The British Embassy Beirut on Wednesday announced that applications for the UK Government’s flagship Chevening Scholarships program are now open. Applicants should apply online via chevening.org/apply by November 7, 2023.

The scholarship, which is now in its 40th year, offers full financial support for scholars to study for any eligible master’s degree at over 150 UK universities whilst also gaining access to a wide range of exclusive academic, professional, and cultural experiences.

French Special Presidential Envoy for Lebanon Jean-Yves Le Drian has met in Paris with Saudi minister Nizar al-Aloula and Saudi Ambassador to Lebanon Walid Bukhari, media reports said.

The meeting confirmed that “there is no breakthrough in Riyadh’s stance, with the Saudis stressing in it that their country will not be concerned with Lebanon unless its demands regarding the president’s characteristics, program and reforms are met,” al-Akhbar newspaper reported on Wednesday.

Two landmines exploded early Wednesday along the Lebanon-Syria border wounding three Syrians trying to illegally cross into Lebanon, the Lebanese Army said in a statement.

The army said the mines exploded on the Syrian side of the border and that the wounded were rushed by the Lebanese Red Cross to a hospital in northern Lebanon for treatment.

A Qatari envoy will arrive in Lebanon on September 20 to discuss the Lebanese presidential file, a media report said.

“He will carry with him positivities and the names of presidential candidates and will explore the possibility of inviting Lebanese parties to Qatar to hold consultations over the presidential file,” ad-Diyar newspaper reported on Wednesday.

A top Hamas leader has arrived in Beirut to push for an end to clashes in Lebanon's largest Palestinian refugee camp that resumed despite multiple cease-fire agreements.

Days of fighting in the Ain el-Helweh refugee camp near the southern port city of Sidon left at least six people dead and over 50 others wounded, according to medical officials and state media. Stray bullets and shells hit residential areas in the country's third-largest city, wounding five Lebanese soldiers at checkpoints near the camp on Monday.

The U.S. Treasury on Tuesday slapped terrorism sanctions on a family network of seven individuals and businesses in Lebanon and South America accused of financing the militant group Hezbollah, including a Lebanese man who officials say was involved in two deadly attacks in Argentina in the 1990s.

Amer Mohamed Akil Rada was described as "one of the operational members" who carried out the attack on the Argentine-Israelite Mutual Association in Buenos Aires in 1994, which killed 85 people and wounded hundreds. A 1992 attack on the Israeli Embassy in Argentina killed 29 people.

The caretaker Cabinet on Tuesday approved the 2024 state budget and submitted it to parliament, with caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati calling the move an “achievement.”

“This is the first state budget to be approved within the constitutional timeframe since 2002 and this is a major achievement and heroism,” Mikati said at a press conference.

Hezbollah on Tuesday denied as “false accusations” a media report alleging that party officials are smuggling arms through Beirut’s Rafik Hariri International Airport.

“We strongly condemn these cheap fabrications and false accusations and we also deplore the collusion of domestic Lebanese sides who worked on promoting these lies and turning them into judicial complaints against Hezbollah,” the party said in a statement, referring to a report aired by the Saudi-owned al-Hadath TV.

More than 65 military personnel from the British Army’s Second Battalion The Parachute Regiment (2 PARA) will conduct Tuesday a fully integrated combined military exercise ‘Pegasus Cedar’ with their Lebanese counterparts, the Air Assault Regiment, and supported by the Lebanese Air Force. 

The exercise will run for ten days, the British embassy in Beirut said in a statement.

French Special Presidential Envoy Jean-Yves Le Drian has arrived in Beirut "to resume his mission" as France seeks a new push to end a political crisis that has left the country without a president for over a year.

Le Drian started Tuesday his talks in Lebanon by meeting with caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati at the Grand Serail.