#Lebanon FINAL election results.

(Will be updated as they come in from the interior ministry) Mount Lebanon 1 - Baabda (6)

Ali Ammar (Hezbollah)
Fadi Alameh (Amal)
Alain Aoun (FPM)
Pierre Bou Assi (LF)
Hadi Boul Hosn (PSP)
Camille Chamoun (LF-backed)

EXCLUSIVE For more than a decade, Lebanon's central bank charged commercial banks commissions without saying they went to a company controlled by the central bank governor’s brother, according to documents seen by @Reuters

With @samianakhoul
Thread 1/12
reuters.com/markets/europe… These commissions came to light when Swiss requested cooperation from Lebanon for a probe into “aggravated money laundering” & embezzlement at the central bank.

The figure involved? More than $300 million allegedly taken by governor Riad Salameh’s brother, Raja, from 2002-15

2/

#Breaking: #Lebanon PM Najib Mikati officially heads new 24-member govt.

Main ministries headed by insiders + a couple reformist faces on 2nd/3rd tier, giving this cabinet the appearance of one that aims to preserve main establishment interests & reform around the edges

Names: Foreign: Abdallah Bouhabib, fmr ambassador to Washington & fmr World Bank official.

Finance: Youssef Khalil, senior CB official, architect of financial engineering.

Interior: Fmr Judge Bassam al-Mawlawi, close to Hariri's Future Movement.

After the #BeirutBlast, reconstruction was largely left to volunteers/NGOs amid heartwarming community spirit.

But the near-absence of state coordination has led to a fragmented response that in some areas has deepened inequalities & created tensions

1/9
news.trust.org/item/202108040… Syrian refugee Waad Hariri was happy to have found a community in Beirut after fleeing Syria's Daraa in 2011.

Soon after the blast, her landlord in Beirut's Karantina accused her of taking aid & pushed her to leave.

"We've lost the community we lived in for 10 years," she said

EXCLUSIVE: #Lebanon banks have swallowed at least $250 million in UN humanitarian aid for Syrian & Palestinian refugees and poor Lebanese since 2019 via bad exchange rates negotiated with UN agencies, a @TRF_Stories investigation finds

news.trust.org/item/202106170…
Thread (1/12) Most losses stem from a joint WFP/UNHCR/UNICEF program worth $400 million in 2020 for Syrian refugees.

Losses of a third to half were also recorded in:
-WFP assistance for 105,000 poor Lebanese
-UNRWA assistance for Palestinian refugees - even amid a severe funding crisis.

2/12

"We have to say it as it is: what we found here was a second Beirut bomb."

That's from the director of the German company tasked with removing *1000 tons* of explosive chemicals dumped in 52 containers at Beirut's port for decades.
n-tv.de/panorama/Beiru… This means we now know of almost 4,000 tons of hazardous, explosive materials being stored at Beirut's port over extended periods of time. In the heart of the city. What an absolute criminal disaster.

One year ago, George Zreik self-immolated over his daughter’s school fees.

“The day before he died, Zreik drove his taxi to the school where his daughter was enrolled, walked onto the grass of its courtyard, poured fuel on his body & set himself ablaze”
dailystar.com.lb/News/Lebanon-N… Full text thread.

#Hezbollah leader Nasrallah begins speech on the killings of #Qassem_Suleimani and #AbuMahdialMuhandis.

Says Jan 2nd 2020 (day of the assasination) is the beginning of a new phase in the entire region. Nasrallah says Soleimani got what he sought on that night: Martyrdom.