Category Archives: Lebanon

Beirut explosion: footage shows massive blast – video

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Video circulating on social media shows a massive explosion rocking central Beirut - shattering windows, knocking down doors and shaking buildings several hundred feet away. 

Lebanon’s health minister told journalists a ship carrying fireworks had blown up in the port, though the size of the blast heard across the country raised suspicions it might have resulted from a rocket strike or detonation of explosives - deliberate or otherwise. The source of the blast has not been confirmed

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Inside Lebanon’s economic crisis – podcast

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Scenes of economic despair are visible across Lebanon – from shops to homes, businesses to hospitals. Guardian journalist Martin Chulov discusses why the country is verging on financial collapse

Across all pockets of a country conditioned to hardship over decades of war and tumult, the effects of a catastrophic economic implosion were evident when the Guardian’s Middle East correspondent Martin Chulov took a road trip across Lebanon. Since March, the prices of most goods have nearly tripled, while the value of the national currency has fallen by 80% and much of the country has ground to a halt. Those who still have work are surviving month to month. Poverty is soaring, crime is rising, and streets are incendiary. The country has defaulted on one bond payment and a second is due soon.

Martin tells Rachel Humphreys about how government corruption and financial mismanagement have lead to Lebanon finding itself on the brink of financial collapse.

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‘I can see the despair on their faces’: Lebanon’s economy unravels

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Prices of most goods have nearly tripled and the value of the national currency is plummeting

From her wedding dress shop in the impoverished northern Lebanese town of Akkar, Suzanne Hammoud has been selling bridal gowns for more than 15 years. She has revelled in her customers’ excitement as their weddings approached, and often stayed in touch as their lives progressed, sometimes making outfits for their children.

But this year, Hammoud has become more of a buyer than a seller of dresses. Sales racks are full of gowns she has bought back from families who have no other means of income left, except for selling their memories.

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‘I just need a connection’: the refugees teaching languages across borders

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A unique platform lets teachers from Venezuela to Syria to Burundi earn a living teaching their language online

Louisa Waugh and Ghaith Alhallak have met for language lessons in seven countries. “We counted it up the other day,” says Waugh, recalling the list of places from which she has video-called Alhallak: Britain, Mali, Senegal and Greece. Alhallak has answered from Lebanon, France and Italy, where he is now studying for a master’s degree in political science at the University of Padua.

“You just need a connection,” he says.

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Fresh protests in Lebanon over worst economic crisis in decades

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There were violent scenes as protesters took to the streets across the country for the third consecutive day

Hundreds of demonstrators angered by a deepening economic crisis rallied across Lebanon for a third consecutive day on Saturday, after violent overnight riots sparked condemnation from the political elite.

Protesting against the surging cost of living and the government’s apparent impotence in the face of Lebanon’s worst economic turmoil since the 1975-1990 civil war, protesters in central Beirut brandished flags and chanted anti-government slogans.

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Syrian protesters call for Assad’s downfall as economic crisis deepens

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Marches held on streets of Sweida amid soaring food prices and disillusion with corruption

A town in regime-controlled Syria is set for fresh protests this weekend as a burgeoning economic crisis engulfing even Bashar al-Assad’s most loyal supporters is now posing the biggest challenge to his grip on the country in years.

Food is now more expensive than at any other time during the nine-year conflict, triggering scenes reminiscent of the Arab spring protests of 2011 on the streets of the nominally government-loyal town of Sweida this week.

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US ‘Caesar Act’ sanctions and could devastate Syria’s flatlining economy

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Critics say legislation is being used for US strategy and could cause further problems for country and wider region

Its currency has plunged by 70% since April, more than half its people face food scarcity, and hopes of rebuilding a country shattered by war continue to ebb.

Syria seems barely able to absorb new shocks, but new US sanctions that take effect next week, could devastate what is left of its flatlining economy and amplify the gravest regional decline in decades.

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‘We’re poor people’: Middle East’s migrant workers look for way home amid pandemic

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Gulf states prepare for demographic shift as migrant workforces return home, with prospects bleak for those who stay

During 14 years in Lebanon, Jevie Olido’s four children have grown up without her, her marriage has failed and her parents have grown old. Now, the income that kept her far from her home in the Philippines has also gone, rubbed out by the coronavirus crisis and an economic implosion that has forced thousands of desperate domestic workers like her to look for ways to leave.

In neighbouring Jordan, Samir Ali, an Indian garment worker, is also waiting to be paid, after only receiving his March salary when he and other foreign workers at their factory threatened to strike. The pandemic has crippled production across the country and caused clashes between labourers and employers. Eight of the 40 men had registered to go back to India once their contracts had finished. “We’ve decided this factory is really bad,” he said. “We’re poor people, so we have to find another way.”

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Lebanon’s cash crisis hits Eid: ‘There is nothing to celebrate this year’

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Soaring prices have left basic goods outside the reach of more than half of country’s population

For more than a decade, Ahmad Hussein would spend the last few days of Ramadan assembling arrays of sweets in his shop in south Beirut, preparing for the bonanza to follow.

Eid al-Fitr, the three-day celebration that capped the monthlong fast, was an annual highlight as customers splurged on sugary treats and shiny new clothes. Cakes were made for the occasion. Abstinence was replaced by bountiful rewards.

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Global report: US unemployment could hit 25%, warns Fed chairman, as Japan enters recession

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India extends Covid-19 lockdown but eases many restrictions; South Africa reports highest daily new cases; World Health Assembly to begin

Unemployment in the United States could peak at 25% as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, according to the chair of the Federal Reserve, amid warnings the June quarter economic figures will be “very, very bad”. The bleak prediction came as Japan slid into its first recession in five years, with forecasts that worse was to come.

In a sober assessment of the economic impact of coronavirus in the US, the Fed chair, Jerome Powell, estimated GDP contraction in the June quarter could be “easily be in the twenties or thirties”, as fallout from the global outbreak worsened.

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Can Iraq’s new PM, and the region, escape Suleimani’s long shadow?

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Rise of spy chief to premier comes as Iran struggles to maintain momentum months after killing of powerful general

In late February, six weeks after the Iranian general Qassem Suleimani was killed by a US drone, a candidate for Iraq’s vacant premiership was nervously preparing for an interview that would secure him the role.

Mustafa al-Kadhimi’s rise from intelligence chief to the seat of national power had been unorthodox, as was the journey he had just made – from Baghdad, where high-stakes appointments like his had mostly been made over the past decade.

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We fear hunger, not coronavirus: Lebanon protesters return in rage – video

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Lebanon’s coronavirus lockdown has sent an economy already in deep trouble into freefall, and many are struggling to survive. Gino Raidy is an activist who was prominent during the October 2019 anti-government corruption protests. Now, with many fearing hunger and believing there is nothing left to lose, he is helping to keep demonstrators safe as they demand real and lasting change

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Pandemic raises fears over welfare of domestic workers in Lebanon

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Covid-19 lockdown could leave migrant workers across Middle East confined to employers’ households without pay, NGOs warn

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    • Calls by NGOs for increased protection of domestic workers in Lebanon during the coronavirus crisis have cast a spotlight on the predicament of migrant workers across the Middle East, many of whom are highly vulnerable to the pandemic and without support.

    In parts of the Levant, the Gulf states and Saudi Arabia, workers from south and south-east Asia account for a large proportion of labour forces. Closed airports, bonded labour, or other forms of unbreakable employment contracts, and little access to funds, have made it close to impossible for those who want to leave to do so.

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    Coronavirus: window of containment ‘narrowing’ after Iran deaths, WHO warns

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    Virus is spreading in Middle East, with confirmed cases in Lebanon and Israel

    Four Iranians have died after contracting the coronavirus, with health authorities warning it has spread to multiple cities, while Israel and Lebanon declared their first domestic cases as the deadly epidemic spreads across the Middle East.

    Asked on Friday if the new cases put the crisis at a tipping point, the World Health Organization director general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said the “window of opportunity is narrowing, so we need to act quickly before it closes completely”.

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    Lebanon’s financial crisis leaves its envied media industry in freefall

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    Agenda-setting newspapers and TV stations facing scramble to survive amid state dysfunction

    For nearly 80 years since its postwar independence, Lebanon has been a haven for regional media, giving a platform to journalism and entertainment that few other countries in the Middle East would dare to match.

    Its newspapers set agendas, its TV stations tested boundaries, and its proprietors defied both war and downturn, producing content that challenged state narratives and tested the patience of the powerful.

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    Hundreds injured in Lebanon as violence flares in ‘week of anger’

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    Pitched battles between police and demonstrators as leaders fail to form new government

    Protesters hurled fireworks and ripped branches from trees to use against security forces who fired rubber bullets and teargas during the most violent weekend of protests in Beirut since the beginning of mass anti-government demonstrations across Lebanon three months ago.

    Lebanese medical groups said at least 377 people were injured on Saturday, including 80 who were taken to hospital, during the culmination of days of unrest that organisers called a “week of anger” after a relative lull.

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    Fireworks flew as protesters clashed with security forces in Beirut – video

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    Fireworks were let off as protesters clashed with the security force in Lebanon’s capital on Saturday 18 January.

    Officers used water cannon and fired teargas at demonstrators who were protesting the economic crisis the country has faced in decades after politicians failed to agree on a new cabinet following prime minister Saad al-Hariri’s resignation in October

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    Japan issues arrest warrant for Carlos Ghosn’s wife

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    Carole Ghosn accused of perjury, as Nissan says it will pursue former chairman who fled to Lebanon

    Prosecutors in Japan have issued an arrest warrant for the wife of Carlos Ghosn for alleged perjury, as Nissan vowed to pursue its former chairman over his “serious misconduct” while head of the carmaker.

    Tokyo prosecutors’ special investigation squad said Carole Ghosn – a vocal supporter of her husband during his long detention in Japan – was suspected of making a false statement during testimony to the Tokyo district court last April, according to Kyodo news agency. Details of the allegation were not immediately available.

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    Carlos Ghosn ‘caught bullet train’ during escape from Japan

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    Border controls tightened as Japan investigates how ex-Nissan boss skipped bail

    Reports have emerged about how the fugitive former Nissan boss Carlos Ghosn managed to jump bail in Japan, as the country’s justice minister said border controls would be bolstered after the audacious escape.

    The 65-year-old executive skipped bail nearly a week ago, fleeing Japan where he had been awaiting trial on multiple counts of financial misconduct, which he denies.

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    Japan issues Interpol wanted notice for Carlos Ghosn

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    Move follows tycoon’s dramatic flight to Beirut to escape corruption charges

    Japanese authorities have issued an Interpol wanted notice for Carlos Ghosn, as the former Nissan and Renault chairman released a statement denying his wife or family were involved in his dramatic flight from corruption charges in Japan.

    The international policing organisation’s “red notice” alerts forces around the world that a person is wanted, in this case by Japanese police.

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