The probe into the 2020 Beirut port explosion is set to resume after a weekslong pause brought on by legal challenges. On Tuesday, a Beirut Court of Appeals rejected a suit filed by former Public Works and Transport Minister Youssef Fenianos, who was charged with criminal negligence over the devastating blast, a judicial source told L’Orient Today. Judge Tarek Bitar — who Hezbollah and the Amal Movement have demanded be removed from the case — can restart his investigation once he is formally notified of the court’s ruling, the source added. The latest delay marked the third time Bitar’s probe has been suspended as a result of lawsuits filed by politicians suspected of negligence in connection with the blast.

An International Monetary Fund delegation met separately with Prime Minister Najib Mikati and President Michel Aoun yesterday, as part of continuing discussions surrounding an IMF bailout for Lebanon. During their meeting with Mikati, they discussed the framework of the envisioned agreement, and basic tenets of it related to public finance, the banking sector, the central bank and monetary policy, according to a statement from the prime minister’s office. They also met with MPs Ibrahim Kanaan (FPM/Metn) and Yassine Jaber (Amal/Nabatieh). The delegation, led by the IMF’s chief of mission for Pakistan, the Middle East and Central Asia Ernesto Ramirez-Rigo arrived in Beirut on Monday for the trip, which is scheduled to last for several days. Meanwhile, in an inauspicious sign for Lebanon’s ability to make reforms, Monday saw the Parliament’s joint committees scuttling the latest draft of a capital control law, after critics — and lawmakers — said it was biased in favor of commercial banks.

Parliament voted yesterday in favor of new amendments to the agreement governing a World Bank-funded cash assistance program, bringing the badly delayed program one step closer to reality. Earlier amendments to the agreement passed by Parliament in March, which were made without approval from the World Bank, slowed down work on the project by months. Last week the government launched a registration platform for the cash assistance program, although funding had not yet been secured. As of Tuesday evening just over 150,000 applicants had filed applications for aid. In January, the World Bank said the program aimed to “provide 147,000 extreme poor Lebanese households (approximately 786,000 individuals) with cash assistance for one year.” During Tuesday’s session MPs also voted to establish a National Agency for Medicine to combat fraud and monopoly in the sector, increased fines for noncompliance with COVID restrictions and authorized transfers of tuition money for families of students studying abroad. It pushed a compensation package for victims of the Tleil explosion back to committee, as well as a law that would have given Parliament authority over the use of funds Lebanon collected from the IMF’s Special Drawing Rights program.

The brother of a Hezbollah MP was briefly kidnapped yesterday in northeastern Lebanon amid an ongoing family feud. Members of the Haj Hassan family shot at Wassim Hamadeh, whose brother Ihab Hamadeh represents Baalbeck-Hermel in Parliament, wounding and briefly abducting him before releasing the man to Hezbollah. L’Orient Today’s correspondent reported that Hamadeh was handed over to Hezbollah, after which the organization’s Islamic Health Organization transported him for hospitalization. The feud between the Hamadeh and Haj Hassan families dates back to 2015, when another brother of Ihab Hamadeh was killed by a member of the Haj Hassan family. The accused killer was then imprisoned.

The Health Ministry will hold another COVID-19 vaccination marathon this coming weekend. Those registered on IMPACT’s vaccination platform are asked to bring proof of their registration. People who are not registered must bring any of the following supporting documents: ID card, passport, individual record, a residence certificate from the municipality or any other identification document, and the vaccination center will assist in registration. The list of participating vaccination centers will be available on the ministry’s social media: https://twitter.com/mophleb