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Rouhani Declares Trump Will Be Dead 'in a Few Days' as Iran-US Relations Keep Crumbling

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Rouhani Declares Trump Will Be Dead 'in a Few Days' as Iran-US Relations Keep Crumbling

by By Brian Trusdell - newsmax.com -- Iranian President Hassan Rouhani declared that President Donald Trump will be dead ''in a few days'' during a speech to his Islamic nation’s cabinet as the first anniversary of the killing of a general in the country’s military approached. Rouhani’s Wednesday speech, excerpts of which were posted in English on the Iranian presidential website, called Qasem Soleimani a ''martyr'' and ''moderate leader with tact.'' Soleimani, the leader of Iran’s Quds Force — described by military specialists as an unconventional war and clandestine operations unit — was killed in a targeted drone strike on Jan. 3, 2020, that was approved by Trump. The U.S. Department of Defense blamed Soleimani for hundreds of deaths and injuries to Americans; he was purportedly killed while in neighboring Iraq while ''actively developing plans to attack American diplomats and service members in Iraq and throughout the region.''

Besides Trump, Rouhani referred to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo as the ''main perpetrators of this crime.'' "One of the effects of this stupid and disgraceful act was that Trumpism ended and in a few days, the life of this criminal will end and he will go to the dustbin of history, and we are very happy about this and we believe that the period after Trump will be a better condition for regional and global stability," Rouhani said. The remarks come as tensions have intensified approaching the anniversary of Soleimani’s death; his successor has vowed vengeance, and the U.S. has flown B-52s over the region in an act of deterrence.

New Year in Lebanon marred by 'horror night' of mayhem from celebratory gunfire

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by middleeasteye.net -- New Year celebrations in Lebanon were marred by what local media said was a "horror night", after celebratory gunfire left a Syrian woman dead and damaged an aeroplane. Lebanese authorities could do little to prevent the barrage of festive gunshots that rang out across the country on Thursday night, a popular way to mark occasions such as weddings, funerals and graduations. The Syrian refugee died "after being wounded in the head by a stray bullet" that landed in a refugee camp in the eastern town of Baalbek, according to the National News Agency.

Meanwhile, in an unconnected event, an aircraft belonging to Middle East Airlines was damaged by gunfire while parked on the tarmac at Beirut airport. It happened after people in southern Beirut had fired in the air in celebration. A Middle East Airlines spokesperson told AFP that the Airbus A321, only delivered last year, would need to be repaired. All other planes had been undamaged and were able to take off as scheduled, the source said. In the run-up to New Year’s Eve celebrations, Lebanese security forces had taken to social media to warn of the danger of firing shots in the air. Lebanon24 reported gunfire coming from rooftops and that in some areas rockets had even been launched. Officially, celebratory gunfire is illegal in Lebanon, where firearm ownership remains widespread three decades after the end of its 1975-1990 civil war. In September, Lebanese footballer Mohamed Atwi died after being injured the previous month by a stray bullet.

Many Lebanese, their hopes in tatters, say they fear what 2021 will bring

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A protester draped in the national flag faces off with the police during a demonstration outside the entrance of the American University of Beirut, in the Lebanese capital's Bliss street. (AFP)

Michel Hayek Prediction 2021 - 2022

by NAJIA HOUSSARI - arabnews.com -- BEIRUT: After a year of financial, political and social turmoil, few in Lebanon believe the crisis-wracked country’s situation will improve in the coming 12 months, while growing numbers fear their plight will worsen dramatically. “Our country is broken,” said Rima Al-Khatib, who works in the banking sector, describing a year in which her father died and the family was unable to pray for him in the mosque because of a nationwide lockdown at the time. Al-Khatib told Arab News that she “is in a state of denial about everything that happened this year.” “I don’t want to reflect on it because it is too painful,” she said.

With university and health studies in recent weeks showing alarming levels of depression and anxiety in young and old alike, it is clear few people have any expectations, let along dreams, for the new year. One mental health survey concluded that up to 16 percent of people aged 18-24 suffer from severe depression, while 41 percent of women still suffer from post-traumatic stress in the wake of the Beirut port blast. Meanwhile, lockdowns imposed to halt the spread of the coronavirus affected the mental health of 41 percent of the participants in another study, with a further survey claiming 9.5 percent of the population risk becoming depressed because of the country’s dire economic situation. Al-Khatib said that she will never forget the day of the port explosion. “I was in my car on the road and a balcony fell from a building in front of me,” she recalled. “I could not understand what happened. My friend narrowly escaped death and the explosion killed two of my work colleagues, leaving two children orphans.”

Top 5 Five predictions Data & AI 2021 by Malek el Khazen

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AI and Deep Learning Put Big Data on Steroids

Opinions are my own!

1- Machine Learning made easy, available in every editor tool without the need of being data scientist to develop ML Models and deep Programming Skills.

2- Serverless in Platform as a Service (PaaS) will be the star, overtaking “containers” especially in the world of Data & AI.

3- For 2021 the headline is “Data Democratization”. In the last couple of years, since the data is exploding, the focus was on Data Lake, a.k.a bringing the data in a common data store. Moving forward enterprises are now focus on organization of the data, providing a “common data model”, data governance, Role Based access (security) and consuming the data (Analytics, Machine Learning, Enterprise reporting) without the need to move the data out of the lake. Today, it is complete chaos, many companies use the terms of “Lakehouse”, “Datahub”, “DataBank”. These are different patterns/architecture. I simply call it Data Democratization an old concept but covers all these patterns.

4- AI is now mainstream! It is used at every level of our day-to-day life. First, Improving our applications, websites through noise reduction (AIOps). Second, a lot of focus on Natural Language Processing that will provide business outcomes to enterprises. Third, extracting data from unstructured document/pictures seamlessly to integrate with our structured data. The challenge for 2021 is how can we ensure AI is responsible and “unbiased.”

5- Real-Time availability will be necessary, IOT will be the star and containers will be the processing engine at the Edge behind these use cases!

Lebanese Judo Federation President Received Japan’s ‘Order Of The Rising Sun’

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by ijf.org -- Earlier this year the Embassy of Japan in Lebanon was pleased to announce that on 29th April the Government of Japan decided to award 'The Order of the Rising Sun, Gold and Silver Rays' to Mr. Francois Saade, President of the Lebanese Judo Federation, for his outstanding contribution to promoting judo in Lebanon and strengthening friendly relations between Japan and Lebanon over many years. Eventually, after several months of waiting due to the global crisis, the Japanese Ambassador to Lebanon, Takeshi Okubo, presented the national order to Saade at the former’s home in Baabda, Mount Lebanon, during a symbolic, coronavirus-safe ceremony.

سفير لبنان في الفاتيكان: لا مبادرات فاتيكانية منفصلة عن المبادرة الفرنسية

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Farid Elias Khazen - Alchetron, The Free Social Encyclopedia

by annahar.com -- قال سفير لبنان لدى الكرسي الرسولي فريد الياس الخازن: "لكلام قداسة البابا وقع كبير في الصحافة العالمية والأوساط الدولية المعنية بالشأن اللبناني، وتأثير داخل الكنيسة وعلى الرأي العام لاسيما في لبنان. الرسالة - النداء التي وجهها البابا إلى كافة اللبنانيين، عبر البطريرك الماروني، هي تعبير صادق عن اهتمام مميز بلبنان، وهو لا يخفي قلقه وحزنه على ما آلت إليه الأوضاع في البلاد، وخصوصاً بالنسبة إلى الشبيبة التي يوليها الحبر الأعظم اهتماماً خاصاً في رسائله العامة وفي الأنشطة التي يقيمها الكرسي الرسولي، وآخرها في المجالين الاقتصادي والتربوي. حرص البابا على لبنان وتعافيه من أزماته المتفاقمة ودعوته إلى عدم فقدان الأمل والثبات في الأرض والتمسك بالهوية، لا يوازيه سوى حرصه على العيش المشترك وكرامة الإنسان، فيكون أهلاً للدور والرسالة التي أرادها للبنان سلفه البابا القديس يوحنا بولس الثاني. كما توجه البابا في رسالته إلى المجتمع الدولي داعياً إلى إبعاد لبنان عن النزعات الإقليمية".

Hezbollah’s ‘Bank’ Was Just Hacked & Damning Information Was Leaked

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By Rim Zrein -- the961.com --A hacker group called “SpiderZ” hacked into the servers and cameras of Al-Qard Al-Hassan, Hezbollah’s financial institution. It collected data and is beginning to leak them to the public and promising to publish additional details later. They exposed the names of senior depositors along with other details from the database. Al-Qard Al-Hassan Association was established by Hezbollah in the 1980s, and it is the right hand of the party. Licensed by the Lebanese Ministry of the Interior in 1987, the Hezbollah bank has 32 branches throughout Lebanon, and declares itself a charity association that provides financial assistance to the Shiite population in Lebanon.

However, even though Al-Qard Al-Hassan is registered as a charity in Lebanon, it appears to run as a financial institution in every possible aspect, providing various financial services to its clients, including loans. Information obtained from The Double Cheque quotes that the association’s annual loans are close to $500 million, its annual profits are close to $20 million, its deposit reserves are worth over $300 million, and it holds 15 tons of gold worth around $500 million. And 0 tax payment, contributing nil to the Lebanese economy.

The association confirmed to the Hezbollah-affiliated Al-Ahed website that the breach has in fact occurred. According to Al-Ahed website, Al-Qard Al-Hassan stressed that “this breach does not give the attackers the ability to act or move the accounts.” In the video posted by the “Spiderz” group on their website, the hackers explicitly state that they have successfully managed to get hold of all of Hezbollah’s bank information, and confirm that Al-Qard Al-Hassan is not a charity, but a covert financial shelter for Hezbollah.