by nypost.com — Twitter on Friday took the unprecedented step of banning President Trump from the platform “permanently” — less than two weeks before he leaves office. “After close review of recent Tweets from the @realDonaldTrump account and the context around them — specifically how they are being received and interpreted on and off Twitter — we have permanently suspended the account due to the risk of further incitement of violence,” the company said in a statement shortly after 6 p.m. The decision comes after Wednesday’s US Capitol siege in which five people were killed when thousands of pro-Trump supporters unhappy with the election stormed Congress. “In the context of horrific events this week, we made it clear on Wednesday that additional violations of the Twitter Rules would potentially result in this very course of action,” the statement continued. “Our public interest framework exists to enable the public to hear from elected officials and world leaders directly. It is built on a principle that the people have a right to hold power to account in the open.” “However, we made it clear going back years that these accounts are not above our rules entirely and cannot use Twitter to incite violence, among other things. We will continue to be transparent around our policies and their enforcement.” The president’s team immediately fired-back, calling the move “disgusting.”

“Disgusting. Big Tech wants to cancel all 75M @realDonaldTrump supporters. If you don’t think they’re coming for you next, you’re wrong,” wrote Trump campaign senior adviser Jason Miller. But Twitter is not the first social media company to ban the president in the wake of the violent episode. On Thursday, Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg announced he had banned Trump from using the platform until after he leaves office on Jan. 20, saying he had used his platform to “condone rather than condemn the actions of his supporters.” “The shocking events of the last 24 hours clearly demonstrate that President Donald Trump intends to use his remaining time in office to undermine the peaceful and lawful transition of power to his elected successor, Joe Biden,” wrote Zuckerberg in a post on his personal Facebook account.

by arabnews.com –TAREK ALI AHMAD — LONDON: Lebanese news anchor Layal Alekhtiar is the latest victim of a Hezbollah-led campaign to silence free media in and out of the country. The journalist, who works for US State Department-funded Alhurra, received death threats via text following an incitement campaign launched by viewers loyal to Hezbollah. The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) told Arab News that these threats must be investigated. The campaign comes after Alekhtiar tweeted a video of the unveiling of the newly erected statue of the late Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani with a line from Ayat Al-Anbya (The Prophets) from the Qur’an that said: “What are these statues to which you are so devoted?”

Alekhtiar told Arab News: “I didn’t provoke them specifically in any way, all I did was place this Ayat as a matter of freedom of speech, nothing more. I didn’t demean them, nor did I do it in any impolite way. “So, they let their whole army loose on me, and all those from Al-Manar and Al-Mayadeen and all their news channels and I didn’t understand why, there is nothing to it. “I tweeted the Ayat regarding the statues because what grabbed my attention was that there were Shiite religious men there. Anyway, to me, any statue that would be erected for someone not Lebanese — especially since he has a political agenda — paid by the Lebanese, should not be placed. Whoever it may be, not just Qassem Soleimani,” she said. Shortly after, a senior member of the Israeli Army tweeted the same Ayat which added fuel to the fire. “So, they begin to create a link between my tweet and his and they begin to photoshop both tweets together and spread it and say that I am a foreign agent and that I am an Israeli spy,” she added.

by english.aawsat.com — The rise of the US dollar exchange rate against the Lebanese Lira has brought protesters in the north and south of Lebanon back to the streets. On Thursday, the exchange rate of 1USD was equal to LBP8,800 after it was stable for the past weeks at around LBP8,000 and LBP8,500. In Sidon […]

by newsmax.com — In a video released Thursday night, President Donald Trump finally admitted all avenues of his election challenge have been exhausted and he will commit to a “smooth, orderly, and seamless transition of power.” He also condemned the “heinous attack” on the U.S. Capitol by some of his own supporters following a rally the previous day at which which he said he’d continue the fight. “My campaign vigorously pursued every legal avenue to contest the election results,” Trump said in a taped message from inside the White House. “My only goal was to ensure the integrity of the vote. In so doing, I was fighting to defend American democracy.”

He said he still strongly believes election laws must be reformed to verify the identity and the eligibility of all voters and to ensure faith and confidence in all future elections. “Now, Congress has certified the results. A new administration will be inaugurated on January 20th,” Trump said. “My focus now turns to ensuring a smooth, orderly, and seamless transition of power.” The words were in stark contrast to reports that the president was pressuring his own vice president, Mike Pence, not to certify the results — something Pence told the president he was constitutionally bound to do.

By NAJIA HOUSSARI — arabnews.com — BEIRUT: Lebanese President Michel Aoun on Thursday met Christian Patriarch Bechara Boutros Al-Rai, who is unhappy with the delay in forming a government due to the conditions put forward by the president. The meeting took place as Israeli warplanes violated Lebanese airspace following a similar breach of Lebanese waters on Wednesday night, when Israeli soldiers on a gunboat fired at Lebanese fishing boats, according to the Lebanese army command. The Aoun-Al-Rai talks continued for 45 minutes. Afterwards, Aoun said that the purpose of the meeting was to wish each other happy holidays because circumstances prevented them from being at the Patriarchate at Christmas. He said, however, that they had touched on “the general conditions that are still unannounced because all that happened with us is not reported in the media, and unfortunately, everyone in the media writes as they please.”

Aoun spoke of the “possibility” of a meeting between him and the prime minister-designate, Saad Hariri, but did not specify a date for the meeting. There is information that Al-Rai was arranging a meeting between Aoun and Hariri as part of his efforts to accelerate the formation of the government. This has reached stalemate as Aoun has not yet responded to the lineup suggested by Hariri a month ago in accordance with the French initiative — that it does not include ministers affiliated with politicians in power, but rather technocrats. Hariri returned to Beirut on Thursday after spending the holidays abroad. The media bureau of the president said: “There is no truth in the information that a meeting was to be held in Bkerke between Aoun and Hariri, under the auspices of Al-Rai. The truth is that Al-Rai made a similar proposal to the president during their Thursday meeting, and Aoun did not know about it in advance.” The dispute between Hariri and the Free Patriotic Movement (FPM), which is headed by the president’s son-in-law, Gebran Bassil, escalated a few days ago when Hariri’s media office announced its rejection of the FPM bloc’s holding “others responsible for the obstacles that the movement deliberately creates” in forming a government.

by newsmax.com — Jeffrey Rubin — The U.S. Capitol is secure once more, hours after supporters of President Donald Trump breached the historic building. The siege, which occurred as lawmakers were beginning to certify Electoral College results showing Joe Biden won the Nov. 3 election, had plunged the capital into chaos, with TV anchors likening videos of surging crowds and broken windows to those more commonly seen in authoritarian and third-world countries. It occurred not long after Trump, convinced voter fraud caused his loss to Biden, urged supporters at a rally in D.C. to oppose the ceremonial counting of the electoral votes. Though the ceremonial count, and associated protests by dozens of Republican lawmakers, were interrupted for hours, in a letter to colleagues House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said congressional leaders had decided to resume the joint session Wednesday night. They aim to do so once the Capitol is cleared for use, she said, after consultation with top lawmakers, the Pentagon, the Justice Department and Vice President Mike Pence.

By some reports, including one from the Washington Post, the surge into the Capitol led to use of tear gas, gunfire, and the death of one woman from gunshot wounds to the chest. National Guard and state troopers from Virginia have been called up, among others, to aid in restoring order. The woman was a “civilian” and officers are investigating, said Chief Robert J. Contee of the Metropolitan Police Department. She’d been pronounced dead at a local hospital, but officials had no further details on who shot her or why. There was much more detail, much of it startling, about the start of the siege. Shortly after 1 p.m. ET Wednesday hundreds of pro-Trump protesters pushed through barriers set up along the perimeter of the Capitol, bumping up against officers in full riot gear, some calling the officers “traitors” for doing their jobs, CNN said. About 90 minutes later, police said demonstrators got into the building and the doors to the House and Senate were being locked.

by AFP — Beirut: When Rachelle Halabi rushed her 85-year-old father to a Beirut hospital a few days ago with Covid-19, the doctor sent them home as intensive care was full. “The ER doctor told us to go back, get him an oxygen machine and give him his treatment from home,” she told AFP from the Lebanese capital. “We went with it for several days, but his condition did not improve.” Halabi herself tested positive for Covid-19, one of the thousands of new cases reported in Lebanon following a holiday season where loosened restrictions let infections soar. With 192,000 reported cases and almost 1,500 deaths, Lebanon is not among the world’s worst hit countries. But its infrastructure is crumbling, and a small surge in infections is enough to take its health sector to breaking point.

The health ministry has in recent weeks urged private hospitals to make more room for Covid-19 patients, but the pandemic is spreading too fast. “The rise in Covid numbers has outpaced the increase in critical beds,” said Firass Abiad, the head of a major public hospital battling the virus. Lebanese Red Cross president Georges Kettaneh told AFP the service was “transporting around 100 patients in need of hospital treatment a day.” Halabi said she was turned away by several hospitals, and her hunt for a bed eventually took her outside the capital, to a private hospital in the city of Zahle, in the Bekaa valley. Her father was given a bed in exchange for 15 million Lebanese pounds, equivalent to some $10,000 at the official exchange rate. “What do you do if you can’t afford this amount?” she asked. Her father had already had a narrow escape earlier this year, when a mammoth blast at Beirut port in August devastated swathes of the capital.

by arabnews.com — LONDON: Lebanese took to social media platforms to express their discontent and frustration with the unveiling of a Qassem Soleimani monument in the Hezbollah district of Ghobeiry on Tuesday. “New Qassem Sulaimani statue in #Lebanon — with Lebanese flags in the background, useful to remind us where we are. Whats next? Sulaimani […]

By Courtney Mares — Rome Newsroom, (CNA).- Lebanon’s Maronite patriarch has said that the country could be facing “the risk of total collapse” amid a deepening economic and political crisis. In his homily on Jan. 3, Cardinal Bechara Boutros Rai, the leader of Lebanon’s Maronite Catholics, said that Lebanon’s political leaders needed to “overcome the logic of partisan interests” and form a government to help rescue the country. Rai urged the formation of a “government with real independence, democratic and pluralistic balance, and with highly qualified ministers.” He added that Lebanon’s leaders needed to make a “responsible and courageous decision” to disrupt various internal and external interventions and “set their sights on the interest of Lebanon only.” The patriarch warned officials not to “underestimate the risk of complete collapse.” It was the second time in less than a week that the Lebanese cardinal had spoken of the risk of collapse.

In his homily on New Year’s Day, Rai said: “No one or any group of the political spectrum, whether directly or indirectly involved, has the right to hinder the formation of the government for the sake of current or future accounts and interests.” “Two months and 10 days have passed since the task to form the government was issued, while Lebanon is moving rapidly towards complete collapse and bankruptcy.” He continued: “It is truly shameful that the new year begins without the government formed and committed to work. It is also disgraceful for the unemployed to deal with the Lebanese issue as if it were one of the chess pieces of the Middle East or major countries. Let the political community remember that forming a government is its first and basic duty and the justification for its existence.”

by Newsmax — Jeffrey Rodack — Iran has requested Interpol arrest President Donald Trump and 47 other Americans it said played a role in the death of top general Qassem Soleimani. The U.S. killed Soleimani, leader of the Revolutionary Guards’ Quds Force, in Iraq on Jan. 3, 2020. Washington had accused him of masterminding attacks […]