(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 […]

By Nahia Houssari — arabnews.com — BEIRUT: As the women gather around the table to make maamoul cookies for Easter, they all feel that this year’s celebrations will be different, and probably for the worse. Hala Dagher, speaking on behalf of her sisters, said: “This year we decided to split the cost of maamoul and only make half of the usual quantity. “Maamoul cookies represent blessings and we cannot celebrate Easter without them, even in a small amount.”

The Lebanese are known for their attachment to family and traditions, especially on special occasions and holidays. One of the country’s traditions, especially at Easter, is that women gather a few days before the big weekend to make maamoul cookies filled with walnuts, pistachios, or dates. The cookies are among the most famous Lebanese sweets prepared for Easter. The dough is made of semolina, sugar, butter, rose water and blossom water, and can be covered in icing sugar. The dough is traditionally made on Good Friday and the cookies baked the following day. However, austerity has hit many Lebanese homes as all ingredients are priced in US dollars. Very few people have decorated for Easter this year, and many will not be buying eggs to paint as a symbol of resurrection and life. Those who buy chocolate eggs are rare as the treats have become too expensive.

By Saundra Latham, Editor at LinkedIn News — Call it Dara Khosrowshahi’s “Undercover Boss” moment. The Uber CEO told The Wall Street Journal he recently spent months as “Dave K,” ferrying passengers around San Francisco in a secondhand Tesla — an effort dubbed “Project Boomerang” at the ride-share firm. The aim? To understand the Uber […]

By Lucy Williamson & David Gritten – BBC News, in Jerusalem and London — The Israeli military has accused the Palestinian militant group Hamas of firing dozens of rockets from southern Lebanon into northern Israel. It said most of the 34 rockets were intercepted but that six hit Israeli territory, causing damage to buildings. One man was lightly wounded by shrapnel, according to medics. Hamas said it had no information about who fired the missiles. The attack was the biggest single barrage from Lebanon in 17 years. It comes at a time of rising tensions. There has been outrage in the region at the actions of the Israeli police, who have raided the al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem – Islam’s third holiest site – for the past two nights, triggering violent confrontations with Palestinians inside.

Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip, which is controlled by Hamas, have also fired 25 rockets at Israel over the same period, and the Israeli military has carried out air strikes there in response. Late on Thursday, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said they were “currently striking in Gaza”. A number of explosions were heard in Gaza, and AFP news agency reported that multiple Hamas training sites had been hit. Earlier on Thursday, air raid sirens sounded in communities across northern Israel after rockets were launched from Lebanon while Israelis celebrated the Jewish festival of Passover. The Israeli military did not say where the six rockets that struck Israeli territory landed. But photographs showing damage to several buildings in the border town of Shlomi, including a bank, and a car in the village of Fassuta. “We heard booms, and sirens. A rocket hit the roof of a car as it was passing my house, but the rocket didn’t explode. When I went after the car, I saw someone was injured,” one eyewitness said.

A car in the village of Fassuta was damaged by one of the rockets Israel’s Magen David Adom ambulance service treated a man with shrapnel injuries, a woman who was injured while running to a shelter, and another woman who had stress symptoms. Israeli military spokesman Lt Col Richard Hecht said they believed Hamas was behind the attack and that it was possible the militant group Islamic Jihad was also involved. He added that they assumed the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, which fought a month-long war with Israeli in 2006, knew about the attack, and that they suspected there was Iranian involvement.

By Najia Houssari – arabnews.com –– BEIRUT: A spiritual retreat on Wednesday was attended by Lebanon’s Maronite Patriarch Bechara Al-Rahi and Christian deputies in a bid to resolve a six-month stalemate over the election of a new president for the crisis-hit country. The gathering in Harissa came as separate meetings between Qatar’s Minister of State in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Mohammed bin Abdulaziz bin Saleh Al-Khulaifi and Lebanese officials and political leaders failed to address the ongoing political vacuum. A total of 53 deputies from the Free Patriotic Movement, Lebanese Forces, Kataeb Party, and Marada Movement took part in the retreat.

Eleven deputies were absent, including FPM-backed deputy parliament speaker, Elias Bou Saab, and reformist deputies who favor political dialogue to break the deadlock. MPs Melhem Khalaf and Najat Aoun Saliba were also absent, as they entered the 77th day of their parliament protest over the issue, while MP Paula Yacoubian said she would “not participate in any activity that is based on sectarian division.” In a statement delivered to the deputies, Al-Rahi said: “The policy adopted by the ruling power erroneously is incapable of taking care of others. It grinds the poor, takes advantage of the land, faces challenges, and doesn’t know how to hold a dialogue. “What progress did you allow the people to make? What positive forces did you liberate? What did you do to elect a president?”

Hezbollah and the Amal Movement have chosen to back Suleiman Frangieh for the presidency in a move rejected by Christian MPs. The head of the Progressive Socialist Party, Walid Jumblatt, wants to elect a centrist president. Frangieh is a prominent Christian figure, backed by Hezbollah and its allies that consider the Lebanese Forces and opposition nominated MP Michel Mouawad to be a “defiant candidate.” For 11 parliamentary sessions, Hezbollah’s deputies cast blank votes and withdrew from the second rounds of voting, leading to a loss of quorum. Neither candidates will be able to become president, as both political camps are incapable of securing the 65 votes needed to win in a parliament comprising 128 deputies. Meanwhile, Al-Khulaifi reiterated Qatar’s commitment to helping Lebanon elect a president and urged officials to implement the reforms required by the international community to kickstart an economic recovery process.

By Caitlin Doornbos, Steven Nelson and Selim Algar – Nypost– PALM BEACH, Fla. — Former President Donald Trump ranted against his unprecedented arrest and arraignment Tuesday night, telling supporters at Mar-a-Lago that the real “criminal” is Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg. “The only crime that I’ve committed is to fearlessly defend our nation from those who seek to destroy it,” the 76-year-old said hours after pleading not guilty to 34 felony charges of falsifying business records in connection with hush-money payments made ahead of the 2016 presidential election to two women alleging extramarital affairs with him. “The criminal is the district attorney because he illegally leaked massive amounts of grand jury information, for which he should be prosecuted — or at a minimum, he should resign,” Trump added, referring details of his indictment beihg reported ahead of his initial hearing.

“[Bragg] campaigned on the fact that he would ‘get’ President Trump — ‘I’m gonna get him, I’m gonna get him’ — this is a guy campaigning… this, before he knew anything about me,” the 45th president told hundreds of fans gathered in his Palm Beach club’s ballroom. The current front-runner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination also slammed the “Trump-hating judge” presiding over his case, Juan Manuel Merchan, and prosecutors leading other inquiries into his conduct — but focused his ire on Bragg in his 25-minute speech. “Alvin Bragg’s wife confirmed a report that claimed her husband ‘has Trump nailed on felonies.’ She has since locked down her Twitter account,” Trump said. Bragg’s case is a legal mess — what is he even charging Trump with? Trump went on to claim that Merchan’s recent conduct in the case against longtime Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg was “out of the old Soviet Union.” “The same judge told the fine man who worked for me for many, many years that if you admit your guilt, you will be in jail for 90 days. But if you don’t, if we go through a trial and you’re found guilty, you’re going away for 10 years, maybe longer,” Trump said. “They said, ‘You say anything about Trump’ — meaning that’s bad — ‘and you won’t even have to serve the 90 days — you’ll walk free’.”