by dailystar.com.lb -- BEIRUT: U.S. President Donald Trump Thursday thanked the Lebanese government for helping to return the notorious Israeli-linked former commader and prison governor Amer Fakhoury to the U.S. "Fakhoury is on his way back to the United States after being imprisoned in Lebanon since September 2019 ... We are very grateful to the Lebanese government for working with us and we are very proud of his family," Trump said. Fakhoury was aquitted Monday of charges including torture, murder, attempted murder of inmates, and kidnapping of thousands of Lebanese citizens in south Lebanon’s Khiam prison – a facility he oversaw between 1985 and 2000. At least 10 people died at the prison during Fakhoury’s tenure at Khiam.

by executive-magazine.com -- Eva Hashem -- We are in the midst of a global pandemic. The novel coronavirus that has swept across the globe is having far reaching ramifications for our health systems and for the global economy. For Lebanese students, though among the demographic least likely to suffer severe health consequences from contracting COVID-19, the impact has been immediate and detrimental to a school year already besought with difficulties. Some institutions in Lebanon had sent students home before the Ministry of Education and Higher Education made the decision to close schools and universities on February 28 until March 9, a decision that has since been expanded into a country-wide lockdown until March 29. Lebanese students who were already in catch-up mode from the school disruptions at the height of the protests last year are now facing further disruptions, cancelled exams, and increasingly uncertain futures.

This crisis requires drastic measures. In order to slow the spread of the virus and flatten the curve (keeping cases at a manageable level so not to overwhelm healthcare systems) the Lebanese government has asked Lebanese to stay at home where possible. But these measures, while necessary, are also creating a crisis for our education system. Questions administers, teachers, students, and parents are now facing are those over the fate of this academic year, of standardized tests, and of the viability of our current education system in the long run should pandemics should as COVID-19 become more frequent occurrences. Comparatively speaking, Lebanese schools and universities have reacted quickly to this crisis and the need to ensure that students continue to learn and progress from home. The answer, at least as a short term measure to ensure continuity and stability in Lebanese education for all learners amid limited resources, was distance learning. Across Lebanon, stakeholders and school and university directors have instructed their teaching staff (supervisors, coordinators, and instructors) to swiftly activate an online learning system to connect institutions to parents and students through educational platforms.

by finance.yahoo.com -- Marton Eder and Dana Khraiche --Sovereign bond restructurings are rarely smooth. Lebanon’s looks like it will be particularly rocky. The rules underpinning the nation’s looming debt overhaul may complicate efforts to gather enough support to change the terms of its bonds. At the same time, they could protect the country from some of the issues that left Argentina with lengthy court battles. So say Mark Weidemaier and Mitu Gulati, law professors at the University of North Carolina and Duke University, who published online reports about the nation’s $30 billion of international bonds after reviewing the detailed terms laid out in the Fiscal Agency Agreement. That document has only been available to bondholders at the office of Lebanon’s fiscal agent in Luxembourg. “Lebanon’s FAA explicitly allows it to do what got Argentina into trouble,” they said in a post on the Creditslips academic blog. The terms make it “more difficult for holdouts to complain when the government pays restructuring participants (and everyone else) while leaving holdouts with nothing,” they said.

Pari Passu: The so-called pari-passu clauses, used to guarantee equal treatment of creditors, may be a rare positive element for Lebanon in a revamp fraught with difficulties. More stringent terms in Argentina’s case left it battling holdouts in court for more than a decade. Markets have already priced in the difficulties. Most dollar bonds are trading below 25 cents on the dollar, indicating losses of more than 75% on the face value of notes. Lebanon’s foreign-currency credit rating was cut to restricted default by Fitch Ratings on Wednesday.

BEIRUT (Reuters) – Beirut’s usually congested streets were largely free of cars and pedestrians stayed away from its seafront Corniche as government …