Media reports suggested that Hassan Diab will not submit to questioning in the Beirut port explosion probe today. Fadi Sawwan, the lead judge in the investigation, is set to attempt questioning of the caretaker prime minister and three former ministers this week. The judge filed charges against the outgoing premier, former Finance Minister Ali Hassan Khalil and former Public Works ministers Youssef Fenianos and Ghazi Zeaiter on Thursday for “criminal negligence.” Diab has suggested he will not comply because he believes the judge’s decision violates the Constitution — a position that has been disputed by legal experts and the Beirut Bar Association.

Maronite Patriarch Bechara al-Rai criticized “political, sectarian and legal reactions” to the decision to charge the caretaker prime minister and three former ministers. The patriarch said he hoped such reactions would not stand in the way of investigations into the Beirut port explosion. The day after Sawwan’s charges, former Prime Minister Saad Hariri visited Diab, who is not allied with the Future Movement leader, to express his support, while Grand Mufti Abdel-Latif Derian said the charges “targeted” the position of prime minister, considered the preserve of the Sunni sect. On Sunday, the Future Movement issued a dramatic statement hitting out at “sectarianizing the catastrophe” of the port explosion and what it said was a plan to “isolate” the premiership.

Customs chief Badri Daher is set to be questioned on Wednesday by a judge for his involvement in the “Captagon Prince” case. Daher is accused of asking to prematurely lift a travel ban in July on a Saudi prince who was arrested while attempting to smuggle nearly two tons of the amphetamine-type drug through Beirut airport in 2015. Daher has been in detention since August, when he was arrested in the wake of the Aug. 4 port explosion.

The General Confederation of Lebanese Workers will mount a strike on Wednesday to protest the likely removal of across-the-board subsidies. Over the last week, ministers, MPs and other officials have held meetings in an attempt to devise a plan to reallocate state subsidies on foodstuffs, pharmaceuticals, medical equipment and fuel. They have not yet produced a plan that will support the most vulnerable populations after central bank reserves run out and the current subsidy system becomes unviable.

Caretaker Health Minister Hamad Hassan is meeting with medical bodies this morning to discuss the launch of a barcode system to track pharmaceuticals. Hassan is meeting with representatives of the Order of Physicians, Order of Pharmacists, the World Health Organization and the Lebanese Pharmaceuticals Importers and Wholesalers Association, before holding a press conference to announce details of the new system, the minister’s media advisor told L’Orient Today. In 2018, then-Health Minister Ghassan Hasbani signed a decision to launch a barcoding system for medicines to allow them to be tracked from supplier to pharmacy to patients, but it was never fully implemented. Medicines have been disappearing from shelves across Lebanon in recent months as a result of stockpiling, smuggling and payment delays.

Measures to curb the spread of the coronavirus have been relaxed, starting today. The overnight curfew has been shortened and will now run from 11:30 p.m. to 5 a.m. Parties, events and gatherings have been permitted as long as they do not exceed 100 people and are within a capacity of 25 percent indoors and 50 percent outdoors. Bars and nightclubs can reopen at 50 percent capacity, as long as there are no more than eight people per table, and no one dances. Meanwhile, Firass Abiad, the head of Rafik Hariri University Hospital, warned that despite some reduction in COVID-19 case numbers since the two-week countrywide lockdown, test positivity remains high and compliance low. “All this, and the activities planned for the holidays, will lead to another surge in numbers in the coming weeks,” he said.

Correction: This article had originally mistaken the dates of Customs chief Badri Daher's questioning and the GCLW's strike. They are both set to take place Wednesday, not Thursday. L'Orient Today regrets the error.