Descendent of Arab musical legend brings nostalgia to Lebanese festival

Details

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Lebanon’s traditional summer festivals harked back to the Arab world’s musical past this year, highlighted by a performance by the great-granddaughter of the legendary 1930s diva Asmahan in a mountain palace. Asmahan captivated audiences at a moment when European colonialism had replaced the Ottoman Empire, and cultural icons reached the masses via the new media of cinema and radio, tapping into a surging spirit of Arab nationalism. Nearly a century later, her great-granddaughter Yasmina Joumblatt took to the stage on Thursday to sing at the Beiteddine festival in an Ottoman-era palace in Lebanon’s Chouf mountains, accompanying the music of French-Lebanese composer Gabriel Yared. “I was a great admirer of her as a woman. I discovered her art later in life. What we tried to do is honour her and revisit her work while living abroad,” said Joumblatt. She sang two Asmahan songs arranged by Yared, as well as other pieces. “It’s (a process of) rebuilding the songs. I treated this as if I was treating great music,” said Yared, who won an Oscar for writing the music to The English Patient and has also scored many other films.

Bats flitted across the starry sky and coloured lights illuminated the ornate stonework of the triple-arched palace gate and the long arcade running to one side of the stage. To the left, a constellation of distant lights showed where roads and villages tumbled down the long valley towards the Mediterranean, and behind the audience, a stone village crept between parasol pines up the hillside. Asmahan was at one time seen as a rival even to the brightest of the region’s singers, the Egyptian diva Um Kulthoum, but she was killed in a car crash in 1944. Joumblatt’s appearance provides a direct link to that earlier era when, the festival head Nora Juomblatt, a distant relation of Yasmina, said, “everything was possible”. Asmahan was a scion of the Druze sect’s powerful al-Atrush dynasty, which led a rebellion against France in the 1920s. Lebanon’s summer music festivals, set against the backdrop of its most impressive monuments like the Roman temples at Baalbak and the Crusader castle of Byblos, are an important feature in the country, Nora Juomblatt said. “It is across society, not just for the elite. When great artists play, if you look up there are people sitting on the roadsides or on the roofs of their houses listening,” she said.

FPM Reopens Debate on Lebanese Who Fled to Israel

Details

by aawsat.com -- The debate over Lebanese who have fled to Israel was revived after Foreign Minister and Free Patriotic Movement (FPM) chief Jebran Bassil revealed that Justice Minister Albert Serhan was seeking to devise a mechanism to implement the law on their return. The debate covers Lebanese who fled to Israel 19 years ago, or when Israel withdrew from its occupation of southern Lebanon. The thorny issue has the Lebanese divided between those who view them as traitors and others who view them as exiled. Estimates said that some 7,500 Lebanese fled to Israel when it withdrew from the South after 22 years of occupation. They now number some 3,400 after several left for western countries. Bassil made his comments during a tour of the South last weekend.

Lebanese in Israel were always a concern for Lebanese parties, particularly the Christian FPM, Phalange and Lebanese Forces given that 90 percent of Lebanese in Israel are Christians who hail from the South. Parliament had in 2011 approved a draft law presented by the FPM to tackle the issue, but no implementation mechanisms were put in place for it. A few Lebanese did indeed return, whereas the remaining numbers will only feel safe once general amnesty is approved and which will spare them any investigation. Amnesty currently appears far-fetched. The law applies to all citizens who escaped to Israel and who joined the South Lebanese Army militia or collaborated with it. It stipulates that they will be arrested by the authorities on the Lebanese-Israeli border upon their return and tried under the local law. It also noted that their families and other Lebanese who had not collaborated with the militia could return under certain mechanisms and regulations.

In 2012, the Phalange Party proposed a draft law calling for a general amnesty for the Lebanese who fled to Israel, allowing pardon for all crimes committed before December 31, 2000. Former president of the Maronite League Antoine Klimos, who previously worked on this file, told Asharq Al-Awsat that the presence of Lebanese outside their country is “a punishment in and of itself.” The problem will only get compounded as they spend more time outside their country, especially since a whole generation of Lebanese would have lived without knowing their homeland, he remarked.

Illinois, Massachusetts police departments tell criminals to stay inside during heat wave

Details

foxnews.com --Criminal activity has been officially canceled in one suburban Chicago town due to the extreme heat that's cooking most of the country. “It is just too hot to be outside committing crimes,” the Park Forest Police Department said on Facebook Friday. “We’re asking all aspiring criminals, seasoned veterans, and those who find themselves committing crimes out of boredom, to please stay indoors.” The department proposed that Friday would be a perfect day “to Netflix and chill, literally, with the air conditioner set to 68 degrees Fahrenheit” At the same time, a Massachusetts police department implemented a similar heat wave-related crime-fighting strategy The Braintree Police in Boston Department took to Facebook Friday night to ask anyone thinking of conducting criminal activity “to hold off until Monday." “It is straight hot as soccer balls out there,” the department said before suggesting that potential criminals stay home and binge-watch season 3 of "Stranger Things" instead, according to Masslive.com. “We will meet again when its cooler,” the department said. In a follow-up post late Friday, Park Forest PD said that one of its officers, Justin Malachowski, was appreciative of everyone who canceled their planned crimes and stayed indoors. “Because of you, he got to enjoy a cold and delicious afternoon Slurpee from 7-Eleven without interruption,” the department said.

The entire Chicago area was under an excessive heat warning Friday and Saturday as heat index values could rise as high as 115 degrees fahrenheit in some places, NBC 5 Chicago reported. Windy City temps hit the 99-degree fahrenheit mark Friday. On Saturday the Park Forest Police was still advising would-be wrongdoers to stay indoors. “The crime cancellation is still in effect until tomorrow, so please no ‘criminaling,’” the department said.

Lebanese losing faith as politicians fumble over economy

Details

By SARAH EL DEEB The Associated Press BEIRUT (AP) — For days, Lebanese TV stations have been blanketed with live coverage as lawmakers held heated debate over a controversial austerity budget meant to salvage the flailing economy, with protests outside parliament and critics denouncing its focus on tax hikes and wage cuts. Mohammed Badran, sitting in his barber shop empty of customers, couldn’t be bothered to watch. Those officials don’t even know how much bread costs, he scoffed. “They basically don’t know anything about us.” The 33-year-old hair stylist — his hair spiked stylishly in front — sat idle in his salon in central Beirut with the TV tuned to Quranic recitals. Badran said things have gotten worse the past few years. Taxes, utility bills and prices have increased, while his income hasn’t changed. Once, he kept about three quarters of his earnings; now he pockets only about a quarter, he said. “Things have been turned upside down,” Badran said.

As the economic crisis deepens in Lebanon, so has the public’s distrust in the ability of the old political class, widely viewed as corrupt and steeped in personal rivalries, to tackle major reform. Many fear a Greek-style bankruptcy, without the European Union to fall back on and with potentially more violent social unrest in the small country wedged between war-torn Syria and Israel. A new budget that reduces public debts, improves governance and reforms infrastructure could unlock some $11 billion in aid promised to Lebanon last year by European countries. But after weeks of delay amid haggling among the government and lawmakers, the result is a bill that mostly taps into the pockets of average Lebanese, while critics say it does little to tackle structural issues and deeply entrenched corruption at the root of the crisis. The budget was ratified late Friday in a closed session, with 83 of the parliament’s 128 members voting for it and 18 against it.

Last year, the government hiked the value-added tax to finance a pay increase it promised to public sector workers. This year’s proposed new budget cuts pay and benefits for government workers and freezes public sector hiring for three years. The VAT hike remains in place, and other taxes are also increased. Economist Jad Chaaban said the anxiety around a potential Greek-style bankruptcy has allowed government officials to push an emergency fix rather than enact major changes, such as progressive taxes or debt restructuring. The real problem, he wrote recently, is the political elite, which treats the public sector as a jobs source for supporters and covers up corruption that enriches them and drives up debt. Commercial banks are largely owned by ruling politicians and profit from holdings of public debt.

Microsoft’s Bar Keeps Rising

Details

By Dan Gallagher --Microsoft MSFT -0.35% ’s comeback is no longer tech’s best-kept secret. That sets up a new kind of challenge for the software giant. When Microsoft reports its fiscal year-end results Thursday afternoon, it should mark the first time in more than a decade that the company has managed to grow revenue by double digits for two years in a row. Moreover, Wall Street expects that to continue for at least the next two years, which would be a pace not seen since the early 2000s, when the company had less than one-third of its current revenue.

That stands out against recent decelerating growth trends at Big Tech peers such as Apple Inc., Google parent Alphabet Inc. and even turbocharged Amazon.com . As a result, Microsoft has spent most of the past three months as the world’s most valuable company and more than a month with a market value in excess of $1 trillion. That serves as a strong validation for the company’s transformation under Chief Executive Satya Nadella, but it also means Microsoft no longer has the relative comfort of being an underdog. At 28 times forward earnings, Microsoft’s shares not only carry a premium to Alphabet’s, Facebook ’s and Apple’s; they also carry the highest multiple the stock has commanded in more than 15 years, according to FactSet.

Read more ...

Controversial Hizbullah MP Resigns from Parliament

Details

by Naharnet -- MP Nawwaf al-Moussawi of Hizbullah’s Loyalty to Resistance bloc resigned from parliament Thursday following a string of controversial incidents. “Hizbullah has been officially informed of the resignation of MP Nawwaf al-Moussawi” from parliament, state-run National News Agency reported. Earlier in the day, al-Jadeed TV said Moussawi has submitted a resignation request to Parliament and informed Speaker Nabih Berri and his party of his decision. “I want to shoulder my responsibilities and I do not blame Hizbullah for anything and I’m ready to bear anything resulting from these responsibilities,” Moussawi told al-Jadeed after it reported his resignation. MTV said Moussawi has resigned in connection with “the accumulation of mistakes he has committed.”

Moussawi’s parliamentary activity had been recently suspended by Hizbullah’s leadership following a verbal clash with Kataeb bloc MPs over the 1982 election of Bashir Gemayel. Moussawi was caught up in fresh controversy over the weekend after media reports said he opened fire at the Damour police station in connection with a dispute involving his daughter and her divorcee. The MP had decried that he had not been able to help his daughter in her children custody dispute with her divorcee due to the laws of the Shiite religious courts. He is reportedly the only Muslim MP who has voiced support for laws aimed at empowering women in Lebanon.