'Mayyas' wins America's Got Talent, bank hold-ups coordinated, live bullets shot at protesters and activists: Everything you need to know to start your Thursday

Depositors attempted to forcibly withdraw their funds by instigating ‘coordinated’ hostage situations in Beirut and Aley banks, with the support of various depositors’ associations. Sali Hafez managed to withdraw $13,000 from her own account at (what appeared to be) gunpoint from the Sodeco branch of Blom Bank Wednesday morning. A similar hold-up ensued in a Aley branch of BankMed, after which the assailant was taken into custody. "Aley's BankMed branch succumbs before depositors," wrote the Association of Depositors in Lebanon, one of several depositors’ associations who coordinated the hostage takings, according to Mouttahidoun (United) alliance founder Rami Ollaik, who warned of further incidents. “Cry of the Depositors” association scheduled a press conference for this afternoon to discuss yesterday’s events and the “next steps the group will take against banks.” Hafez’s act was allegedly carried out to finance her sister’s cancer treatment, recalling Bassam al-Sheikh Hussein’s Federal Bank hold-up in August to cover his father’s medical bills. Since the onset of the crisis in 2019, depositors’ access to their funds has been severely restricted by informal capital control measures, which have sometimes resulted in violent outbursts. Activists yesterday evening protested outside the home of BLOM Bank’s chairman, Saad Azhari, calling out the bank’s refusal to drop charges against two activists that accompanied Hafez during the takeover. While protesting, they were met with live bullets from unidentified armed individuals, who were believed to be Azhari’s guards.

Lebanese dance troupe "Mayyas" won on the 17th season of the TV show "America's Got Talent" Wednesday night. The 36 Lebanese dancers and their choreographer Nadim Cherfan won $1 million and the chance to perform with "America's Got Talent Live" in Las Vegas. Cherfan, who confided to L'Orient-Le Jour in June that Mayyas' objective was "simply to win this competition," said he wished to dedicate the success of his troupe to Lebanon, where support for Mayyas has turned into national and patriotic pride. Cherfan also noted the difficulties facing the Lebanese, that the dancers had to overcome to participate in the troupe, in a society that does not always understand why a woman may choose to dedicate herself to dance. One of the four judges on the panel, Simon Cowell, had said after Mayyas’ number in the semifinals, that "every single person in this room is going to remember this moment, I promise you that,” adding that “this is not going to just change your lives … this is a performance that changes the world.” A public vote decided the victory. Mayyas has wowed audiences and the judges from the start, one of whom gave them a golden buzzer, which advanced the group to the quarterfinals.

Parliament postponed its 2022 draft budget law discussion session until today amid protests and previously announced MP absences. A protester told L’Orient Today that the budget, in its current form, would further depreciate salaries that have already lost most of their value due to the lira’s devaluation. Karim Daher, a tax lawyer at the Beirut Bar, said the text plans to “cover planned expenses with new compulsory levies — mainly indirect taxes.” Despite the proposed tax hikes, the budget draft proposes a significant deficit with total expenditures appraised at LL40.5 billion, while total revenues were expected to reach LL28.9 trillion. The Finance and Budget Committee submitted the draft to the general assembly in August, nearly a year later than officially required, despite disagreements about the text’s lack of a unified exchange rate. A single lira-to-dollar rate and an improved budget are requirements set by the International Monetary Fund in a staff-level agreement that Lebanon must meet in order to access a multi-billion dollar aid package.

Italian rescue teams were deployed to rescue 250 people stranded aboard a migrant boat that ran out of water, food and fuel off the Maltese coast. The rescuers first evacuated children from the vessel, which left Lebanon a few days ago. Nationals of Lebanon, Syria and Palestine were aboard the boat, which was escorted to Italy yesterday. One woman, three children and two babies died the day before when another boat carrying migrants from Lebanon to Italy sank off the coast of Turkey. Last Wednesday, a four-year-old child died in transit to a hospital after having been stranded for days aboard an irregular vessel between the Greek and Maltese coasts. Despite the grave dangers of irregular migration, the number of informal departures from Lebanese shores has increased as people attempt to escape the growing pressures of the economic crisis.

“Exploration for oil and gas, will give the Lebanese economy a positive impetus to begin to emerge from the [economic] crisis,” President Michel Aoun said, claiming that progress was made in negotiations on the demarcation of the southern maritime border with Israel. Amos Hochstein, US mediator in the border discussion, said during his visit to Lebanon last Friday that “there is still work to be done” to resolve the dispute sparked by Israel’s June deployment of a floating platform to the Karish gas field. Oil and gas exploitation could constitute a two-pronged approach to Lebanon’s economic crisis, which severely impacted energy security. Fuel shortages have exacerbated electricity outages in the country, as state provider Electricité du Liban alternated operations between power plants and resorted to the use of lower-grade fuel in one of its facilities, causing noxious emissions. “At least we should get electricity in return for pollution,” a protester told L’Orient Today after infiltrating the Jieh (South Lebanon) power plant. Dozens of the area’s residents occupied the plant Tuesday night to protest electricity cuts and pollution caused by the facility. Potentially toxic emissions also cause for concern in North Lebanon when one of Tripoli's main garbage dumps caught fire Wednesday, emitting a large column of black smoke.

In case you missed it, here’s our must-read story from yesterday: "The end (for now)? Hamed Sinno reflects on Mashrou’ Leila’s tumultuous journey."

Compiled by Abbas Mahfouz