by naharnet.com —Dozens of Lebanese tourists are stranded in Turkey and Georgia after falling victim to a scam pulled off by an unlicensed Lebanese travel agency, Lebanese TV networks reported on Thursday. “After we booked travel tickets and hotel rooms via the New Plaza Tours agency, we realized after arriving in Marmaris that the return […]

by bbc.com —Elissa, one of the biggest pop stars in the Arab world, has announced her retirement, blaming what she called the “mafia-like” music industry. The Lebanese singer surprised fans on Monday by saying that her next album would be her last. She did not explain her mafia comparison, but complained last year about her […]

by aawsat.com —The Lebanese government is expected to begin implementing in October a set of economic and financial measures agreed by its top leadership that will boost economic growth, President Michel Aoun said on Sunday, vowing that he would tend to this himself. He was referring to decisions taken at a top-level meeting earlier this month with the aim of reviving an economy that has been growing slowly for years and is struggling with one of the world’s heaviest public debt burdens.

After the Aug. 9 meeting, Prime Minister Saad Hariri said agreed steps included finishing the 2020 budget on time, drawing up a plan to start $3.3 billion of projects approved by parliament, full implementation of a power sector reform plan, and laws to fight tax evasion and regulate public tenders. “I will personally tend to the implementation path of the decisions of the financial and economic meeting” in cooperation with Hariri, Speaker Nabih Berri and other parties in government, Aoun said. In written comments to Reuters, Aoun said this aimed “to guarantee political stability in cabinet and outside it and to secure the greatest amount of productivity”, including in the implementation of the 2019 budget and its reforms.

By BILL ADDISON – RESTAURANT CRITIC –latimes.com —– I’ve been thinking lately about the ways that cuisines are transformed and reinterpreted when they’re translated from home cooking to a professional kitchen. It was the subject of my newsletter last week, in conversations with food writers Andy Baraghani and Naz Deravian on the subject of Persian restaurant menus. And it was, in essence, the impetus for a recent nine-day trip I took to Lebanon. I’d known Lebanese cuisine only from restaurants I’d reviewed over the years, mostly in Atlanta: mezze of hummus, tabbouleh, labneh (yogurt drained to the thickness of fresh cheese) and fatayer (small savory pies often filled with spiced spinach and pine nuts); falafel and kebabs and shawarma.

About seven years ago I had dinner at the home of a Lebanese American friend, Caline Jarudi, whose parents, Mona and Subhi, were visiting from overseas. Mona prepared a beautiful Lebanese dish of lamb shanks braised in plenty of pomegranate molasses, which matched the meat’s gaminess with its rich, overtly sour-sweet tautness. Caline’s sister, Natalie, made exquisite hindbe — dandelion greens sautéed in olive oil and covered in caramelized onions. Their airy hummus dialed back the garlic and tahini and pushed forward the lemon. This was not how I had experienced Lebanese cooking in American restaurants. It spurred my curiosity and ardor for the cuisine in new ways. At one point Caline suggested I follow the Lebanese Syrian cookbook author Anissa Helou on Instagram. Anissa and I met in London in 2015 and became occasional traveling buddies. We immersed ourselves in the Lebanese restaurants of Dearborn, Mich., the following year; we recently ate through Iranian restaurants together in Los Angeles. As Caline and I have become closer over the years, and I grew to love her family, a trip to Beirut became inevitable. We finally planned the trip this summer as a preamble to her brother Nadim’s wedding, which took place in Estonia. (Tallinn, Estonia, is a story for another time, but: bread.)

Reuters — BEIRUT — Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are looking to invest in infrastructure projects in Lebanon after ties have recovered, Lebanese Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri said in comments from his office on Friday. Hariri, on a visit to Washington, also said there were negotiations “over financial and economic aid” with the […]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Lebanese Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri said on Thursday after talks in Washington that he hoped for a final decision, possibly in September, on a proposal for resolving a maritime border dispute with Israel on a gas pipeline. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo welcomed Lebanon’s commitment to the talks and reiterated Washington’s […]

by dailystar.com.lb — BEIRUT: When Hamza Shamas first moved to Beirut, he was overwhelmed. The constant bustle of the city’s busy Downtown was a far cry from the quiet village of Boudai, where he grew up. In his village, Shamas’ identity revolved around his tribe, but in Beirut he felt adrift.He settled in Hay al-Sellom, a low-income neighborhood in the southern suburbs made up almost entirely of residents from rural Lebanon, and soon discovered that despite the noise and crowding, his community in Beirut was really a microcosm of village life. More and more people originally from Lebanon’s rural population are finding themselves in cities. The United Nations Human Settlements Program (U.N.-Habitat) estimates that by 2020, 88.6 percent of Lebanon’s population will live in urban areas, the fourth-highest in the Arab world after Gulf states Kuwait, Qatar and Bahrain.

The vast majority of this urban shift is focused on Beirut. A 1996 survey by the Social Affairs Ministry and the United Nations Population Fund, UNFPA, found that 20 percent of Lebanese living in the Beirut governorate were born elsewhere, along with 31 percent in the Mount Lebanon governorate, which encompasses Beirut’s dense suburbs. This greatly exceeds the proportion in other governorates, at 8 percent in the north and 2 percent in the south. In the intervening two decades, the proportion of Lebanese migrants to the Beirut area has only increased, said Suzanne Menhem, a sociology professor at the Lebanese University. She is in the midst of a yearlong study of Lebanon’s internal migration, a woefully understudied phenomenon, she told The Daily Star. “We have no statistics,” she said. “We base it on the study and by estimation.” Lebanon’s last official census was in 1932. Since then there have only been scattered studies of the country’s demography. Menhem is still in the initial stages of her project, but she already knows that the trend of rural-to-urban migration is a strong one. “I’m sure that this phenomenon is increasing with time,” she said.

by businessinsider.com —Saudi Aramco on Monday said it agreed to acquire a 20% stake in Reliance Industries’ refining and petrochemicals business, valued at $75 billion. The $15 billion deal between the world’s largest oil producer and Mukesh Ambani, Asia’s richest man as well as Reliance’s chairman and largest shareholder, gives it a stake in the […]

by naharnet — Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi on Sunday said Lebanese politicians are “experts in creating and resolving obstacles,” referring to the latest deadlock over the deadly Qabrshmoun incident. “Lebanese politicians have proved anew that they are experts in creating obstacles and paralysis and in resolving the obstacles and resuming activity, after they subject the […]

BEIRUT (Reuters) – Lebanon’s cabinet met on Saturday for the first time since late June, a day after steps were taken to resolve a political dispute that had paralysed a government seeking to reduce massive public debt. Information Minister Jamil al-Jarrah, speaking on television after the meeting, said an investigation into a shooting incident which […]