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BDL is expected to pay for some — but not all — subsidized medical supplies on Friday

BEIRUT — Lebanon’s central bank has said it would pay out $180 million in invoices for subsidized medical supplies and baby formula, enabling goods that are currently stuck in importers’ warehouses...

Ghada Alsharif, 27 May 2021

The Beirut Bar Association's council has called for Ollaik's release, saying his arrest violates Article 79 of the law governing the legal profession, which states that the judiciary and security forces must inform the bar's head before initiating proceedings against a lawyer

27 May 2021

Lebanon has registered 319 new cases of COVID-19 in the past 24 hours. Eight more people have died, bringing the total death toll to 7,705

27 May 2021

Earlier Thursday, Judge Ghassan Khoury had ordered the ISF's Information Branch to bring Ollaik in for questioning, after Public Prosecutor Judge Ghassan Oueidat filed a defamation complaint. Ollaik had written several tweets accusing Oueidat of failing to investigate corruption

27 May 2021

Rami Ollaik, a lawyer and the founder of the anticorruption alliance United for Lebanon, was arrested in front of his office in Adlieh, the NNA reports. Videos shared by local media show Ollaik being forcibly handcuffed by men in civilian clothes

27 May 2021

The central bank has agreed to settle $180 million in invoices for subsidized medicines, infant formula and medical equipment that are currently being held in importers' warehouses, the Health Ministry says in a statement. The goods will be distributed starting on Friday morning

27 May 2021

General Security has arrested two men allegedly involved in the explosion at the Saida port earlier Thursday and referred them to the Military Tribunal, the NNA reports

27 May 2021

The Lebanese composer Samir Sfeir has returned to Lebanon from Saudi Arabia. Speaking from the airport, Sfeir said he was held in solitary confinement for more than 50 days, questioned about his relationship with President Michel Aoun and asked whether he had links to Hezbollah

27 May 2021

The central bank has said in a statement that providing subsidized dollars for every invoice for medicine, medical equipment and infant formula would require dipping into its mandatory foreign currency reserves, which it refuses to do

27 May 2021

The exchange rate for buying and selling dollars has risen above LL13,000 for the first time since the end of March

27 May 2021

What is left of Lebanon’s Syrian Social Nationalist Party?

The scene on Sunday in Beirut’s Hamra Street appeared to be from a completely different time. Donning black caps and khaki t-shirts, SSNP partisans put on a military parade and marched through the...

Alexandre KHOURI, 27 May 2021

Caretaker Health Minister Hamad Hassan has told VDL 100.5 that most medicines missing from pharmacies and hospitals are stuck in importers’ warehouses due to BDL payment delays. The private hospitals’ syndicate head warned today of surgery and lab disruptions due to drug shortages

27 May 2021

The Energy Ministry has not updated its price list for gasoline and gas this week due to the strike held by labor unions yesterday, a spokesperson for the ministry told L’Orient Today. Price changes may be postponed until next week, the spokesperson added

27 May 2021

Employees at mechanical inspection centers held a sit-in front of their center in Hadath to protest the closure of all mechanical inspection centers since April 29, the NNA reports. The centers were shuttered following claims from land transport unions that they operate illegally

27 May 2021

A shell exploded at Saida port during the compression of scrap materials, causing no casualties, the NNA reports. The materials that included the shell arrived from the Bekaa Valley, the NNA adds. Another shell was found yesterday at the port of Saida

27 May 2021

France will provide food, medical supplies to Lebanon’s soldiers in response to army chief’s plea for help: sources

PARIS — Paris offered emergency food and medical aid for Lebanon’s troops on Wednesday after the country’s army chief Joseph Aoun warned France that an economic crisis had put the military on the...

John Irish, 27 May 2021

Three stun grenades were thrown overnight between 1 a.m. and 3 a.m. in the Tripoli neighborhoods of Bab al-Tabbaneh, Qobbeih and Jabal Mohsen respectively, the NNA reports. The army, heavily deployed in the area, carried out raids and arrested several suspects, the NNA adds

27 May 2021

Some private hospitals may be forced to halt surgeries and some laboratory tests in a week to 10 days’ time due to medication shortages, the head of the private hospitals’ syndicate Sleiman Haroun warned in comments to VDL (93.3) radio

27 May 2021

The minister’s approval of the LL90 billion advance follows the Constitutional Council’s lifting of a suspension on a $200 million treasury advance to EDL, a source with knowledge of the matter told L’Orient Today. Banque du Liban will now have to release the funds in dollars

27 May 2021

Caretaker Finance Minister Ghazi Wazni yesterday signed a LL90 billion — $60 million at the official exchange rate — treasury advance to Électricité du Liban to fund fuel imports, sources at both the Finance Ministry and EDL told L’Orient Today

27 May 2021

Labor unions strike, inflation soars, Syrian election results expected: Everything you need to know this Thursday

Hundreds of private and public sector workers went on strike and held sit-ins across the country yesterday to decry deteriorating living conditions. Protesters briefly blocked roads in Tripoli and...

27 May 2021