July 2nd, 20220BEIRUT – Lebanon’s untamed financial crisis is gathering new menace as it heads into a fourth year, with political paralysis dampening hope of reforms that could unlock foreign support and stave off social turmoil, according to analysts, lawmakers and former officials.
The emergency gripping the small country squeezed between Syria...
June 24th, 20220BEIRUT — Lebanon's Najib Mikati was named prime minister on Thursday, urging fractious politicians to set aside differences to secure an IMF deal which he said was the only chance to save the country from financial collapse.
Facing a politically difficult path to agreeing on a new cabinet, the billionaire tycoon who led three...
June 22nd, 20220BEIRUT — Lebanon's caretaker premier Najib Mikati will likely be nominated for a new term on Thursday, political sources said, keeping him at the helm as the country prepares for steep financial and political challenges in the months ahead.
If re-installed, Mikati will have to steer Lebanon through an economic recovery plan that...
May 28th, 20221BEIRUT — Lebanon’s intelligence chief said Thursday that he met with Biden administration officials this week to discuss ways he could help secure the release of six Americans who are being held prisoner or are missing in Syria, including Austin Tice, a freelance journalist who contributed to The Washington Post.
Maj. Gen. Abbas...
May 20th, 20220Lebanon's emboldened opposition goes from protest to parliament
BEIRUT – When Halime El Kaakour enters Lebanon's parliament as a newly elected lawmaker next week, she will step past the same concrete barriers that security forces erected to keep her and other protesters out during massive anti-government rallies in 2019.
Powered by...
May 14th, 20220DEARBORN — A 17-year-old Dearborn High School senior has launched a new business in her dad’s memory.
Fatimeh Homayed came up with the idea after her father, Mohamed, tragically passed away from cancer a few months ago and she decided to open up a business out of her home called Apple Dip.
“My dad always took us to these...
April 26th, 20220BEIRUT — Lebanon's cabinet ordered the military court on Tuesday to investigate the capsize of a migrant boat after colliding with a naval vessel giving chase, with at least six dead and dozens missing.
The boat carrying Lebanese and Syrian migrants sank off the coast near the impoverished northern city of Tripoli on Saturday...
April 12th, 20220At least one person was killed and seven were injured in an explosion at a scout center affiliated with the Shi'a Amal Movement near Sidon in southern Lebanon, officials told Reuters early on Tuesday.
The blast demolished the building and army personnel were searching through the rubble for any further casualties, sources added. The...
April 8th, 20220U.S. Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-Dearborn) is joining a group of two dozen U.S. House members to urge the Biden administration to work with Lebanese officials to ensure that the upcoming parliamentary elections on May 15 are carried out on time, transparently and free of corruption.
The group sent out a letter to Secretary of State Antony...
March 24th, 20220BEIRUT — A Lebanese military court has charged Christian politician Samir Geagea over deadly clashes in Beirut last October, a judicial source and broadcaster Al Jadeed said on Thursday, a move that could stoke political tension two months before an election.
An official in Geagea's Lebanese Forces (LF) party said the charge...
March 21st, 20220BEIRUT — A Lebanese judge charged central bank governor Riad Salameh with illicit enrichment on Monday, adding to the number of graft investigations he already faces.
Judge Ghada Aoun told Reuters the case related to the purchase and rental of Paris apartments, including some to the central bank.
Salameh denied the charge when...
March 18th, 20220DEARBORN - The Imam Sadr Foundation (ISF) USA held its 22nd annual event and fundraising gala at the Islamic Center of America on Saturday, March 12.
The gathering saw an immense show of support for the organization that has been doing critical social and humanitarian work for Lebanon’s most vulnerable populations for...
February 26th, 20220DEARBORN — The Lebanese artist of Armenian origin behind the painting of more than a dozen mosques and churches globally has returned to Dearborn to continue to share his work.
Born in 1973, Haroutioun “Harout” Isack Bastajian has always had a passion for art.
“I spent a lot of time in my childhood in the remote...
February 23rd, 20220BEIRUT — Lebanese security forces have foiled plans by militants linked to ISIS to carry out three suicide attacks in Beirut's southern suburbs, the interior minister said on Wednesday.
The plans for the attacks involved rocket-propelled grenades and gunfire as well as suicide vests rigged with explosives that would have killed...
February 3rd, 20220Lebanese authorities said on Monday that the country's intelligence and security agencies dismantled 17 Israeli spy rings and made numerous arrests in connection with the network.
The spy network was embedded in various aspects of Lebanese society and collected data on politicians and NGOS, specifically targeting Palestinian...
January 24th, 20220BEIRUT - In a bombshell announcement, Lebanon's leading Sunni Muslim politician Saad al-Hariri said on Monday he was suspending his role in political life and would not run in a forthcoming parliamentary election.
The news comes as the country is tackling a dire financial crisis that has seen the country depend into social and...
January 11th, 20220BEIRUT — A Lebanese judge said on Tuesday she had imposed a travel ban on central bank governor Riad Salameh, who is at the center of investigations into alleged fraud and other misconduct launched after Lebanon was plunged into a deep financial crisis.
Salameh, who said he had no knowledge of the ban and denied any wrongdoing, is...
December 7th, 20210BEIRUT — The probe into last year's deadly Beirut port blast has been cleared to resume after being suspended for more than a month on legal claims against its lead investigator, Judge Tarek Bitar, a judicial source said.
A Beirut court rejected the last of the suits preventing Bitar from questioning top officials on...
November 30th, 20210WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Reps. Rashida Tlaib (D-Detroit), Debbie Dingell (D-Dearborn), House Subcommittee on Immigration and Citizenship Chairwoman Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) and House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) have introduced the Lebanon TPS Act of 2021.
The proposed legislation seeks to grant Lebanese nationals...
November 25th, 20210BEIRUT — More than half of families in Lebanon had at least one child who skipped a meal by October amid a "dramatic deterioration of living conditions," the U.N.'s children's fund said in a report released on Tuesday.
Children have been hit hard by the country's deep economic crisis exacerbated by the global coronavirus pandemic,...
November 5th, 20210Lebanon is facing its worst rift yet with oil-rich Gulf Arab states, spurred by comments made by Lebanese Information Minister George Kordahi before his official appointment about the Saudi-led campaign that has created a severe humanitarian crisis in Yemen.
Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati said on Thursday he had agreed with...
November 4th, 20210DEARBORN — As a followup to several requests to the Biden administration to provide temporary protective status (TPS) to Lebanese nationals in the U.S., U.S. Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-Dearborn) sent a letter to the U.S. Department of State this week.
"Almost every single day, I hear from neighbors in my district who are desperate to...
October 22nd, 20210The subject of decades-old sectarian strife has been rekindled in Lebanon, following a deadly shooting of protesters last Thursday.
The leader of the Christian Lebanese Forces (LF) dismissed accusations by Hezbollah that it has a militia and seeks civil war as the fallout of deadly violence, in which seven Shi’a Lebanese were shot...
October 14th, 20210BEIRUT — At least six Shi'as were shot dead in Beirut on Thursday, in an attack on protesters who were heading for a demonstration called by Hezbollah to demand the removal of the judge investigating the explosion that ripped through the city's port last year.
The Iran-backed Hezbollah and its ally, the Shi'a Amal Movement, accused...
October 4th, 20210BEIRUT — The judge investigating Beirut's catastrophic port explosion survived attempts to have him removed from the inquiry when a court dismissed two complaints against him on Monday.
The investigation into the Aug. 4, 2020 explosion, one of the biggest non-nuclear blasts in history, has made little headway amid a smear campaign...
September 23rd, 20210BEIRUT — Lebanon's state electricity company said on Thursday it risked a total blackout across the country by the end of September as its fuel oil reserves dwindle.
Lebanon, in the throes of one of the worst economic meltdowns of modern history, has been plagued by worsening fuel shortages for the past few months with most...
September 16th, 20210Hezbollah began bringing Iranian fuel into Lebanon via Syria on Thursday, a move the group says should ease a crippling energy crisis but which opponents say risks provoking U.S. sanctions.
Dozens of trucks carrying Iranian fuel oil entered northeastern Lebanon near the village of al-Ain, where Hezbollah's yellow flag fluttered from...
September 10th, 20210BEIRUT - Lebanese leaders agreed a new government led by Sunni Muslim tycoon Najib Mikati on Friday after a year of feuding over cabinet seats that has exacerbated a devastating economic collapse, opening the way to a resumption of talks with the IMF.
The breakthrough followed a flurry of contacts with France, which has led efforts to...
