The Internal Security Forces on Wednesday announced that its Intelligence Branch had dismantled in summer eight Islamic State-linked cells that had been plotting terrorist attacks in Lebanon.

In a statement, the ISF said the arrests were made between July and October in the Bekaa, Beirut, the North, the South and Mount Lebanon.

The United States, through the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), is providing more than $72 million in emergency food assistance to more than 650,000 vulnerable people in Lebanon, including refugees from Syria and other countries, the U.S. Embassy said on Wednesday.

Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati on Tuesday denied “any communication with any Israeli official,” after the website of Israeli newspaper Haaretz published a photo showing him and Israel's environmental protection minister along with several world leaders and officials at the U.N.’s COP27 climate summit in Egypt.

“A report is circulating in the media about the participation of an Israeli minister in a specialized workshop at the climate conference in Sharm el-Sheikh in the presence of (caretaker) PM Najib Mikati and the delegations of Iraq and Palestine,” Mikati’s office said in a statement.

Former President Michel Aoun suggested Tuesday that some parties want to “intimidate” the Free Patriotic Movement.

“They want to intimidate us, so be ready,” Aoun said during a surprise visit to OTV, referring to the clash that recently took place at MTV.

Samantha Power, the Administrator of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), arrived in Lebanon Tuesday for a three-day visit focused on “providing support to the Lebanese people, particularly those impacted by the country’s economic and humanitarian crisis,” the U.S. Embassy said.

Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati held talks Tuesday in Sharm el-Sheikh with French President Emmanuel Macron, on the sidelines of the U.N.'s COP27 climate summit.

Detained lawyer and activist was rushed Tuesday to the emergency room of al-Hayat Hospital after his health deteriorated due to a hunger strike, the Mottahidoun alliance of anti-corruption lawyers and activists said.

The Free Patriotic Movement asked Tuesday its members and officials to boycott the Sar el Waqt show, after a heated argument escalated into a large fistfight last week in the studio of the popular political talk show hosted by journalist Marcel Ghanem.

“After the flagrant attack on the young men and women of the FPM in the Sar el Waqt show, by the MTV security guards, all FPM officials and activists are required to abide by the decision to boycott the program, whether they are participating as guests or as audience members," the statement said.

The “strong president theory” that ex-President Michel Aoun used as a slogan for his tenure “has miserably failed,” Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri has said.

The Lebanese pound's market value reached again 39,000 against the dollar Tuesday after it had slightly recovered in the past few weeks.

Last month, the dollar exchange rate had dropped from LBP 40,600 to 36,000 on the black market, shortly after Central Bank Governor Riad Salamah said in a statement that the Central Bank would stop buying dollars on the Sayrafa platform.