by reuters — BEIRUT: Christine Tohme had already been diagnosed with ovarian cancer when Lebanon’s financial system began to unravel in 2019. She never expected that two years later her country’s economic meltdown would pose a direct threat to her life. The 50-year-old was later diagnosed with third stage colon cancer in February. Having undergone surgery earlier this year, she was then prescribed six sessions of chemotherapy. But with shortages of basic goods plaguing every aspect of Lebanese life, Tohme was told there was no guarantee she would complete her treatment as hospitals run out of vital drugs. So far she has only undergone three sessions. Her cancer has metastasized to her lymph nodes and she fears if she cannot complete her treatment she will only have months to live. Having knocked on every door to try to secure her medication at any cost, Tohme took to the streets on Thursday, despite her ailing health, to join a sit-in protest with other cancer patients, doctors and nongovernmental organizations. “I’m hoping that God gives me strength, as I don’t have that much, to stand on my two feet and take part so that maybe people will see us and sympathize with us and send us treatment,” Tohme told Reuters two days before the event. “I have kids, I want to be happy with them and see them get married and become a grandmother.”

Lebanese healthcare workers have warned for months of declining stocks of vital medical supplies. Many pharmacy shelves are empty as the country’s foreign reserves are depleted on the back of a subsidy scheme used to finance fuel, wheat and medicine that cost the state around $6 billion a year. This month the central bank declared it could no longer finance fuel imports at subsidized exchange rates because its dollar reserves had been so badly depleted. Tohme’s case is not unique. Dr. Joseph Makdessi, who heads the hematology and oncology department at the Saint George Hospital University Medical Center, estimates around 10 percent of cancer patients have been unable to source their treatment in the past couple of months. “We need an immediate solution,” Makdessi said. “I can’t tell my patients this is a crisis and ask them to wait till it eases because this disease has no patience.”

هل يعلم احد ما هو السعر الذي سيباع به النفط الايراني ؟ شكراً للاستاذ المصحح بصرف النظر عن النظريات المتعلقة بالاستراتيجيات الدولية ولعبة الامم ومصالح الدول وتوازن القوى، على رئيس الحكومة والوزراء المعنيين والادارات والاجهزة المختصة القيام بواجبهم لجهة التعميم على مؤسساتهم تطبيق الاجراءات الادارية والقانونية على عملية استيراد النفط والتأكد من اتمامها واتمام الشروط […]

By LARA SELIGMAN, ALEXANDER WARD and ANDREW DESIDERIO  – politico — U.S. officials in Kabul gave the Taliban a list of names of American citizens, green card holders and Afghan allies to grant entry into the militant-controlled outer perimeter of the city’s airport, a choice that’s prompted outrage behind the scenes from lawmakers and military officials. The move, detailed to POLITICO by three U.S. and congressional officials, was designed to expedite the evacuation of tens of thousands of people from Afghanistan as chaos erupted in Afghanistan’s capital city last week after the Taliban seized control of the country. It also came as the Biden administration has been relying on the Taliban for security outside the airport.

Since the fall of Kabul in mid-August, nearly 100,000 people have been evacuated, most of whom had to pass through the Taliban’s many checkpoints. But the decision to provide specific names to the Taliban, which has a history of brutally murdering Afghans who collaborated with the U.S. and other coalition forces during the conflict, has angered lawmakers and military officials. “Basically, they just put all those Afghans on a kill list,” said one defense official, who like others spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive topic. “It’s just appalling and shocking and makes you feel unclean.” Asked about POLITICO’s reporting during a Thursday news conference, President Joe Biden said he wasn’t sure there were such lists, but also didn’t deny that sometimes the U.S. hands over names to the Taliban. “There have been occasions when our military has contacted their military counterparts in the Taliban and said this, for example, this bus is coming through with X number of people on it, made up of the following group of people. We want you to let that bus or that group through,” he said. “So, yes there have been occasions like that. To the best of my knowledge, in those cases, the bulk of that has occurred and they have been let through. “I can’t tell you with any certitude that there’s actually been a list of names,” he added. “There may have been. But I know of no circumstance. It doesn’t mean that it doesn’t exist, that here’s the names of 12 people, they’re coming, let them through. It could very well have happened.”

by reuters — BEIRUT: The European Union is deeply concerned at the rapid deterioration of the crisis in Lebanon, its ambassador to Beirut said on Thursday, telling Lebanese leaders the time for action had run out and urging them to form a government. It reflects growing worry about a sharp deterioration of the situation in […]

by armenianweekly.com — Tsoler Aghjian — It was only a couple of years ago when my career as a pharmacist wasn’t of major importance to the Lebanese people. I was seen as an employee in a community pharmacy dispensing prescribed drugs and recommending some over-the-counter drugs to treat minor illnesses. However, after almost two years of tragedies that undermined the economy of this tiny Mediterranean country, things have changed radically. I am now the acquaintance that people rely on to make the needed drug available despite the overwhelming shortage in supply.

Since the October 2019 revolution in Lebanon, the hidden failures of 30-year-old corrupt economic policies have become gradually tangible. The Lebanese lira started to lose its worth against the US dollar in the black market, and it is now worth 13 times less. These dramatic changes in the economy took their toll on the health sector as well, leaving the drug importing companies desperate to find foreign currency to be able to buy the stock demanded by the Lebanese market. To overcome the currency issue in the drug supply, the government had adopted a subsidy policy which obliges the Central Bank to provide the drug importers with the foreign currencies from the national savings at the official low rate so that the drugs can be categorized as “supported” products and sold to the people at their original low prices. However, this solution was never a sustainable one. The drug prices remained unchanged for a year or so, but now that the Central Bank’s resources are depleted, drugs can no longer be sold at low prices.

By MENASource Paul Gadalla — In his latest speech on August 15, Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, declared that his country is already “amid the collapse.” And, indeed, he might very well be right. Lebanon has fully lifted fuel subsidies, plunging many homes into darkness as many of the country’s residents rely on diesel generators to power their homes. Hospitals are struggling to keep the lights on while flour mills cease operation, spurring fears of a bread shortage. Pharmacies can barely stock medicines while the COVID-19 pandemic continues. One would think that such a bleak situation would push Lebanese politicians into forming a technocratic government capable of at least passing some reforms to save the country from the brink of collapse. But therein lies the problem: any reforms would rob Lebanon’s sectarian oligarchs of their power. Thus, Lebanese politicians are allowing for Lebanon’s collapse while hoping for as much international aid as possible with as little strings attached.

Since the end of the Lebanese civil war in 1990, there have been large international conferences to help bail out the country from its chronic economic problems. After fifteen years of civil war and conflicts with Israel, this was done in the hopes of keeping Lebanon together, as no one wished to see the country become a regional arena of strife again. In a report published in February by the London School of Economics, it is estimated that the $170 billion in financial assistance given to Lebanon by its various supporters since the end of its fifteen-year civil war is greater than the amount of aid given to countries under the Marshall Plan (adjusted for inflation). Yet, thanks to corruption, much of this money was misspent or stolen, leaving Lebanon heavily indebted and still with poor infrastructure. Even money meant for Syrian and Palestinian refugees in Lebanon has been misappropriated.

BEIRUT (AP) — Drenched in sweat, doctors check patients lying on stretchers in the reception area of Lebanon’s largest public hospital. Air conditioners are turned off, except in operating rooms and storage units, to save on fuel. Medics scramble to find alternatives to saline solutions after the hospital ran out. The shortages are overwhelming, the medical staff exhausted. And with a new surge in coronavirus cases, Lebanon’s hospitals are at a breaking point. The country’s health sector is a casualty of the multiple crises that have plunged Lebanon into a downward spiral — a financial and economic meltdown, compounded by a complete failure of the government, runaway corruption and a pandemic that isn’t going away. The collapse is all the more dramatic since only a few years ago, Lebanon was a leader in medical care in the Arab world. The region’s rich and famous came to this small Mideast nation of 6 million for everything, from major hospital procedures to plastic surgeries.

 THE NEW NORMAL

Ghaidaa al-Saddik, a second-year resident, had just returned from a week off after an exhausting year. Back on duty for a week, she has already intubated two critical patients in the emergency room, both in their 30s. She struggles to admit new patients, knowing how short on supplies the hospital is, scared to be blamed for mistakes and questioning if she is doing her best. Many patients are asked to bring their own medicines, such as steroids. Others are discharged too soon — often to homes where power outages last for days. “You feel like you are trapped,” said al-Saddik. The 28-year-old spends more nights in the staff dorms studying because at home, she has no electricity. She moved to an apartment closer to the hospital that she shares with two other people to save on rent and transportation. With the collapse of Lebanon’s currency amid the crisis, her salary has lost nearly 90% of its value. With fewer and fewer residents, she must now do the rounds for about 30 patients, instead of 10. Her mentor, a senior virologist, has left Lebanon — one of many in a brain drain of medical professionals. “I want to help my people,” she said. “But at the same time, what about me being a better doctor?” ___

RUNNING ON EMPTY

By Najia Houssari — arabnews.com — BEIRUT: The “Hermel meteorite” is continuing to generate controversy in Lebanon, becoming a top trend on several social media platforms. In Hermel, a town in the Baalbek-Hermel governorate 143 km from Beirut, a man claiming to be from NASA has reportedly discovered a 4,000-year-old meteorite worth billions of dollars. The Lebanese have reacted skeptically, with one beleaguered member of the public saying: “Amid the countless crises, all Lebanon was missing was a meteorite falling.” It has been claimed that “a geological engineer with US citizenship came to Lebanon about a year ago and headed to Hermel, which is 780 meters above sea level, with the help of a GPS and an interpreter.” Reports added that “he got to a specific geographical area located on a property owned by a person who was out of town so he asked the municipality to complete the official procedures so that he could return with others to search for a meteorite that fell there about 4,000 years ago.” The engineer allegedly explained that the meteorite “may be the largest to hit the Middle East, leaving a hole with a diameter of about 130 meters, and if it is extracted, it will have an important scientific value and science museums can be established at the site.”

Residents in Hermel said NASA “detected radioactive materials in one of the properties surrounding the site.” The mayor of Hermel, Sobhi Saqr, began searching for the property owner, Camille Nadim Murad, whose residence and address are unknown. In July, he published an announcement in the Official Gazette, informing him that work would be carried out “urgently for the public interest on property No. 2604.” He asked the person concerned to communicate with the municipality, stressing that the works would not change the property’s features or lower its value. The excavations, which began at the site without the permission of the property owner, sparked a controversy on social media. The mayor was accused of “fraud and greed and of working in secret at the property in the hope of making huge profits.” It was reported that “one gram of the meteorite is worth $4,000 to $8,000, and if the meteorite is found at a depth of 12 meters, its value will reach billions of dollars, while it is estimated to weigh 12 tons, according to preliminary studies by scientists.” No research center has followed up on the matter or visited the area.

by National News Agency — Maronite Patriarch Bechara Rahi urged officials to stop torturing and manipulating citizens’ feelings and put an end to the approach of obstruction and stalling in regards to the government formation. “Stop tampering with the fate of the homeland and the state, dropping one cabinet line-up after the other, and creating […]