14 August 2020
As the dust settles after Beirut’s port massacre, a profound sense of disorientation and uncertainty about the future envelops the city.
Economy
Al-Jumhuriya asks five prominent Syrian civil society figures how they expect their work to be affected by the new US sanctions package known as the Caesar Act.
So powerful are Washington’s new sanctions on Syria that even some opponents of Assad are unsure about them. Our own Syrian reporters have a range of views, two of which are presented head-to-head in this article.
Damascus resident Karam Mansour writes a first-hand account of life in the now-empty Syrian capital, where militiamen patrol the streets, shops do business in secret, and the homeless have abruptly disappeared.
Lebanon's new cabinet seeks to quash the popular uprising by force, but bullets and tear gas won't save it from the economic ruin facing the country, analysts tell Al-Jumhuriya.
Blaming everyone but itself, the Assad regime is fundamentally incapable of remedying the depreciation of the Syrian pound, which has lost over 40% of its value in 2019.
Notes on life without cash in Lebanon.
A quick English summary of our Arabic news coverage this week.
As the costs of Assad’s Pyrrhic “victory” become clearer, even die-hard loyalists are increasingly speaking out about economic and other woes. The regime’s response makes clear it will not tolerate even this highly watered-down form of dissent.