Protesting taxi drivers on Tuesday blocked several vital roads and highways across the country to voice a host of demands.

The drivers blocked the Saifi road, the Beirut-Karantina highway, the Jounieh highway and the main Hamra street following a sit-in at the Riad al-Solh Square.

The 2023 Canada-United Kingdom Media Freedom Award was presented Tuesday to independent Egyptian online newspaper Mada Masr for its “extraordinary commitment to high-quality independent journalism,” the UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office said.

“The newspaper continued to report, amidst a takedown of their website and legal threats to its reporters. This award signals Canada and the UK’s enduring commitment to supporting free and independent journalism,” the FCDO said in a statement.

The Administration and Justice Committee studied Tuesday a law aiming at regulating the status of Syrian refugees in Lebanon and decided to adjourn the discussion until next week.

The Committee's head, Lebanese Forces MP Georges Adwan, said that he will not accept the integration of the refugees and urged Arab states not to return Syria to the Arab fold before the repatriation of the refugees.

Deputy Speaker Elias Bou Saab met Tuesday with Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi in Bkerki, as he starts an "exploratory tour" to discuss the presidential crisis with Lebanese leaders.

"Our real problem is not the name of the president but that parties are not willing to communicate," Bou Saab answered a reporter in a press conference after the meeting, after he had said that he did not discuss with al-Rahi any names.

Free Patriotic Movement chief Jebran Bassil on Sunday urged a Christian agreement on a new president.

Deputy Speaker Elias Bou Saab on Friday held a meeting with MP Mohammed Raad -- the head of Hezbollah’s Loyalty to Resistance parliamentary bloc.

“The meeting was necessary and important and aimed to evaluate the stage that we are going through and to seek to find exits and common denominators among the parliamentary blocs,” Bou Saab said after the talks.

Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri said he is not expecting the worst, and that his words were misinterpreted when he said he only sees negativity.

"I am neither pessimistic nor optimistic," Berri told al-Liwaa, in remarks published Friday. He added that the foreign indications are positive concerning the election of Marada leader Suleiman Franjieh.

Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah met Friday with Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian to discuss the latest developments in the region.

The talks stressed on the Iranian-Saudi agreement and its repercussions on the region, as well as the latest developments in Lebanon and Palestine, the National News Agency said.

Kataeb, Tajaddod, and Change MPs filed Friday an appeal before the Constitutional Council against the recent law that extended the municipalities' term, a day after a delegation from the Lebanese Forces bloc appealed against the law.

Earlier this month, Parliament voted to extend the terms of local officials, paving the way to postpone municipal elections for up to a year for a second time.

Central Bank Governor Riad Salameh’s former assistant Marianne Hoayek appeared Thursday before a European investigators delegation at the Justice Palace in Beirut.

Salameh faces allegations of crimes including embezzlement, money laundering and tax evasion in separate probes in Lebanon and Europe. His brother Raja and his associate Hoayek are accused of complicity.