by cnbc.com — Matt Clinch | Natasha Turak — Elias Bou Saab, the minister of national defense of Lebanon, believes that dialogue with Hezbollah rather than sanctions would prove more successful in dealing with tensions in the region. Speaking in Jordan at the World Economic Forum (WEF) on the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), he said Lebanon was a “mosaic country” that had to be dealt with in a different way. “I believe the policy on Lebanon with that regard is not going to be paying off,” he told CNBC’s Hadley Gamble on Saturday, referring to the U.S. administration’s approach to Hezbollah, which is financially and militarily supported by Iran. “Lebanese people know how to handle the situation internally without creating another civil war in Lebanon. No-one should or could be pressing us in one direction that may create instability in my country,” he added.

Saab’s comments come after recent reports indicating that the United States is considering sanctions against allies of Lebanon’s parliamentary speaker Nabih Berri due to his ties with Hezbollah and Iran. “We are talking with the Americans. We are having dialogues with them and we are explaining the situation. Hezbollah they are Lebanese, they are part of the Lebanese community, the have mayors, they have elected members of the Parliament, they are in the government,” he added. Hezbollah, which operates as both a political party and paramilitary group and is designated by the U.S. as a terrorist organization, made record gains during Lebanon’s elections in May 2018. It is widely seen as the most powerful political force in Lebanon today.

The only group to maintain a paramilitary force since the end of Lebanon’s bloody 15-year civil war in 1990, the Shia organization ignores the official Lebanese policy of staying out of regional conflicts and has been active most notably in Syria in support of Syrian President Bashar Assad. Saab is a member of Lebanese President Michel Aoun’s Free Patriotic Movement, a Maronite Christian party and a political ally of Hezbollah. In 2006, the two parties signed a memorandum of understanding, the first such alliance between major Shia and Christian parties in Lebanon’s history.

by newsweek.com —A powerful Libyan general in charge of much of the country has set out to claim the capital, potentially overthrowing a United Nations-backed government and allied militias. Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar, the commander of the self-proclaimed Libyan National Army, ordered his troops on Thursday via an audio message to begin a new bid to take Tripoli just as U.N. General Secretary António Guterres paid a visit to the disputed city. The military leader said “the time has come” for his forces to “advance,” but would do so in “peace” as he’d ordered his forces to not “shoot civilians waving a white flag.” As Haftar’s men took the town of Gharyan, located about 31 miles south of Tripoli, a joint statement by France, Italy, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom and the United States warned that “military posturing and threats of unilateral action only risk propelling Libya back toward chaos.” The country has been beset by frequent bouts of civil unrest since the U.S.-led NATO Western military alliance helped to overthrow Muammar el-Qaddafi in 2011 by backing an insurgency against his 42-year rule.

By Friday, the Libyan National Army had entered the capital’s outskirts, taking the nearby town of Al-Aziziyah. Spokesperson Ahmed al-Mismari announced that Tripoli’s international airport was “fully under the control” of the faction as part of an operation now officially named Flood of Dignity During a press conference Friday, Mismari outlined the operation, displaying graphics and a cross-country push from nearly 620 miles away, including positions such as the Al-Jufra desert air base. He vowed that the Libyan National Army “has not stopped and will not stop until the completion of the task.” Awaiting Haftar in Tripoli was his rival Fayez al-Sarraj, the U.N.-backed chairman of the Presidential Council and prime minister of the Government of National Accord. Both men previously worked for Qaddafi’s government—Sarraj as a housing minister and Haftar as a leading military officer who ultimately turned on the longtime leader with support from the U.S., where he later fled and gained citizenship.

by cnbc — Lori Ioannou — IBM’s Chair, CEO and President Ginni Rometty has a powerful message for workers and employers in all strata of society: The Fourth Industrial Revolution is underway and it is shaping up to be one of the most significant challenges and opportunities of our lifetime. We are already seeing jobs, policies, industries and entire economies shifting as our digital and physical worlds merge. According to the World Economic Forum, the value of digital transformations in the Fourth Industrial Revolution is estimated at $100 trillion in the next 10 years alone, across all sectors, industries and geographies. “As a result, we face an imminent and profound transformation of the workforce over the next five to 10 years as analytics and artificial intelligence change job roles at companies in all industries,” Rometty said while giving a keynote address at the CNBC’s At Work Talent & HR: Building the Workforce of the Future Conference in New York on Tuesday, April 2. In February, the executive was appointed to Trump’s American Workforce Policy Advisory Board along with 24 other leaders.

While only a minority of jobs will disappear, the majority of roles that remain will require people to work with the aid of analytics and some form of AI and this will require skills training on a large scale, Rometty said. “I expect AI to change 100 percent of jobs within the next five to 10 years,” the IBM CEO said. Rometty’s call to action comes at a time when the AI skills gap and the future of work exhibit a growing sense of urgency. The technology sector accounts for 10 percent of U.S. GDP and is the fastest part of the American economy but there are not enough skilled workers to fill the 500,000 open high-tech jobs in the U.S., according to the Consumer Technology Association’s Future of Work survey. Yet the tech industry is concerned that school systems and universities have not moved fast enough to adjust their curriculum to delve more into data science and machine learning. As a result, companies will struggle to fill jobs in software development, data analytics and engineering. “To get ready for this paradigm shift companies have to focus on three things: retraining, hiring workers that don’t necessarily have a four-year college degree and rethinking how their pool of recruits may fit new job roles,” Rometty said.

by bbc.com —A top Algerian businessman has been arrested while trying to cross into neighbouring Tunisia, local media say. Ali Haddad is one of the country’s richest men and a long-time backer of President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, who is under intense pressure to quit. Demonstrators have been demanding that Mr Bouteflika and those close to him […]