by npr.org — In mid-September, a small fishing boat packed with 37 people was found drifting off the coast of Lebanon in the Mediterranean Sea. The passengers, all trying to reach Cyprus for a better life, had paid nearly $1,000 each and were on the boat for eight days without sufficient food and water. By the time rescuers, members of a U.N. peacekeeping mission, were able to reach them, at least 13 of the four dozen or so passengers — including two children — had been lost at sea or were dead. As an economic and political crisis worsens across Lebanon, a growing number of people are trying to get out any way they can. Those with the means emigrate legally, using traditional routes such as student or work visas, or marrying foreign spouses. Those who lack the education, money or connections to make it abroad legally have increasingly resorted to paying human smugglers to take them in boats across the Mediterranean Sea. Dangerous sea crossings are occurring in unprecedented numbers, according to Guita Hourani, director of the Lebanese Center for Migration and Diaspora Studies at the University of Notre Dame-Louaize. Hourani refers to the exodus as a “forced migration” caused by the negligence and corruption of Lebanon’s politicians.

During all of 2019, there were 17 sea-crossing attempts. But in the last three months alone, the U.N. Refugee Agency says there were 21 recorded attempted crossings from Lebanon to Cyprus, a European Union country some 160 miles away. Most passengers on the boats are Lebanese or Syrian nationals, according to UNHCR. With Lebanon’s Ministry of Economy predicting that 60% of the population will live in poverty by the end of this year and no solutions in sight, Hourani warns that soon, even professionals and educated youth may begin attempting the dangerous route to Cyprus. Not even during Lebanon’s 15-year civil war or the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah were sea crossings attempted from Lebanon in such high numbers, she says. Lebanon’s economic collapse resulted from government debt and mismanagement. Unemployment is high, even among educated youth. The country’s currency, the Lebanese pound, lost 80% of its value in the past year. Businesses have closed. Poverty is overtaking the middle class, after bank-imposed capital controls trapped people’s savings. 

By Sunniva Rose — thenational.ae — A coronavirus committee in the town of Hasbaya in South Lebanon has raised the alarm, saying the spread in the area is out of control. Covid-19 has killed 433 and contaminated 48,377 people in Lebanon. Nine died in the past 24 hours, according the Health Ministry’s statement on Wednesday. […]

by alkhaleejtoday.co — Prime Minister Saad Hariri emphasized that “the French initiative has not ended,” noting that “this initiative wanted Lebanon to succeed and get it out of the impasse, and I do not know why they failed it.” His government is provocative names, and whoever brought down Hassan Diab’s government was the Beirut explosion. “ In an interview with the “Time Has Come” program, Hariri said: “The President of the Progressive Socialist Party, Walid Jumblatt, the head of the Lebanese Forces Party, Samir Geagea, and the head of the powerful Lebanon Bloc, Gebran Bassil, refused to take over the initiative government, so I decided to step aside.” He continued: “I am a candidate for prime minister without Jamila anyone. I have a parliamentary bloc and it is known who I am, but I do not threaten and promise as others do. Some critics and bidders want me to threaten and I will not do that, I am the son of moderate Rafik Hariri.” “I am the natural candidate for prime minister and I will make a round of contacts this week, and if all the parties are still agreeing on the program of the Pine Palace in terms of negotiations with the IMF and the required reforms then I will not close the door on the only hope to stop the collapse.

And he added, “I will conduct a round of contacts with all political parties to find out the stability of their position and their approval of the French reform paper, and if everyone agrees, I will not close the door.” He continued:I refuse to return according to the formula, either Saad Hariri and Gebran Bassil are inside or outside the government, but I think it is no longer on the table. “ He said, “We agreed in the Pine Palace that political parties would leave this government and not interfere in naming ministers and allow the new government to complete and rebuild Beirut, and everyone agreed to privatization and increase taxes.” Hariri assured that “the formation of a government of one color, as well as the government of Hassan Diab, will not obtain any support from the international community for Lebanon.” He added, “I was accused of forming the government of Dr. Mustafa Adeeb, but my job was only to warn Adeeb not to name people that provoke any political team, and to adhere to Saad Hariri’s nomination by Amal Movement and Hezbollah is only to avoid the Sunni-Shiite tension.”

by arabnews.com — PARIS: France will hold a humanitarian aid conference for Lebanon in November, French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said on Wednesday. The conference was initially planned for the end of October. Le Drian also told the French National Assembly that the Lebanon international contact group would meet in the coming days to reiterate the need for the formation of a government.

By NAJIA HOUSSARI — arabnews.com — BEIRUT: The streets of Baalbek have been in chaos over the past two days because of violent clashes between the Jaafar and Shamas clans. Video footage released on social media showed dozens of armed men walking the streets to an inflammatory soundtrack. State security forces are conspicuous by their absence from the footage. The two clans are spread throughout the Baalbek-Hermel region, up to the Syrian border. Both have been the source of hundreds of Hezbollah militants over the years.

The current violence was sparked by the killing of Abbas Shamas on Sunday by four members of the Jaafar clan. Abbas was the brother of two Shamas members imprisoned for the killing of Issa Ali Jaafar in 2017. Following that murder, the two clans established a wary peace agreement to prevent further bloodshed. But following the murder on Sunday, the Jaafar clan celebrated its revenge by taking to the streets and firing missiles in the air. Governor of Baalbek Hermel Bashir Khadr told Arab News: “People were going about their normal lives. Tourists were visiting the castle and the city when the firing of automatic and missile weapons suddenly started, and this terrified people. People are already frustrated and restless as a result of the difficult economic conditions the country is going through.”

by rt.com — The massive blast that destroyed a huge swathe of Beirut in August was one of the biggest non-nuclear explosions in history, releasing enough energy to power more than 100 homes for a year, new research has found. The devastating detonation was the result of the accidental ignition of approximately 2,750 tonnes of […]

by english.aawsat.com — Beirut – Asharq Al-Awsat Lebanon’s Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rai revived on Sunday debate over the demarcation of the Lebanese-Syrian border in the southern Shebaa Farms region. He made his remarks days after parliament Speaker Nabih Berri announced that a framework had been agreed upon to begin indirect US-mediated talks with Israel on land and maritime border demarcation, which will be led by the Lebanese army. “We should work to demarcate the borders with Syria in the area of Shebaa Farms to end the abnormal and ambiguous situation there,” the Patriarch said during Sunday mass.

Rai welcomed the framework agreement, which will allow Lebanon to restore its international border line in the South, facilitate the extraction of its maritime wealth of oil and gas, and end the series of attacks and wars between Lebanon and Israel, according to Resolution 1701 of the Security Council, which places it on a path of peaceful negotiation instead of fighting, without this implying a process of normalization. “On this occasion, an agreement must be found to resolve the issue of the presence of about half a million Palestinian refugees in Lebanon,” Rai continued, adding that through more resilience, Lebanon is bound to overcome its ordeals.

by Sunniva Rose — thenational.ae — Former cycling superstar Lance Armstrong toured Beirut on Sunday with over thirty amateur cyclists to raise funds for local NGOs working to assist victims of the August 4 blast. The ruined port remains an arresting sight, with buildings blown to pieces in the explosion that killed nearly 200 people and left 30,000 more homeless, leaving piles of rubble still being cleared by expert teams “I’ve never seen anything like that,” said Mr Armstrong, as he prepared to lead the peloton from the port to the offices of the Lebanese Red Cross, and then to Lebanese NGOs Heartbeat, Beit El Baraka, and Offre Joie. “The fact that only 200 people lost their lives, that’s a miracle,” he added.

Beirut is still reeling from the effects of the explosion of 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate in its port. An investigation is ongoing, but in protests and on social media, the Lebanese accuse their leaders of being responsible for the unsafe storage of the chemical for seven years. “Disaster-stricken Lebanon” was trending on Twitter on Sunday. Mr Armstrong arrived in Beirut on Friday for a four-day visit, his first to the country, and visited the blast site the next day. Mr Armstrong told The National that his friend, American-Lebanese real estate investor Thomas Barrack, convinced him to visit Lebanon. “He asked me to come, I said absolutely,” said Mr Armstrong, who is scheduled to fly to Dubai on Monday for a four-day work trip. “Tom and I are on a longer trip in this part of the world and it just came together. Originally, we weren’t coming to Lebanon.” Lebanese Red Cross volunteer Oudey Hamadeh, 26, said he hoped Mr Armstrong’s visit would encourage donations. “At the start, there were a lot of funds and we hope that the funds will come back,” he said. “It’s been two months since the explosion and maybe people have lost interest in helping the Lebanese Red Cross.”

by arabnews.com — NAJIA HOUSSARI — BEIRUT: Saad Hariri could lead Lebanon’s government again amid proposals to bring him back, almost a year after he resigned as prime minister in response to mass protests about the country’s dire economic and financial situation. Mustapha Adib quit as prime minister-designate a week ago after failing to form a government of specialists independent from the parties in power. Lebanon desperately needs an international bailout and France, in particular, is urging politicians to begin much-needed reforms to deal with the grave problems facing the country.

Last week French President Emmanuel Macron gave leaders more time to form a government of specialists as part of an initiative to rescue the country. But key players are overriding some of the conditions set, notably Hezbollah and the Amal Movement who insist on keeping the finance portfolio and naming the Shiite ministers in the government. Two opinions prevail in Lebanon. One is that the government will not be formed before the US presidential elections in November. The other is that President Michel Aoun will soon set a date for parliamentary consultations, and the possibility of facilitating Hariri’s return to head the government is being proposed based on positive signs.

by newsmax.com — Tauren Dyson — President Donald Trump is in a dead heat with Democrat nominee Joe Biden, according to the latest John Zogby Strategies poll. Biden currently leads President Donald Trump 49%-47%, which is within the poll’s margin of errir, and 4% of likely voters unsure. The previous Zogby poll released Aug. 29 […]