By Rawaa Talass -- arabnews.com -- DUBAI: For many Lebanese, the past can be a painful subject. A civil war destroyed large swaths of the country between 1975 and 1990. The postwar period has been marked by sectarian strife and government dysfunction. But in spite of the traumas of recent decades, Lebanon remains a land of immense cultural wealth, with a rich history reflected in its architectural, cultural and anthropological heritage. This is why the Beirut Museum of Art, or BeMA, which is due to open in 2026, has been billed as a “beacon of hope” in a country beset by political paralysis, economic decline and a worsening humanitarian crisis.

When Sandra Abou Nader and Rita Nammour launched the museum project, their goal was to showcase the wide diversity of Lebanese art and provide facilities for education, digitization, restoration, storage and artist-in-residency programs. “They realized that there was, in fact, very little visibility for the Lebanese artistic scene, within the country and abroad, and for Lebanese artists, whether modern or contemporary,” BeMA’s art consultant, Juliana Khalaf, told Arab News. About 700 works of art will be on display at the new venue, drawn from the Lebanese Ministry of Culture’s collection of more than 2,000 pieces, the bulk of which have been in storage for decades. “We are going to be housing this very important collection,” said Khalaf. “We call it the national collection and it belongs to the public. It’s our role to make it, for the very first time, accessible. It’s never been seen before.”

(Reuters) By Maya Gebeily, Timour Azhari and Laila Bassam - Lebanon's government foresees cancelling "a large part" of the central bank's foreign currency obligations to commercial banks and dissolving non-viable banks by November, according to a financial recovery plan passed by the Cabinet on Friday. The document, seen by Reuters and verified as accurate by a minister, was passed by the Cabinet in its final session hours before losing decision-making powers, following the election of a new parliament on May 15.

It includes several measures that are prerequisites to unlock funds from a preliminary deal with the International Monetary Fund agreed in April that could help pull the country out of a three-year financial meltdown. Deputy Prime Minister Saade Chami said approval of the plan was a "step forward" but that Lebanon's newly-elected parliament must "quickly" adopt a number of the IMF prior actions, such as amendments to banking secrecy regulations and a capital controls bill that lawmakers have repeatedly failed to endorse. "We can put things on paper but we have to ensure whatever we committed to is being executed in the future," Chami said. "I cannot predict whether they will do it or not, whether there is a political will to do it."

By Nada Homsi -- .thenationalnews.com -- The Lebanese Forces say it is the largest Christian party in parliament for the first time — but they are not the only ones to make the claim. Their rivals, the Hezbollah-allied Free Patriotic Movement, have long been the largest Christian bloc and say they retained the majority. The competing claims appear to set the battle lines ahead of the presidential election in October when MPs have the often contentious vote for Lebanon's highest-ranking Christian official. Although alliances will likely shift and settle once the new parliament convenes and begins its work, the electoral results show a lead for the Lebanese Forces, who scored 22 seats to the Free Patriotic Movement's 18. Ultimately, it was not the startling upset the Lebanese Forces had hoped for and with only four seats separating the two parties.

More broadly, the picture is repeated. The pro-Hezbollah parties, including Free Patriotic Movement, scored 59 seats — five short of a majority in the 128 seat cross-confessional parliament. While the pro-Hezbollah faction is a generally cohesive alliance, the groups that now make up the majority of seats are an array of parties like the Lebanese Forces, smaller factions, independents and the emerging opposition groups who gained 13 seats who have no such consensus of views.

Bassil claims Free Patriotic Movement still top

Despite the numbers appearing to show the Lebanese Forces' marginal lead among Christian parties — and its party head Samir Geagea declaring the victory — Free Patriotic Movement head Gebran Bassil also said they had remained the largest Christian bloc. However, he said there were more important things to work on than squabbling about winners and losers. “The truth is that today is not the time to flex about who has the majority,” he said. “It’s time to work hard and get results to fix the country.” While the Iran-backed Hezbollah and its allies, of which the Free Patriotic Movement is a major partner, suffered losses compared to the 2018 elections, the most startling development was the unprecedented 12 seats won by civil society opposition groups.

Lebanon election results 2022 in full: which candidates and parties won?

by business-standard.com — A new $10 million grant will help Lebanon mitigate the environmental and health impacts of the Beirut port explosions …