by Nabih Bulos, Marcus Yam —On a remote cliff about 20 miles south of Beirut, a late morning sun roused Imad Beainy. He got out of bed, slipped on a pair of shorts and walked to the cliff’s edge, lighting a joint as he looked over the fruit groves and wild meadows of the Bisri Valley. Hewed between two mountain ranges, the valley extends some six miles along a tributary of the Awali river. In the distance, Beainy glimpsed the sun shining off the cream-colored tiles of the 300-year-old Mar Moussa church. Closer to the cliff, sprinkled around a 15th century Mamluk-Ottoman bridge and the ruins of a Roman temple, lay some 50 other archaeological sites. Beainy, 51, spoke of them as if they were his own; that this land was not just a home but a way of life. Yet for the last seven years, the valley and its history have been in jeopardy.

Bisri is to be the site of Lebanon’s second-largest dam, a proposed mega-project to bring water to Beirut’s ever-ballooning neighborhoods. The pressure of such growth underscores an existential threat to the region as governments already on the brink contend with a future in which they can no longer support some of the world’s fastest-growing populations. Water scarcity, climate change and erratic weather systems are likely to further imperil stability across the Middle East. No fewer than 12 countries in the region make the list of the world’s most water-stressed nations; already-scorching summer temperatures are expected to rise twice as fast as the average global warming, according to the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry. The World Bank predicts the Middle East will become the most economically damaged place on Earth due to climate-related water scarcity.

By NAJIA HOUSSARI — arabnews.com — BEIRUT: Lebanon’s caretaker government is under mounting pressure to hold by-elections to fill 10 vacancies in the country’s parliament caused by resignations and the recent deaths of two MPs from COVID-19. In recent months the parliament has lost 10 of its 128 members, raising doubts about legal issues in calculating the quorum, especially with regard to critical sessions, since there is an imbalance of the pact. Eight MPs submitted a collective resignation in protest against the corruption of the ruling authority after the Beirut port explosion. Three of the eight were Kataeb (Phalanges) MPs, while the others were either independent or had left their parliamentary blocs. Two MPs, Michel Murr and Jean Obeid, recently died from COVID-19 complications. The majority of the MPs who have left parliament are Christians, while one is Druze. Of the remaining 118 parliamentarians, 63 are Muslims and 55 Christian.

By-elections were supposed to take place within two months of parliament accepting the resignations of Marwan Hamadeh, Henri Helou, Paula Yacoubian, Nadim Gemayel, Samy Gemayel, Elias Hankach, Nehmeh Afram and Michel Moawad in the wake of the Beirut port blast. However, by-elections have not been held despite caretaker Interior Minister Mohammed Fahmi signing a decree inviting electoral bodies to organize the polls. The caretaker government did not sign the decree, which led to a constitutional violation. However, with the deaths of the two MPs, there has been renewed talk of the need to hold by-elections to fill the vacant seats. Parliamentary Speaker Nabih Berri said this week that he hoped the by-elections could take place in the spring.

by By Aneeta Mathur-Ashton – voanews.com — Families of those who died in last year’s deadly explosion in Beirut protested for a second day Friday and denounced the removal of a judge leading the probe into the blast. The families released a statement saying that the appointment of a new judge would lead to a delay in the probe of the August 4 port explosion, caused by the detonation of a huge stockpile of ammonium nitrate at the port. “On the ill-fated date of February 18, the sound of criminal corruption echoed and its hero this time was the politicized judiciary in Lebanon,” Ibrahim Hoteit, the families’ spokesman, read at the protest near the justice ministry. Hoteit’s brother Tharwat was killed in the explosion, which leveled large parts of Beirut, killed more than 200 people and wounded more than 6,000. The court decision Thursday to replace Judge Fadi Sawan blew up “what remains of conscience and confidence between us and this rotten judiciary,” Hoteit said. Judge Tarek Bitar was appointed Friday by Lebanon’s justice minister to lead the investigation. Relatives of victims of Beirut port explosion burn tires during a protest, after a Lebanese court removed the judge leading the probe in the investigation.

by dailystar.com.lb — BEIRUT: Lebanon is set to hold parliamentary by-elections for 10 vacant seats by the end of March, a statement from the Parliament speaker’s office quoted the caretaker interior minister as saying Thursday. Caretaker Interior Minister Mohammad Fahmi said parliamentary by-elections will take place at the end of March “at the latest,” during […]

by naharnet.com — Bkirki on Thursday criticized Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah who rejected the Patriarch’s calls for a U.N. resolution under Chapter 7 in Lebanon amid a complex process of a cabinet lineup, Nidaa al-Watan newspaper reported on Thursday. “No one is joking about this issue. Bkirki does not make jokes, certainly he is […]

by Arabnews — RIYADH: Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani held a meeting with Lebanese Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri in the capital Doha, Qatar News Agency (QNA) reported on Thursday. During the meeting, they discussed the latest developments in Lebanon and efforts related to forming a government. Hariri, who is on an official visit […]

By Ellen Francis — BEIRUT (Reuters) – A Lebanese court on Thursday 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 blasts in history. In December, he charged three ex-ministers and the outgoing prime minister with negligence. Two hundred people died in the August blast when a huge stockpile of ammonium nitrate, stored unsafely for years, detonated at the capital’s port. Thousands were injured and entire neighbourhoods destroyed. Families of the victims gathered at Beirut’s justice palace on Thursday night to protest against Sawan’s removal from the probe. Clad in black, they cradled photos of their dead loved ones and held picket signs that read: “Where are the investigation results?” One woman sat on the ground and wailed. “We had hope for justice, even if just one percent, justice for my brother so he could rest in his grave,” said Rima al-Zahed. “We’re truly in a rotten country…I swear we’re tired. We want the truth.”

The officials charged by Sawan had refused to be questioned as suspects, accusing him of overstepping his powers. The court of cassation decided to take Sawan off the case after a request from two of the former ministers he charged, Ali Hassan Khalil and Ghazi Zeaiter. Sawan could not be reached for comment. A copy of the decision seen by Reuters cited “legitimate suspicion” over Sawan’s neutrality, partly because his house was damaged in the blast which devastated much of the capital. The move will likely delay an investigation that has faced political pushback and has yet to yield any results. Human Rights Watch called it “an insult” to the victims. “We are back to square one,” researcher Aya Majzoub said. “We need answers, and Lebanon has shown that it is incapable of providing them.”

    Snow blanketed parts of Lebanon on Wednesday, blocking roads and disrupting traffic. Storm Joyce hit late Tuesday in Lebanon with gale force winds registering between 85 km/h (52 miles/h) and 100 km/h (62 miles/h). The storm is expected to get stronger Thursday. Breaking a warm spell, the storm brought heavy rainfall, a sharp […]

by learningenglish.voanews.com — Recently in Beirut, a small group of people cleaned oxygen machines to send to those in need. The move was the latest in a series of activities by a Lebanese group trying to serve the public during the country’s health and economic crises. Melissa Fathallah is one of the founders of Baytna Baytak, which in Arabic means Our Home is Your Home. “No one is exempt from COVID. Nobody. Nobody has super-power immunity,” she told the Associated Press. Immunity means the power to keep yourself from being infected by a disease. Raising more than $27,000, the group has placed 48 oxygen machines with those in need across the country.

Baytna Baytak began at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic with a very different project. The group found homes for medical workers who were worried about bringing the virus to their families. During Lebanon’s first lockdown in March, the group housed 750 workers in different places. Chloe Ghosh works at a government hospital in Beirut. She has been living in housing provided by the group since the start of the pandemic. She was worried about putting her family at risk. “If I got COVID or anyone my age got COVID, we could survive,” Ghosh said. “But our families, no.” The first place Ghosh stayed was damaged when another disaster hit Beirut, the August 4 explosion at the city’s port. The blast killed more than 200 people, injured 6,000 others and destroyed thousands of homes. Ghosh was not harmed. She moved to another place provided by Baytna Baytak. She now shares a four-bedroom apartment with three other medical workers who work in different hospitals around the city.

by english.aawsat.com — The judicial investigator probing the Beirut port explosion, Judge Fadi Sawwan summoned former public works minister Youssef Fenianos and the port’s former customs chief Moussa Hazimeh to appear for interrogation next Thursday, Lebanon’s National News Agency said on Monday. Six months after one of the largest non-nuclear explosions on record, which injured thousands of people, victims are still awaiting the result of the investigation, although Lebanese leaders had promised it would come within days. Sawwan had already called former finance minister Ali Hassan Khalil, along with former public works ministers Ghazi Zoaiter and Fenianos for questioning over the blast. However, Zoaiter and Hassan Khalil refused to attend the questioning, saying that as current members of parliament, they enjoy immunity.

The highly explosive chemicals that triggered the Beirut port explosion last August 4 were stored for years in poor conditions at the port, which lies in the heart of the capital. Since August, Sawwan has brought charges against 37 people. But many Lebanese remain skeptical that senior politicians will be held to account, fearing the truth will never emerge from a system riven by corruption. Lebanese authorities have failed in the past six months to deliver any justice for the catastrophic explosion, Human Rights Watch said in a report released early this month.