Lebanon & the Asian Games in China

The Asian Games are an “attention grabber” (AP): 12,000 participants, more than in the Summer Olympics (10,500 are expected next year in Paris). There are many games you won’t find in the Olympics: cricket (will be in the Olympics from 2028), squash, dragon boat racing, sepaktakraw (kick volleyball), ju-jitsu, wushu (Chinese martial art), kabaddi (Desi contact sport), kurash (Central Asian wrestling), and so-called “mind sports”: bridge, chess, xiangqi (Chinese chess), e-sports. Among Olympic sports, nine will offer qualification spots for Paris, including boxing, hockey, and water polo.

Lebanon will compete in 11 sports. “We are very close to winning a medal in shooting, weightlifting and judo competitions”, Francois Saade, chief of Lebanon's Judo Federation, told Chinese media. Lebanese judokas were training with their Iraqi counterparts in Jounieh.

Is he back?

The recent Saudi rapproachment with Iran falls under the kingdom's broad attempt to adjust its political alignments, and end its involvement in regional conflicts.

Normalizing with the kingdom's #1 direct enemy paves the way to normalize with the Arabs' alleged #1 enemy: Israel.

⋯ This became evident with what both Netanyahu and Bin Salman implied last week, “peace is coming, we are just negotiating the terms.”

⋯ Today, a Saudi delegation visited Gaza for the first time in 3 decades.

Like the UAE, Saudi Arabia will highlight a small engagement role with the Palestinians to offset its new ties with Israel in the media.

⋯ Not coincidentally, the Israeli minister of tourism landed in Saudi Arabia today, in the first official public visit of an Israeli official to the kingdom.

Bin Salman is waiting for a good deal. Netanyahu is weighing his options on what he... and what Washington can offer.

Israeli national security minister Itamar Ben Gvir praises the jews who spit on Christians. Gvir states, "It is an ancient jewish tradition. When we (the jews) pass by a monastery or a priest, we spit."

Residents of Dekwaneh, north of Beirut, beat a Syrian deliveryman from a neighboring village after he attempted to rape a minor girl in an elevator.

After the girl told her parents, locals identified, beat, and handed the offender over to Dekwaneh authorities for investigation.

The Prosecutor General of Bekaa, Judge Munif Barakat, gave the order to close more than 20 illegal shops owned by Syrians in Bekaa.

State Security forces in Nabatiyeh have begun removing unlicensed tents belonging to illegally sojourning Syrians.

This campaign comes after suspicions that they harbor and abet terrorist activities. State Security forces have, on multiple occasions, confiscated large quantities of military-grade weapons from Syrian refugee encampments in several other municipalities.

Minister of Health: The terrorist attack on the Military College in Homs led to 80 martyrs and 240 injured, including women and children, an infinite toll.

🚨 BREAKING: Rockets of the resistance target "Ben Gurion" airport in occupied Al-Lydd.

Sirens ring in over 160 areas of occupied Palestine.

🚨 BREAKING: Armed clashes take place inside "Nahal Oz" IOF base east of northern #Gaza, in addition to clashes taking place at the "Zikim" naval base in the west.

Al-Qassam leader Mohammad Al-Deif will speak shortly...