Night had barely fallen on Tripoli on Thursday but the party had already started.
Music blared from giant loudspeakers, women clapped their hands and young men danced the traditional dabke.
“The streets are the voice of the people. The voice of hunger when people are hungry,” a woman sang in Al Nour Square.
Tripoli has become a hotspot for Lebanon’s protests, but the resignation of Prime Minister Saad Hariri on Tuesday has created unease.
Mr Hariri is the leader of Lebanon’s Sunni community, which is dominant in Tripoli. Many here feel it is unfair that he is the only politician to have resigned after 13 days of anti-government protests.
But they also know that taking sides with Mr Hariri goes against the spirit of the protests, which called for the resignation of all politicians and for the end of sectarian politics.
In Al Nour Square, a huge banner reads: “Waiting for the fall of the president and the Parliament speaker.”
A local journalist said it had been put up earlier in the day in response to Mr Hariri’s resignation.
“People know that Hariri was not a fair leader but at the same time they don’t want him to be the only victim of this revolution", said Sabine, a young woman who had driven half an hour from the neighbouring district of Koura to watch the demonstrations.
Giggling with her friend, she watched the festive protest with excitement.
“Our husbands do not know we are here and had not allowed us to come previously, but we wanted to see how it was after people returned to the streets last night,” Sabine said.
After the army reopened the roads on Wednesday, breaking barricades set up by protesters in the past two weeks, many in Lebanon thought the protests were over.
But videos then emerged in the evening of a massive gathering in Tripoli.
“It’s even more brilliant than we thought it was. We did not think people could be so united,” Sabine said.
Riad Yamak, the Mayor of Tripoli, told The National that 70,000 people had gathered across the city on Wednesday night.
“People here are wondering why did Hariri resign and not others?” Mr Yamak said, sitting in his office from where chants of “revolution, revolution” could be heard in the streets below.
For the first time since protests started, Mr Hariri’s supporters took to the streets on motorcycles, carrying flags of his Future Movement party in his strongholds of Beirut and in the southern city of Saida.
North of Tripoli, in Abdeh, the army used tear gas to disperse protesters blocking a main road.
Mr Yamak said soldiers assaulted the Mayor of Bebnine, a town close to Abdeh, who was at the roadblock.
He said this fuelled anger among protesters and numbers swelled from a few hundred to a few thousand.
“People do not trust soldiers," Mr Yamak said. "Why did they use violence here and not against Hezbollah and Amal?”
He was referring to the attack by supporters of the two movements on protesters in Beirut on Tuesday.
Hezbollah, which was against Mr Hariri’s resignation, has criticised protesters, saying they will cause chaos and accusing them of being manipulated by political parties and foreign countries.
Amal reportedly warned people against gathering to protest in front of the residence of the party's leader, Parlimentary Speaker Nabih Berri, in Ain Al Tineh in Beirut on Saturday.
As in Abdeh, soldiers and anti-riot police fired tear gas at Hezbollah and Amal supporters who attacked protesters in Beirut.
But many witnesses said they took a long time, at least half an hour, to respond to the attack.
“Protests last night swelled in Sunni areas: Akkar, Saida, Tripoli," Mr Yamak said. "I do not like to speak like this but it’s the truth."
In Tripoli, locals who did not support Mr Hariri previously have started to feel more sympathy towards him.
In the poverty-stricken, Sunni-majority neighbourhood of Bab Al Tebbaneh, the site of sectarian violence with a neighbouring Alawite area in 2014, Ahmad Dib said Mr Hariri’s resignation had “calmed the streets down”.
“Mr Hariri is 30 per cent corrupt,” said Mr Dib, 58, a vegetable shop owner. “All the rest, they are 100 per cent corrupt.”
He said that in last year's elections he voted for Jihad Samad, a Sunni rival of Mr Hariri.
But thanks to Mr Hariri, “there will be no civil war”, Mr Dib said.
In Al Nour Square, giant posters of Mr Hariri were torn down during the first days of the protests. Several of them remained above Mr Dib’s shop.
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
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Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
Our legal columnist
Name: Yousef Al Bahar
Advocate at Al Bahar & Associate Advocates and Legal Consultants, established in 1994
Education: Mr Al Bahar was born in 1979 and graduated in 2008 from the Judicial Institute. He took after his father, who was one of the first Emirati lawyers
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Lexus LX700h specs
Engine: 3.4-litre twin-turbo V6 plus supplementary electric motor
Power: 464hp at 5,200rpm
Torque: 790Nm from 2,000-3,600rpm
Transmission: 10-speed auto
Fuel consumption: 11.7L/100km
On sale: Now
Price: From Dh590,000
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GOLF’S RAHMBO
- 5 wins in 22 months as pro
- Three wins in past 10 starts
- 45 pro starts worldwide: 5 wins, 17 top 5s
- Ranked 551th in world on debut, now No 4 (was No 2 earlier this year)
- 5th player in last 30 years to win 3 European Tour and 2 PGA Tour titles before age 24 (Woods, Garcia, McIlroy, Spieth)
Our legal columnist
Name: Yousef Al Bahar
Advocate at Al Bahar & Associate Advocates and Legal Consultants, established in 1994
Education: Mr Al Bahar was born in 1979 and graduated in 2008 from the Judicial Institute. He took after his father, who was one of the first Emirati lawyers
Benefits of first-time home buyers' scheme
- Priority access to new homes from participating developers
- Discounts on sales price of off-plan units
- Flexible payment plans from developers
- Mortgages with better interest rates, faster approval times and reduced fees
- DLD registration fee can be paid through banks or credit cards at zero interest rates
In numbers: China in Dubai
The number of Chinese people living in Dubai: An estimated 200,000
Number of Chinese people in International City: Almost 50,000
Daily visitors to Dragon Mart in 2018/19: 120,000
Daily visitors to Dragon Mart in 2010: 20,000
Percentage increase in visitors in eight years: 500 per cent
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Tearful appearance
Chancellor Rachel Reeves set markets on edge as she appeared visibly distraught in parliament on Wednesday.
Legislative setbacks for the government have blown a new hole in the budgetary calculations at a time when the deficit is stubbornly large and the economy is struggling to grow.
She appeared with Keir Starmer on Thursday and the pair embraced, but he had failed to give her his backing as she cried a day earlier.
A spokesman said her upset demeanour was due to a personal matter.
More from Rashmee Roshan Lall
ESSENTIALS
The flights
Emirates flies from Dubai to Phnom Penh via Yangon from Dh2,700 return including taxes. Cambodia Bayon Airlines and Cambodia Angkor Air offer return flights from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap from Dh250 return including taxes. The flight takes about 45 minutes.
The hotels
Rooms at the Raffles Le Royal in Phnom Penh cost from $225 (Dh826) per night including taxes. Rooms at the Grand Hotel d'Angkor cost from $261 (Dh960) per night including taxes.
The tours
A cyclo architecture tour of Phnom Penh costs from $20 (Dh75) per person for about three hours, with Khmer Architecture Tours. Tailor-made tours of all of Cambodia, or sites like Angkor alone, can be arranged by About Asia Travel. Emirates Holidays also offers packages.
Should late investors consider cryptocurrencies?
Wealth managers recommend late investors to have a balanced portfolio that typically includes traditional assets such as cash, government and corporate bonds, equities, commodities and commercial property.
They do not usually recommend investing in Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies due to the risk and volatility associated with them.
“It has produced eye-watering returns for some, whereas others have lost substantially as this has all depended purely on timing and when the buy-in was. If someone still has about 20 to 25 years until retirement, there isn’t any need to take such risks,” Rupert Connor of Abacus Financial Consultant says.
He adds that if a person is interested in owning a business or growing a property portfolio to increase their retirement income, this can be encouraged provided they keep in mind the overall risk profile of these assets.
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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ENGLAND SQUAD
For first two Test in India Joe Root (captain), Jofra Archer, Moeen Ali, James Anderson , Dom Bess, Stuart Broad , Rory Burns, Jos Buttler, Zak Crawley, Ben Foakes, Dan Lawrence, Jack Leach, Dom Sibley, Ben Stokes, Olly Stone, Chris Woakes. Reserves James Bracey, Mason Crane, Saqib Mahmood, Matthew Parkinson, Ollie Robinson, Amar Virdi.
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Sam Smith
Where: du Arena, Abu Dhabi
When: Saturday November 24
Rating: 4/5
