British Ambassador to Lebanon Hamish Cowell hosted Thursday a Business and Trade reception to celebrate record-breaking bilateral trade figures between the UK and Lebanon.

In 2023, bilateral trade figures between the UK and Lebanon passed the £1bn mark for the first time ever, reaching a record high of £1.1 billion, an increase on over 45% on 2022. Export brands increased to £160 million. The top five goods exported by the UK to Lebanon throughout 2023 were mechanical power generators, cars, beverages, dairy products, and medicinal and pharmaceutical products. Services accounted for over £600m.

Hezbollah targeted Friday surveillance equipment in Metula and Israeli soldiers in Hanita in northern Israel.

The Israeli army meanwhile fired at Lebanese Army soldiers in al-Ghajar, but no casualties were reported.

Crisis-hit Lebanon remains without a president since Michel Aoun's term ended in October 2022, as tensions boil on the border with Israel since October 7.

In a bid to break the impasse, opposition lawmakers started an initiative Tuesday, announcing two suggestions to facilitate the election of a president.

Hezbollah launched Thursday an array of suicide drones on an artillery base in Israel's Kabri in response to attacks on Lebanese civilians and villages.

The group later targeted the al-Malkia post, surveillance equipment in Hadb Yarine and a group of soldiers in Hanita in northern Israel.

Hezbollah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah on Wednesday said that his group “will not tolerate any attack in Lebanon should there be a ceasefire in Gaza.”

“Should there be a ceasefire agreement, which we hope for, our front will undoubtedly cease fire, as happened during the previous truce,” Nasrallah announced in a televised speech commemorating slain Hezbollah commander Mohammad Nasser.

Lebanese Muay Thai star Abdallah Ondash is looking to keep his spotless record at martial arts organization intact as he returns to action this Friday.

Ondash faces Thai counterpart Chokpreecha PK Saenchai at ONE Championship show, ONE Friday Fights 70, in a Muay Thai contest inside the iconic Lumpinee Stadium in Bangkok, Thailand.

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea on Wednesday accused the rival Hezbollah-led camp of rejecting dialogue over the presidential file, a day after the opposition proposed two suggestions for resolving the crisis.

“The mask has finally fallen, albeit after two years,” Geagea said in a statement.

Hezbollah targeted Wednesday Israeli artillery positions in the occupied Golan Heights with dozens of Katyusha rockets, in response to an overnight strike on a village in al Bekaa.

The group said in a statement it has targeted artillery positions in al-Zaoura, as Israeli warplanes struck a house in the southern border town of Tayr Harfa.

Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri on Tuesday met with caretaker Interior Minister Bassam Mawlawi and discussed with him the political developments and security situation.

“Our visit to Speaker Berri today was important and necessary,” Mawlawi said after the talks.

Hezbollah on Tuesday released a video dubbed al-Hodhod 2 showing footage captured by the group’s drones over the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

Hezbollah had recently alarmed Israel by releasing a 10-minute video showing sensitive military and economic sites in northern Israel and its strategic city of Haifa -- a city far from the Israel-Lebanon border. That video was dubbed al-Hodhod 1.