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Macron to become next French president after beating back Le Pen and her populist tide

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Emmanuel Macron and Brigitte his Wife

By Griff Witte,, James McAuley and Isaac Stanley-Becker May 7 PARIS — France on Sunday shrugged off the siren call of right-wing populism that enchanted voters in the United States and United Kingdom, rejecting anti-E.U. firebrand Marine Le Pen and choosing as its next president Emmanuel Macron, a centrist political neophyte who has pledged to revive both his struggling country and the flailing continent. The result brought to a close a tumultuous and polarized campaign that defied prediction at nearly every turn, though not at the end. Pre-election polls had forecast a sizable Macron victory, and he appeared to have delivered, with projections issued after polls closed showing him with around 65 percent of the vote. A downcast Le Pen conceded defeat, telling her demoralized supporters in Paris that the country had “chosen continuty.” Meanwhile, a raucous celebration of Macron backers was getting underway outside Paris’s Louvre Museum. The outcome will come as a major relief to Europe’s political establishment, which had feared a Le Pen victory would throw in reverse decades of efforts to forge continental integration. But it instantly puts pressure on Macron to deliver on promises made to an unhappy French electorate, including reform of two institutions notoriously resistant to change: the European Union and the French bureaucracy.

At 39, the trim, blue-eyed and square-jawed Macron will become France’s youngest leader since Napoleon when he is inaugurated this weekend, and his election caps an astonishing rise.

With a background in investment banking and a turn as economy minister under a historically unpopular president, he may have seemed an ill fit for the anti-establishment anger coursing through Western politics.

But by bucking France’s traditional parties and launching his own movement – En Marche, or Onward -- Macron managed to cast himself as the outsider the country needs. And by unapologetically embracing the European Union, immigration and the multicultural tableau of modern France, he positioned himself as the optimistic and progressive antidote to the dark and reactionary vision of Le Pen’s National Front.

Le Pen, 48, has long sought to become the first far-right leader elected in Western Europe’s post-war history. Sunday’s vote frustrated those ambitions, but is unlikely to end them.

By winning around 35 percent of the vote, she nearly doubled the share won by her father, Jean-Marie Le Pen, in the 2002 election, the only other time the National Front’s candidate has made it to the second round. The result seemed to cement the party’s long march from the political fringe to the center of the nation’s unhappy political discourse, if not the pinnacle of its power.

US delivers additional arms to Lebanon

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Daily Star Lebanon - BEIRUT: The United States delivered over 1,000 new machine guns to the Lebanese Army Friday, as part of an effort to bolster security along Lebanon’s border. During the handover ceremony, held at the Army’s Logistic Brigade headquarters in Kfar Shima, U.S. Ambassador Elizabeth Richard highlighted “the important role the Lebanese Armed Forces play in addressing the serious challenges Lebanon faces.”

The equipment included 800 heavy machine guns and 320 other crew-served weapons. A statement released by the embassy said that the weapons would be used to increase the Army’s defensive capabilities along the Syrian border, and to improve the Land Border Regiments’ ability to effectively defend their positions. “We are confident [that the weapons] will be directly employed to protect and defend Lebanon’s borders, and by the very nature of that act, Lebanon’s most valuable asset: its people,” Richard said. She also noted that the shipment was part of an ongoing U.S. program to improve the capabilities of Lebanese security forces, and to increase the Army’s ability to “carry out its mission as the sole defender of Lebanon.” “We recognize that the challenges facing Lebanon are serious,” she said. “Many of them emanate from outside your borders. But the Lebanese are strong, as you have proven over and over through history.”

Economy minister calls for more support from Lebanese expats

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The daily Star Lebanon - BEIRUT: Economy Minister Raed Khoury called upon Lebanese expatriates Friday to grab the historical opportunity of investing in Lebanon. “Lebanon is witnessing today a positive turning point in economy reflected in the great political consensus among the different political parties and the great will to work on developing the economy and creating job opportunities,” he said at a session held within the framework of the fourth annual “Lebanese Diaspora Energy Conference” at BIEL. Khoury encouraged expatriates to invest in Lebanon by saying that the country’s current economic slowdown is only temporary and it does not reflect the real capacity of the Lebanese economy. “For instance, Lebanon was capable, five years ago, to register a growth rate of 9 percent in addition to achieving record surplus in the balance of payments while the rest of the world was suffering from the worst financial crises,” he said.

Khoury attributed the economic slowdown to the political bickering that took place in the past few years in addition to the negative impact of the Syrian crisis and the flow of the hundreds of thousands of refugees to Lebanon. Spillover from the regional turmoil in combination with a deteriorating domestic political process, have led to sluggish, below potential real GDP growth since 2011. According to the World Bank’s latest Lebanon Economic Monitor, real GDP growth in 2016 underwent a slight acceleration to reach an estimated 1.8 percent, compared to 1.3 percent in 2015. The report estimated real GDP growth for 2017 to pick up somewhat to 2.5 percent as a result of progress made in the domestic political process, continued revival of the tourism sector and a slight improvement in real estate and construction.

Khoury said that despite the several crises that the country has been through it was able to maintain its position as a safe haven for deposits and a pioneer in preserving the freedom of money and capital transfers due to its sound financial and banking systems. The minister said investment in the infrastructure, industry and trade sectors remains of utmost importance for economic development.

'This gets to the fabric of the nation': Inside the dark conspiracy that made its way from the fringe to the White House

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donald TRUMP

by Sonam Sheth - business insider

The modern history of the "deep state" in American politics — real or imagined — starts with real leaks of classified information and ends as a conspiracy theory on popular yet dubious websites. And how it got there raises serious questions about whether the intelligence community is trying to subvert a new president or whether it's a convenient scapegoat for an administration that's had its share of early foibles.

A deep state is a network of influential members of a government’s agencies or military who operate against a democratically elected government. It might work to undermine an elected president’s authority or legitimacy and has been common in countries such as Egypt and Turkey. The concern in the US started shortly after Donald Trump took office. In early February, The New York Times and The Washington Post published a series of explosive reports about the intelligence community’s investigations into the Trump campaign’s communications with Russian officials during the 2016 election.

The reports, citing anonymous officials, revealed that then national-security adviser Michael Flynn had discussed US sanctions on Russia with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak before Trump took office, despite Flynn’s claims that he and Kislyak had not discussed anything sensitive during their phone calls. The next day, The Times broke a story on what it said were "repeated contacts" that Trump associates had with Russian officials during the campaign. CNN published another report that night in which sources said communication between Trump associates and Russian officials during the campaign was “constant.” Flynn resigned a short time later.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions later had to recuse himself from any Department of Justice investigations into the Trump campaign’s ties to Russia after additional leaks revealed that he had also had contact with Russian officials during the campaign.

An American deep state?

The steady drip of classified leaks about President Trump’s young administration has led some to speculate about the beginnings of an American deep state. The term is derived from the Turkish "derin devlet," which refers to an intricate network made up of government officials, often including those from the military and intelligence communities, whose primary goal is to subvert a democratically elected leader's agenda and ultimately remove that leader from power.

Lebanon Speaker says electoral law proposal is valid until May 15

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by Joseph A. Kechichian, Senior Writer gulf news - Beirut: Speaker of the Lebanese Parliament and Amal Party leader Nabih Berri has called on political elites to approve his electoral law proposal, according to a report published in daily Al Akhbar on Saturday. The pro-Hezbollah newspaper clarified that the proposal “will not be valid after May 15” when the next parliament session is scheduled to begin. The proposal By Berri calls for “electing” a senate under a sectarian voting system, and a parliament under an electoral law fully based on proportional representation, a plank rejected by the leading groups. The proposed Senate, which was envisaged by the 1989 Taif Accords that ended the 15-years long Lebanese Civil War, would include 64 members, divided equally between Muslims and Christians and would allocate its presidency to the Druze community. Foreign Minister Jibran Bassil, who is also the head of the Free Patriotic Movement, insisted that the Senate ought to be led by a Christian. Druze leaders, led by Walid Junblatt, vowed that Taif Accords meant to allocate the Senate chairmanship to their community.

Berri’s formula anticipated such a disagreement and recommended that the Senate chairmanship be allocated to the Greek Orthodox community, with the Druze being given either the deputy speaker or the deputy premier post. It is unclear whether these options are acceptable to those most affected and their partners, with the Speaker declaring that his “offer ends in a few days”. He added: “By then I will no more accept what I do now. I have relinquished some powers of the parliament, which I have acquired for many years, in order to reach solutions, but it seems some people do not want a solution”. Proposals to revisit the anticipated creation of a Senate at this time further complicated the search for a new electoral law with the goal to replace the existing 1960 model. The Minister of Finance Ali Hassan Khalil, a top political aide to Berri, said that the only acceptable proposal after May 15 will be full-fledged proportional representation, which is rejected by most constituents.

Lebanon's PM launches cheaper mobile plan for students

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Lebanese Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri talks during a conference in Beirut, Lebanon January 19, 2017. REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir

by Daily Star Lebanon - BEIRUT: Prime Minister Saad Hariri Friday launched a promotional offer for mobile users who are university students in Lebanon. Hariri said in speech during a ceremony at the Grand Serail that the Lebanese state stands by its youth. “This is a vital and practical matter. Students who conduct research are in dire need to connect,” he said. Both mobile telecoms operators, Alfa and touch, announced a discounted offer for university students offering discounted rates for mobile data bundles, including text messages and data. “Having a faster internet connection is a top priority in this country,” Hariri said, thanking the mobile network operators and promising to achieve more. “It is our duty ... to work for your benefit, because at the end we are here for you,” Hariri said. The ceremony was also attended by Telecommunications Minister Jamal Jarrah. © Copyright The Daily Star 2017.

Frangieh blasts rivals, says Aoun's term didn't achieve purpose

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The Daily Star

BEIRUT: Marada Movement leader Sleiman Frangieh has said that the political crisis in Lebanon is a presidential election battle and not an electoral law debate, adding that the new presidential term didn't achieve its purpose. "This is a presidential battle and not one to restore the rights of Christians," Frangieh, the former presidential candidate, said in a talk show aired on LBCI Thursday evening. Frangieh warned of failing to agree on a vote law and dragging the country into vacuum, adding that "no sustainable changes have occurred" after the election of President Michel Aoun as the country's 13th president after an almost two and a half year vacuum. He called for agreement among rival parties to avert a "catastrophe." Politicians are still scrambling to agree on a new vote law. "We have fought a fierce battle for over 10 years to elect a strong president, but when the strong president arrived we didn't see any changes. The country didn't advance in the past six months," Frangieh said.

Frangieh, who ran against Aoun in the presidential race, said that "Aoun was a symbol of change and reform but what we are seeing doesn't meet our aspirations." FThe Marada chief said that the best solution to the electoral law deadlock is to agree on a vote law and conduct the elections within three months. He expressed his vehement support for a proportional system "because we believe in partnership." Frangieh told his interviewer that rivals are afraid to adopt the Orthodox vote law. The Orthodox Gathering Law, as it is called, was proposed in 2012 by former Deputy Speaker Elie Ferzli, and was supported mainly by the FPM. It essentially calls for each sect to elect its own MPs within the country as a single district. Critics, however, said it would aggravate sectarian divisions in the country.The Marada leader also blasted Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil sectarian-based qualification vote proposal. "Bassil doesn't want to take the stairs one step at a time ... He is working on isolating or ending any competition." He said that Bassil had proposed the same vote law since 2005 but with different forms. "They want to fix a vote law that suits them."