يَشعرُ اللبنانيّون أنَّ لبنانَ هو المحافظةُ الاحتياط في كلِّ دولةٍ من دولِ العالم. ما إِن تَندلعُ حربٌ، ولو في المرّيخ، حتى يهرَعَ اللبنانيّون ـــ قبل أهلِ البلدِ حيث تدورُ الحربُ ـــ إلى التساؤلِ عن انعكاساتِها عليهم. مُخزٍ أن يَربُطَ اللبنانيّون دائمًا مصيرَ بلدِهم بكلِّ أزْمةٍ أو حربٍ خارجيّة. هذه مُصيبةُ كلِّ دولةٍ يتولّى أحكامَها تَبعِـيّون ومحترفو هِوايات. وهذه بَليّةُ كلِّ وطنٍ يَتحوّلُ عددٌ من مكوّناتِه مستعمراتٍ لدولٍ أُخرى. وهذه مأساةُ كلِّ شعبٍ منقسِمٍ على ذاتِه وعاجزٍ، بالتالي، عن حمايةِ سيادتِه واستقلالِه. وحزبُ الله الذي يوهِـمُنا بأنَّ سلاحَه يَحمي لبنان، هو سببُ بقاءِ لبنان في عينِ العواصف، وهو عِلّةُ زيادةِ ارتباطِ مصيرِ لبنان بأحداثِ الشرقِ الأوسطِ والعالم. لا نُنكِرُ أنَّ القوّةَ هي ركيزةُ أيِّ استراتيجيّةٍ دفاعيّة، إِنما شرطَ أن تكونَ قوّةً شرعيّةً لأنَّ القوّةَ غيرَ الشرعيّةِ هي مصدرُ ضعفٍ ونذيرُ عدوان وتَفتقِدُ الشرعيّةَ الدوليّة.

By Caitlin McFall | Fox News -- Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Wednesday downplayed the suggestion that the Biden administration was snubbed by oil-leading nations in the Middle East as the U.S. looks to counter surging oil prices amid Russia’s war in Ukraine. "We're all talking regularly," the secretary said. "I spent a fair bit of time on the phone with my Emirati counterpart," he continued. "I regularly met with my Saudi counterpart, including in Munich, just a few weeks ago. President Biden spoke with King Salman of Saudi Arabia last month in a discussion that set out a very expansive agenda."

The question was posed following a report Wednesday morning by The Wall Street Journal that claimed leaders in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) declined calls with Biden in recent weeks. The report also said Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and the UAE's Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al Nahyanspoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin, despite declining to talk with Biden. "There was some expectation of a phone call, but it didn’t happen," a U.S. official reportedly said of the planned discussion between the Saudi Prince Mohammed and Biden. "It was part of turning on the spigot [of Saudi oil]."

By NAJIA HOUSSARI -- arabnews.com -- BEIRUT: The Lebanese government is expected to make a decision on Thursday on whether to set up so-called mega centers to make it easier for people to vote in the country’s upcoming parliamentary elections. The aim of the facilities, which are favored by President Michel Aoun, is to allow voters to cast their ballots outside their area of registration, meaning they would not have to return to their hometowns to do so. However, it has been suggested that if the centers are created it could lead to the elections, currently scheduled for May 15, being delayed. After a ministerial committee completed a report into the issue, the Cabinet must now decide how to proceed based on its findings. If it approves the idea, a draft law would have to be submitted to parliament to allow the centers to be created. While Aoun’s camp said that “no legal measures were necessary to adopt the mega centers. It is very easy if the political intent is there,” the opposition said that “the issue requires legal amendments and will result in a very high financial cost.”

In the committee’s report, Tourism Minister Walid Nassar said: “The cost of establishing eight mega centers … does not exceed $2 million and they can be completed in no more than three weeks.” But Interior Minister Bassam Mawlawi said the technical requirements of setting up the facilities would lead to disruption. “The ministerial committee is against postponing the elections and insists on holding them on the designated date without any delay,” he said. The disruption would be caused by the need for the centers to have the “necessary principles and requirements in order to have a sound election,” he said. “It is not a tent that can be set up in neighborhoods with a ballot box on top of a table. It is way more complicated. “Mega centers without electronic connection, fiber optics and a central server that provides the necessary linkage are not actual mega centers, unless they want them to be like tents.” He added: “The company that will be in charge of this project will need up to three months to complete the task and link the main electoral centers to the mother server. Moreover, what applies to the Lebanese voters living outside the country should apply to voters residing in the country.”

by venturebeat.com -- Kyle Alspach -- With limited information coming out of Ukraine about cyberattacks hitting the country, findings from tech giants Google, Amazon and Microsoft disclosed in recent days have provided a window into the cyber conditions in Ukraine as Russia’s brutal assault continues. All three companies have said they are providing cybersecurity support to Ukraine, whose government said on Saturday that it has been seeing “nonstop” distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks by “Russian hackers” since Russia’s invasion on February 24. However, as evidenced by the latest reports from Google, Amazon and Microsoft, Ukraine’s computing infrastructure has been the victim of more than just DDoS attacks amid Russia’s unprovoked military campaign (though we still have yet to learn of a crippling cyberattack against electricity, water and communications infrastructure).

Google, Amazon and Microsoft have a view into the security threat landscape through operating massive cloud computing platforms, applications used by many governments and businesses and a number of security solutions. AWS continues to maintain its lead in the market for cloud infrastructure services, according to Synergy Research Group, followed by Microsoft Azure at No. 2 and Google Cloud at No. 3. What follows are the latest details that Google, Amazon and Microsoft have revealed about Ukraine’s cyber situation.