NNA - President of the Republic, General Michel Aoun, met Prime Minister, Najib Mikati, today at Baabda Palace, and discussed with him general conditions and the atmosphere of the Cabinet’s discussions of the draft budget law for the year 2022, in addition to the electricity file and the necessity of taking steps that determine its course definitively and clearly. Statement: After the meeting, PM Mikati made the following statement: “I met His Excellency the President and briefed him on the atmosphere that prevailed in recent days, in terms of discussing the draft budget within the Council of Ministers and finalizing it in the next session, God willing, in preparation for submitting it to the Parliament in its final form. We agreed to hold a Cabinet session next Thursday in Baabda Palace at 2:00 pm, provided that the Cabinet will finish studying the budget on the same day, even if the session took hours.

I conveyed to President Aoun, greetings from the Turkish President and his keenness on the best relations with Lebanon, and in view of the accumulated issues that must be studied in the Council of Ministers, I informed the President of my invitation to the Council to convene next Tuesday in the Grand Serail to take the appropriate decisions.

By NAJIA HOUSSARI -- arabnews.com -- BEIRUT: Politicians, ambassadors, academics and representatives of international organizations took part in a “consultative meeting to save the education sector in Lebanon” on Monday, held by the Ministry of Education, against the backdrop of an ongoing teacher strike. The strike has contributed to paralyzing public schools for over four months, majorly disrupting the academic year “We do not have a magic wand to address all educational issues at once,” Prime Minister Najib Mikati said as he opened the meeting. “We hope the educational staff would understand the government’s situation and the limited capabilities we have. “We hope they can be patient, along with the students’ families, in light of the stifling economic crisis that coincided with the COVID-19 pandemic. “We ask teachers to cooperate with us to overcome this difficult stage with minimal damage and not to throw demands at the government, students and families, as the state of the public treasury cannot handle any spending outside the most urgent issues.”

Education Minister Abbas Al-Halabi said that public school students “have barely attended 25 days of school this year, while students in the private sector are close to completing the curriculum.” This, he said would lead to huge disparity in academic outcomes unless “we are able to compensate for the lost months in public schools and complete the curricula before we reach the point of no return.” There are no accurate figures about the number of students in public schools for the year 2021-2022, but there were around 342,303 students in 2019-2020, with an increase in 2020-2021 of about 10,000 students, who switched from private schools due to an inability to pay fees amid the country’s soaring currency and economic crises.

NNA – Maronite Patriarch, Cardinal Bechara Boutros al-Rahi, presided over Sunday Mass in Bkirki this morning, whereby he emphasized in his homily: …

By Bassam Zaazaa – arabnews.com — BEIRUT: A Lebanese man was released on bail this week after a fortnight in detention for …