Parliament on Thursday began discussing the draft 2022 state budget, a day after lack of quorum forced the postponement of a scheduled first session.

Outside the legislature, sit-ins by retired servicemen, bank depositors and several associations and unions got underway in protest at the proposed state budget.

Shell on Thursday announced the exit of chief executive Ben van Beurden as the British oil and gas giant looks to reinvent itself under group renewables boss Wael Sawan.

Prime Minister-designate Najib Mikati held talks Thursday in Baabda with President Michel Aoun.

Al-Jadeed television said the focus of the meeting was Mikati’s asking of permission from Aoun to travel to Britain to take part in Queen Elizabeth’s funeral and to New You to represent Lebanon at the U.N. General Assembly meetings.

The news of a Lebanese dance group winning the TV competition show America's Got Talent brought a rare moment of joy on Thursday to many in the crisis-hit country.

Mayyas, an all-female dance troupe, dazzled the show's judges and audience on the competition's 17th season before winning $1 million and a headlining show at the Luxor Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. The group paid tribute to Lebanon during their performances and on social media in the buildup to the finale.

President Michel Aoun on Wednesday stressed that “the completion of the southern sea border demarcation file will enable Lebanon to launch the process of exploring for oil and gas in the specified fields within the Exclusive Economic Zone.”

“This will give the Lebanese economy a positive impetus to begin exiting the crisis it has been reeling under for years,” the president added.

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea on Wednesday threatened to sue caretaker Finance Minister Youssef Khalil.

If Khalil “continues to obstruct the judicial appointments decree, we will have to organize an accusatory petition to prosecute him for dereliction of duty,” Geagea warned in a tweet.

A dispute between the Sharaf and al-Ammar families escalated into an armed clash Wednesday in the West Bekaa town of Mashghara, the National News Agency said.

The agency said the dispute was linked to previous tensions over cattle grazing and resulted in the death of H. Sharaf and A. Sharaf and the wounding of M. al-Ammar and his brother A. al-Ammar.

A woman carrying a toy pistol and a dozen activists broke into a Beirut bank branch on Wednesday, taking $13,000 from what the activists say were her trapped savings.

Sali Hafez, who herself is a known activist, told Al-Jadeed TV that she needed the money to fund her sister's cancer treatment. She said she had repeatedly visited the bank to ask for her money and was told she could only receive $200 a month in Lebanese pounds. Hafez said the toy pistol belonged to her nephew.

A parliament session over the state budget was postponed on Wednesday due to lack of quorum as it coincided with the 40th anniversary of former President Bashir Gemayel's assassination.

The majority of Christian MPs boycotted the session, while fifty eight MPs arrived at the Parliament, expressing discontent over the budget draft law.

Forty years after Christian militiamen massacred Palestinian refugees and Lebanese nationals in the country's Sabra and Shatila refugee camps, the horrors of the tragedy remain seared into survivors' memories.

Najib al-Khatib, whose father and 10 other family members were killed in the massacre, still remembers the stench of corpses.