Catch up on past editions of Sobhiye. Every story, every insight, always available.
A quarter of a billion dollars in unpaid power bills, and EDL just started pulling the plug on the government itself. Bonjourein. Today we've got that, Lebanon and Syria talking border and refugees in Damascus, and Hezbollah's first housing cash since March.
Kifkon. UNIFIL's mandate ends December 31, and nobody has a replacement. Meanwhile, Beirut's airport lost power for hours last week, an electricity deadline lands today, and a Fast Track lane may finally open for Independence Day. Plumbing first, polish second.
Shou el akhbar? Hezbollah is reportedly warning that a raid on its sites will be treated as aggression, Beirut's airport swears its lights are back on, and a priest in Rmeish has turned a building-code summons into the week's most unlikely political fight. Sunday coffee, meet your reading list.
Shou el akhbar? It's Sunday, which means it's time for the weekly recap, a look back at the biggest Lebanon stories of the past seven days. The week opened with a Reuters report, citing Lebanese security sources, that Hezbollah has spent three months preparing for renewed fighting with funds from Iran, a claim its media office rejected. By Friday, Prime Minister Nawaf Salam had launched consultations on a national plan to govern the Palestinian camps. In between, Cabinet moved to halt imported biosimilar medicines after prosecutor raids. There was a blind-climbers summit and a landfill getting trees, too. Grab your coffee.
Five superpowers, one peacekeeping force, zero troops promised. That's Gebran Bassil's pitch for replacing UNIFIL before December 31. Ahla w sahla, and stay for the rest: fresh dollars piling up in banks that won't lend them, and Prime Minister Nawaf Salam's plan for the Palestinian camps.
Forty Grad rockets, one dead militant, and a paper trail that may end with jihadists. Bonjourein, Friday starts with leaked Syrian intelligence files. Also: a professor challenges the Lebanese University president's second term, and Hezbollah's chief hears a sharp reply on disarmament.
Three different roads out of the same stalemate, and none of them runs through Beirut. Washington is sketching a post-UNIFIL plan, Israel's election has Lebanese officials running the numbers, and everyone is guessing who Iran is rooting for. Shou el akhbar? Mostly that Lebanon is waiting on other people's decisions.
Shou, can a country privatize its phone company when the people running it fear walking away with $2,200? Marhaba. Ogero's staff are on strike, the streets of Beirut still have kids begging and nowhere to shelter them, and it turns out your everyday dollar checks run on brand-new money, not the frozen kind.
Tens of millions of dollars, a getaway car that never got caught, and a pharmacy deadline that actually has a date on it. Kifkon, Tuesday: Hezbollah is rearming on Iranian cash, the Dahr al-Baydar explosives case just grew a second vehicle, and November 1 is suddenly a real date.