More than 140 gas stations have refused to receive gasoline from distributors because their workers are facing “troubles, blackmail and physical assault and are not being able to protect themselves,” the representative of distributors, Fadi Abu Shaqra, said on Tuesday.

President Michel Aoun on Tuesday emphasized the important role Lebanon’s diaspora can play in reviving the country’s worsening economy, the National News Agency reported.

Maronite Patriarch Beshara el-Rahi on Tuesday lamented how politics in Lebanon is caught up in “sabotage and destruction,” whilst the crisis-hit country needs solutions to steer it out of its crises, the National News Agency reported.

Lebanon’s economy ministry announced on Tuesday a bread price hike, the fourth in almost a year, a move the government blames on end of subsidies on sugar as declared by the Central Bank of Lebanon, amid a plunge in the value of the local currency.

Speaker Nabih Berri said his initiative to ease the government formation “still stands” despite the newly “fabricated" political tension aimed at foiling his move, al-Joumhouria daily reported on Tuesday.

Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri has said that Free Patriotic Movement chief Jebran Bassil has agreed to only “half” of his initiative for resolving the government formation crisis.

“Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri agreed to the initiative that I proposed while MP Jebran Bassil agreed to half of it,” Berri told Annahar newspaper in an interview to be published in full Tuesday.

Caretaker Health Minister Hamad Hassan will travel at dawn Tuesday to Turkey for an official visit that will last three days, the National News Agency said.

Mount Lebanon Attorney General Judge Samer Lichaa on Monday ordered the prosecution of gas stations withholding fuel from citizens, state-run National News Agency said.

State Prosecutor Ghassan Oueidat on Monday referred Mount Lebanon Attorney General Judge Ghada Aoun to judicial inspection for “preventing Attorney General Judge Samer Lichaa from removing the red wax seals from the offices of the Mecattaf money transfer firm,” the National News Agency said.

The Premiership on Monday criticized calls by politicians for “activating” the caretaker cabinet over the delay in forming a new government, saying the solution to the country’s multiple crises lies in putting together a new cabinet.