Lebanese central bank's forex reserves increase

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BEIRUT,  (Xinhua) -- Lebanese central bank's foreign exchange reserves increased by 1.4 billion U.S. dollars during the second half of August to reach 38.66 billion dollars at the end of the month. "This increase is due to the influx of deposits from the non-resident private sector directly to the central bank," a statement by the central bank's governor said on Friday. The statement said that this increase ensures the solvency of Lebanon and strengthens the stability of the Lebanese pound while reducing the balance of payments deficits. The governor's remarks came a day after the U.S. Treasury Department imposed sanctions on Lebanese Jammal Trust Bank. The U.S. Treasury on Thursday sanctioned Lebanese Jammal Trust Bank for "brazenly enabling" Hezbollah's financial activities. The bank issued a statement on Friday denying the U.S. Treasury Department's accusations. "The bank is strictly committed to rules and regulations of Lebanon's central bank and international rules on countering money laundering and financing of terrorism," the statement said.

U.S. sanctions Lebanese bank for supporting Hezbollah

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 (UPI) — The U.S. Treasury Department sanctioned a Lebanese bank for connections to Hezbollah on Thursday. The agency announced the sanctions against Jammal Trust Bank and its subsidiaries for “brazenly enabling” the financial activities of Hezbollah, which the United States has designated as a terrorist organization. “Corrupt financial institutions like Jammal Trust are a direct threat to the integrity of the Lebanese financial system,” Sigal Mandelker, undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, said. “Jammal Trust provides support and services to Hezbollah’s Executive Council and the Martyrs Foundation which funnels money to the families of suicide bombers.” In a second action Thursday, the Treasury Department also sanctioned four individuals for supporting Hamas. The agency sanctioned Mohammad Sarur, Kamal Abdelrahman Aref Awad and Fawaz Mahmud Ali Nasser for funneling tens of millions of dollars from Iran through Hezbollah to Hamas for attacks in the Gaza Strip. “This administration will not falter to hold Hamas and its Iranian leaders accountable for their violence,” Mandelker said. “Treasury will continue to disrupt terrorist networks by targeting those who generate funds to carry out the Iranian regime’s violent agenda.”

Is Lebanese icon Fairuz a fading voice?

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by esquireme.com -Chris Cotonou- It might be nothing, or it might just be the perfect metaphor. On a usually busy corner of Armenia Street in Beirut, a mural depicting the iconic Lebanese singer Fairuz is now semi-hidden, obscured by plant pots, chairs and scribbled graffiti. I point it out from a busy bar across the street and Salma, a 22-year-old Beirut student, half-smiles and muses “I hadn’t noticed it before, but I’m not surprised.” The short pause in our conversation is replaced with a pulsating American club track bluring out of the bar’s speakers. “Not a lot of people my age would admit they listen to Fairuz these days. She is our parent’s generation,” says Salma. The street art is the work of Yazan Halwani who—along with other artists such as Sabah and Khalil Gibran—sought to fill Beirut with murals of Lebanese cultural icons they believed would inspire and unite the next generation. As the Arab-world’s best-selling singers Fairuz is undoubtedly one of those icons. In Lebanon and abroad she remains a representative of the country’s identity. As Halwani once put it “she’s a symbol of Lebanese identity not soured by sectarianism”. “Not a lot of people my age would admit they listen to Fairuz these days. She is our parent’s generation”

As a transcendent star stitched into the tapestry of Arabic pop-culture, her popularity has spawned a rather unique tradition where many Lebanese families, taxi drivers, and workers start their days with her music. On Spotify and YouTube you can find popular playlists titled ‘Fairuz Morning Songs’ created specifically for this ritual. Although, today with the maturing of a new generation, people like Salma believe that perhaps it has now had its time. “That is something our parents do,” she says, “but that won’t be happening in 10 years, at least not in Beirut.” While a shift in tastes is not particularly dramatic—new generations have always sought music styles that will define and differentiate them from their elders—it is Fairuz’s longevity that is impressive. “These days people have no respect for the classics. Kids today would rather listen to trash! They forget what we fought for to get here.” With a career spanning 50 years, and more than 150 million records sold, Fairuz has been three types of icon to three generations: the first during the glamour and optimism of the Golden Age; then to that generation’s children, who either heard her from abroad, or amidst the sounds of sobbing and ammunition; and finally following the war when her image became a de facto matriarch of a new Lebanon looking for reinvention. For three generations, she has remained relevant.

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Defense Council: Lebanese Have Right to Self-Defense, National Unity Best Weapon

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by naharnet.com --Lebanon’s Higher Defense Council on Tuesday stressed “the right of the Lebanese to defend themselves with all means against any aggression,” in the wake of Israel’s latest drone attacks in the country. “This is a right that is enshrined in the U.N. Charter,” the Council added in a statement, emphasizing that “national unity remains the best weapon in the face of the aggression.” The meeting was chaired by President Michel Aoun and attended by Prime Minister Saad Hariri, the ministers of defense, interior, foreign affairs and finance, and the heads of security agencies. “The President underlined the need to defend Lebanon’s sovereignty and territorial integrity because it is a legitimate right,” the statement added. Prime Minister Saad Hariri meanwhile told the Council that a complaint against Israel has been filed with the U.N. Security Council via the Foreign ministry. Hariri also briefed the Council on his contacts with the international community, noting that “this is the first attack of its kind since 2006 and the first violation through which Israel seeks to change the rules of engagement.” Speaking to reporters after the meeting, Hariri said: "I reassure you that there is nothing to worry about and we only fear God."

TV networks meanwhile said the Council decided to regulate "the import, purchase and sale of drone cameras." A ministerial source told LBCI television that "Hizbullah said that it will respond to the Israeli attack and the Higher Defense Council said that it took note of the response which will be appropriate and proportionate." One drone came down and another exploded early Sunday in a Hizbullah stronghold in the southern Beirut suburb of Mouawad, damaging a Hizbullah media center and lightly injuring three people who were in the building. On Monday, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command reported an overnight Israeli drone attack on its base in the Lebanese eastern border region of Qusaya. Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah had on Sunday vowed to "do everything" to thwart Israeli drone attacks in Lebanon, threatening to down any unmanned aircraft that violates Lebanon’s airspace. He also pledged to retaliate from Lebanon against an Israeli airstrike that killed two Hizbullah members in Syria. SourceNaharnet

Lebanese PM condemns Israeli ‘aggression’

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by en.annahar.com --BEIRUT: Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri has described the crash of two Israeli reconnaissance drones over Beirut as a violation and “aggression” against Lebanese sovereignty. He said Sunday that the developments overnight constitute a threat to regional stability and an attempt to push the situation toward more escalation. Hariri’s comments were the first by a senior Lebanese official after two Israeli drones crashed in a Hezbollah stronghold in southern Beirut. Israeli warplanes regularly violate Lebanese airspace and have struck inside neighboring Syria from Lebanon on several occasions, angering Hezbollah and Lebanese officials, who have complained to the United Nations in the past.

Bill Gates Says This Type of AI Will Be Worth “10 Microsofts”

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by finance.yahoo.com --Rex Moore, The Motley Fool  -- Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) founder Bill Gates was speaking to a group of college students in 2004. According to The New York Times, Gates was a bit concerned about the decline in the number of computer science majors, as well as the notion that the field had matured and there weren't many breakthroughs left to achieve in the area. One student expressed doubt that there would ever be another tech company as successful as Microsoft. Gates' reply is eye-opening: ''If you invent a breakthrough in artificial intelligence, so machines can learn, that is worth 10 Microsofts.'' He wasn't kidding...

Fast-forward to today, and of course someone has figured it out. This special kind of artificial intelligence is called machine learning. If anything, Gates was too conservative in his estimates. Experts say the market opportunity is now far, far greater than 10 Microsofts. And Gates isn't alone in his optimism. Other top business leaders are on board as well. Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN), said he thinks this new technology is the key to Amazon's future. Sun CEO Greg Papadopoulos is calling it "a real revolution." Even super investor Warren Buffett says that it will have a "hugely beneficial social effect."

When machines go to college We've referred to machine learning before as the beginning of today's AI explosion. It's "simply" software that ingests data, learns from it, and can then form a conclusion about something in the world. Thus, the key to understanding machine learning is that it's software that writes itself. Instead of explicitly programming software what to do, you instead provide it with large amounts of data and let it learn on its own. This allows machine learning to solve problems that earlier software with even billions of lines of code couldn't have solved. A more powerful subset of machine learning is deep learning, which essentially simulates how neurons in the human brain strengthen connections between one another to learn. If you're wondering how companies like Amazon, Google, Microsoft, and Facebook have grown to be among the largest in the world, part of the answer is how well they've integrated machine learning and deep learning into all aspects of their businesses.

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