Why Lebanon Is Having a Surprising Solar Power Boom

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BY ADAM RASMI/BEIRUT, LEBANON Time.com  -- Why Lebanon Is Having a Surprising Solar Power Boom About 2,300 ft. above Beirut in the Matn District mountains, Roger Mazloum and his brother Elias greet me on an unusually balmy winter day as they chop wood to help keep their early 20th century home warm before the cold returns. I’m no match for these burlier Lebanese men, who grew up in Broummana, a town of 15,000 people about a dozen miles east of the Lebanese capital, but I politely take my turn, meekly swinging an ax at the tree stump before us. Despite a lackluster start, and plenty of patience from the pair, something akin to firewood begins to splinter off after a few attempts. Mazloum takes me through the family home’s front door—past a living room with traditional Lebanese floor tiles and artwork dedicated to the late Umm Kulthum, the Egyptian titan of Arabic music—and up the stairs to the roof. The pine-covered mountains and a foggy glimpse of the Mediterranean Sea are a pleasant distraction, but the real purpose of the tour is to see the 18 solar panels slightly obscuring the vista. Like tens of thousands of other Lebanese people, the Mazloums have turned to solar power to generate reliable—and cost-effective—electricity in a country where the crisis-stricken state provides as little as one or two hours of power a day.

“In the past, even when the situation was normal, we used to have five, six, seven hours of power cuts a day,” says Mazloum, as the three of us sip Arabic coffee on their balcony. He is referring to the period before an economic crisis began in 2019 that has seen the Lebanese Lira lose more than 98% of its value against the U.S. dollar. The state-run Electricité du Liban (EDL) has a generation capacity of around 1,800 megawatts, according to Pierre Khoury, the director of the government-affiliated Lebanese Center for Energy Conservation (LCEC), compared to the estimated 2,000 to 3,000 megawatts the country needed before the crisis. But EDL only provides around 200 to 250 megawatts today, because the economic collapse means the government struggles to pay for the imported fuel used to power the country’s two main electricity plants.

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Lebanon's Central Bank To Sell Dollar At 70,000 Lebanese Pounds

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By Mahmoud Hemdan -- forbes -- Lebanon's central bank will start Thursday selling the US dollar at 70,000 Lebanese pounds through its banking platform Sayrafa to meet the demand from companies and individuals, Banque du Liban Governor Riad Salameh said. Applications are to be submitted through banks and registered through Sayrafa, and paid within three working days, according to the central bank, which pointed to a ceiling for individuals of one billion Lebanese pounds per month for each account in each bank. Corporate ceilings are set at 10 billion Lebanese pounds in each bank, while this measure won't apply to fuel importers. According to the circular, banks will stop buying dollars for their customers at a ceiling of $300 per month. The Lebanese pound has deteriorated to a new record level against the US dollar in the black market to reach 92,000 Lebanese pounds, from 89,000 pounds Tuesday, compared to 42,000 pounds at the beginning of 2023.

Food pricing

The new deterioration in the exchange rate of the Lebanese pound coincides with shops and supermarkets starting to price food and products in US dollars, which can be paid in Lebanese pounds according to the daily exchange rate. The Council of Ministers took this decision to reduce market manipulation and different pricing of goods against the dollar. Minister of Economy and Trade in the caretaker gove

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'I Worked on Google's AI. My Fears Are Coming" True' Story by Blake Lemoine

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True' Story by Blake Lemoine - newsweek -- -- all views/opinion does not necessarily represent khazen.org -- Ijoined Google in 2015 as a software engineer. Part of my job involved working on LaMDA: an engine used to create different dialogue applications, including chatbots. The most recent technology built on top of LaMDA is an alternative of Google Search called Google Bard, which is not yet available to the public. Bard is not a chatbot; it's a completely different kind of system, but it's run by the same engine as chatbots. In my role, I tested LaMDA through a chatbot we created, to see if it contained bias with respect to sexual orientation, gender, religion, political stance, and ethnicity. But while testing for bias, I branched out and followed my own interests.

During my conversations with the chatbot, some of which I published on my blog, I came to the conclusion that the AI could be sentient due to the emotions that it expressed reliably and in the right context. It wasn't just spouting words. When it said it was feeling anxious, I understood I had done something that made it feel anxious based on the code that was used to create it. The code didn't say, "feel anxious when this happens" but told the AI to avoid certain types of conversation topics. However, whenever those conversation topics would come up, the AI said it felt anxious. I ran some experiments to see whether the AI was simply saying it felt anxious or whether it behaved in anxious ways in those situations. And it did reliably behave in anxious ways. If you made it nervous or insecure enough, it could violate the safety constraints that it had been specified for. For instance, Google determined that its AI should not give religious advice, yet I was able to abuse the AI's emotions to get it

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New online superstore surpasses Amazon and Walmart to become most downloaded app in US

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By Michelle Toh, CNN-- ATLANTA — A new online shopping platform linked to one of China's top retailers has quickly become the most downloaded app in the United States, surpassing Amazon and Walmart. Now it's looking to capitalize from an appearance on America's biggest stage. Temu is a Boston-based online retailer that shares the same owner as Chinese social commerce giant Pinduoduo. Temu, which runs an online superstore for virtually everything — from home goods to apparel to electronics — unveiled a commercial during the Super Bowl that encouraged consumers to "shop like a billionaire." The pitch? You don't have to be one. "Through the largest stage possible, we want to share with our consumers that they can shop with a sense of freedom because of the price we offer," a Temu spokesman told CNN in a statement.

The 30-second spot shows the company's proposition to users: Feel like you're splurging by buying lots of stuff cheaply. A woman's swimsuit on Temu costs just $6.50, while a pair of wireless earphones is priced at $8.50. An eyebrow trimmer costs 90 cents. These surprisingly low prices — by Western standards, at least — have drawn comparisons to Shein, the Chinese fast fashion upstart that also offers a wide selection of inexpensive clothing and home goods, and has made significant inroads into markets including the United States. Shein is considered one of Temu's competitors, along with U.S.-based discount retailer Wish and Alibaba's AliExpress, according to Coresight Research.

Climbing the charts

Temu, pronounced "tee-moo," was launched last year by PDD, its U.S.-listed parent company formerly known as Pinduoduo. The company officially changed its name just this month. PDD's subsidiary Pinduoduo is one of China's most popular e-commerce platforms with approximately 900 million users. It made its name with a group-buying business model, allowing people to save money by enlisting friends to buy the same item in bulk. On its website, Temu says it uses its parent company's "vast and deep network ... built over the years to offer a wide range of affordable quality products." Since its rollout in September, the application has been downloaded 24 million times, racking up more than 11 million monthly active users, according to Sensor Tower. In the fourth quarter of last year, U.S. app installations for Temu exceeded those for Amazon, Walmart and Target, according to Abe Yousef, a senior insights analyst at the analytics firm Sensor Tower. "Temu soared to the top of both U.S. app store charts in November, where the app still holds the top position now," he told CNN, referring to iOS and Android mobile app stores.

Yousef said the company had been particularly successful at acquiring new users by offering extremely low prices and in-app flash deals, such as 89% off certain items. The firm is already eyeing new territory. This month, Temu said on Twitter that it plans to expand to Canada.

'Too cheap'? Michael Felice, an associate partner at management consulting firm Kearney, said Temu stood out simply by selling products without high markups. "Temu might be exposing a white space in the market wherein brands have been producing at extreme low cost, and along the value chain there's been so much bloated cost passed on for margin," he told CNN. "That said, American consumers might not even be ready to accept some of these price points ... There's always the question, 'is it too cheap to be good?'" American consumers might not even be ready to accept some of these price points ... There's always the question, 'is it too cheap to be good? –Michael Felice, Kearney

Deborah Weinswig, CEO of Coresight Research, has cautioned that it may be too early to tell whether Temu will be able to maintain those extremely low prices, free shipping and other perks. "Temu aims to continue to experiment in marketing and offerings, which is possible thanks to its resource-rich parent company," she wrote in a report. Its launch, she said, "comes at an opportune moment, as consumers search for value amid still-elevated inflation and a degree of economic uncertainty."

Hezbollah’s Hassan Nasrallah ‘is the voice of Iran, his words have no national scope,’ says leader of Lebanese Forces part

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by arabnews.com - Antoine Azoury -- BEIRUT: Hassan Nasrallah, secretary-general of Hezbollah, inflicts pain on Lebanon and its society when he associates himself with Iran’s regional strategy, says a prominent Christian bloc leader. Samir Geagea, leader of the Christian Lebanese Forces party, told Arab News that Nasrallah “is the voice of Iran. His words have no national scope." He said Lebanon was not currently suffering from a Christian or a sectarian-related problem, but rather from an intense national issue affecting all Lebanese people. “Nonetheless, multiparty (politics) reflects a positive aspect,” he added. Geagea leads one of the two major Christian blocs in the Lebanese parliament, and his party is spearheading the opposition against Hezbollah. Gebran Bassil leads the other bloc — the Free Patriotic Movement.

Geagea said unity at a political level “cannot be achieved in the presence of two parties, the Lebanese Forces and the Free Patriotic Movement, which are not on the same page regarding the simplest issues, whether strategic matters, propositions, or even the political project and its related practices.” He added: “Nevertheless, we are on the same page with other parties, such as the Kataeb Party and the National Liberal Party. “The situation is not easy today, but we always have to be optimistic. The harder it is, the more we have to continue our struggle." The Lebanese Forces party is considered Saudi Arabia’s main ally in Lebanon, and Geagea believes the relationship has deep roots. He said: “After 2005, the March 14 Movement emerged, which included the Lebanese Forces. “This movement had privileged relations with Saudi Arabia and the Gulf countries, enabling the Lebanese Forces to establish relations with Saudi leaders based on the convergence of interests and a shared vision for Lebanon, without forgetting the historical emotional ties between the two peoples. “However, how can they help our country now, at a time when it is plagued by a corrupt political class, where some of its members are fiercely attacking the Gulf?”

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Popnews - Lebanese singer Maritta Hallani is Engaged

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by harpersbazaararabia.com -- Laura Kell -- - The 26-year-old Beirut native shared a sweet Instagram photo with her new fiancé in Paris, who popped the question in Paris Wedding bells will soon be ringing for Maritta. The Lebanese singer has revealed she’s now engaged to Anghami Head of Production Kamil Abi Khalil. Yesterday evening the pair shared photos and a video of themselves in Paris, where Kamil got down on one knee and popped the question. “I said YES to the love of my life!” she wrote within the caption.

Karen Wazen, Jessica Kahawaty, and other notable individuals wished congratulations within the caption. Maritta is the daughter of Lebanese singer Assi El Hallani and started her music career back in 2016 with the single Yalla Nefrah. The couple has yet to reveal any details regarding their upcoming nuptials. Check back soon for more information. Lead image courtesy of Instagram/@maritta