Catch up on past editions of Sobhiye. Every story, every insight, always available.
Seven hundred and twenty-nine thousand people gone, a former central bank governor back in a cell, and a damning investigation into what's left of the south. Bonjourein — today's newsletter is heavy, but you should read it anyway. Lebanon deserves witnesses.
Sabah el kheir. Lebanon just made history overnight — parliament voted to abolish the death penalty, becoming the first country in the Middle East to do it officially. Meanwhile, Rome talks produced a September roadmap, and a single hilltop called Ali al-Taher is quietly holding all of it hostage.
Ahla w sahla. Washington is running shuttle diplomacy between Beirut and Tel Aviv before anyone even sits down for round eight — while in the south, a battlefield could quietly rewrite the whole agenda. And closer to home: one woman keeps getting hauled into interrogation rooms for exposing animal abuse, which tells you just about everything you need to know about where Lebanon's priorities still are.
A besieged village in south Lebanon just got internet through a satellite dish — because Israel destroyed everything else. Kifkon, habibi. This morning we're also looking at Solidere's audacious ask for 25 more years of downtown Beirut, and whether Bekaa leaders can finally turn a decades-old slogan into something that actually gets built.
Marhaba. Your MPs just gave themselves a $2,000 raise — via government decree, while soldiers take home $280 a month. That's the Sunday morning energy we're working with, along with a historic child rights vote coming this week and a former Assad general sitting in a Beirut detention center waiting to find out if Lebanon is about to make legal history.
Kifkon. It's Sunday — time to sit back with your coffee and catch up on everything that happened in Lebanon this week. The Rome talks between Lebanon and Israel reached their seventh round, producing a shortlist of countries that could verify Hezbollah's disarmament — while a security source revealed Hezbollah has a three-tier military structure designed to shield its core arsenal from exactly that process. In Washington, a bipartisan Senate bill paired new sanctions on Hezbollah's financiers with fresh support for the Lebanese Armed Forces. And six years after the port explosion killed at least 235 people, another August 4 passed with accountability still nowhere in sight. Here's the full week.
Shou el akhbar — the Lebanese government told Solidere to do its homework before getting another eight years on the clock, Lebanon and Israel found common ground on who watches the watchers in the south, and Washington sent a bipartisan bill to Capitol Hill tying Hezbollah sanctions to aid for the Lebanese army. Three big moves, one Saturday morning. Let's get into it.
Yalla — it's a Friday morning and Lebanon somehow held peace talks in Rome while taking strikes in the south at the same time. Two tracks, zero coordination, classic. Hezbollah and Damascus are also quietly meeting in back-channels stretching from Beirut to Ankara — the Middle East's most unlikely friendship is inching forward.
Bonjourein. Peace talks in Rome, a bulldozed memory site in the south, and a journalist honored for surviving what no one has been held accountable for — Lebanon's morning comes heavy today. Yalla, let's get into it.