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?”

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 […]

By Sharon Goldman @sharongoldman — venturebeat — In a surprise moment during today’s Supreme Court hearing about a Google case that could impact online free speech, justice Neil M. Gorsuch touched upon potential liability for generative AI output, according to Will Oremus at the Washington Post. In the Gonzalez v. Google case in front of the Court, the family of an American killed in a 2015 ISIS terrorist attack in Paris argued that Google and its subsidiary YouTube did not do enough to remove or stop promoting ISIS terrorist videos seeking to recruit members. According to attorneys representing the family, this violated the Anti-Terrorism Act. In lower court rulings, Google won with the argument that Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act shields it from liability for what its users post on its platform.

Is generative AI protected by Section 230?

According to the Washington Post’s live coverage, search engines historically “have responded to users’ queries with links to third-party websites, making for a relatively clear-cut defense under Section 230 that they should not be held liable for the content of those sites. But as search engines begin answering some questions from users directly, using their own artificial intelligence software, it’s an open question whether they could be sued as the publisher or speaker of what their chatbots say.” In the course of Tuesday’s questioning, Gorsuch used generative AI as a hypothetical example of when a tech platform would not be protected by Section 230. “Artificial intelligence generates poetry,” he said. “It generates polemics today that would be content that goes beyond picking, choosing, analyzing or digesting content. And that is not protected. Let’s assume that’s right. Then the question becomes, what do we do about recommendations?”

Legal battles have been brewing for months

 Hrajel (Lebanon) (AFP) – By AFP —  High in Lebanon’s rugged mountains, hatmaker Youssef Akiki is among the last artisans practising the thousand-year-old skill of making traditional warm woolen caps once widely worn against the icy winter chill. Akiki believes he may be the last commercial maker of the sheep wool “labbadeh” — a named derived from the Arabic for felt, or “labd” — a waterproof and warm cap coloured off-white, grey, brown or black. “The elders of the village make their own labbadehs”, said Akiki, who also dresses in the traditional style of baggy trousers.

Akiki, 60, from the snow-covered village of Hrajel, perched more than 1,200 meters (4,000 feet) up in the hills back from Lebanon’s Mediterranean coast, said making the hat requires a careful process. Akiki is among the last practising the thousand-year-old skill After drying sheep’s wool in the sun, he moulds it with water and Aleppo soap — which includes olive oil and laurel leaf extracts — to turn it into felt with his hands. “It helps the wool shrink, so it becomes malleable like dough”, he said, showing his hands, rough with years of work. It is a slow process that allows him to fashion “three labbadehs in one day, at most”, he said. Though the hats are practical and warm, few people wear them today.

By Brad Kallet, Editor at LinkedIn News — There’s a new top dog in the online retail marketplace. Temu, which launched last September and sells everything from apparel to electronics, has already skyrocketed to the top of the app store charts in the U.S., according to CNN. The discount online superstore — owned by Chinese […]

by Nada Homsi Beirut – thenationanlnews.com — Ziad, a grizzled, cantankerous taxi driver of retirement age, was at the end of his rope on a Wednesday morning as he drove through the Beirut congestion. When he started his day, 73,000 Lebanese pounds made one US dollar. By mid-morning, the currency had devalued by an additional 4,000 pounds to the dollar. Meanwhile, petrol prices had gone up, and some stations stayed closed for the second day in a row, fearing market losses. Legally, consumers must pay for fuel in Lebanese pounds, also called the lira, but importers and petrol station owners must purchase it in dollars. With the lira plummeting against the dollar on a near-daily basis in recent weeks — in comparison to its usual steady but ambling descent — importers and sellers risk losing money. READ MORE Lebanese presidential candidate Michel Moawad on putting ego aside to prevent ‘chaos’ Lebanese protesters set fires and break windows at Beirut banks In other words, Ziad could not find anywhere to fill his tank. Even if he did, with taxi fares collected in Lebanese pounds that will inevitably devalue tomorrow, he could only afford a partial top up.

Adjusting to the currency’s rapid decline has become a matter of routine for Lebanon’s residents, as they navigate the hardships caused by the economy’s seemingly endless plunge. The small Mediterranean country — facing one of the worst economic crises in modern history — is on the brink of collapse. The cracks in the state’s facade have become chasms amid political power struggles. Ziad turned on the radio “to check on the exchange rate, God knows where it is now”. In Beirut, the newsreader announced, roads were being blocked by protesters decrying living conditions. In Tripoli, gunmen prowled the streets and fired into the air to force shops to shut as a form of protest against Leba

By Cate Chapman, Editor at LinkedIn News — Just how much is a person’s salary related to their cleverness? Well, smarts and higher earnings are related, but only up to a point, new research published in the European Sociological Review reports. Higher general intelligence correlated with wages — up to an annual salary of $57,300, […]

arabnews.com — DUBAI: Eighteen years ago this month, Rafik Hariri, a prominent politician and former prime minister of Lebanon, was assassinated by a suicide truck bomb in Beirut. Originally a philanthropist before his engagement in politics, Hariri, who had made his fortune in construction, donated millions of dollars to victims of war and conflict in Lebanon, and later played a major role in ending the civil war and rebuilding the capital city. Hariri’s assassination marked the beginning of dramatic political change and movements calling for democracy in Lebanon. For years after his assassination, politicians and important figures opposed to the influence of both Syria and Hezbollah in the country were targeted. Despite an international tribunal finding members of Hezbollah guilty of Hariri’s assassination after passionate calls for an investigation into his death, the Iran-backed militia group has only tightened its grip on Lebanon, keeping the country in a dire state. “Hariri was killed 18 years ago and it took about 15 years to destroy the whole country after everything he tried to build,” Lebanese economist Nadim Shehadi said on “Frankly Speaking,” the Arab News current affairs talk show which engages with leading policymakers and business leaders. “The Special Tribunal for Lebanon and the independent international investigation commission came to Lebanon, and it took them about 15 years to produce their result. And for the first time in the history of Lebanon, where we have had several assassinations, for the first time, we had a conviction,” Shehadi said.

But according to him, despite a conviction in Hariri’s case, Hezbollah’s influence over Lebanon means that the real perpetrators of the assassination will go unpunished, and the group will continue to hold the country hostage. Lebanon’s various political and economic crises have only intensified in recent years, with inflation in the country rising to the highest in the world in 2021 and the value of the Lebanese lira plummeting drastically. Last year witnessed a series of bank holdups by armed customers seeking to withdraw their frozen deposits. In a country whose capital was formerly referred to as the “Paris of the East,” two-thirds of the population now suffers from poverty, with regular electricity blackouts and shortages of basic necessities such as medicine and water increasingly commonplace.

By Najia Houssari — Arabnews.com –– BEIRUT: The outlook for Lebanon’s Qana gas field project appears promising, caretaker Energy Minister Walid Fayyad said on Friday as authorities race against time to resume exploration work after demarcating the maritime borders with Israel in October. Fayyad visited the Janus 2 ship at Beirut port, brought by TotalEnergies and its partners Eni and QatarEnergy to complete environmental surveys of the offshore Block 9 in the exclusive economic zone in preparation for oil and gas exploration. “We expect positive results from the survey, but we must be realistic and await discovery,” Fayyad said. During the past few days, Israel announced the start of its commercial production in the Karish field. The Janus 2 has completed an eight-day mission during which it collected images of the seabed, and took samples of water and sediment. It also monitored marine life in the area, providing data for an environmental impact assessment study, an essential step before drilling under international and local law.

The Lebanese are pinning their hopes on a successful exploration that will unlock oil and gas reserves worth billions, helping to revive the country’s faltering economy. The local currency has lost over 120 percent of its value during the past three years. The pound fell to 82,000 to the dollar on Friday, a day after protesters attacked banks and blocked roads in a display of anger over the deteriorating economy and sharp rises in the price of essential items.

By James Zogby — thenationalnews.com — Several weeks ago, I wrote an article outlining a radical proposal Ralph Nader and I put forward for discussion. The proposal called on Lebanon’s civil society to petition the UN to declare Lebanon a “failed state” requiring international intervention. Many readers commented favourably on the idea, also registering their frustration with Lebanon’s corruption and dysfunction. Others noted that, although the idea was worth considering, they believed that it would never pass the Security Council. The point of the proposal, however, was not to present a fait accompli. Rather, it was to spur exactly the type of discussion that ensued.

What’s clear is that Lebanon is broken, and its people are suffering. Its governing institutions aren’t functioning, and its traditional leadership appears incapable of meeting the challenges confronting the country. Evidence of this dysfunction is the fact that for the past four months Lebanon’s Parliament has been unable to elect a president. In the face of this paralysis, we have witnessed a courageous and important step being taken by a group of newly elected members of the Lebanese Parliament, who have been conducting a protest sit-in, now in its fourth week, at Beirut’s Parliament building. Led by two of the independent “Forces of Change” group of newly electeds, Najat Saliba and Melhem Khalaf, the protesters are calling on their colleagues to convene and fulfil their responsibility to elect a president so that at least a semblance of a functioning government can be formed.