Lebanon Postpones Daylight Saving Time Shift By 1 Month

In a last-minute decision, Lebanon’s government announced that the shift away from daylight saving time would be postponed by a month, extending DST until the end of Ramadan. As a result, while most Northern Hemisphere countries automatically advanced their times by an hour yesterday, the people of Lebanon were left confused about the exact time they should set their alarms on Sunday morning.

In an alleged video leak shown by news outlet Megaphone, Lebanon’s prime minister, Najib Mikati, and parliament speaker Nabih Berri discussed the postponement, with Berri insisting on delaying the switch away from DST.

Most digital devices with network access, such as smartphones and computers, switch in and out of daylight saving time automatically, so Lebanese citizens were asked to adjust their clocks back an hour manually.

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Although public institutions are forced to abide by the government’s decision, many private businesses ignored the request and continued to follow the existing schedule. The confusion has left Lebanon — a small country that can be transversed east to west in less than two hours — with two separate time zones.

The chaos has resulted in missed appointments, TV channels displaying different times, and even Google searches with the wrong timestamps.