|   | Shou el akhbar. Lebanon just sent Iran a formal written note telling it to back offâand that's only one of the stories making this Saturâ day feel anything but restful. Drones, disinformation, and a country trying desperately to hold the line: let's get into it. |
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 | | Lebanon Hands Iran a Formal Written Rebuke â And Means ItThe backstory: Since Hezbollah joined Iran's regional war effort, Tehran has increasingly treated Lebanese territory as its own operational spaceâsending Revolutionary Guards, running "joint operations," and claiming its killed operatives held diplomatic status. Beirut has had enough.
- Iran's chargĂ© d'affaires Toufic Samadi was summoned to Bustros Palace on Friâ day, where Secretary General Ambassador Issa Abdelsater confronted him over Iranian claims that four Iranians killed at a Raouche hotel held diplomatic statusâclaims Lebanon flatly denies.
- Lebanon handed Samadi a formal written note declaring its "categorical rejection of any interference in Lebanon's internal affairs" and insisting relations with Tehran must be based on "equality and reciprocity."
- Abdelsater presented a series of examples proving Iran's non-compliance with Lebanese government decisions, citing the Revolutionary Guard Corps statement acknowledging joint operations with Hezbollah as the most recent breach.
- The government has also ordered the arrest and expulsion of anyone on Lebanese soil linked to the Revolutionary Guards, and now requires Iranian nationals to obtain a visa to enter Lebanon.
Why it matters: A small country formally dressing down a regional power in writingâduring an active warâis either a historic assertion of sovereignty or an extraordinarily dangerous gamble, and right now it's both. Israeli Leaflets Over Beirut Are Actually a Cyberweapon in Disguise
- Paper leaflets dropped over Beirut by Israeli forces contain QR codes signed by "Unit 504," an Israeli military intelligence arm specializing in human intelligence and agent recruitmentânot just psychological pressure.
- Scanning the QR code opens a direct channel to Facebook pages or WhatsApp groups, potentially exposing a user's device type, operating system, and IP address, creating a preliminary database of anyone who interacts with the flyers.
- The Lebanese Army has warned against scanning the codes or accessing any linked URLs, citing both legal liability and direct security risk to individuals.
- In worst-case scenarios, the deep links embedded in QR codes can trigger automatic actions inside appsâopening conversations with specific numbersâor lead users toward downloading files that grant access to location data and contact lists.
What to watch: As hybrid warfare blurs the line between a paper flyer and a surveillance operation, digital literacy may now be as critical to Lebanese civilians as any physical safety measure. Lebanon Launches Official Fact-Checking Unit as Disinformation Spikes
- The Lebanese Ministry of Information, backed by UNESCO's regional Beirut office, has launched a dedicated fact-checking unit called Fact Check Lebanon, with a dedicated page on the ministry's official website.
- A cohort of young Lebanese from different regionsâtrained by UNESCO in media and information literacyâstaffs the unit after completing specialized workshops on verification tools and digital content analysis.
- The initiative targets the surge of misinformation spreading on social media platforms amid the current regional conflict, with the ministry committing to publish verified findings publicly and coordinate with journalists across the country.
The bigger picture: Launching a state fact-checking unit while the country is at warâand while the state itself is under pressure from multiple directionsâis a meaningful bet on institutions, at exactly the moment institutions are being tested hardest. |
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 What does "Mitel ma btiz3am, byi7sob 7esabak" mean? | You are judged by your claims |
| | Actions matter more than words |
| | Speak carefully around authority |
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Scroll to the bottom for the answer â or play all 10 at sobhiye.news/games/trivia |
 | | - 773 dead, bridges down: Israeli strikes destroyed a Litani River bridge at Tayr Filseyâthe first hit on state infrastructure since the war began Marâ ch 2âwhile the Health Ministry reports 773 killed, including 103 children, and 1,933 injured since fighting started.
- "Resist or disappear": Hezbollah Secretary General Naim Qassem delivered his second wartime speech Friâ day, calling the conflict "an existential threat in every sense," rejecting direct negotiations with Israel, and predicting a "long confrontation."
- Lebanon says: we'll talk: Information Minister Paul Morcos told ABC News that Lebanon is ready to negotiate with Israel "in any format," echoing Pâ M Salam's earlier statement to L'Orient Toâ dayâa striking contrast to Hezbollah's simultaneous rejection of the same diplomacy.
- $6 killed the smugglers: A new fuel tax has made Lebanese petrol pricier than Syrian petrol by roughly $6 per 20-liter jerrycanâshrinking the profit margin enough to slow cross-border fuel smuggling along Lebanon's 375-kilometer border, at least for now.
- FBI stretched thin, threats rising: Three domestic terror incidents in one weekâincluding a Michigan synagogue attack by a man who lost four family members in Lebanonâare exposing gaps in US counterterrorism capacity, as roughly half of the Justice Department's counterterrorism prosecutors have left since Trump took office.
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 | â | Parallel Rate | 89,700 LBP | 0.00% | | â | Official Rate | 89,500 LBP | 0.00% | | ⌠| Gold | $5,061.7 | -1.06% | | ⌠| Bitcoin | $70,834 | -0.91% | | ⌠| S&P 500 | 6,632.19 | -2.12% |
as of 6:â 20 Aâ M GMT · Source: Yahoo Finance, CoinGecko |
 | | Duterte Faces The Hague â And the World Is Watching
- Former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, arrested last Marâ ch at Manila airport, now sits in a jail cell at The Hague as ICC prosecutors argue he should stand trial for crimes against humanity over his drug war, which government tallies put at 6,000 killedâhuman rights groups say up to 30,000.
- Prosecutors trace Duterte's alleged pattern back decades, to his more than 20 years as Davao city mayor, where they say he organized death squads before scaling up to a national killing campaign as president from 2016 to 2022.
- The Philippines withdrew from the ICC, but because the alleged killings occurred while the country was still a party to the court, Duterte cannot escape its jurisdictionâa legal detail that may prove decisive.
The bigger picture: The Duterte case tests whether the ICC can remain a meaningful accountability mechanism for mass atrocity even as the US imposes sanctions on the court and global consensus around international justice continues to fracture. South America's "King of the South" Finally Falls
- Alleged Uruguayan drug trafficker SebastiĂĄn Marset, 34âwho branded himself "King of the South" and stamped the moniker on cocaine bricksâwas arrested in Bolivia and is already being extradited to the United States, according to Bolivia's interior minister.
- Marset is accused of trafficking tonnes of cocaine from South America to Europe, laundering money through US banks, and ordering the 2022 murder of Paraguayan prosecutor Marcelo Pecci, who was shot dead while on his honeymoon in Colombia.
- Despite a 2023 police raid on his mansion in Santa Cruz de la Sierraâhe had apparently been tipped off and fledâMarset was ultimately recaptured in the same city where he first evaded authorities.
- The arrest marks a significant restoration of US-Bolivia law enforcement cooperation, nearly 20 years after Bolivia expelled the US ambassador and the DEA under former president Evo Morales.
What to watch: Marset's extradition to the US will test how much of his transnational networkâwhich stretched from Bolivia through Paraguay to Belgium, the Netherlands, and Germanyâprosecutors can dismantle with his cooperation or testimony. US Slashes Citizenship Renunciation Fee by 80%
- The US State Department published a final rule Friâ day reducing the fee to formally renounce American citizenship from $2,350 to $450âthe same price as when the government first introduced the charge in 2010âwith the new rate taking effect immediately.
- The original fee hike in 2015, a more than five-fold increase, was driven by a surge in renunciation requests linked partly to US tax reporting requirements that frustrated many American expatriates living abroad.
- The France-based Association of Accidental Americans, which filed multiple lawsuits challenging the fee's constitutionality, said at least 8,755 Americans had paid the full $2,350 since a 2023 promise to reduce the fee was announced but never implemented.
Zooming out: The fee cut matters particularly to the large Lebanese-American diaspora and dual nationals globally, for whom the old $2,350 price was a significant barrier to resolving complicated citizenship and tax obligations. |
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 | | - Mr Nobody, Oscar somebody: Russian school videographer Pavel Talankin, 35, arrived in Los Angeles for the Academy Awards after his documentary Mr Nobody Against Putin already won Best Documentary at the BAFTAsâand his former students are writing his Oscar acceptance speech, just in case.
- Noma drama, wings survive: The world's most famous restaurant opened its 16-week Los Angeles pop-up at $1,500 per dinner, where the lemon pepper wings remain firmly on the menuâproof that no matter what happens in fine dining, good wings are eternal.
- Atlanta's lemon pepper legacy: The Atlanta Hawks sold 2,000 tickets in the first 24 hours after announcing Magic City Night, a celebration of the iconic Atlanta strip club that launched careers from TI to Lil Jonâand whose signature lemon pepper wings have their own Wikipedia-worthy origin story.
- Psychedelics, minus the trip: A startup called Delix Therapeutics completed the first human trial of a non-hallucinogenic neuroplastogen called zalsupindole, with 18 depression patients reporting substantial improvements for at least a monthâand the FDA has approved a larger study, no cosmic visions required.
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Yalla, go enjoy your Saturâ dayâyou've earned it. |
 | âA. You are judged by your claims |
Your words define expectations and consequences. |
 Lebanon news for the diaspora â delivered every weekday morning. Free, sharp, ~5 minutes. |
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