English LCCC Newsbulletin For Lebanese, Lebanese Related, Global News & Editorials
For September 29/2022
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani
#elias_bejjani_news

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http://eliasbejjaninews.com/aaaanewsfor2021/english.september29.22.htm

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Bible Quotations For today
You brood of vipers! How can you speak good things, when you are evil? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks
Saint Matthew 12/33-37/“‘Either make the tree good, and its fruit good; or make the tree bad, and its fruit bad; for the tree is known by its fruit. You brood of vipers! How can you speak good things, when you are evil? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. The good person brings good things out of a good treasure, and the evil person brings evil things out of an evil treasure. I tell you, on the day of judgement you will have to give an account for every careless word you utter; for by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.’”

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on September 28-29/2022
Lebanese MPs to convene to elect new president, no consensus on candidate
Dollar's official exchange rate to become LBP 15,000 as of November
Honein and Mouawad emerge as leading candidates for opposition camp
Most parliamentary blocs to take part in Thursday's presidential vote
Lebanese MPs bicker as deadline nears to elect new president
Report: Govt. formation suffers setback after new Bassil demands
President Aoun addresses general developments with MP Sayed, tackles the file of Lebanese University dues from PCR tests with former Minister Shreim
President Aoun briefed by Caretaker Minister Bayram on files of Ministry of Labour and outcome of World Labor Organization conference
Berri meets US Ambassador, broaches educational situation with Caretaker Education Minister
Mikati, Chinese Ambassador discuss solar energy donation for Ogero, meets UN’s Wronecka, Caretaker Ministers of Labor, Social Affairs, MP Karim...
Sami Gemayel welcomes KSA Ambassador: Meeting confirms Arab, Western desire to support Lebanese state
Bassil: We'll cast blank votes and we don't have presidential candidate until now
Wahhab meets Nasrallah, says Lebanon about to get its 'full rights'
Lebanon says Vatican defrocks convicted pedophile priest
'Don't leave me': Survivor recounts Lebanon migrant boat sinking
In Lebanon, strike, soaring fees dim chances of pupils' return to classrooms

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on September 28-29/2022
Pope to visit Bahrain in November: Vatican
Nine dead, 28 hurt in Iranian strikes on Iraqi Kurdistan
Iraqi parliament rejects Halbousi's resignation amid Sadrist protests, rocket strike
Iran forces to use 'all their might' to stop protests as UN calls for restraint
Iran police to oppose protests with 'all their might'
EU vows 'robust' response after suspected gas pipeline sabotage
Kremlin says 'absurd' to accuse Russia of Nord Stream gas leaks
Four killed in Israel Jenin raid
One killed in Belgium anti-terror operation against far-right
North Korea fires two ballistic missiles ahead of Harris' visit to South

Titles For The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on September 28-29/2022
A Letter From Thomas Cardinal Collins, Archbishop of Toronto: Walking Together for Healing and Reconciliation/September 28, 2022
Biden Has Opened Door to Russian Nuke Strikes/Gordon G. Chang/ Gatestone Institute/September 28, 2022
The ‘Long Campaign’ against Islamic Terrorism/ Raymond Ibrahim/September 28, 2022
Saudi King Gives Up Prime Minister Role to Crown Prince/Simon Henderson/The Washington Institute/September 28, 2022
Could Giorgia Meloni deliver certainty for Italy and the EU?/Mohammed Chebaro/Arab News/September 28, 2022

The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on September 28-29/2022
Lebanese MPs to convene to elect new president, no consensus on candidate
Reuters/September 28/2022
BEIRUT -Lebanese parliament speaker Nabih Berri will call for a session to elect a new president on Sept. 29, state media reported, despite no political consensus on a candidate and dim chances of a sucessful vote. President Michel Aoun’s six-year term ends on Oct. 31, and politicians have voiced concern about no successor being found – warning of even greater institutional deadlock given that Lebanon has also been without a fully functioning government since May. The session will be held at 11 a.m. on Thursday, the state-run National News Agency reported. The votes of two-thirds of lawmakers in the 128-member legislature are required for a candidate to be sucessful in the first round of voting, after which a simple majority suffices. Aoun came to power after a 29-month presidential vacuum in which parliament was unable to agree on electing a president. The stalemate ended with a series of deals that secured victory for Aoun and his powerful Iran-backed ally Hezbollah. Aoun is limited to one term, and major political parties have not announced any agreement on his successor.

Dollar's official exchange rate to become LBP 15,000 as of November
Agence France Presse/Associated Press/September 28/2022
Lebanon will weaken its official exchange rate for the first time in more than two decades, the Finance Ministry and a Central Bank official said, as part of efforts to tackle a crippling financial crisis. In a statement, the Ministry called the move a "necessary corrective action" and noted that the Central Bank has approved it. The decision is a "step to gradually unify exchange rates" in the country, it added. The exchange rate has been officially pegged at 1,507 Lebanese pounds to the dollar since 1997, but will drop to 15,000 to the greenback at the end of October, the official told AFP on condition of anonymity. The pound, however, traded at more than double that value on the black market on Wednesday, selling for more than 38,400 to the dollar -- nearing its all-time record low -- money exchangers said. Lebanon's local currency has lost more than 95 percent of its value on the black market since the 2019 onset of Lebanon's financial crisis, branded by the World Bank as one of the planet's worst in modern times. The decision to shift the peg follows a visit last week by a delegation from the International Monetary Fund, which is pressing Lebanon to implement reforms to unlock billions of dollars in loans. The unification of several central bank exchange rates and the establishment of a credible and transparent monetary and exchange rate system are among the IMF's demands. However, analysts expressed skepticism that the shift would lead to a unified exchange rate. "The new rate is still substantially below the black market rate, so in effect by declaring a new rate, we add to the multiplicity of rates that already exists," said economist Nasser Saidi. "It does not resolve the issue of multiple exchange rates, it just adds one other rate."Parliament this week approved an overdue 2022 draft budget, a move also requested by the IMF. One of the exchange rates listed in the budget relies on the value of 15,000 Lebanese pounds to the dollar. Lebanon is under IMF pressure to implement a raft of reforms before the term of President Michel Aoun expires at the end of October, caretaker Economy Minister Amin Salam has told AFP. Lebanon's worst-ever economic crisis has seen poverty rates climb to reach more than 80 percent of the population, according to the United Nations. Food prices, meanwhile, have increased by 2,000 percent since 2019, the World Food Program says. Saidi, a former minister and vice governor of the central bank, said the new exchange rate could compound financial woes. "For ordinary people this means additional inflation (and) an increase in prices accordingly," he told AFP.

Honein and Mouawad emerge as leading candidates for opposition camp
Naharnet/September 28/2022
The Lebanese Forces, the Kataeb Party and the Progressive Socialist Party want MP Michel Mouawad to be the opposition camp’s candidate in Thursday’s presidential vote session, but Mouawad is “not accepted by the Change MPs because they want a candidate who is not part of political alignments,” MTV reported on Wednesday. The TV network added that the LF, Kataeb, the PSP and the Change bloc will likely vote for ex-MP Salah Honein, who is an “acceptable” candidate for the Change bloc. Sources from the PSP-led Democratic Gathering meanwhile told al-Jadeed TV that Mouawad, Honein and MP Neemat Frem are acceptable candidates for the Gathering, adding that the bloc does not prefer Army chief General Joseph Aoun’s election as president because it is “not enthusiastic towards having military figures in the presidency.” MTV meanwhile said that the Free Patriotic Movement will attend Thursday’s session and will cast blank votes.

Most parliamentary blocs to take part in Thursday's presidential vote
Naharnet/September 28/2022
Most of the country’s parliamentary blocs and independent MPs will take part in Thursday’s presidential election session, several blocs and TV networks said on Wednesday. Confirming that the Lebanese Forces-led Strong Republic bloc will participate in the session, LF sources told LBCI TV that the party had intensified its contacts with the opposition parties over the past hours in a bid to reach consensus over a single candidate ahead of the session. Sources from Hezbollah’s Loyalty to Resistance bloc also told LBCI that the bloc will take part in the session, describing it as a session for “testing the waters” ahead of securing “consensus over a president and a second session that might be held before entering the last ten days that precede the end of President (Michel) Aoun’s term.” The Free Patriotic Movement-led Strong Lebanon bloc, the Development and Liberation bloc, the 13-member Change bloc, several independent Sunni MPs, the Armenian bloc, the al-Ahbash bloc, the Independent National Bloc, Sidon’s three MPs and the Tajaddod bloc -- which comprises MPs Ashraf Rifi, Michel Mouawad, Adib Abdel Massih and Fouad Makhzoumi -- have also said that they will be present in the session. The Progressive Socialist Party has also hinted that it will take part in the vote. LBCI meanwhile said that “communication is ongoing between the LF, the Kataeb Party, the Tajaddod bloc and independent MPs to reach a stance on how to vote in the presidential session.”

Lebanese MPs bicker as deadline nears to elect new president
Arab News/September 28, 2022
Nabih Berri’s announcement comes weeks before Michel Aoun is due to leave office
Parliament also contains 30 independents and reformists, meaning no bloc enjoys an absolute majority
BEIRUT: Lebanon’s parliament speaker has called a Thursday session to elect a new president, despite a political deadlock caused by a splintered chamber failing to agree on a candidate. Nabih Berri’s announcement comes weeks before Michel Aoun is due to leave office, and as rival parliamentary blocs refuse to nominate or even discuss who should replace him. Lebanon’s Parliament of 128 MPs contains two main blocs after elections earlier this year: The Hezbollah-aligned March 8 Alliance with 60 MPs, and their opponents, the March 14 Alliance with 38. Parliament also contains 30 independents and reformists, meaning no bloc enjoys an absolute majority. As a result, a new president must have cross-bench support.Ali Darwich, a former MP, said the announcement by Berri, whose Amal Movement is part of March 8, is intended “to hold everyone accountable.”
He said: “We hope that the session leads to the election of a president, but tomorrow’s scene will reveal that an agreement on the new president’s identity has yet to be reached.” Consultations among parliamentary blocs have intensified since Berri’s announcement, with sources suggesting that many have agreed to attend the session. Melhem Khalaf, a member of the 13-member Forces for Change opposition bloc, said Berri had “fulfilled his constitutional duty by urging deputies to carry out their responsibilities and avoid a presidential vacuum,” and “as reformists, we will be the first to attend.”His alliance has however not nominated a candidate. Instead, it has issued a set of standards for Aoun’s replacement: “Lebanese-made, a savior chosen from outside the corrupted system that contributed to the destruction of the country.”Under the constitution, which divides power between the country’s religions, any Maronite Lebanese can run for the presidency.The most prominent candidates are usually the leaders of Christian parties, such as former deputy Suleiman Franjieh, the leader of the Marada Movement and an ally of the Syrian regime; Gibran Bassil, head of the Free Patriotic Movement and an ally of Hezbollah; and the head of the Lebanese Forces Party, Samir Geagea. However, none enjoy majority support in parliament.
The names that were reported on Wednesday to have received some support include Lebanon’s ambassador to the Vatican since 2018, Farid Elias Al-Khazen; former MP Salah Hanin; Michel Moawad, the son of former President Rene Moawad; and independent Neamat Ifram, an MP and businessman formerly of the Free Patriotic Movement. Other tips for candidacy include Damianos Kattar and Jihad Azour, both former finance ministers; banker Samir Assaf; and Ziad Baroud and Marwan Charbel, both former interior ministers. The Lebanese president is elected by secret ballot. Candidates must gain a two-thirds majority of the 128 MPs in the first round of voting to be elected outright. A candidate with a simple majority of 65 votes can be declared the winner if further rounds are required.

Report: Govt. formation suffers setback after new Bassil demands
Naharnet/September 28/2022
The government formation file has returned to square one following the optimism of the past days, a top official told al-Joumhouria newspaper in remarks published Wednesday. “After having agreed with President Michel Aoun on announcing the government once he returns from abroad, (PM-designate Najib) Mikati was surprised after his return that the situation had changed and that Free Patriotic Movement chief Jebran Bassil had interfered with the President to propose changing all his ministers in the (caretaker) government and naming political ministers instead of them or expanding the government by adding six political state ministers,” the official said. “This was rejected by Mikati, who told those concerned that he is not in a hurry anymore to form the government as long as things have reached this level of proposals and discussion,” the official added. Sources informed on the formation process meanwhile told Nidaa al-Watan newspaper that Bassil “has sent a list containing his conditions in a sealed envelope to the PM-designate, saying that they are the President’s demands regarding the government’s line-up.” The conditions include “making first-degree appointments that start with the central bank governor and do not end with the deans of the Lebanese University, in addition to security appointments whose timing is not appropriate,” the sources said. Mikati was “concise and firm in his response, stressing that he will not form a government under anyone’s conditions and that the constitution’s texts are clear as the sun,” the sources added. As for Mikati’s delayed visit to Baabda, political sources told al-Liwaa newspaper that there are political contacts in this regard and that General Security chief Maj. Gen. Abbas Ibrahim is taking part in the mediation efforts.

President Aoun addresses general developments with MP Sayed, tackles the file of Lebanese University dues from PCR tests with former Minister Shreim
NNA/September 28/2022
President of the Republic, General Michel Aoun, met MP General Jamil El-Sayed, today at the Presidential Palace.
General affairs and government developments were deliberated “in light of the emergency complications that threaten worse consequences if a new president is not elected, and the constitutional problems that may result from that at the general national level or at the level of managing state affairs”.
Major General Al-Sayed said: "Perhaps the quickest solution to this problem is the initiative to elect a President of the Republic, because this will inevitably lead to the formation of a new government according to more stable conditions”.
MP Al Sayed also indicated that he discussed with President Aoun the issue of maritime demarcation of the southern borders in light of the expectation that Lebanon would receive a semi-final text from the American mediator, Amos Hochstein, within the next two days.
Former Minister Shreim:
The President received the former Minister, Dr. Ghada Shreim.
Shreim revealed that she had discussed with His Excellency the President the issue of the Lebanese University’s dues for the proceeds of the PCR at Beirut Airport after canceling Article 76 of the budget related to it, and referring the matter to the judiciary, “noting that the file has been stuck in the judiciary for months”. “We are on the verge of a new academic year that is still faltering” Shreim said, considering these dues as “ A right for the university and a door to salvation." -- Presidency Press Office

President Aoun briefed by Caretaker Minister Bayram on files of Ministry of Labour and outcome of World Labor Organization conference
NNA/September 28/2022
Caretaker Labor Minister, Mustafa Bayram, quoted the President of the Republic, General Michel, as confirming that "The gas and oil file is on the right track”.
Minister Bayram stressed that Lebanon's policy is to unite, not divide, and to call for Arab-Arab dialogue for the good of all our peoples and our region.
Minister Bayram also announced a meeting of the Index Committee next week to follow up on the developments in the cost of living, stressing the continuation of efforts to approve the pension.
Minister Bayram's stances came after meeting President Aoun and briefing him on the results of the Arab Labor Organization conference and in the form of the bilateral meetings he held on the sidelines, in addition to the public sector salaries and the convening of the Index Committee next week to follow up on the developments in the cost of living.
Statement/
After the meeting, Minister Bayram said:
“I was honored to meet the President of the Republic. I briefed him on what happened at the Arab Labor Organization conference that was held in Cairo a week ago, and about the speech I gave and the constants I focused on in the name of Lebanon, in terms of the importance of Arab communication and support for Arab dialogue and the importance of having a joint Arab strategy in all issues, and if this is not possible, let us go to strategies in other matters, the least of which is related to human resources and human and human development for the Arab citizen and the Arab peoples.
I also briefed the President on the bilateral meetings that were held on the sidelines of the conference, including the meeting with the Director-General of the Arab Labor Organization, several labor ministers in brotherly countries, and with the Qatari minister.
In addition, I informed President Aoun of the presence of a technical delegation headed by the Qatari Ministry of Labor this evening to Lebanon, on the condition that its meetings begin tomorrow at the Ministry of Labor with many Lebanese parties. I think that it will ask for Lebanese workers in Qatar.
We do not yet have details, but we will meet with the delegation and listen to it so that matters will be announced in a press conference in which we define the criteria and agree on all the foundations, so that the selection process will not be in our hands and we will move away from it, so that we do not get into the Lebanese problems, and the criteria will be according to what the delegation requests.
As for our job, it will be to announce, facilitate and register what their job will be to choose. I will not anticipate matters until the delegation is heard.
I also addressed many matters and briefed the President on how to follow up the salaries of the public sector, in addition to what is related to what is within the competence of the Ministry of Labor with regard to the private sector, where I announced from here that the Index Committee, God willing, will meet next week to follow up on developments in the high cost of living.
I explained to the President that we are following the method of accumulation, that is, step by step, to be flexible and to be able to keep pace with the developments in the high cost of living, because Lebanon's policy is to unite, not divide, and to call for Arab-Arab dialogue for the good of all our peoples and our region.
During the dialogue, President Aoun assured me that the gas and oil file is on the right track and with a very good development, and that we may hear positive things in the near future that will move us to a very important strategic position linked to our future and the future of our generations.
This is an issue that the Lebanese state, through the person of His Excellency the President, was able to express in a good and excellent manner in the negotiation process, taking advantage of the existing cards of power in the Lebanese stance, including the equations that were established, as well as the Lebanese consensus in this field and the solid position of His Excellency the President to preserve Lebanon’s sovereignty and rights.
This moves us from one shore to another and gives Lebanon economic solvency, and we hope for the best, God willing”.
Questions & Answers:
Minister Bayram was asked about the retirement system in the social security and the continuation of receiving compensation based on the exchange rate of 1500 Lebanese pounds, where he replied: "The retirement and end-of-service benefits collapsed after some of them became worth, for example, two thousand dollars instead of sixty thousand dollars. I am working according to a strategy represented in a sustainable path in parallel with a path that responds to the current economic emergencies.
On the sustainable path, I learned that the management of the National Social Security Fund contacted the Governor of the Banque du Liban to study the possibility of adjusting the exchange rate and making it on the basis of 8000 LBP and my assessment that this proposal did not reach a result. Do we despair and stop at this point? Of course not. Therefore, we went to Plan B, and it has two tracks, the first is a bill that exists in the House of Representatives, and I think it has become available to the parliamentary committees, and it is linked to the establishment of a retirement pension in social security, and that would produce a kind of stability and security. Especially Article 54, I think, the fifth paragraph.
I found that there is an existing legislative order that gives the insured the right to choose. This article was as if she was born clinically stillborn. So we took it out of the recovery room and revived it through a letter sent to the Insurance Department so that we could establish a committee to discuss the pension. The Insurance Department responded and formed a committee and came up with outputs, and God willing, it will be next week to the well-known auditor at the International Labor Organization and its regional headquarters in Lebanon, Mr. Louka, who will give a copy of the actuarial study. The workers are in the Index Committee to discuss two things: This issue is so that if it is approved and I do not think that there are obstacles, God willing, I will direct a letter in the name of the Index Committee, and by virtue of the fact that I am the Minister of Guardianship of Insurance to its board of directors to set this system, I believe and take exceptional approval of it from the Government and His Excellency the President. I think that we are taking rapid steps in this area to provide some kind of assistance in this regard”.
“As for the second step, we will meet in the Index Committee in order to keep abreast of developments related to the cost of living. Until today, and since I assumed duties in the ministry, the Index Committee met after a six-year hiatus nine times, and each time there were outputs related to school grants, transportation allowances and an increase in the cost of living. In this context, I say that the increases were not enough, but with a "received share" and a step forward, and the most important thing is that we asked the employers, and they were obligated, and they actually committed to declaring them to the guarantee, which resulted in a kind of new "chat" with accumulated billions that enabled the administration and board of directors not to take a decision, based on the dialogue between us and them, to amend the hospitalization tariffs so that they were hit two and a half and three times” Minister Bayram continued.
The Labor Minister was asked: Will this argument not be strengthened if you go for a final organization of foreign workers in Lebanon? Minister Bayram said: "For sure, foreign workers need to be regulated. We were able to control them to a very large extent. In a numerical sample, the number of work permits previously granted to foreign workers in 2018 exceeded 11,000 to 12,000. Since our arrival at the ministry. During a year, the prior leave does not exceed 270, this relative difference benefits the Lebanese worker, in addition to issuing a decision in which 126 professions were restricted to the Lebanese, which constitutes an opportunity for the Lebanese worker.
The productive stimulus is due to the rentier economic policies that hit all production sectors. It takes time and is linked to culture and a return to work and to the culture of production, especially since we have all the required talents and human resources”.
Question: Have you discussed with His Excellency the President the stages of the efforts to form a government?
Answer: "There was a passing signal, and what His Excellency the President said is that in the end the government will be formed, and we hope that because this will contribute to the stability of institutions and generate a kind of security to accompany the important achievements that we are anticipating, God willing, and we are all hopeful”. -- Presidency Press Office

Berri meets US Ambassador, broaches educational situation with Caretaker Education Minister
NNA/September 28/2022
House Speaker, Nabih Berri, on Wednesday received at the Second Presidency in Ain al-Tineh, US Ambassador to Lebanon, Dorothy Shea. Discussions between the pair reportedly touched on the current general situation and the bilateral relations between the two countries. On the other hand, Speaker Berri met with Caretaker Minister of Education and Higher Education, Judge Abbas Al-Halabi, over the current educational situation and relevant educational matters.

Mikati, Chinese Ambassador discuss solar energy donation for Ogero, meets UN’s Wronecka, Caretaker Ministers of Labor, Social Affairs, MP Karim...
NNA/September 28/2022
Caretaker Prime Minister, Najib Mikati, on Wednesday received at the Grand Serail, UN Special Coordinator for Lebanon, Joanna Wronecka, with discussions touching on the outcome of his participation in the UN General Assembly in New York and his sideline meetings there. Caretaker Premier Mikati also welcomed at the Grand Serail Chinese Ambassador to Lebanon, Qian Minjian, in the presence of Caretaker Telecoms Minister, Johnny Al-Corm, and President of the Development and Reconstruction Council, Nabil Al-Jisr. The meeting reportedly focused on the Chinese solar energy donation for Ogero, which amounts to approximately USD 8 million. Separately, Mikati met with Caretaker Minister of Labor, Mustafa Bayram, who said after the meeting: that he briefed the Premier on the atmosphere of the recent Arab Labor Organization meeting. Mikati later met with Caretaker Minister of Social Affairs, Hector Hajjar. Among the Grand Serail’s itinerant visitors for today had been MP Karim Kabbara.

Sami Gemayel welcomes KSA Ambassador: Meeting confirms Arab, Western desire to support Lebanese state
NNA/September 28/2022
Kataeb Party leader, MP Sami Gemayel, on Wednesday welcomed KSA Ambassador to Lebanon, Walid Bukhari, with whom he discussed the most recent developments, especially the impending deadlines in Lebanon.
According to a statement by the Kataeb Party, the meeting confirmed an Arab and Western desire to support the Lebanese state. “This requires of Lebanon to restore its decision making powers, renew its political authority to be able to negotiate with the world, and most importantly carry out the necessary reforms,” the Kataeb statement read, deeming the aforementioned measure “a basic entry point for any form of international support.”

Bassil: We'll cast blank votes and we don't have presidential candidate until now
Naharnet/September 28/2022
Free Patriotic Movement chief Jebran Bassil announced Wednesday that the FPM-led Strong Lebanon bloc will cast blank votes in a presidential election session scheduled for tomorrow, Thursday. “We will take part in tomorrow’s session and will cast blank votes, because we don’t have any candidate whom we support until now,” Bassil said at a press conference. “The bloc has prepared a paper that contains a difference approach for the presidential issue and we will talk about it next week,” he added. As for the summoning of FPM lawmaker Charbel Maroun for judicial interrogation over his recent remarks against Higher Judicial Council chief Judge Suheil Abboud, Bassil announced that Maroun will not attend the interrogation session. “We are all Charbel Maroun and we endorse what Charbel Maroun said… You can file lawsuits against us all,” the FPM chief added. “Is it acceptable to file charges against an MP who enjoys parliamentary immunity?” Bassil asked. “The law says MPs should not be prosecuted for voicing their opinions,” he added. Lamenting that “no judge acted over the insults against the president of the republic, which are punishable by law,” Bassil said Judge Abboud “has not done what's necessary to reactivate the investigations into the port blast.”Bassil also accused Abboud of “personally interfering with every judge to prevent them from taking decisions over the recusal requests,” adding that Abboud is also “refraining from appointing an alternate judge” who would exclusively look into requests for the release of some detainees in the case. Maroun had lashed out at Abboud during a sit-in outside the latter’s house in Ballouneh. The sit-in was organized by families of detainees held in the Beirut port blast case. During the protest, Maroun slammed Abboud as a “mafioso” and a number of judges as “criminals” while saying that “the judiciary is corrupt and a militia.”

Wahhab meets Nasrallah, says Lebanon about to get its 'full rights'
Naharnet/September 28/2022
Hezbollah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah has met with Arab Tawhid Party leader Wiam Wahhab. A Hezbollah statement said the talks tackled “the most important files and issues that are currently preoccupying the Lebanese, as well as the developments in the region.” Wahhab for his part tweeted that he held a “comprehensive meeting” with Nasrallah and that “Lebanon is on the verge of obtaining its full rights” in the sea border demarcation file. Wahhab added that “the Iranian (fuel oil) grant is ready” to be delivered to Lebanon.

Lebanon says Vatican defrocks convicted pedophile priest
Agence France Presse/September 28/2022
An elderly Lebanese priest found guilty in France of sexually assaulting children has been defrocked by the Vatican, the Assembly of Catholic Patriarchs and Bishops of Lebanon said. APECL said it was notified of the Vatican's decision to demote Mansour Labaky to "secular status.""We pray... for the victims of sexual assault," it said. In 2021, a French court sentenced Labaky to 15 years in prison after convicting him in absentia for sexually abusing girls in a dormitory he opened and managed for Lebanese orphans in Douvres-la-Delivrande in the Normandy region of northern France between 1991 and 1998. Labaky, 82, resides in Lebanon which does not extradite its nationals. An international arrest warrant was issued against him in April 2016, but Beirut has not taken action. Labaky has repeatedly denied the charges against him. A Lebanese rights group, Legal Agenda, welcomed the APECL announcement as the "first acknowledgement" by the church in Lebanon of Labaky's offenses and called for an "end to the system of impunity for the clergy."

'Don't leave me': Survivor recounts Lebanon migrant boat sinking
Associated Press/September 28/2022
Jihad Michlawi struggled to make ends meet as a chef in crisis-hit Beirut. The Palestinian had never considered taking a perilous journey across the Mediterranean Sea to Europe until friends who did so persuaded him to try. Now, he's one of dozens of survivors from a capsized migrant boat that left Tripoli, Lebanon, last week heading toward Italy carrying some 150 Lebanese, Syrians and Palestinians. "Some people who arrived told me that life in a European displacement camp was better than life in central Beirut, and that even the food was better," Michlawi told The Associated Press.
The crowded boat capsized Sept. 21 off the coast of Tartus, Syria, just over a day after departing Lebanon. At least 100 people were killed, among them at least 24 children. Twenty people survived and the rest remain missing.
It was one of the deadliest ship sinkings in the eastern Mediterranean Sea in recent years, as more and more Lebanese, Syrians and Palestinians try to flee cash-strapped Lebanon to Europe to find jobs and stability. The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees says risky sea migration attempts from Lebanon over the past year have surged by 73%. Lebanon's economy has spiraled for a third year, with three-quarters of the population plunged into poverty and the Lebanese pound losing 90% of its value against the dollar.
Michlawi, 31, said he scraped together thousands of dollars and handed the money to a smuggler, whom he described as a "monster." The Lebanese military has since arrested the smuggler.
Michlawi left the Lebanese capital for Tripoli at night, and a car with tinted windows drove him and five others to an orange grove, where he and dozens of others were crammed into pickup trucks covered with a tarp. After reaching the coast and seeing the small boat that would carry them, many began to have second thoughts. "At this point we just thought we might as well go since we got there, but we probably should have considered the danger we put ourselves in," he said. The boat's engine began stalling intermittently, but when it completely stopped the following day, the tide started rocking the crowded vessel, as the anxious passengers began to panic, Michlawi said. Michlawi and the others tried to move around the boat to keep it from tilting. The large waves knocked Michlawi into the wall and onto the floor several times. Breaking glass pierced his left foot.
Then, a large wave knocked dozens of people off the boat and into the water where they drowned. Michlawi recalled seeing the body of an infant who he said no older than two months. At that point, he and the others decided they ought to risk swimming for hours to get to shore. Michlawi couldn't hold back his tears after recounting his unsuccessful attempt to save a 22-year-old Syrian named Ayman Kabbani who struggled to swim.
"He held me while he tried to swim with me, and whenever he would be tired, I would hold him and try to swim with one hand," Michlawi said. "With all the salt water in our eyes and the heat of the sun, we could barely see."The young Syrian tried to boost Michlawi's morale, promising to treat him to lunch, buy new clothes, and get him a new phone with the money he has left once they reach Tripoli. But the Palestinian struggled to keep going. Kabbani tried to swim on his own but couldn't keep up with Michlawi. "I heard him calling for me, but I would turn around and not see him," Michlawi said. "At this point, I came to terms with the fact I was going to die and meet my maker, but then I saw the image of my father."
Michlawi miraculously reached the coast of Tartus, Syria, where an elderly woman and man saw him. "I screamed, 'Please don't leave me' and fell on the sand," he said. "She gave me water, and I heard the man next to her say I was coughing blood, and then I passed out and woke up at the hospital in Tartus." He woke up covered in gashes and bruises. Although safely back in Lebanon, Michlawi now faces an additional hurdle as he tries to find work because he is Palestinian. Lebanon is home to tens of thousands of descendants of Palestinians who fled or were driven from their homes in the 1948 Mideast war over Israel's creation. Palestinian refugees in Lebanon cannot legally work in dozens of professions or own property. According to UNICEF, they are "effectively excluded from enjoying most civil and socio-economic rights" in Lebanon, where many live under appalling conditions in refugee camps that today resemble urban slums. Several of Michlawi's family members hold college degrees but must work other jobs for far less money, including a cousin with a degree in mechanical engineering who works as a bus driver. Despite this, he says he wouldn't try to migrate by sea again. "We're not asking for mansions or to become generals or ministers in the government," Michlawi said. "We just want our basic rights as Palestinian people to sustain ourselves -- that is all." For now, he's trying to heal. Michlawi says he hasn't slept for days and is still haunted by the "voices of the children screaming" in his head. He struggles to eat and avoids being anywhere near the coast. "I used to love the sea, but now I avoid it," he said. "I don't even want to have a coffee at the beach anymore."

In Lebanon, strike, soaring fees dim chances of pupils' return to classrooms
DEIR QUBEL, Lebanon/AFP/September 28, 2022
School teacher Claude Koteich, her teenager daughter and ten-year-old son should have all been back in class weeks ago, but a crisis in Lebanon’s education sector has left them lounging at home on a Monday afternoon.
Lebanon’s three-year financial meltdown has severely devalued the country’s pound and drained state coffers, pushing 80% of the population into poverty and gutting public services including water and electricity. It has also left public schools shuttered so far this academic year, with teachers waging an open-ended strike over their severely-devalued salaries and school administrators worried they will not be able to secure fuel to keep the lights and heating on during the winter. Koteich, 44, has taught French literature at Lebanese public schools for exactly half her lifetime.
“We used to get a salary high enough that I could afford to put my kids in private school,” she said in her living room in the mountain town of Deir Qubel, overlooking the Lebanese capital. But since 2019, Lebanon’s pound has lost more than 95% of its value as other costs skyrocket following the government’s lifting of fuel subsidies and global price jumps. From a monthly salary that was once about $3,000, Koteich now earns the equivalent of $100 “forcing her to make a tough choice last summer over whether to put her children back in costly private schools or transfer them to a public education system paralysed by the pay dispute. “I was stuck between yes and no, waiting for our salaries to change, or if the education minister wanted to fulfil our demands,” Koteich said. By September, there had been little progress on securing higher salaries given Lebanon’s depleted state coffers.
At the same time, her children’s private school was asking for tuition to be paid mostly in cash dollars to guarantee they could afford to pay for expensive fuel and other imported needs. That would amount to a yearly fee of $500 per student, plus 15 million Lebanese pounds, or about $400. “I found the number was very high and out of this world for me,” she said.
Still at home
So as their former classmates don their private school uniforms, Koteich and her two children still have no clear idea when they will return to class. Lebanon’s education system has long been heavily reliant on private schools, which hosted almost 60% of the country’s 1.25 million students, according to the ministry of higher education. However, the strain on households from Lebanon’s financial collapse has forced a shift: around 55,000 students transitioned from private to public schools in the 2020-2021 school year alone, the World Bank has said. But public education has been historically underfunded, with the government earmarking less than two percent of GDP to education in 2020, according to the World Bank, one of the lowest rates in the Middle East and North Africa. Moreover, the combined stresses of recent years, from an influx of Syrian refugees starting in 2011 to the COVID-19 pandemic and the port blast which damaged Beirut, has beleaguered schools. “My students’ worries are beyond educational; they started to think about how they can make a living. This age is supposed to be thinking of their homework,” Koteich said. The head of the United Nations’ children agency UNICEF in Lebanon said that about one third of children in Lebanon, including Syrian children, is not attending school. “We have worrying numbers of an increase in children being employed in Lebanon and girls getting into early child marriage,” said Edouard Beigbeder. A UNICEF study this year found that 38% of households had reduced their education expenses compared with just 26% in April 2021. This trend makes a return to class ever more important. Some hope schools they will re-open in October, although there has been no such indication from the government. “There’s a kind of race against the clock to ensure the first week of October, we will have the right kind of opening,” Beigbeder said.

The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on September 28-29/2022
Pope to visit Bahrain in November: Vatican
AFP, Vatican City/28 September ,2022
Pope Francis will in November visit Bahrain, home to the biggest Catholic church in the Arabian Peninsula, the Vatican said Wednesday. Francis, 85, will be the first pope ever to visit the majority-Muslim Persian Gulf country, according to Vatican News. He has been under doctor’s orders to slow down, after suffering from a painful knee that has forced him to use a wheelchair and cancel some events. Francis will visit the capital of Manama and city of Awali during the November 3 to 6 trip, and will attend the “Bahrain Forum for Dialogue: East and West for Human Coexistence.” Further details of the visit - the 39th international trip of Francis’'s papacy - will be released at a later date. But the pontiff is likely to visit the cavernous Cathedral of Our Lady of Arabia, in Awali, which opened its doors last year. The modern-style church lies about a mile (1.6 kilometers) from a large mosque and a stone’s throw from an oil well, in the south of the state. It was built to serve the country’s 80,000 or so Catholics, mainly workers from Asia, mostly India and the Philippines. The pontiff received Bahrain’s King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa at the Vatican in 2014. The pair discussed “peace and stability in the Middle East” and the Christian community’s positive contribution to the country, the Holy See said at the time. The trip comes on the back of another journey to a Muslim-majority country, following Francis’s visit to Kazakhstan earlier this month.

Nine dead, 28 hurt in Iranian strikes on Iraqi Kurdistan
Agencies/September 28, 2022
Iran was accused of killing Nine people and wounding 28 in cross-border strikes Wednesday against Kurdish factions in Iraq that have deplored an ongoing protest crackdown in the Islamic republic. Strikes blamed on Iran have hit districts of autonomous Iraqi Kurdistan repeatedly in recent days as Tehran has ramped up its domestic crackdown against protests over the death of Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini in the custody of morality police. The regional health ministry in Arbil, the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan, said in a statement that the latest strikes killed four people and wounded 14 in the Koysinjaq region, and three were killed and 14 wounded in Sherawa. "There are civilians among the victims" including one dead, a senior official of autonomous Kurdistan told AFP."These cowardly attacks are occurring at a time when the terrorist regime of Iran is unable to crack down on ongoing protests inside and silence the Kurdish and Iranian peoples' civil resistance," the Kurdish Democratic Party of Iran (KDPI) tweeted. Amini, 22, died in Tehran on September 16, three days after being arrested for allegedly violating the Iran's strict dress code for women. Her death sparked protests across Iran and a crackdown that has killed at least 76 people in the Islamic republic, according to the Oslo-based group Iran Human Rights. Wednesday's strikes against the autonomous region of Iraqi Kurdistan prompted the federal government in Iraq to summon Iran's ambassador. "Rocket diplomacy is a reckless act with devastating consequences," tweeted the U.N. mission in Iraq. "These attacks need to cease immediately."
'Missiles and drones' -
The KDPI said it was one of the groups targeted in Wednesday's strikes. Iran hit its bases and headquarters with "missiles and drones" in Koysinjaq, east of Arbil, it announced in a statement. In Tehran, state television said that the "Revolutionary Guards targeted the headquarters of several separatist terrorist groups in northern Iraq with missiles and precision-guided attack drones." Other strikes on Wednesday destroyed buildings around Zargew, about 15 kilometers (10 miles) from Souleimaniyeh, where several exiled left-wing Iranian Kurdish parties maintain offices. An AFP correspondent in Zargew saw smoke rising from locations hit by those strikes and ambulances were dispatched to the scene. Residents fled the area, while lightly wounded people were treated by a party, the correspondent added. "The area where we are has been hit by 10 drone strikes," Atta Nasser, an official from Komala, one of the exiled Iranian Kurdish left-wing parties, told AFP. Iran was behind the strikes, he said. Sherawa region, south of Arbil, had also been targeted. "The headquarters of the Kurdistan Freedom Party has been hit by Iranian strikes," Hussein Yazdan, an official from this party, told AFP. Iran's semi-official Fars news agency has put the protest death toll in Iran at "around 60," including several members of the security forces. Kurdish communities in western Iran share strong connections with Kurdish-inhabited areas of Iraq. Many cross the border into Iraq to find work, due to a biting economic crisis in Iran driven in large part by U.S. sanctions.

Iraqi parliament rejects Halbousi's resignation amid Sadrist protests, rocket strike
AFP/The Arab Weekly/September 28/2022
The parliament's media department said in a statement that the House of Representatives "voted to renew confidence in Parliament Speaker Muhammad al-Halbousi" as 222 deputies against 13 rejected his resignation. The Iraqi parliament, by a considerable majority, has passed a vote of confidence in its speaker, Muhammad al-Halbousi refusing to accept his resignation. The vote took place amid demonstrations in Baghdad's Tahrir Square rejecting the parliamentary session described by politcial rivals as "unconstitutional". Iraqi political analysts said that the renewal of confidence in Halbousi was predictable, especially since he did not submit his resignation in writing, which makes the matter look like posturing and mere display of support to cement his legitimacy. The parliament's media department said in a statement that the House of Representatives "voted to renew confidence in Parliament Speaker Muhammad al-Halbousi" as 222 deputies against 13 rejected his resignation. The session coincided with the announcement by the Federal Supreme Court in Iraq on Wednesday of its rejection of the appeal lodged by the Sadrist bloc for the invalidation of their resignation. The court said it lacked the legal comptence to interfere.
The court's confirmation of the Sadrist MPs resignation would block the return of the parliamentarians to office. But other appeals are pending. Supporters of Iraq’s influential Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr stormed Baghdad’s Green Zone government area Wednesday as the Iraqi parliament held a session on the resignation of Halbousi.
Clashes erupted as security forces tried to disperse them. Sadr’s bloc won the most votes in parliamentary elections last October but he was unable to form a majority coalition government. His followers stormed the parliament in late July to prevent their rivals from Iran-backed Shia groups from forming the government. With ensuing rallies, clashes with security forces, counter-rallies and a sit-in outside parliament, the government formation process has stalled. At least 30 people died in clashes between Sadr's loyalists and security forces, bringing Iraq to the brink of street warfare. The hostilities came to a halt when Sadr ordered his supporters to withdraw. Sadr has now been calling for the dissolution of parliament and early elections and has been in a power struggle with his Iran-backed rivals since the vote. In the meanwhile, three Katyusha rockets landed in Baghdad’s fortified Green Zone while the parliament session was being convened, Iraqi state news agency INA reported. Four security personnel were injured, INA added.

Iran forces to use 'all their might' to stop protests as UN calls for restraint
The National/September 28/2022
Police command says it will come down hard on 'hostile elements'
Iran's police command said on Wednesday that the force would come down hard on protesters who took to the streets after the death of a young Iranian-Kurdish woman in custody. Mahsa Amini, 22, died on September 16 while being held by the so-called morality police for allegedly wearing a headscarf incorrectly. The police command said that “officers will oppose with all their might the conspiracies of counter-revolutionaries and hostile elements, and deal firmly with those who disrupt public order and security anywhere in the country,” according to Fars news agency. The statement came after the UN called on Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi not to use disproportionate force against protesters who had taken to the streets. At least 76 people have been killed in the protests, a rights group said. UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres “stressed to President Raisi the need to respect human rights, including freedom of expression, peaceful assembly and association” in a meeting between the two at the UN General Assembly last week, spokesman Stephane Dujarric said. “We are increasingly concerned about reports of rising fatalities, including women and children, related to the protests,” Mr Dujarric added. He said Mr Guterres “calls on the security forces to refrain from using unnecessary or disproportionate force and appeals to all to exercise utmost restraint to avoid further escalation”. He also called for a “prompt, impartial and effective investigation” into the death of Amini, who died in custody after allegedly breaching rules that mandate tight-fitting hijabs, leading to nationwide protests in which dozens have been killed. Mr Raisi on Saturday called the protests riots and urged “decisive action against the opponents of the security and peace of the country and the people”, his office said. Riot police in body armour were beating protesters with truncheons in running street battles, reports said on Tuesday.
Students tore down large pictures of supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and his late predecessor Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, according to recent video footage published by AFP. Dozens of young Iranians and Americans on Tuesday gathered in front of The New York Times building in Manhattan to demonstrate for the rights of women in Iran. Activist Forouzan Farahani knelt on the pavement in front of the building and shaved her head in an act of protest at Amini's death. “We are here today to protest [against] the murder of Mahsa in Iran and uprisings that are ongoing across Iran in different cities,” said Ms Farahani, 31. The Iranian told AFP the demonstrators were also protesting against “bias and selective narrative” in The New York Times coverage of Iran in recent years. “We also think that they don't have a neutral position and so we think that it's good to come to here and protest,” Ms Farahani said.
The protesters singled out Farnaz Fassihi, a New York-based reporter for the newspaper, who is covering the crisis in Iran. “We stand by our reporting of the unrest in Iran, which is led by Farnaz Fassihi, an experienced journalist who has covered the Middle East for the past 25 years,” a representative of the paper told AFP.

Iran police to oppose protests with 'all their might'
Agence France Presse/September 28, 2022
Iran's police command warned on Wednesday that the force would come down hard on protests that erupted nearly two weeks ago over the death of a young woman in custody. Dozens of people have been killed since nightly demonstrations erupted after Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish woman, died after being arrested in Tehran for allegedly breaching the Islamic republic's strict rules on hijab headscarves and modest clothing. "Today, the enemies of the Islamic Republic of Iran and some rioters seek to disrupt the order, security and comfort of the nation using any pretext," the police command said in a statement. "Police officers will oppose with all their might the conspiracies of counter-revolutionaries and hostile elements, and deal firmly with those who disrupt public order and security anywhere in the country," it said, quoted by Fars news agency. Fars news agency said on Tuesday that "around 60" people had been killed since Amini's death on September 16, up from the official toll of 41 authorities reported on Saturday. Officials said Monday they had made more than 1,200 arrests, including of activists, lawyers and journalists.

EU vows 'robust' response after suspected gas pipeline sabotage
DW/NNA/September 28, 2022
The European Union on Wednesday threatened countermeasures against the perpetrator of damage to gas pipelines in the Baltic Sea, saying the leaks were "not a coincidence.""The European Union is deeply concerned about damage to the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines that has resulted in leaks in the international waters of the Baltic Sea," the bloc's top diplomat, Josep Borrell, said in a statement. "We will support any investigation aimed at getting full clarity on what happened and why, and will take further steps to increase our resilience in energy security," the statement added.
His remarks come after three leaks were found in the pipelines, which carry gas from Russia to Europe via the Baltic Sea. The pipelines are situated in international waters but in the exclusive economic zones of Denmark and Sweden off the Danish island of Bornholm.
Denmark's defense minister, Morten Bodskov, met with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg on Wednesday to discuss possible responses to the incidents. "All available information indicates those leaks are the result of a deliberate act,'' Borrell said in the statement, issued on behalf of the 27 EU member countries. "Any deliberate disruption of European energy infrastructure is utterly unacceptable and will be met with a robust and united response,'' he added. "These incidents are not a coincidence and affect us all." Three unexplained gas leaks occurred on the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines on Monday. They were preceded by two large explosions that were registered by seismologists. The pipelines are both filled with natural gas but are not delivering the fuel to Europe amid tensions with Russia caused by its illegitimate invasion of neighboring Ukraine. Analysts say the damage would likely prevent the pipelines from transporting any gas to Europe even if the political situation changed to allow deliveries. The Nord Stream 1 pipeline has already been used to supply gas, while the Nord Stream 2 pipeline was ready to go into operation before the war in Ukraine put a stop to the venture. Although European authorities are strongly of the opinion that the damage was deliberate, no pointers have yet emerged as to who might have caused it or why.--DW

Kremlin says 'absurd' to accuse Russia of Nord Stream gas leaks
Agence France Presse/September 28, 2022
The Kremlin said Wednesday it was "stupid and absurd" to suspect that Russia was behind gas leaks on the Nord Stream pipelines to Europe, deemed to be a "deliberate act" by the EU. "It's quite predictable and also predictably stupid to give voice to these kinds of narratives -- predictably stupid and absurd," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters after Ukraine said the leaks were a "terrorist attack" by Moscow. Peskov said the leaks were "quite problematic" for Moscow. "Both branches were filled with gas, ready for pumping, and this gas is very expensive. Now this gas is disappearing into the air," Peskov said. "I want to urge everyone to think before making any statements, to wait for results of the investigation," he added. "This is a situation that requires dialogue, prompt interaction on the part of all sides to find what happened. So far we see an absolute lack of such dialogue," Peskov said. Three unexplained gas leaks, preceded by two explosions, occurred on the Baltic Sea's Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines on Monday. The pipelines have been at the center of geopolitical tensions in recent months as Russia cut gas supplies to Europe in suspected retaliation against Western sanctions following its military intervention in Ukraine. Built in parallel to the Nord Stream 1 pipeline, Nord Stream 2 was intended to double the capacity for Russian gas imports to Germany.But Berlin blocked the newly completed Nord Stream 2 in the days before Moscow sent troops to Ukraine.

Four killed in Israel Jenin raid
Agencies/September 28, 2022
Four Palestinians were killed Wednesday during an Israeli West Bank raid targeting alleged militants, including the brother of a man blamed for a deadly attack in Tel Aviv, the Palestinian health ministry said. The Palestinian health ministry recorded three deaths during the raid in Jenin, including Abed Hazem, brother of Raad Hazem, named as the killer of three Israelis in a Tel Aviv shooting spree on April 7. The Israeli army confirmed troops had shot dead "two suspects involved in a number of recent shooting attacks."

One killed in Belgium anti-terror operation against far-right
Agence France Presse/September 28, 2022
One person was killed in Belgium Wednesday in a shootout with police during raids on a suspected extreme-right group, prosecutors said in a statement. The operation, targeting a dozen addresses around the northern city of Antwerp, was launched to counter "the preparation of a terrorist attack". Prosecutors said "many weapons and ammunition" were seized in the raids.

North Korea fires two ballistic missiles ahead of Harris' visit to South
Reuters/September 28, 2022
North Korea fired two short-range ballistic missiles off its east coast on Wednesday, the South's military said, just a day before U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris is set to arrive in Seoul.-- Reuters

The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on September 28-29/2022
A Letter From Thomas Cardinal Collins, Archbishop of Toronto: Walking Together for Healing and Reconciliation
September 28, 2022
My dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
Friday, September 30th is observed across Canada as a National Day for Truth and Reconciliation.
As Catholics, we share a responsibility, with all Canadians, to take meaningful steps with Indigenous people and communities on the path to reconciliation. We also mourn the suffering and loss of those wounded physically, emotionally and spiritually as a result of the residential school system as well as the intergenerational trauma that remains for many throughout the country. We invite the Catholic community throughout the Archdiocese of Toronto to take time on Friday for prayer, reflection and education. On September 30 at 7:30 a.m., I will offer Mass at St. Michael’s Cathedral Basilica for the intention of our healing and reconciliation journey with Indigenous Peoples of This Land. You are welcome to join in person or virtually by clicking here. It will also be available here for later viewing. On his recent penitential pilgrimage to Canada, Pope Francis said, “I trust and pray that Christians and civil society in this land may grow in the ability to accept and respect the identity and the experience of the Indigenous peoples. It is my hope that concrete ways can be found to make those peoples better known and esteemed, so that all may learn to walk together.”
Given the recent Papal Visit to Canada, you may wish to reflect on some of the texts offered by the Holy Father relating to the journey of healing, reconciliation and hope. These texts and videos of his remarks in Canada can be found here. Salt & Light Catholic Media also has produced a powerful one hour documentary on residential schools and the Indigenous delegation to Rome earlier this year. This informative educational resource can be found here.
Pope Francis’s apology, like the collective apology of the Canadian bishops in 2021, was an important step in our ongoing journey as Catholics. Over these past many months, we have provided resources and educational materials for the faithful and clergy. We have supported the Papal Visit to Canada through the sharing of significant financial and human resources. The focus and theme of the 2021 Cardinal’s Dinner was Indigenous healing and reconciliation. We have presented webinars and posted numerous resources on our website – many can be found here.
We also committed, in February of this year, $6 million over five years as the archdiocese’s contribution to the $30 million commitment by the Catholic Bishops in Canada. Our funds will be generated through the existing operations and assets and the generous participation of parishioners in our parishes.
Our first annual special collection to support the Indigenous Healing & Reconciliation Fund, a national initiative, will take place in parishes on the weekend of October 1, 2022. Donations can also be made online here. The archdiocese’s healing and reconciliation fund committee is beginning its work in earnest, researching and identifying funding priorities that focus on supporting projects that further:
Healing and reconciliation for communities and families;
Culture and language revitalization;
Education and community building; and
Dialogue for promoting Indigenous spirituality and culture.
Our funding will support Indigenous partners, organizations and communities in our archdiocese and beyond. Specific funded projects and initiatives will be announced in the coming months.
Let us continue to identify ways in which each one of us can participate in the ongoing journey of healing, reconciliation and hope. May our reflection and action this week assist us in our ongoing collective efforts.
St. Kateri Tekakwitha, pray for us!
Sincerely in Christ,
Thomas Cardinal Collins
Archbishop of Toronto

Biden Has Opened Door to Russian Nuke Strikes
Gordon G. Chang/ Gatestone Institute/September 28, 2022
Russia's nuclear doctrine is called "escalate to deescalate" or, more appropriately, "escalate to win," which means threatening or using nukes early in a conventional conflict.
Even if Putin is now bluffing — most analysts think he is — he is getting what he wants with threats. Biden, for instance, has been cautious and even timid in providing military assistance to a beleaguered Ukraine. Putin has obviously noticed, which is the reason he has been making more such threats.
Why, then, doesn't the United States have what it needs at this crucial moment: nuclear-tipped cruise missiles like Putin's? The arms-control community, arguing that such low-yield weapons would make nuclear war more likely, persuaded American presidents not to build them. President Trump authorized their development, but Biden cancelled the program.
Unfortunately, arms-control advocates got it backwards. As evident from today's developments, America lacking low-yield nuclear warheads on cruise missiles is making nuclear war more likely, not less.
"The United States will need to reduce its nuclear arsenal to encourage Russia to do the same," wrote Tom Collina and Angela Kellett on the 21st of this month on the Defense One site.
Entice Russia into disarmament? Been there. Tried that. Failed miserably.
Is it possible to work with Putin at this time?
Even if we can put aside the morality of talking to a genocidal mass murderer — we cannot — it is reckless to believe Putin might actually honor arms-control agreements when he has continually violated them with impunity.
Moreover, it is bad enough to argue for disarmament in peacetime, but it is the height of folly to do so during war — and when China and North Korea are making first-strike nuclear threats of their own.
America's arms-control advocates have always been naïve. Now, they are delusional.
The use of nuclear weapons is fast becoming likely. Russian President Vladimir Putin's threat to use nukes — presumably against Ukraine but perhaps others as well — was made at the time he announced a military mobilization, Russia's first since World War II. Pictured: Mobile intercontinental ballistic missile launchers on parade in Moscow, Russia, on June 24, 2020.
"If Russia crosses this line, there will be catastrophic consequences for Russia," National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan told NBC's "Meet the Press" on the 25th of this month, referring to threats to use nuclear weapons. "The United States will respond decisively."
Sullivan was responding to, among other things, a warning Russian President Vladimir Putin delivered in a televised address on September 21. "I want like to remind those who make such statements regarding Russia that our country has different types of weapons as well, and some of them are more modern than the weapons NATO countries have," the Russian leader said. "In the event of a threat to the territorial integrity of our country and to defend Russia and our people, we will certainly make use of all weapon systems available to us."
"This is not a bluff," he added.
"The idea of nuclear conflict, once unthinkable, has become a subject of debate," said U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres the following day at a Security Council session on Ukraine. "This in itself is totally unacceptable."
Acceptable or not, the use of nuclear weapons is fast becoming likely. The world can thank President Joe Biden for helping create the conditions for history's first total war.
Putin's threat to use nukes — presumably against Ukraine but perhaps others as well — was made at the time he announced a military mobilization, Russia's first since World War II.
The Russian leader has made a series of implicit and explicit nuclear threats this year. On February 27, for instance, he put his nuclear forces on high alert. On March 1, he sortied his ballistic missile submarines and land-based mobile missile launchers in what was called a "drill."
Russia's nuclear doctrine is called "escalate to deescalate" or, more appropriately, "escalate to win," which means threatening or using nukes early in a conventional conflict.
Even if Putin is now bluffing — most analysts think he is — he is getting what he wants with threats. Biden, for instance, has been cautious and even timid in providing military assistance to a beleaguered Ukraine. Putin has obviously noticed, which is the reason he has been making more such threats.
"A nuclear war cannot be won," Biden stated in his September 21 U.N. General Assembly speech, but that applause line is not necessarily true.
With nuclear-tipped cruise missiles, the Russian leader could, in a moment, reverse his fortunes by incinerating Ukraine's cities and large concentrations of military assets, eventually allowing Russia to annex the entire country.
Could Putin get away with such a bold move? The main deterrent to a first strike with tactical nuclear weapons is a threatened second strike with nukes. At this time, the U.S. has tactical nuclear weapons in Europe, in the form of "gravity bombs" delivered by F-16 and F-35 jets.
These bombs, as destructive as they are, are not, as a practical matter, much of a deterrent to the first use of tactical nukes. They can be destroyed on the ground, and any that survive have to be flown long distances through contested airspace to reach targets. In short, Putin is unlikely to be afraid of America's bombs. That leaves the president of the United States with only one other nuclear threat for deterrence purposes: the launch of intercontinental ballistic missiles. ICBMs carrying nuclear warheads can completely destroy Russia, but Putin knows Biden will never make good on any threat to use these weapons in this situation. Putin knows that Biden knows that Putin can obliterate the United States in a second strike with his ICBMs.
When Sullivan says "catastrophic," Putin undoubtedly thinks "hollow." American threats to use its most destructive weapons are simply not credible in this situation.
Why, then, doesn't the United States have what it needs at this crucial moment: nuclear-tipped cruise missiles like Putin's? The arms-control community, arguing that such low-yield weapons would make nuclear war more likely, persuaded American presidents not to build them. President Trump authorized their development, but Biden cancelled the program.
Unfortunately, arms-control advocates got it backwards. As evident from today's developments, America lacking low-yield nuclear warheads on cruise missiles is making nuclear war more likely, not less.
So, what does the arms-control community now recommend?
"The United States will need to reduce its nuclear arsenal to encourage Russia to do the same," wrote Tom Collina and Angela Kellett on the 21st of this month on the Defense One site.
Entice Russia into disarmament? Been there. Tried that. Failed miserably.
"In 2010, we killed the Navy nuclear-armed cruise missile and Russia responded by confirming they were indeed building 32 new strategic nuclear systems of which 90% are now complete," the Hudson Institute's Peter Huessy tells Gatestone. "The comparable Chinese number is 28."
Nonetheless, Collina and Kellett urge the Biden administration to not let Putin's war prevent negotiations with Putin to limit nuclear weapons. "If we want to prevent Russia from using its nuclear weapons to enable more aggression against weaker states, we must find a way to work with Moscow to reduce its nuclear arsenal," write the pair in "War Is No Reason to Put Arms-Control Negotiations on Hold," their Defense One article.
Is it possible to work with Putin at this time?
Even if we can put aside the morality of talking to a genocidal mass murderer — we cannot — it is reckless to believe Putin might actually honor arms-control agreements when he has continually violated them with impunity.
Moreover, it is bad enough to argue for disarmament in peacetime, but it is the height of folly to do so during war — and when China and North Korea are making first-strike nuclear threats of their own.
America's arms-control advocates have always been naïve. Now, they are delusional.
*Gordon G. Chang is the author of The Coming Collapse of China, a Gatestone Institute distinguished senior fellow, and a member of its Advisory Board.
© 2022 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.

The ‘Long Campaign’ against Islamic Terrorism
 Raymond Ibrahim/September 28, 2022
This week in history witnessed the launch of a daringly amazing campaign dedicated to defending and liberating Christian lands from Islam.
The year was 1442. After having suffered countless atrocities from the invading Turks, “everyone [in the West] spoke of making war on the infidels and driving them out of Europe”—and it was entirely due to the martial exploits of John Hunyadi, the Transylvanian-born hero who had singlehandedly bested the Turks in several recent engagements.
After putting an army of some 25,000 Christians together—mostly from Hungary, Poland, Wallachia, Moldavia, and Serbia—Hunyadi took the initiative by doing the unthinkable: he led them into Turkish-held territories at the end of September 1442—when campaigning season was supposed to end, due to the usual harsh weather, not begin.
Hunyadi was always in the vanguard, a day ahead of the main army and Hungarian king, Ladislaus III, its formal leader. The Christian army marched south of the Danube, scourging the Turks in every encounter and liberating Christian town after town. The deeper the Christians penetrated into subject Ottoman territory, the larger their army became, as overjoyed Christian subjects, casting off the yoke of their Muslim masters, rushed to join and augment the ranks of their saviors.
After Hunyadi took Niš in early November, and in an attempt to trap and annihilate the Christians, three different Muslim armies converged on the town. With lightning speed, Hunyadi defeated all three, one by one, before they could unite.
By late November, the Christians had reached Sophia in Bulgaria—more than 450 miles whence the Crusaders had first started marching. Considering that Sophia had been under Islamic rule for more than half a century, since 1382, the long oppressed “Bulgarians went wild with joy.” Liberator and liberated reconverted the mosques back into churches and gave thanks in them.
The long cherished dream of freedom from Islamic domination was becoming palpable:
The Balkan peoples became excited by the hope of their liberation which appeared close…. [T]he local population welcomed them everywhere with gifts and food, so that the soldiers hardly used the supplies they had brought along. The camp of the king became filled with Bulgarians, Bosnians, Serbians, and Albanians…. According to the sources from that time, the population was very much set against its [Turkish] oppressors.
The victorious Crusaders next set their sights on Adrianople (Edirne)—the very capital of the Ottoman Empire, and the sultan’s own seat of power. Once a beautiful Greek city, Adrianople was now a major center of the Muslim slave trade. Its markets were so inundated with Christian flesh that children sold for pennies, “a very beautiful slave woman was exchanged for a pair of boots, and four Serbian slaves were traded for a horse.”
Outside the Ottoman capital often lay the remains of the unwanted or undesirable. As Bartolomeo de Giano observed four years earlier, “so great a quantity of [European] bodies lay consumed, partially rotted, partially devoured by dogs, that it would seem unbelievable to anyone who had not seen it with their own eyes.”
Between the marching Christian army and the Thracian plain leading to Adrianople stood the vast and snow covered mountains of the Balkan range. Although it was by now December—when no one campaigned—Hunyadi forced the march through the frigid cold and harsh terrain, even as panicked Turks did everything to stall him, including blocking the already narrow passes with stones and felled trees and creating walls and narrow paths of slippery ice.
Still the Christians came on; before long, the sultan was advised to retreat from his capital—so terrified were the Turks.
On December 12, 1443, Hunyadi and his advance cavalry got entrapped at the Zlatitsa Pass; many perished of cold and starvation. On arriving to ambush them, the grand vizier remarked with contempt that he owned more cows than the Christian army had men. After haranguing his exhausted and frozen men with words of violence and hope, “Hunyadi again led that battle himself, and, despite being outnumbered, drove the Turks back to their fortifications in the mountains.”
Due to the fierce and unrelenting winter, and with their supply lines stretched thin, Hunyadi finally ordered a withdrawal—and not a moment too soon. Many men had died of starvation, and many more would die on the long trek back home. Sources record the emaciated men “staggering from side to side as though about to fall; with their pallid faces and sunken eyes, they are more like skeletons than humans.”
To make the march easier, all worn down horses were killed and eaten, and all heavy weapons and non-essential equipment were buried or burned, lest the Turks get them. The skeleton army finally arrived in Buda, led by their king—barefooted, singing Christian hymns, and brandishing more captured Islamic banners. After receiving a hero’s welcome, they fell to their knees and gave thanks for their victories in the main cathedral.
“This march of the crusaders,” historian Patrick Balfour correctly observes, “was a military feat seldom paralleled in history.” It is now known as “the Long Campaign,” as the Christian army was in nonstop action for more than six months—most of which was in winter and hundreds of miles deep into enemy territory—at a time when campaigns usually lasted no more than two months and rarely went past fall. It consisted of seven major battles, all Christian victories.
Reflecting on what had originally seemed as Hunyadi’s “insane strategy” of taking the war to the much stronger enemy, Romanian historian Camil Mureșanu writes,
He was aware of the plans of conquest of the Ottomans and understood that limiting himself to defense meant to expose the country to constant incursions and plunders and to harassment that would eventually lead to exhaustion. That is why he preferred to take the offensive, involving deep penetration into enemy territory, to defeat the adversary decisively on his own territory, thus putting an end to the war that had been going on, with interruptions, for more than half a century. His preference for the offensive was also justified by the support that he was certain he would find in Ottoman lands from the subject [Christian] populations: Romanians, Serbians, Bulgarians, who were waiting for help to come from the north for their liberation.
At any rate, “never had the Muslims suffered so much from the cunning and malice of the gâvur [infidels],” wrote a Turkish chronicler of the Long Campaign. Not only was “the Ottoman world terrified”—with Muslim cities everywhere hunkering down and refortifying themselves—but even the Mamluk sultan in distant Egypt across the Mediterranean made preparations “to defend Cairo if they heard that John Hunyadi entered Asia Minor.”
*This article was adapted from Raymond Ibrahim’s new book, Defenders of the West: The Christian Heroes Who Stood Against Islam.

Saudi King Gives Up Prime Minister Role to Crown Prince
Simon Henderson/The Washington Institute/September 28, 2022
The transfer further boosts his son’s authority and could even be a prelude to an unprecedented abdication.
Earlier today, Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman (aka MbS) was named as Saudi Arabia’s new prime minister. The surprise announcement—which goes against both the kingdom’s Basic Law and its traditional arrangement of having the king serve as premier—makes the de facto political power that MbS has held for some time now effectively de jure.
His eighty-six-year-old father, King Salman, has suffered increasingly failing health since ascending to the throne in 2015, but he has bravely continued to make certain public appearances (e.g., chairing the weekly Council of Ministers meetings, which he will apparently continue to do despite no longer holding the title of prime minister). Elevating MbS to that role may mean that the king is considering abdication—an unprecedented step given that Saudi monarchs usually rule until they die.
Previously, MbS served as deputy prime minister and defense minister. No replacement has yet been named for the first role, but the latter post will now be filled by his younger full brother Khalid bin Salman, a former F-15 pilot who has been promoted from deputy defense minister and is arguably the crown prince’s most trusted advisor. Both men are only in their thirties. Other ministerial changes were announced, but two key posts remain unchanged: Prince Faisal bin Farhan is still foreign minister, and Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman, an elder half-brother of MbS, still holds the oil portfolio as energy minister, suggesting no policy change on that front.
In other policy terms, the move might affect the prospects for Israeli-Saudi normalization. King Salman has been seen as a brake on that process, slowing most efforts to establish public relations with Jerusalem. Yet Riyadh’s foot could ease off the pedal somewhat if abdication is truly in the cards (though recent Saudi opinion polls suggest that the citizenry would not embrace such moves).
No change is expected in relations with the United States, though commentators have noted that as prime minister, MbS will now have sovereign immunity when traveling abroad. Previously, he may have been wary about visiting the United States for fear of facing potential legal action over the murder of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi. Whatever the reasoning behind his elevation, the change could prove quite significant for Saudi Arabia and its foreign relations.
*Simon Henderson is the Baker Fellow and director of the Bernstein Program on Gulf and Energy Policy at The Washington Institute, and author of its succession paper “A Fifty-Year Reign? MbS and the Future of Saudi Arabia.”

Could Giorgia Meloni deliver certainty for Italy and the EU?
Mohammed Chebaro/Arab News/September 28, 2022
The Brothers of Italy today, along with the Sweden Democrats, National Rally in France, Freedom Party in Austria, Danish People’s Party, and Progress Party in Norway have all ascended the ladder of power on the back of an anti-immigration gathering call and a right-leaning populist mantra of wanting to do away with status quo political elites who are under the alleged control of global financial institutions.
Italy took a sharp turn to the right when the Brothers of Italy, a Eurosceptic populist party, came first in the general elections, putting their leader, Giorgia Meloni, the one-time Mussolini admirer, on course to be the first Italian woman to lead a government.
The Brothers of Italy hope to change the stagnant political landscape of Italy that has seen more than 70 governments take power since the end of the Second World War, at a time when the third-largest economy of the Eurozone faces huge challenges from soaring inflation, a looming energy crisis and the war in Ukraine. The firebrand 45-year-old’s campaign motto “God, Country, and Family” has sparked fears of regression on rights issues in the Catholic-majority country. There is a danger that Meloni would work to put new obstacles in the way of women’s reproductive rights and roll back social reforms dating back to the 1970s. Her lack of government experience could potentially put Italy at odds with EU policies as her two potential coalition parties, the moderate Forza Italia of 85-year-old Silvio Berlusconi and the hard-right League party headed by Matteo Salvini, are both friendly toward Russian President Vladimir Putin — and Salvini, like Meloni, is a Eurosceptic. Though Meloni and her party have promised to work with the EU, she has often insisted that Rome must assert its interests more and challenge Brussels on everything from public spending rules to mass migration.
Playing to the gallery during her election campaign, Meloni announced that she was ready to resort to blockading the Libyan coastline to deter traffickers and desperate migrants from making the short crossing to Italian shores. One is reminded of the UK’s ineffective effort to deploy border guards and the Royal Navy in hopes of stemming the flow of small boats loaded with migrants and asylum seekers from Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria and elsewhere, crossing to Britain from France.
The increasingly alarming trend of EU nations lurching toward the populist right is baffling, as the majority of them continue to provide the most socially considerate system of government that upholds democracy and freedom, respects human rights and allows for “laissez-faire” economies and personal enterprise under the narrowing umbrella of a universal social security system for citizens.
Many believe that there has been rising anger over the past two decades, justified or not, that is driving the support for the far right in Europe and beyond, built on the false belief that equality has become untenable since the financial crisis of 2008. The way this and successive crises have been handled by most national parties has led many voters to believe that traditional leadership was complicit with the financial market and its corporate greed.
What is especially worrying is that most populist parties have been seen to be cozy with dictators, and some are bent on presenting themselves as modern ones, like Viktor Orban of Hungary. France’s Marine Le Pen is not far off, and her political movement is supposed to have financial links with Russia. Voters can choose whomever they wish in democracies, but to elect a party whose tail is linked to fascism is worrying.
As with previous populists, one must wait and see what is in store for Italians under Meloni’s leadership and whether what she really believes in could provide answers to Italy’s social and economic woes. Added to these, of course, are the war in Ukraine, energy shortages, inflation and a looming recession.
Though Meloni and her party have promised to work with the EU, she has often insisted that Rome must assert its interests more.
Meloni’s first test, if she succeeds in forming a coalition government, is how she will press ahead on the reforms agreed upon with Brussels and whether her coalition will want to renegotiate the EU’s post-pandemic recovery fund worth over $190 billion, arguing that the plan did not take in consideration the new energy crisis. It remains to be seen also to what extent the Brothers of Italy, now that they are in power, will stay true to their political ideology, which distrusts globalization and favors renationalization. They will have to appease not only their core supporters but the whole nation and their European neighbors who are, until further notice, still liberal democracies that are capitalist-leaning and have for decades championed globalization, a level playing field and respect for the rule of law and the state system that emerged from the ashes of the Second World war.
Europe is once again on the edge, and Meloni’s success is a reminder that the populist far right is still around and a force to be reckoned with in most European nations. The current global economic downturn, recession, inflation and increased migration provide the best environment for the rise of small marginal parties such as the Brothers of Italy, though they might not necessarily find it easy to deliver on their promises once in the executive seat.
*Mohamed Chebaro is a British-Lebanese journalist, media consultant and trainer with more than 25 years of experience covering war, terrorism, defense, current affairs and diplomacy.
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