By NAJIA HOUSSARI -- arabnews.com -- BEIRUT: Lebanese President Michel Aoun on Thursday met Christian Patriarch Bechara Boutros Al-Rai, who is unhappy with the delay in forming a government due to the conditions put forward by the president. The meeting took place as Israeli warplanes violated Lebanese airspace following a similar breach of Lebanese waters on Wednesday night, when Israeli soldiers on a gunboat fired at Lebanese fishing boats, according to the Lebanese army command. The Aoun-Al-Rai talks continued for 45 minutes. Afterwards, Aoun said that the purpose of the meeting was to wish each other happy holidays because circumstances prevented them from being at the Patriarchate at Christmas. He said, however, that they had touched on “the general conditions that are still unannounced because all that happened with us is not reported in the media, and unfortunately, everyone in the media writes as they please.”

Aoun spoke of the “possibility” of a meeting between him and the prime minister-designate, Saad Hariri, but did not specify a date for the meeting. There is information that Al-Rai was arranging a meeting between Aoun and Hariri as part of his efforts to accelerate the formation of the government. This has reached stalemate as Aoun has not yet responded to the lineup suggested by Hariri a month ago in accordance with the French initiative — that it does not include ministers affiliated with politicians in power, but rather technocrats. Hariri returned to Beirut on Thursday after spending the holidays abroad. The media bureau of the president said: “There is no truth in the information that a meeting was to be held in Bkerke between Aoun and Hariri, under the auspices of Al-Rai. The truth is that Al-Rai made a similar proposal to the president during their Thursday meeting, and Aoun did not know about it in advance.” The dispute between Hariri and the Free Patriotic Movement (FPM), which is headed by the president’s son-in-law, Gebran Bassil, escalated a few days ago when Hariri’s media office announced its rejection of the FPM bloc’s holding “others responsible for the obstacles that the movement deliberately creates” in forming a government.

by newsmax.com -- Jeffrey Rubin -- The U.S. Capitol is secure once more, hours after supporters of President Donald Trump breached the historic building. The siege, which occurred as lawmakers were beginning to certify Electoral College results showing Joe Biden won the Nov. 3 election, had plunged the capital into chaos, with TV anchors likening videos of surging crowds and broken windows to those more commonly seen in authoritarian and third-world countries. It occurred not long after Trump, convinced voter fraud caused his loss to Biden, urged supporters at a rally in D.C. to oppose the ceremonial counting of the electoral votes. Though the ceremonial count, and associated protests by dozens of Republican lawmakers, were interrupted for hours, in a letter to colleagues House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said congressional leaders had decided to resume the joint session Wednesday night. They aim to do so once the Capitol is cleared for use, she said, after consultation with top lawmakers, the Pentagon, the Justice Department and Vice President Mike Pence.

By some reports, including one from the Washington Post, the surge into the Capitol led to use of tear gas, gunfire, and the death of one woman from gunshot wounds to the chest. National Guard and state troopers from Virginia have been called up, among others, to aid in restoring order. The woman was a “civilian” and officers are investigating, said Chief Robert J. Contee of the Metropolitan Police Department. She’d been pronounced dead at a local hospital, but officials had no further details on who shot her or why. There was much more detail, much of it startling, about the start of the siege. Shortly after 1 p.m. ET Wednesday hundreds of pro-Trump protesters pushed through barriers set up along the perimeter of the Capitol, bumping up against officers in full riot gear, some calling the officers "traitors" for doing their jobs, CNN said. About 90 minutes later, police said demonstrators got into the building and the doors to the House and Senate were being locked.

by AFP -- Beirut: When Rachelle Halabi rushed her 85-year-old father to a Beirut hospital a few days ago with Covid-19, the doctor sent them home as intensive care was full. "The ER doctor told us to go back, get him an oxygen machine and give him his treatment from home," she told AFP from the Lebanese capital. "We went with it for several days, but his condition did not improve." Halabi herself tested positive for Covid-19, one of the thousands of new cases reported in Lebanon following a holiday season where loosened restrictions let infections soar. With 192,000 reported cases and almost 1,500 deaths, Lebanon is not among the world's worst hit countries. But its infrastructure is crumbling, and a small surge in infections is enough to take its health sector to breaking point.

The health ministry has in recent weeks urged private hospitals to make more room for Covid-19 patients, but the pandemic is spreading too fast. "The rise in Covid numbers has outpaced the increase in critical beds," said Firass Abiad, the head of a major public hospital battling the virus. Lebanese Red Cross president Georges Kettaneh told AFP the service was "transporting around 100 patients in need of hospital treatment a day." Halabi said she was turned away by several hospitals, and her hunt for a bed eventually took her outside the capital, to a private hospital in the city of Zahle, in the Bekaa valley. Her father was given a bed in exchange for 15 million Lebanese pounds, equivalent to some $10,000 at the official exchange rate. "What do you do if you can't afford this amount?" she asked. Her father had already had a narrow escape earlier this year, when a mammoth blast at Beirut port in August devastated swathes of the capital.

by arabnews.com — LONDON: Lebanese took to social media platforms to express their discontent and frustration with the unveiling of a Qassem …