by cnbc — Lori Ioannou — IBM’s Chair, CEO and President Ginni Rometty has a powerful message for workers and employers in all strata of society: The Fourth Industrial Revolution is underway and it is shaping up to be one of the most significant challenges and opportunities of our lifetime. We are already seeing jobs, policies, industries and entire economies shifting as our digital and physical worlds merge. According to the World Economic Forum, the value of digital transformations in the Fourth Industrial Revolution is estimated at $100 trillion in the next 10 years alone, across all sectors, industries and geographies. “As a result, we face an imminent and profound transformation of the workforce over the next five to 10 years as analytics and artificial intelligence change job roles at companies in all industries,” Rometty said while giving a keynote address at the CNBC’s At Work Talent & HR: Building the Workforce of the Future Conference in New York on Tuesday, April 2. In February, the executive was appointed to Trump’s American Workforce Policy Advisory Board along with 24 other leaders.

While only a minority of jobs will disappear, the majority of roles that remain will require people to work with the aid of analytics and some form of AI and this will require skills training on a large scale, Rometty said. “I expect AI to change 100 percent of jobs within the next five to 10 years,” the IBM CEO said. Rometty’s call to action comes at a time when the AI skills gap and the future of work exhibit a growing sense of urgency. The technology sector accounts for 10 percent of U.S. GDP and is the fastest part of the American economy but there are not enough skilled workers to fill the 500,000 open high-tech jobs in the U.S., according to the Consumer Technology Association’s Future of Work survey. Yet the tech industry is concerned that school systems and universities have not moved fast enough to adjust their curriculum to delve more into data science and machine learning. As a result, companies will struggle to fill jobs in software development, data analytics and engineering. “To get ready for this paradigm shift companies have to focus on three things: retraining, hiring workers that don’t necessarily have a four-year college degree and rethinking how their pool of recruits may fit new job roles,” Rometty said.

by bbc.com —A top Algerian businessman has been arrested while trying to cross into neighbouring Tunisia, local media say. Ali Haddad is one of the country’s richest men and a long-time backer of President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, who is under intense pressure to quit. Demonstrators have been demanding that Mr Bouteflika and those close to him […]

BEIRUT, (Xinhua) — Gao Yan, chairwoman of China Council for the Promotion of International Trade (CCPIT), announced on Saturday the opening of an office for CCPIT in Lebanon. “CCPIT in Lebanon will cooperate with Lebanese chambers to improve commercial and trade ties between Lebanon and China,” Gao said. She added that China is Lebanon’s largest […]

by dailystar.com.lb —BEIRUT: Lebanon and Bulgaria agreed Friday to establish permanent direct flights between Beirut and Sofia, following Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil’s meeting with Bulgarian officials in Sofia to discuss bilateral relations between the two countries. Bassil met with Bulgarian President Rumen Radev, Speaker of the Bulgarian National Assembly Tsveta Karayancheva and his Bulgarian counterpart […]

by CNBC – Robert Ferris – Nissan executives took steps to have former Chairman Carlos Ghosn jailed in the hopes the arrest would stall or kill any attempts to merge the Japanese automaker with its French counterpart Renault, The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday, citing unnamed people familiar with the matter. Nissan CEO Hiroto Saikawa, who […]

 BEIRUT, (Xinhua) — Norwegian Ambassador to Lebanon Lene Natasha Lindt said Wednesday that her country will continue supporting Lebanon’s education ministry to enable it to provide education services to Syrian refugees and to Lebanese students in public schools, local media reported. “We should increase visits between the two countries and bilateral meetings with the ministry […]

by Dana Halawi BEIRUT, (Xinhua) — Lebanese analysts have expressed different points of views about the extent to which Lebanon and Russia can cooperate in different areas in the coming period amid President Michel Aoun’s two-day visit to Russia. Hilal Khashan, chair of the Political Studies Department at the American University of Beirut, does not […]

by AP — Lebanon’s prime minister has had a heart procedure in a Paris hospital and is expected to be discharged the same day. Saad Hariri’s office says the 48-year-old underwent an hour-long angioplasty procedure, used to treat blocked arteries, on Monday. Hariri’s personal physician, Essam Yassin, says the prime minister is well and describes […]

by www.hrw.org — (Beirut) – Emirati authorities detained eight Lebanese nationals for more than a year without charge in an unknown location, ill-treating them and denying them their due process rights, Human Rights Watch said today. Their trial, which began on February 13, 2019, continues to be marred with violations. The third session is set for March 27. Family members told Human Rights Watch that the defendants, who face terrorism charges, have been held in prolonged solitary confinement and denied access to their families, legal counsel, and the evidence against them. At least three detainees told family members that state security forces forced them to sign statements while blindfolded and under duress, and one said they forced him to sign a blank paper. “The UAE authorities reveal in their treatment of these men just how unwilling they are to reform their unjust state security apparatus,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. “These men deserve, at the very least, to be treated humanely and to receive a fair trial.” The men – all of whom are Shia Muslims – have each lived and worked in the UAE for more than 15 years. Seven worked at Emirates Airlines as flight attendants, pursers, or senior managers. Family members said that none had any known political affiliations. State security forces arrested one defendant between December 2017 and January 2018, three defendants on January 15, and four others on February 18, and continue to hold them in solitary confinement without access to legal assistance, family members said. At the second session of their trial, on February 27, 2019, the prosecutor charged them with setting up a terrorist cell with links to Hezbollah in Lebanon. Hezbollah holds several key positions in the Lebanese government, yet is designated a terrorist organization in the UAE. Family members said that at least seven of the men still have not been able to meet with their lawyers and six remain in solitary confinement. All of the defendants deny the charges, family members who attended the hearings said.

By BASSEM MROUE | Associated Press — BYBLOS, Lebanon – U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and his wife Susan spent much of the second and last day of their visit to Lebanon touring historical churches and a centuries-old citadel in this coastal city Saturday. The tour in Byblos and a nearby village came a day after Pompeo blasted […]