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Morning Brief

Huge earthquake felt in Lebanon, supermarkets to dollarize, cabinet to convene: Everything you need to know to start your Monday

Here’s what happened over the weekend and what to expect today, Monday, Feb. 6

Huge earthquake felt in Lebanon, supermarkets to dollarize, cabinet to convene: Everything you need to know to start your Monday

Stormy weather brought dangerous conditions over the weekend. (Credit: Hussam Shbaro)

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A huge earthquake that hit a southern Turkish town raised alarm when it was felt in Lebanon this morning at around 3:20 a.m. The 7.8 magnitude quake, which hit the town of Nurdagi some 450km from Beirut, caused fatalities in both Turkey and Syria and was also felt in Iraq and Cyprus. The National Geophysical Center of Lebanon also reported an undersea tremor, between Lebanon and Cyprus, of magnitude 4.8 on the Richter scale. The quakes caused many residents across Lebanon to rush outside their homes, fearful of the impact an earthquake would have on dilapidated buildings and the country’s already fragile infrastructure.

Supermarkets are expected to start displaying product prices in dollars this week while allowing shoppers to pay in lira according to the parallel market exchange rate. “Only local products that suppliers charge in lira to supermarkets [such as produce, bread and cigarettes] will continue to be displayed in that same currency,” supermarket owners’ union head Nabil Fahed told L’Orient Today. The move however is opposed by the General Confederation of Workers, with its president, Bechara al-Asmar clearly stating yesterday that the body “rejects this decision and calls for its cancellation.” Fahed added that supermarkets could adopt during the same day different exchange rates to convert prices, as the dollarization comes amid ongoing fluctuations in the parallel market rate. The currency briefly appeared to stabilize around a record low of LL64,000 to the dollar late last week after the adoption of a new official exchange rate on Feb. 1, which devalued the lira by 90 percent. Yesterday morning, however, the lira’s value on the parallel market experienced high volatility, as reports emerged of authorities announcing the arrest of money exchangers “speculating on the Lebanese lira.”

Lebanon’s cabinet is scheduled to convene this morning to discuss education, health, wheat imports, sanitation, municipal elections and overdue UN fees. The meeting agenda published on Friday includes discussions on funding for the Lebanese University and aid to public school teachers, who have called for a government session addressing their demand for improved compensation amid a strike that has been ongoing since Jan. 10. Public school teachers’ syndicates on Saturday announced they would hold a protest coinciding with the government meeting, demanding higher wages and transportation fees, as well as the receipt of a proportion of their salaries in dollars and improved health insurance as an ultimatum to ending the strike. The meeting is also scheduled to tackle financing imports of three months’ worth of medicine for cancer and chronic diseases and aid for government hospital employees. Activists and cancer patients on Saturday protested the unavailability and steep cost of cancer medication. Caretaker Health Minister Firass Abiad last month said a lack of “financial means” prevents the ministry from meeting demand for subsidized medicines — the number of which was reduced after the onset of the economic crisis and recently supplemented with a ministry-issued price index for unsubsidized drugs. The cabinet also plans to address financing wheat imports, as Lebanon expects the first shipment of World Bank loan funded wheat to arrive next week; the status of the Naameh landfill in South Lebanon; financing municipal elections scheduled for May 2023, rescheduled last year to hold parliamentary elections; and paying Lebanon’s annual minimum contribution to the UN to restore voting rights at the General Assembly. The session comes amid controversy regarding the cabinet’s ability to convene amid a presidential vacuum given its caretaker status.

Families of the Aug. 4, 2020 Beirut port blast victims held their monthly vigil on Saturday, marking two and a half years since the tragedy that killed more than 200 people and injured 6,500 others. The memorial comes amid judicial controversy over the course of the blast investigation as Lebanon’s top prosecutor, Judge Ghassan Oueidat, continues to oppose an attempt to relaunch the case by lead investigator Judge Tarek Bitar, against whom unresolved appeals and complaints froze the probe for over a year. Near the gathering held by victims’ relatives, activists set up a tent in memory of journalist and fierce Hezbollah opponent Lokman Slim on the second anniversary of his assassination. A day earlier, Slim’s family called for a UN fact-finding mission to determine whether his murder was linked to the port explosion. Last week, UN experts criticized slow progress in the investigation into Slim’s murder, expressing readiness to assist Lebanese authorities in complying with international standards for investigating unnatural deaths.

Stormy weather yesterday jeopardized transportation routes across the country, cutting off mountain roads and flooding coastal ones while trapping motorists; the weather conditions also closed fishing harbors in the south and north. Authorities in northern Lebanon advised drivers to be careful amid “re-establishing road connections between mountain towns due to heavy snowfall,” L’Orient Today’s correspondent in the region reported. The Civil Defense in Saida meanwhile intensified work to "open roads after they were flooded" and to "evacuate citizens stuck in their cars,” L’Orient Today’s correspondent in the south reported. “The storm … paralyzed navigation and fishing in the port of Saida for the first time this season,” the state-run National News Agency reported on Sunday while L’Orient Today’s correspondent in the north reported the closure of fishing harbors in the region “to avoid the dangers of waterspouts and the possibility of waves reaching a height of more than six meters.”

Food and grocery delivery mobile app Toters drivers halted a several-day partial strike on Friday after the company agreed to increase their wages. Toters increased drivers’ pay per trip to LL26,000 after several days of strike to protest unfair wages and no work benefits such as medical coverage despite dangerous conditions, drivers told L’Orient Today. “We are not united. Many were afraid to demonstrate,” a driver told L’Orient Today as the protest was resolved at a lower compensation than the LL35,000 demanded by drivers. Toters responded to online reports of the strike claiming to have been “constantly updating the driver earnings” amid parallel market exchange rate and fuel price fluctuations. “The average driver compensation per order is more than 45,000 LBP (excluding tips), and can reach 150,000 LBP (excluding tips) for a longer distance order," Toters added, while drivers claimed they received LL18,000 per delivery despite the delivery fees charged to customers ranging between LL35,000 and LL50,000 depending on the distance.

French, US, Saudi, Qatari and Egyptian diplomats are scheduled to meet today in Paris to discuss the political deadlock in Lebanon. French Minister of Europe and Foreign Affairs Catherine Colonna, announcing the meeting last Thursday, said discussions were held with Saudi and other partners around ways “to encourage the Lebanese political class to assume its responsibilities and promote a way out of the crisis.” Pierre Duquesne, the French diplomat charged with coordinating international support for Lebanon, on Friday criticized the slow implementation of the reforms demanded by the International Monetary Fund to unlock a multibillion dollar aid package. The same day, the Belgian parliament approved a resolution urging European Union members to activate sanctions against Lebanese officials accused of corruption.

In case you missed it, here’s our must-read piece from over the weekend: “The Sajeria: The Lebanese snack takes Amsterdam by storm while supporting local Lebanese products”

Compiled by Abbas Mahfouz

 Want to get the Morning Brief by email? Click here to sign up.A huge earthquake that hit a southern Turkish town raised alarm when it was felt in Lebanon this morning at around 3:20 a.m. The 7.8 magnitude quake, which hit the town of Nurdagi some 450km from Beirut, caused fatalities in both Turkey and Syria and was also felt in Iraq and Cyprus. The National Geophysical Center of Lebanon...