by Elena Holodny

“Defying the odds, vocal populists have won the two major popular
votes in the western world this year. The success of Boris
Johnson and Donald Trump raises an obvious question: could it
happen elsewhere in Europe?” That’s the question put forth by Berenberg’s chief economist
Holger Schmieding and senior UK economist Kallum Pickering in a
note to clients in the aftermath of the US presidential
elections,
which ended in a surprise Trump victory.

And they’re not the only ones. HSBC’s chief European
economist, Simon Wells, expressed
a similar idea in a note to clients on Wednesday,
writing “there is a risk that the Trump victory could boost
the popularity of anti-immigration and populist parties across
Europe.” Of course, the situations in the US and in Europe are not
identical. But, there are some similarities in the
sentiments of the electorates. “After all, the parallel to the anti-Washington rage in the US is
a rejection of the European Union; the parallel to Trump’s
anti-NAFTA rhetoric is the threat to reverse the process of
European integration that, jointly with NATO, has been the
cornerstone of peace and prosperity in Europe since the 1950s,”
wrote the Berenberg duo.

Taking it a step further, they argued that France
is the next crucial vote to watch.

Marine Le Pen, France’s
National Front leader.
REUTERS/Eric
Gaillard

Though an
Italian referendum on changes to the country’s constitution
is right around the corner, the “risk would probably be
containable” if Prime Minister Matteo Renzi loses the referendum
come December, according to Schmieding and Pickering. (Although,
back in August, Nobel prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz

told Business Insider the referendum could be the
“cataclysmic event” similar to Brexit that could trigger the
collapse of the eurozone.)

Beirut, Lebanon #GrecoRoman Ruins #khazen

New York City, N.Y., Nov 10, 2016 / 03:02 am (CNA).- Leah Fessler considers herself a feminist.

And the standard feminist narrative is that women can have, and
indeed enjoy, casual sex without consequences – physical, emotional, or
otherwise.

But when her experience with hookup culture (and that of her
friends’) in college failed to live up to its empowering promises and
left her emotionally empty, Fessler decided to look a little deeper.

In an article written for Quartz,
Fessler explains her quest to examine what it was about the prominent
hookup culture, and the ill-defined, non-committal
“pseudo-relationships,” at her Middlebury college campus that were
making her miserable.

“Far more frequent, however, were pseudo-relationships, the mutant
children of meaningless sex and loving partnerships. Two students
consistently hook up with one another – and typically, only each other –
for weeks, months, even years,” Fessler wrote.

“Yet per unspoken social code, neither party is permitted emotional
involvement, commitment, or vulnerability. To call them exclusive would
be ‘clingy,’ or even ‘crazy.’”

These pseudo-relationships would typically follow the same cycle, she
notes. She’d meet a guy she was interested in, they’d start texting,
meet up in their dorms late at night to discuss their mutual interests
and hobbies and families, and have sex. This would happen off and on
over the course of a few months with the same guy, then the relationship
of sorts would just fizzle and die. Wash, rinse repeat with the next.
Fessler wrote that she experienced this with at least five men by her
senior year.

By CatholicHerald

Media coverage in the run-up to the US election made much of Donald
Trump’s “Catholic problem” – but exit polls revealed that Catholics
voted 52 per cent for the president-elect and only 45 per cent for
Hillary Clinton. The election continued a trend of Catholics voting for the winning presidential candidate.

Within Catholic voters there was a sharp divide. White Catholics
supported Trump by a clear margin – 60 per cent to 37 per cent – while
Hispanic Catholics preferred Clinton 67 per cent to 26 per cent.

Dr Mark Gray of the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate
(CARA) at Georgetown University told the Catholic News Agency:
“Catholics continue to be the only major religious voting block that can
shift from one election to the next.

Beirut: Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri is engaged in
traditional horse-trading negotiations with President Michel Aoun,
Speaker Nabih Berri, and others, both to complete the formation of his
national unity cabinet as well as satisfy a motley-crew anxious to reap
benefits from their most recent political compromises.

Local media
sources revealed Hariri’s frustrations with the process, with some
underscoring how unrealistic these demands were. Apparently, three
specific portfolios complicated talks, and are delaying his wish to
complete the task over the next 72 hours.

According to Al
Jumhuriyyah daily, Hariri is emphasising the necessity to accept a
turnover of several key posts, including finance, defence and foreign
affairs, though the real fight is over the energy and telecommunications
ministries because those are seen as financial goldmines to
officeholders.

For now, the prime minister-designate seemingly
believes that a quick resolution of pending differences will help
accomplish key issues and translate the oath of office into effective
results. Towards that end, he sought and reportedly received pledges
from both Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea and Progressive Socialist
Party boss Walid Jumblatt, to facilitate his mission.

#khazen #LiveLoveLebanon #LebaneseArchitecture #LebaneseLandofSaints Kadisha Valley

By
Albert Nachmani

“The majority of Lebanese sided with Donald Trump as they believed
that Obama’s Middle East strategy was not fruitful,” Elias Kattar, a
Lebanese political analyst for albaladonline.com, told The Media Line.
“People here felt that Hillary Clinton would have been a copy of Obama
and they would like to see a new strategy implemented in the Middle
East.”

On the other hand, there were those in Lebanon who are
worried about Trump’s statements regarding refugees and Muslims. He said
that on Facebook there is fierce criticism of Trump’s speeches and that
those Lebanese who are concerned about human rights issues would have
preferred to see Clinton as president. “Most Lebanese who live in
the US also voted Trump,” Kattar said. “I saw an American TV program
which interviewed Lebanese and they could not find even a single
Lebanese who wanted to vote for Clinton.”

Regarding US-Russian
relations, Kattar believes that US- Russian cooperation would be
positive, as the war in Syria has been going on for more than 5 years
and we have seen that no one country can resolve the situation there
alone.

But in the end Kattar doesn’t believe that there will be major changes
in policy as “small details may change but on the whole American policy
tends to remain constant regardless of who is president.” The
picture shifts again when it comes to Turkey. President Recep Tayyip
Erdogan, who has had 37,000 people arrested and 110,000 people sacked in
a purge following an attempted coup in July, had a close relationship
with President Obama. Trump’s election calls this relationship into
question.

The Economist

EXCEEDING all expectations,” was how Donald Trump described his
luxury golf club in Dubai. If only his Middle East plans were as smooth
as his putting greens. Far from marking a break with President Obama’s
inclination to isolationism, Gulf rulers fear that President Trump could
increase the distance. Instead of greater intervention, protection and
the permanent troop presence in Iraq they hoped Mrs Clinton would
deliver, they now fear Mr Trump will shy from long-standing Arab allies
and abandon the region to others’ devices. “The honeymoon is over when
it comes to relations with the US,” says a palace insider in Riyadh. 

Maintaining a foothold, Mr Trump will probably let the Pentagon
finish the job against Islamic State in Mosul if it has not fallen by
January 20th. He might, he says, create safe zones in Syria, to prevent
refugees from heading west. But unlike Mrs Clinton (though like Mr
Obama) he opposes supplying more arms to Syria’s Sunni rebels or
enforcing a no-fly zone to protect them. And he scorns intervention for
ideological causes, such as regime-change, democracy and foreign
nation-building, preferring to concentrate on America’s national
self-interest instead. “I don’t think that was a very helpful thing,” he
said of America’s overthrow of Saddam Hussein while on the campaign
trail. “Iraq is a disaster right now.”

That is doubtless a relief for the region’s warring tyrants, like
Bashar al-Assad in Syria, and strongmen, such as Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi in
Egypt. In September Mr Trump promised Egypt’s president a “loyal
friendship”, and unlike Mrs Clinton, did not bother him with talk of
human rights. Both men not only endorse torture and the detention of
dissidents, but also share a penchant for spreading conspiracy theories.
Mr Sisi was one of the speediest world leaders to congratulate Mr
Trump.

washington examiner The status of the Iran nuclear deal is uncertain after Donald Trump was elected president Tuesday night in a massive upset. Unlike some of the challengers he faced in the GOP primary, Trump said he would not rip up the deal on his first day in office. Instead, he promised to enforce the […]