English LCCC Newsbulletin For Lebanese, Lebanese Related, Global News & Editorials
For January 09/2020
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani

#elias_bejjani_news
 

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Bible Quotations For today

Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. Indeed, by faith our ancestors received approval.
Letter to the Hebrews 11/01-06/:”Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. Indeed, by faith our ancestors received approval. By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was made from things that are not visible. By faith Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain’s. Through this he received approval as righteous, God himself giving approval to his gifts; he died, but through his faith he still speaks. By faith Enoch was taken so that he did not experience death; and ‘he was not found, because God had taken him.’ For it was attested before he was taken away that ‘he had pleased God.’ And without faith it is impossible to please God, for whoever would approach him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.”

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on January 08-09/2020

Patriarch Al Raei Eldest Brother Passes Away
Lebanon Records 5,440 Covid-19 Cases in One Day
1,767 Fines for Breaking Covid Rules on Start of Lockdown
Hassan rules out financial impediments to hinder arrival of Covid-19 vaccine early February
President Aoun: Constitutional Council should interpret constitution, not just monitor the constitutionality of laws
Hariri Holds Two-Hour Meeting with Erdogan
Nasrallah Blasts U.S. Democracy over Capitol Riot
Nasrallah Asks Army to Unveil Port Probe Result and Sawwan to 'Rectify Course'
Berri Responds to Aoun: Explaining the Constitution a Sole Right of Parliament
Berri, al-Rahi Discuss Government in Phone Call
Passenger Vans, Buses to be Allowed to Operate as of Tuesday
Report: Robbery, Kidnap Attempt Leaves Two Dead in Zahle
Jumblat Advises Hariri to Quit
Salam discusses developments with French, UAE ambassadors
US dollar exchange rate: Buying price at LBP 3850, selling price at LBP 3900
A Lebanese nonprofit strives to give women a stronger voice/Alicia Buller/Arab News/January 08/2021
Lebanon's central bank says dollar peg finished but floatation depends on IMF talks
Hezbollah threatens Lebanese journalist Layal Alekhtiar working with US-funded Alhurra News channel/Tarek Ali Ahmad/Arab News/January 08/2021
‘Tyranny’ warning as Lebanon’s political row escalates/Najia Houssari/Arab News/January 08/2021

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on January 08-09/2020

Statement from International Coordination and Response Group for the victims of Flight PS752 marking one year since the tragic downing of Flight PS752
Commemoration of Flight PS752 tragedy
Twitter bans President Trump permanently
US Capitol Police confirm death of officer after pro-Trump riot
Pompeo says US not ‘banana republic’ despite Trump-inspired Capitol mob attacks
Beijing says Washington to pay 'heavy price' if UN ambassador goes to Taiwan
US Blacklists Iraqi Militia Leader in Connection with Deadly Anti-Govt Protests
Iran's Revolutionary Guards Unveil Underground Missile Base in Gulf
5 Nations Want Iran to Deliver Justice on Downed Plane
Saudi Air Force, US B-52s Conclude Joint Drill
Pelosi Says Spoke with Army Chief on Preventing a Trump 'Nuclear Strike'
Capitol police officer dies of wounds after clashes with Trump mob
Trump to Skip Biden Inauguration after Presidency Implodes
Khamenei Bans Import of U.S. and UK-Made Covid Vaccines
Qatari media campaigns go on despite Gulf reconciliation agreement
 

Titles For The Latest The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on January 08-09/2020

EU-China Investment Deal: "It Spits in the Face of Human Rights"/Soeren Kern/Gatestone Institute/January 08/2021
Question: "What does the Bible say about rioting?"/GotQuestions.org/January 08/2021
The Syrians’ Fear in the New Year/Akram Bunni/Asharq Al-Awsat/January 08/2021
Marx, Heidegger and the Crocodile/Amir Taheri/Asharq Al-Awsat/January 08/2021
The Transfer of Power From Trump to Biden, the Prospect of the Next Four Years/Camelia Entekhabifard/Asharq Al-Awsat/January 08/2021
Reconciliation with Qatar/Abdulrahman Al-Rashed/Asharq Al-Awsat/January 08/2021
Free and fair early elections are Iraq’s last chance/Ibrahim al-Zobeidi/The Arab Weekly/January 08/2021
Republicans are left to count the cost after a devastating week/Dalia Al-Aqidi/Arab News/January 08/2021

The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on January 08-09/2020

Patriarch Al Raei Eldest Brother Passes Away

LCCC//January 08, 2021
It was announced today that Patriarch Al Raei's eldest bother Chukri Al Raei passes away. His Beatitude Patriarch Al Raei received  calls from many Lebanese officials, dignitaries, clergymen and activists who conveys their heartily felt condolences.

Lebanon Records 5,440 Covid-19 Cases in One Day
Naharnet/January 08, 2021
Lebanon on Friday reported 5,440 fresh coronavirus cases, a new record high of daily infections for the small country, which registered 4,774 cases on Thursday. The harrowing tally comes on the second day of a 25-day lockdown aimed at reining in a major spike in virus cases. The new cases raise the overall tally to 210,139, including 138,839 recoveries, while 17 fatalities recorded on Friday take the death toll to 1,570. The huge surge in infections comes after a holiday season in which tens of thousands of visitors flew into the country to celebrate Christmas and New Year's.
First responders in the country hit by a severe economic crisis say they have been transporting nearly 100 patients a day to hospitals that are now reporting near-full occupancy in beds and intensive care units. Lebanon saw new infections begin to increase during the summer, following a massive explosion in Beirut's port in August that shook the city and its heath sector, killing over 200 people and injuring around 6,500. August's numbers increased by over 300% from July as a result and have been climbing since.

1,767 Fines for Breaking Covid Rules on Start of Lockdown
Naharnet/January 08, 2021
Lebanese security forces issued over 1,700 penalty notices for virus regulation breaches despite a nationwide lockdown to limit the spread of the coronavirus as infections hit a record high of 4775 on Thursday. Lebanon began a 25-day nationwide lockdown Thursday to limit the virus spread in the tiny Mediterranean nation, where patients overwhelmed the health care sector. The Internal Security Forces Directorate said 1,767 fines were issued since Thursday until Friday morning for breaches against the virus rules. The lockdown in Lebanon is the third since the first case was reported in late February. It closed most businesses and limited traffic by imposing an odd-and-even license plate rule on alternating days. It also reduced the number of flights at the country’s only international airport. A daily 6 p.m. to 5 a.m. curfew is in effect until Feb. 1. Also on Thursday, Lebanon broke its single-day record of new coronavirus cases for the third straight day, with 4,774 reported infections over the past 24 hours. But despite these regulations, some Lebanese areas were seen to little respect the regulations amid a tattering economic crisis sending many into poverty. Lebanese authorities announced that violators of lockdown restrictions would face penalties of up to 3 months in prison or a fine from 100,000 to 600,000 Lebanese Pound, or both.

Hassan rules out financial impediments to hinder arrival of Covid-19 vaccine early February
NNA/January 08, 2021
Caretaker Minister of Health, Hamad Hassan, confirmed that there was no financial impediments to hinder the arrival of the Covid-19 vaccine early February. “Pfizer vaccine will arrive in the first week of next February, and the ongoing negotiations with the company will not affect its arrival date,” Hassan affirmed in an interview with MTV Lebanon. “The agreement with the World Bank will guarantee a financial coverage to purchase the vaccine, in addition to the approved Ministry of Finance’s allocation for that matter,” he added, promising that the Pfizer vaccine will be given “free of charge” to citizens despite the country’s insurmountable financial problems. Moreover, the Minister did not fail to stress the importance of fair distribution of the Covid-19 vaccine, deeming this procedure as important as the vaccine itself. Hassan went on to make clear that the agreement with Pfizer was done directly through the Lebanese state — without the participation of a third party.  “Lebanon got the lowest price for the vaccine because it was one of the first countries to order it,” he stressed. Regarding the renewed shortage of medicines nationwide, Minister Hassan affirmed that the Ministry of Public Health would continue its inspection rounds to pharmaceutical warehouses, agents, and importers in a bid to protect subsidized medicines. He also ruled out any intention to rationalize medicine support as yet. Hassan then stressed that the Ministry of Public Health would continue cooperating with private hospitals. “In a lengthy meeting held with the World Bank, a quick mechanism has been agreed upon to pay Coronavirus bills for private and government hospitals — to be funded by the bank's loan," he added.  “The ministry has also requested medical equipment and a hundred additional intensive care beds that will be received in approximately ten days,” Hassan said.

President Aoun: Constitutional Council should interpret constitution, not just monitor the constitutionality of laws
NNA/January 08, 2021
President of the Republic, General Michel Aoun, considered that “The role of the Constitutional Council should not be limited to monitoring the constitutionality of laws, but also to interpret the constitution according to what was mentioned in the reforms mentioned in the National Accord Document approved in Taif in 1989”.The President also saw that it is normal that the Constitutional Council, when considering the constitutionality of laws, to interpret the constitution because laws are issued in accordance with specific constitutional rules and translate the intention of the legislator based mainly on the provisions of the constitution. President Aoun’s stances came while meeting the President of the Constitutional Council, Judge Tannous Meshleb, and members of the Council. The President of the Republic received permits of the financial assets of judges, according to the Illicit Enrichment Law.
During the meeting, which was attended by the Director General of the Presidency of the Republic, Dr. Antoine Choucair, Judge Meshleb presented the council’s work despite the conditions which the country is going through with the spread of the Corona pandemic. For his part, President Aoun welcomed the delegation and extended his condolences on the death of late Elias Abu Eid, a member of the Council, appreciating the Council's efforts despite current circumstances. Then, the President discussed general conditions, the work of public administrations and institutions, and other ministerial affairs, pointing out that there are gaps in the texts which define the authorities of ministers, especially those who fail to implement the law and refrain from implementing Cabinet decisions and those of the State Council, in addition to freezing decrees that establish rights for those who deserve it, which is contrary to any legal or constitutional text.  President Aoun finally called for addressing this issue because it negatively affects the interests of the state and citizens at the same time, by creating texts that prevent any confusion in the course of the ministers' work. -- Presidency Press Office

Hariri Holds Two-Hour Meeting with Erdogan
Agence France Presse/January 08, 2021
Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri on Friday met with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Istanbul. A statement issued by Hariri’s press office said the meeting lasted for two hours and involved a working lunch. Hariri and Erdogan “thoroughly discussed the latest regional developments, the various challenges and means for cooperation among the region’s nations to confront them,” the statement said. They also tackled “bilateral ties between Lebanon and Turkey and means to back the efforts for halting the collapse and rebuilding Beirut once the new government is formed in Lebanon.”The Turkish presidency said the "private" meeting at Erdogan's Istanbul residence focused on regional security issues and "deepening and strengthening" ties, without providing details. Hariri was renamed to the premiership post for a third time in October, almost a year after stepping down under pressure from an unprecedented protest movement. The 50-year-old inherited a country reeling from an economic crisis whose impact was compounded by the coronavirus pandemic and the aftereffects of a Beirut port blast that killed more than 200 people and ravaged the capital in August. Turkey has been playing an increasingly assertive role in the region under Erdogan, who has been vying for diplomatic influence with rivals such as France. French President Emmanuel Macron visited Lebanon in August and September, pushing for political reform. After Macron's first visit, Erdogan accused the French leader of pursuing "colonialist" aims in Lebanon. Erdogan's office said the Turkish leader reaffirmed his support for the "unity and peace" of Lebanon, which was once part of the Ottoman Empire.

Nasrallah Blasts U.S. Democracy over Capitol Riot
Associated Press/January 08, 2021
Hizbullah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said on Friday the assault by President Donald Trump's supporters on the U.S. Capitol this week shows the "reality of American democracy, which they tried to spread around the world."
In a televised speech focused on Lebanese affairs, Nasrallah described Trump as "stupid" and a "killer," blasting the U.S. leader's Mideast policies, including the Washington-directed airstrike in Baghdad a year ago that killed Iran's top general Qassim Soleimani, along with Iraq's militia commander Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis. Nasrallah said the attack on the Capitol showed that Trump can also "kill his own people." Wednesday's violence in Washington left five people dead. The remarks were Nasrallah's first since Wednesday. The U.S. has labeled Hezbollah a "terrorist group." "His criminal policies have been revealed to his own people," Nasrallah said of Trump. "Even Americans felt that he can kill them." Nasrallah said he hopes the world will be spared Trump's policies over the next days, warning that "the nuclear button is at the hands of a crazy, racist and stupid person."On Friday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she has spoken to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff about preventing an "unhinged" Trump from ordering military actions including a possible nuclear strike in his final days and hours at the White House.

Nasrallah Asks Army to Unveil Port Probe Result and Sawwan to 'Rectify Course'
Naharnet/January 08, 2021
Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah on Friday called on the Army Command and the Internal Security Forces to announce the results of the probe into the catastrophic August 4 explosion at Beirut’s port. “The issue of the blast at the port should remain a national cause and should not be turned into a regional, sectarian or political cause. This is unethical and harm targeted everyone,” said Nasrallah in a televised speech focused on domestic issues. “The port explosion killed 200 people, wounded thousands and affected the entire economy,” Nasrallah added, noting that the victims belonged to all sects.
“Hizbullah will follow up on this case in the judiciary and politics and I pledge to the Lebanese and the families of the victims that we will insist on a fair and honest conclusion for the port file,” Nasrallah vowed. Lamenting that the port file was “used against Hizbullah and President Michel Aoun and his tenure from the very first moment,” Hizbullah’s leader called on the army and the ISF to “announce the probe's results” and to “say who brought the ammonium nitrate.”“It seems that (lead judicial investigator) Judge (Fadi) Sawwan is only focusing on the administrative responsibilities,” Nasrallah lamented, calling on the judge to “tell the Lebanese what happened at the port.” “The way things are being addressed calls for suspicion,” Nasrallah decried. Commenting on Sawwan’s indictments against caretaker PM Hassan Diab and ex-ministers Ali Hassan Khalil, Ghazi Zoaiter and Youssef Fenianos, Nasrallah said the accusations and legal measures should not take sectarian balance into consideration. “The course of the investigation must be rectified,” Nasrallah urged. Turning to the issue of the stalled cabinet formation process, Nasrallah denied accusations that Hizbullah is the "real obstructor."
"It is clear that things are complicated regarding the government," he said. "It has been said that Hizbullah is the real obstructor of forming a new government in Lebanon because it was waiting for Trump's departure, but this is baseless," he added. He also revealed that Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri has told Hizbullah that he is not delaying the government out of "fear of sanctions" or because he is awaiting U.S. President-elect Joe Biden's term to begin. "If some believe that the government in Lebanon is hinging on U.S.-Iranian negotiations, I tell them that this is out of the question," Nasrallah reiterated.
"Do not wait for the U.S.-Iranian negotiations," he urged the Lebanese parties. "If some want to await Biden's administration, the formation of the government will take several months," Nasrallah cautioned. And noting that "the Americans are preoccupied with themselves," Nasrallah said "it is not fair to blame a single party for the government's delay." "Several parties have demands and fears," he pointed out. He accordingly called on all parties to "make use of time", "overcome foreign considerations, reconcile viewpoints and alleviate the confidence crisis."

Berri Responds to Aoun: Explaining the Constitution a Sole Right of Parliament
Naharnet/January 08, 2021
President Michel Aoun said Friday that the Constitutional Council should help “interpret” the Constitution, which prompted a swift reply from Speaker Nabih Berri who emphasized that the “Parliament alone” has that right. “In clarification to the President’s statement made to the head and members of the Constitutional Council, the role of this Council is to monitor the constitutionality of laws without going beyond it to interpreting the constitution, which remains the right of the parliament alone," said Berri in a statement. He added: "This matter was settled by the post-Taif constitution following a debate concluded by consensus in the general assembly."The President had said during his meeting with the Constitutional Council in Baabda on Friday, that the latter’s role “does not have to be limited to monitoring the laws’ constitutionality, but should also interpret the constitution in accordance with the reforms mentioned in the National Accord approved in Taif.”Aoun also said the Council should “address the gaps in the law texts that define the ministers’ powers, mainly those who fail to implement the law and refrain from implementing the decisions of the Cabinet and the Shura Council because they negatively affect the interests of the state and citizens at the same time.”

Berri, al-Rahi Discuss Government in Phone Call
Naharnet/January 08, 2021
Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri on Friday held phone talks with Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi.The state-run National News Agency said Berri called al-Rahi to offer condolences over the death of his brother. “The phone call was an occasion to exchange ideas regarding the government, if there is a will to form it,” the agency added.

Passenger Vans, Buses to be Allowed to Operate as of Tuesday
Naharnet/January 08, 2021
Passenger vans and buses will be allowed to resume operations as of Tuesday after they were suspended due to the anti-virus lockdown that Lebanon began enforcing on Thursday, a top unionist said. “As a result of the follow-up and contacts made by the Unions and Syndicates of the Land Transport Sector, and after an agreement with the friend, Minister of Interior and Municipalities Brig. Gen. Mohammed Fahmi, I’m pleased to announce to the drivers of vans and buses on Lebanese territory that they will be allowed to resume work as of Tuesday morning,” Bassam Tlais said. The drivers will be allowed to resume operations “according to the health conditions and measures that will be issued in a memo by Minister Fahmi,” Tlais, who is the head of the Unions and Syndicates of the Land Transport Sector, added. The lockdown in Lebanon is the third since the first case was reported in late February. It will close most businesses and limit traffic by imposing an odd-and-even license plate rule on alternating days. It also reduces the number of flights at the country's only international airport. A daily 6 p.m. to 5 a.m. curfew will be in effect as of Thursday until Feb. 1. Also on Thursday, Lebanon broke its single-day record of new coronavirus cases for the third straight day, with 4,774 reported infections over the past 24 hours. It came after a holiday season in which tens of thousands of visitors flew into the country to celebrate Christmas and New Year's. Lebanon also reported 16 new coronavirus deaths on Thursday, bringing the number of total cases in the small Mediterranean country to over 200,000, with more than 1,500 deaths. First responders in the country hit by a severe economic crisis say they have been transporting nearly 100 patients a day to hospitals, which are now reporting near-full occupancy, including in intensive care units. The new lockdown comes as Lebanon was already struggling with an unprecedented economic and financial crisis that has caused it to default on debt and sent its local currency plunging, losing 80% of its value to the dollar.

Report: Robbery, Kidnap Attempt Leaves Two Dead in Zahle
Naharnet/January 08, 2021
Unidentified gunmen tried to rob and kidnap three people in the Zahle town of Ferzol in the Bekaa Governorate, which resulted in the killing of two individuals and injuring two others, media reports said Friday.According to information, two people were killed in clashes that took place near a Lebanese army checkpoint on the Zahle road in Ferzol area, after a robbery gang lured 3 people from Hammana to Zahle with the aim of exchanging seven thousand US dollars. The gang reportedly managed to persuade them to get into their vehicle. Upon their arrival at the checkpoint, one of the kidnapped persons managed to take control of the steering wheel and swerved the car into the other side of the road colliding with two other vehicles. One of the abductees managed to get out of the car, gunfire broke out with the kidnappers, killing two people and wounding two others, said the reports. The Army Command announced later that the Intelligence Directorate thwarted an attempt to kidnap three individuals in Ferzol, and arrested two kidnappers.

Jumblat Advises Hariri to Quit
Naharnet/January 08, 2021
Progressive Socialist Party leader ex-MP Walid Jumblat called on PM-designate Saad Hariri to call off the government formation efforts, describing as “futile” any future meeting between President Michel Aoun and Hariri at Bkirki.
“Once again, I advise Hariri to step down and let them (the Hizbullah led camp) bring their desired PM whether he be Hassan Diab, Faisal Karami, or anyone else...it would be better for him and for us,” said Jumblat in televised remarks he made Thursday on MTV’s show Sar El Wa2et. “Let the defiance team, that is the Free Patriotic Movement (of Aoun), stay at the forefront and behind it Hizbullah. Nothing is left (in Lebanon). We have become a missile platform,” said Jumblat, referring to the latest statements of an Iranian general about Lebanon. “I call on Hariri to apologize and withdraw from his mission to form the government. My problem lies with Aoun and those standing behind him. We have to confirm Lebanon's principles of diversity, borders and truces. We are not a battlefield, otherwise Hariri cancels himself,” he added. Jumblat stated that leader of the FPM and son-in-law of Aoun, MP Jebran Bassil, wants to get the blocking third in the new cabinet in case anything happens to the President. The FPM “wants to rule through the blocking third in case anything happens to Aoun,” said Jumblat. On his participation in the government, he said: “Let Hariri choose the name he wants, but he can not persuade me of his ability to make a change, I say that for his own sake.”The PSP leader said he objects not to having his rival Druze figure, MP Talal Arslan, get the ministerial seat in the next cabinet. “Let us see if they can cancel us,” he stated.

Salam discusses developments with French, UAE ambassadors
NNA/January 08, 2021 
Former Prime Minister, Tammam Salam, on Friday received French Ambassador to Lebanon, Anne Grillo, with whom he discussed the most recent developments in Lebanon and the region, as well as Lebanese-French bilateral relations. President Salam also welcomed UAE Ambassador to Lebanon, Dr. Hamad Al Shamsi, who paid him a farewell visit upon winding up his diplomatic mission in Lebanon. The meeting had also been an occasion to broach the newest developments in Lebanon and the region.

US dollar exchange rate: Buying price at LBP 3850, selling price at LBP 3900
NNA/January 08, 2021 
The Money Changers Syndicate announced in a statement addressed to money changing companies and institutions Friday’s USD exchange rate against the Lebanese pound as follows:
Buying price at a minimum of LBP 3850
Selling price at a maximum of LBP 3900

A Lebanese nonprofit strives to give women a stronger voice
Alicia Buller/January 08, 202Arab News/January 08/2021
BEIRUT: Lebanese women have long fought against gender discrimination in the system. While activists have made great strides this year in terms of political and social awareness, national legal protections from domestic violence and sexual assault remain inadequate. The country also has a weak framework for basic women’s rights, especially in matters such as divorce, property rights and responsibility for children after divorce.
Rawan Yaghi, a former teacher based in Lebanon’s northeastern region of Baalbek, set up social enterprise USPEaK in 2009 with the aim of giving the country’s citizens a voice, particularly its women. The organization’s main objective is to create a democratic community that engages citizens through education.
“In my earlier career as a teacher, I was very active in social activism,” said Yaghi. “I was invited to International Women’s Day in Washington. I saw women being celebrated and honored for the enterprises they had started and thought, ‘oh, I can do that.’”
Yaghi registered USPEaK as an NGO in 2015. Since then, 2,600 women have been taught English and 1,200 have been taught about entrepreneurship. She has also overseen the education of about 10,000 Lebanese 7th and 8th grade students, who are taught a set curriculum based on themes such as citizenship and democracy.
INNUMBERS
2,600 Lebanese women taught English by USPeaK.
1,200 Lebanese women taught about entrepreneurship.
2015 Year when USPEaK was registered as an NGO.
One of the main areas that USPEaK focuses on is teaching English. Yaghi believes the English language is one of the most important tools Lebanese women can have when seeking employment.
“It’s like a passport. When they learn English, they’re able to access information that they are not usually exposed to,” she said. “They can know more about the media and the social work of others and they can get inspired by different ideas.”
Yaghi used her savings and a bank loan to launch USPEaK. Around a decade later, her civil rights work is gaining recognition on a global scale, receiving funds and grants from Germany, the UK and the US among others.
“Many of our funds come from the US Embassy, especially for education — teaching English and (hosting) spelling bee projects,” said Yaghi. “We have other donors through UK Aid and ActionAid where we’re working on social cohesion.”
Some 2,600 women have been taught English and 1,200 have been taught about entrepreneurship via USPeaK since 2015. (Supplied)
Besides promoting democratic engagement, USPEaK is also focused on helping women reach positions of power in government. The enterprise has worked with 57 potential female candidates with the ambition that women will eventually make up a sizable proportion of elected representatives.
“We have supported independents in running for office,” said Yaghi. “I was training potential women candidates in many different places in Lebanon. We support all of our social work through low-cost English courses. We work on many different things related to women candidates — this is where you can speak up, raise your voice, and express yourself.”
USPEaK currently employs 10 full-time staff alongside four part-timers and 80 contractors. The mission is not only to increase general political awareness, but also to shed light on more serious subjects, such as preventing violent extremism, the role of women in raising their children to be non-violent citizens, anti-sectarianism, and preventing child abuse. Nada Toufayli runs Debating and Community Service training for Teaching Women English Program teachers. (Supplied)
Reshaping the political landscape is a tall order for Yaghi and her team, but she believes a positive mindset is crucial for any social enterprise that wishes to achieve its goals.
“If you feel like you are a successful person, you will be a successful person,” she said. “If you have an inspiring idea, believe that it will be good; it will get money and be funded. “Get the ideas, get the business plan, believe in yourself and go for it.”
• This report is being published by Arab News as a partner of the Middle East Exchange, which was launched by the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Global Initiatives to reflect the vision of the UAE prime minister and ruler of Dubai to explore the possibility of changing the status of the Arab region.

Lebanon's central bank says dollar peg finished but floatation depends on IMF talks
Reuters/Arab News/January 08/2021
BEIRUT: Lebanon's central bank governor Riad Salameh said on Friday the era of the dollar peg was finished but said any floatation of the currency would depend on negotiations with the International Monetary Fund. Salameh made his comments in an interview with France24. When asked in the interview whether the era of the dollar peg was finished, Salameh replied: "The peg is finished." Asked whether this meant the currency would now be floated, Salameh told Reuters his comments were circulated "out of context". "I said depending on the IMF, precision is important," he said.
 

Hezbollah threatens Lebanese journalist Layal Alekhtiar working with US-funded Alhurra News channel
Tarek Ali Ahmad/Arab News/January 08/2021
Layal Alekhtiar is latest victim of cyber bullying by the Iran-backed terror group
Committee to Protect Journalists slams online harassment of female reporters, says must be investigated
LONDON: Lebanese news anchor Layal Alekhtiar is the latest victim of a Hezbollah-led campaign to silence free media in and out of the country.
The journalist, who works for US State Department-funded Alhurra, received death threats via text following an incitement campaign launched by viewers loyal to Hezbollah. The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) told Arab News that these threats must be investigated. The campaign comes after Alekhtiar tweeted a video of the unveiling of the newly erected statue of the late Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani with a line from Ayat Al-Anbya (The Prophets) from the Qur’an that said: “What are these statues to which you are so devoted?”
Alekhtiar told Arab News: “I didn’t provoke them specifically in any way, all I did was place this Ayat as a matter of freedom of speech, nothing more. I didn’t demean them, nor did I do it in any impolite way.
“So, they let their whole army loose on me, and all those from Al-Manar and Al-Mayadeen and all their news channels and I didn’t understand why, there is nothing to it. “I tweeted the Ayat regarding the statues because what grabbed my attention was that there were Shiite religious men there. Anyway, to me, any statue that would be erected for someone not Lebanese — especially since he has a political agenda — paid by the Lebanese, should not be placed. Whoever it may be, not just Qassem Soleimani,” she said.
Shortly after, a senior member of the Israeli Army tweeted the same Ayat which added fuel to the fire. “So, they begin to create a link between my tweet and his and they begin to photoshop both tweets together and spread it and say that I am a foreign agent and that I am an Israeli spy,” she added.
Speaking to Arab News, Sherif Mansour, Middle East and North Africa Program Coordinator for the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said: “the use of online harassment against women journalists is abhorrent tactic that aims to silence their reporting and opinions. “Threats by non state actors and their supporters online must not go unnoticed and must be throughly investigated.”
Alekhtiar is not the first journalist to be harassed and targeted by Hezbollah and accused of spying for Israel and will surely not be the last — this includes Lebanese journalists who are also Shiite Muslims, but don’t agree with Hezbollah’s political beliefs. Late last year, journalist Luna Safwan, who happens to be Shiite, was subjected to an online abuse campaign after her tweet criticizing Hezbollah was carried by an Israeli news channel and she was accused of cooperating with Israel.
Similarly, Lebanese journalist Maryam Seif Eddine, known for her staunch criticism of Hezbollah despite being Shiite, had been issued death threats by the group while her mother and brother were physically assaulted, the latter being left with a broken nose. Hezbollah loyalists had targeted her family home in Burj El-Barajneh, in the Hezbollah-dominated southern suburbs of Beirut.
Before that, as the country witnessed unprecedented nationwide protests in 2019, former LBC news anchor Dima Sadek, another Shiite journalist, was subjected to harassment by the Lebanese militia group after her phone was stolen from her during a demonstration. The harassment, she said, was followed by insulting and threatening phone calls to her mother, who suffered a stroke as a result of the stress. And prior to that, MTV television reporter Nawal Berry, also a Shiite, suffered violent attacks by supporters of Hezbollah and its allies while covering the early days of the protests. Loyalists smashed her team’s camera, snatched the microphone she was holding, spat on her, and kicked her in the leg. Alekhtiar said: “Now, they continued with their campaign, but the principle is that we, in Lebanon, the foundation is freedom of expression and the democracy that puts it apart from other countries.
“We don’t want to become a part of another country, nor do we want the nationality of our country to change no matter who is coming.”Activist and journalist Ali Al-Amin, who claimed that he had been attacked on more than one occasion by Hezbollah-linked people, in a previous interview told Arab News: “Hezbollah has always resorted to accusing its opponents of working for Israel, the US, or foreign embassies. “It has mobilized its electronic armies to launch (online) campaigns against them over the past 15 years. There is much evidence for this.”
Alekhtiar, who remains unfazed by the threats, said: “An opinion must stay an opinion, no matter what happens, because without freedom of expression, journalism has no point, and the media has no point.”
Soleimani’s shadow
Qassem Soleimani left a trail of death and destruction in his wake as head of Iran’s Quds Force … until his assassination on Jan. 3, 2020. Yet still, his legacy of murderous interference continues to haunt the region

‘Tyranny’ warning as Lebanon’s political row escalates
Najia Houssari/Arab News/January 08/2021
BEIRUT: Lebanon’s politicians swapped insults and accusations on Friday while coronavirus infections in the country continued to rise dramatically, with almost 5,000 cases reported in a single day.
Journalists, artists, doctors, nurses, soldiers and teachers — some in their 20s and 30s — were among those falling victim to the virus, while hospitals struggled to cope with the influx of cases and health officials warned of a growing crisis.
On Thursday night, former minister Nicolas Nahas appeared on TV after recovering from the illness. “The last two months have been very difficult. I lost the ability to breathe,” he said. As a nationwide 25-day lockdown entered its second day, politicians exchanged accusations over delays in the naming of a Cabinet, escalating the conflict between President Michel Aoun and Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri over conditions imposed by the president.
MP Waleed Al-Baarini, a member of the Future Movement, accused Aoun’s Free Patriotic Movement of “tyranny and adopting a scorched earth policy.”
Lebanon “does not need another trigger to destroy it,” he said.
On Friday, the political conflict went beyond the Cabinet line-up to include the issue of parliamentary rights.
Aoun told members of the Constitutional Council that the body should not be limited to monitoring laws, but should also interpret the constitution in accordance with reforms agreed under the 1989 Taif accord.
The president’s comments angered many MPs, including former PM Najib Mikati and parliamentary speaker Nabih Berri, who said: “The role of the council is limited to monitoring the constitutionality of laws. Interpreting the constitution is the sole right of the parliament.”
Marwan Hamadeh, who resigned as an MP, described Aoun’s remarks as a breach of the constitution and an attempt to abolish its rights.
“This takes us back to the Lebanese civil war,” he said.
However, Khaled Qabbani, an authority on the country’s constitution and former member the Constitutional Council, told Arab News that “the Taif agreement gave (the council) the right to interpret the constitution, along with the right to the monitor the constitutionality of laws and the parliamentary elections.”
Qabbani said that he had been assigned to write the constitutional text of amendments approved by the accord.
“However, when the parliament convened one year later to approve these amendments, Georges Saade (the late Christian Phalange party leader) did not agree to give this right to the Constitutional Council, and his view was supported by all other MPs. All the amendments were approved except this one.”
Qabbani said that he was surprised “that this matter is being discussed again, especially at this time, when the constitution in Lebanon is not being respected, and the parliament has become very sensitive to all topics related to its rights and powers.”
“Such a mistake is not acceptable,” he said.
In a televised interview on Thursday night, Druze leader Walid Jumblatt called on Hariri to step down from the task of forming a government, and to “leave Hezbollah and its allies to rule the country, since we have become a missile silo.”
“We are not able to rule. Let the resistance camp handle the responsibility of the country in times of peace, war and economic collapse,” he said.
He urged Hezbollah “to think about the tens of thousands of Lebanese in the Gulf countries in order to avoid their deportation, since they have become our only hope amid the economic crisis.”

The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on January 08-09/2020

Statement from International Coordination and Response Group for the victims of Flight PS752 marking one year since the tragic downing of Flight PS752
January 7, 2021 - Ottawa, Ontario - Global Affairs Canada
One year ago, in the early morning of January 8, 2020, Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752 was downed by two Iranian military surface-to-air missiles near Tehran.
Today, we honour the memory of those who perished and offer our sincere condolences to all who mourn the victims of the PS752 tragedy. We share the grief of the families, relatives and friends who lost loved ones.
We urgently call on Iran to provide a complete and thorough explanation of the events and decisions that led to this appalling plane crash.
Our countries will hold Iran to account to deliver justice and make sure Iran makes full reparations to the families of the victims and affected countries.

Commemoration of Flight PS752 tragedy
January 8, 2021 - Ottawa, Ontario - Government of Canada
The Honourable François-Philippe Champagne, Minister of Foreign Affairs, and the Honourable Marc Garneau, Minister of Transport, today issued the following statement:
“A year ago, on January 8, 2020, the downing of Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752 claimed the lives of 176 people, including 55 Canadian citizens, 30 permanent residents and numerous others with ties to Canada.
“On this date, we gather, mourn and reaffirm our determination to help the families of the victims get the answers they deserve.
“Canada’s priority since the downing of PS752 has always been to provide families and loved ones with the support they need. We continue to work with other impacted countries to hold Iran to account and seek transparency and justice for the victims of this tragedy and their families.
“No one should have to go through the torment these families have faced. That is why Canada is working with its international partners through the Safer Skies Initiative to protect civilian air passengers from the dangers of travelling through and near conflict zones.
“The Government of Canada will continue to stand alongside the families and relatives of the victims who lost their lives during the senseless tragedy of Flight PS752.”

Twitter bans President Trump permanently

CNN/January 08, 2021
Twitter has suspended President Donald Trump from its platform, the company said Friday evening. "After close review of recent Tweets from the @realDonaldTrump account and the context around them we have permanently suspended the account due to the risk of further incitement of violence," Twitter
 

US Capitol Police confirm death of officer after pro-Trump riot

CNN/January 08, 2021
The US Capitol Police confirmed the death of one of their officers late Thursday from injuries suffered when a mob of President Donald Trump's supporters stormed the Capitol a day before. Capitol Police said in a statement that Officer Brian D. Sicknick died at approximately 9:30 p.m. ET Thursday "due to injuries sustained while on-duty."The death is being investigated by the DC Metropolitan Police Department's homicide branch, the US Capitol Police and their federal partners.

Pompeo says US not ‘banana republic’ despite Trump-inspired Capitol mob attacks
AFP/January 08, 2021
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Thursday hit back at assertions that a mob attack on the Capitol showed the United States to be a “banana republic.”A number of foreign critics as well as former US president George W. Bush made the analogy after rioters stirred up by President Donald Trump rampaged through a session of Congress that certified his loss to Joe Biden. “The slander reveals a faulty understanding of banana republics and of democracy in America,” said the top US diplomat, a staunch Trump loyalist, as two other members of the cabinet resigned over Wednesday’s violence. “In a banana republic, mob violence determines the exercise of power. In the United States, law enforcement officials quash mob violence so that the people’s representatives can exercise power in accordance with the rule of law and constitutional government,” Pompeo wrote on Twitter. Bush in a statement Wednesday made veiled criticism of the “reckless behavior” of members of his Republican Party in fueling the “insurrection.”“This is how election results are disputed in a banana republic — not our democratic republic,” Bush wrote.

Beijing says Washington to pay 'heavy price' if UN ambassador goes to Taiwan
AFP/January 08, 2021
China on Thursday threatened that the United States would pay a "heavy price" if its United Nations Ambassador Kelly Craft kept plans announced by the State Department to travel to Taiwan in the coming days. “The United States will pay a heavy price for its wrong action," a statement from the Chinese mission to the UN said. “China strongly urges the United States to stop its crazy provocation, stop creating new difficulties for China-US relations and the two countries' cooperation in the United Nations, and stop going further on the wrong path." China "firmly opposes" the visit and demands the US cancel its plans, the statement added, reiterating Beijing's one China policy that maintains Taiwan is only a mainland province. The precise date of Craft's visit is not yet clear. Chinese state news agency Xinhua had also criticized the trip earlier in the day, saying an US ambassador's presence in Taiwan would violate Chinese sovereignty.
 

US Blacklists Iraqi Militia Leader in Connection with Deadly Anti-Govt Protests
Asharq Al-Awsat/Friday, 8 January, 2021
The United States on Friday imposed sanctions on an Iraqi militia leader and former national security adviser, connecting him to human rights abuses during the 2019 anti-government demonstrations in which hundreds of protesters were killed. The US Treasury Department said in a statement it was blacklisting Falih al-Fayyadh, chairman of the Iraqi Popular Mobilization Committee (PMC). The Treasury accused him of being part of a crisis cell formed in late 2019 to suppress protests with the support of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds Force, which is blacklisted by the United States. Washington said al-Fayyadh was the head of the PMC when forces under its command fired live ammunition at peaceful protesters in 2019, resulting in hundreds of deaths. Iraq’s biggest anti-government protests in decades broke out in October 2019 and continued for several months, with hundreds of thousands of Iraqis demanding jobs, services and the removal of the ruling elite, which they said was corrupt and beholden to Iran. Nearly 500 people were killed. The protests caused the resignation of Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi. “By directing and supervising the murder of peaceful Iraqi demonstrators, Iran-aligned militants and politicians such as Falih al-Fayyadh have been waging a violent campaign against Iraqi democracy and civil society,” Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in the statement. “The United States will continue to hold accountable human rights abusers in Iraq who aim to deny the Iraqi people in their efforts to peacefully protest, seek justice, and root out corruption in their country.”

Iran's Revolutionary Guards Unveil Underground Missile Base in Gulf
Asharq Al-Awsat/Friday, 8 January, 2021
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards unveiled an underground missile base at an undisclosed Gulf location on Friday, Iranian state media reported, at a time of heightened tension between Tehran and the United States. “The base is one of several bases housing the Guards’ Navy’s strategic missiles,” the state media quoted the head of the Guards, Major General Hossein Salami, as saying. Last year, the Guards said Iran had built underground “missile cities” along the Gulf coastline, warning of a “nightmare for Iran’s enemies”. “These missiles have ranges of hundreds of kilometers, enjoy pinpoint accuracy and huge destructive power, and can overcome the enemy’s electronic warfare equipment,” Salami said. He said the base was “one of several bases housing the Navy’s strategic missiles”. There have been periodic confrontations in the Gulf in recent years between the Guards and the US military, which has accused the Guards’ navy of sending fast attack boats to harass US warships as they pass the Strait of Hormuz. Tensions have been high between Tehran and Washington since 2018, when President Donald Trump exited the 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and six world powers which limits the country’s nuclear program and reimposed sanctions that have crippled the country’s economy.

5 Nations Want Iran to Deliver Justice on Downed Plane
Asharq Al-Awsat/Friday, 8 January, 2021
The countries whose citizens were killed when Iran accidentally shot down a Ukrainian jetliner said Friday they want Iran “to deliver justice and make sure Iran makes full reparations to the families of the victims and affected countries.”
In a joint statement marking the one-year anniversary of the Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752 crash, Ukraine, Canada, Britain, Afghanistan and Sweden said they want Tehran “to provide a complete and thorough explanation of the events and decisions that led to this appalling plane crash.”Sweden earlier had said that Iran had agreed to compensate the families of the foreign victims. The shootdown by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard happened the same night Iran launched a ballistic missile attack targeting US soldiers in Iraq, its response to the American drone strike that killed Guard Gen. Qassem Soleimani in Baghdad on Jan. 3. The plane was en route to the Ukrainian capital of Kiev. The victims included 57 Canadian citizens as well as 11 Ukrainians, 17 people from Sweden, four Afghans and four British citizens. Those from Sweden included both Swedish nationals and people with staying permits in the Scandinavian country. At first, Iran had denied its involvement in the plane crash but then announced that its military had mistakenly and unintentionally shot down the Ukrainian jetliner. The statement was signed by ministers of Afghanistan, Canada, Sweden, Ukraine and United Kingdom.

Saudi Air Force, US B-52s Conclude Joint Drill
Asharq Al-Awsat/Friday, 8 January, 2021
The Royal Saudi Air Force and US Air Force concluded on Friday a joint military exercise, reported the Saudi Press Agency. Saudi F-15 S A fighters and US strategic B-52 bombers and F-16 fighters took part in the drill. The exercise explores the potential and capabilities of the two militaries and boosts cooperation to maintain the security and stability of the region.

Pelosi Says Spoke with Army Chief on Preventing a Trump 'Nuclear Strike'
Agence France Presse/Friday, 8 January, 2021
U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Friday she spoke with the nation's top military leader about ensuring that an "unhinged" President Donald Trump does not launch a nuclear attack in his final days in office. The top Democrat in Congress said she talked with Joint Chiefs Chairman Mark Milley "to discuss available precautions for preventing an unstable president from initiating military hostilities or accessing the launch codes and ordering a nuclear strike." The extraordinary acknowledgement that Pelosi has spoken with military brass about restricting the president's powers enshrined in the U.S. Constitution came in a letter to her Democratic colleagues, and highlight the tensions in Washington over Trump's remaining days in the White House. "The situation of this unhinged president could not be more dangerous, and we must do everything that we can to protect the American people from his unbalanced assault on our country and our democracy," she wrote. A Milley spokesman, Colonel Dave Butler, said Pelosi did call the joint chiefs chairman but would not provide specifics other than to say Milly "answered her questions regarding the process of nuclear command authority." Pelosi in her letter also said she is prepared to launch impeachment proceedings against Trump if he does not voluntarily resign or if Vice President Mike Pence does not begin a process laid out in the 25th Amendment that allows him and the cabinet to remove the president. "If the president does not leave office imminently and willingly, the Congress will proceed with our action," she said. Articles of impeachment have been drafted but they have yet to be introduced. Momentum is growing among Democrats on Capitol Hill for ousting Trump after his supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol seeking to prevent lawmakers from certifying Democrat Joe Biden's November election win. Democratic and Republican lawmakers alike described the mayhem, in which five people died including a U.S. Capitol Police officer, as an insurrection, and critics are accusing Trump of fomenting the violent unrest. "There is growing momentum around the invocation of the 25th Amendment, which would allow the vice president and a majority of the cabinet to remove the president for his incitement of insurrection and the danger he still poses," Pelosi wrote. She and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer on Thursday placed a call to Pence to discuss invoking the 25th Amendment but he did not respond."We still hope to hear from him as soon as possible with a positive answer," she said.

Capitol police officer dies of wounds after clashes with Trump mob
AFP/Friday, 8 January, 2021
Officer Brian D. Sicknick died Thursday due to injuries sustained while on-duty, physically engaging with protesters at the US Capitol, a statement said. It was the first law enforcement death stemming from Wednesday's violence at the Capitol which saw flag-waving crowds overwhelm police and break into the legislature as Congress was tallying the Electoral College votes to confirm Democrat Joe Biden won the election. Sicknick, a 12-year veteran of the force, was “responding to the riots on Wednesday, January 6, 2021, at the US Capitol and was injured while physically engaging with protesters,” Capitol Police said in a statement. “He returned to his division office and collapsed. He was taken to a local hospital where he succumbed to his injuries” on Thursday night, it said. Democratic leaders of the House Appropriations Committee said the “tragic loss” of a Capitol police officer “should remind all of us of the bravery of the law enforcement officers who protected us, our colleagues, Congressional staff, the press corps and other essential workers″ during the hours-long takeover of the Capitol by pro-Trump protesters.
Four protesters died in the violence, including a woman who was shot by police. Three other deaths were reported on the Capitol grounds, but the circumstances remained unclear. Sicknick's death will be investigated by the Metropolitan Police Department’s Homicide Branch, the USCP, and federal law enforcement.

Trump to Skip Biden Inauguration after Presidency Implodes
Asharq Al-Awsat/Friday, 8 January, 2021
President Donald Trump announced Friday he will skip Joe Biden's inauguration in a final, unrepentant act of division as his presidency imploded amid demands that he step aside for the last 12 days in office. "To all of those who have asked, I will not be going to the Inauguration on January 20th," the US leader said on Twitter. The statement, while not a surprise from the most divisive president in decades, drew a line through any idea that Trump might seek to spend his remaining moments in the White House helping his Democratic successor calm tensions. Not since 1869 has an outgoing US president missed the inauguration of the incoming leader, a ceremony symbolizing the peaceful transfer of power. Two days after Trump incited followers to storm Congress, his presidency is in freefall, with allies walking away and opponents calling for his removal.
Democrats in the House of Representatives, who already impeached Trump in a traumatic, partisan vote in 2019, said an unprecedented second impeachment of the Republican could be ready for a vote next week. "We can act very quickly when we want to," Representative Katherine Clark told CNN. Whether Republican leaders of the Senate would then agree to hold a lightning-fast impeachment trial before the January 20 transition is another matter. However, with calls also swirling for cabinet members to invoke the 25th Amendment and declare Trump unfit for office, it's clear that the billionaire real estate tycoon is out of friends.
Too little, too late
Senator Ben Sasse, one Republican who says he will "definitely consider" impeachment, recommended that Trump at minimum step back and let his vice president run the show in the dying days. "I think the less the president does over the next 12 days the better," he told NPR radio. Trump, whose incitement of crowds assaulting Congress on Wednesday capped relentless efforts to overturn Biden's November 3 election win, finally conceded defeat on Thursday and appealed for calm. "A new administration will be inaugurated on January 20. My focus now turns to ensuring a smooth, orderly and seamless transition of power," Trump said in a short video. However, the evidently reluctant concession, in which Trump failed to congratulate Biden or directly admit defeat, was too little, too late to calm outrage over his role in the Capitol invasion. Five people died in the mayhem, including one woman who was shot dead and a Capitol Police officer who was pronounced dead from his injuries on Thursday. Flags over the Capitol were lowered to half-mast on Friday.
Government exit
Education Secretary Betsy DeVos became the second cabinet member to quit the government, telling Trump in a letter on Thursday that such "behavior was unconscionable for our country." Earlier, Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao, one of Trump's longest serving cabinet members, announced she was departing over the "entirely avoidable" violence. A string of lower level officials have also left. According to US media reports, the only reason the trickle hasn't turned into a flood is the decision by senior figures to try and maintain stability during the transition to Biden. Trump, however, appears to have lost the grip he once exercised on both the Republican party and his own staff as he rampaged through four years of one of the most turbulent presidencies in US history. Speaking to CNN, retired Marine Corps general John Kelly, who served as Trump's chief of staff for 18 months, said the cabinet should consider the 25th Amendment but believed the president had already been put into a box. "He can give all the orders he wants but no one is going to break the law," Kelly said. Trump has even lost Rupert Murdoch's Wall Street Journal, which published an editorial telling him "to take personal responsibility and resign." "It is best for everyone, himself included, if he goes away quietly.""Leave town," advised former secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson, suggesting Trump exile himself to his Florida golf club. "Get on Air Force One, go to Mar-a-Lago and stay there for the indefinite future," Johnson said on NPR.
Biden faces grim inauguration
Biden, who won seven million votes more than Trump, as well as a decisive majority in the vital state-by-state Electoral College, will be sworn in on the Capitol Steps under huge security. Between drastic Covid-19 crowd restrictions, the absence of Trump, and a new "unscalable" fence thrown up around the congressional complex, there will be little of the ordinary inauguration vibe. And Biden will immediately face extraordinary challenges, starting with his core campaign promise that he can "heal" the nation. So far, the Democratic leader has carefully avoided weighing in on demands for Trump's removal. Impeachment of the president could present the incoming Democrat with an even more polarized landscape, further complicating the task of reuniting the country.
At the same time, the crisis has sparked such revulsion in Congress on both sides of the aisle that Biden may come into office with an unexpectedly bipartisan tailwind.
On Thursday, he accused Trump of mounting an "all-out assault on the institutions of our democracy" and called the assault on Congress "one of the darkest days in the history of our nation."
Pelosi contacts army chief
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi spoke to the top US military commander on Friday about taking precautions to ensure that Trump cannot initiate hostilities or order a nuclear strike in his remaining 12 days in office. Pelosi said in a letter to Democratic lawmakers that she spoke to Army General Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, about what measures are available to rein in the president. "The situation of this unhinged president could not be more dangerous, and we must do everything that we can to protect the American people from his unbalanced assault on our country and our democracy," Pelosi said in a letter to colleagues. The Joint Staff did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Pelosi, the top Democrat in Congress, also said she had not heard back from Vice President Mike Pence about whether he would agree to invoke the 25th Amendment to remove Trump from office "for his incitement of insurrection and the danger he still poses."She said "we still hope to hear from him as soon as possible with a positive answer."

Khamenei Bans Import of U.S. and UK-Made Covid Vaccines
Agence France Presse/Friday, 8 January, 2021
Iran's supreme leader on Friday banned the import of American and British-produced vaccines against Covid-19, saying they were "completely untrustworthy." "Importing vaccines made in the U.S. or the UK is prohibited," Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said in a tweet, accompanied by the hashtag #CoronaVaccine. "It's not unlikely they would want to contaminate other nations," he added. The Islamic republic has reported more than 1.2 million cases of the novel coronavirus, which have caused over 56,000 deaths. Iran has accused arch-enemy the U.S. of hampering its access to vaccines through a tough sanctions regime. While food and medicine are technically exempt from the measures, international banks tend to refuse transactions involving Iran. Iran's President Hassan Rouhani said last month that Washington had demanded that Tehran pay for the drugs through U.S. banks, adding that he feared the United States would seize the money. Khamenei also tweeted that "given our experience with France's HIV-tainted blood supplies, French vaccines aren't trustworthy either." That was a reference to a scandal in the 1980s in which blood infected with HIV was distributed in France, and later abroad, even after the government became aware of the problem. Hundreds of people in Iran were among those infected. France's then-prime minister Laurent Fabius was charged with manslaughter, but acquitted in 1999, while his health minister was convicted but never punished. Iran last month launched clinical trials of a vaccine developed in the Islamic republic, the Middle Eastern country hardest hit by the pandemic.

Qatari media campaigns go on despite Gulf reconciliation agreement
The Arab Weekly/January 08/2021
DOHA – Gulf political sources see in the continued targeting of the UAE by Qatar's Al Jazeera channel an indication of Doha's agenda in dealing with the four boycotting countries. This agenda seems based on different criteria unbound by Qatar's commitment to confidence-building measures stipulated in the reconciliation agreement. The sources said that the Qatari channel continued to attack the UAE and its role in Yemen, reinforcing speculation about Doha’s lack of interest in changing its attitude on the main issues of disagreement, especially towards the Yemeni file, which the sources describe as the most difficult test of Doha’s seriousness about Gulf reconciliation. Followers of Gulf affairs have raised questions about Doha's commitment to the essence of reconciliation as it does not seem intent on implementing the first clause, which requires it to stop incitement in media channels its owns, such as Al Jazeera.
Some of the channel's reporters have continued to assail leaders of the four boycotting countries even during Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad al-Thani's presence at the Al-Ula summit in Saudi Arabia.
Observers were surprised by Al Jazeera's re-broadcast of a report that distorts the UAE's role in backing the joint resistance forces on Yemen's western coast. The channel tried to show the role as driven by a hidden agenda, even though it is part of the Saudi-led Arab coalition's effort to confront Iranian designs.
Al Jazeera first removed the programme from its social media account, before rebroadcasting it, reflecting a state of confusion in Qatar's media system and Doha's lack of adherence to the new transformation required by the Gulf reconciliation deal.
Some observers did not rule out that this media escalation could be intended to convey a message that Doha is not committed to changing its editorial line towards the boycotting countries. Commenting on Qatari media's continued attacks on the UAE, Kuwaiti political researcher and head of the Gulf Forum for Security and Peace, Fahd Alshelaimi, referred to what he called "the big fall of Al-Jazeera, just one day after the success of the 41st Gulf Summit in Al-Ula."
Shulaimi wrote on Twitter that “Al-Jazeera violates the Al-Ula statement and the Gulf Cooperation Council’s statement through false and toxic information,” as it "attacks the Emirati role in liberating the southern provinces of Yemen."
Journalist Jamal Al-Harbi wrote, “We were hoping that ink would dry up in the Al-Ula Agreement before Qatar pointed its media weapons towards us! Does anyone think this is the behaviour of a country that desires reconciliation?"
While the Qatar media machine stopped attacking Saudi Arabia after the warm welcome extended to the Qatari emir by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz at the summit, Qatari media continued to broadcast materialhostile to Egypt and the UAE.
Gulf sources see it likely that Doha would play in the coming period on multiple tracks seeking rapprochement with Riyadh while marginalising Cairo, ignoring Manama and engaging in a single confrontation with Abu Dhabi. This policy seems primarily aimed at sowing disunity in the ranks of the Arab quartet alliance, which was able to contain its destructive activities in the region.
Doha seeks to appear as the victor in a battle against the four boycotting countries, in the absence of any information about the nature of the commitments it has made. Qatari officials denied that they had committed to closing Al Jazeera or introducing any changes in their relationship with Turkey and Iran.
Qatari Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani said in an interview with the Financial Times that his country will not alter its relations with Iran and Turkey, and that it has not made concessions to anyone.
He stressed that there will be no change with regard to Al Jazeera, which suggests that Qatar wants to take only what it sees as gains from the summit but will not put in place any controls or safeguards to de-escalate conflicts with the concerned countries. Political sources believe the next few days will show the extent of Qatar's commitment to the provisions of reconciliation and test its seriousness about stopping political and media escalation and freezing its direct and indirect support for radical groups such as the Muslim Brotherhood and the Houthi militias in Yemen.
In recent years, Doha has dealt with the Yemeni file separately, keeping its distance from the common vision of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). It all started with Qatari mediation between the government and the Houthis in 2007 and accompanying talk about Doha's involvement in supporting the Houthis financially, logistically and in the media. Qatar withdrew from the Gulf initiative under which there was a transfer of power in Yemen from former President Ali Abdullah Saleh to President Abd Rabbo Mansour Hadi, after indications of Qatari support at the time for the continuation of protests that were threatening Yemen with civil war. Qatar's role in Yemen escalated after the end of Doha’s participation in the coalition in 2017, as Doha worked, according to Yemeni observers, to fuel division within the "legitimacy" government, diverting the conflict’s direction towards other anti-Houthi factions, and supporting the creation of militias affiliated with the Brotherhood, in addition to its role in backing the Houthis politically, financially, logistically and in the media.

The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on January 08-09/2020

EU-China Investment Deal: "It Spits in the Face of Human Rights"
Soeren Kern/Gatestone Institute/January 08/2021
"It is a massive strategic blunder at a time when President Biden will be seeking to put together an international partnership of liberal democracies to deal with the bullying loutish behavior and assault on our international rules by Chinese Communists." — Former Hong Kong Governor Lord Patten, Daily Mail, January 7, 2021.
"We should not be seeking to contain China but to constrain the Chinese Communist Party." — Former Hong Kong Governor Lord Patten, Daily Mail, January 7, 2021.
"It is naive to believe that China will respect the agreement it has signed. It is naive to ignore the geopolitical implications of doing a deal with China right now. And it is naive to think that the darkening political climate in Beijing will never affect life in Brussels or Berlin." — Gideon Rachman, Financial Times.
"The EU Commission's haste to partner with Beijing despite its grotesque human rights abuses has removed a fig leaf. Some European officials and commentators liked to claim that the Trump Administration was an impediment to even deeper transatlantic cooperation. Now it is plain to all that this isn't about President Trump. It's about key European officials. Look in the mirror." — Former Deputy U.S. National Security Advisor Matt Pottinger, Twitter, December 30, 2020.
"Beijing's disregard for international law in Hong Kong is serving as a catalyst for a change in alliances — both Britain and Europe have serious choices to make." — Johnny Patterson, Director of Hong Kong Watch.
The EU has negotiated a controversial trade deal with China. The pact has been widely criticized because European leaders have sacrificed their professed concern for human rights on the altar of financial gain. The deal was negotiated in great haste by German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Emmanuel Macron, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Charles Michel. Pictured: Von der Leyen (then Germany's Defense Minister) is honored by Chinese officials at the National Defense University in Beijing on October 22, 2018. (Photo by How Hwee Young/AFP via Getty Images)
The European Union has negotiated a controversial trade deal with China. The pact has been widely criticized because European leaders, in their apparent rush to reach an agreement, have sacrificed their professed concern for human rights on the altar of financial gain. Indeed, precisely one week after the deal was signed, China launched a massive crackdown on democracy activists in Hong Kong.
The so-called Comprehensive Agreement on Investment (CAI), concluded on December 30, was negotiated in great haste by German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Emmanuel Macron, the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Charles Michel. Other EU countries were excluded from the negotiations. Merkel, under pressure from China, reportedly wanted an agreement at any cost before Germany's six-month EU presidency ended on December 31.
The deal — the details of which have not yet been made public — ostensibly aims to level the economic and financial playing field by providing European companies with improved access to the Chinese market. Currently, China has far more access to the European market than the other way around.
China, however, made only limited concessions in just three sectors — electric vehicles, telecommunications and private hospitals — and with many caveats that will restrict investment opportunities for European companies.
Moreover, on December 19, just days before the EU-China deal was reached, China approved a new national security review system for foreign investment. The new rules allow China to block foreign investment whenever it is deemed to harm China's national security.
Meanwhile, the EU-China deal lacks meaningful enforcement mechanisms for issues that the EU claims to care about, such as climate change and human rights, including forced labor.
On December 30, Von der Leyen proudly declared that the agreement will "uphold our interests" and "promote our core values." On January 6, however, seven days after reaching the EU-China trade deal, Chinese authorities arrested more than 50 people, including American human rights lawyer John Clancey, on suspicion of "subversion" in Hong Kong.
Former Hong Kong Governor Lord Patten said the economic deal, which must still be approved by the European Parliament, makes a "mockery" of the EU's ambitions to be taken seriously as a global and economic player:
"It spits in the face of human rights and shows a delusional view of the Chinese Communist Party's trustworthiness on the international stage.
"It is worth remembering, for all European politicians wherever they come from, that the Jewish community around the world has been outspoken about Xinjiang and in particular has drawn attention to the similarities between what is happening in that region today and the Holocaust in the 1940s.
Are we about to see the end of forced labor in Xinjiang and the development of a trade union movement in China? Forget it.
"It is surely inconceivable that the European Parliament can support the miserable draft deal that the European commission wants to sign with Beijing.
"It is a massive strategic blunder at a time when President Biden will be seeking to put together an international partnership of liberal democracies to deal with the bullying loutish behavior and assault on our international rules by Chinese Communists.
"We should not be seeking to contain China but to constrain the Chinese Communist Party."
In scathing commentary published by the Financial Times, columnist Gideon Rachman argued that the deal was "naïve" and will increase Europe's vulnerability to pressure from China:
"Over the past year, China has crushed the freedom of Hong Kong, intensified oppression in Xinjiang, killed Indian troops, threatened Taiwan and sanctioned Australia. By signing a deal with China nonetheless, the EU has signaled that it doesn't care about all that. As Janka Oertel, director of the Asia program at the European Council on Foreign Relations think-tank, puts it: 'This is a massive diplomatic win for China.' ....
"It is naive to believe that China will respect the agreement it has signed. It is naive to ignore the geopolitical implications of doing a deal with China right now. And it is naive to think that the darkening political climate in Beijing will never affect life in Brussels or Berlin....
"Over the past year, China has repeatedly demonstrated its willingness to ignore treaty commitments. Its new national security law violates an agreement with Britain that guaranteed the autonomy of Hong Kong. China has also imposed tariffs on Australian goods in violation of the China-Australia free trade agreement....
"The EU-China deal was pushed hard by Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, and concluded right at the end of her country's presidency of the EU. Ms Merkel is seen as a champion of liberal values. But her approach to China is largely driven by commerce. She knows that the German car industry has had a rough few years, and China is its largest market....
"Many Europeans also believe that the US is on the brink of a new cold war with China — and want little part of that.... A European desire to avoid military confrontation in the Pacific is also rational. But relying on an American security guarantee in Europe, while undermining American security policy in the Pacific, does not look like a wise or sustainable policy over the long run.
"The Europeans are also kidding themselves if they think they can be blind to the increasingly authoritarian and aggressive nature of Xi Jinping's China. For the past 70 years, Europeans have benefited from the fact that the world's most powerful nation is a liberal democracy. If an authoritarian nation, such as China, displaces America as the dominant global power, then democracies all over the world will feel the consequences.
"Even in the current geopolitical order, China has repeatedly demonstrated its willingness to use its economic power as a strategic weapon. By deepening their economic reliance on China — without coordinating their policy with fellow democracies — European nations are increasing their vulnerability to pressure from Beijing. That is a remarkably shortsighted decision to make, for a 'geopolitical commission.'"
Analysts Amrita Narlikar and Samir Saran argued that the EU-China deal has seriously weakened the EU's own hand while alienating allies and friends:
"There is much that is wrong with the deal, which we could point to, in both process and implications.
"We could look askance upon the remarkable haste with which the European Union — normally a lumbering, complicated, and bureaucratic machine — has pushed this deal through. Or we could suggest that the Zaubertrank [magic potion] at work now be made the official beverage for the bureaucracy in Brussels.
"We could raise an eyebrow at the fact that the final negotiations took place at what is usually expected to be the quietest time of the year: Holiday closures, understaffed newspaper offices, and tired citizens desperately trying to catch a breath or two in the period that is so sweetly described in German as "zwischen den Jahren" (the quiet time in between the years). Our raised eyebrows could perhaps rise further still if we turned our attention to the fact that people across Europe are caught in a surging second wave of the coronavirus pandemic (on the day that the deal was signed, Germany reached a new and depressing record of daily deaths due to COVID-19). And we could applaud that neither the pandemic nor the holiday despair could prevent this 'systemic rivalry' from being recast.
"We could question not only the timing of the EU-China party, but also the choice of protagonists: In what capacity was President Macron present at this meeting? The impression that screenshots of the meeting give is that the two largest economies of Europe — Germany and France — are in the driver's seat; all the attention that the union claims to give to representation and accountability for its remaining 25 members (to be reduced to 24 with Britain exiting on 31 December) is little more than lip-service.
"We could even — if we were thus inclined — point out politely that we are not convinced by the European Commission President, Ursula von der Leyen's, claim that the 'Agreement will uphold our interests and promotes our core values. It provides us a lever to eradicate forced labor.' The clauses, at least as they are reported in the EU's Press release, are weak. They are, in fact, so weak, that one might almost want to graffiti LOLOL (Laugh Out Loud On Labour standards) all over it, were it not for the tragic and horrendous human rights violations that are reported in Xinjiang.
"We could raise all these issues, and more along such lines. But they still would not get us to the crux of a matter that is deeply political.
"International trade and investment — for all the conceits that many economists and lawyers seem to have about these issues — are inherently political. And they have become even more political in the context of China's rise: Not only because of the use and abuse of multilateral rules by non-market economies (which is what defenders of CAI tend to focus on), but also because of the fundamental difference in values that should define the goals of multilateral cooperation. Contra the inclination of technocrats to reduce values to labor and environmental standards, values include first-order principles of democracy, liberalism, pluralism, and more. And international trade and investment, especially in a world where interdependence can be weaponized, have become just too important to be left in disciplinary silos or technocratic bubbles. CAI is not 'just' a matter of investment, or even standards; it is a matter that has potentially serious security implications. It begins to dramatically alter who we are as a society, community and people.
"China has, perhaps, more than ever in 2020, given Europe ample evidence of these differences. It has threatened and bullied democratic Australia for having the gumption to push for an enquiry on the origins of the pandemic. Its new security law has all but abolished the promise of "one country two systems" for Hong Kong. Its adventurism in the neighboring seas has increased. Its border conflict with India has escalated to a new level. Its increasing use of 'wolf-warrior diplomacy' has even given up the pretense of sweet talk on many issues that most democracies hold dear.
Despite all these clear provocations, the EU has done little to update its strategy. It has — almost religiously — continued to repeat its mantra of 2019: It sees China as its partner, competitor, and rival. This, in fact, was nothing but fence-setting — and with the conclusion of the CAI negotiation, the EU has signaled to its own people, its allies, and indeed to China, which side of the fence it prefers.
"The CAI — despite von der Leyen's claim that it will help the EU defend multilateralism —is not multilateral at all. It is a bilateral deal with an authoritarian power that seems to have a very different understanding of multilateralism. It comes at an especially ill-opportune time. It signals to China that the EU now, not only turns a blind eye to, but actually rewards its increasingly aggressive behavior. It suggests that the EU has scarce regard for its closest ally — the United States — which, under the incoming Biden administration, had clearly revealed that it would like to work together on China. It does not reassure other democracies — such as Australia, Japan, and India — and it also undermines the potential for alliances with like-minded players. And the deal is a slap in the face of multilateralism: It shows how, for all its talk in favor of reforming multilateralism, the EU actually attaches greater worth to a bilateral deal with a country that has contributed significantly to the breaking of the system....
"Importantly, these are all choices that the EU has made. They cannot be fobbed off on China. China has simply gamed a round of Realpolitik rather effectively. Europe, in contrast, has weakened its own hand, given short shrift to its own values, and undermined the position of its friends and allies."
Former Deputy U.S. National Security Advisor Matt Pottinger tweeted that the EU's actions showed that the root of the problems in transatlantic relations lie with European elites and not with U.S. President Donald J. Trump:
"Leaders in both U.S. political parties and across the U.S. government are perplexed and stunned that the EU is moving towards a new investment treaty right on the eve of a new U.S. administration.
"There is nowhere for bureaucrats in Brussels or Europe to hide. We can no longer kid ourselves that Beijing is on the verge of honoring labor rights, while it continues to build millions of square feet of factories for forced labor in Xinjiang.
"The EU Commission's haste to partner with Beijing despite its grotesque human rights abuses has removed a fig leaf. Some European officials and commentators liked to claim that the Trump Administration was an impediment to even deeper transatlantic cooperation. Now it is plain to all that this isn't about President Trump. It's about key European officials. Look in the mirror."
The chairman of the European Parliament's delegation for relations with China, Reinhard Bütikofer, said that European leaders had "folded" on the issue of forced labor: "It is ridiculous to try selling that as a success." He added that Germany has allowed China to "drive a huge wedge between the US and Europe." He also tweeted:
"Merkel, Macron, Michel and von der Leyen have so far refused to explain their China deal to the public. So far, so bad. But if they dodge the issue of this Beijing imposed persecution of Hong Kong democrats now, too, they should be considered as leaders in political cowardice."
China scholar Andres Fulda said that the EU-China deal was a result of "group think" among senior political leaders in Europe and represents "a major win for General Secretary Xi Jinping and really bad news for anyone who strives for more value-led European common foreign and security policy." He added that the deal can theoretically still be scrapped, but it will require: a) resistance by European civil societies; b) criticism by the European Parliament; and c) interventions by the Biden administration.
European lawmaker Guy Verhofstadt tweeted that "any Chinese signature on human rights is not worth the paper it is written on!"
Writing for the Spectator, the Director of Hong Kong Watch, Johnny Patterson, called on the EU to scrap its deal with China:
"If Europe is serious about being a bastion of liberal values, the European Parliament cannot allow the interests of the German car industry to trump international law. While we have been arguing about Brexit, it has become clear that relationships with China will be the defining diplomatic issue of the century. Beijing's disregard for international law in Hong Kong is serving as a catalyst for a change in alliances — both Britain and Europe have serious choices to make."
*Soeren Kern is a Senior Fellow at the New York-based Gatestone Institute.
© 2021 Gatestone Institute. All rights reserved. The articles printed here do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editors or of Gatestone Institute. No part of the Gatestone website or any of its contents may be reproduced, copied or modified, without the prior written consent of Gatestone Institute.

Question: "What does the Bible say about rioting?"
GotQuestions.org/January 08/2021
Answer: A riot is a violent, noisy disturbance of the peace by a crowd. Riots usually result in property damage and injuries to people. We are seeing an increasing number of riots across the world, fueled by everything from race to religion. Sometimes a peaceful gathering can turn into a riot when something triggers strong emotion among the majority of attendees. Often those who are rioting believe themselves in the right as they passionately express their opinions en masse. But are they right? Does the Bible say anything about rioting?
The Bible mentions a few riots, none of them favorably. Paul was the victim of rioters on several occasions (2 Corinthians 6:5; Acts 17:5; 19:23–41). In each case, jealousy and deception were at the heart of the riot. It was the hate-filled agenda of the instigators that fired up the townspeople, many of whom were not even sure of the issues at stake. The fact that most of the Ephesian rioters “did not even know why they were there” says volumes about the mob mentality (Acts 19:32).
The most infamous riot in the Bible occurred during Jesus’ trial before Pilate. The governor had found no fault in Him (Luke 23:4; John 19:4). However, the chief scribes and religious leaders were determined to kill Jesus, so they stirred up the crowd (Matthew 27:20; Mark 15:11). Here we have a clue as to the nature of most riots. Many of those in the crowd had seen Jesus’ miracles, heard Him teaching in their synagogues, and may have even been healed by Him. Yet, under the influence of impassioned leaders, they quickly turned against Him. The same people who had shouted “Hosanna! Hosanna!” only days before (Mark 11:9–10) now shouted, “Crucify Him!” (Mark 15:13–14)
Most riots begin with an instigator, someone with an agenda. Riots may appear to be spontaneous outbursts of unified outrage, but closer investigation usually reveals people behind the scenes stirring up the passions of the crowd. Those who expect to benefit from the riot may use inflammatory speech, exaggerated details, and the cooperation of a few colleagues to make the riot seem spontaneous. In other words, those who incite riots today use the same tactics that the scribes and Pharisees used in Jesus’ day.
People caught up in the fervor of the moment don’t realize they are being used. They have been manipulated into believing they are making a righteous point by pillaging and indiscriminately destroying the property of others. Social pressure is a powerful motivator, and when everyone around us is inflamed with fury, shouting opinions and slogans and demanding “change,” it is easy to be swept along with the crowd. It would be interesting to know how many of those who demanded Jesus’ crucifixion later regretted it when passions cooled. We have one glimpse into a possible change of heart in Luke 23:47. A centurion who had helped with Jesus’ crucifixion suddenly realized what he had done and said, “Surely this was a righteous man!”
Rioting is a form of lawlessness, which the Bible condemns (1 John 3:4). Even if the rioters are seeking to advance a just cause, they are going about it in a sinful way. As the city clerk of Ephesus reminded the rioters in his city, “The courts are open and there are proconsuls. . . . If there is anything further you want to bring up, it must be settled in a legal assembly” (Acts 19:38–39). To be lawless is to consider oneself an exception to the law or to act as though there were no law. The lawless think rules don’t apply to them, and they become a law unto themselves. That’s what happens in a riot. Even normally law-abiding people can become inflamed with fury and self-righteousness and decide that their cause is worth breaking legal, moral, and ethical laws. They may destroy property, hinder transportation, harm innocent bystanders, and tie up law enforcement personnel who could be spending their time on more worthy pursuits. Rioters place themselves and their leaders above the law, and that is sin (Romans 13:1–2). Anger, especially when motivated by vengeance or spread by self-seeking rabble-rousers, is never a trustworthy guide (James 1:20). Those who allow themselves to be controlled by it may become foolish participants in ungodly riots.

The Syrians’ Fear in the New Year
Akram Bunni/Asharq Al-Awsat/January 08/2021
Euphemistically, we could say that the fires of the Syrian people’s dreams have been put out. Their gentle hopes and dreams that all the world's peoples aspire to achieve in the new year are absent in the face of the emergence of extreme fear and anxiety that the next phase will carry, as the preceding years had, increased deterioration, tribulation and pain.
It starts with severe fears, building up inside the majority of Syrians’ spirits and growing with every passing day, about the fate of a nation whose name they carry and are proud to belong to. These fears will persist so long as they cannot stop the country from slipping from their fingers and tumbling toward the abyss. They will persist as they are unable to stop it from disintegrating into spheres of influence governed by the military interventions of foreign powers that are not concerned with the Syrians’ fate and their national unity as they are safeguarding their interests and turning the country into an arena where they can settle scores and increase their influence.
Are the Syrians not deeply frightened and worried by the sight of their state’s internal structure’s fragmentation and the authorities’ subordination to and dependence on the foreign powers from whom it sought protection? Shouldn’t they be concerned when the governments of Tehran and Ankara provoke sectarian sentiments to deepen divisions that they exploit to gain more ground in Syria.
Moreover, does the Syrians’ panic not increase and their aspirations for minimal salvation not dimmish by the persistence of developments and balances of power that prolong their crisis – all this amid the international community and UN organizations’ failure to achieve any breakthrough to activate the political process. Regional and local powers that hold sway in Syria have no interest in easing the conflict, but they want the war to continue so that they can maintain the gains and sources of wealth.
Why wouldn’t the Syrians’ fears be stoked by the arrival of a new president to the White House, one whose policy on the region is likely to open doors to the intensification of the rivalry and disputes between the main parties to the conflict, and their exposure to the ramifications of the struggle between Russia and America over shares and spoils?
Indeed, why wouldn’t they panic over what Iran might do and excuse in order to maintain its influence in Syria and confront the growing global drive to besiege it and expel it from the country? Or of the disputes between Moscow and Ankara and their ambitions being manifested militarily? They may perhaps be limited for the time being, but they are likely to expand. They threaten to undercut the accords concluded between them in Astana and Sochi, thereby posing the threat of reigniting the bloody conflict, a return to the spiraling violence that has left scores of victims, devastation and displaced countless communities in its wake!
Still, the direct and primary fear haunting Syrians at the gates of the new year pertains to the implications of the country’s total economic collapse. Their minds are fraught with concerns about the failure of all the conflicting parties - the regime, the opposition and the Kurdish faction - to manage their societies and provide basic necessities. Here, it does not suffice to refer to the millions of Syrians who have lost their homes and properties as a result of the bombardment and devastation and are in great need of assistance. This also applies to those who have lost their jobs and have not found alternative means to secure an income that would alleviate their families’ hunger and deprivation. The matter also impacts most of those who work in the public sector, now hopelessly chasing their basic needs amid the astronomical rise in prices and the Syrian pound’s steep decline.
Exacerbating matters further is the damage left by the extreme violence seen in the country, its destruction of infrastructure and the declining quality and availability of many public, health and educational institutions. This deterioration is most clearly demonstrated by millions of children being deprived of the opportunity to go to school, and the struggles Syrians must undergo to obtain electricity, fuel and heating.
There is also the excruciating manner in which the various conflicting parties dealt with the coronavirus pandemic, defined by contempt for human life and apathy about people losing their lives.
How then, are we to assess the situation once we add the Syrians’ fears of security agencies terrorizing them and seizing their property, especially since they now act with absolute impunity!? How are we to assess the fears of Syrians governed by Islamic jihadists, who have been blinded by an ideology that drives them to kill and denounce as apostates all those who don’t share their beliefs, as they seek to impose their way of life, and its rights and wrongs, on the populace, with no regard for their humanitarian choices.
Displaced and refugee Syrians are added to this scene. Fear is eating them alive, not only because of the natural factors of the cold and alienation, the decline of welfare and their deteriorating living conditions, but from the changed positions of the societies who have hosted them in exile. These stances have changed due to the pressure caused by the number of refugees and the emergence of ISIS. Their search for dignified solutions that would allow them to continue to live there has become difficult, as prejudice and humiliation define their existence.
The result is the same, regardless of the various reasons for the collective or individual horrific ordeal facing Syrians, which go back the intransigence of a regime that was concerned only with staying in power. To this end, it sought various forms of external support, employed the most vicious of means, killing and torturing the people to crush them and silence their demands for the basic rights they are entitled to.
Or whether it stems from the presence of fanatical terrorist jihadist groups and the absence of a political alternative that could earn society’s trust, which is tied to the weakness of the Syrian opposition and its subjugation to the pressure of Islamic political groups and foreign dictates.
Or whether it is a consequence of the international community’s passivity and its failure to intervene, for years, to stop violence, protect civilians and impose a political settlement. The result is one; Syria is in danger of being lost, and the increased fear we are witnessing on the Syrian people’s faces is due to the realities of the painful deterioration of their country on every front. Everything is sliding towards the worst and most painful outcome, from the country’s independence and its national identity, to the unity of society and state institutions, the future of national, sectarian and civil strife, the security situation, economic and living conditions, and the prospects for salvation. Under the weight of these fears, it would be accurate to explain the Syrians’ broad participation, in their various affiliations - with the absence of the Syrian regime representatives - in bidding innovative director Hatem Ali farewell… It is as though they had been awaiting for an occasion to express the extent of their despair over the state of their country… It was as though they wanted to “commemorate” their suffering, when the mourners at the funeral procession cried out, spontaneously, the song from the opening credits of his TV series Big Dream: “Everything shriveled… shriveled until it was gone”.
 

Marx, Heidegger and the Crocodile
Amir Taheri/Asharq Al-Awsat/January 08/2021
At a time that the ruling elite in Tehran were busy marking the anniversary of the killing of Gen. Qassem Soleimani, the Khomeinist movement lost another of its iconic figures: Ayatollah Muhammad-Taqi Mesbah-Yazdi.
The 86-year-old cleric who changed his surname from Givehchi (sandal-maker) to Mesbah (Arabic for lamp) was alone among Khomeinist mullahs to have secured the title of “Super Scientist” (Allameh in Arabic) from the establishment. He was marketed as “the greatest living Islamic philosopher” and, as head of the Imam Khomeini Center of Studies, the custodian of Khomeini’s theologico-political heritage. However, Mesbah-Yazdi’s chief distinction may well have been his role in providing a pseudo-religious basis for the cult of personality built around the “Supreme Guide” Ali Khamenei. This is perhaps why Khamenei the unusual step of personally leading the “prayers on the mortal remains” of the cleric. To enable Khamenei to perform the ritual, his security forces had to deal with complex logistics. Since he “Supreme Guide” is in lockdown because of coronavirus pandemic, the corpse of the mullah had to be ferried in a military helicopter to Khamenei’s palace, to be ferried back for burial in south Tehran. The select group of individuals allowed to attend the ceremony had to pass infection tests and observe other protocols on wearing masks and social distancing. According to some accounts, when eulogizing “our elder brother” and “one of the greatest teachers in Islamic history”, Khamenei was close to tears. With green light from the Leader’s palace, other state-controlled clerics also issued statements praising Mesbah-Yazdi’s mostly imaginary achievements in philosophy and theology. In another sign that the traditional Shiite clergy are distancing themselves from the regime, however, none of the non-state grand ayatollahs of Qom, Mashhad or Najaf chose to even note Mesbah-Yazdi’s demise let alone mourn him. Outside the official clerical circles, Mesbah-Yazdi was, perhaps, the most hated figure in the Khomeinist sect, at times to a degree he didn’t deserve. His popular nickname was “crocodile” (timsah in Arabic) because the shape of his face reminded cartoonists of the amphibian beast with a bad reputation.
I first met Mesbah-Yazdi in the 1970s when he was a follower of the philosopher Ahmad Fardid who, in turn, cast himself as a disciple of the German philosopher Martin Heidegger. Because Fardid knew no German, his knowledge of Heidegger was based on scanty reading and misreading of French or Persian translations. Fardid’s understanding of Heidegger could be summed up in two erroneous beliefs: society’s need for order and he need for an unimpeachable leader to impose that order. He also claimed a visceral hatred of Marxism in all its many different forms, a hatred that he transmitted to Mesbah-Yazdi and other disciples such as Muhammad-Reza Davari Ardakani who was to become the republic’s official philosopher. By the mid-1970s the group seemed prepared to accept the Shah as the unimpeachable leader who could ensure the desired social order. The Shah’s regime saw he group as useful in combating Communism, which the security services wrongly identified as the main threat.
That was poor timing, however, as Iran soon entered a revolutionary moment and the Shah, rather than trying to protect the existing order, decided to throw in the towel and go into exile to avoid bloodshed. As Khomeini emerged as the symbol of the revolution, the group began to see him as the ideal leader, a kind of Fuhrer with a turban. To be sure some members of the group, including, Mesbah-Yazdi had Ardakani had professed sympathy for Khomeini in his first anti-Shah uprising in 1962 and had little difficulty to drop the Shah and follow the mullah.
Such a switch, however, was harder for Fardid who was an Aryan supremacist, seeing Islam as an Arab- Semitic phenomenon, and a man whose knowledge of French wines was unrivalled in the Persian Empire. Nevertheless, like his master Heidegger, who had discovered Hitler as the ideal leader, Fardid, too, started making pro-Khomeini noises, thus not only keeping his chair but, perhaps, even saving his life. In the early years of the new regime, Mesbah-Yazdi became a TV star by taking part in a number of debates with leaders of various Communist groups, including the pro-Soviet Tudeh (Masses) Party. By all accounts, “the crocodile” won most rounds. He had an advantage in the fact that the Communists had to acknowledge the “Islamic” nature of the revolution and new regime, plus Khomeini’s infallibility (ismah in Arabic).
Mesbah-Yazdi’s reputation as a great thinker soared when several prominent Communists, including Ishan Tabari, chief theoretician of the Tudeh Party, and Nureddin Kianuri, the party’s leader, publicly renounced Marxism and converted to the Khomeinist version of Shiism. Other Marxist-Leninist protagonists such as Farrokh Negahdar, a guerrilla leader, transferred to Europe to defend the revolution from abroad. Encouraged by those TV victories, Mesbah-Yazdi tried to find Islamic sources for his Heideggerite misunderstanding. He found them in the imami theory according to which all power has divine source and can only be exercised by infallible Imams or their worthy heirs who act as “nails” (mesmar in Arabic) that keep the world fixed and safe from falling into nothingness. In that doctrine, ordinary folk are not qualified to take decisions beyond quotidian matters which they understand. Mesbah-Yazdi liked to quote the verse from the great Persian Sufi Molavi (Roumi in Arabic): Oh God! Don’t leave our affairs to us;
Woe betides us if you do.
Soon, Mesbah-Yazdi identified Khamenei as he “Ideal Leader” who must be obeyed on all matters without question. According to official RJANEWS, Mesbah-Yazdi on his deathbed said he had only one regret: Having had the honor of kissing Leader’s hand, he had not yet kissed his feet, which he longed to do.
Mesbah-Yazdi said: “Islam, today, can be summed up in one phrase: Absolute obedience to the Leader.”It was good of the Leader to allow elections for various positions but no one should forget that this is a favor, not a right. That Khamenei was the “Ideal Leader” until the return of the Hidden Imam was clear from the fact that he had not made a single mistake in four decades at the helm. Mankind today, is in a phase of “waiting” for the Twelfth Imam as part of a divine scheme that lesser mortals could never understand. The choice offered to Iranians was between Marx and Heidegger, or between Communism and Nazism. No one was allowed to join the debate and suggest, ever so modestly, that maybe it was time for Iranians to use their own heads and begin thinking themselves.

The Transfer of Power From Trump to Biden, the Prospect of the Next Four Years
Camelia Entekhabifard/Asharq Al-Awsat/January 08/2021
How long will it take for Biden to gain the trust of tens of millions of dissatisfied citizens? Donald Trump will leave the White House on January 20 and hand over power to Joe Biden, the 46th President-elect of the United States.
The fluctuating events that will occur until the day of the handover of power and the inauguration ceremony will not affect the transfer of power in a country whose democratic institutions are powerful and its system is governed and managed by law. But how the United States will be governed over the next four years, under Joe Biden, is a more important and less discussed matter.
Mr. Biden's administration will be the heir of an economy crumbled by the Coronavirus and a large group of distrustful and dissatisfied Americans who believe the election was fraudulent.
These distrustful people whose representatives blocked the streets leading to the US Congress on Wednesday, January 7, and stormed government buildings, are the citizens that Mr. Biden will be ruling over for the next four years.
Mr. Trump faced a number of challenges and obstacles from the day he came to power in 2016 until the last days of his presidency. A big part of them were domestic issues and ongoing clashes with representatives of the democratic party, and the other part were international issues and his foreign policies.
All those critical issues, including withdrawal from the Paris Agreement, withdrawal from the nuclear deal with Iran, withdrawal from UNESCO and the United Nations Human Rights Council, numerous problems with NATO, a tariffs war with the European Union and economic dispute with China, its ups and downs with Turkey and withdrawal from the treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Strategic Weapons with Russia, will now form part of Biden''s agenda.
Despite his clashes with Democratic Party leaders, Mr. Trump managed to boost the US's economic growth and employment rate in his first two years in office.
Had the Coronavirus outbreak not crippled the US economy, confrontations with China and the trade war with Beijing could have had a lasting and profound effect on the success of his economic plans. Joe Biden will take power in two weeks, but the US's current approach to China will not change with power transfer. There are many questions about the spread of the Coronavirus from China and intelligence and security institutions still haven't submitted their reports to the US Congress and Senate. (The World Health Organization (WHO) has also recently published a report on the Chinese government's lack of cooperation with its inspectors.) Mr. Biden must, on the one hand, restore order, security and trust in the American society, and on the other, he has to resolve the turmoil in foreign policies of the former administration.
Are four years enough for that?
He has to resolve the turmoil in the foreign policies of the former administration. Over the past four years, Mr. Trump has experienced many conflicts, but of a different kind. Accusations of collusion with Russia, fraud in the 2016 elections, Russia's interference in the US elections, sexual and moral accusations widely reported in the media, paying hush money to women he had sex with, and releasing a telephone conversation with the Ukrainian president, which led to his impeachment in December 2019, are among them.
Trump was the third president in US history to be impeached in the House of Representatives on charges of abuse of power. In the first three years of Trump's presidency, there was not a week that his photo or an article about his stupidities or scandals attributed to him were not published by pro-Democrat media. Reading and laughing at these issues may have become normal for some Americans, but Mr. Trump never got used to them. His daily clashes with the House of Representatives and the aftermaths made life hell for everyone in these past four years. Now Mr. Trump will leave and hand over a Congress aligned with the president-elect and a Senate that in a balanced situation consists of 50 Democrats and 50 Republicans. Although the Senate and Congress support him, the actions that Biden's administration must immediately put on its agenda do not seem easy.
International issues and comforting millions of Americans who believe there were cheating in the elections and that Biden has stolen the election result seem like difficult challenges. It took Mr. Trump at least two years to liberate from claims of Russian interference and fraud in the 2016 election (although its shadow still looms over him.)
Now the question that Joe Biden faces is: How long will it take to gain back the trust of tens of millions of citizens? Confronting China and Russia will be one of the biggest foreign policy challenges of Biden's government. However, other very important issues will also require immediate attendance.
The president-elect's ability to rebuild what has been destroyed, and the short four-year period of time he has, raises this question: What can he accomplish in these four years?

Reconciliation with Qatar
Abdulrahman Al-Rashed/Asharq Al-Awsat/January 08/2021
The rift is purely political and not ideological, therefore portraying the recent reconciliation as a retreat or defeat is completely unjustified, nor does reconciliation mean that the boycott was wrong.
Relations were severed on June 5, 2017, and restored on January 5, 2020, a long time compared to previous Gulf crises. Despite the seriousness of the rift, no bullets were fired across the border, unlike similar regional disputes that often end in bloodshed.
During the past 40 months, I think that Qatar has fulfilled most of what was expected of it; Muslim Brotherhood leaders and most of the opponents of the four countries imposing the embargo have left, and the country corrected its banking systems in question in compliance with US financial authorities. We no longer hear about the payment of ransoms, nor the financing of groups within the boycotting countries, and Qatar has transferred most of its media operations from Doha to other countries. This demonstrates Qatar’s considerable efforts in reconciling with the four countries behind the boycott. It is high time to settle the remaining disputes in order to resume normal life.
A problem grows and becomes impossible to solve when we raise the ceiling of expectations in the real world that has its practical considerations, and although the reconciliation may not satisfy all our wishes, it remains a positive step for all. We may see more steps in the coming months to increase cooperation between the five countries, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the UAE, and Bahrain. Achieving harmony between them has positive regional repercussions, as it will promote a climate of reconciliation between other countries of the region that are engaged in conflicts and disputes. And as His Highness Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman stated, “The policy of your brothers in the stable Kingdom [of Saudi Arabia]... places at the top of its priorities a unified and strong GCC.”
And if this spirit of reconciliation continues as it started Tuesday in the historic city of AlUla, then the GCC itself, if activated, can serve as a strong and influential bloc, healing the internal rift that has plagued it for so long. I do not want to exaggerate the expectations of reconciliation, but it is a bold and significant step. We cannot let it be destroyed by those inside and outside the Gulf states, who have worked for many years to sabotage the relationship between countries, when there is no single “rational” reason to cause such a dispute.

Free and fair early elections are Iraq’s last chance
Ibrahim al-Zobeidi/The Arab Weekly/January 08/2021
“Iraq faces enormous challenges and important entitlements, most notably early and hopefully fair elections, away from fraud or manipulation of the will of the Iraqis as they choose their representatives, and initiate reforms, strengthen their security services, and control illegal weapons,” said President Barham Salih.
Two types of Iraqis are eager to end illegal weapons, achieve security and stability and restore the rule of law. The first type includes millions of Iraqis inside the country, especially those who do not belong to pro-government parties and militias, have not been involved in assassinations, embezzlement, smuggling, kidnapping, importing smuggled goods or spoiled food and medicine and have not been agents of foreign powers. They are the people most eager to support any person, party or group that can relieve them of at least some of the current injustices, restore to them their homeland safe and sound and bring them a normal life, like the rest of the people of neighbouring countries, those of the region and the rest of the world.
The second type includes millions of Iraqi expatriates worldwide, especially in Europe and North and South America. This is because the comfort of life and the sweet taste of security, justice and freedom in their host countries increase their sorrow over their own country, and adds to their grief for their people who have been deprived of the most basic human rights by the corrupt ruling cliques. They have since grown more determined to do everything they can to help their people get rid of the pain they suffer and return to life again.
The influential, important and far-reaching ties established by these Iraqi expatriates with the American and European decision-making quarters will help the just cause of their country and provide it with invaluable support. Relying on Iraqis at home and abroad, if the appropriate support means and good intentions are there, will make a broad popular front that is strong and effective possible to emerge. This front can achieve much of what the pessimists have said would be difficult, if not impossible.
This front must have a real effective role in any upcoming elections in order to shape an influential parliamentary force capable of imposing change and its leaders, no matter the sacrifices needed. Perhaps this is what scares the Shia barons, the parasitic Sunni and Kurdish mercenary parties and groups living off its corruption and whose existence depends on the continuation of the corrupt situation as it is.
They know, more than others, that they will not be able to retain the corrupt system’s current tyrannical hegemony over the government, parliament, judiciary, armed forces, trade, economy and finance circles, after all the changes brought about by the youth uprising in the balance of real power represented by the Iraqi street, whether in the central and southern provinces or in Iraqi Kurdistan, especially after the recent Sulaymaniyah youth uprising. The Nuri al-Maliki camp spoke about this in the language of its allies in the quota system. Maliki emphasised that “talking about early elections is an illusion,” indicating that “the willingness of the government and the election commission is unclear about early elections,” that “there is a security chaos in the southern provinces, especially in Dhi Qar, ”and that“ the government’s talk about holding early elections is just to please the street, and there is no possible implementation on the ground.
A popular front of millions of Iraqi patriots must first emerge at home and abroad — now and not tomorrow — to put pressure on the presidency, the government, the parliament, the army, the armed forces, the judiciary and the electoral commission to ensure that these elections are held on the date decided by the prime minister on June 6, and to provide full protection for polling stations, prevent tampering or fraud and stop illegal weapons from threatening the lives of voters and affecting their choices.
The front uniting the enemies of the Iraqi people is broad and powerful. But after the events of October 2019, and the continuing popular Iraqi anger in Baghdad and other provinces, and with the tightening of the economic and military siege on the Iranian regime, which is the sponsor of security, political and economic chaos, this front has been shaken and lost its patience and reason. It is looking for a way out of its people-backed prison at the local, regional and international levels. And will not be able to find such a way out.
Anyone who kills, steals or betrays their homeland and its people is afraid of the return of a strong and unified state, as well as its judiciary, as it breaks free of the influence of the quota system parties and their militias, and will do everything in their power to stop the inevitable change. In light of these favourable circumstances, the upcoming early elections are the only and last stage of rescue for the Iraqi people, if there is enough popular and governmental will to get things under control and protect elections from manipulation, fraud and war. With reason, wisdom and realism, it should be recognised that the Iraqi people who aspire to real change and achieving a life of security, freedom, justice and prosperity do not have missiles to fight the militias’ rockets, silencer-equipped guns to punish theirs or money to besiege their money. The only weapon the people have is the elections that will enable them to impose their will on those who have hijacked it.
However, without the birth of this united, conscious and organised front, and without ensuring the safety of the ballot box, it will be the duty of the Iraqis, all Iraqis, at home and abroad together, to boycott these elections completely and declare the homeland a colonised, infested place. It will then have to strive by all means to free the country from the grip of terrorism, occupation and rape.

Republicans are left to count the cost after a devastating week
Dalia Al-Aqidi/Arab News/January 08/2021
Senate candidates Jon Ossoff, left, and Rev. Raphael Warnock at a campaign event at Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S., Oct. 23, 2020. (Reuters)
Millions of people around the world watched in shock on Wednesday as US democracy collapsed before their eyes. They were left wondering what had happened to the country that is supposed to be the leader of the free world.
Scenes of riots, burned buildings and looting have been familiar sights for the American people since last summer, when Antifa members and Black Lives Matter protesters rampaged in the streets in several states in the name of social justice.
Nevertheless, storming a building that symbolizes the heart of US democracy, and threatening the lives of legislators, staffers and security officials, is on a whole new level.
Donald Trump chose to end his term, and shape his legacy, in the most bizarre way possible, even in the eyes of some of those who have long supported him. Jan. 6 will be remembered as the day Republicans faced their biggest loss — it will take some time, and serious effort, to recover from it.
A few hours earlier Georgia, a key state won by Joe Biden in the US presidential election, once again played a significant role in determining the future political direction of the US. Victories by Democratic candidates Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff in two vital Senate runoff elections means that the Democrats and Republicans each hold 50 Senate seats. In cases where votes in the Senate are tied, the vice president — who will be Kamala Harris — casts the deciding vote.
This gives the Democrats control of the Senate. Democratic Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer will become the majority leader, with the power to decide what matters reach the floor of the Senate for consideration. This will give President-elect Biden a better chance to implement more of his agenda and accomplish as much as he can during his first two years in office.
The results of the two Senate elections represent a huge victory for the Democrats and Biden, who should now be able to gain approval for his Cabinet and legislative nominees without needing Republican consent.
Having said that, for Biden to fully pursue his agenda in Congress he will still need some degree of support from Republicans to avoid any filibuster attempts by the opposition.
From the moment he is sworn in as the 46th US president he will need to get his priorities straight and roll up his sleeves in preparation for some hard work before the midterm elections in November 2022, which might shift Senate control back to the Republicans.
The American people should get ready for challenging times with massive government spending, higher taxes, new tax credits and fewer deductions.
The possibility of creating new states in Democratic-dominated Washington, DC and Puerto Rico, which do not currently have statehood, eliminating the filibuster, abolishing the Electoral College, opening US borders, and defunding the police reflect what far-left Democratic leaders have been trying to achieve for a long time — and now an opportunity has presented itself.
It is hardly surprising that someone such as the controversial Minnesota Democratic Representative, Ilhan Omar, who is known for her radical views, considers this week’s victories in Georgia a great opportunity to implement a progressive agenda. “This is our shot; we can go big or go home. It’s time to organize, mobilize, and push for transformative change,” she wrote in a message posted on Twitter.
On the international front, the likely liberal foreign policies of the incoming president should cause alarm, as the US will most likely return to the old policies of former President Barack Obama.
Several countries, including Iran and China, are looking forward to the next four years in the expectation that the new administration in Washington will ease the (well-deserved) firm stances toward them adopted by Trump. It has been reported that Biden will review the Trump administration’s tariffs on China when he takes office, for example, and might pursue a new deal with Tehran.
History indicates that in general the American people tend to favor the checks-and-balances that result from having different parties in control of Congress and the White House.
What can the Republicans do for the next four years? History indicates that in general the American people tend to favor the checks-and-balances that result from having different parties in control of Congress and the White House.
Following the Georgia results, the 2022 midterm elections will be the main focus for the GOP, but the 2024 presidential election will not be far behind. There are already a few names circulating as possible presidential candidates, including Vice President Mike Pence, former US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley, and Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton.
It is difficult to predict what effect Wednesday’s dangerous turn of events in Washington might have on the political fate and legacy of Trump, or the future of the GOP.
*Dalia Al-Aqidi is a Senior Fellow at the Center for Security Policy. She is a former Republican congressional candidate. Twitter: @DaliaAlAqidi