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Mark Cuban is getting more serious than ever about politics — and in the age of Trump, the political world is starting to notice

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March 26, 2017

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In private, Mark Cuban has started discussing his role in national politics with his family. He told Business Insider, for instance, that he spoke with loved ones about his decision to campaign on the trail for Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. "We discussed how much of a threat I believe Trump to be," Cuban said in an email. "We discussed why it was important to me to get involved — that if I could have an impact and didn't try, it would have left me guessing forever." And, as Cuban said, his family feels "like we started on the right path" to "have a platform and voice for the future." Cuban, 58, is a self-made billionaire businessman and the owner of the Dallas Mavericks. And he seems more serious than ever about running for president. Cuban refrained from engaging much in politics before the 2016 campaign cycle. But in the past two years he has openly flirted with a White House bid, teasing journalists with tantalizing words about his aspirations.

It wasn't long ago that Cuban was shutting down questions about whether he'd seek the presidency one day, flatly rejecting the notion, as he did at the September presidential debate. But something changed. It was, as Cuban put it, "obvious": the election — unpredictability — of Trump. "What I do depends on how things play out for the country," Cuban said referring to a 2020 attempt at unseating Trump. Like Trump, Cuban introduced himself to American households first as a prominent businessman and later through a reality-TV show. He had no formal history in politics, only suddenly emerging on the national political stage last year. His strategy for gaining political prominence was oddly similar to Trump's — deliver hot, unadulterated takes on cable TV, outlets like CNBC, Fox News, and CNN, and on Twitter.

Yet Cuban does not embrace the comparison. "He talked about running for office for 30 years," Cuban said. "I started talking about politics this year, after avoiding them the last almost 20 years, because I thought it was important to do so." In conversations with Business Insider, Cuban's longtime friends said they were initially surprised to see Cuban get involved politically, but they added that they could certainly now envision him entering the fray in 2020. And while it would be a climb to the White House for the tech titan, campaign experts have laid out a path Cuban could take to find himself in the Oval Office.

Arab leaders will need answers to big questions

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March 26, 2017

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Uncategorised

by Taylor Luck - National AE - As Arab leaders and other decision-makers gather in Amman this week for the annual Arab Summit, they need more than a consensus. They need a breakthrough. As crises continue unabated and foreign powers step up their influence – and interference – in Arab affairs, it is time for the Arab League to live up to its charter and to set unified policies for Arab states and defend their interests before they are dictated to them by foreign powers. Although often rife with divisions, combined with a flair for the dramatic by some long-time Arab leaders, previous Arab Summits have resulted in some breakthrough compromises and set policies followed for years.

After the losses of the 1967 war, Arab states issued the "three no’s" that would be the standard in policy towards Israel for nearly three decades: no peace with Israel, no recognition of Israel, no negotiation with Israel. The policy even led the Arab League and some states to sever ties with Egypt after Cairo ratified the Camp David Accords. In subsequent Arab Summits in the 1980s, Arab powers worked on initiatives and diplomatic efforts to end the civil war in Lebanon and helped lead to the Taif Agreement which ended the conflict in 1989.

In Beirut in 2002, Arab League members agreed to the landmark Arab Peace Initiative, under which all Arab states would recognise and establish normal relations with Israel in return for Israeli withdrawal from occupied territories and recognition of an independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital. Even as it failed to influence outside dynamics shaping the region, the Arab leaders have presented a united front and provided a message to the West. In 2003, as the United States invasion of Iraq loomed, Arab leaders used the summit to object to the Iraq war while calling on Saddam Hussein to comply with United Nations resolutions and inspectors in an eleventh hour attempt to avert war. Yet as the Arab leaders convene in Amman on Wednesday, the key players in the crises crippling the region are increasingly non-Arab.