NPR

The Syrian refugee crisis is getting worse by the day.

Not only are more refugees fleeing into Lebanon, but aid to those who have already arrived is being cut dramatically.

The United Nations World Food Program earlier this month slashed the monthly food subsidy for Syrian refugees in Lebanon to just $13.50 per person. Less than a year ago the figure was $30 per person per month. The reason for the decision was reportedly a budget shortfall.

Simona Sikimic

Hundreds of protesters gathered in downtown Beirut on Tuesday to demand the authorities take urgent action to remove the growing mounds of rubbish left to rot in the city streets amid high summer temperatures.

Some called on parliament to resign due to the crisis, while others demanded a wider “revolution” to take place. Police and armoured vehicles were called in to deal with the protesters but the march appears to have remained largely peaceful.

Belen Fernandez

“Either the contracts are extended or you will drown in garbage.”

According to Lebanon’s Al Akhbar newspaper, these were the words of former Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri in October of 2010, when he warned a cabinet session of the repercussions of failing to renew the contract of private waste management company Sukleen, run by Hariri family friends.

Since the 1990s, Sukleen has been responsible for waste disposal in Beirut and the Mount Lebanon governorate.

AP – Beirut – Hundreds of protesters showed up in the sweltering summer heat on Saturday evening in downtown Beirut to demonstrate against the sea of garbage taking over the capital’s streets, as Lebanon’s politicians have failed to find a solution.

Using the slogan "You Stink!", and amid a significant security presence, the protesters called for the government to fall. They chanted about moving the garbage – uncollected for a week now – from the streets to the homes of Lebanon’s parliament members. 

Piles of garbage in some areas of the city have risen to several metres in height, as political bickering has stymied any resolution.

Aleppo, Syria, Jul 24, 2015 / 06:07 am (CNA/EWTN News).- With half of Syria’s population displaced due to its ongoing civil war, Church leaders in the country are seeking to send a message of hope and support for the persecuted Christian minority who have chosen to stay.

“At the time of this writing, Aleppo is undergoing a massive assault by jihadists, and bombs have been falling for hours. It is as if everything is being done to scare people and push them to leave,” Melkite Archbishop Jean-Clement Jeanbart of Aleppo wrote in a July 17 letter.

Summer in the city can be rough. But we’ve never seen anything like Beirut, where a malodorous mix of political paralysis and festering garbage has residents in a rage.

(https://www.hrw.org/) It reportedly began as a traffic dispute and ended in a vicious public murder, a man stabbed to death in broad daylight on a busy sidewalk in central Beirut.

Bystanders captured the attack on film and footage clearly shows a man repeatedly stabbing George Ibrahim al-Reef despite pleas from al-Reef’s wife Rola. The authorities later arrested Tarek Yateem, a bodyguard for the powerful chairman of Société Générale de Banque au Liban (SGBL) and charged him with premeditated homicide – a crime punishable by death. Lina Haider, who was traveling in the car with Yateem, is charged with being an accessory to al-Reef’s murder.

The sun has very nearly set on Beirut, and in a bar called Anise, they’re mixing the first cocktail of the evening.There’s vodka, vermouth and iced glasses. And next to the bunches of mint for mojitos are sage, wild oregano, rosemary and the Lebanese favorite, za’atar, a kind of wild thyme.

Here in Lebanon, mixologists and brewmasters are taking a national cuisine and reimagining it in liquid form.

Anise is one leader in this trend for cocktails with herbs usually found in salads or breads. Co-owner Marwan Matar says that since the bar opened a couple of years ago, he’s been bringing trunkfuls of herbs from his family’s village.

AFP

King Salman of Saudi Arabia is expected to arrive in France later on Friday for a Riviera beach holiday, bringing with him no fewer than 1,000 people from his entourage.

While the king’s three-week visit is a boon for the local economy, it has also sparked anger due to the closure of a public beach for the privacy and security of the royal party.

The king’s inner circle will be put up at the family’s private villa, which stretches across a kilometer of Riviera coastline between Antibes and Marseille.