by Najia Houssari (modified slightly article) – arabnews.com — BEIRUT: Suleiman Franjieh, the candidate for the Lebanese presidency backed by Hezbollah and Amal, said on Tuesday that the “game has changed in the region, and this will be reflected in one way or another in Lebanon.” He added that his goal “is not power, but to be a president who leaves his mark.” Lebanon has had no head of state since former President Michel Aoun’s term ended at the end of October. Franjieh made a surprise visit to Maronite Patriarch Bechara Boutros Al-Rahi at his headquarters in Bkerke, and made a statement for the first time following Hezbollah’s pledged support for his candidacy.

Franjieh — a friend of President Bashar Assad — described the meeting with Al-Rahi as “extremely frank and clear.” He said that it was necessary to “join the settlement train in the region and not [be] outside it, unlike what happened in 1989-1990 when some [politicians] remained outside the settlement and the Christians paid the price.” Franjieh said that he had visited France and met officials there who had played a mediating role in the Lebanese crisis. He said his visit to France raised a number of questions and gave rise to discussions on several topics. He added: “I was asked about supporting reforms and the relationship with the International Monetary Fund — and they are in contact with Saudi Arabia — and I confirmed that it is obvious that we proceed with reforms, support the agreement with the IMF and any government that has a reform program.” Franjieh went on to say: “I heard the veto on my name from the Lebanese media, but I never heard it from Saudi Arabia or its friends and allies.

“I am ready for dialogue with everyone, and we must join the settlement train in the region. “I call on all politicians to understand how things are moving. We only want the best for the Arabs and Saudi Arabia. “I was born in a pan-Arab home, and I did not have any hostile view of any country that is friendly with Lebanon, especially Saudi Arabia. “We want the best for the Arabs and we do not accept that anyone attacks the Arab countries.” Franjieh said that his relationship with Assad and Hezbollah had been for the benefit of the country.

by Alexis Hachem·the961.com –– In a recent case of espionage involving Hezbollah members, the Lebanese Information Branch has documented the confession of Amir Zaghieb, who served as an official in the Nabatieh area and was part of the electronic surveillance unit, according to Hezbollah-affiliated Al Akhbar newspaper. Janoubia noted that Zaghieb had close ties with Jawad Hassan Nasrallah, the son of Hezbollah’s leader Hassan Nasrallah. In 2016, Zaghieb (born 1997) received a nursing degree from the Rasul Al-Akram Institute and worked at Al-Zahraa University Hospital until 2021. Later, he joined a company selling cosmetic products and barber supplies in the southern suburbs of Beirut as a sales representative. However, Zaghieb admitted to working for Israel since 2017 when he applied for a job advertised on Facebook for a money transfer company. Shortly after applying, he received an email explaining the job’s nature, which involved transferring money to other individuals for a commission.

A few days later, Zaghieb was contacted by a person through Facebook Messenger, who informed him that he would be the liaison with the company. This individual transferred $750 to Zaghieb, instructing him to keep $100 as commission and send the remaining amount to specific recipients. After completing the task, the same person requested more personal information from Zaghieb, particularly verifying whether he lived in the southern suburbs of Beirut. When Zaghieb confirmed his residence in Hay al-Salim, the contact inquired if he would provide information about Hezbollah locations in exchange for payment. Zaghieb agreed.

By Kaniya Rogers, Editor at LinkedIn News — Gen Z has been described as an age group that rejects “hustle” culture and sets rigid boundaries between work and life, but younger workers are actually powered by a strong sense of ambition, reports The Wall Street Journal. They’re staying late, gunning for promotions, and chasing side […]

By AFP – Agence France Presse — UN peacekeepers in Lebanon appealed for calm late Friday after supporters of the Hezbollah movement clashed with Israeli border guards as Iran and Arab countries marked Jerusalem Day. The annual commemoration is staged in support of the Palestinian cause, and earlier in the day Palestinian factions paraded in the Burj al-Barajneh refugee camp in Lebanon, a Hezbollah stronghold. Later, Hezbollah supporters approached the border fence with Israel in south Lebanon and placed one of the Shiite group’s flags there. “UNIFIL peacekeepers observed a crowd of 50 or 60 individuals throwing stones and placing a Hezbollah flag in the technical fence,” deputy UN Interim Force in Lebanon spokesperson Kandice Ardiel said.

Israeli forces “responded with stun and smoke grenades”, she said, adding that Lebanese troops soon arrived and worked with UNIFIL to calm the situation. “Especially at this sensitive time, we strongly urge everyone to refrain from any acts that could be perceived as provocative and could cause the situation to escalate,” Ardiel said. Recent weeks have seen deadly attacks and clashes in Israel, annexed east Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank, as well as cross-border fire between Israeli forces and militants in the Gaza Strip, Lebanon and Syria. Lebanon’s official ANI news agency said one person was injured when hit in the head by a smoke grenade during a demonstration at the border. Hours earlier, Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah in a televised statement said his party would respond to “any action targeting anyone in Lebanon, in an appropriate scale and manner”.

BEIRUT, (Reuters) – Lebanon’s security forces have seized an estimated 10 million captagon pills that were to be smuggled to Senegal and then on to Saudi Arabia, Interior Minister Bassam Mawlawi said in a tweet on Friday. The drugs were found in a shipment of rubber carbon during an operation in which four people were […]

(Reuters) Reporting by Alaa Swilam, Editing by William Maclean – A travel ban on Lebanon’s central bank governor Riad Salameh was lifted on Thursday, public prosecutor Ghada Aoun told Reuters, in a move aimed at paving the way for him to attend a hearing in Paris related to a cross-border graft probe. Salameh and his French lawyer Pierre-Olivier Sur did not immediately respond to requests for comment on whether the governor would attend a hearing in Paris set by French prosecutors on May 16.

Salameh, who has been at the helm of the central bank for three decades, is being investigated in Lebanon, in France and in at least four other European countries over accusations of stealing hundreds of millions of dollars and laundering some of the proceeds abroad. Salameh denies the accusations, saying he is being made a scapegoat for Lebanon’s financial crisis that erupted in 2019. French prosecutors, who have not formally named Salameh as a suspect, have summoned him for a hearing in Paris on May 16, Sur told Reuters last week. The lawyer said it was not clear whether his client would be able to come to the hearing because his travels were restricted as part of Lebanese investigations.

khazen.org supports his Eminence our Patriarch and demand also deportation of all refugees from Lebanon – Lebanon needs first the ability to support Lebanese, then we can help others  by middleeastmonitor.com — The Head of Lebanon’s Maronite Church has called for the deportation of Syrian refugees, urging the international community’s help in carrying it out. […]

By Jessy Bains, Editor at LinkedIn News –– Bitcoin continues to show remarkable resiliency in spite of numerous flops and failures in the wider crypto industry. The price of a single Bitcoin this week surged past $30,000 for the first time since June, marking a 10-month high for the world’s largest cryptocurrency. Turmoil in the […]

By Jenny Gustafsson in Beirut – The guardian —  ‘Reformists’ take on the corrupt ‘elite’ in a game that recreates the golden age – and invites players to imagine a different history

In a dimly lit room in Beirut, five friends sit around a table with a map of Lebanon in the middle. They each have a handful of markers and a card placed face-down in front of them.

The card, which has a drawing of a vintage chair on the back – symbolising power – determines the entire game. It assigns you the secret role of either “reformist” or “corrupt elite”. “It is just like in real life, you don’t know who is corrupt and who is not,” says Jean-Michel Chemaly, one of the developers of the board game. Machrou3 Ra2is: A Game of Corruption was released in December, giving people a chance to play the political game of Lebanon. The task is to control districts and, ultimately, win the presidential election – either through bluff or fair play.<p>

Chemaly says the idea came during the protests in 2019, when large numbers of Lebanese came out on the streets. A friend, Benoit Khayat, suggested that they create a game based on the politicians’ actions. “Every single society has people abusing power for their own benefit. We wanted to speak about it from a Lebanese perspective,” Chemaly says. The issues that people mobilised around in 2019 – corruption, accountability, justice – have become even more pressing. Lebanon has sunk deep into a financial crisis, with one of the highest levels of inflation in the world and a 98% depreciation of its currency. A fledgling anti-corruption movement has lost momentum. Millions have lost money, and are unable to access what little is left due to bank limits on withdrawals. As a consequence, 80% of the population face poverty, the UN estimates.

By Saundra Latham, Editor at LinkedIn News — The rise of chatbots has spurred concern among educators worried that students will pass off AI-generated content as their own. But one proposed solution — a tool meant to detect content generated by ChatGPT and its ilk — is prompting concerns of its own. Plagiarism-detection firm Turnitin […]