Lebanon celebrated Western Christmas in the shadow of the growing COVID-19 pandemic. The country broke records for new case numbers both days leading up to Dec. 25, with 2,708 new infections on Christmas Eve. Caretaker Interior Minister Mohamed Fehmi warned that if cases continue to rise, “the country will definitely go on [another] lockdown,” despite the adverse economic consequences. Meanwhile, a patient with the new coronavirus strain arrived from the United Kingdom, the health minister said.

A Syrian refugee camp near Minyeh was burned down Saturday night following a labor dispute. The incident began with a disagreement between employers from a local Lebanese family and Syrian agricultural workers who were refusing to work due to lack of payment, sources told L’Orient Today. The employers rallied armed men to set the camp on fire, sending some 80 families fleeing without their belongings. Army Intelligence has arrested two Lebanese accused of burning down the refugee camp, as well as six Syrians involved in the incident. The collective retribution toward Syrians echoed an incident in Bsharri last month in which townspeople drove refugees from their houses after a local man was killed in a personal dispute.

Hassan Nasrallah claimed the United States had agreed to a plan from Mohammed bin Salman to assassinate him and other Hezbollah leaders. Nasrallah made the accusations during an interview with Al Mayadeen TV Sunday night, adding that the US agreed to the alleged plot on condition that it be carried out by Israel. The Hezbollah chief linked the plan to the US assassination of Iranian Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani nearly one year ago, and his comments come after Iranian nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh was assassinated in Tehran in late November.

Students have called for another protest against the rise in university tuition costs on Tuesday at 11 a.m. Two weeks ago, angry students and activists took to the streets in Hamra, blocking roads and smashing bank facades in protest of a massive hike in tuition. Both the American University of Beirut and the Lebanese American University have abandoned the lira’s peg to the dollar, effectively more than doubling tuition for their students.

Lebanon will ring in another year without a government on Friday. This will be the third New Year’s in a row celebrated waiting for the country’s political class to divide cabinet seats up among themselves. Following a meeting with President Michel Aoun last Wednesday, Premier-designate Saad Hariri said that “political problems” are obstructing cabinet formation and that “a cabinet must be formed after the new year.” Over the holiday, Hariri tweeted that he had left the country on a family visit. He did not say when he would return.