By Joyce David -- Communalnews.com --The Lebanese Ministry of Health announced that there were 166 new cases of COVID-19, a single-day high after the outbreak in February. According to National News Agency (NNA) statistics, so far, a total of 2,334 cases have been diagnosed and 36 died. The epidemic in Lebanon seemed to stabilize in recent weeks, but it began to heat up again on the 10th, and the number of people infected with the epidemic broke through 300 in 3 days. The Lebanese Red Cross tweeted that they had sent 131 confirmed employees of a cleaning company to the isolation center. The Lebanese Health Minister, Hamad Hassan, said that the 131 people were included in the 166 confirmed cases announced, and this data represents the “peak” of the epidemic. He also told the local media that it is not impossible for the epidemic to wreak havoc again, but the probability is “very small.” It seems that he wants to downplay the seriousness of the case.

Lebanon gradually loosened the lockdown measures at the end of April. It was locked down for another four days in May due to the return of the epidemic. In early July, the airport was restarted and closed for more than three months, allowing passengers to enter the country by plane. Lebanon’s economy has been crumbling, and this year has witnessed the impact of the epidemic. Not only has the exchange rate reached a record low, but nearly half of the population has fallen into poverty. Dr. Tedros: Many Nations Headed in Wrong Direction

Ed Silverstein -- casino.org -- The government may sell its partial share of the gaming property, located about 14 miles north of Beirut, to raise money, according to a recent report from Middle East Eye. A leading gaming historian at UNLV, David Schwartz, concurred that Casino du Liban could be sold given the current dire economic conditions. I don’t see why it would be impossible,” Schwartz told Casino.org about a possible transaction involving Lebanon’s casino. “Everything is for sale at the right price.” He added that if a global casino operator took over the casino, “potentially” it could lead to more tourism in the once thriving nation. “It would depend on how much capital they were willing to invest in infrastructure and marketing,” Schwartz added.

When gross gaming revenue (GGR) was higher, the Lebanese government earned significant revenue from the gaming property. In total, 50 percent of all casino revenue goes to the Lebanese government, the report said. Some 80 percent of the venue’s revenue comes from 15 percent of its customers. That 15 percent is largely made up of tourists and players from foreign nations, Middle East Eye reported.

Lebanon Once Was “Monte Carlo of Middle East”

By Amberin Zaman -- al-monitor.com -- Criticizing Turkey’s famously thin skinned President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is a risky business. More than 100,000 people have been investigated and at least 30,000 others have been prosecuted for “insulting the president” since Erdogan rose to the presidency in 2014. The crime carries a penalty of at least four years in prison under Article 299 of Turkey’s penal code. Veteran Turkish comedians Mujdat Gezen and Metin Akpinar are among the most recent targets for airing disapproval over Erdogan’s autocratic behavior in a 2018 television appearance. Prosecutors sought up to four years and eight months in prison for the pair, who have entertained generations of Turks with their jibes at successive governments.

Now an ethnic Armenian Lebanese show host is to appear in court on Oct. 8 on similar charges, albeit in Lebanon, following pressure by Ankara on Lebanese authorities, in a further sign of how Turkey’s domestic fault lines are spilling beyond its borders and how Erdogan’s government is exploiting the divides to shore up support. Nishan Der-Haroutounian, the host of a popular live program on Lebanon’s Al Jadeed TV, will face charges of "insulting Turkey” before the Court of Publications Chamber in Beirut. Der-Haroutounian’s travails with Turkey began in June when a caller dialed into his show and made derogatory comments about the TV personality’s Armenian roots. The caller then went on to berate Der-Haroutounian for labeling Erdogan “an obnoxious Ottoman.” Der-Haroutounian retorted, “I am at complete liberty to call Erdogan and his regime obnoxious. A million and a half Armenians were killed.” He was referring to the mass slaughter of Ottoman Armenians in 1915, a massacre that for all of Turkey’s ferocious rebuttals is widely acknowledged as one of the earliest genocides of the 20th century. Lebanon’s estimated 150,000 ethnic Armenians are mostly descended from survivors of the genocide. Soon after Der-Haroutounian’s outburst, a small but rowdy group that claims ancestry from Turkey’s southeastern province of Mardin gathered outside the station and began chanting anti-Armenian slogans. Lebanese pro-Turkish activist Mounir Hassan simultaneously posted a video online calling Der-Haroutounian an “idiotic dog” and “gay.” Hassan said, “We and our Turkish and Ottoman ancestors are proud of the massacre that our Ottoman ancestors carried out against the Armenians, because you deserve it.” The video went viral.

(MENAFN – The Peninsula) Beirut: A top former finance official alleged that Lebanese banks “smuggled” out close to $6 billion since October …