, green chili, coriander, garlic and lemon

juice. this is kibbi nai, which is raw meat, lamb, fresh mint, spring onion, mix it all together. this is as the main course. it's called moussaka. minced meat, baked aubergine, green and red paper, chickpeas and tomato and tomato paste. please help yourself. >> thank you. i was in beirut in 2006. this neighborhood was hit very hard. were you here at that time? >> yeah. >> why this neighborhood? >> because the people of this area 99% they support hezbollah. >> as israel buries its dead from a surprise missile strike, the radical group celebrates victory and things are at a fever pitch right now.

>> it is the deadliest hezbollah attack against israeli forces since the two sides went to war in 2006. >> hezbollah means the party of god. they are a shia military political organization lavishly supported by iran. the party is more powerful, more effective on the ground than the lebanese army. the united states officially designates them a terrorist organization. in 1983 they did this. the u.s. embassy bombing. and this, the marine barracks at beirut's airport. 299 united states and french servicemen were killed. >> all these people, they are hezbollah. please put it down now. >> they are dangerous.

they are well funded. and whatever else they may be, they are not stupid. >> i have two sisters. they lost their home. hezbollah take care of them. here everybody support hezbollah, even the people who are not religious for one reason. because they feel protected by them. >> my host's support for hezbollah, typical of the dahia neighborhood in south beirut, is staunch. >> before hezbollah, lebanese people, they were always scared of israel. now when you say israel, you say ha ha. we don't care. >> in the early days hezbollah used tactics that just about anyone would call terrorism. when is it permissible morally to use a car bomb or using civilian targets? >> for me? >> for pu p you. >> i'm against killing. against killing anybody, even israel. this person who i'm going to kill in car bomb or whatever, doesn't he has family?

>> what's the most important thing happening in the world today that needs to be resolved for things to be better? >> isis. >> isis is number one. >> number one. they kills hundreds and thousand of shia. they are devils. they are against everything like everything on the earth, they are against. >> recently hezbollah has become heavily involved in the war in syria, in defense of the assad regime. complicating matters and uncomfortably enough they are probably the best organized, best equipped most serious obstacle to isis and al qaeda in the area. >> most of the villages in the east of lebanon, they are christian and they are sunni. >> right. >> if hezbollah wasn't there, it was christian in that area. this is the only reason -- this is the only reason for. just to protect my children and my wife. >> 20 years, 30 years? >> yeah. >> will things be better?

>> i hope so. not 20 years and 30 years. now. next year i hope things are better. i hate war. ho shows up in that dress. who hugs a friend. who is done with treatments that don't give you clearer skin. be the you who controls your psoriasis with stelara® just 4 doses a year after 2 starter doses. stelara® may lower your ability to fight infections and may increase your risk of infections and cancer. some serious infections require hospitalization. before treatment, get tested for tuberculosis. before starting stelara® tell your doctor if you think you have an infection or have symptoms such as: fever, sweats, chills, muscle aches or cough. always tell your doctor if you have any signs of infection, have had cancer, if you develop any new skin growths or if anyone in your house needs or has recently received a vaccine. alert your doctor of new or worsening problems, including headaches, seizures, confusion and vision problems these may be signs of a rare, potentially fatal brain condition. some serious allergic reactions can occur. do not take stelara® if you are allergic to stelara® or any of its ingredients.

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♪ the last two times i've been here there is just this neverending building boom. nobody seems to be moving in, but the buildings are going up. >> yeah. >> who's buying these apartments? who are they for? >> two kinds of people. lebanese who are living abroad or arabs, especially from the

gulf region. >> right. for whom beirut is a relatively liberal wonderland of permissiveness compared to riyadh, for instance. >> compared to riyadh, yes. but unfortunately, we cannot generalize this and say that beirut is a place where sexual expression is encouraged. >> her books are banned in many countries in the region. she is regularly threatened with rape, stoning and murder. she is jumana haddad, cultural editor of lebanon's biggest newspaper, "al nahar." >> yesterday i had my first web tv show about sexual freedom and you cannot imagine how many hell's doors have opened just because i dared say that girls are allowed sexuality just like boys. we pretend to be a democracy. this is kafta with yogurt sauce and cranberries. >> fried. stuffed grape leaves.

>> yes. tabbouleh. the famous tabbouleh. >> the fact that lebanon and beirut works at all. all of these religious groups, this is a fully functioning more or less by world standards. >> fully functioning. >> yeah, this is a -- >> we don't have a president. it's going to be a year now that we are without one. >> it's sort of awesome. >> don't you think that the main reason behind you seeing this as thrilling, exciting place to live in is that you're a visitor and not someone who actually lives here? >> am i wrong to love this place? >> you're not wrong to love it. i love living on the tip of a volcano, but there has to be some point where i can breathe and relax. i don't want to seem like i'm only criticizing because i really also as much as i hate this place, i love it as well. and i know that it's also very precious to have such a kind of

freedom in the world in the arab world in a place like beirut. i don't need to tell you about islamic states even though they are not inside beirut yet, we can feel it every day. >> should people come here? >> yes, definitely. they should come. they will enjoy it as much as you have. i wouldn't advise them to stay more than a month, though. ♪

♪ ♪ >> i often go to the danielli events, and i ask them there to call me your highness. i love it. that's my trip there. i go there and i dress like an emperor. not today but sometimes i dress like an emperor. >> there have been two attempts on your life, yes? >> yes. >> that you're aware of. >> in arabic we say [ speaking foreign language ]. it means the third one succeeds. i don't know when the third one will be. >> a young militant, an activist, a laboringer. you have been arrested in your life.

>> yes, many times. when i was 14 years old i became a communist in a region that was under control of the extreme right-wing militia. i ended up in a torture room that i recreated here just behind you. >> later after joining and then leaving the lebanese army, michel formed the m.u.r., an armed revolutionary group. >> yet here you are now. your life is music and culture. >> i think that i was made to be a musician but when war happened in lebanon i took a gun. i understood that i could not face someone who was attacking my house with a guitar. >> in 2003, by now a music producer, entrepreneur, politician, artist, author and filmmaker, he founded the beirut music hall in a bullet-pocked theater empty since the civil war. this is his kingdom. >> some people come because it's trendy.

they come with their sexy ladies. some come because they like to discover new things. we have per night up to 15 acts. each act coming from a different culture. >> who needs culture? >> i think that culture can save the world. isis, those criminals who are not very far from lebanon, someone who read interesting books, listened to beautiful music, cannot become an animal again. >> if you were the emperor of the world, hypothetically. >> hopefully >> hopefully. what will beirut be like in ten years? >> best case scenario it goes back to before the creation of israel. when all communities were living very well. the jews will be back. we are in the jewish neighborhood here. i think that we have to be all united to fight this monster, isis. once the monster is defeated you can start arguing again about other things.

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♪

♪ hello. >> how are you doing? i'm tony. >> i'm rawan. >> thank you for doing this. this feels very formal. but it's not. so please relax. >> i am relaxed. can i get my beer? >> by all means, yes please. >> lots of people come here. they are mostly musicians and artistic people. lots of jamming happens here.

it's like more of a family hanging out. >> this cafe is a typical beirut establishment with a clientele from lebanon, from syria, and any number of other countries. the owners are both lebanese and syrian and acutely aware of the tricky political realities with which they must live. they were concerned about us filming here and wanted us to understand clearly that the cafe has no political affiliation and that the opinions of this young lady, rawan, are not that of the cafe or necessarily even the clientele. >> you're born and bred syrian. >> yes. i was born and brought up in syria. damascus. one night, 3:00 a.m., the army entered our house and i found them in my bedroom looking for the free syrian army. my dad knew he couldn't protect us because he was old. three hours later we decided to leave, so we came to beirut. >> thank you.

>> we always eat here. grape leaves is my favorite food. >> i saw, you went for that first. it's delicious. >> yeah, it is. we come here a lot, and we talk a lot about syria. we talk about our visa issues most of the time. actually, now i have four months left, and i really have no idea what am i going to do. >> what do you think, will they renew your visa? >> so far i don't think so. >> do they arrest you? do they take you to the border and kick you over to the other side? how does that -- >> send you back to syria. >> what happens if you go back to syria? >> most probably die on the way or just some people get arrested or be taken to the army. >> how different is damascus from beirut? >> oh, it's really, really different. in damascus i was always afraid of the government. some people died because they cursed the president. i loved syria, and i found hope

here, and i screamed on the streets cursing all politicians and everything. nobody's going to come and arrest you. i really love this place with all my heart. >> is all of the koois and the violence worth it for change? is that worth dying for? i mean, things were -- there was order when you grew up. there was order. no freedom but order. would you go back to that? >> i don't think that there is anything worthy in the world of human blood. there is nothing more important than human being. >> you'd never be able to yell out loud. you'd never be able to do the things you do now. you'd go back? >> i was alive. >> you were alive. >> lots of people were alive too. be the you who shows up in that dress.

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♪

one day -- widespread anger and finger pointing. >> this blast has set off a tide of civil unrest in lebanon. ♪ damage has been done >> how have you been? >> i've been all right. i've been well. >> where better for capital yift imperialist pig dogs like ramsey and myself to spend a last evening in beirut than abouelli. >> it was opened by a guy called naya, an atheist member of the com mift party. >> a communist themed bar locate nad housing block. >> what is this? >> i'm not sure. it's been part in front of us. >> we should probably drink it. >> why not? >> vodka. >> i actually had somebody who

lives here tell me oh, yeah, don't stay here longer than a month. and i was like, what? you're trying to kill us. who is this man? he's trying to hurt us. >> cheers. >> after more than a few indigenous beverages. >> arak? now we're talking. >> cheers. >> enter ernesto. >> hey. i got something for you. >> oh, yeah. >> it's a cuban cigar. >> in the words of vladimir ilyich lenin, let's get the party started. or was that rick james? >> ernesto is the son and the owner of this bar. >> this is my mom. she named some shanklish here. >> it's the cheese. >> it's kind of rotten cheese. >> here we go. >> i called my dad, i told him there's a guy called tony, cnn. he said i don't watch cnn. and then i told him but he's a cool guy.

he wants to make the best food for you. >> this is some of the best in beirut. >> lamb? >> and spices. >> oh, man. that's good. isis should come in now, are we picking up a gun or not? >> yeah, we will fight these people. >> no, we have to have it. >> i seem to remember mom at some point whipping out some kind of automatic weapon. >> here we go. >> i will take this up in arms and i will fight. >> let me tell you. >> and then a mirror ball descended from the ceiling, bootsy collins came on over the sound system, and the rest is a fog. >> let's first have a cheers. >> this is a country with the worst neighbor problems in the world. it's amazing that it persists. >> i've been around and i've seen places. this place.

>> i think so too. >> here's to tony, man. ♪ >> buyeirut. everybody should come here. everybody should see how complicated, how deeply troubled and yet at the same time beautiful and awesome the world can be. everyone should experience even as the clouds gather what's at stake, what could be lost, what's still here, and never let that hope go. beirut. there is no place like it. ♪ -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com

. we welcome our viewers in the united states and around the world as we continue our special coverage of britain's decision to leave the eu. from london, i'm max foster. >> and i'm clarissa ward. >> we're closely following fall-out from the vote. the secretary of health has just resigned in the last half hour. the labor party needs a new leader. alexander says that labor