Lebanese cheer as their dancers win America’s Got Talent

By KAREEM CHEHAYEB
Associated Press

BEIRUT (AP) — Lebanon is celebrating the victory of a female dance troupe from this crisis-hit Mideast country in the America’s Got Talent competition show. Lebanese politicians and officials on Thursday rushed to congratulate the all-female dance troupe online. Many Lebanese struggling with years of political and economic turmoil saw the Mayyas’ success as a “rare glimmer of hope” in a country with a short but troubled history. Lebanon has been struggling with a crippling economic crisis over the past three years that has pushed three-quarters of its population into poverty. The result has been a massive brain drain of young professionals who are leaving the country for better job opportunities abroad.