Death toll from south Syria violence rises to 594: Monitor
At least 594 people have been killed in southern Syria's Sweida province, a war monitor said Thursday, giving an updated toll from several days of clashes and the deployment of government...
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Erdogan accuses Israel of using Druze as pretext to expand into Syria
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Thursday accused Israel of using the Druze minority in Syria as a pretext for expanding into the war-torn country. "Israel, using the Druze as an...
17 July 2025
Violence in Sweida: Joint statement from foreign ministers of several Arab countries and Turkey
The foreign ministers of several Arab countries, including Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Oman, Qatar, Kuwait, Lebanon and Egypt, along with Turkey's foreign...
17 July 2025
Violence in Sweida: Aoun, Derian contacted Joumblatt
President Joseph Aoun and the mufti of the Republic, Abdellatif Derian, both contacted Lebanese Druze leader Walid Joumblatt, former head of the Progressive Socialist Party, to discuss the issue of...
17 July 2025
Hezbollah bloc criticizes BDL measures against al-Qard al-Hassan
In a statement following a broad meeting, Hezbollah's parliamentary group sharply criticized the measures taken Monday by Banque du Liban (BDL) against al-Qard al-Hassan, the financial...
17 July 2025
George Abdallah hails 'mobilization' that led to decision to release him
George Abdallah, whose release was ordered Thursday by the French judiciary, hailed the "mobilization" of his supporters, which he saw as decisive, during an interview in his cell with a...
17 July 2025
Druze elder humiliated in viral video found alive, granddaughter says
The granddaughter of a Druze elder, whose humiliation at the hands of an armed man was captured in a viral video as Syrian forces entered Sweida this week, said he had been found alive following...
17 July 2025
Latin Patriarchate announces 3 deaths in strike on Gaza church
The Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem announced Thursday the death of three people in an Israeli strike on the only Catholic church in the Gaza Strip, which has served as a refuge for this small...
17 July 2025
France court orders release of Lebanese militant after 40 years in jail
A French appeals court Thursday ordered the release of pro-Palestinian Lebanese militant Georges Ibrahim Abdallah, imprisoned for 40 years for the 1982 killings of two foreign diplomats. Abdallah,...
17 July 2025
FPM challenges government on several issues
The Strong Lebanon parliamentary bloc, composed mainly of lawmakers from the Free Patriotic Movement (FPM), challenged the government on Thursday regarding several questions for which the legal...
17 July 2025
New offensive by Bedouin fighters in Sweida
Syrian Bedouin fighters launched a new offensive Thursday in Sweida province against armed Druze groups, a Bedouin military leader told Reuters, despite a cease-fire announced the previous evening...
17 July 2025
Accidental death of 5 workers at wastewater treatment plant in Khaldeh
Five workers died Thursday while conducting maintenance work at the Beirut and Mount Lebanon Water Office wastewater treatment plant in Khaldeh, south of Beirut. Three of the workers are...
17 July 2025
Syria troops leave Sweida after deadly clashes
Syrian government forces have withdrawn from the whole of Sweida province after days of sectarian bloodshed in the heartland of the Druze minority, a war monitor and witnesses said Thursday. The...
17 July 2025
EU promises over $600 million from previous commitment to support war-affected areas in Lebanon
BEIRUT — The European Union said on Thursday it is allocating more than $600 million from its previous financial commitment to support areas affected by the 13-month war in Lebanon between...
L'Orient Today staff, 17 July 2025
'Those responsible will be tried,' promises Joseph Aoun
President Joseph Aoun promised Thursday to bring those responsible for the deadly double explosion at the port of Beirut to justice, during a meeting in Baabda with a delegation of relatives of the...
L'Orient Today staff, 17 July 2025
Slovenia bars 2 far-right Israeli ministers
Slovenia announced on Thursday that it would ban two far-right Israeli ministers from entering in what authorities said was a first in the European Union. National Security Minister Itamar Ben...
17 July 2025
Former prosecutor Ghassan Oueidat refuses to be notified of summons from Judge Bitar
Former public prosecutor at the Court of Cassation Ghassan Oueidat refused on Thursday to be notified of a hearing scheduled by investigative judge at the Court of Justice Tarek Bitar for...
17 July 2025
FPM parliamentary bloc turns questions addressed to Cabinet into interpellations
BEIRUT — The "Strong Lebanon" parliamentary group, which is mainly composed of Free Patriotic Movement (FPM) MPs, has turned on Thursday several questions that it had addressed to the...
17 July 2025
France condemns 'unacceptable' bombing of church under its 'historic protection'
France condemns the "unacceptable" bombing of the Catholic Church of the Holy Family in Gaza, "placed under France's historic protection," which left two people dead,...
17 July 2025
Deal in Iraq to resume oil exports from Kurdistan
The Iraqi government announced Thursday an agreement to resume oil exports from the autonomous region of Kurdistan (north), after more than two years of interruption due to drone attacks on oil...
17 July 2025
Beirut Bar Association launches digital platform
The Beirut Bar Association has announced the launch of a digital platform and an electronic payment card for lawyers, designed to streamline various procedures and payments. During a press...
17 July 2025
Why does Syria have a sovereign wealth fund?
The term sovereign wealth fund (SWF) conjures images of oil-rich economies: Saudi Arabia’s $925 billion Public Investment Fund, Qatar’s $475 billion Qatar Investment Authority, and Norway’s nearly...
Haddon Barth, 17 July 2025
Lebanese couturier Zuhair Murad redraws desire and breaks down the door of destiny
Amid the surprising transformations presented by the major houses and summarized by a hypnotic performance from Broadway producer Jordan Roth at the Louvre during “Fashion Night,” Zuhair Murad took...
Fifi ABOU DIB, 17 July 2025
Pharma M denies Probiolife safety allegations
Nearly two weeks after a televised investigation raised concerns about alleged unsafe manufacturing practices at the facility producing Probiolife, local supplement maker Pharma M S.A.L. has issued...
17 July 2025
Anti-Houthi force seizes 'massive' Iranian weapons shipment: CENTCOM
The U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) announced Wednesday in a post on X that a military group known as the Yemeni National Resistance Forces (NRF) had seized a "massive" shipment of Iranian...
17 July 2025
Netanyahu says Syrian cease-fire was achieved 'by force'
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday that the cease-fire in Syria was achieved "by force," following Israeli strikes against Syrian regime targets. "A cease-fire...
AFP, 17 July 2025
Drone attack targets Tawke oilfield in Iraq's Kurdistan
A drone attack targeted an oilfield operated by Norwegian oil and gas firm DNO in Tawke, in the Zakho Administration area of northern Iraq, on Thursday, the Kurdistan region's counter-terrorism...
Reuters, 17 July 2025
Generator fires: What you need to know about adulterated diesel in Lebanon
The increasing number of fires in Lebanon involving electrical generators is said to be the result of using adulterated diesel, which sometimes sells for $40 or $50 less per ton than the prices set...
Lilia GEHA, 17 July 2025
Death toll from violence in southern Syria exceeds 500
Violence in southern Syria has left over 500 people dead, according to a new tally published Thursday by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), after several days of clashes. The SOHR...
AFP, 17 July 2025
US strikes on Iran destroyed only one of three nuclear facilities hit, according to NBC
U.S. airstrikes in Iran demolished one of three nuclear facilities struck, U.S. officials told television channel NBC , adding that a more comprehensive airstrike plan had been rejected by...
Norah Grigoresco, 17 July 2025
Pope 'deeply saddened' by Gaza church strike, urges immediate cease-fire
Pope Leo XIV said on Thursday he was "deeply saddened" by an Israel strike which hit a Gaza church, killing two people, and called for "an immediate cease-fire". The Latin...
AFP, 17 July 2025
Kurdish official urges authorities to 'reconsider' policy toward minorities
A senior official of the Kurdish administration in northern Syria on Thursday called on the authorities to "reconsider" their approach toward the country's different minorities,...
AFP, 17 July 2025
Two killed in strike on Gazan church, Latin patriarchate says
Two people were killed in an apparent Israeli attack on the Roman Catholic parish in the Gaza Strip, the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem said on Thursday. "We pray that their souls rest [in...
Reuters, 17 July 2025
Troops quit Druze heartland leaving bodies on streets
Syrian troops pulled out of the Druze heartland province of Sweida Thursday on orders from the Islamist-led government, leaving bodies strewn on the street, AFP journalists reported from the...
AFP, 17 July 2025
Paramilitary shelling on camp kills 8 in Darfur
Paramilitary forces shelled a displacement camp in Sudan's Darfur region on Thursday, killing eight civilians and injuring others, a local rescue group said. The bombardment hit Abu Shouk...
17 July 2025
Faced with shortages, the Order of Pharmacists warns against resorting to counterfeit drugs
In response to reported shortages of several types of medication, the president of the Order of Pharmacists, Joe Salloum, called on people not to give in to the temptation of turning to illegal...
L'Orient Today staff, 17 July 2025
Warsaw withdraws its ambassador to Hungary after asylum granted to wanted politician
Poland has withdrawn its ambassador to Hungary, who had been recalled to Warsaw for consultations since December, after Hungarian authorities granted refugee status to the former Polish Deputy...
AFP, 17 July 2025
'The more open we are to one another, the more fine arts can flourish,' says ALBA dean
Referring to “the oldest art school, from which I graduated and which offers the broadest range of artistic specializations,” Fadlallah Dagher, dean of the Lebanese Academy of Fine Arts (ALBA), is...
Lamia SFEIR DAROUNI, 17 July 2025
It is said the barbarians are coming today
What kind of “Bilad al-Sham” can emerge in the shadow of a Syria unable to confront its own sectarian demons or rein in its mercenaries? Unless the cryptic remark dropped by U.S. envoy Tom Barrack...
Fifi ABOU DIB, 17 July 2025
Israel establishes new corridor splitting southern Gaza’s Khan Younis into east and west
BEIRUT — The Israeli army said early Wednesday it had completed a new military-controlled route through southern Gaza, a roughly 15-kilometer corridor that cuts off all residential areas east of...
L'Orient Today staff, 17 July 2025
Merz visits UK as Europe closes ranks in face of threats
Friedrich Merz embarks on his first trip to London as German chancellor on Thursday to sign a wide-ranging friendship treaty with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, part of a broader push to...
Reuters, 17 July 2025
Closing ceremony for the 2025 democratic citizenship program at USJ
The Faculty of Religious Sciences at Saint Joseph University (USJ), in partnership with Danmission, held the closing ceremony for the 2025 edition of the training program in democratic citizenship...
17 July 2025
Lebanon, UAE, KSA, Jordan... Our selection of cultural events to attend this weekend
When every weekend blurs into a never-ending scroll of flyers, exhibitions, and underground gigs, having too many options can feel a lot like having none. That’s where we come in. Starting today,...
Marguerita Sejaan, 17 July 2025
Gaza Health Ministry reports 2,000 page list of the 58,380 killed by Israel
BEIRUT — The Gaza Health Ministry released on Wednesday a list with the names of all Palestinians killed since the beginning of the Israeli offensive against the enclave, between Oct. 7, 2023, and...
L'Orient Today staff, 17 July 2025
UK to lower voting age to 16 in landmark electoral reform
The British government said on Thursday it planned to give 16 and 17-year-olds the right to vote in all UK elections in a major overhaul of the country's democratic system. The government said...
Reuters, 17 July 2025
Lebanese woman wins speech contest at Panthéon-Sorbonne University
At the end of April, one hour before the contest final, Marianne Saghbini was ready to face her competitors. "I was on the steps of the Panthéon, rehearsing my speech over and over again in...
Chantal EDDÉ, 17 July 2025
Russia condemns Israeli airstrikes in Syria, carried out in 'violation' of international law
Russian diplomats on Thursday condemned Israeli airstrikes in Syria, officially carried out in support of the Druze community in the country’s south, stating that they amounted to a “blatant...
AFP, 17 July 2025
ISF arrests suspect in Beirut stabbing, 11 months after crime
BEIRUT — The Internal Security Forces (ISF) announced Thursday that they arrested 11 days ago a citizen who stabbed a young man in Beirut 11 months earlier before fleeing the country. "On...
L'Orient Today staff, 17 July 2025
Strike on church leaves several injured, says Latin Patriarchate
The Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem said a strike on the only Latin Catholic church in the Gaza Strip left several people injured on Thursday, including the parish priest, and caused damage to the...
AFP, 17 July 2025
Clashes in Sweida: Salam and Joumblatt urge 'restraint' in Lebanon
BEIRUT — Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam urged 'restraint' during a phone call with Druze leader Walid Joumblatt on Thursday, following recent clashes in Sweida, southern Syria, between...
