The first 13 days

ENAR

Day 1: Thursday, October 17 Protests erupt across the country Protests begin in Downtown Beirut around 6 p.m., triggered by media reports earlier Thursday that cabinet had agreed on new taxes for the 2020 budget, including a tax on Voice over Internet Protocols (VoIP) that would have cost up to $6 per month for those using WhatApp calls or other VoIP apps.  Initially, a few hundred protesters march from Downtown to Hamra and back to Riad el-Solh. As the news spreads, their numbers swell into the thousands. Clashes between protesters and bodyguards of Minister of Education and Higher Education Akram Chehayeb break out in front of Bank Audi in Downtown, with the bodyguards firing shots into the air. The photo that becomes the first icon of the protests is taken as protester Malak Alaywe kicks one of Chehayeb’s armed bodyguards in the groin.  Reports begin to come in of spontaneous