Source: L'Orient Today
Security & Justice
Southern Lebanon Endures Massive Damage: 40,000 Homes Leveled Across 37 Towns
Israeli forces have systematically destroyed entire neighborhoods in southern Lebanon, leveling more than 37 towns and wiping out over 40,000 residential units, according to Lebanon's National News Agency.
Tuesday, November 5, 2024
Gaps in Coastal Radar Enabled Israeli Raid in Batroun, Army Commander Says
Lebanon’s army chief, General Joseph Aoun, detailed to Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati how Israeli forces likely exploited gaps in the country's coastal radar system during the recent raid carried out in Batroun. The briefing comes as Lebanese officials seek answers on how Israel’s elite Shayetet 13 unit carried out the landing undetected.
Monday, November 4, 2024
Opinion
The Emptying of Baalbek Is a Moment to Take Stock
“Large numbers of people continue to flee their homes every day, as Israel’s military operations in Lebanon have been going on unabated.” These disturbing words could be from almost any news report about Israel’s invasion of its northern neighbour over the past month. However, they can be found in a report by the Norwegian Refugee Council’s Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre issued on July 27, 2006.
Saturday, November 2, 2024
A Future Without Hezbollah
At the end of September, when Israel’s campaign to destroy Hezbollah was reaching its height, I met one of the group’s supporters in a seaside café in western Beirut. He was a middle-aged man with a thin white beard and the spent look of someone who had not slept for days. He was an academic of sorts, not a fighter, but his ties to Hezbollah were deep and long-standing.
Thursday, October 31, 2024
Sports
Tottenham Forward Son Heung-min Crowned Asia’s International Player of the Year
Tottenham forward Son Heung-min was crowned as Asia’s International Player of the Year for the fourth time by the Asian Football Confederation at its annual awards ceremony Tuesday.
Wednesday, October 30, 2024
Real Madrid Launch Investigation into Racist Insults After El Clasico Defeat
Real Madrid has launched an investigation into racist insults directed at players during Saturday’s 4-0 home loss to Barcelona in LaLiga, it said on Sunday.
Monday, October 28, 2024
Monday 13 March 2023 17:00:19
Thousands of Lebanese Households Unsubscribe from EDL
Following a sharp increase in the rates for electricity provided by state supplier Electricité du Liban (EDL), many subscribers are rushing to the provider's offices to cancel their contracts, a source within EDL's administration told L'Orient-Le Jour.
The public electricity sector in Lebanon has been in crisis for the past 30 years, and EDL now provides only a few hours of power per day. Subscription rates have since the end of last year been revised sharply upwards. They are now calculated at the rate of the Sayrafa platform, which has increased significantly in recent weeks.
EDL branches in Halba, Abdeh and Qobeiyat, in the Akkar governorate, on Monday witnessed a large influx of subscribers eager to cancel their contracts to escape the high tariffs, our correspondent in the north reported. Most households, in order to fill the gaps in EDL's power supply, already pay high monthly subscription fees to private power suppliers. Other consumers bridge the gaps in state supply by installing solar panels, which have become increasingly common in Lebanon since the start of the socio-economic crisis in 2019.
According to an EDL source, recently more than 2,000 households throughout the country have been unsubscribing from the public network each day, with crowds forming from 6:30 a.m. daily at EDL centers.
According to a schedule sent to L'Orient-Le Jour by the same source, a household subscribed to 15 amperes, for example, would have to pay $7.45 (at the Sayrafa rate) per month for installation and subscription fees alone, even if their actual power consumption is zero. Any power consumed would be charged in addition to the $7.45.
According to the source, the regions likely to be most affected by consumers seeking to unsubscribe from EDL are Beirut, Metn and Kesrouan. In these regions bills are paid regularly by subscribers, unlike in some other are where EDL struggles to collect its dues for various reasons, including the refusal of some subscribers to pay their bills.
Illegal connections to EDL's network are also regularly noted. The power provider on March 6 initiated, in coordination with the security services, the first stage of an operation to eliminate encroachments on its network.
On Thursday, the NGO Human Rights Watch said in a report that the electricity crisis is worsening poverty in Lebanon, accusing the government of failing to enforce the "right to electricity.”
