Lebanon is “days away” from social explosion, PM Diab warns
July 6th, 20210 BEIRUT — Lebanon is a few days away from a social explosion, caretaker Prime Minister Hassan Diab warned on Tuesday, calling on the international community to save a country in deep economic crisis. The World Bank has called Lebanon's crisis one of the worst depressions of modern history. The currency has lost more than 90 percent...
Lebanon’s lights may go off as cash for electricity runs out
May 7th, 20210 BEIRUT – Lebanon's lights may go off this month because cash for electricity generation is running out, a lawmaker said on Thursday, as the country grapples with a deep economic crisis. Lebanon's parliament had approved a $200 million emergency loan to finance fuel imports for power generation in March, but a committee reviewing the...
Lebanon’s largest Christian bloc warns against sidelining president
March 27th, 20210 BEIRUT — Lebanon’s largest Christian bloc, the Free Patriotic Movement (FPM), warned prime minister-designate Saad al-Hariri on Saturday against sidelining President Michel Aoun and other parliamentary blocs in talks over forming a cabinet. Hariri and Aoun have been at loggerheads over the cabinet for months, dashing hopes of a...
Roadblocks cleared in Lebanon after week of protests
March 12th, 20210 BEIRUT — Growing resentment and outrage among the Lebanese led to eight days of protests this week, with protesters using burnt tires to block roadways across the country in anger over the nation's economic meltdown and political deadlock amid a pandemic lockdown. The Lebanese army said on Wednesday it had started clearing...
Lebanese anger at economy grows as political deadlock persists
March 6th, 20210 BEIRUT — Protesters blocked some roadways in Lebanon for a second day on Wednesday, after the currency’s fall to a new low further enraged a population long horrified by the country’s financial meltdown. In the past year, Lebanon has been through a popular uprising against its political leaders, the bankruptcy of the state and...
Lebanese court removes investigator who charged politicians over Beirut blast
February 19th, 20210 BEIRUT — On Thursday, a Lebanese court dismissed a judge who had charged top politicians with negligence over last year’s Beirut port explosion, infuriating families of victims who said it showed that the state would never hold powerful men to account. Judge Fadi Sawan had led the investigation into one of the largest non-nuclear...
Lebanese filmmaker and Hezbollah critic Lokman Slim shot dead
February 5th, 20210 BEIRUT — Activist, publisher and filmaker Lokman Slim was found dead in a car in Southern Lebanon on Thursday. Slim died from four bullets in the head and one in the back. Slim’s sister Rasha al-Ameer suggested he had been murdered because of his ardent criticism of Shi’a Hezbollah. He was last seen after visiting a poet...
International year in review: Palestinians betrayed, calamity in Beirut, crisis in Yemen
January 14th, 20210 The following is a year in review for the top international news that we covered in 2020. Palestinians betrayed, calamity in Beirut, crisis in Yemen. Protests in Lebanon over deepening economic crisis Authorities in some of the most populous areas of Lebanon cracked down on mass protest by Lebanese expressing their frustration...
Lebanon orders three-week lockdown to fight virus spread
January 4th, 20210 BEIRUT - Lebanon announced a full lockdown for three weeks, including a night curfew, to stem a rise in COVID-19 infections that threatens to overwhelm hospitals in a country already facing financial meltdown. Caretaker Health Minister Hamad Hasan said the lockdown would start on Thursday and run until Feb. 1, with further details on...
Lebanon’s airline warns of new ticket challenge facing dollar account holders
December 20th, 20200 BEIRUT — The head of Lebanon’s airline said on Sunday the carrier would at some point need to demand payment for tickets bought in Lebanon using “fresh dollars”, or recently transferred currency that is not subject to restrictions imposed since a financial crisis. Middle East Airlines (MEA) Chairman Mohamad El-Hout did not...
Two ex-ministers snub judge after being charged over Beirut blast
December 16th, 20200 BEIRUT — Two former Lebanese ministers charged with negligence over a huge explosion at Beirut port in August that killed 200 people snubbed a judge on Wednesday by not turning up for questioning. Judge Fadi Sawan charged three former ministers and the caretaker prime minister last week, sparking fierce debate about whether he had...
UAE halts new visas to citizens of 13 mostly Muslim states
November 28th, 20200 DUBAI — The United Arab Emirates has stopped issuing new visas to citizens of 13 mostly Muslim-majority countries, including Iran, Syria, Afghanistan and Pakistan, according to a document issued by a state-owned business park. A source briefed on the matter told Reuters the visas had temporarily stopped being issued to Afghans,...
Lebanon’s president seeks evidence behind U.S. sanctions on son-in-law
November 9th, 20200 BEIRUT — President Michel Aoun said on Saturday that Lebanon would seek evidence and documents from the United States that led Washington to impose sanctions on his son-in-law, Gebran Bassil, a prominent Christian politician. On Friday, the United States blacklisted Bassil, leader of Lebanon’s biggest Christian political...
In Beirut port, all of Lebanon’s ills are laid bare
October 28th, 20200 BEIRUT — The first of many warnings about a deadly cargo in Beirut’s port came in February 2014, about three months after its arrival. It was made by Colonel Joseph Skaf, described by his family as a diligent customs official. Skaf, then the head of the anti-narcotics and money laundering division, informed the customs authority...
Lebanon asks Interpol to arrest Russian ship captain, owner over port explosion
October 2nd, 20200 BEIRUT (REUTERS) – Lebanon has asked Interpol to issue arrest warrants for the Russian captain and owner of the ship that brought the explosive material that detonated at Beirut port in August, killing nearly 200 people, state media reported on Thursday. About two months after the explosion that injured thousands and ravaged the......
U.S. blacklists Hezbollah official, Lebanon-based companies
September 17th, 20200 WASHINGTON, D.C. – On Thursday, the United States imposed sanctions on a Hezbollah official and two Lebanon-based companies as the country experiences a deep economic crisis, accusing them of being linked to the Hezbollah group. The U.S. Treasury Department in a statement said it blacklisted Arch Consulting and Meamar Construction,...
Macron presents “concept paper” outlining reforms for crisis-ridden Lebanon
August 31st, 20200 BEIRUT – French President Emmanuel Macron has outlined political and financial reforms Lebanese politicians need to make to unlock foreign aid and rescue the country from multiple crises, including an economic meltdown, according to a document seen by Reuters. The two-page “concept paper” was delivered by the French ambassador......
Two dead, several injured in clashes south of Lebanese capital
August 28th, 20200 BEIRUT – Two people were killed and at least 10 wounded in clashes in a town south of Beirut, the Lebanese capital, on Thursday evening, the state news agency and a security source said, as several political parties urged calm. The Lebanese army said on its Twitter account that it had deployed units to Khaldeh town to “control the...
Gazing over wasteland, Beirutis mourn lost “Lady of the World”
August 27th, 20200 BEIRUT — Over centuries, Beirut built its reputation as a cultural crossroads, a thriving port and a playground known as “the Paris of the Middle East.” In just moments, much of it lay in ruins. Now stunned residents come and stare at the heaps of rubble and twisted steel, contemplating all they have lost. An elevated highway...
Children with cancer need immediate help in the wake of Beirut blast
August 21st, 20200 DEARBORN — Jackie Ayoub, a PhD candidate at the University of Michigan-Dearborn, has set up a GoFundMe page to accept donations that will go towards helping patients of the pediatric oncology unit at Saint George Hospital in Beirut. The unit was badly damaged along with the hospital in the Aug. 4 explosion at the city's port. Now...
Lebanon’s grand mufti joins call for international investigation into blast, early parliamentary elections
August 21st, 20200 BEIRUT — On Wednesday, Lebanon’s leading Sunni grand mufti joined calls for early parliamentary elections and an international investigation into the explosion at the Beirut port, which he said deepened the country’s existential crisis. At least 179 people were killed and 300,000 left effectively homeless when massive amounts of......
Tlaib, Dingell lead effort to urge temporary deportation protections for Lebanese nationals after Beirut blast
August 20th, 20200 WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Reps. Rashida Tlaib (D-Detroit) and Debbie Dingell (D-Dearborn) are co-leading an effort to put pressure on the Trump administration to use its powers to defer deportation of Lebanese nationals in light of the Aug. 4 Beirut explosion. The relief effort for the people of Lebanon comes after the Beirut...
Julia Yezbick explores the uncertainty of belonging, identity in “Marratein, Marratein”
August 19th, 20200 DETROIT — The ART X Detroit (AXD) festival, a twice-yearly festival showcasing works from Kresge Foundation fellows conducting projects in Detroit, Highland Park and Hamtramck, celebrated those works in a virtual celebration on Wednesday evening. AXD organizers say the 22 commissioned pieces showcased this year reflect on “the......
Subdued atmosphere dominates protest in front of the Lebanese embassy in Washington, D.C.
August 18th, 20200 By Laura Albast WASHINGTON, D.C. — Between 50 and 60 individuals from the Lebanese diaspora gathered in front of Lebanon’s Embassy in Washington, D.C. on Sunday afternoon. They demonstrated to show solidarity with, and demand justice for, the victims of the Beirut blast. Compared to the demonstrations held last year at the...
U.N. tribunal convicts main defendant in Hariri assassination case
August 18th, 20200 LEIDSCHENDAM, Netherlands — On Tuesday, a U.N.-backed tribunal convicted Salim Jamil Ayyash, allegedly a member of the Hezbollah group, of conspiring to kill former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri in a 2005 bombing that set the stage for years of confrontation between Lebanon’s political forces. Hariri, a Sunni Muslim......
