by AFP -- WASHINGTON: Credit ratings agency S&P downgraded more Lebanese government debt issues after missed payments, citing the country’s worsening economic crisis following the devastating explosion in Beirut earlier this month. S&P Global Ratings maintained the “selective default” or “SD” rating for Lebanon’s foreign debt, after the country first defaulted in March, but three more bonds were cut to “D” from “CC,” the agency said. “The recent catastrophic explosion in Beirut is deepening the country’s economic crisis,” S&P said in a statement. “A protracted political vacuum or weak new government could further delay policy reforms, external aid and debt restructuring negotiations.” The capital was ravaged by a massive explosion at Beirut’s port on Aug. 4 that killed 181 people and wounded thousands. That was followed by protests against the government, leading the Cabinet to resign. Still reeling from the deadly blast, the country also entered into a new coronavirus lockdown Friday after a string of record daily infections tallies. “Even before these recent events, Lebanon had made limited progress in engaging creditors on debt restructuring negotiations,” S&P said.

by NAJIA HOUSSARI -- arabnews. -- BEIRUT: The Lebanese footballer Mohammed Atwi is in intensive care at Al-Maqasid Hospital, battling for his life after he was hit in the head by a bullet on Friday, in the Cola district of Beirut. The incident coincided with the last of the funerals for members of the Beirut Fire Brigade who died in the recent port explosion. Joe Bou Saab’s funeral was taking place in the Ain El-Remmaneh area east of Beirut, as armed men began shooting into the air. Atwi, 33, had played for Al-Tadhamon Football Club in Tyre, and previously for Al-Ansar FC and Akhaa Ahli Aley FC. He had been driving his motorbike wearing a helmet in the Cola district when he was struck by a stray bullet, causing severe bleeding and a fracture of the skull. Sources told Arab News that Atwi “needed 16 units of blood, and although he underwent surgery, the bullet was still in his head and doctors could not pull it out because it was in a very critical place behind the ear.” Atwi was not the only victim that day. A security guard, whose name has not been released, was also hit by a stray bullet in the shoulder in front of an embassy near the Cola area, and underwent surgery. He is in stable condition.

In recent years, there has been a campaign to stop shooting in the air during funeral ceremonies, when political leaders appear on television, at weddings, and even to celebrate passing a high school diploma. There were 147 victims (including 45 fatalities) as a result of stray bullets between 2013 and 2019 in Lebanon. Often, Lebanese people also resort to settling disputes by using weapons, but in the past two days, it seems the use of firearms has escalated. Tension between supporters of the Amal Movement and supporters of Hezbollah, against the background of raising religious tension, has led to gunfire, resulting in the injuring of four people, one of whom, Hussein Khalil, died later from his wounds. During his funeral, there were chants against the secretary-general of Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, describing him as an “enemy of God.”

by ZAID M. BELBAGI -- arabnews -- For Lebanon — a country facing a perfect storm of hyperinflation, food shortages and an acute political crisis — the notion that circumstances could worsen seemed impossible to countenance. However, the Aug. 4 explosion of 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate in Beirut port proved that things could indeed get worse. Who was responsible for the storage of such quantities of the explosive will remain the subject of speculation, but it must not be allowed to distract from the very real challenges Lebanon faces. A country urgently in need of a bailout, it must look to its talented citizens, not its disconnected elites, for a way out. If anything, the explosion served to underscore the negligence of a nomenklatura that has always put its own financial interests ahead of those of the Lebanese people. As one of the world’s most indebted nations, which now finds itself without a government, the uphill struggle could not be steeper. Whereas disasters elsewhere in the world are met with a period of investigation, in Lebanon crises provide an excuse for those in power to entrench themselves further.

Lebanon’s political elite, unabated by popular anger, is jockeying to form another sham government of self-interest and avoid any sort of investigation. Perhaps more worryingly, an important audit of the country’s central bank is being all but averted. The institution that was complicit in the laundering of billions of dollars stands at the center both of what has plagued Lebanon and any attempt to find a resolution. The lackluster President Michel Aoun has once more deemed that his own political future, as a man of 85, supersedes that of his nation. Ignoring calls to resign, he and MPs must now agree on a new government — though, given the fate of Lebanon’s outgoing prime minister of just a few months, such efforts seem unlikely to succeed.

(MENAFN – Trend News Agency) Head of Lebanese Order of Physicians Charaf Abou Charaf Friday urged donor countries to accelerate their financial …