Morcos during launch of "Femmes Leaders Francophones" from "Télé Liban": Change is underway and must be supported, strengthened & pushed forward
NNA - The Ministry of Information patronized the launch of the "Femmes Leaders Francophones Association" from the studios of "Télé Liban" with the participation of Information Minister Paul Morcos; Culture Minister Director General Ali Al-Samad, representing Culture Minister Ghassan Salameh; President of the Group of Francophone Ambassadors in Lebanon, Tunisian Ambassador Bouraoui Al-Imam; Association Head and President of the Arab Optical Union for Asian and North African Countries and President of the Carthage International Forum, Nisreen Ashkar; representative of the International Organization of La Francophonie Levon Amirjanian; the Ambassadors of Portugal, Morocco, Serbia, Bulgaria, Romania, Argentina, and Uruguay; and representatives of women's organizations and media professionals.
Information Minister's Advisor for Francophone Affairs, Elissar Naddaf, gave the introductory word, following which speeches were delivered on the occasion.
In his address, Minister Morcos considered that the event "is not only a celebration of the launch of an institution, but rather a new page in the history of Francophone women's leadership, which unfortunately remains underdeveloped in a country that enjoys real talent resources."
He added that the "Femmes Leaders Francophones Association" is a commitment to change the rules and move towards greater justice, equality, and recognition of women's talents. "We live in an era of change that requires more than mere declarations of intention, but concrete actions. Inequality has hindered careers, diminished ambitions, and silenced voices that deserve to be heard. Today, we say loudly and clearly that that time is over," Morcos continued.
He noted that the initiative is being launched from the Lebanese Television, a prime location that embodies history and seeks to reclaim its status. "Public media, especially Télé Liban, plays a crucial role not only in giving women the space they deserve, but also in securing their place in all decision-making areas. This challenge goes beyond the screen; it affects all sectors of society, and we will continue this battle at all levels," the Minister pledged.
"This association, which has come to life thanks to the vision and perseverance of its president, Dr. Nisreen Ashkar, is proof that change is underway. We must support this change, foster it, and push it forward. The future belongs only to the brave. So, let us dare together to build a world where female leadership is not the exception, but the rule," Morcos asserted.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
MTV Lebanon
19 hours ago
- MTV Lebanon
US Trade Court Blocks Tariffs in Major Setback for Trump
The opinion marks a significant setback to Trump as he bids to redraw the US trading relationship with the world by forcing governments to the negotiating table through tough new tariffs. Trump's global trade war has roiled financial markets with a stop-start rollout of import levies aimed at punishing economies that sell more to the United States than they buy. Trump argued that the resulting trade deficits and the threat posed by the influx of drugs constituted a "national emergency" that justified widespread tariffs. But the three-judge Court of International Trade ruled Wednesday that Trump had overstepped his authority, barring most of the duties announced since he took office in January. The White House slammed the ruling, arguing that "unelected judges" have no right to weigh in on Trump's handling of the issue. "President Trump pledged to put America first, and the administration is committed to using every lever of executive power to address this crisis and restore American greatness," Trump's spokesman Kush Desai said. Attorneys for the Trump administration promptly filed to appeal against the ruling Wednesday. China: 'cancel wrongful tariffs' The ruling comes as Trump has used the tariffs as leverage in trade negotiations with friends and foes, including the European Union and China. Beijing -- which was hit by 145 percent tariffs before they were sharply reduced to give space for negotiations -- reacted to the court ruling by saying the United States should scrap the levies. "China urges the United States to heed the rational voices from the international community and domestic stakeholders and fully cancel the wrongful unilateral tariff measures," said commerce ministry spokeswoman He Yongqian. Japan's tariffs envoy Ryosei Akazawa said as he left for a fourth round of talks in Washington that Tokyo -- reeling from tariffs on cars -- would study the ruling. Trump unveiled sweeping import duties on nearly all trading partners on April 2, at a baseline 10 percent, plus steeper levies on dozens of economies, including China and the European Union. The ruling also quashes duties that Trump imposed on Canada, Mexico and China separately using emergency powers. Some of the turmoil was calmed after he paused the larger tariffs for 90 days and suspended other duties, pending negotiations with individual countries and blocs. Asian markets rallied on Thursday and US futures pointed to early gains, but Europe was mixed, with London in the red while Paris and Frankfurt rose. The ruling "throws into disarray several trade deals that have already been agreed, and those that are still in the negotiation phase," said Kathleen Brooks, research director at XTB brokerage firm. 'Extraordinary threat' The federal trade court was ruling in two separate cases -- brought by businesses and a coalition of state governments -- arguing that the president had violated Congress's power of the purse. "The question in the two cases before the court is whether the International Emergency Economic Powers Act of 1977 ("IEEPA") delegates these powers to the president in the form of authority to impose unlimited tariffs on goods from nearly every country in the world," the three-judge panel wrote in an unsigned opinion. "The court does not read IEEPA to confer such unbounded authority and sets aside the challenged tariffs imposed thereunder." The judges stated that any interpretation of the IEEPA that "delegates unlimited tariff authority is unconstitutional." The IEEPA authorizes the president to impose necessary economic sanctions during an emergency "to combat an unusual and extraordinary threat," the bench said. The ruling gave the White House 10 days to complete the bureaucratic process of halting the tariffs. Gregory Meeks, the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said the ruling confirmed that "these tariffs are an illegal abuse of executive power." "Trump's declaration of a bogus national emergency to justify his global trade war was an absurd and unlawful use of IEEPA," he said. White House aide Stephen Miller took to social media to decry a "judicial coup" that he said was "out of control."
Ya Libnan
23-05-2025
- Ya Libnan
Suspect charged in Washington, DC shooting Told police, 'I did it for Gaza, free Palestine '
Elias Rodriguez, a Chicago resident, was charged on Thursday with first-degree murder and other crimes in the killings of two Israeli Embassy aides outside a Jewish museum in Washington. By some accounts, Mr. Rodriguez, 31, led a life typical of a college-educated young professional in Chicago, residing in an apartment in a middle-class North Side neighborhood, with friends and family nearby. But he was also increasingly active in left-wing politics, posting on social media and joining demonstrations in Chicago in opposition to Israel's war in Gaza, large corporations and racism. When Mr. Rodriguez was taken into custody after the shooting on Wednesday night, he told police officers, 'I did it for Palestine, I did it for Gaza,' according to an F.B.I. affidavit filed in federal court. Here's what else we know about him. A school and work life that raised no concerns Born and raised in Chicago, Mr. Rodriguez graduated from the University of Illinois Chicago, a school west of downtown that attracts many local residents. Sherri McGinnis Gonzalez, a university spokeswoman, said that Mr. Rodriguez attended from the fall of 2016 through the spring of 2018 and was awarded a Bachelor of Arts degree. He lived in Albany Park, one of the most diverse neighborhoods in Chicago, on the city's northwest side. It is known as a community that has long welcomed immigrants. A century ago, it was home to many Jewish families from Europe. It is now a draw for Latino, white and Asian people. Mr. Rodriguez's father, Eric Rodriguez, is a union member who appeared in a video for the Service Employees International Union this year, identifying himself as a federal employee with the Veterans Affairs Department and an Iraq War veteran. The elder Mr. Rodriguez said in the video that he was concerned about cuts that the Trump administration was making to the V.A. system. Both of Elias Rodriguez's parents, who live separately, declined to comment. Elias Rodriguez bounced from job to job during his 20s. According to his LinkedIn profile, he worked as a writer for wikiHow, which publishes articles and quizzes on a variety of topics. He was a senior content associate for CouponCabin, a company based in Chicago that provides printable and digital coupons for discounts to consumers. He later worked as an oral history researcher and production coordinator at a Black history site, and then took a job at the American Osteopathic Information Association, a trade group for osteopathic doctors. 'He enjoys reading and writing fiction, live music, film, and exploring new places,' one job biography read. A turn to political activism on the left At the same time, Mr. Rodriguez had taken an active interest in politics. In 2017, he was photographed outside the home of former Mayor Rahm Emanuel on Chicago's North Side, wearing a checked shirt and backpack, and holding a sign that read, '$ for people's needs, not Amazon!' The demonstration was organized by the Answer Coalition, a group that opposes war and racism. The group was protesting efforts from Chicago officials to convince Amazon to build a second headquarters in the city. The company ultimately chose the Northern Virginia suburbs of Washington. Mr. Rodriguez was quoted in an online article denouncing the officials' effort, identifying himself as affiliated with the Party for Socialism and Liberation. 'The wealth that Amazon has brought to Seattle has not been shared with its Black residents,' he said, asking, 'Do we in Chicago and all across the country want a nation of cities dominated and occupied by massive corporations where only the rich and white can live, and the vast majority of us must live on edges of the city and society living in deeper and deeper poverty?' The Party for Socialism and Liberation disavowed on Thursday any connection between the organization and Mr. Rodriguez. 'We reject any attempt to associate the PSL with the D.C. shooting,' the group said on the social media site X . 'Elias Rodriguez is not a member of the PSL. He had a brief association with one branch of the PSL that ended in 2017. We know of no contact with him in over 7 years. We have nothing to do with this shooting and do not support it.' A post on social media on Wednesday night from an account that The New York Times verified as belonging to Mr. Rodriguez was titled 'Escalate For Gaza, Bring The War Home.' The post condemned the Israeli and American governments and what it called atrocities committed by the Israeli military against Palestinians. The post did not refer directly to the shootings, but sought to justify 'armed action.' Photographs on Thursday of the windows of what appeared to be Mr. Rodriguez's apartment in Chicago showed two signs about Palestinians, including one that referenced the 2023 killing of a Palestinian American boy in Illinois. Mr. Rodriguez was registered to vote in Illinois, and in 2020 donated $500 to Joseph R. Biden Jr.'s presidential campaign, records show. Superintendent Larry Snelling of the Chicago Police Department said that Mr. Rodriguez did not have a criminal background. 'I love you Mom, Dad, baby sis A chilling manifesto believed to be left by the suspected shooter pays tribute to his loved ones, amid a rambling diatribe about the conflict in Gaza and the American government. In the manifesto, signed off with the suspect's name, Rodriguez appears to defend the 'morality of armed demonstration' as he railed against the death toll in Gaza. 'I love you Mom, Dad, baby sis, the rest of my familia, including you, O*****,' the manifesto, obtained and shared online by journalist Ken Klippenstein, reads. In a seeming hint at what he was about to do, the 900-word statement said he was 'glad that today at least there are many Americans for which the action will be highly legible and, in some funny way, the only sane thing to do.' The New York Times/ Daily Mail
Nahar Net
22-05-2025
- Nahar Net
Israeli strikes hit south and Bekaa amid rare evacuation warning for building in Toul
by Naharnet Newsdesk 22 May 2025, 21:20 Lebanese state media said an Israeli air strike hit a building in southern Lebanon on Thursday after Israel's military issued an evacuation call warning of imminent action against an alleged Hezbollah site. Israel has kept up its air strikes in neighboring Lebanon despite a November truce aimed at halting more than a year of hostilities with Hezbollah that included two months of full-blown war. Without confirming the reported attack on the southern town of Toul, the Israeli military said its forces had carried out several strikes targeting Hezbollah sites and killed one militant. Lebanon's official National News Agency (NNA) said that the Israeli army struck a building in Toul, where the Israeli army had warned residents to evacuate the area around a building it said was used by Hezbollah militants. The "urgent warning" was accompanied by a map showing a structure and the 500-meter (0.3-mile) radius around it marked in red. "You are located near facilities belonging to ... Hezbollah," the statement said in Arabic, urging people "to evacuate these buildings immediately and move away from them." There were no immediate reports of casualties in Toul. In a separate statement, the military said it had "struck and eliminated a Hezbollah Radwan Force (operative) in the area of Rab El Thalathine," about 17 kilometers (10 miles) to the southeast. The NNA reported a "martyr" in an air strike in the same area, without identifying them. The Israeli military said its forces also "struck a Hezbollah military site containing rocket launchers and weapons" in the Bekaa Valley as well as "terrorist infrastructure sites and rocket launchers belonging to the Hezbollah terrorist organization... in southern Lebanon," amid reports of Israeli airstrikes on the heights of the Iqlim al-Tuffah region in the South and the outskirts of the Bekaa town of Bouday. Israeli strikes also targeted the outskirts of the southern towns of Touline, al-Sawwaneh and al-Ezziyeh. An Israeli military statement said that "the presence of weapons in the area and Hezbollah activities at the site constitute blatant violations of the understandings between Israel and Lebanon" under the November ceasefire agreement. Israel will "continue to operate to remove any threat... and will prevent any attempt by Hezbollah to re-establish its terror capabilities," it said. Under the ceasefire, Hezbollah fighters were to pull back north of the Litani River and dismantle military infrastructure south of it. Israel was to withdraw all forces from Lebanon, but it has kept troops in five areas that it deems "strategic". The Lebanese Army has deployed in the south and has been dismantling Hezbollah infrastructure. The truce was based on a U.N. Security Council resolution that says Lebanese troops and U.N. peacekeepers should be the only people to bear arms in south Lebanon, and calls for the disarmament of all non-state groups.
