Lebanon’s number of COVID-19 cases increased on Saturday by 22 to 1,719, while the death toll remained unchanged at 33, the National News Agency reported. The new cases were detected after 2,635 PCR tests were conducted in the past 24 hours, according to the heath ministry. Meanwhile, Beirut International Airport, which will reopen on July 1, has prepared all necessary ...

Lebanon will impose a partial curfew as of Thursday as part of efforts to stem the spread of coronavirus, an official said Thursday. Lebanese Information Minister Menal Abdussamed said authorities have decided to impose a curfew from 7 p.m. until 5 a.m. and are urging residents to cooperate. Lebanon Thursday reported 35 new cases of the virus also known as ...

While residents of many other countries are counting on government bailouts, that’s not an option in country teetering on the edge of bankruptcy Through 15 years of civil war and various bouts of violence since, Lebanon’s Barbar eatery never closed its doors, serving up sandwiches to customers even if it meant doing so from behind sandbags. The coronavirus pandemic, however, ...

Lebanon is facing an unprecedented financial crisis, amid months of widespread public discontent. It’s now confronted with the COVID-19 outbreak and its potential economic repercussions. Earlier in March, Lebanon failed to repay $1.2 billion in outstanding bonds. The country is also struggling to cope with dwindling foreign currency reserves and double-digit inflation. We speak to Dan Azzi, a former chairman of Standard Chartered ...

Some in Lebanon are casting blame on Iran, the supporter of the country’s Hezbollah party, after the country’s first case of the new virus was discovered on a flight from the Iranian city of Qom this week. The existence in Lebanon of the new virus that first emerged in China has been politicized by some in Lebanon’s deeply divided population, ...

Palestinians say they are working with Israel to combat the virus The Palestinian Authority, Jordan and Lebanon said on Sunday they have taken precautionary measures to prevent the outbreak of the coronavirus in their territories. While the PA and Jordan said no cases of coronavirus have been found among their citizens, Lebanon confirmed the first case of a 45-year-old woman ...

Lebanon’s economic and political crisis over the past four months has hit Syrian refugees particularly hard. Beirut and Beqaa Valley, Lebanon – For Mahmoud, a Syrian refugee working in Beirut, the sharp economic and financial downturn gripping Lebanon has brought old anxieties from his homeland bubbling to the surface. “About the economy, if it is going to [collapse] or something ...

Qatar will stand by Lebanon during its current economic crisis, Qatari Finance Minister Ali al-Emadi told a conference in Doha on Saturday. Lebanon is facing the worst economic crisis since the 1975-1990 civil war, rooted in decades of state waste and corruption that has landed the country with one of the world’s heaviest public debt burdens. Lebanon’s “economic and political ...

Like so many in Lebanon, Samir Hamdan grew up being told that Lebanon’s political system was necessary to protect his sect. Thanks to the sectarian power-sharing agreement that ended the 15-year civil war in 1990, his small Druze minority was guaranteed seats in parliament and positions in government. But now in his twenties, Hamdan says that system has not just ...

Tens of thousands of people have formed a human chain across Lebanon in a show of national unity as part of a historic civil disobedience campaign. Amid a sea of Lebanese flags and music blaring from loudspeakers, people joined hands along coastal roads aiming to span 171 kilometres from the south to the north. Nationwide protests, ignited in part by ...