By Alex Griswold

I fear I may have been the victim of persistent auditory and
visual hallucinations throughout the election. After all, I’m pretty
sure I heard Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton
promise– not once, but several times over the course of many months–
that she would accept the results of the 2016 presidential election.

I then seem to recall that after her loss to Donald Trump, she followed through on that promise.
“We must accept this result and then look to the future,” she said (or
did she?). “Donald Trump is going to be our president. We owe him an
open mind and the chance to lead.”

But I find that hard to reconcile with what I’ve seen since
then: namely, Clinton and her campaign doing everything in their power
to delegitimize Trump’s victory and work towards getting the results of
the election overturned.

First, it was the quixotic attempt by Green Party candidate Jill Stein
to challenge the results of the election in three states, which
would’ve then handed Clinton the election. The Clinton campaign should
have been content to let Stein defraud hapless supporters out of
millions of dollars on behalf of a recount doomed to fail. But instead,
the Clinton campaign announced that they were joining the effort.

Then there was the Clinton campaign’s statement Monday, announcing that they were backing efforts for members of the electoral college to receive intelligence briefings
about the government’s conclusion that Russians hacked the DNC in an
effort to elect Trump. “Electors have a solemn responsibility under the
Constitution and we support their efforts to have their questions
addressed,” said campaign chairman John Podesta. Again,
the request comes at the same time that Clinton supporters are calling
on electors to ignore their state’s results in order to stop Trump.

You can see why I’m questioning my own sanity: the Clinton
campaign’s stance is all over the map. They aren’t contesting the
election… but they do support a recount? They put out a statement saying
they believe it’s mathematically impossible for them to win… but they think it’s worth spending millions for voters learn exactly how much they lost by?

by alaraby.co.uk

This article does not represent khazen.org opinions

The Lebanese public have become accustomed to political
stasis with a lack of effective executive power in the country’s
parliament becoming the norm these days.

After a period of over two years without a president, a
position constitutionally ascribed to a Maronite Christian, Freedom and
Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun, was finally nominated to the position at the beginning of November. 

Over a month after his appointment the the cabinet is still needed yet to establish a cabinet due in part to political wrangling between the country’s rival political parties.

While Aoun’s son-in-law and political heir apparent, current acting Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil,
has said that all of Lebanon’s diverse political parties will be
represented in a future cabinet, members of the Lebanese public have
grown tired of waiting.

This is certainly the case for Mohamed and Omar Kabbani,
identical twins, who together form renowned Lebanese graffiti crew
Ashekman.

Rather than embrace apathy, Ashekman have come up with
their own tongue in cheek critique of the current status quo of
political stasis. 

By albawaba.com

Lebanon’s Alaa Najd has been announced the winner of the first season of Project Runway ME on MBC4 and MBC Masr 2.

The
grand show finale took place at Dubai Design District (d3) where each
designer showcased their final collections. The live studio audience
included Arab celebrities and socialites, members of the press, fashion
bloggers and social media influencers. Meanwhile, guest judging this
episode – alongside international designer Elie Saab and Tunisian
fashion icon and media personality Afef Jnifen – was Algerian-French
actress and former fashion model Farida Khelfa.

The finalists included Rayan Atlas from Algeria, Selim Chebil from Tunisia, Issa Hesso from Syria and of course, Najd.

Commenting on his win, Najd thanked MBC Group along with the entire Project Runway ME team,
including the members of the jury, led by the world-renowned celebrity
designer Elie Saab, who was the head of the judging panel.

He described Saab as “a father figure,
an inspiration to us all, and the perfect mentor. We couldn’t have asked
for someone better to leads us all.”

ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson, who has helmed the energy giant for
the last decade and struck deals around the world, is expected to
be President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for secretary of state,

transition officials told media on Saturday. The 64-year-old Texas native has no governing or diplomatic
experience, and has spent the entirety of his career at Exxon,
where he began as a production engineer
in 1975 after graduating from the University
of Texas at Austin with a civil engineering
degree.

The foundation for Tillerson’s knowledge of foreign diplomacy is
thought to be his extensive experience traveling across the the
world for Exxon, which has operations in more than 50 countries,
according to the
Wall Street Journal. Already, his dealmaking history has begun to draw criticism —
through his work at Exxon, Tillerson has cultivated
longstanding ties to the Russian government that date back to
the 1990s.

Tillerson has struck several major deals with the Russian
state-run corporation Rosneft and has a personal relationship
with Russia’s president Vladimir Putin, who in 2013 awarded him
the country’s Order of Friendship. Tillerson’s appointment is also drawing scrutiny for the
potential for conflicts of interest; Exxon’s global operations
are extensive, and Tillerson owns company shares worth $151
million, according to securities filings reviewed by the Journal.

khazen.org offers its full supports to the Lebanese authorities in the arrest of Bassel el Amin and his likes. Lebanon, the Lebanese people, our country, our officials, our religious figures are a red line. It is against the Lebanese laws to insult our country. There is a difference between free speech and insulting our country. […]

by Bethan McKernan

Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) have defended sharing an inaccurate map of Lebanon annotated with Hezbollah military positions and warehouses, saying the map was for “visual illustration” purposes. 

The official IDF Twitter account posted the map titled “Declassified map of Hezbollah’s
military infrastructure in Lebanon” on Tuesday, highlighting more than
80 towns and villages and thousands of spots it said were home to sites
such as rocket launchers and infantry positions.

“This is a war crime,” the tweet’s caption said, alongside the tagline “Hezbollah’s hiding behind Lebanon’s civilians.” 

It was shared hundreds of times before one Twitter user
pointed out that the picture couldn’t be a declassified military map
because the image’s history showed it been created using Google Maps by
an IDF spokesperson account, and featured repetitive patterns. 

The map – which according to the Times of Israel
was construed as an IDF attempt to build a case for future military
action and demonstrate Israel’s sophisticated intelligence-gathering
capabilities – was shown to foreign diplomats visiting Israel, local
television reported.

When asked for comment, the IDF confirmed that the map is
inaccurate, calling it in effect “an illustration of what is going on in
Lebanon”.

By Reuters,

Hezbollah called
on Friday for a Lebanese government to be formed as quickly as possible,
weeks after the country elected a president and named a prime minister.

Prime
minister-designate Saad al-Hariri said last month his efforts to form
the government faced “stumbling blocks”, testing hopes he could quickly
steer the country out of political crisis.

“Everyone
is responsible for looking for ways out, for solutions, and to
cooperate for us to reach the necessary conclusion on the government,”
Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said, referring to Lebanon’s
political factions. The “government … must be formed as soon as
possible.”

by Shana Lebowitz

Getting stronger, looking hotter, being less humiliated when
climbing the stairs with spry colleagues — these are all solid
reasons to work out.

And yet if you’re having trouble mustering the motivation to hit
the gym regularly, do yourself a favor and stop lecturing
yourself about the myriad benefits of physical activity. It’s
hardly helping.

A better bet? Put a time on your calendar and do it, and trust
that you’ll like it.

That’s according to Dan Ariely, a professor of psychology and
behavioral economics at Duke University and the author of the new
book about human motivation, “Payoff.”
Ariely visited the Business Insider office in November and
explained that too many people make the same mistake when trying
to motivate themselves to do anything, whether that’s working out
or writing a report.

The mistake is anticipating that the workout will be
awful the whole time and that the only reason to do it is to
achieve those long-term goals mentioned above. The
activity we’re dreading is rarely as painful as we imagine it
will be, Ariely said — in fact, there’s a good chance we’ll enjoy
it.

Here’s Ariely:

“When we think about running, it just seems like it’s really
going to be miserable and painful and unpleasant and so on. And
we don’t engage in it. But the fact is that once we’re in the
task, life changes. All of a sudden, we think less about the
misery and we learn to enjoy things.”

In other words, as you’ve probably heard before, the hardest part
of working out is
just getting started. Once you do, Ariely said, thoughts of
getting stronger and looking better kind of melt away as you take
in the sensation of your breath, the music coming through your
headphones, and the sound of your feet hitting the ground.

In psychologist-speak, the mistake we’re making here is placing
too much value on extrinsic motivators, like long-term health
goals, and too little on intrinsic motivators, like having fun
right now.