#shamseddine

[maslimanny]

You yourself are your own barrier - rise from within it.

~ Shamseddin Hafiz,

[newstfionline]

Sunday, April 7, 2024

Shhh, I’m on vacation. Travelers are on a quest for the quiet (AP) At home in the New York City suburbs, Oscar Sandoval has lots of friends and an active social life. But when it’s time for vacation, he prefers to keep it quiet. Like, literally. He’d stroll, sit, do some gardening and generally contemplate life for a week. More recently, he’s done solo backpacking trips across Spain. “The utter peace and stillness is impossible to put into words.” From serene nature retreats to silent walking, the quest for quietude has become one of modern travel’s latest trends. Conde Nast Traveler said last month it was “the travel trend we’re most obsessed with this year.” For many, quiet travel goes beyond escaping the cacophony of everyday life while on vacation. It can be a shift toward introspection; a deeper connection with where we are both literally and figuratively. “Transformative travel’s a trend we’re tracking for growth,” says Alex Hawkins, editor at the trend forecaster and consultancy The Future Laboratory. “It taps into consumers’ desire for self-reflective tourism experiences.”

Mexico breaks relations with Ecuador after embassy raid (Washington Post) Ecuadorian police forced their way into Mexico’s embassy in Quito late Friday and pulled out a former vice president who had sought asylum there, sparking a diplomatic crisis in a region becoming increasingly polarized between left and right. The raid was a brazen move by Ecuador’s government, which sent a convoy of black vehicles with sirens blaring to break down the front gate of the embassy. When the Mexican consul tried to stop one of the vehicles as it exited, police grabbed him and wrestled him to the ground. “This is totally unacceptable,” the consul, Roberto Canseco, told journalists, his voice breaking. “At risk of my life, I defended the honor and sovereignty of my country. This can’t be!”

When Haiti’s gangs shop for guns, the United States is their store (Washington Post) When Walder St. Louis entered the Miami pawnshop in October 2021, his shopping list contained just a few items: Two AK-47s and an AR-15. Germine Joly, then head of the Haitian gang 400 Mawozo, had placed the order from a Port-au-Prince prison. St. Louis would soon send two barrels of firearms back to the Haitian capital. Heavily armed gangs control 80 percent of Port-au-Prince, the United Nations has estimated, where they rape, kidnap and kill with impunity. Haiti doesn’t manufacture firearms, and the U.N. prohibits importing them, but that’s no problem for the criminals. When they go shopping, the United States is their gun store. The semiautomatic rifles that have wrought human carnage from an elementary school in Newtown, Conn., to a Walmart in El Paso are also being used to menace the Haitian government and terrorize the population. U.S. authorities seized some of the guns in the 400 Mawozo plot before they could be smuggled, and Joly, St. Louis and two others pleaded guilty to federal gunrunning conspiracy charges. The gang would soon gain notoriety for kidnapping 17 American and Canadian missionaries. Other firearms, purchased in part with ransom money, slipped into Haiti undetected.

French pupil dies after being beaten near school (BBC) There are renewed concerns over levels of violence in French schools after two young teenagers were the victims of attacks, one of them fatal. A 15-year-old boy named as Shamseddin died in hospital on Friday. The news came a day after he was beaten by a group of youths near his school in Viry-Chatillon, in the southern Paris suburbs. “This extreme violence is becoming commonplace,” said the town mayor, Jean-Marie Vilain. On Tuesday, in another incident in the southern city of Montpellier, a 14-year-old girl named as Samara was placed in an artificial coma after she was beaten by a group shortly after leaving school. The attacks have further heightened concerns about violence in schools, against a background of gangs, cyber-bullying and pressure to conform to Islamic rules.

Germans finally warm to digital payments (Spiegel) The island of Rügen is considered a stronghold for paper money in Germany, which is already widely known as a cash-obsessed nation. Tourists are often amazed by how attached the islanders are to coins and bills. “If you’re going to Rügen, take cash and lots of bread with you!” the Berliner Zeitung in Berlin once wrote. But cards are also slowly finding their way to Rügen, albeit slowly. Stickers can now be found on the windows and doors of many stores in the tourist town of Binz: “We accept debit card payments.” Still, 69 percent of Germans said that cash is either important or very important to them, especially older people and people with low incomes and education levels. In Europe, only Austrians appear to have a greater affinity for cash than the Germans. But that love is being put to the test. Millions of customers suddenly went cashless during the pandemic—and stuck with it. Many young people prefer to pay even small amounts by debit card or mobile phone. The EU is pushing for limits on cash payments, local authorities are issuing debit cards to asylum-seekers and the European Central Bank (ECB) is already working to create a “digital euro.” Cash, it seems, is coming under pressure from many different sides.

With no way out of a worsening war, Zelensky’s options look bad or worse (Washington Post) As Russia steps up airstrikes and once again advances on the battlefield in Ukraine more than two years into its bloody invasion, there is no end to the fighting in sight. And President Volodymyr Zelensky’s options for what to do next—much less how to win the war—range from bad to worse. Zelensky has said Ukraine will accept nothing less than the return of all its territory, including land that Russia has controlled since 2014. But with the battle lines changing little in the last year, militarily retaking the swaths of east and south Ukraine that Russia now occupies—about 20 percent of the country—appears increasingly unlikely. Negotiating with Russian President Vladimir Putin to end the war—something Zelensky has rejected as long as Russian troops remain on Ukrainian land—is politically toxic. The Ukrainian public is hugely opposed to surrendering territory, and Putin shown no willingness to accept anything short of Ukraine’s capitulation to his demands. The status quo is awful. With the fight now a grinding stalemate, Ukrainians are dying on the battlefield daily. But a cease-fire is also a nonstarter, Ukrainians say, because it would just give the Russians time to replenish their forces. Ukrainian and Western officials view Zelensky as largely stuck.

US, Japan, Australia and the Philippines to stage military drills in disputed South China Sea (AP) The United States, Japan, Australia and the Philippines will hold their first joint naval exercises, including anti-submarine warfare training, in a show of force Sunday in the South China Sea where Beijing’s aggressive actions to assert its territorial claims have caused alarm. The four treaty allies and security partners are holding the exercises to safeguard “the rule of law that is the foundation for a peaceful and stable Indo-Pacific region” and uphold freedom of navigation and overflight, they said in a joint statement issued by their defense chiefs Saturday. Aside from China and the Philippines, the long-simmering disputes in the South China Sea, a key global trade route, also involve Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan. But skirmishes between Beijing and Manila have particularly flared since last year.

Chinese Overcapacity Is About To Slam Into Europe’s Economy (Die Welt) In late March, the BYD Explorer No. 1, a 200 meter-long bright white vehicles carrier, made its maiden voyage to Bremerhaven, a port city on Germany’s North Sea coast, to deliver 3,000 China-made electric cars. Technically equal to most German models, these cars are often significantly cheaper. And they are the first of many waves that will strike at the heart of a key German industry. In the next few years, the Chinese electric vehicle maker BYD alone is planning to launch seven more cargo ships to transport cars from Asia to Europe. And the electric cars are only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to industrial products that are expected to pour into Germany from China over the next few years. Many of these will likely be less expensive than their German counterparts, forcing companies and politicians to look for new ways to respond to this challenge.

China carefully scrutinizes U.S. envoy’s ... chopstick skills? (Washington Post) U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet L. Yellen landed in China this week with a raft of thorny issues to tackle. But it wasn’t her trade policy or stance on the poor state of U.S.-China relations that caught the attention of the Chinese public. “Watching Yellen use chopsticks, it’s clear she’s a chopsticks master. She definitely eats Chinese food on a regular basis,” one user wrote on the microblog Weibo after news outlets posted a seven-second video clip of Yellen wielding said utensils at a Cantonese restaurant in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou on Thursday night. Chinese social media platforms on Friday were awash with details of Yellen’s first meal in China during a week-long visit aimed at improving U.S.-China ties and addressing what Washington sees as unfair Chinese trade practices. Hashtags related to Yellen’s dining choices drew almost 10 million views on Weibo. The breathless state media coverage of her dining choices or dexterity with chopsticks reflects an effort by Beijing to cast Yellen’s visit in a positive light, especially to an increasingly anti-American Chinese public. It underlines how Beijing sees Yellen as perhaps its best hope for improving trade ties with Washington and helping its own ailing economy.

U.S. Seeks ‘Results’ After Israel Promises More Gaza Aid Routes (NYT) World leaders and humanitarian groups said on Friday that Israel must show concrete results after it reacted to growing pressure from the United States by announcing it would open more aid routes into the Gaza Strip, where the United Nations has warned that a famine is looming. At a news conference in Brussels on Friday, Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken welcomed the new aid routes, calling them “positive developments,” but said that the United States was watching to see if Israel would make it a priority to ease the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. One measure of Israel’s commitment, he said, will be “the number of trucks that are actually getting in on a sustained basis.” “The real test is results, and that’s what we’re looking to see in the coming days and the coming weeks,” he said, adding, “Really, the proof is in the results.”

After 6 Months of War, Some Israelis Ask: Is Netanyahu Dragging It Out? (NYT) Nearly six months since it began, Israel’s war in Gaza is dragging on. So, too, is the tenure of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. In Israel, some are now asking: Are the two linked? To his allies, Mr. Netanyahu’s refusal to agree to a cease-fire in Gaza is a necessary one, made in the national interest and backed by many Israelis. The thinking goes that Israel must cripple Hamas to weaken its hand at cease-fire negotiations. To his critics, the prime minister is dragging out the war to prevent the collapse of his fragile right-wing coalition and extend his time in office. By this analysis, he has made a domestic calculus that ignores both the growing global anger about the bloodshed—including from Israel’s most powerful ally, President Biden, which erupted into full view on Thursday—and the rising anger from the families of Israeli hostages who seek their relatives’ immediate release.

13.56 (WSJ) That’s the initial value of Zimbabwe’s new currency against the U.S. dollar. The government, notorious for printing 100-trillion-dollar notes, is launching Zimbabwe Gold, or ZiG, to replace the current Zimbabwe dollar, which most recently traded at more than 30,674 to the U.S. dollar. A previous dollar was abolished in 2009 after a hyperinflation rate of 500 billion percent, according to some estimates. Then the country used foreign currencies for nearly a decade. When the central bank couldn’t pay out savings in cash dollars, it reintroduced the Zimbabwe dollar in 2019. The currency has lost around 75 percent of its value this year.

[hiiddencorner]

Listen to شهلة العياني - عبد القادر شاعو by Aly Shamseddin on #SoundCloud

https://on.soundcloud.com/NFvtC

[anshraa99]

Arrests and hate speech target Baha’i minority in Yemen — Global Issues

OHCHR said that on 25 May, security forces stormed a peaceful meeting of Baha’is in Sana’a. Seventeen people, including five women, were taken to an unknown location, and all but one, are still being held incommunicado. The UN rights office urged the de facto Houthi authorities in Sana’a, to immediately release the detainees. Call for killings On 2 June, according to OHCHR, Shamseddin…

[aqsaa8685]

Arrests and hate speech target Baha’i minority in Yemen — Global Issues

OHCHR said that on 25 May, security forces stormed a peaceful meeting of Baha’is in Sana’a. Seventeen people, including five women, were taken to an unknown location, and all but one, are still being held incommunicado. The UN rights office urged the de facto Houthi authorities in Sana’a, to immediately release the detainees. Call for killings On 2 June, according to OHCHR, Shamseddin…

[ansraali]

Arrests and hate speech target Baha’i minority in Yemen — Global Issues

OHCHR said that on 25 May, security forces stormed a peaceful meeting of Baha’is in Sana’a. Seventeen people, including five women, were taken to an unknown location, and all but one, are still being held incommunicado. The UN rights office urged the de facto Houthi authorities in Sana’a, to immediately release the detainees. Call for killings On 2 June, according to OHCHR, Shamseddin…

[amdia80]

Arrests and hate speech target Baha’i minority in Yemen — Global Issues

OHCHR said that on 25 May, security forces stormed a peaceful meeting of Baha’is in Sana’a. Seventeen people, including five women, were taken to an unknown location, and all but one, are still being held incommunicado. The UN rights office urged the de facto Houthi authorities in Sana’a, to immediately release the detainees. Call for killings On 2 June, according to OHCHR, Shamseddin…

[iqrakanjri7878]

Arrests and hate speech target Baha’i minority in Yemen — Global Issues

OHCHR said that on 25 May, security forces stormed a peaceful meeting of Baha’is in Sana’a. Seventeen people, including five women, were taken to an unknown location, and all but one, are still being held incommunicado. The UN rights office urged the de facto Houthi authorities in Sana’a, to immediately release the detainees. Call for killings On 2 June, according to OHCHR, Shamseddin…

[iqra8482]

Arrests and hate speech target Baha’i minority in Yemen — Global Issues

OHCHR said that on 25 May, security forces stormed a peaceful meeting of Baha’is in Sana’a. Seventeen people, including five women, were taken to an unknown location, and all but one, are still being held incommunicado. The UN rights office urged the de facto Houthi authorities in Sana’a, to immediately release the detainees. Call for killings On 2 June, according to OHCHR, Shamseddin…

[iranculture-athens]

Οι Ιρανοί γιορτάζουν την εθνική ημέρα μνήμης του εξέχοντα ποιητή Hafez. Οι Ιρανοί γιορτάζουν την Εθνική Ημέρα του Χάφεζ, του Πέρση ποιητή και μυστικιστή του 14ου αιώνα που τιμάται από διάσημους συγγραφείς και μελετητές σε όλο τον κόσμο.

Τα εθνικά γεγονότα πραγματοποιούνται κυρίως στη νότια πόλη Shiraz, όπου γεννήθηκε ο εξέχων ποιητής.

Χιλιάδες ενθουσιώδεις οπαδοί επισκέπτονται τον τάφο του ποιητή Hafez στην πόλη Σιράζ στις 12 Οκτωβρίου κάθε έτους για να αποτίσουν φόρο τιμής στον ποιητή των οποίων τα έργα θεωρούνται ευρέως ως η ουσία του Ιρανικού πολιτισμού.

Υπάρχουν επίσης παρόμοιες εκδηλώσεις στην Τεχεράνη και σε άλλες πόλεις, όπου αξιωματούχοι και οπαδοί απαγγέλλουν και σχολιάζουν τα ποιήματα του. Το βιβλίο «book of sonnets or Ghazals» του Hafez είναι γραμμένο στα Περσικά και έχει μεταφραστεί σε πολλές γλώσσες, επηρεάζοντας πολλούς διάσημους ποιητές, συμπεριλαμβανομένου του μεγάλου Γερμανού ποιητή Johann Wolfgang von Goethe του 18ου αιώνα.

Ο Άγγλος ποιητής και συγγραφέας Edward FitzGerald αποκαλούσε τον Hafez "ο καλύτερος μουσικός των λέξεων".

Πολλοί ειδικοί της λογοτεχνίας θεωρούν τον Hafez ως την μεγαλύτερη φωνή του Περσικού πολιτισμού και μυστικισμού και τον αδιαμφισβήτητο δημιουργό των σονέτων.

Το θέμα των σονέτων του είναι πνευματικό, ανθρωπιστικό και κατανοητό για τους αναγνώστες.

Αν και το πλήρες όνομα του ποιητή είναι ο Shamseddin Mohammad, είναι γνωστός με την ονομασία Hafez, που σημαίνει εκείνον που απομνημονεύει ένα βιβλίο.

Ο Χάφεζ πήρε τον τίτλο, επειδή μπορούσε να απαγγείλει όλο το άγιο Κοράνι απ’ έξω και πίστευε ότι η δική του ερμηνεία θα έφερνε την δικαιοσύνη και την ελευθερία στην καθημερινή ζωή των ανθρώπων και θα μείωνε την κατάθλιψη, το χάος και τη δυστυχία.

[between2heart-onemind]

 والأمان أعلى منزلةً من الحب، فلا تقترب أبداً حين تنبهر، اقترب فقط حين تطمئن.

‏شمس التبريزي

And safety is higher than love, never come close when you're impressed, just get close when you're reassured.

Shamseddine Tabrizi.

[latribune]

Dubaï | Aleph Hospitality nomme Jad Shamseddin COO pour le Moyen-Orient

Dubaï | Aleph Hospitality nomme Jad Shamseddin COO pour le Moyen-Orient

Il rejoint le cabinet en provenance d’Ajlan Bros Holding Group à Riyad, en Arabie saoudite, où il occupait le poste de directeur de l’accueil. Shamseddin était auparavant directeur général de la division hôtels du groupe Al Hokair en Arabie saoudite et directeur régional des ouvertures d’hôtels pour le Moyen-Orient, l’Afrique, la Turquie et la Géorgie chez Millennium et Copthorne Moyen-Orient et…

[mawakamel-blog]

Nasri Shamseddine 

[eligeay]

Day 214 - Nasri Shamseddine In Bayaa El Khawatem FROM MY CLOSET (Spending every day in a different costume) Photo credits @laetitia.hakim • • • • #frommycloset #nasrishamseddine #bayaaelkhawatem #sellerofrings #بياع_الخواتم #fairuz #cosplay #lebanese #lebanesecharacter #moustache #طربوش #costume #ootd #outfitoftheday #saturday #cosplay #sidebyside #swipeleft #cosplayforacause #beyourself #bereal #beyou

[toldnews-blog]

New Post has been published on https://toldnews.com/world/top-sudan-generals-offer-to-quit-as-protests-continue/

Top Sudan generals offer to quit as protests continue

Image copyright Anadolu Agency

Image caption Fear of the generals has ended in Sudan

Three of the most controversial figures of Sudan’s ruling Transitional Military Council have offered their resignations – one of the key demands of the protest movement.

The three were seen as staunch Islamists and allies of the deposed President, Omar al-Bashir.

It follows talks between the military council and protest leaders.

Protest leaders want the Transitional Military Council to hand over to a civilian administration.

A mass demonstration has been called for later on Thursday in the capital, Khartoum, to maintain calls for democratic reform.

Thousands of protesters have arrived by train from various cities to take part in the event, dubbed “the million-strong march for civilian rule”.

At a press conference on Wednesday, military spokesman Lt-Gen Shamseddine Kabbashi said the two sides had reached agreement on most of the demands, and that they decided to set up a joint committee to bridge their differences.

The three generals stepping down are Omar Zain al-Abideen, Jalal al-Deen al-Sheikh and Al-Tayeb Babakr Ali Fadeel.

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Media captionSudan protests: The women driving change