Today on March 8, International Women’s Day, the United Nations celebrates the contribution of women and girls around the world, who are "leading the charge on climate change adaptation, mitigation, and response, to build a more sustainable future for all," a U.N. statement said.

"We are not only celebrating their efforts to alleviate the severe and lasting impacts of climate change on our environmental, economic, and social development, but also their integral role in sustaining viable communities," the statement said.

President Michel Aoun said on International Women's Day, Tuesday, that "political sectarianism cannot be abolished and people cannot be unified, unless there is a unified personal status law."

He added that "it is not possible to live in one house with different and unequal rights."

Thirty-one foreign ambassadors to Lebanon have co-authored an op-ed on the occasion of the International Women’s Day, entitled "Climate Justice Requires Gender Justice: a Call to Action for Leaders in Lebanon This International Women’s Day".

Below is the full text of the op-ed as received by Naharnet:

Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah on Tuesday lashed out at the United States and accused its embassy in Lebanon of being behind the Lebanese Foreign Ministry statement that condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

“It is regrettable that the official Lebanese statement that was issued by the Lebanese Foreign Ministry had been sent to the U.S. embassy. The embassy modified it, which means that this statement was written at the U.S. embassy. Is this what sovereignty is all about?” Nasrallah said in a televised speech marking Hizbullah’s ‘Day of the Wounded’.

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea accused Tuesday the Free Patriotic Movement of raising the megacenter issue in order to postpone the elections.

Geagea said, in a statement, that FPM head Jebran bassil and the FPM's MPs know that it is impossible to use voting megacenters in the upcoming elections.

President Michel Aoun on Monday stressed that “the upcoming parliamentary and presidential elections will take place.”

He voiced his remarks during a meeting in Baabda with a delegation from the European Peoples Party.

A few days after resigning from al-Mustaqbal Movement, ex-MP Mustafa Alloush has confirmed that he will engage in the upcoming parliamentary elections to “fill the void in the Sunni arena” following ex-PM Saad Hariri’s withdrawal from politics.

“We have not finalized the alliances yet and things are supposed to crystallize in the next two days. The candidates whom we will ally with are either independent or close to al-Mustaqbal Movement,” Alloush said in an interview with al-Akhbar newspaper.

At least two activists were beaten up Monday, one of them severely, after they chanted “Beirut Free, Iran Out!” at a section displaying pictures of slain Iranian general Qassem Soleimani at the Beirut International and Arab Book Fair at the Seaside Arena (previously known as BIEL).

MTV identified two of the activists as Shafik Bader and Nelly Qandil. It added that Bader’s cellphone was taken away by the attackers.

- Bakeries Closing Doors -

Several bakeries closed Monday as mills only delivered flour to Arabic bread bakeries, according to the mills agent in the South, Ali Rammal.

A top member of the gas station owners syndicate of Lebanon, George al-Brax, has reassured that there is no gasoline shortage in the market, asking consumers not to panic, as long queues returned to fuel stations over the past hours.

“The fuel quantities that are reaching Lebanon have become smaller than before, but what we’re receiving is sufficient to meet domestic need,” Brax said in a TV interview.