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The Presidential Vacancy Prevents Lebanon From Celebrating Its Independence

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By David Sedler -- globeecho.com -- The meeting of an official in “Hezbollah” and the army commander did not deal with the presidential file Yesterday, Tuesday, the commemoration of the 79th anniversary of Lebanon’s independence was limited to calls for electing a president and preserving sovereignty, without an official ceremony that Lebanon used to hold on this occasion, due to the vacancy in the presidency. The Lebanese army did not organize a military parade on the occasion, in which military brigades representing combat brigades and regiments usually participated, along with battalions from the security forces and the Red Cross, in addition to receiving congratulations from the presidents at the presidential palace. Military sources said that the performances were not held this year, due to the presidential vacancy, since the president by law is the supreme commander of the armed forces, and therefore it is not possible to organize a ceremony, even if it was symbolic, because of this aspect only.

The Minister of Education, Abbas al-Halabi, laid a wreath at the site where President Rene Moawad was assassinated on November 22, 1989, and Moawad was the first president of the republic to be elected after the Taif Agreement was reached. Also, in previous presidential vacancy periods, no military parades were held, while two symbolic parades were held in 2019 and 2020 at the Ministry of National Defense, with the participation of the President of the Republic, the Speaker of Parliament, the Prime Minister, ministers and other officials, in light of the protests in 2019, and the crisis of the spread of the Corona epidemic in 2019. 2020. And 22 days have passed since the vacancy in the position of the presidency of the republic, since the end of the term of former Lebanese President Michel Aoun on October 31, and it is still not possible to reach a consensus between the political forces represented in the House of Representatives on one person who can secure the votes of two-thirds of Parliament for her in the session. the first, or securing a quorum of two-thirds of the members of the Council in the second session. It is expected that the fate of the session called for by Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri tomorrow, Thursday, will be similar to the fate of the previous six sessions.

Myriam Fares Blackfishing? Internet Pushback on FIFA World Cup Performance After Lebanese Star Did THIS

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By Ivan Korrs - musictimes.com -- Starting with the labor issues and LGBTQ discrimination that many on social media have shed light on, it seems like the issues and the problems for the highly-anticipated sporting event will never cease. Earlier this month, different rumors of musicians like Dua Lipa, and Shakira, among many others, emerged - linking their involvement in the controversial event. They have denied involvement and called out the FIFA organization on proceeding with Qatar. However, it was until last week that Nicki Minaj confirmed that she would be doing a song with Colombian star Maluma and Lebanese songstress Myriam Fares.

The song "Tukoh Takah," wowed everyone with its upbeat and highly-infectious energy. It is now the football anthem for the FIFA World Cup 2022. While Maluma and Minaj are already known to the American audience, Myriam Fares is definitely a new sound to many. After some slight digging by people on the internet, they came across an old video of Myriam Fares, who seemed to have done an act that many finds problematic. In a Rolling Stone report, it was revealed that Myriam Fares blackfaced on one of her earlier music videos, "Goumi" (or "Stand Up"). In 2018, Fares actually faced backlash after she wore makeup that significantly darkened her face and body to mimic a black person. Since the video's release on YouTube, Fares has since faced a mountain of backlash over it, criticizing her for engaging in an act that insults a degrades a culture.

Who is Michael Boulos? Trump’s new Lebanese son-in-law

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by arabamericannews.com -- Donald Trump’s daughter Tiffany, 29, wed billionaire Michael Boulos before 250 guests at the former president’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida on November 12. Boulos, 25, joins the family after he and Tiffany began dating in 2018. They were engaged in January 2021 with Tiffany posting an Instagram photo of them smiling at the White House. Boulos proposed in the Rose Garden with a 13-carat diamond worth $1.2 million. “It has been an honor to celebrate many milestones, historic occasions and create memories with my family here at the White House, none more special than my engagement to my amazing fiancé Michael!” Trump wrote on Instagram on January 19, her father’s last full day in the Oval Office. Boulos is heir to a motorcycle distribution company called Boulos Enterprises. The company is currently led by his father, Massad Boulos, who is also the CEO of the conglomerate Scoa Nigeria PLC. Michael Boulos has served as a director at some of his father’s companies.

Meanwhile, Michael’s mother, Sarah Boulos, is the founder of the Society for the Performing Arts in Nigeria. Tiffany Trump is the only daughter of Donald Trump and his ex-wife, Marla Maples, to whom he was married from 1993 to 1999. When Tiffany Trump began to bring Boulos to events with her family in late 2018, Maples told Town and Country: “I adore Michael!” Boulos was born in Lebanon and grew up in Nigeria, Africa. On the day of the wedding, former President Trump shared a post on Truth Social saying his daughter and Boulos “are a beautiful couple who will be very happy together.” Boulos graduated with a business degree from Regent’s University London and is pursuing a project management degree at City University London. Tiffany Trump graduated from Georgetown University Law Center in 2020.

This World Cup is wired and fueled by Artificial Intelligence

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by washingtonpost.com -- Pranshu Verma -- The global sports bonanza has started. Millions are tuning in at home, and others are braving the heat to watch the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar in person. A host of worries come with the attention on Doha: Fans will probably complain about botched calls. Stadium officials hope to minimize crowds. There are worries of overheating. Government officials will have public safety at the top of their minds. Scandals and human rights abuses abound. Tech is not your friend. We are. Sign up for The Tech Friend newsletter. Qatar, in reversal, bans alcohol sales at World Cup stadiums Technology can’t solve it all, but will be part of the answer. Officials are relying on sophisticated tools to control almost every aspect of the games: from the soccer balls being kicked around to the thousands of cameras tracking fans’ and players’ nearly every move, bringing intrigue and concern. Here’s a look at the innovations being used.

Sensor soccer ball The Adidas Al Rihla Official Match Ball featuring Connected Ball Technology. (Adidas) The official match ball, made by Adidas, will have motion sensors inside. The sensor will report precise location data on the ball 500 times per second, according to the company, helping referees make more precise calls. The sensor-filled ball was road-tested at several soccer tournaments leading up to the main event, including the 2021 FIFA Club World Cup, and did not affect player performance, Adidas said. The ball will be used in all of the tournament’s 64 matches, and will feed information back to a data nerve center, which officials can use to track statistics and monitor game play. Fox’s World Cup coverage of Qatar has a notable sponsor: Qatar

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Trump Twitter account reappears after getting slim majority in Musk poll

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by AFP -- Former US president vows to stick with his new platform Truth Social, the app developed by his own company Trump was kicked out of Twitter last year after he was deemed to have incited the 2020 US insurrection

SAN FRANCISCO: Donald Trump’s notorious Twitter account was reinstated Saturday after the platform’s new owner Elon Musk ran a poll in which a narrow majority of voters supported the move, days after the former US president announced another White House bid. Trump’s account was banned from the platform early last year for his role in the January 6 attack on the US Capitol by a mob of his supporters seeking to overturn the results of the 2020 election. “The people have spoken. Trump will be reinstated,” Musk tweeted, shortly after the 24-hour Twitter poll on his account ended. “Vox Populi, Vox Dei,” he added, repeating a Latin adage he also posted Friday, meaning “The voice of the people is the voice of God.”

Ultimately, more than 15 million people — out of 237 million daily Twitter users — voted on whether to reinstate the controversial profile, with 51.8 percent in favor and 48.2 percent against. Trump, who had more than 88 million users when his accounted was suspended, reveled in using Twitter as a mouthpiece during his presidency, posting policy announcements, attacking political rivals and communicating with supporters. On Saturday, several of his political allies were highlighting his return. “Welcome back, @realdonaldtrump!” tweeted House Republican Paul Gosar.

Musk’s poll asked for a simple “yes” or “no” response to the statement “Reinstate former President Trump,” which the billionaire Twitter boss posted Friday. “Fascinating to watch Twitter Trump poll!” Musk mused Saturday morning in a blast of tweets from the controversial and hard-charging new owner of the one-to-many messaging platform. He has posed similar polls in the past, asking followers last year if he should sell stock in his electric car company Tesla. Following that poll, he sold more than $1 billion in shares.

Lebanon bank holdups: Who is the real criminal?

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The views expressed in this article are the authors’ own and do not necessarily reflect khazen.org

By Nizar Ghanem Founder of the Depositor’s Union of Lebanon Alex Ray Analyst at the Beirut-based think tank Triangle - Today, Lebanon has an enormous $72bn hole in its national finances. That figure alone, by any measure of the law, maths or logic should mean that Lebanon’s banks are bankrupt. Yet since the onset of the financial crisis, Lebanon’s banks and their supposed regulator, the Banque du Liban (BDL), have been making a bizarre ontological argument to avoid paying back their depositors and officially declaring bankruptcy. Despite there being no official capital controls, more than 60 of the country’s commercial banks have adopted the policy that a US dollar is not really a US dollar if it was deposited into a Lebanese bank before the financial crisis. Instead, they claim, a pre-crisis dollar is equal to a Lebanese pound and can only be withdrawn at a severely reduced rate – some 90 percent less than the current value of an American dollar on the black market. But any US dollars deposited to these same banks after the financial crisis would be “fresh” dollars, and thus, they can be withdrawn or exchanged with another currency at their real value at any time. Lebanese banks are basically claiming that not all debts to depositors are created equal. Naturally, millions of Lebanese are not on board with this. After enduring this absurd policy for three long years, a few desperate depositors have taken matters into their own hands.

There are near-weekly bank hold-ups across Lebanon, but with a twist: People have been threatening to use violence in banks not to steal other people’s money, but to obtain access to their own savings. Some believe, however righteous the depositors’ anger may be, threatening violence is a step too far. But when you think about how these people have lost their homes or found themselves unable to meet their families’ most basic needs, including food, education and medical care, – simply because a bank is not giving them access to their own money – it becomes hard to compare these acts to “normal” bank robberies. In any country with a functioning social contract, the banking sector’s invented distinction between “fresh” and “old” money would have gone to court, and a sane judge would have ordered the bank to either pay up or declare bankruptcy – but not in Lebanon. In Lebanon, the judiciary is so scared to take on the banks – many of which are owned by political elites – that they are allowing the banks’ white-collar theft to continue, citing “exceptional circumstances”.

Experts doubt ability of Lebanese to pay looming tax increase

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by Nada Atallah -- thenationalnews.com - Lebanon plans to drastically raise taxes to boost the cash-strapped state’s revenues, but experts fear that the Lebanese will not be able to pay the new rates after three years of economic collapse, which pushed more than three quarters of the population into poverty. Lebanon’s public revenue fell by half in 2021 as the country grappled with a financial meltdown described as one of the world's worst economic crises. The government currently generates taxes at the old pegged exchange rate, but Lebanon’s 2022 budget published on Tuesday introduced a new “effective rate" for taxes on salaries earned in dollars. Finance Minister Youssef Khalil confirmed to The National on Monday that the new rate for taxes will be set according to Sayrafa, the official exchange rate platform managed by the Central Bank, where the Lebanese pound is trading at about 30,000 to the dollar.

This is about 20 times higher than the current official rate. The local currency’s official rate had been set at 1,507 per dollar since 1997, before unravelling after the economic crisis unfolded in 2019. “This is a skyrocketing increase. The budget includes a 25 per cent tax for annual incomes above 675 million Lebanese pounds, which is only $16,875 per year”, tax lawyer Karim Daher said. The new rate for tax collection will be implemented once the Ministry of Finance and Central Bank issue a decree. Lebanon to raise exchange rate for taxes, fees and customs duties Legislators included higher tax brackets in the budget to alleviate the financial effect on taxpayers. But experts fear the adjustment is not enough for an impoverished population grappling with one of the highest inflation rates in the world.