US presidential candidate Donald Trump has revealed the first members of his foreign policy team, including a Lebanese academic Walid Phares.
The team, meant to counsel Trump on foreign affairs, consists of experts on the Middle East and energy issues. Republican Senator Jeff Sessions leads the team along with: Keith Kellogg, Carter Page, George Papadopoulos, Walid Phares and Joseph E. Schmitz, according to a report by the Washington Post.
The appointment of Phares – a Lebanese academic who immigrated to the United States 20 years ago – was announced during the same time he was being interviewed on Al Arabiya’s sister al-Hadath Channel. Phares told Al Arabiya in Washington that he met Trump last December while he was offering consultancy to five candidates from the Republican Party. Trump was one of them.
Century-old Beirut racetrack faces run for money
gulfnews
Beirut: Beirut’s Hippodrome has survived wars and relentless upheaval but the iconic racetrack, where rival fighters once gathered to bet on their days off, approaches its centenary facing an uncertain future.
The Hippodrome was built in 1916 by the Ottoman Turks. During the civil war it was used as a neutral site where enemy combattants could meet.
One of the city’s last remaining green spaces, it is now suffering financial difficulties and a dearth of investment.
Should the racecourse close for good, the land could fall into the hands of property developers who have already turned Beirut into a concrete jungle.
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Beirut trash clean-up begins as critics cry foul
By Serene Assir
Beirut (AFP) – Workers began at the weekend removing tonnes of rubbish that have piled up around Lebanon’s capital under a government plan to end an eight-month crisis that has sparked repeated protests.
Civil society activists and environmental experts once again lashed out at the plan, warning that it does nothing to allay the ecological concerns that took them to the streets in the first place.
Beirut’s suburbs have been awash in trash for months following the closure in July of the country’s largest landfill at Naameh, just south of the Lebanese capital.
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Lebanese Diva Majida El-Roumi to hold benefit concert for burn victims at Pyramids
english.ahram.org.eg
Famed Lebanese singer Majida El-Roumi is scheduled to give a concert 20 May at the Sound and Light Theatre of the Giza Pyramids to benefit victims of burn injuries.
The concert is organised by Ahl Masr Foundation and all ticket revenues will go towards the construction of Ahl Masr Burns Hospital, the first non-profit hospital across the Middle East and North Africa specialised in the treatment of burn injuries.
The hospital is planned on a total area of 12,200 square metres and will be located in New Cairo’s First District.
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Trash Pickup Resumes in Lebanon, Ending Eight-Month Crisis
Piles of rubbish have become a common sight all over Beirut in recent months
By bilal hussein, associated press
Sanitation workers began removing mountains of trash from the suburbs of Beirut on Saturday in what residents hoped would mark the end of Lebanon’s eight-month garbage crisis.
Early in the day, dozens of trucks started carrying trash to the Naameh landfill just south of the capital, one of three landfills opened as part of a temporary solution announced by the government a week ago. As garbage began piling up in Beirut last year, protesters formed the "You Stink" movement, demanding sweeping reform in Lebanon’s government.
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Lebanese PM: We Have Wronged the Gulf and Will Make Amends
Thair Abbas
The Lebanese Prime Minister Tammam Salam admitted that Lebanon committed an error and has wronged Arab Gulf countries and the Arabs. He also stressed that it would make amends by adhering to Arab consensus in all forthcoming matters.
In an interview with Asharq Al-Awsat, Salam criticised the roles of Iran and Hezbollah and their interference in some Arab countries, and added that Arab countries have the right to confront this expansion.
He believed that the only solution to confront Hezbollah’s influence is the country’s refusal to be a platform for the organisation to fight Arab countries. He added “With regards to the security and stability of the Arab Gulf states and Arab countries in general, we have no uncertainty” indicating his support for actions taken by GCC authorities against any Lebanese person “who insults his country of residence or compromises its security”.
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Why France has become a prime target for terrorists
by Pamela Engel
Many experts weren’t surprised when Islamic terrorists targeted France in attacks that killed at least 130 people and injured hundreds more in Paris in November.
John Schindler, the national-security columnist for The New York Observer, tweeted after the attacks: "Jihadists with Balkan small arms were shooting up France in 1995 … got no idea why anybody is surprised."
Attackers used guns and bombs at several sites across Paris in November, including the Stade de France and the Bataclan concert hall, where a shooting rampage and hostage situation left about 89 people dead.
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