by npr.org — DEBORAH AMOS — LAMA AL-ARIAN — Like many Lebanese, Jesuit priest Gabriel Khairallah has been on the front lines of anti-government protests for more than three months. “I mean, what am I doing on the front? I am against corruption and seeking social justice, and the same for the doctors,” he says. He’s done much more than protest on the streets — in recent weeks, he also opened a low-cost medical clinic in the annex of Beirut’s St. Joseph Church.

In Khairallah’s clinic, which is run mostly by volunteers, the cost of a visit is about $5 and is waived for those who can’t afford it. More than 30 doctors serve on a rotating basis, providing specialized care in cardiology, pediatrics, gynecology and orthopedics. Khairallah also corralled pharmacies to donate certain medicines. “We are collecting from every person of goodwill,” says Khairallah. “We are not expecting a miracle. We hope to create a place where people feel respected.”

A perfect economic storm

The need for such a clinic arose as Lebanon’s economic woes sparked spontaneous mass protests last October. A million people took to the streets. Initially, anger surged over a new tax on Internet voice-call services, and expanded to demand the ouster of the government. The protests, peaceful for months, grew more violent in December, as riot police used water cannons, tear gas and rubber bullets to stop thousands from demonstrating in front of the parliament building. Lebanon is one of the most indebted nations in the world. For decades, the central bank serviced debt by offering high interest rates to attract capital. “But it reached a point that people began to realize it’s not sustainable and the government is just accumulating more debt and the banks are further away from solvency,” says Paul Salem, president of the Middle East Institute in Washington, D.C. Over the past 18 months, with a decline in oil prices, remittances from Lebanese working in the Gulf also have shrunk. “It’s causing a reverse sucking motion,” Salem says, “with people not sending money and trying to pull their money out.”

Democratic presidential candidates Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn. greet each prior to the start of the Democratic presidential primary debate in  Manchester, N.H. Friday.

by AP — In a perfect world, Susan Stepp, a 73-year-old retiree, would be voting vote for Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren in New Hampshire’s Democratic presidential primary Tuesday, she says. But that won’t be happening. “I am not sure a woman is the best candidate to go up against Trump,” Stepp said recently as she stood in the back of a conference room listening to tech entrepreneur Andrew Yang as part of her hunt for the best candidate to challenge the Republican incumbent. Stepp’s concern has coursed through the Democratic primary for months, registering in polling, interviews and, now, the first votes cast. In Iowa’s caucuses last Monday, many Democrats did not prioritize breaking the gender barrier to the Oval Office and they viewed being a woman as a hindrance rather than an advantage in the race.

Only about one-third of Iowa caucusgoers backed a female candidate. Topping the caucus field were two men, former South Bend, Indiana, mayor Pete Buttigieg and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders,. Women were only slightly more likely than men to back one of the three women in the race, according to AP VoteCast, a survey of more than 3,000 Iowa voters. Most Iowa Democrats said it was important for a woman to be president in their lifetimes. But many voters, including about half of all women, said a female nominee would have a harder time beating Donald Trump in November. “He will just use that against her, like he did Hillary,” Stepp said, looking back to Trump’s 2016 race against Hillary Clinton in 2016. “He doesn’t debate. He just insults. I don’t think he would have that same effect if he went up against a strong man.” Stepp said she plans to vote for Sanders. Those perceptions present an undeniable headwind for the women in the race, who have spent months making the case that a woman can win. As they seek success in New Hampshire, both Warren and Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar must work to energize voters about the chance to make history and persuade them it is possible this year, in this race against this president. “In 2020, we can and should have a woman for president,” Warren said at a CNN town hall this past week, days after taking third in Iowa. Klobuchar came in fifth. The Associated Press has not called a winner in the Iowa caucus because the race is too close to call.

Swiss watches are getting out of date. Last year, Apple alone sold more watches than the entire Swiss watch industry combined, according to figures compiled by Strategy Analytics. Apple shipped an estimated 31 million smartwatches worldwide in 2019 — a 36% increase from the year before. Classic brands like TAG Heuer, Tissot and Swatch together […]

by sputniknews.com — Aoun wrote on his official Twitter account that Lebanon plans to work with its international partners to fight corruption. “I talked on the phone with French President Emmanuel Macron … A number of countries, first of all, France, have expressed readiness to help Lebanon”, the press office of the Lebanese presidency quoted […]

BEIRUT, Feb. 7 (Xinhua) — Lebanese President Michel Aoun assured on Friday that he will not allow the security situation to get out of control, said a presidency statement. “It is very important to control the security situation in order to maintain stability and civil peace, and protect the image of the state and its […]

By Najia Houssari Financial Prosecutor Judge Ali Ibrahim on Thursday met with the Banking Control Commission of Lebanon (BCCL) to discuss claims that the owners of five Lebanese banks had moved personal funds worth $2.3 billion abroad. The meeting took place on the same day as Lebanon’s new Cabinet approved a policy statement aimed at rescuing the debt-ridden country from one of its worst economic crises in decades. The ministerial statement will now be submitted for discussion at a session of Parliament planned for next week. Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri on Wednesday revealed the bankers’ transfers and expressed his “concern over the fate of the depositors’ money.”

The BCCL has described the information on the transfers as “inaccurate” and pointed out that “all banks have made transfers, and the law does not have the right to learn who the owners are.” Berri is opposed to any attempt by banks to impose capital controls on clients’ deposits despite savings restrictions and limits on dollar transfers abroad having been in place since November last year. Meanwhile, activists in the country’s civil movement have called for new street protests against the ministerial statement which they have branded as “a revised version of the previous government’s data that does not take peoples’ demands into consideration.”

By AJ Naddaff BEIRUT (AP) — At a Beirut hospital ward, five Lebanese protesters with bandaged eyes and faces huddled in a circle, their arms wrapped around each other, and they vowed to be back on the streets soon, despite their wounds from recent clashes with police. “We are coming back,” said one of them, 20-year-old Charbel Francis. Such resolve by some protesters signals that demands for sweeping government reforms won’t be squashed easily, even as security forces throw up cement barriers and resort to more violent means of crowd control, such as rubber bullets. But the recent descent into clashes after three months of peaceful protests has also triggered introspection and divisions among the demonstrators about their next moves. More than 500 people, including over 100 security forces, have been injured in confrontations outside the Parliament building in downtown Beirut last month.

Most of the injuries occurred on January 18. For hours, protesters hurled stones, firecrackers and flares at police who responded by firing tear gas, water cannons and shooting rubber bullets. More than 150 people were injured that night, many of them struck in the head and eyes. It was a shocking reversal for a popular uprising against a corrupt political class that started in mid-October and had been characterised by its striking peacefulness — particularly compared to the bloodbath in Iraq, where a similar uprising has resulted in the death of more than 500 protesters since October, most of them shot dead by security forces.

by AFP — BEIRUT: Lebanon’s English-language The Daily Star suspended its print edition Tuesday, the latest casualty in the collapse of the country’s once-flourishing press. The newspaper, which is co-owned by the family of former Prime Minister Saad Hariri, said on its website the temporary halt of the printing presses was a result of the economic downturn. It cited “the financial challenges facing the Lebanese press which have been exacerbated by the deterioration of the economic situation in the country.” It said the temporary suspension came after “a drop to virtually no advertising revenue in the last quarter of 2019, as well as in January of this year.” In recent months, employees at the newspaper had complained of not being paid, with one departing journalist reporting in December that some were owed up to half a year in wages. A series of prominent dailies in Lebanon have disappeared from print due to funding shortages in recent years.

The Daily Star is the latest media outlet linked to the former premier to be struggling. In September last year, Hariri announced the suspension of Future TV, his ailing mouthpiece whose employees had been on strike over unpaid wages. In January 2019, the Hariri family’s Al-Mustaqbal newspaper issued its last print version, 20 years after it was established. Saudi Oger, a once-mighty construction firm that was the basis of the Hariri business empire, collapsed in 2017, leaving thousands jobless. Hariri stepped down as prime minister in late October following unprecedented natio

By BASSEM MROUE and KATHY McCORMACK — BEIRUT (AP) — A military investigative judge charged a Lebanese-American man with murder and torture of Lebanese citizens Tuesday, crimes he allegedly committed during Israel’s occupation of southern Lebanon, judicial officials said. The accusations could carry a death sentence. Amer Fakhoury is accused of working as a senior warden at Khiam Prison, which was run by an Israel-backed Lebanese militia. The prison has been described by human rights groups as a center for torture. He was detained in September after he returned to his native Lebanon from the U.S., and Lebanon’s intelligence service says he confessed during questioning to being a warden. However, Fakhoury’s lawyer and family in New Hampshire say that, while he was indeed a member of the Israel-backed militia and worked at the prison, they insist he had no direct contact with inmates and was never involved in the interrogation or torture of prisoners

Fakhoury, 57, is also undergoing cancer treatment, and it remains unclear if he’ll be able to stand trial. The restaurant owner from Dover, New Hampshire, became a U.S. citizen last year. “We have a dying American citizen there,” said his lawyer, Celine Atallah. “By keeping him there, it’s evident they’re trying to kill him.” The Lebanese judicial officials said Tuesday that the judge, Najat Abu Shakra, referred Fakhoury for trial in a military court. No date was set for the tribunal. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media. The officials said Abu Shakra charged Fakhoury with “murder and attempted murder of prisoners inside Khiam Prison as well as kidnapping and torture.” The prison, run by the so-called South Lebanon Army, was abandoned after Israeli forces pulled out of southern Lebanon in 2000, ending an 18-year occupation.

by middleeastmonitor.com — Lebanese Prime Minister Hassan Diab has today signed off on the 2020 state budget and referred the plan to President Michel Aoun, with 49 members of parliament voting for the budget, while 13 voted against and eight abstained. Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri signed off on the budget earlier today while MPs from Saad Hariri’s Future Movement bloc voted against the budget, despite heading the government that originally drafted the plan. MPs from the Lebanese Forces and Kataeb Party boycotted today’s session over the unconstitutionality of a government yet to gain a vote of confidence from the legislature, adopting a budget that was drafted by a fallen government. The 17-page statement was initially passed by the parliament on 27 January, despite the session being surrounded by anti-government protesters determined to prevent MPs from convening. The plan, approved by Berri today, provides between three and 100-day deadlines to carry out the policy proposals, forecasting a six per cent deficit, plans a $700 million reduction in spending, and intends to maintain public services. However, Lawmaker Ibrahim Kanaan, chairman of the Finance and budget Parliamentary Commission, said there are concerns that projected revenues from the budget might not be realistic after three months of political deadlock has led the country into its worst economic crisis since the end of the civil war in 1990.