English LCCC Newsbulletin For Le

English LCCC Newsbulletin For Lebanese, Lebanese Related, Global News & Editorials
For January 02/2023
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani
#elias_bejjani_news

The Bulletin's Link on the lccc Site
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/aaaanewsfor2023/english.january02.23.htm

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Bible Quotations For today
Every firstborn male shall be designated as holy to the Lord
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke 02/22-24/:"When the time came for their purification according to the law of Moses, they brought him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord (as it is written in the law of the Lord, ‘Every firstborn male shall be designated as holy to the Lord’), and they offered a sacrifice according to what is stated in the law of the Lord, ‘a pair of turtle-doves or two young pigeons."

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News & Editorials published on January 01-02/2023
Video-Text: Resolutions For the new year of 2023/Elias Bejjani/January 01/2023
Video: Resolutions For the new year of 2023/Elias Bejjani/January 01/2023
Al-Rahi rejects 'prior agreement' on president and 'unconstitutional' decrees
Bishop Aoundi: The titles of rescue are clear while “Weeping is useless”
Stray Bullets Hit 2 Jets at Beirut Airport
Stray bullets hit jets at Beirut airport as Lebanese welcome new year
Opposition to unveil 'Plan B' in late January
Lebanese, UN troops rescue 232 migrants at sea as 2 killed
Jumblatt commenting on his meeting with a delegation from Palestine in Aswan: This is Kamal Jumblatt's Arab-Palestinian legacy

Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on January 01-02/2023
Pope Francis Addresses Faithful after Ex-pope's Death
Syrian state media says Israeli ‘aggression’ targets southern region of Damascus city
World Steps Into 2023 after Turbulent Year
Protests Erupt in Tehran's Bazaar
Iran Police Detain Top-tier Football Players in Raid at Party
Ukraine faces grim start to 2023 after fresh Russian attacks
Ukraine, Hit by Fresh Russian Missiles, Faces Grim New Year
ISIS Claims Attack on Egypt Police that Killed 4
How Saudi Arabia's crown prince snubbed Biden repeatedly to forge ties with authoritarian China and Russia
Pakistan, India exchange lists of nuclear assets, inmates

Titles For The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on January 01-02/2023
Syria’s ‘Figurative’ President!/Tariq Al-Homayed/Asharq Al-Awsat/January, 01/2023
Poetry Died 100 Years Ago This Month/Matthew Walther/The New York Times/January, 01/2023
Call This Violence What It Is/Julia Cooke/The New York Times/January, 01/2023
Is the UK Turning into Something Extremely Different?/Mohshin Habib/Gatestone Institute/January 01/2023
Time to increase the pressure on Iranian regime/Dr. Majid Rafizadeh/Arab News/January 01, 2023
Progressive Democrats become America’s biggest losers/Dalia Al-Aqidi/Arab News/January 01, 2023

on January 01-02/2023
Video-Text: Resolutions For the new year of 2023
Elias Bejjani/January 01/2023
https://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/81879/elias-bejjani-resolutions-for-the-new-year-of-2020/
How healthy and fruitful would it be if each and every one of us is fully ready to welcome the new year of 2022 with a clear conscience and a joyful reconciliation with himself/herself, as well and with all others, especially those who are the beloved ones, e.g, parents, family members, friends, etc.
How self gratifying would be for any faithful and wise person to enter the new year of 2022 and he/she is completely free from all past heavy and worrying loads of hostility, hatred, enmities, grudges, strives and jealousy.
And because our life is very short on this mortal-perishable earthly world.
And due to the fact that, Our Heavenly Father, Almighty God may at any moment take back His Gift of life from any one of us.
Because of all these solid facts and realities, we are ought to leave behind all the 2021 hardships, pains and disappointments with no regrets at all.
We are ought to happily welcome and enter the 2022 new year with a totally empty page of our lives….ready for a new start.
Hopefully, every wise, loving, caring and faithful person would feel better in striving to begin this new year of 2022 with love, forgiveness, faith, hope, extended hands, open heart, and self-confidence.
I wish every one a Happy, Happy new Year that hopefully will carry with it all that is love, forgiveness, faith, hope, extended hands, open hearts, and self-confidence.
(The Above Piece Was First published on 01 January/2021)

Video: Resolutions For the new year of 2023
Elias Bejjani/January 01/2023
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sejWSwGy7ZU

Al-Rahi rejects 'prior agreement' on president and 'unconstitutional' decrees
Naharnet/Arab News/01 January/2023
Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi stressed Sunday that the election of a new president does not happen through “the heresy of prior agreement on him,” but rather through “a vote combined with consultations.”
“We hope there are no parties deliberately seeking to chop off the head of the state so that Lebanon appears to the world as a failed state that needs changing,” al-Rahi said in his New Year’s Day mass. Commenting on the latest controversy related to the approval of decrees by the caretaker government, al-Rahi said he rejects “the passing of decrees that do not abide by the constitution and do not take into consideration the president’s exclusive powers,” the patriarch added. “Everyone must become convinced that the election of a president is the only gateway toward solutions,” al-Rahi went on to say, noting that the new president must be “honest, brave, feared and fearless.”“He must unify the national matters, put everyone under the wings of the state, work on repatriating the displaced Syrians, and take initiatives to return Lebanon to its historic role,” the patriarch stated.

Rahi presides over New Year’s Mass service in Bkerki
NNA/Arab News/01 January/2023
Maronite Patriarch, Cardinal Mar Beshara Boutros Rahi, affirmed that "the issue of the port bombing is a national issue that affects all state institutions, and it includes the entire country, which was severely damaged the first time when the explosion occurred, with the fall of victims and martyrs, and the second time because of the obstruction of the investigation." In the homily of the Divine Liturgy on the occasion of the New Year, the Patriarch added: "This obstruction is a crime in itself and should not pass without accountability as if it were a passing incident. Refraining from proceeding with this issue would undermine justice." "We raise our voices with the families of the victims, and we demand that the politicians who are obstructing the investigation raise their hands off the judiciary, Rahi added. "It pains us that officials are striving to destroy the political, security, economic, living and social peace, while the countries of the world come and offer all kinds of aid for Lebanon's renaissance,” he went on. Finally, Rahi called on the Lebanese politicians to elect a president to get out of our crises.

Bishop Aoundi: The titles of rescue are clear while “Weeping is useless”
NNA/Lccc/January 01/2022
Archbishop Elias Aoudi in his new year homely mass ihoped, that “at the beginning of this new year, we all oughtto raise prayers to the Lord of the universe to protect Lebanon from all evil, abomination, inspire those entrusted authority to work with effort, dedication and sincerity in order to save it.”
Audi considered, during Sunday’shomely, that “the addresses of salvation are clear, first electing a president for the country and then forming a government that will carry out serious and radical reforms.. this is the only way out of the collapse.”
He added, “Weeping does not work, and begging does not work. We cannot ask outsiders to help us if we do not help ourselves. We all have to come to the rescue of our country, each in his field.” He asked: “Has the election of a president become a detail in a stretched state, a scattered parliament, and parties jostling for responsibility, and in an atmosphere of convulsion, defiance, and beating of the constitution, and a violation of the Taif Accord. Everyone clings to in words and violates it with their daily actions? ?” And added: “We hope that the deputies, aware of the importance of their role, will rise up against the status quo, and demand the implementation of the constitution, and start opening an election session that will not be concluded except when a president is elected . A president who is able to restore to the presidency its role, prestige, ability to communicate, dialogue, and take the path of salvation. A president who is truly a symbol fot the unity of the homeland and the protector of the constitution. He asked: “Which constitution will protect? The one who was the reference of President Chehab, to whom he resorted in all matters? Or the one under which President Franjieh was elected by one vote over his rival? Or the constitution that they tampered with, interpreted and distorted? If agreement on the name of the president was required, the constitution would not have stipulated the election of a president, but rather the appointment of a president.”

Stray Bullets Hit 2 Jets at Beirut Airport
Asharq Al-Awsat/Sunday, 1 January, 2023
Stray bullets from gunfire celebrations for the new year hit two Middle East Airlines jets parked at Beirut’s international airport causing minor damage to the planes without hurting anyone, an airline official said Sunday. Intense shooting in the air occurred around midnight Saturday in Beirut and other parts of Lebanon to celebrate the new year despite repeated warnings by officials for residents not to do so.The two jets are now being fixed at the Rafik Hariri International Airport, according to the official who spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations. According to The Associated Press, the official said the bullets hit the jets after midnight Saturday. On Nov. 10, a stray bullet hit an MEA jet while landing in Beirut, causing some material damage. No one among the passengers or crew was hurt, the head of the Lebanese airline company said at the time. MEA chief said Mohamad El-Hout told reporters earlier this year that the airport often faces such incidents, in addition to birds that fly in the area, endangering aviation.

Stray bullets hit jets at Beirut airport as Lebanese welcome new year
Najia Houssari/Arab News/01 January/2023
Maronite patriarch calls for election of ‘honest, courageous and fearless’ president
2 die, 232 rescued after migrant boat sinks off northern Lebanon
Interior minister urges security forces to remain vigilant
BEIRUT: Stray bullets injured three people in Beirut and Tripoli, and damaged two passenger jets at Beirut-Rafic Hariri International Airport as the Lebanese welcomed the new year in traditional style with celebratory gunfire. Another man miraculously survived a random bullet that struck his phone while he was wheeling his baggage trolley out of the airport. With a single bullet costing up to $1, traditional celebrations proved expensive in a country ravaged by economic hardship and currency depreciation, but even the high cost of ammunition failed to dampen the new year festivities, with heavy gunfire heard in many Lebanese regions at midnight, including poor airport neighborhoods inhabited by people forced out of their rural homes. Stray gunshots caused minor damage to two Middle East Airlines Airbus A321Neo aircraft. Security services earlier issued warnings against shooting near the airport, and erected checkpoints around its perimeter, as well as in areas where restaurants, cafes and bars are scattered. Interior Minister Bassam Mawlawi oversaw the deployment of extra security patrols. He also visited checkpoints, and praised security forces for their efforts and sacrifices, especially amid the growing crises.
Mawlawi asked security personnel to remain alert to protect tourists and Lebanese returning for family gatherings. “I urge you to maintain security and order, and enforce the law firmly without renouncing your humanity and the principle of human rights,” he said. In the lead-up to the celebrations, Mawlawi described “random shootings” as a crime and promised to carry out strict punishments.The Internal Security Forces directorate-general said that it is working to identify suspected shooters. A total of 116 people have been identified so far and now face arrest, it said. The directorate-general called on people “to report, via documented information, those who insisted on celebrating through this criminal and unethical behavior while knowing very well that their actions pose a threat to the safety of the society.”
The Lebanese Red Cross said that the New Year’s Eve toll included 17 injuries from traffic accidents and five people wounded in disputes. In his Sunday sermon, Maronite Patriarch Bechara Boutros Al-Rahi reiterated his stance on key issues.
He accused Lebanese politicians of stalling the investigation into the Beirut port explosion for more than two years, describing the obstruction as “a crime in itself that should not go unpunished.”Al-Rahi also criticized Lebanese officials for “destroying the political, security, economic, living and social peace, while the countries of the world offer all kinds of assistance for the rise of the country.”These offers fall on deaf ears, he added. “They don’t respond to conferences, the International Monetary Fund, the statements of friendly countries, the recommendations of the UN, or the calls of Pope Francis,” Al-Rahi said.
“What are they waiting for to alleviate the pain of the people and rescue Lebanon? Everyone should understand that electing a president is the key to overcoming our crisis and finding a solution. “What’s needed is the election of an honest, courageous and fearless president who can unite all the national components, put things back into perspective, restore the state control over all parties, work to repatriate Syrian refugees and find a solution for Palestine refugees, and take initiatives at the Arab and international levels to restore Lebanon’s historical status.” Institutional breakdown shows that Lebanon is a failing state that does not qualify for existence or survival, he added. The last night of 2022 ended with the sinking of a boat carrying illegal Lebanese and Syrian migrants heading to Europe. The Lebanese Army said that naval forces, assisted by UNIFIL, rescued 232 people in waters off Salaata, in northern Lebanon, and took them to the port of Tripoli. The bodies of a Syrian woman and a five-year-old Syrian girl were recovered during the operation, the army said.

Opposition to unveil 'Plan B' in late January
Naharnet/Arab News/01 January/2023
The Lebanese Forces, the Progressive Socialist Party, the Kataeb Party and a number of independent MPs are preparing to endorse a new plan to deal with the presidential crisis, after parliament failed to elect a president despite holding ten electoral sessions, an LF MP said.
In remarks to Asharq al-Awsat newspaper published Sunday, MP Melhem Riachi confirmed the presence of a “Plan B”. “It might be announced in late January,” Riachi added, noting that “work on it is taking place with MP Michel Mouawad and the rest of the allied forces.”“The time has not come to reveal any detail related to it,” he went on to say.

Lebanese, UN troops rescue 232 migrants at sea as 2 killed
Associated Press/Arab News/01 January/2023
Lebanon's navy and U.N. peacekeepers on Saturday rescued more than 200 migrants from a boat sinking in the Mediterranean Sea hours after it left northern Lebanon's coast, the military said in a statement. Two migrants were killed in the incident. The army statement said the vessel was carrying people "who were trying to illegally leave Lebanon's territorial waters." It said three Lebanese navy boats and one from the U.N. peacekeeping force in Lebanon, known as UNIFIL, rescued 232 migrants. Reports from the northern city of Tripoli -- Lebanon's second largest and most impoverished -- said Lebanese, Syrian and Palestinian men, women and children were on the boat that left northern Lebanon after midnight Friday. Residents of Tripoli who are in contact with survivors said the dead were a Syrian woman and a Syrian child. UNIFIL said in a statement that the Maritime Task Force is assisting the Lebanese navy in search and rescue operations in the sea between Beirut and Tripoli "where a boat in distress with a large number of people on board was found. Our Indonesian and Greek ships are on the scene." "We will continue to provide assistance," UNIFIL said. Lebanese security forces have been working to prevent migrants from heading to Europe at a time when the small nation is in the grips of the worst economic and financial crisis in its modern history. A crowded boat capsized on Sept. 21 off the coast of Tartus, Syria, just over a day after departing Lebanon. At least 94 people were killed, among them at least 24 children. Twenty people survived and some 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 economic meltdown that began in October 2019, has left three-quarters of the country's 6 million people, including a million Syrian refugees, living in poverty.

Jumblatt commenting on his meeting with a delegation from Palestine in Aswan: This is Kamal Jumblatt's Arab-Palestinian legacy
NNA/Arab News/01 January/2023
Head of the Socialist Party, Walid Jumblatt, commented on his meeting with a Palestinian delegation in Aswan, saying: "This is Kamal Jumblatt's Arab-Palestinian legacy."

The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on January 01-02/2023
Pope Francis Addresses Faithful after Ex-pope's Death
Asharq Al-Awsat/Sunday, 1 January, 2023
Pope Francis will address the Catholic faithful on Sunday at the Vatican, the day after the death of his predecessor at the age of 95. The pontiff led tributes on Saturday to the "kind" and "noble" emeritus pope, who died almost a decade after becoming the first head of the Catholic church in six centuries to step down, AFP said. On Sunday, Francis will preside over a service marking the World Day of Peace at St Peter's Basilica, before addressing the faithful in St Peter's Square for the Angelus prayer at 1100 GMT. Preparations are underway for the funeral on Thursday morning of Benedict at St Peter's, over which Francis will preside. His body will lie in state for three days before that, allowing the faithful to pay their respects to a pontiff who divided Catholics with his staunch defense of traditional values. Benedict's funeral will be "solemn but simple", the Vatican said, after which he will be buried in the papal tombs under St Peter's Basilica.
Two men in white -
Tributes poured in from around the world on Saturday to a brilliant theologian who nevertheless struggled to impose his authority on the church as it battled a string of crises, including over clerical sex abuse. US President Joe Biden, a devout Catholic, praised his "devotion to the Church", while Russian President Vladimir Putin hailed him as a "defender of traditional Christian values". His death brought to an end an unprecedented situation in which two "men in white" -- Benedict and Francis -- had co-existed within the walls of the tiny city-state. Benedict's health had been declining for a long time, and he had almost entirely withdrawn from public view when the Vatican revealed on Wednesday that his situation had worsened. He died on Saturday morning in the Mater Ecclesiae Monastery in the Vatican where he had lived since he resigned in 2013, citing his declining mental and physical health.
At a New Year's Eve service on Saturday evening, Francis paid tribute to his "dearest" predecessor, saying he was "so noble, so kind". Francis has this year raised the prospect that he might follow Benedict's example and step down if he became unable to carry out his duties.
God's Rottweiler -
Born on April 16, 1927, in Marktl am Inn, in Bavaria, Benedict was 78 when he became the first German pope of the modern era. Flags on the town hall flew at half-mast Saturday in Marktl, where a special mass was organized at the church where he was baptized. Local Karl Michael Nuck, 55, said his death "was probably a deliverance", while praising Benedict for resigning and defending his record. Long close to John Paul II and a senior cardinal in the Catholic hierarchy, Benedict was a leading candidate to become pope in 2005 -- but later said his election felt "like the guillotine". Unlike his successor Francis, a Jesuit who delights in being among his flock, Benedict was a conservative intellectual dubbed "God's Rottweiler" in a previous post as chief doctrinal enforcer.He struggled to contain numerous scandals in the church during his papacy, not least the worldwide scourge of clerical sex abuse and decades of cover-ups.
- Conservative flag-bearer -
The abuse scandal overshadowed his final months after a damning report for the German church in January 2022 accused him of personally failing to stop four predatory priests in the 1980s while he was archbishop of Munich. He denied wrongdoing and the Vatican strongly defended his record in being the first pope to apologize for the scandals, who expressed his own "deep remorse" and met with victims. There were other controversies, from comments that angered the Muslim world to a money-laundering scandal at the Vatican bank and a personal humiliation when, in 2012, his butler leaked secret papers to the media. He will be remembered for his theology, but "he didn't have the mental strength to be pope", noted Italian Vatican observer Marco Politi. Yet after he quit, Benedict remained a flag-bearer for the conservative wing of the church. With his death, those who battled Francis' more liberal outlook "lose a living symbol", Politi told AFP.

Syrian state media says Israeli ‘aggression’ targets southern region of Damascus city
Reuters/January 02, 2023
AMMAN: Israeli “aggression” targeted the southern region of the capital Damascus early on Monday, Syrian state media said. No details were immediately available, and there were no initial reports of damage or casualties.Earlier state media said explosions were heard over the capital.

World Steps Into 2023 after Turbulent Year
Asharq Al-Awsat/Sunday, 1 January, 2023
The world's eight billion people Saturday ushered in 2023, bidding farewell to a turbulent 12 months marked by war in Europe, stinging price rises, Lionel Messi's World Cup glory and the deaths of Queen Elizabeth, Pele and former pope Benedict. Many were ready to set aside pinched budgets and a virus that is increasingly forgotten but not gone, and embrace a party atmosphere on New Year's Eve after a few pandemic-dampened years. In New York, confetti rained down on crowds after the famous ball drop in Times Square, a tradition that dates back to 1907, with visitors from across the world waiting for hours in the chilly rain to take part. Throngs of people packed Rio de Janeiro's Copacabana Beach -- up to two million were expected -- for music and fireworks, without the coronavirus safety measures of the past few years. Across the Atlantic, Parisians -- and a "normal" amount of tourists, comparable to 2018 or 2019, according to officials -- took the opportunity to crowd together shoulder-to-shoulder for a fireworks show along the Champs-Elysees. Police said about a million people showed up for the celebration. Hours earlier, Sydney became one of the first major cities to ring in 2023, restaking its claim as the "New Year's Eve capital of the world" after two years of lockdowns and coronavirus-muted festivities with a fireworks display over the Sydney Harbor Bridge. For some, 2022 was a year of Wordle, the Great Resignation, a new Taylor Swift album, an Oscar slap and billionaire meltdowns. It also saw the deaths of Queen Elizabeth II, Brazilian football icon Pele, Mikhail Gorbachev, Jiang Zemin and Shinzo Abe. Former pope Benedict XVI also died on New Year's Eve. The global population surpassed the historic milestone of eight billion people in November. But 2022 is most likely to be remembered for armed conflict returning to Europe -- a continent that was the crucible of two world wars. "It was our year. Year of Ukraine," President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his nightly address Saturday, reflecting on his country's war effort throughout the year. However, China begins 2023 battling a surge in Covid infections. But New Year's Eve parties still went on as planned, even as hospitals in the world's most populous nation have been overwhelmed by an explosion of cases following the decision to lift strict "zero-Covid" rules.

Protests Erupt in Tehran's Bazaar
London - Adil al-Salmi/Asharq Al-Awsat/Sunday, 01 January, 2023
Protesters in Tehran's bazaar have chanted slogans denouncing the regime amid tight security measures on the 107th day of public protests in Iran. Online account "1,500 Tasvir," which closely follows the Iranian protests, published a video showing a state of panic in the bazaar and chants of "death to the dictator" and "poverty, corruption, and high prices will overthrow the regime."Social media activists had called for rallies in Tehran and other cities in Iran to protest the economic situation and reported that bazaar shop owners went on strike. On Thursday, state media reported that Iran appointed a new central bank governor. Iran's currency has lost a quarter of its value since the protests erupted three months ago, dropping to a record low in the unofficial free market as desperate Iranians buy dollars and gold, trying to protect their savings. The new head of the central bank, Mohammad Reza Farzin, told state television on Friday that the central bank's most important responsibility is to control inflation and the foreign currency rate. Farzin announced the bank's intervention in the market as he began his first official day at work. Meanwhile, activists reported that at least one person was killed in Javanrud after security forces opened fire on people who gathered for a mourning ceremony making the fortieth day of the death of demonstrators in November. People chanted "death to Khamenei" to resist security forces.
According to the Hengaw organization for human rights, security forces fired live ammunition and tear gas, killing one and injuring eight other people in a local cemetery. A day earlier, Hengaw reported that 126 protesters were killed in Kurdish cities, including 19 children, since the outbreak of the protests.
Iran has been witnessing protests since September 16, following the death of Mahsa Amini, 22, who was killed during her arrest by the morality police. The US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) reported small gatherings in various cities in Iran and published videos of protesters chanting against the regime. The 1,500 Tasvir observatory showed crowds in the center of Balochistan province chanting "Death to the dictator" in reference to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. The Balochs make up the majority of the impoverished province, which has a population of two million and has been suffering from discrimination, deprivation, and oppression for decades. The protests are one of the boldest challenges facing the "guardianship of the jurist" regime since the 1979 revolution. The authorities blamed the protesters, charging them with "destroying public property," and claiming they were trained and armed by enemies of the state and foreign countries. On Tuesday, Iranian President Ibrahim Raisi said that his country would not show mercy to "enemies" of the regime. HRANA said that 508 protesters had been killed as of Friday, including 69 minors. It added that 66 members of the security forces were also killed. The organization estimated that the number of detainees reached 19,199 demonstrators. According to the Oslo-based Human Rights Organization in Iran, 476 demonstrators were killed. Iranian officials said that up to 300 people, including members of the security forces, have died in the unrest. Last week, the Supreme Court accepted an appeal for a death sentence against rapper Saman Saidi Yassin but confirmed the same penalty against protester Mohamed Qabadlo. Earlier this month, the court suspended the death penalty for protester Mahan Sedarat, accused of various crimes, including stabbing an officer and setting a motorcycle on fire. On Saturday, the Iranian judiciary's spokesperson, Mizan, reported that the Supreme Court ordered a retrial of a defendant who had been sentenced to death. Human rights organizations outside Iran reported that the Supreme Court accepted the appeal for a death penalty sentence against Sahand Noor Mohammadzadeh, who was accused of damaging public property. Mizan reported that the court accepted his appeal and sent his case back for review based on new evidence. Iranian courts have imposed death sentences in more than a dozen cases, based on charges such as "moharebeh" after convicting protesters of killing or injuring members of the security forces, destroying public property, and terrorizing the public, according to Reuters. Last Tuesday, the Human Rights Organization in Iran, which tracks executions, warned that at least 100 protesters face the risk of execution, charges that carry the death penalty, or the possibility of death sentences being issued against them.

Iran Police Detain Top-tier Football Players in Raid at Party
Asharq Al-Awsat/Sunday, 1 January, 2023
Iranian police briefly detained several unidentified top-tier football players in a raid on a party on New Year's Eve, Iranian media reported. Social restrictions are among issues that prompted mass unrest in recent months, following the death in custody of a woman accused of violating the strict dress code. The semi-official news agency Tasnim said several current players and former members of an unidentified top Tehran soccer club had been detained at the party east of the capital. "Some of the players were in an abnormal state due to alcohol consumption," Tasnim reported, without giving further details.
The YJC news agency said the gathering was a birthday party, and added that all those detained had been released except one person, who is not a soccer player. Fars news agency cited a prosecutor as saying a case had been filed against those who had been detained, and details would be released later.

Ukraine faces grim start to 2023 after fresh Russian attacks
AP/January 01, 2023
Attacks followed barrage of more than 20 cruise missiles fired at targets across Ukraine on Saturday
Ukraine’s human rights ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets called it “Terror on New Year’s Eve”
KYIV, Ukraine: Ukrainians faced a grim start to 2023 as Sunday brought more Russian missile and drone attacks following a blistering New Year’s Eve assault that killed at least three civilians across the country, authorities reported.
Air raid sirens sounded in the capital shortly after midnight, followed by a barrage of missiles that interrupted the small celebrations residents held at home due to wartime curfews. Ukrainian officials alleged Moscow was deliberately targeting civilians along with critical infrastructure to create a climate of fear and destroy morale during the long winter months. In a video address Sunday night, President Volodymyr Zelensky praised his citizens’ “sense of unity, of authenticity, of life itself.” The Russians, he said, “will not take away a single year from Ukraine. They will not take away our independence. We will not give them anything.”Ukrainian forces in the air and on the ground shot down 45 Iranian-made explosive drones fired by Russia on Saturday night and before dawn Sunday, Zelensky said.
Another strike at noon Sunday in the southern Zaporizhzhia region killed one person, according to the head of the regional military administration, Alexander Starukh. But Kyiv was largely quiet, and people there on New Year’s Day savored the snippets of peace.
“Of course it was hard to celebrate fully because we understand that our soldiers can’t be with their family,” Evheniya Shulzhenko said while sitting with her husband on a park bench overlooking the city.
But a “really powerful” New Year’s Eve speech by Zelensky lifted her spirits and made her proud to be Ukrainian, Shulzhenko said. She recently moved to Kyiv after living in Bakhmut and Kharkiv, two cities that have experienced some of the heaviest fighting of the war.
Multiple blasts rocked the capital and other areas of Ukraine on Saturday and through the night, wounding dozens. An AP photographer at the scene of an explosion in Kyiv saw a woman’s body as her husband and son stood nearby.
Ukraine’s largest university, the Taras Shevchenko National University in Kyiv, reported significant damage to its buildings and campus. Mayor Vitali Klitschko said two schools were damaged, including a kindergarten.
The strikes came 36 hours after widespread missile attacks Russia launched Thursday to damage energy infrastructure facilities. Saturday’s unusually quick follow-up alarmed Ukrainian officials. Russia has carried out airstrikes on Ukrainian power and water supplies almost weekly since October, increasing the suffering of Ukrainians, while its ground forces struggle to hold ground and advance.
Nighttime shelling in parts of the southern city of Kherson killed one person and blew out hundreds of windows in a children’s hospital, according to deputy presidential chief of staff Kyrylo Tymoshenko. Ukrainian forces reclaimed the city in November after Russia’s forces withdrew across the Dnieper River, which bisects the Kherson region. When shells hit the children’s hospital on Saturday night, surgeons were operating on a 13-year-old boy who was seriously wounded in a nearby village that evening, Kherson Gov. Yaroslav Yanushevych said. The boy was transferred in serious condition to a hospital about 99 kilometers (62 miles) away in Mykolaiv.
Elsewhere, a 22-year-old woman died of wounds from a Saturday rocket attack Saturday in the eastern town of Khmelnytskyi, the city’s mayor said. Instead of New Year’s fireworks, Oleksander Dugyn said he and his friends and family in Kyiv watched the sparks caused by Ukrainian air defense forces countering Russian attacks. “We already know the sound of rockets, we know the moment they fly, we know the sound of drones. The sound is like the roar of a moped,” said Dugin, who was strolling with his family in the park. “We hold on the best we can.” While Russia’s bombardments have left many Ukrainians without heating and electricity due to damage or controlled blackouts meant to preserve the remaining power supply, Ukraine’s state-owned grid operator said Sunday there would be no restrictions on electricity use for one day. “The power industry is doing everything possible to ensure that the New Year’s holiday is with light, without restrictions,” utility company Ukrenergo said. It said businesses and industry had cut back to allow the additional electricity for households. Zelensky, in his nightly address, thanked utility workers for helping to keep the lights on during the latest assault. “It is very important how all Ukrainians recharged their inner energy this New Year’s Eve,” he said. In separate tweets Sunday, the Ukrainian leader also reminded the European Union of his country’s wish to join the EU. He thanked the Czech Republic and congratulated Sweden, which just exchanged the EU’s rotating presidency, for their help in securing progress for Ukraine’s bid. Meanwhile, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said the Western military alliance’s 30 members need to “ramp up” arms production in the coming months both to maintain their own stockpiles and to keep supplying Ukraine with the weapons it needs to fend off Russia.
The war in Ukraine, now in its 11th month, is consuming an “enormous amount” of munitions, Stoltenberg told BBC Radio 4′s “The World This Weekend” in an interview that aired Sunday. “It is a core responsibility for NATO to ensure that we have the stocks, the supplies, the weapons in place to ensure our own deterrence and defense, but also to be able to continue to provide support to Ukraine for the long haul,” he said. Achieving the twin goals “is a huge undertaking. We need to ramp up production, and that is exactly what the NATO allies are doing,” Stoltenberg said.
The NATO chief said that while Russia has experienced battlefield setbacks and the fighting on the ground appears at a stalemate, “Russia has shown no sign of giving up its overall goal of taking control over Ukraine.” he said. “The Ukrainian forces have had the momentum for several months but we also know that Russia has mobilized many more forces. Many of them are now training. “All that indicates that they are prepared to continue the war and also potentially try to launch a new offensive,” Stoltenberg said. He added that what Ukraine can achieve during negotiations to end the war will depend on the strength it shows on the battlefield. “If we want a negotiated solution that ensures that Ukraine prevails as a sovereign, independent, democratic state in Europe, then we need to provide support for Ukraine now,” Stoltenberg said,

Ukraine, Hit by Fresh Russian Missiles, Faces Grim New Year
Asharq Al-Awsat/Sunday, 1 January, 2023
Ukrainians had a grim start to 2023 on Sunday, with yet more sirens and fresh missile attacks on their territory, as the death toll from Russia’s massive New Year Eve assault across the country climbed to at least three. Night-time shelling that battered parts of the southern city of Kherson killed one person, wounded another and blew out hundreds of windows in a children’s hospital, according to deputy presidential chief of staff Kyrylo Tymoshenko. Meanwhile, a 22-year-old woman injured in a rocket attack in eastern Khmelnytskyi later died of her wounds, the city’s mayor Oleksandr Symchyshyn said. Multiple blasts rocked Kyiv and other areas of Ukraine on Saturday and through the night, injuring dozens, a sign that the pace of Russia attacks had picked up. Ukrainian officials claimed Russia was now deliberately targeting civilians, seeking to create a climate of fear and dent morale. The blasts came just 36 hours after Russia launched a barrage of missiles on Thursday to damage energy infrastructure facilities, an unusually quickened rhythm that alarmed Ukrainian officials. First lady Olena Zelenska expressed outrage that such massive missile attacks could come just before New Year’s Eve celebrations.
“Ruining the lives of others is a disgusting habit of our neighbors,” she said. On Saturday in Kyiv, an AP photographer at the scene of the explosions saw the body of a woman as her husband and son stood nearby. Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said two schools were also damaged, including a kindergarten. Some Ukrainians defied the danger, however, to return to the country to reunite with families for the holidays.

ISIS Claims Attack on Egypt Police that Killed 4
Asharq Al-Awsat/Sunday, 1 January, 2023
The ISIS militant group claimed responsibility for a militant attack on a police checkpoint in Egypt’s Suez Canal city of Ismailia that killed at least four people, including three police. The extremist group claimed the attack in a statement late Saturday carried by its Amaq news agency.
The attack took place Friday afternoon when armed militants opened fire on police in Ismailia. At least 12 people, mostly conscripts, were wounded in the attack. The dead included three police officers and a still unidentified person, according to a hospital tally document obtained by The Associated Press. The state-run al-Qahera News television station reported that security forces killed one of the attackers. Egypt has been battling ISIS in the northern part of the Sinai Peninsula for years. The militants have carried out numerous attacks in Sinai and elsewhere in the country mainly targeting security forces, minority Christians and those who they accuse of collaborating with the military and police.

How Saudi Arabia's crown prince snubbed Biden repeatedly to forge ties with authoritarian China and Russia
Tom Porter/ Business Insider/January 1, 2023
In 2022, Saudi Arabia sought closer ties with Russia and China.
At the same ties its relations with traditional ally the US have been turbulent. Experts say Saudi Arabia is seeking to steer a new path amid waning US influence. In Riyadh in early December, China's President Xi Jinping met with Saudi Arabia's de-facto ruler, Mohammed bin Salman, to announce a "new era" in relations between the countries. They touted sweeping new trade and energy deals, and alignment on issues ranging from the war in Yemen, to digital infrastructure and space research. It was the culmination of years of alliance-building between Beijing and Riyadh in their increasingly brazen opposition to US global dominance. "Saudi Arabia and China each find each other useful. They have significant economic ties, and they expect those to grow," the analyst Jon Alterman told Insider in an interview. "While their concerns about US global leadership are very different, they both agree that a unipolar world led by the United States would undermine their interests," said Altermann, a senior vice president at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, DC. For China, the US stands in the way of further expanding its global influence. For Saudi Arabia, it sees economic opportunity and the possibility of taking a bigger global role where several great powers are competing. And it's not just China that Saudi Arabia has been growing closer to, provoking US concern, but another authoritarian superpower and US adversary: Russia. Back in October, Riyadh infuriated the Biden administration by announcing in tandem with Russia that it would be cutting oil production. The deal was reportedly a shock to Biden administration officials, who believed they had secured a secret agreement with Saudi Arabia to increase production in a bid to ease domestic inflation. The deal also frustrated attempts by Biden to choke off Russia's income from international oil sales, part of the wave of sanctions imposed on Russia over its invasion of Ukraine. Saudi Arabia has refused to join in sanctioning Russia over Ukraine, though in a possible concession to the US condemned the Russian invasion of Ukraine at a UN summit in October.
US criticisms infuriate Riyadh
To top it off, Crown Prince Mohammed has made no secret of his contempt for Biden, reportedly mocking Biden in private, and telling The Atlantic in March he doesn't care if Biden misunderstands him. The lavish welcome he gave Xi contrasted with the muted one for Biden when he visited in July. Analysts say that US criticism of Saudi Arabia's human-rights record and its suppression of domestic dissent infuriate Riyadh. Biden's pledge on the campaign trail in 2020 to make the kingdom a "pariah" over the assassination of dissident Jamal Khashoggi was similarly greeted with fury by Saudi Arabia's leadership.
Crown Prince Mohammed has more affinity with the ideology of fellow strongmen Xi or Putin than with the US, said Alterman. "They share a belief that a significant liberalization of domestic life would lead to social chaos, the collapse of morality, and political polarization," said Alterman. "The Saudi leadership is much more comfortable with Saudi Arabia pursuing the Chinese path of tightly managed politics, strong state-owned companies, and limited social freedoms than pursuing the US model," he said. Xi and Putin are silent on Saudi human rights abuses, and Crown Prince Mohammed has largely been happy to reciprocate by remaining silent on China and Russia's domestic repressions, said Giorgio Cafiero, CEO of Gulf State Analytics. Particularly notable is Crown Prince Mohammed's silence on China's brutal treatment of the Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang province. The US and several Western allies have labelled China's repression as a genocide, but Saudi Arabia has not intervened despite its role as the birthplace and spiritual center of Islam. "Saudi Arabia, China, and Russia all believe in the model of 'authoritarian stability'. This factor helps explain why Riyadh never presses China's government on the human rights situation in Xinjiang despite the King of Saudi Arabia officially being the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques [situated in Mecca and Medina]," said Cafiero. "These governments prioritize stability above individual rights and their approaches to security resonate with each other in some remarkable ways," he said. As well as sharing ideological affinities with Russia and China, Saudi Arabia sees forming ties with them as sound diplomatic and economic sense, analysts say. The nation is essentially hedging its bet, reacting to shifting rhetoric from Washington, DC, and declining US commitment to the Middle East. "The Saudis fear it is reckless to rely entirely on the United States, whose long-term intentions they distrust and whose attitude toward Saudi Arabia has shifted dramatically between the Obama, Trump, and Biden administrations," said Alterman. But for all their differences, the US and Saudi Arabia share common interests that will ensure the survival of the alliance for the near future, analysts generally agree. Saudi Arabia is reliant on US military protections and arms sales, while for the US, the Saudis are an important ally in a turbulent region, and a crucial counterweight against Iran. "The United States remains Saudi Arabia's most important strategic partner. There is no country or collection of countries that can defend the country from external threats like the United States can," said Alterman.

Pakistan, India exchange lists of nuclear assets, inmates
ISLAMABAD (AP)/Sun, January 1, 2023
Pakistan and neighboring India exchanged lists of their nuclear facilities on Sunday as part of a 1988 pact that bars them from attacking each other’s nuclear installations, according to official statements from both sides. Pakistan and India have had strained relations since their independence from colonial British rule in 1947 over the Himalayan region of Kashmir. They have fought three wars, built up their armies and developed nuclear weapons. India conducted its first nuclear test in 1974, with Pakistan carrying out its first test in 1988. The lists were simultaneously handed over through their respective diplomats in Islamabad and New Delhi. India and Pakistan also exchanged lists of prisoners in each other’s custody as part of an agreement dating back to 2008. Pakistan shared a list of 705 detained Indians, 51 civilians and 654 fishermen. India shared a list of 434 Pakistanis in its custody, 339 civilians and 95 fishermen. India and Pakistan arrest each other’s fishermen for crossing the unmarked sea frontier between them. Their maritime security agencies seize the boats and jail the fishermen, who are usually only released after the two countries hold negotiations. Normally they spend years behind bars with no formal trial. The 2008 agreement gives each side consular access to prisoners and requires them to exchange lists of prisoners in each other’s custody each January and July. Pakistan separately also sought consular access to its missing defense personnel from wars in 1965 and 1971 and special consular access to another 56 civilian prisoners.

The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous sources published on January 01-02/2023
Syria’s ‘Figurative’ President!
Tariq Al-Homayed/Asharq Al-Awsat/January, 01/2023
Sooner or later, days and events will prove that the key to clipping Iran’s nails in the region and taking back the confrontation with Iran inside Iran is Syria, not any other country, whether it is Iraq or Lebanon.
What brought about this introduction was a story published by our newspaper about Iranian expansion in Syria and plans to create another southern suburb in Damascus, like the one in Beirut.
Beirut’s southern suburb, a destructive stronghold for “Hezbollah,” acts as headquarters for destabilizing our region and Mediterranean nations.
Establishing a new suburb in Syria will be more devastating and influential.
Since Khomeini’s days in power, Tehran has been seeking an anchor in the Mediterranean that enables it to promote the lie of “opposition and resistance.” It also sought false legitimacy by claiming confrontation with Israel to propagate animosity against the countries of the region.
By pursuing a view of the Mediterranean, Iran wants to find a place for itself with the West, because any disturbance in the security of the Mediterranean means a refugee crisis and the export of terrorism.
Syria also represents supply lines from Tehran to Lebanon, via Iraq.
Since the alleged Arab Spring, and the real revolution in Syria, I have been saying that striking Iran in Syria means cutting off the tentacles of the Iranian octopus in the region and exposing its head inside Iran.
At that time, Tehran will be forced to face its internal obligations. Former US President Obama neglected this and missed the opportunity.
The story in Syria is not sectarian. The statement of “there is no war without Egypt and there is no peace without Syria” is also a lie. Moreover, what is happening in Syria is not necessarily targeting his excellency the “figurative” President Bashar al-Assad. Rather, it is a story of stability and cutting off Iran’s supply lines. What is important is to stop the project of exporting the Iranian revolution. Spreading Iran’s agenda and ideology would be impossible if the Iranians lose Syria.
Since Assad’s accession to power in Syria, there have been false hopes that he would move away from Iran and make Syria an independent state.
Here I am not talking about Arabism or sectarianism, and perhaps those aspirations were acceptable at the time, to some, but it was a big lie.
Time has proven this, and it is not wise now to repeat past experiences. Assad has traded this story until he deservedly became the “figurative” president, not the Syrian.
Today, there are several occupiers in Syria, not just one.
The Russians, the US, the Turks, and the Israelis are all found in Syria, and Iran now wants to finish off what is left.
Iran does not want to deal with Syria as a proper state of influence, but rather as a state that is effectively ruled by Tehran.
Such a model would be worse than that of Lebanon, where there is at least resistance to Iranian influence. Meanwhile, Syria has been destroyed, and its people were exposed to abhorrent sectarian violence and the presence of about 60,000 fighters from Iranian militias.
Recent news and reports talk about Yemen’s Houthis training in Syria to launch drones. Therefore, the advice here to the Arabs and the West, and specifically to Washington, is that Syria will stay an arena of conflict, and that the solution to the crisis there, and before that the crisis with Iran, will be through overthrowing the Iranian project in Syria.
This will not happen without a political solution that results in toppling the “figurative” president, so that Syria will be ruled by a Syrian who does not belong to Iran.
Then the region will change.

Poetry Died 100 Years Ago This Month
Matthew Walther/The New York Times/January, 01/2023
Like many millennials, I was educated, if that’s the right word for it, on the internet. The online music critics and antiwar bloggers of the mid-2000s who were my teachers did not introduce me to T.S. Eliot, but they made sure that I had reasonably detailed opinions about “Apocalypse Now Redux,” the 2001 update of Francis Ford Coppola’s classic war movie. This meant that I had heard Eliot’s poem “The Hollow Men,” which the film features in a hammy (and on the whole rather effective) reading by Marlon Brando.
Not long after, I found a copy of the old Harcourt edition of Eliot’s “Collected Poems” in the library. “The Hollow Men” and a dozen other poems committed themselves effortlessly to my memory, where they have been lodged ever since. In those days, for reasons I could not understand (and would not wish to understand even now, lest the magic be dispelled), the poems seemed to have an incantatory power. I distinctly recall sitting at the back of the school bus and repeating, mantra-like, the following lines from “The Waste Land”: “What are the roots that clutch, what branches grow/Out of this stony rubbish?”
If you had asked me then, I would have imagined that the centenary of “The Waste Land” — published in book form 100 years ago this month — would be a big to-do. I don’t know exactly what I would have envisioned (parades? presidential decrees? a Sphinx-size statue of Eliot erected somewhere in the Great American Desert?). But it would have been more lavish than the quiet commemoration provided by the handful of recent publications from university and trade presses, of which the most enviable is a full-color facsimile of the original drafts of “The Waste Land” with Ezra Pound’s characteristically terse editorial notes (“Too loose”).
Modest as the festivities have been, I am certain that in 100 years there will be no poem whose centenary is the object of comparable celebration. This seems to me true for the simple reason that poetry is dead. Indeed, it is dead in part because Eliot helped to kill it.
Of course poetry isn’t literally dead. There have probably never been more practicing poets than there are today — graduates of M.F.A. programs working as professors in M.F.A. programs — and I wager that the gross domestic chapbook per capita rate is higher than ever. But the contemporary state of affairs is not exactly what one has in mind when one says that poetry is alive and well — as opposed to, say, on a luxe version of life support.
I’m hardly the first person to suggest that poetry is dead. But the autopsy reports have never been conclusive about the cause. From cultural conservatives we have heard that poetry died because, for political reasons, we stopped teaching the right kinds of poems, or teaching them the right way. (This was more or less the view of the critic Harold Bloom, who blamed what he called the “school of resentment” for the decline in aesthetic standards.)
Another argument is that the high modernist poets and their followers produced works of such formidable difficulty that the implicit compact between artist and audience was irrevocably broken. It is certainly difficult to imagine many of the suburban households that once contained popular anthologies such as “The Best Loved Poems of the American People” finding room on the shelf for Pound (“‘We call all foreigners frenchies’/and the egg broke in Cabranez’ pocket,/thus making history. Basil says”).
There is probably some truth to such arguments. But the problem seems to me more fundamental: We stopped writing good poetry because we are now incapable of doing so. The culprit is not bad pedagogy or formal experimentation but rather the very conditions of modern life, which have demystified and alienated us from the natural world.
Permit me, by way of argument, a medium-size quotation. Here are lines — not especially memorable or distinguished ones, but serviceable enough — taken at random from the second volume of Robert Southey’s “Minor Poems” (1823):
Aye Charles! I knew that this would fix thine eye,/This woodbine wreathing round the broken porch,/Its leaves just withering, yet one autumn flower/Still fresh and fragrant; and yon holly-hock/That thro’ the creeping weeds and nettles tall/Peers taller, and uplifts its column’d stem/Bright with the broad rose-blossoms. Admit it: Your eyes, so far from being fixed, are already glazing over. How many Americans even know what woodbine is? By sheer guesswork one might infer that Southey meant some kind of ugly creeping plant. But what about all this holly-hock business, yon or near? Are the stems white? Habituated as most of us are to skimming text, we find ourselves wondering imperceptibly what Southey’s point was.
This is not to suggest that poetry is supposed to be a textual version of nature photography or the rhymed equivalent of audio descriptions for the blind. But the relationship between nature and poetry is basic and elemental. (“Nature,” the critic Northrop Frye wrote, “is inside art as its content, not outside as its model.”) When Milton described the fallen bodies of rebel angels — “Thick as autumnal leaves that strew the brooks/In Vallombrosa” — he was borrowing an image from Dante, Virgil and Homer, all of whom employed the shedding of leaves as a simile for the fall of bodies. Even after the loss of his sight, Milton’s world, like that of his predecessors, was one full of such images. It was a natural world alive with intimations of the transcendent that could be evoked, personified and filtered through one’s subjective experience.
But modern life, disenchanted by science and mediated by technology, has made that kind of relationship with the natural world impossible, even if we are keen botanists or hikers. Absent the ability to see nature this way — as the dwelling place of unseen forces, teeming with images to be summoned and transformed, as opposed to an undifferentiated mass of resources to be either exploited or preserved — it is unlikely that we will look for those images in the work of Homer or Virgil, and even less likely that we will create those images ourselves.
But surely, you object, we can write poems about things other than flowers and bees and wild goats’ milk, poems that depart not only from the established idioms of the Greek and Latin classics but also from the basic imagistic procedures common to all poetry written before the last century. We can write verse, if not about the perceived transcendent order in the universe, then about the feelings of unease within ourselves; we can even draw our images from the detritus of consumer civilization — an empty plastic bottle, an iPhone with a cracked screen.
The New York Times

Call This Violence What It Is
Julia Cooke/The New York Times/January, 01/2023
On a cold October morning, Colin Canham and his wife, Sara Emerick, were found dead in an apparent murder-suicide. Mr. Canham was found lying near a firearm outside the couple’s home. Ms. Emerick was inside. A detective told me that it seemed that Mr. Canham had committed a crime of passion — a legal term that implies a lack of premeditation, an act supposedly born out of love or devotion.
I first met him when we were in our 20s. Though we were part of the same friend group, we weren’t especially close. Still, I knew him to be a loyal friend, gregarious and generous. He moved couches for friends and helped roast pigs for celebrations, where he, like most of us, often drank to excess. He also liked woodworking. I once hosted a get-together where he suggested I add crown molding to my apartment and offered to help me buy, cut and attach each piece.
We all largely fell out of touch in our late 30s, but the news resuscitated old bonds. Those who had been closer to Mr. Canham wondered what the distance of time had done to him and wished they had known about his recent struggles. Others shared photos of him at parties.
That he apparently killed Ms. Emerick — whom I never met — did not seem possible to me. But in the past few years, a detective told me, she called the police multiple times from the home they shared near Cape Cod Bay. No arrests were ever made.
In the aftermath, I noticed, my friends didn’t call it what it was. One noted tensions and resentment toward Mr. Canham among Ms. Emerick’s circle. There was a euphemistic reference to where he ended up. Largely absent from the conversation was language that accurately described the offense he evidently committed — “kill,” “shoot,” “domestic violence” or even “crime.” The words that were used hinted at a cloudy culpability.
Mr. Canham’s closer friends, some of whom are my good friends, too, might have wanted to keep warm memories of him unsullied. The horrific finality of what all signs point to his having done made it difficult to reconcile the man with his action.
Women killed by a single offender in the United States, according to a 2021 report by the Violence Policy Center, are far more likely to die at the hands of a current or former romantic partner than at the hands of a male stranger. A survey conducted by a domestic violence hotline found that 40 percent of intimate partner violence survivors who did not contact the police were not certain that what happened to them was a crime. Abusers often do the manipulative work of becoming essential, constructing vigorous good-guy facades through gallantry.
Word choice has a profound effect on what we think of ourselves and one another. Terms like “crime of passion” can imply that violence is a consequence of love, and talking around violence can make you doubt that it will happen or that it will happen again. Silence reinforces the old-fashioned implication that a victim is, at least in some part, to blame for her own abuse, that a mother should have seen her daughter’s murder coming.
“Why didn’t you leave?” Gayle King asked the musician FKA twigs about her abuse lawsuit against her ex-boyfriend Shia LaBeouf. She answered politely, “The question should really be to the abuser, ‘Why are you holding someone hostage?’”
“He just seemed like a nice guy,” Gabby Petito’s mother said of her daughter’s fiancé and killer.
What happens inside a marriage is private, the implication goes. In truth, intimate partner violence is an epidemic that has far-reaching social consequences. It causes homelessness, is linked to higher suicide rates and hovers in the background of most mass shootings. It has substantial economic costs: A 2018 study estimated that intimate partner violence costs nearly $3.6 trillion over the lifetimes of 43 million American adults with victimization history. Much of that burden — medical costs, criminal justice work and more — is borne by government sources. The Covid pandemic has only made things worse.
And then there are the bigger, public failures that contributed to Ms. Emerick’s death — most notably a legal system that is ill equipped for the emotional complexities of domestic violence — and can’t be addressed with language that treats the issue as unspeakably private. Many victims are afraid to call the police, concerned that they’ll be doubted or blamed. Those who call often regret doing so.
In a tribute online, a friend of Ms. Emerick noted that in 2020 she expressed concern about her husband. Two days before she was killed, she called the police. He was drunk and trying to get into the house, she said. She didn’t pursue a restraining order, the detective told me — she was filing for divorce. No decorous words disguise the fact that her life was taken before she had the chance to leave.

Is the UK Turning into Something Extremely Different?
Mohshin Habib/Gatestone Institute/January 01/2023
In 2013, British journalist Vincent Cooper wrote: "By the year 2050, in a mere 37 years, Britain will be a majority Muslim nation."
Religion seems a far more important part of life for Muslims than for other Britons: it appears central to their sense of identity. According to a report from 2006: "Thirty percent of British Muslims would prefer to live under Sharia (Islamic religious) law than under British law.... Twenty-eight percent hope for the U.K. one day to become a fundamentalist Islamic state."
The question is: What teachings are the Muslims across the world, including in the UK, receiving from studying the Quran?
On December 1, 2022, Britain's Office for National Statistics released the latest 10-yearly census, carried out in 2021, showing that the fastest-growing population in England and Wales is Muslims. According to the census:
"For the first time in a census of England and Wales, less than half of the population (46.2%, 27.5 million people) described themselves as 'Christian'..."
"It's not a great surprise that the Census shows fewer people in this country identifying as Christian than in the past," the Archbishop of York, Stephen Cottrell, said in response to the findings, "but it still throws down a challenge to us not only to trust that God will build his kingdom on Earth but also to play our part in making Christ known."
The Muslim community in Britain reacted otherwise. Zara Mohammed, secretary general of the Muslim Council of Britain, said:
"Whilst the Census does look at religion, the lack of wider religion-specific monitoring prevents us from fully understanding how acute the issue of under-representation of Muslims is in British society.
"These initial figures give us an opportunity to now make meaningful change and create a better Britain for all."
In 2013, British journalist Vincent Cooper wrote: "By the year 2050, in a mere 37 years, Britain will be a majority Muslim nation."
The census taken 2021 has revealed that while fewer than half of people (27.5 million) in England and Wales now describe themselves as Christian, those claiming "No religion" rose by 12 points to 37.2% (22.2 million). Those identifying as Muslim rose from 4.9% in 2011 to 6.5% (3.9 million) in 2021. The next most common responses were Hindu (1.0 million) and Sikh (524,000), while Buddhists overtook Jews (273,000 to 271,000).
Religion seems a far more important part of life for Muslims than for other Britons: it appears central to their sense of identity. According to a report from 2006:
"Thirty percent of British Muslims would prefer to live under Sharia (Islamic religious) law than under British law.... Twenty-eight percent hope for the U.K. one day to become a fundamentalist Islamic state."
An article by Abdul Azim Ahmed, published by the Religion Media Centre in September 2021, admitted that within Britain all the divergent schools of Islam are present — although Salafism has grown in recent years, particularly among younger Muslims.
Trevor Phillips, former head of Britain's Commission for Racial Equality and Equality and Human Rights Commission, found that the followers of Islam hold very different values from the rest of the society; many apparently want to lead separate lives. "Muslims are creating nations within nations," he said.
Professor Linda Woodhead, a leading academic, said of second-generation Muslim immigrants:
"Now British Muslims were finding their voice with Muslim MPs and confident young people entering higher education, mixing with the many different ethnic Muslim communities and creating a new cultural kind of British Islam with food, clothing, music, and creative places."
Muslims in the UK appear more religious than most other religious groups. While fewer Christians are becoming church members and appear to be losing their faith, describing themselves atheist and non-religious, most Muslims in Britain strictly follow their religion. London shows the lowest share of non-religious residents, likely due to it having the highest percentage of followers of non-Christian faiths, including Muslims, who make up 13% of the area's respondents.
A 2015 report cites a survey by NatCen's British Social Attitude Survey:
"NatCen says the Church of England has been in decline for over 30 years and that decline appears to have accelerated over the last decade.
"In 2012, Muhammad had emerged as the commonest first name given by baby boys born in London. The name was also second commonest among new born mail babies across the UK and Wales the same year."
The Centre for Research and Evidence on Security Threats stated:
"Muslims have in some respects been more successful than others in the UK at passing on their religious beliefs and practices from one generation to the next. Higher rates of intergenerational transmission have been found among Muslims than among Christians, those of other religions, and non-religious people.
"Most Muslim children in the UK learn to read the Qur'an in Arabic, whether they do this at a daily mosque school, at the home of an independent teacher, in their own homes or even on Skype. In addition to the Qur'an and Arabic, many Muslim supplementary schools offer other aspects of Islamic Studies, as well as formal instruction in an ethnic language and culture."
The question is: What teachings are the Muslims across the world, including in the UK, receiving from studying the Quran? The Quran does not tolerate any polytheist, pagan, idolater or atheist -- the latter a group now increasing in Britain, according to the census. The quandary was envisaged by Prime Minister Winston Churchill:
"Individual Moslems may show splendid qualities. Thousands become the brave and loyal soldiers of the Queen; all know how to die; but the influence of the religion paralyses the social development of those who follow it. No stronger retrograde force exists in the world."
*Mohshin Habib, a Bangladeshi author, columnist and journalist, is Executive Editor of The Daily Asian Age.
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Time to increase the pressure on Iranian regime
Dr. Majid Rafizadeh/Arab News/January 01, 2023
When it comes to Iran, several important developments occurred in 2022 and will likely continue into 2023.
Firstly, the Iranian regime witnessed one of its most critical uprisings in 2022. The nationwide demonstrations were precipitated by the September death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini at the hands of the so-called morality police. Her death led to near-national mobilization and a powerful women’s movement against the theocratic establishment. People around the world saw scenes of women defiantly removing their hijab and cutting their hair in public, as well as crowds chanting “women, life, freedom.” Social media helped circulate images of the defiance of Iranian women toward the regime’s forces. Time magazine even named the Iranian women as its heroes for the year. Protests rocked 31 of Iran’s provinces and became overwhelmingly political, with people chanting “Death to the dictator,” “Death to (Supreme Leader Ali) Khamenei,” “We are all Mahsa, fight and we will fight back,” “This year is a year of sacrifice,” “Freedom, freedom, freedom,” “From Kurdistan to Tehran, I sacrifice my life for Iran,” and “Imprisoned teachers must be freed.”
Concerns among Iranian officials increased as their hold on power was threatened. Ali Khamenei, who has the final say on all Iran’s major domestic and foreign policies, immediately backed the security forces and police, while instructing them to harshly crack down on the protesters. He called the demonstrators “thugs, robbers and extortionists.” And he declared: “Those who ignited unrest to sabotage the country deserve harsh prosecution and punishment.”The regime deployed full-scale brute force to suppress the protesters, including children and women. It began executing protesters and bringing ambiguous charges against them, such as “moharebeh” (enmity against God), endangering the national security of the government, attempting to overthrow the government, and conspiring with “enemies” and foreigners. Reports from the Oslo-based nongovernmental organization Iran Human Rights state that, in the recent anti-regime protests, 326 people have died and 15,000 have been arrested. Executions have already begun. According to the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, “some sources suggest that as many as 23 children have been killed and many others injured in at least seven provinces by live ammunition, metal pellets at close range, and fatal beatings. A number of schools have also been raided, and children arrested by security forces. Some principals have also reportedly been arrested for not cooperating with security forces. On Oct. 11, the minister of education confirmed that an unspecified number of children had been sent to ‘psychological centers’ after they were arrested allegedly for participating in anti-state protests.”
The regime delivered drones to Russia, began sending troops to Crimea and planned to deliver ballistic missiles to Moscow.
A second key issue in 2022 was Iran’s nuclear program. The regime continued to defy the international community, while showing no sign that it is serious about or willing to reach an agreement to curb its nuclear program and address the threats posed by it.
Instead, the Iranian leaders made significant progress in their nuclear program. They expanded it, enriching uranium to nearly weapons-grade levels, conducting uranium metal research, development and production, and adding additional advanced uranium enrichment centrifuges.
Former Foreign Minister Kamal Kharazi pointed out Iran’s major advances, stating: “It’s no secret that we have become a quasi-nuclear state. This is a fact. And it’s no secret that we have the technical means to produce a nuclear bomb … In the past, and within just a few days, we were able to enrich uranium up to 60 percent, and we can easily produce 90 percent-enriched uranium.”Iran also sought assistance from its ally, Russia, to bolster its nuclear program, according to US intelligence officials. The regime even announced that it would not allow the International Atomic Energy Agency to see images of centrifuges. And a joint statement issued by the UK, France and Germany stressed that Tehran “has no credible civilian need for uranium metal R&D and production, which are a key step in the development of a nuclear weapon.”
The third critical issue was Iran’s increasing involvement in the Russia-Ukraine war, which brought about condemnation from the EU and US. The regime delivered drones to Russia, began sending troops to Crimea to assist the Russian army and planned to deliver ballistic missiles to Moscow.
In 2023, the nationwide uprising and opposition to the regime will most likely continue. Also, the regime will likely ratchet up its weapons delivery to Russia, as well as attempt to become a state armed with nuclear weapons. So, the international community must show more support for the Iranian people, particularly women, and counter the Iranian regime’s efforts to further advance its nuclear program and deliver weapons to Russia.
*Dr. Majid Rafizadeh is a Harvard-educated Iranian-American political scientist. Twitter: @Dr_Rafizadeh

Progressive Democrats become America’s biggest losers
Dalia Al-Aqidi/Arab News/January 01, 2023
The new year has begun and with it comes optimism and hope. The American people are hoping that 2023 will be better than last year, with all its political, economic and social changes.
Here are the biggest losers of 2022 in the US.
American media outlets have lost the trust of their audience due to several factors. The media is polling just two points higher than the lowest Gallup result ever recorded in 2016, during that year’s presidential campaign. When only 34 percent of Americans have faith in their newspapers and TV and radio stations to ethically, accurately and fairly report the news, it is a disaster.
According to the most recent Gallup poll, the percentage of those with no trust in the media is higher than those with a great deal or fair amount of trust combined.
Following his Twitter purchase, businessman Elon Musk dropped a bombshell when he revealed that the social media company was censoring users, suppressing stories that would harm the current administration and banning users from expressing conservative views.
Independent journalist Michael Shellenberger shared internal communications between high-level executives on adopting a new rule approved by then-Twitter boss Jack Dorsey that would result in the permanent suspension of accounts with five violations, including the president of the US.
Meanwhile, the number of illegal crossings into the US via the Mexico border in the 2022 fiscal year reached 2.4 million, showing a massive surge. Vice President Kamala Harris proudly joins our list, since she was in charge of this critical file as the border czar. She could not get a grip on the border crisis, let alone form a plan to ease the struggle of the border states, their residents and the immigrants themselves.
This group had a short lifespan, with polls showing that, in America, far-left socialist agendas have no place.
According to the Los Angeles Times, Harris’ poll numbers are lower than those of her boss, President Joe Biden. “As of Dec. 20, 53 percent had an unfavorable opinion of Harris while 39 percent of registered voters had a favorable opinion of Harris,” the newspaper reported. Her chances of running in the 2024 presidential elections are now very slim. The past year also proved to former President Donald Trump that voters were moving on and becoming ready to elect a new Republican presidential candidate. Republican voters had their say when they refused to vote for the politicians the former president supported in the midterm elections, indicating the desire for a change instead of returning to personal attacks and impeachment efforts.
On Dec. 29, the Congressional Joint Committee on Taxation released a summary of Trump’s federal tax returns, showing that he declared negative income in 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2020. The former president paid a total of $1,500 in income taxes for 2016 and 2017.
Trump knew that these documents would be very damaging to his 2024 campaign. He said: “The … tax returns once again show how proudly successful I have been and how I have been able to use depreciation and various other tax deductions as an incentive for creating thousands of jobs and magnificent structures and enterprises.” However, the biggest losers in 2022 were the progressives in the Democratic Party, who bear responsibility for the party losing its majority in the House of Representatives because of their radical far-left policies that led to the spread of violence in several cities run by Democrats. In the name of freedom, cities like New York, Portland and San Francisco have turned into hotbeds of crime, drug use, theft and vandalism.
The majority of Republican, independent and even Democratic families have stood firmly against teaching schoolchildren sexual content without their parents’ permission, the use of medical methods to change children’s gender at a young age, and using hormone blockers to delay puberty.
The progressives losing their merit and support from both the Democratic Party and voters was the most significant victory of 2022 for the US and its people. This group had a short lifespan, with polls showing that, in America, far-left socialist agendas have no place.
Dalia Al-Aqidi is a senior fellow at the Center for Security Policy. Twitter: @DaliaAlAqidi