By Charles Boehm @cboehm — mlssoccer.com — AL-RAYYAN, Qatar – The US men’s national team already had to deal with intense pressure and massive stakes around Tuesday’s World Cup match with Iran Decades of bitter political history between the two nations always makes this matchup an emotional one, and now a place in the tournament’s knockout rounds is on the line, with the US needing a victory to advance out of Group B and Iran able to claim that spot with a draw or a win. Now events of the past few days have added an even sharper edge to this enormous fixture.

Klinsmann vs. Queiroz

Former USMNT coach Jurgen Klinsmann upset Iranians with his comments in an appearance on BBC in the wake of Team Melli’s dramatic win over Wales on Friday, in which he affirmed British presenters’ accusations of gamesmanship and dirty play by Iran as “just part of their culture.” This also drew the ire of Iran manager Carlos Queiroz, whose managerial track record Klinsmann critiqued unflatteringly in his comments. Queiroz, who coached the New York/New Jersey MetroStars (today the New York Red Bulls) in the early days of MLS, responded on Twitter with a lengthy, full-blooded denunciation of Klinsmann’s comments – concluding with a demand that the German-American resign from his current post on FIFA’s Technical Study Group. Chaired by Arsene Wenger, the TSG is a prominent body which analyzes and evaluates every World Cup match, compiling detailed statistics and gleaning insights about the present and future of the sport. Queiroz specifically noted Klinsmann’s “American/German” status in his Twitter thread. Klinsmann addressed Queiroz’s comments on BBC on Sunday, saying “there was stuff really taken out of context. I will try to give him a call and calm things down. “I have never criticized Carlos or the Iranian bench,” he added.

Flag fracas

BEIRUT — Maronite Patriarch Bechara al-Rai warned on Sunday from Rome that Parliament “cannot continue to deliberately delay and manipulate the election of a head of state.” Rai’s remarks come as the country is experiencing its first dual executive power vacuum, with no president and without a fully empowered cabinet. Rai spoke on Sunday during a festive Mass in the Church of Saint Maron in the Pontifical Maronite Institute in Rome. He described the country’s independence day, which falls on Nov. 22, as a “sad day,” adding that “in the absence of a president, the state disintegrates, the internal unity is shaken up, the separation of powers is disrupted, chaos spreads, and the political, economic, social and living crises worsen, as is happening.”

Parliamentary quorum

The head of the Maronite church criticized in his Sunday homily the decision by Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri to conclude parliamentary sessions dedicated to electing a new president after the first round of vote when some parties’ MPs leave, slashing the quorum — two-thirds of MPs — Berri argues is required to continue the session. MPs failed for the seventh time on Thursday to elect a successor to Michel Aoun, whose term as president ended on Oct. 31. Each time, MPs from Hezbollah, the Amal Movement, the Free Patriotic Movement and their allies have left Parliament either ahead of or following a first round vote, torpedoing quorum, and disabling the session from continuing. “Regardless of the custom that states that a quorum of two-thirds of the members of the House of Representatives is required in the session to elect the President of the Republic, we must not forget the legal principle that says: ‘There is no custom contrary to the constitution,” Rai said. Rai claimed that “Article 49 of the constitution stipulates the election of the president by two-thirds of the votes in the first session, and in the next and subsequent sessions by absolute majority (half plus one),” questioning the reason behind “clos[ing] the first session after each poll and disabl[ing] the quorum in the next session, contrary to Article 55 of the internal rules of the Parliament.”

By Story by Daniel Stewart — msn.com — Dozens of women rallied in front of the Lebanese parliament building at Place de l’Etoile in Beirut to demand harsher penalties against sex offenders in the country. The women protesters were dressed in black with banners that read, among other slogans, “For a punishment commensurate with the […]

by Tim Stickings — thenationalnews.com — Lebanon’s former president Michel Aoun had to be persuaded to put on a raincoat when French special forces spirited him out of the country in 1991, a French officer has revealed. Mr Aoun — who left office a second time last month after reclaiming power in 2016 — was whisked away in a secretive mission after taking refuge in the French embassy. He headed into exile after losing a violent power struggle at the end of Lebanon’s 1975-90 civil war. Lebanon’s parliament fails to elect president in fifth electoral session But he appeared to have second thoughts after French special forces arrived on a beach to take him to safety. “One of the biggest difficulties we had at the time was getting General Aoun to put on a rain jacket,” said rear admiral Bertrand de Gaullier des Bordes, who led a French commando unit. “I think it was probably a pretext for him to not leave Lebanon, but he didn’t want to put on the sea clothing. “Eventually he did, and it was very useful for him because the sea was a bit tricky when we left and it was very wet.”

The rear admiral’s recollections came as part of a new exhibition on the history of the French special forces. He said the 1991 operation involved “everything you see in special forces films”, with an armoured car waiting as French troops with lights and radios pulled up to the beach. The rescue mission was arranged with the French embassy where Mr Aoun had taken sanctuary in 1990, following his defeat by Syrian and Lebanese forces. Mr Aoun, now 89, feared for his safety after surviving at least one assassination attempt and was granted asylum by France, the former colonial power in Lebanon. Reports at the time described decoy cars being used to lead potential witnesses astray while Mr Aoun was driven to the beach at dawn. Smuggled away to France, he lived in exile until 2005 — before returning to Lebanon and eventually winning the presidency.

By Eric Santos — msn.com — One of the big upsets of this World Cup came on November 22nd with the victory of Saudi Arabia against Argentina. Lionel Scaloni’s men went into the match on an unbeaten streak of 36 games and went ahead thanks to a penalty from Messi, but after the break, and after a much-noted half-time talk by coach Hervé Renard, the Saudis managed to turn the game around and record a famous victory that delighted Mohamed bin Salman, the country’s crown prince and one of the richest people in the world.

The footballers of the Saudi Arabian national team are now dreaming of qualifying for the round of 16 at the World Cup in Qatar, but while they are savoring this much-heralded victory they are going to receive a spectacular gift from the delighted Crown Prince. The 37-year-old from Jeddah is closely following Saudi Arabia’s participation in the World Cup in Qatar and personally congratulated the team members for winning their debut against all the odds, but he is so delighted that he has gone one step further and presented his beloved footballers with a gift valued at almost 500,000 dollars. The Crown Prince, according to CNN, has decided to give a Rolls-Royce Phantom, the basic model of which costs around $460,000, to each of the players who beat Argentina as a thank you for their performance and as a motivational tool for the next match, which they will play against to Poland. A decent result in that game and Saudi Arabia could achieve a historic qualification for the round of 16.

by AP — AL-RAYYAN, Qatar: Tensions ran high at Iran’s second match at the World Cup on Friday as fans supporting the Iranian government harassed those protesting against it and stadium security seized flags, T-shirts and other items expressing support for the protest movement that has gripped the Islamic Republic. Some fans were stopped by security guards from bringing in Persian pre-revolutionary flags to the match against Wales at the Ahmad Bin Ali Stadium. Others carrying such flags had them ripped from their hands by pro-government Iran fans, who also shouted insults at fans wearing T-shirts with the slogan of the protest movement gripping the country, “Woman, Life, Freedom.” Unlike in their first match against England, the Iran players sang along to their national anthem before the match as some fans in the stadium wept, whistled and booed. The national team has come under close scrutiny for any statements or gestures about the nationwide protests that have wracked Iran for weeks. Shouting matches erupted in lines outside the stadium between fans screaming “Women, Life, Freedom” and others shouting back “The Islamic Republic!”

Mobs of men surrounded three different women giving interviews about the protests to foreign media outside the stadium, disrupting broadcasts as they angrily chanted, “The Islamic Republic of Iran!” Many female fans appeared shaken as Iranian government supporters shouted at them in Farsi and filmed them up close on their phones. After Iran’s 2-0 triumph, crowds of Iranian fans wildly waving national flags streamed out of the stadium. They thronged a group of protesters who held up photos of Mahsa Amini, the 22-year-old whose Sept. 16 death in the custody of the morality police first unleashed the protests, yelling “Victory!” to drown out chants of Amini’s name. One 35-year-old woman named Maryam, who like other Iran fans declined to give her last name for fear of government reprisals, started to cry as shouting men blowing horns encircled her and filmed her face. She had the words “Woman Life Freedom” painted on her face. “I’m not here to fight with anyone, but people have been attacking me and calling me a terrorist,” said Maryam, who lives in London but is originally from Tehran. “All I’m here to say is that football doesn’t matter if people are getting killed in the streets.” Maryam and her friends had worn hats emblazoned with the name of an outspoken Iranian former soccer player Voria Ghafouri, who had criticized Iranian authorities and was arrested in Iran on Thursday on accusations of spreading propaganda against the government. She said Iranian government supporters had taken the hats from their heads.

After the visit of former Minister Youssef Saadeh, delegated by the head of the Marada Movement, Suleiman Franjieh, to Paris, where he met the head of the French Foreign Intelligence, Bernard Aimé, and with the description of the results of the meeting as constructive and good, the features of the steps that Franjieh is taking, calmly and without haste, in the race towards Baabda Palace began to appear. .. After his remarkable participation (and in the front ranks politically and spatially) in the UNESCO meeting, affirming the Taef Constitution, and with the absence of a Saudi veto on Suleiman Bey as a candidate for the presidency of the Lebanese Republic, even if Saudi Arabia supports the army commander, General Joseph Aoun, for the presidency of the Republic, well-informed political circles reported It can be described as close to Marada, according to “Lebanon Files” that France does not harbor any veto over Franjieh, and so is Washington’s position, and therefore, and based on the range of contacts that France undertakes regionally as well as internationally (Macron-Biden meeting soon), and contacts at the cell level

The crisis between Paris and Haret Hreik, the atmosphere that began to seep into the course of the presidential election regarding Franjieh’s fortunes, seems good, and indicated that the Shiite duo is satisfied with a wide aspect of his internal parliamentary political contacts, and is positively anticipating Regarding the French contacts related to the situation in Lebanon, including the presidential election.. The circles pointed out that the factor countering this atmosphere, related to the position of the head of the Free Patriotic Movement, Gebran Bassil, rejecting Franjieh as president, and the strong positions issued by Basil, pointed out that the effect of this factor does not exceed even the nature of disturbing Hezbollah, which moves and works with accuracy, confidence and deliberation. Just to prevent embarrassment, and that the mechanism of this move seeks not to offend Mar Mikhael’s February 6 understanding. And if the duo will keep their white papers (with their allies) in the presidential parliamentary election fund, until 65 votes are secured for Suleiman Bey, then what the circles indicate is that the matter is affected by the time factor, as this context requires at least two months, waiting.

by unifil.unmissions.org — Who knew that the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) have eight black belt Taekwondo athletes! In Korean, a Taekwondo practitioner is called Taekwondoin, and these eight Taekwondoins recently asked UNIFIL’s Republic of Korea Battalion for some brush-ups on a few techniques. Korean peacekeepers obliged by assigning two of their Taekwondo masters to spend a few weeks with LAF’s black belts. The LAF officers were already seasoned Taekwondo athletes sporting some impressive acrobatic moves and techniques, but they needed some guidance with the showmanship aspect of the martial art. The goal was to prepare for a sporting event commemorating the 79th Lebanese Independence Day on 22 November 2022.

The focus of the customized training sessions was the poomsae, which is a sequence of Taekwondo techniques linked together into a pattern of moves. To gain a black belt, a student generally must know all eight poomsae sequences and be able to perform them all consecutively without breaks in between. Although the LAF black belts had already mastered the poomsae sequences, they wanted to fine-tune them for the performance. “I was able to fix my incorrect poomsae posture through the instructors’ simple description, and all members of the demonstration team were then able to do a complete motion,” said Sergeant Major Raad of the LAF team. “This opportunity helped me to appreciate the attractiveness of Taekwondo’s sharp motions once again, and I thank ROKBATT [the Republic of Korean Battalion] for their detailed training and support,” he added.

By Joe Bukuras — catholicnewsagency.com — What can the Maronite Catholic Church offer to aid the U.S. bishops’ Eucharistic Revival that is currently underway in the United States? The two Maronite bishops in the United States say the answer is the Maronite liturgy, with its deep reverence and focus on Jesus Christ, truly present in the Eucharist. The U.S. bishops’ National Eucharistic Revival, a three-year initiative by the U.S. bishops to inspire Eucharist belief, follows a 2019 Pew Research study that suggested that only about one-third of U.S. Catholics believe the Church’s teaching that the Eucharist is truly the body and blood of Christ. “I think what we have to offer, of course, is the liturgy, which is the focus of our eucharistic reverence and amazement,” Bishop Gregory Mansour of the Maronite Eparchy of St. Maron of Brooklyn told CNA at the U.S. bishops’ conference in Baltimore Nov. 16.

Mansour said that his parishes offer eucharistic adoration and added that when on retreats the priests will adore the Blessed Sacrament for one hour each night. He added that he thinks the Maronite way of receiving Communion by intinction — when the priest dips the Lord’s body into his precious blood and places it on the communicant’s tongue — is a “very healthy way” to receive. “It’s almost a way of receiving Communion that you have the best of all the worlds. You have it receiving on the tongue; you have it receiving the body and blood; and you have it where you have a moment just to receive Our Lord and reflect on him,” he said. “So I like that practice, and I notice some in the Latin Church have copied it, although I don’t think it’s the norm,” he said.

by Dana Halawi BEIRUT, (Xinhua) — Lebanese industrialists are trying to produce their own alternative fuel vehicles amid the country’s severe energy crunch. Hisham Houssami is one of them. Named “Lira,” the name of the Lebanese currency, the hybrid car designed by Houssami, who was originally a manufacturer of industrial equipment, can be charged with electricity or via solar panels. The idea of designing and making his own car came to the 46-year-old man as he witnessed the difficulty of Lebanese in securing fuel for their cars amid the energy shortages as a result of the financial crisis. “It’s a shame that the Lebanese can barely afford gasoline, and it’s even more painful to see people suffering to access the commodity every now and then,” Houssami said.

In Lebanon, 20 liters of gasoline could cost about 800,000 Lebanese pounds (about 20 U.S. dollars). Houssami said he currently has a team of 7 to 10 regular workers working on the new car while he supervises the production process. A mechanic works on a hybrid car made by Lebanese industrialist Hisham Houssami, in Beirut, Lebanon, on Nov. 21, 2022. (Xinhua/Bilal Jawich) “Unfortunately, we do not have car engineers in Lebanon, but my experience in producing industrial equipment makes this job possible for me,” Houssami said. The industrialist planned to launch the EV this year during Christmas and New Year seasons at less than 10,000 U.S. dollars. Houssami has already placed several ads on social media channels asking for more people to join his new car factory.