by Reem Abulleil author thenationalnews.com -- Chris Dirany is part of the Lebanon team at the Asian Surfing Championships. Lebanese

A graffiti artist, a financial analyst, an investment banker, and a surfing/skateboarding/snowboarding instructor and business owner are currently in the Maldives getting ready to represent Lebanon in the Asian Surfing Championships between July 8 and 17. Together, Alfred Badr, Lena Abdelnour, Lena Allam, and Chris Dirany have formed Lebanon’s first-ever homegrown surfing team and have flown to the Maldives with the clear mission of putting their country on the world surf map. They each got introduced to the sport in their own unique way, and never knew there were surfable waves in Lebanon before they actually hopped on a board and tried for themselves. Lena Allam, a 29-year-old investment banker who has been living in Dubai for the past two years, grew up in Deir El Qamar, south-east of Beirut, and fell in love with surfing when she was a child, watching a Disney movie. “It was thanks to Lilo & Stitch, the Disney cartoon. In Lebanon we don’t have surfers, so I never saw a surfer on the beaches in Lebanon. So I think the idea came to me when I was watching Lilo & Stitch and I was always replaying the same part of the movie where they surf this big wave and I used to get like super excited,” Allam told The National.

Allam’s fascination with surfing grew from there. She would write school projects on Hawaii because of its vibrant surf culture and it was always a dream to get on a surfboard and catch a wave. That dream finally came true when she was 18 years old. An interview with Lena Allam from Lebanon's surfing teamAn interview with Lena Allam from Lebanon's surfing team She initially tried windsurfing but didn’t enjoy it before she eventually got in touch with a surfboard shaper and began taking lessons in Batroun in Lebanon. The first surfboard Allam bought was a decorative one hung up in a Quiksilver store that wasn’t intended for sale.

by Maya Gebeily; editing by Tom Perry and Mark Heinrich (Reuters) - Deputy premier Saade Chami said on Friday deputy governors of Lebanon's central bank should run it if no governor is appointed by the end of the month, calling their threat to collectively resign "dangerous". Longtime governor Riad Salameh's term expires at the end of July and one of the deputy governors told Reuters on Thursday they were considering quitting together if no successor is named, raising the possibility of the central bank being left leaderless amid a deep financial crisis. Lebanon's breakdown in governance and political tensions have hamstrung efforts to find a successor to Salameh, whose 30-year tenure has been stained by charges at home and abroad of embezzlement of public funds in Lebanon. He denies the charges.

In a statement to Reuters, Chami said the deputy governors should "assume their responsibility in case this appointment is not possible...The threat of resignation implied by the statement is quite dangerous at this critical juncture." Chami said Lebanon’s code of money and credit “very clearly” instructs the first deputy governor to assume the responsibility of the governor in case this position becomes vacant. “One cannot pick and choose from the code of money and credit,” he told Reuters. The central bank leadership is appointed according to the sectarian power-sharing system that governs other top posts. The governor must be a Maronite Catholic, while the four deputies - a Shi'ite Muslim, a Sunni Muslim, a Druze and an Armenian Catholic - must have the approval of the political chiefs representing their respective sects. "The most likely scenario prompting such a statement is a push to extend Salameh's term," said Nabil Boumonsef, deputy editor-in-chief of Lebanon's leading Annahar newspaper. "Otherwise, a full vacuum in the central bank leadership would bring the worst period of Lebanon's financial crisis yet. The deputy governors are playing Russian roulette," Boumounsef told Reuters.

by Najia Houssari - arabnews.com -- Bechara Al-Rahi criticizes officials who are devastating the country and its people by destroying the constitution Politicians clash over border demarcation after double killing near Qurnat as Sawda BEIRUT: Maronite Patriarch Bechara Al-Rahi reiterated his call for an “international conference for Lebanon after Lebanese politicians fled from dialogue due to being beholden to their own interests” on Wednesday. Al-Rahi was speaking at the launch of a new document titled “A New Vision for Lebanon Tomorrow: A Secular, Decentralized, and Neutral State.” He expressed his doubts about the sincerity of politicians toward the country, saying that “there is no salvation for Lebanon if we remain as we are. Lebanon is sick, and officials do not want to treat its illness or know its cause.” Al-Rahi continued: “It is not the right of officials to devastate a country and its people by destroying the system and the constitution.”

The presidential vacuum in Lebanon has entered its ninth month without MPs being able to elect a head of state due to ongoing political divisions. Meanwhile Al-Rahi was briefed by Lebanon’s caretaker minister of justice, Henri Khoury, on the progress of army investigations into the murder of two people in the Qurnat as Sawda area last Saturday. Haitham Tawk and Malek Tawk were killed in a dispute over water and real estate near the town of Bsharri, an area frequently riven by disputes over land and resources due to a lack of demarcation of some areas, including the Qurnat as Sawda summit itself, which is the highest peak in Lebanon and the Levant. Multiple people from Bsharri and the neighboring town of Dennieh were arrested and weapons seized. “Army Intelligence investigators have formed an initial picture of how the crime took place and how the first bullet was fired, which hit Haitham Touk, 36, and led to his death,” said a security source.

BY BASSEM MROUE BEIRUT (AP) — A French court Tuesday upheld the freezing of the assets of Lebanon’s embattled central bank governor, rejecting his appeal to have them released, an official close to the investigation said. Several European countries are investigating central bank Gov. Riad Salameh and his associates over myriad alleged financial crimes, including illicit enrichment and laundering of $330 million. A French investigative judge on May 16 issued an international arrest warrant, or Interpol red notice, for the 72-year-old Salameh after he failed to show up in Paris for questioning. France, Germany and Luxembourg in March 2022 froze more than $130 million in assets linked to the investigation. The European Union Agency for Criminal Justice Cooperation, or Eurojust, said at the time that the investigation targets five suspects accused of money laundering.

Salameh, who has repeatedly denied charges of corruption had requested that his assets be unfrozen. On Tuesday, a French appeals court rejected his appeal, saying that his assets will remain frozen, according to an official close to the investigation who spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations. The central governor has repeatedly said that he made his wealth from his years working as an investment banker at Merrill Lynch, inherited properties and investments. He said he would only resign if convicted of a crime. A Lebanese judge representing the Lebanese state earlier this year charged Salameh, his brother Raja and associate Marianne Hoayek with corruption. Last week, Hoayek was questioned in France and she signed a document pledging not to return to work at the central bank and not to have any contacts with the Salameh brothers and paid a 1.5 million-euro ($1.63 million) bail, Lebanese judicial officials said. During her questioning, Hoayek denied charges of corruption saying that most of her money were inherited from her father.