By Doha Madani, Abigail Williams and Reuters An American tourist who has been held in Syria for two months has been freed after Lebanese officials negotiated his release, according to his family Friday. Sam Goodwin, 30, was reunited with his parents, Thomas and Ann Goodwin, after being held in the war-torn country since May when […]

BEIRUT (Reuters) – Lebanese police will investigate a complaint against the rock band Mashrou’ Leila for insulting religion, a lawyer in the case said on Wednesday. The lawyer, Christine Nakhoul, said she had submitted the complaint against the band to the prosecutor’s office, which was directing it to the police. The Lebanese group has an […]

  BEIRUT (Reuters) – Lebanese police will investigate a complaint against the rock band Mashrou’ Leila for insulting religion, a lawyer in the case said on Wednesday. The lawyer, Christine Nakhoul, said she had submitted the complaint against the band to the prosecutor’s office, which was directing it to the police. The Lebanese group has […]

by bbc.com — Anthony Zurcher — What’s an American to make of Boris Johnson?

Not the person-on-the-street American, who may look at a photograph of the new British conservative leader and think they’re being asked to identify an aging 1970s glam rocker. I’m talking about the US media analysts and commentators who get paid to think about politics and, occasionally, cast their eyes across the oceans to see what the rest of the world is up to. At this point in US history, it’s hard for Americans to view any major political event outside the context of the rise and rule of Donald Trump – the crashing cacophony that drowns out all other thought. Emmanuel Macron is elected president of France? A rebuke of Trumpism! The Liberal/National right-leaning coalition prevails in Australia? Trumpism triumphs! Such is the case with the Mr Johnson. The comparisons between the two Anglophone leaders have come fast and furious – some facile and others more nuanced. Even Mr Trump himself got in on the game, in a speech in Washington on Tuesday afternoon. “He’s tough and he’s smart,” Mr Trump said of Mr Johnson. “They call him ‘Britain Trump’, and it’s people saying that’s a good thing. They like me over there. That’s what they wanted. That’s what they need.”

There are plenty of other opinions, of course – that Mr Johnson is either the second coming of Donald Trump in a good way or in a bad way; a British original or a knock-off nationalist. “The front-runner to become Britain’s next prime minister is a portly white man with unkempt blond hair, an adoring base of supporters, disdain for Europe, a dodgy private life and a loose relationship with truth and principle,” the New York Times editorial board wrote last month. “There are also differences between Boris Johnson and Donald Trump, but the similarities have been much noted in some European circles, with no small misgivings.” The hair is where the comparisons always start – although the Associated Press’s Gregory Katz and Natasha Livingstone note that while both pay careful attention to their trademark coifs, they do so in differing ways. “President Donald Trump’s hair is very carefully styled before he appears in public, while Johnson’s precisely the opposite,” they write (in fact, Johnson is known to ruffle his hair before he goes on camera). “From the start of his political career Johnson has sported what could only be called the ‘slept-on’ look, declining to style his locks in any way so they have a natural, spontaneous, even unpredictable quality.”

Beyond appearances, American observers note that both Mr Trump and Mr Johnson were born in New York City, and both have elite college pedigrees – the former at the Ivy League University of Pennsylvania and the latter at Oxford. The more discerning will note that Mr Johnson qualified through an academic scholarship, while Mr Trump admission reportedly required some familial arm-twisting. Mr Johnson also occasionally betrays his ivory tower pedigree with allusions to classical history or the arts, while Mr Trump… does not. Both men also have taken unusual paths to power – the American through his real estate and reality television celebrity, and the Brit by being a sharp-tongued journalist. “Johnson’s rise is akin to Trump’s: People in the political class don’t like, or even trust, him,” writes Kyle Smith of the conservative National Review. “Yet he found a path around them.”

by arabnews.com — BEIRUT: Lebanese fashion designer Elie Saab has been hailed by tourism chiefs for staging his son’s lavish wedding reception on home turf. The influential Syndicate of Owners of Restaurants, Cafés, Night-Clubs and Pastries in Lebanon saluted Saab “for holding the wedding party of his son, Elie Jr., and the Lebanese bride, Christina […]

BEIRUT (Reuters) – Lebanon’s traditional summer festivals harked back to the Arab world’s musical past this year, highlighted by a performance by the great-granddaughter of the legendary 1930s diva Asmahan in a mountain palace. Asmahan captivated audiences at a moment when European colonialism had replaced the Ottoman Empire, and cultural icons reached the masses via […]

by aawsat.com — The debate over Lebanese who have fled to Israel was revived after Foreign Minister and Free Patriotic Movement (FPM) chief Jebran Bassil revealed that Justice Minister Albert Serhan was seeking to devise a mechanism to implement the law on their return. The debate covers Lebanese who fled to Israel 19 years ago, […]

foxnews.com —Criminal activity has been officially canceled in one suburban Chicago town due to the extreme heat that’s cooking most of the country. “It is just too hot to be outside committing crimes,” the Park Forest Police Department said on Facebook Friday. “We’re asking all aspiring criminals, seasoned veterans, and those who find themselves committing […]

  By SARAH EL DEEB The Associated Press BEIRUT (AP) — For days, Lebanese TV stations have been blanketed with live coverage as lawmakers held heated debate over a controversial austerity budget meant to salvage the flailing economy, with protests outside parliament and critics denouncing its focus on tax hikes and wage cuts. Mohammed Badran, […]

By Dan Gallagher –Microsoft MSFT -0.35% ’s comeback is no longer tech’s best-kept secret. That sets up a new kind of challenge for the software giant. When Microsoft reports its fiscal year-end results Thursday afternoon, it should mark the first time in more than a decade that the company has managed to grow revenue by double digits for two years in a row. Moreover, Wall Street expects that to continue for at least the next two years, which would be a pace not seen since the early 2000s, when the company had less than one-third of its current revenue.

That stands out against recent decelerating growth trends at Big Tech peers such as Apple Inc., Google parent Alphabet Inc. and even turbocharged Amazon.com . As a result, Microsoft has spent most of the past three months as the world’s most valuable company and more than a month with a market value in excess of $1 trillion. That serves as a strong validation for the company’s transformation under Chief Executive Satya Nadella, but it also means Microsoft no longer has the relative comfort of being an underdog. At 28 times forward earnings, Microsoft’s shares not only carry a premium to Alphabet’s, Facebook ’s and Apple’s; they also carry the highest multiple the stock has commanded in more than 15 years, according to FactSet.