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Hashem Safieddine is one of the front-runners for leadership of Hezbollah after Hassan Nasrallah was killed in an Israeli attack on south Beirut last Friday.
A maternal cousin of Nasrallah, Mr Safieddine has rarely appeared in public but could soon be leading an organisation that works hard on propaganda, although its military has suffered at the hands of the Israeli military over the past months.
Nasrallah has not been buried as of Monday and it is not yet certain that Mr Safieddine, born in 1964, will become the next leader.
Hezbollah has been in a state of flux since Israeli strikes in the last several weeks killed many of its senior commanders, field operatives, and disrupted its communications and logistics networks. Although Nasrallah had rarely appeared in public setting since 2006, his fiery televised speeches have been ubiquitous. Hezbollah’s deputy leader, Naim Qassem, has often appeared in the media to further the group’s resistance narrative and send messages when needed.
In a televised address on Monday, Qassem boasted that the group is prepared to counter any Israeli ground invasion of Lebanon and that a successor to Nasrallah will be named soon.
Mr Safieddine, like Nasrallah, studied theology in Iran. His son married the daughter of Iranian lslamic Revolutionary Guard Corp commander Maj Gen Qassim Suleimani, who was assassinated in a US drone strike in Baghdad in 2020.
Unlike the Shiite rural underclass that formed the bulk of Hezbollah cadres when it was created in the 1980s, Mr Safieddine comes from a relatively established family in the southern city of Tyre. Nasrallah promoted him and he is the current head of Hezbollah's executive council, which is akin to a cabinet.
Orna Mizrahi, senior researcher at the Institute for National Security Studies, said that as far back as 2008, both Nasrallah and Iran had decided that Mr Safieddine would be his replacement.
Although Mr Safieddine has mainly dealt with Hezbollah's finances and ties to its Shiite constituency, he was assigned to some military tasks, Ms Mizrahi said from Tel Aviv. “He does not have the experience or standing of Nasrallah,” she said, adding that he could grow into the role.
She said that in the event he becomes the leader, the magnitude of damage that Israel has inflicted on Hezbollah's command structure has made it imperative for Mr Safieddine to conduct a review of “what kind of organisation Hezbollah will be”, helped by the surviving top cadres, such as Mr Qassem.
But Hezbollah “will continue to attack Israel because of the Iranian influence” and an anti-Israel ideology that guided Nasrallah and appears to also permeates the thinking of Safieddin, Ms Mizrahi said.
How does ToTok work?
The calling app is available to download on Google Play and Apple App Store
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Tips to keep your car cool
- Place a sun reflector in your windshield when not driving
- Park in shaded or covered areas
- Add tint to windows
- Wrap your car to change the exterior colour
- Pick light interiors - choose colours such as beige and cream for seats and dashboard furniture
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Our legal columnist
Name: Yousef Al Bahar
Advocate at Al Bahar & Associate Advocates and Legal Consultants, established in 1994
Education: Mr Al Bahar was born in 1979 and graduated in 2008 from the Judicial Institute. He took after his father, who was one of the first Emirati lawyers
THE LIGHT
Director: Tom Tykwer
Starring: Tala Al Deen, Nicolette Krebitz, Lars Eidinger
Rating: 3/5
Company profile
Name: Infinite8
Based: Dubai
Launch year: 2017
Number of employees: 90
Sector: Online gaming industry
Funding: $1.2m from a UAE angel investor
The Brutalist
Director: Brady Corbet
Stars: Adrien Brody, Felicity Jones, Guy Pearce, Joe Alwyn
Rating: 3.5/5
Formula Middle East Calendar (Formula Regional and Formula 4)
Round 1: January 17-19, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 2: January 22-23, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 3: February 7-9, Dubai Autodrome – Dubai
Round 4: February 14-16, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 5: February 25-27, Jeddah Corniche Circuit – Saudi Arabia
Biog
Mr Kandhari is legally authorised to conduct marriages in the gurdwara
He has officiated weddings of Sikhs and people of different faiths from Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Russia, the US and Canada
Father of two sons, grandfather of six
Plays golf once a week
Enjoys trying new holiday destinations with his wife and family
Walks for an hour every morning
Completed a Bachelor of Commerce degree in Loyola College, Chennai, India
2019 is a milestone because he completes 50 years in business
Our legal columnist
Name: Yousef Al Bahar
Advocate at Al Bahar & Associate Advocates and Legal Consultants, established in 1994
Education: Mr Al Bahar was born in 1979 and graduated in 2008 from the Judicial Institute. He took after his father, who was one of the first Emirati lawyers
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COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Kumulus Water
Started: 2021
Founders: Iheb Triki and Mohamed Ali Abid
Based: Tunisia
Sector: Water technology
Number of staff: 22
Investment raised: $4 million
'Munich: The Edge of War'
Director: Christian Schwochow
Starring: George MacKay, Jannis Niewohner, Jeremy Irons
Rating: 3/5
North Pole stats
Distance covered: 160km
Temperature: -40°C
Weight of equipment: 45kg
Altitude (metres above sea level): 0
Terrain: Ice rock
South Pole stats
Distance covered: 130km
Temperature: -50°C
Weight of equipment: 50kg
Altitude (metres above sea level): 3,300
Terrain: Flat ice
The Sand Castle
Director: Matty Brown
Stars: Nadine Labaki, Ziad Bakri, Zain Al Rafeea, Riman Al Rafeea
Rating: 2.5/5
Vidaamuyarchi
Director: Magizh Thirumeni
Stars: Ajith Kumar, Arjun Sarja, Trisha Krishnan, Regina Cassandra
Rating: 4/5
Closing the loophole on sugary drinks
As The National reported last year, non-fizzy sugared drinks were not covered when the original tax was introduced in 2017. Sports drinks sold in supermarkets were found to contain, on average, 20 grams of sugar per 500ml bottle.
The non-fizzy drink AriZona Iced Tea contains 65 grams of sugar – about 16 teaspoons – per 680ml can. The average can costs about Dh6, which would rise to Dh9.
Drinks such as Starbucks Bottled Mocha Frappuccino contain 31g of sugar in 270ml, while Nescafe Mocha in a can contains 15.6g of sugar in a 240ml can.
Flavoured water, long-life fruit juice concentrates, pre-packaged sweetened coffee drinks fall under the ‘sweetened drink’ category
Not taxed:
Freshly squeezed fruit juices, ground coffee beans, tea leaves and pre-prepared flavoured milkshakes do not come under the ‘sweetened drink’ band.
Company profile
Company name: Suraasa
Started: 2018
Founders: Rishabh Khanna, Ankit Khanna and Sahil Makker
Based: India, UAE and the UK
Industry: EdTech
Initial investment: More than $200,000 in seed funding
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THE BIO
Bio Box
Role Model: Sheikh Zayed, God bless his soul
Favorite book: Zayed Biography of the leader
Favorite quote: To be or not to be, that is the question, from William Shakespeare's Hamlet
Favorite food: seafood
Favorite place to travel: Lebanon
Favorite movie: Braveheart
How to avoid crypto fraud
- Use unique usernames and passwords while enabling multi-factor authentication.
- Use an offline private key, a physical device that requires manual activation, whenever you access your wallet.
- Avoid suspicious social media ads promoting fraudulent schemes.
- Only invest in crypto projects that you fully understand.
- Critically assess whether a project’s promises or returns seem too good to be true.
- Only use reputable platforms that have a track record of strong regulatory compliance.
- Store funds in hardware wallets as opposed to online exchanges.
Tips for job-seekers
- Do not submit your application through the Easy Apply button on LinkedIn. Employers receive between 600 and 800 replies for each job advert on the platform. If you are the right fit for a job, connect to a relevant person in the company on LinkedIn and send them a direct message.
- Make sure you are an exact fit for the job advertised. If you are an HR manager with five years’ experience in retail and the job requires a similar candidate with five years’ experience in consumer, you should apply. But if you have no experience in HR, do not apply for the job.
David Mackenzie, founder of recruitment agency Mackenzie Jones Middle East
Honeymoonish
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Company%20Profile
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