[shouting] ♪♪♪ [firecracker popping] [shouting] [woman shouting] [shouting] [gun fire] [shouting] [woman shouting] [shouting] adam harvey: it's february on the battle-scarred streets

of downtown beirut. there's been a four-month slide towards total financial meltdown, and revolution is still in the air. adam: lebanon is falling apart. this nation survived a civil war, but it might not make it through its next challenge. there is no money and no jobs. people are furious that their state is close to collapse. ♪♪♪ adam: months of angry protests have unified rich and poor, young and old, christian, muslim, and druze. they want to dump all of lebanon's political leaders and start again. they call it the revolution, "thawra," in arabic, and live-streaming it all to 60,000 followers, thawra tv.

adam: its chief cameraman, producer, and on-screen talent is tarek hmaidan, a wheeler-dealer businessman turned social media star. tarek: when the lebanese media is not there, thawra tv is there. thawra tv is with every revolution with their phone. we don't have fancy cameras or fancy technology. adam: this is as close to lebanon's parliament building and the politicians as protestors can get. after a 15-year civil war ended in 1990, the city center was immaculately restored. it now lies derelict, scarred by political upheaval. [fireworks crackling] tarek: and now we are alive today, saturday. [fireworks crackling] adam: the protesters have already toppled a prime minister and his cabinet, but their allies are still in power.

tarek: they're not changing. that's why we're waiting for the election. you cannot change people by a parachute like what happened with the government. they put people in places. the thawra has to elect their own leaders, and that's the only way is by election. adam: face masks to protect against tear gas will soon have another use as protestors are warned of a strange new threat looming: coronavirus. the corruption and self-interest they fight against has left lebanon woefully under-prepared for this new crisis. tarek: it's very sad what's happening.

beirut will get sick like every other cities, but beirut will survive because of the people, because of its spirit. all: thawra. thawra, thawra, thawra, thawra-- children: thawra, thawra, thawra, thawra, thawra, thawra, thawra, thawra. adam: one group of middle-class revolutionaries has moved away from the barricades and into one of beirut's poorest suburbs, a mixed community of locals and syrian refugees, led by independent mp, armenian christian, paula yacoubian. paula yacoubian: every sunday we go to places like this, and we cook to give people a hot meal. so today my friends are cooking here in this place.

this is one of the poorest areas of beirut. ♪♪♪ paula: never before in my life, not even in the civil war, i've seen so much pain, misery, suffering. and for the first time, i hear lebanese people asking for food. adam: there's often no power, and the water is unsafe to drink. three-quarters of the country's six million people could soon be living in poverty in a nation that already hosts 1.5 million syrian and palestinian refugees. in just a few months, unemployment's already doubled and continues to soar. the government is seen as corrupt and incompetent. paula: it's not the duties of an mp, but in lebanon, you have to do it. i mean, we live as if there's no state.

♪♪♪ adam: today, masks are handed out with the soup. this may be their only protection against the coming contagion. this would be the last mealtime for the soup kitchen. fearing they could spread the virus, volunteer support is stopped. ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ adam: the political crisis accelerates the economic collapse. lebanon's currency plummets. banks limit withdrawals and get some blunt customer feedback.

♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ adam: the problems that are crushing the people start at the top with a political structure that entrenches the power of the different religious groups by dividing key roles among them. ♪♪♪ adam: lebanon's president must always be maronite christian. ♪♪♪ adam: the prime minister, sunni muslim. ♪♪♪ adam: the speaker of parliament, shia. ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ziad hayek: come, come. adam: ziad hayek is an influential insider, a finance expert who last year was a contender to run

the world bank. ziad: this political structure is a cause for corruption because each leader protects his or her own people, mostly his people. therefore, there is no accountability, and without accountability, people feel free to do deals. adam: but the real power in lebanon lies in crowded south beirut with the shia movement hezbollah, a state within a state with its own formidable militia, trained and funded by iran. ♪♪♪ ziad: hezbollah, being the most powerful shia party in lebanon and being the only party that is armed, has significant power and is practically in a position

to dictate to the country nowadays what it wants happening in politics. hezbollah was opposed to the revolution because they feared that if the current system, where they have the most power among the parties and they can control the government, if that system changes, they will be in uncertain territory, and this unknown territory scares them. adam: thisity is depressed, battle-scarred, exhausted. ♪♪♪ adam: but even in an economic crisis, it's still defiantly the middle east's party capital. ♪♪♪

[men singing] ♪♪♪ adam: saturday night in beirut's biggest venue, the grand factory. tala mortada: the weekend is our time to let go. it's our time to forget. it's always been like this in a more metaphorical way, but today, that's really the reality. we come here to just, you know, let loose. ♪♪♪ adam: nightclub co-owner, dj tala mortada, is a big supporter of the revolution, who encouraged patrons to get out and protest. ♪♪♪ tala: there is a little bit of despair. we're tired. we've been fighting for as long as we've lived in this country, and especially the past couple of months, we've fought far--way more. we spoke up way more. we felt like we finally belong in this country. adam: lebanon has been living beyond its means for years.

the country's government debt ratio is the third highest on the planet, but the bill is finally due. in march, for the first time, lebanon couldn't pay its foreign debt instalments. ♪♪♪ adam: no one here knows it yet, but this will be the last dance at the grand factory. outside, corona is closing in. there's more than one way to cut loose in beirut. by day, rima husseini is a lawyer, university lecturer, and a passionate advocate for change. by night, she's a student of flamenco. rima husseini: what we've seen with the movement, since the 17th of october, we've found that the corruption has

eaten up the lebanon that we've known, and we're all trying so hard to save it. adam: rima has deep connections to lebanon's troubled past. ♪♪♪ adam: her father-in-law, cofounder of the shia movement amal, brokered the talks that ended the civil war in 1990. rima was at his side as translator. both dance teacher and student lost their fathers to political violence. ♪♪♪ adam: rima's father was shot dead, walking to the post office. ♪♪♪ adam: the father of her teacher, mayssa, was a prominent journalist, targeted because of his investigative reporting.

rima: my father was killed by a sniper, but her loss was even more dramatic. her father was actually assassinated by a car bomb in front of their own eyes, and that was political assassination. adam: rima says 30 years on from the war, the same old men are still entrenched in power and destroying her beloved beirut. ♪♪♪ rima: it's not the city who did this to us. it's actually men that has turned it into that. i don't have any grudge against the country. i have grudge against the people who have taken it hostage, if you want. ♪♪♪ adam: much of rima's life is lived beyond beirut. we head away from the coast, over the mountains, to the bekaa valley. ♪♪♪

adam: during the civil war, the bekaa was a haven for drug lords and an array of extremists. today, it's a hezbollah stronghold, and leader hassan nasrallah looms large. ♪♪♪ rima: if you connect the dots of the regions, of the poverty, and somebody bring them under one umbrella and offer them services underneath it, why wouldn't you join? adam: these are desperate times in a place that was already desperately poor. rima: in the bekaa, nothing was done for the past 10 to 15 years, so the resentment was boiling even before this crisis. now it's even worse because people who could help out are not helping anymore because they can't help.

adam: in the midst of this troubled valley, in the city of baalbek, lies rima's pride and joy. she owns a national treasure, the palmyra hotel. rima: this hotel you see, i love the hotel. palmyra is the first hotel in the near east. can you imagine the heritage of this hotel? can you imagine the history that's inside-- adam: the first hotel in the near east? how old is it? rima: it was built in 1887. adam: right. ♪♪♪ rima: in summer, you've got-- that grows and blooms into a wisteria. i call it hysteria wisteria because it's lovely. adam: i'll definitely come in summer. rima: yes, yes. adam: it's a living, creaking history of lebanon. rima says the palmyra's doors have never closed in 133 years. kings, queens, and a long line of presidents once walked the corridors.

rima: everything is old in this hotel. adam: french poet and artist jean cocteau left his mark. rima: this is cocteau's room. adam: wow. rima: yes, so, he did this. i did all this. adam: wow, look at that. rima: yeah, exactly. adam: i'm amazed this lasted and someone hasn't tried to peel it off and take it away with them. ♪♪♪ adam: these days, hotel guests are few. rima and her husband bought the hotel 35 years ago. now the money has run out, and the palmyra is struggling to stay open. rima: i do believe that it will survive. how and in what manner, i really can't say, and this is why i keep saying that we are the guardians, if you want, of this place because this is not for anyone. this is for baalbek. it is baalbek. it is for everyone. rima: hi.

adam: while the economic outlook is bleak-- rima: look at the view. adam: wow. adam: the vista beyond the palmyra's front doors remains breathtaking. rima: look at it. ♪♪♪ adam: the roman ruins of baalbek, one of the great monumental feats of the ancient world. ♪♪♪ adam: built over two centuries, its three vast temples to the gods, jupiter, venus, and bacchus, have drawn pilgrims for 2,000 years. ♪♪♪ adam: this really is an incredible place. it should be full of thousands of tourists, but it's not. lebanon is burdened by the crushing weight of its history, not just its ancient history but its modern history as well.

the civil war that nearly destroyed the place ended just 30 years ago. and the compromised deal that solved the conflict ended up empowering the militias that had fought the war, and those militias are still in power today. they're the political parties that run the country. the protesters who are on the streets say the only way to fix it is to get rid of those people who are still in power now, otherwise, modern lebanon will end up a ruin too. [speaking foreign language] adam: behind the hotel is another of rima's projects, a community health clinic that's been transformed into a food distribution center.

rima: you can't imagine the needs, especially these past three, four months. rima: total absence of governmental help, aid, or services, really, there's no money for food. and the other thing is that the little money that you get, you're spending it on oil for fuel for warmth. it is one of the coldest areas in lebanon, and you're talking the temperature has reached minus 10 and 11. ♪♪♪ [speaking foreign language] ♪♪♪ adam: on the streets of baalbek, everyone struggles. ♪♪♪ adam: imad awad finally has enough money to buy

heating fuel. ♪♪♪ adam: he lost his job as a painter one year ago. the bills have piled up for his son's school and his wife's medicine. adam: with no heating, imad's wife and son have moved out. with power cuts for days at a time, the only reliable heating option is a petrol stove.

adam: across town, imad visits his in-laws' home to check on his wife, hanin, and son, mohammed. staying warm is vital for hanin, who is in remission from lung cancer. since imad lost his job, she can't afford vital medicine. adam: and now there's another threat to hanin's fragile health: coronavirus. [speaking foreign language]

♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ adam: finally, corona strikes beirut. ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ drenching the streets in bleach does little to quell a sense of looming crisis. as other nations pump money into their faltering economies, a bankrupt lebanon can do virtually nothing except call for a lockdown. ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ adam: it's hard to believe that not so long ago this place

was the scene of such optimism, vast crowds united together, calling for a better lebanon. now it's desolate, sad. the call to prayer to a lonely, empty parking lot, really. the wreckage of the revolution killed by coronavirus. can it recover? well, beirutis and lebanese have had almost 50 years' experience in overcoming adversity. if anyone can do it, they can. ♪♪♪ adam: from its south beirut stronghold, hezbollah exploits the crisis, declaring war on coronavirus. on display, not the usual marching paramilitaries, but a force of 70 ambulances.

♪♪♪ ziad: what they're telegraphing is that they are powerful, and they are telegraphing to their people that "we'll take care of you. we always have taken care of you. we will." they're telegraphing to the rest of the world and the israelis, et cetera, that they are very much still in control. tala: my mother's house is right here, and i look at her and say, "good morning," every day, and we have our cup of coffee while talking on the phone. adam: it's now two months since tala's club closed. her horizons have shrunk from nightclub impresario to an apartment-bound life of self-isolation. tala: so one week after i saw you guys,

the corona pandemic really hit hard in beirut. we decided to close the club. we thought it would be just for a few weeks. adam: she's struggling to keep the 170 staff on the books. tala: we're all going through the same thing in the whole wide world. what's really tough for us is that this will not end when it ends because right now our country has sunken so low, and it will be very, very hard to come back from that. ♪♪♪ adam: we set off to baalbek one last time to check in with rima. ♪♪♪ adam: she's retreated here to ride out the pandemic. adam: rima, great to see you. what do we do? we elbow bump these days, yeah. rima: exactly, exactly, i don't--how are you?

adam: oh, i'm all right. i'm surviving. rima: so good to see you. adam: the place is a bit depressing, though, isn't it? rima: i've been here before. i mean, in 2006, with the israeli war, and i've been here before, the first three years of the syrian war, not to mention what happened in the war, so the emptiness that we feel in the hotel is--will end. this is the story of the hotel, the story of a place that started as a dream because of those temples, and i think, as long as those temples are there, we're okay. ♪♪♪ adam: like beirut, baalbek is a ghost town. they know they're on their own. beyond a few army checkpoints, the state has no role here. it's all left to local volunteers. [speaking foreign language]

rima: the worst part in this is that we started off in a very bad place in lebanon. it's not really the corona that's scaring us. it's waking up from the corona. the scary part is when this ends. ♪♪♪ tarek: due to corona, they can't protest in the street. they decided to do a protest by car. adam: back in beirut, tarek and revolution tv are finally back on air. ♪♪♪ adam: and today, at last, some good news: despite dire forecasts of a catastrophe, there are fewer

than 800 confirmed coronavirus cases and 24 recorded deaths in the entire country. for once, lebanon appears to have dodged a bullet. tarek: corona is contained, and i think the next step is go back to the streets and go back to the old days and show them that the revolution's not dead. adam: but any euphoria is short-lived, and the banks are soon burning. the pandemic has only worsened the economic crisis. lebanon's currency collapses, triggering hyperinflation and a new wave of fury. the government requests a multibillion-dollar bailout from the international monetary fund, but the austerity

conditions that will be attached to the loan risk further enraging the mob. ♪♪♪ adam: the only question is, how badly do the protesters want change, and what are they prepared to sacrifice to get it? tarek: we want action now. we want to see a result immediately on the streets for the people. ♪♪♪ tarek: otherwise, there is no country. there will be no lebanon. either civil war or we divide the country. this is the way it's gonna be. ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ cc by aberdeen captioning 1-800-688-6621 abercap.com

♪♪ [singing in cantonese] [singing in cantonese] bill birtles: it was the pro-democracy movement's anthem of hope. that somehow, the will of millions of hong kongers would prevail over the might of beijing. ♪♪♪ [singing in cantonese] [singing in cantonese]