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Even after some misses, Butler still taking swings at transfer shooters

The Bulldogs missed out Saturday on a couple of transfers: Louisiana-Monroe's Michael Ertel to UAB and Santa Clara's Trey Wertz to Notre Dame.

       




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Butler lands much-needed shooter with Jair Bolden transfer

Butler has been active in the transfer market this offseason, but had come up empty — until Friday.

       




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What Butler basketball gets in grad transfer Jair Bolden: Grit, shooting and leadership

Bolden averaged 8.5 points in 21 minutes a game for South Carolina, starting 15 of 30 games.

       




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Dallara transforms local IndyCar shop for fight against COVID-19

As Dallara's Stefano DePonti saw his parent company begin to manufacture parts for ventilators back in Italy, he knew the IndyCar shop needed to step in to help fight COVID-19.

      




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Damezi Anderson transfers from IU basketball to Loyola

Anderson, a 6-7 wing from South Bend, put his name in the transfer portal exactly a week ago.

       




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IU football: Grad transfer Jovan Swann expects a lot of himself

Former Center Grove High School standout attended Stanford but will play for the Hoosiers in his remaining season.

       




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Basketball recruiting notebook: Plenty of transfer news involving Indy-area players

Paul Corsaro is already busy at UIndy and a bunch of local players are on the move.

       




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IndyStar Sports Awards transforms to on-demand broadcast, loaded with star pro athletes

Carmel and IU grad Sage Steele will co-host and star athletes like Drew Brees and Venus Williams will announce winners during the online broadcast.

       




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IU football: Grad transfer Jovan Swann expects a lot of himself

Former Center Grove High School standout attended Stanford but will play for the Hoosiers in his remaining season.

       




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IU women's basketball lands high-scoring grad transfer Nicole Cardaño-Hillary

Cardaño-Hillary leaves George Mason as the school's all-time leading scorer and was named Atlantic 10 Player of the Year last season.

       




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IU football defensive end Madison Norris to transfer

High school football and track standout for the Royals appeared in two games for Hoosiers

       




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IU women's basketball transfer Nicole Cardaño-Hillary may have to wait

Nicole Cardaño-Hillary wanted to take her game to another level after setting records for three seasons at George Mason.

       




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IU basketball: Damezi Anderson enters transfer portal

After a record-setting career at South Bend Riley, he rarely cracked the Hoosiers lineup in two seasons.

       




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Damezi Anderson transfers from IU basketball to Loyola

Anderson, a 6-7 wing from South Bend, put his name in the transfer portal exactly a week ago.

       




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IU football: Grad transfer Jovan Swann expects a lot of himself

Former Center Grove High School standout attended Stanford but will play for the Hoosiers in his remaining season.

       




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Fortville restaurant owner transforms into 'Tiger King's' Joe Exotic to help workers

The owner of FoxGardin in Fortville transformed himself into Joe Exotic to help his workers.

       




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Former Purdue center Matt Haarms transferring to Brigham Young

Matt Haarms will join the Cougars as a graduate transfer with one season of eligibility remaining.

       




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Butler exploring transfer market but cautious about the right fit

LaVall Jordan on transfers: 'We'd rather have nobody than the wrong guy.'

      




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Butler casting wide net in pursuit of transfers

Butler Bulldogs is a finalist for some prominent college basketball transfers after missing out on a guard.

       




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Even after some misses, Butler still taking swings at transfer shooters

The Bulldogs missed out Saturday on a couple of transfers: Louisiana-Monroe's Michael Ertel to UAB and Santa Clara's Trey Wertz to Notre Dame.

       




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Butler lands much-needed shooter with Jair Bolden transfer

Butler has been active in the transfer market this offseason, but had come up empty — until Friday.

       




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What Butler basketball gets in grad transfer Jair Bolden: Grit, shooting and leadership

Bolden averaged 8.5 points in 21 minutes a game for South Carolina, starting 15 of 30 games.

       




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Fortville restaurant owner transforms into 'Tiger King's' Joe Exotic to help workers

The owner of FoxGardin in Fortville transformed himself into Joe Exotic to help his workers.

       




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Transfer rumours: Chilwell, Ballo-Toure, Chiesa, Henderson, Salisu, Pjanic

Chelsea in talks over Chilwell, Blues and Manchester United interested in Chiesa, Red Devils ask about Salisu, plus more.




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Which Premier League squads need work in the transfer window? The bottom 10 clubs

With uncertainty around the next transfer window, what shape are Premier League squads in? We take a look at the clubs in the bottom half.




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IU football: Grad transfer Jovan Swann expects a lot of himself

Former Center Grove High School standout attended Stanford but will play for the Hoosiers in his remaining season.

       




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IndyStar Sports Awards transforms to on-demand broadcast, loaded with star pro athletes

Carmel and IU grad Sage Steele will co-host and star athletes like Drew Brees and Venus Williams will announce winners during the online broadcast.

       




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Goldman Sachs is going through a huge transformation under CEO David Solomon

  • The storied investment bank is seeing leadership shakeups under CEO David Solomon and a slew of partner departures. 
  • Goldman has been moving away from high-risk businesses like trading and is making pushes into more stable areas like consumer lending, wealth management, and transaction banking. 
  • There have been big cultural changes, too. Solomon is looking to create a more transparent workplace, while new tech execs are taking cues from Silicon Valley heavy-hitters. 
  • At Business Insider, we are closely tracking the latest developments at Goldman. You can read all of our Goldman coverage on BI Prime.

Storied Wall Street bank Goldman Sachs is going through some massive changes under CEO David Solomon.

It's taken big steps involving transparency and inclusion to change up its culture. It has seen a slew of partner departures — many in the securities division. And it's making big pushes into businesses like wealth management and transaction banking.  

The latest people moves

Culture and talent

Coronavirus response

Consumer push, transaction banking, wealth management

Technology

Trading

Alternatives

Deals

Investor day 2020

Careers 

 

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: A cleaning expert reveals her 3-step method for cleaning your entire home quickly




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PayPal to TransferWise – Cheap International Money Transfer

While we have covered a number of tutorials on PayPal in the past, in this tutorial we will look at a relatively new platform that goes by the name of TransferWise. I will discuss what TransferWise is and how you can use it with your PayPal account. I will also cover why this platform is […]

The post PayPal to TransferWise – Cheap International Money Transfer appeared first on Tips and Tricks HQ.




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How to Send Money Overseas with TransferWise

The days of your family member sending you money in an envelope from overseas are decreasing due to the risk of this money getting lost in transit or removed from your letterbox before you’ve arrived home. While many merchants and everyday people are sending money to family and friends abroad using PayPal, TransferWise is, in […]

The post How to Send Money Overseas with TransferWise appeared first on Tips and Tricks HQ.




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Getting Snowflake (the open source graphical SSH/SFTP client) to run on macOS

I don't usually write similar blog posts, but I've been really enjoying Snowflake recently. What's Snowflake you ask? Well, it's a new open source graphical SSH/SFTP client which makes working with remote servers a breeze. It works like Panic's Coda when it comes to managing content on remote servers, e.g. browse files and have a terminal open at the same time. But most importantly, it's cross-platform. And I'd like to share with everyone how to easily get it to run on macOS.

 

At the time, Snowflake's developer has only released binaries for Windows and Debian/Ubuntu with a macOS version planned for the future.

However, since the app is based on Java, the developer also provides Snowflake as a .jar file which we can run anywhere, including macOS.

So here are the steps to get Snowflake to work on your Mac:

 

Step 1

Uninstall that outdated Java version on your Mac. Ironically the best guide is on Java.com, so follow it to the letter: https://www.java.com/en/download/help/mac_uninstall_java.xml

 

Step 2

If you currently go to Java.com, the available release for macOS is pretty outdated. And apparently it relates to recent changes in Java's licensing by Oracle.

So how do you get the most recent Java release for macOS? Well, you can either signup for an account at Oracle.com (the looooong, hard way) or just grab a ready-made binary for macOS, provided by AdoptOpenJDK (the easy way). AdoptOpenJDK is a new community effort (backed by the likes of Red Hat/IBM, Amazon, Microsoft to name a few) to create ready-to-install & cross-platform binaries from OpenJDK, the open source implementation of the Java platform.

You can download the most recent runtime for Java from AdoptOpenJDK (version 13 at the time of writing) here: https://adoptopenjdk.net/?variant=openjdk13&jvmVariant=hotspot (it's a .pkg file to install)

 

Step 3

After you install the related .pkg file, it's time to download Snowflake. Head over to https://github.com/subhra74/snowflake/releases and grab the .jar file from the latest release available (v1.0.4 at the time of writing - https://github.com/subhra74/snowflake/releases/download/v1.0.4/snowflake.jar).

Now we'll make a shortcut to easily launch Snowflake.

Create a folder called "Applications" (if it doesn't already exist) in your home directory and place the snowflake.jar file in there.

Then open up your terminal and do:

chmod +x ~/Applications/snowflake.jar
ln -s ~/Applications/snowflake.jar /Applications/Snowflake.app

That's it.

You'll now find "Snowflake" in your Mac's apps and you can easily launch the app from there, or just drag and drop its icon to your Mac's dock.

(If you get a security warning when you open the app the first time, it's because the app is not signed by Apple. Just go to Preferences and then "Security & Privacy" and you should see the option to allow the app to launch always.)

 




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Successful Scaling: How to Grow Without Tumbling Back Down

“Breathing would be delightful,” the director of products told me in our kickoff. His startup was growing fast. It had a bunch of new funding, the pressure was on to ship, and the team was underwater. I was there to help and take the pressure off so they could breathe. “Let’s begin to think strategically […]

The post Successful Scaling: How to Grow Without Tumbling Back Down appeared first on ReadWrite.




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Google surfacing more local COVID news content to satisfy massive search demand

Local news publishers have struggled to monetize spike in consumer interest.

Please visit Search Engine Land for the full article.




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velocityconf: Help your dev + ops teams be cross-functional and more successful. http://t.co/1mqGK3zh0U Free webcast 5/22 w/ @lnxchk

velocityconf: Help your dev + ops teams be cross-functional and more successful. http://t.co/1mqGK3zh0U Free webcast 5/22 w/ @lnxchk




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velocityconf: RT @suzaxtell: #WomeninTech You're invited to a women's meetup on Tues May 28 in SF w/ @courtneynash @mjawili, more http://t.co/MsMZ0IK8L2

velocityconf: RT @suzaxtell: #WomeninTech You're invited to a women's meetup on Tues May 28 in SF w/ @courtneynash @mjawili, more http://t.co/MsMZ0IK8L2




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velocityconf: Call for speakers and registration is open for @webperfdays in Silicon Valley http://t.co/cJKBmynkjI June 22, Google HQ (cc @sfwebperf)

velocityconf: Call for speakers and registration is open for @webperfdays in Silicon Valley http://t.co/cJKBmynkjI June 22, Google HQ (cc @sfwebperf)




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Webinars are a hugely successful marketing tool and this software can help you launch one

If you’re an entrepreneur or marketer who hasn’t embraced webinars yet, you probably need to rethink your strategies. Over 60 percent of marketers say they use webinars as a key part of their content marketing strategy — and over 70 percent say it’s the best way to generate high-quality business leads.

Thankfully, one of the silver linings to our new quarantine, work from home lifestyles lately is the explosion of conferencing software and Americans’ newfound enthusiasm for video group meetups. 

Vidthere is one of the services that has considered the needs of large and small groups trying to maintain connections over distance, offering a suite of web-based communication tools that centralizes everything in one easy-to-use place.

Vidthere is a live video platform for everyone, featuring loads of internal communications features as well as options to sell and market directly to customers.

With webinars emerging as a key means to engage customers and sell products, Vidthere gives you all the tools to do that from any location. Vidthere offers the opportunity to deliver live video webinars that are easy for both presenters and users. 

Vidthere is entirely web-based, so users never need to download any software to join a Vidthere session. As for sessions, they combine no-lag high-quality performance with the ability to scale to the size of an audience with no video loss. Plus, every Vidthere meeting or webinar has a powerful chat feature so users can engage easily.

As for presenters, Vidthere events support up to 30 meeting participants and an unlimited number of webinar viewers, with options to support screen sharing, video in video presentation, and a whiteboard mode, a full basket of tools to help contour any presentation just the way you want it. Read the rest




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Article: How Artificial Intelligence Can Transform the Digital Out-of-Home Marketplace

Omer Golan, founder and CEO of Outernets, discusses how artificial intelligence can improve the digital out-of-home industry.




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Police identify three teens responsible for 'appalling prank' in Innisfil

An "appalling prank" in Innisfil sent South Simcoe Police officers on a mission to identify the culprits involved.




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Mechanistic insights explain the transforming potential of the T507K substitution in the protein-tyrosine phosphatase SHP2 [Signal Transduction]

The protein-tyrosine phosphatase SHP2 is an allosteric enzyme critical for cellular events downstream of growth factor receptors. Mutations in the SHP2 gene have been linked to many different types of human diseases, including developmental disorders, leukemia, and solid tumors. Unlike most SHP2-activating mutations, the T507K substitution in SHP2 is unique in that it exhibits oncogenic Ras-like transforming activity. However, the biochemical basis of how the SHP2/T507K variant elicits transformation remains unclear. By combining kinetic and biophysical methods, X-ray crystallography, and molecular modeling, as well as using cell biology approaches, here we uncovered that the T507K substitution alters both SHP2 substrate specificity and its allosteric regulatory mechanism. We found that although SHP2/T507K exists in the closed, autoinhibited conformation similar to the WT enzyme, the interactions between its N-SH2 and protein-tyrosine phosphatase domains are weakened such that SHP2/T507K possesses a higher affinity for the scaffolding protein Grb2-associated binding protein 1 (Gab1). We also discovered that the T507K substitution alters the structure of the SHP2 active site, resulting in a change in SHP2 substrate preference for Sprouty1, a known negative regulator of Ras signaling and a potential tumor suppressor. Our results suggest that SHP2/T507K's shift in substrate specificity coupled with its preferential association of SHP2/T507K with Gab1 enable the mutant SHP2 to more efficiently dephosphorylate Sprouty1 at pTyr-53. This dephosphorylation hyperactivates Ras signaling, which is likely responsible for SHP2/T507K's Ras-like transforming activity.




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Effects of deficiency in the RLBP1-encoded visual cycle protein CRALBP on visual dysfunction in humans and mice [Cell Biology]

Mutations in retinaldehyde-binding protein 1 (RLBP1), encoding the visual cycle protein cellular retinaldehyde-binding protein (CRALBP), cause an autosomal recessive form of retinal degeneration. By binding to 11-cis-retinoid, CRALBP augments the isomerase activity of retinoid isomerohydrolase RPE65 (RPE65) and facilitates 11-cis-retinol oxidation to 11-cis-retinal. CRALBP also maintains the 11-cis configuration and protects against unwanted retinaldehyde activity. Studying a sibling pair that is compound heterozygous for mutations in RLBP1/CRALBP, here we expand the phenotype of affected individuals, elucidate a previously unreported phenotype in RLBP1/CRALBP carriers, and demonstrate consistencies between the affected individuals and Rlbp1/Cralbp−/− mice. In the RLBP1/CRALBP-affected individuals, nonrecordable rod-specific electroretinogram traces were recovered after prolonged dark adaptation. In ultrawide-field fundus images, we observed radially arranged puncta typical of RLBP1/CRALBP-associated disease. Spectral domain-optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT) revealed hyperreflective aberrations within photoreceptor-associated bands. In short-wavelength fundus autofluorescence (SW-AF) images, speckled hyperautofluorescence and mottling indicated macular involvement. In both the affected individuals and their asymptomatic carrier parents, reduced SW-AF intensities, measured as quantitative fundus autofluorescence (qAF), indicated chronic impairment in 11-cis-retinal availability and provided information on mutation severity. Hypertransmission of the SD-OCT signal into the choroid together with decreased near-infrared autofluorescence (NIR-AF) provided evidence for retinal pigment epithelial cell (RPE) involvement. In Rlbp1/Cralbp−/− mice, reduced 11-cis-retinal levels, qAF and NIR-AF intensities, and photoreceptor loss were consistent with the clinical presentation of the affected siblings. These findings indicate that RLBP1 mutations are associated with progressive disease involving RPE atrophy and photoreceptor cell degeneration. In asymptomatic carriers, qAF disclosed previously undetected visual cycle deficiency.




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Dr John Sfakianakis

Associate Fellow, Middle East and North Africa Programme

Biography

John Sfakianakis is an associate fellow with the Middle East and North Africa Programme.

He is the chief economist and head of research of the Gulf Research Center in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. He previously was director for the Gulf region of the Ashmore Group and Chief Investment Strategist for MASIC, a diversified family office in Riyadh.

He also held the position of chief Middle East economist for Credit Agricole C.I.B. and group general manager and chief economist for Banque Saudi Fransi as well as chief economist for The Saudi British Bank/HSBC and chief regional economist for Samba Financial Group.

John has lived in Saudi Arabia for many years and has travelled throughout the MENA region, working on a variety of asset management and private sector led tasks for large international and regional conglomerates.

He is a frequent commentator for Bloomberg, CNBC, BBC, CNN and others. In addition, he has published articles in The Financial Times, The New York Times, Bloomberg, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy and the Daily Telegraph.

Areas of expertise

  • Gulf and Middle East economies
  • Saudi Arabia
  • Gulf capital markets
  • Family businesses, industry, and business-state relations
  • Egypt

Past experience

2015 - presentChief economist and head of research, Gulf Research Center
2014-15Regional director, Ashmore Group
2013-14Chief investment strategist, MASIC
2011-13Chief economic advisor, Saudi Ministry of Finance
2009-11Chief economist, Middle East, Credit Agricole CIB
2009-11Chief economist and group general manager, Banque Saudi Fransi
2006-09Group chief economist, The Saudi British Bank/HSBC
2005-06Chief regional economist, Samba Financial Group




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Lebanon Is Paying the Cost of Its Dysfunctional Politics

26 February 2020

Nadim Shehadi

Associate Fellow, Middle East and North Africa Programme
A series of fights to political stalemate have led its economy to the brink and cut it off from its natural economic partners in the Gulf.

2020-02-25-Leb1.jpg

Protests against economic conditions and government inaction turned violent in January. Photo: Getty Images.

To understand Lebanon’s financial collapse, look to its politics.

The country has been deeply damaged by an increasingly dysfunctional political system. A series of compromises have alienated it from its main markets in the Gulf and strangled its economy; anyone that has glanced at fluctuations in Lebanese bank deposits over the last 10 years can see the correlation.

Imagine if Boris Johnson or Donald Trump were obliged to form joint governments with Jeremy Corbyn or Bernie Sanders. The result would be paralysis and lack of accountability as each party pulls the country in opposite directions and blames the other for the state of limbo. This has been the state of affairs in Lebanon since the Doha agreement of 2008. 

That agreement followed an 18-month siege that paralyzed Beirut and an attack on the city by Hezbollah’s ‘black shirts’. The Doha formula imposed governments of national unity between Prime Minister Saad Hariri’s pro-Saudi camp and Hezbollah’s pro-Iran camp and their respective internal allies.

The pattern was set: each period of subsequent paralysis was followed by further compromise as the tug of war pulled the country away from its principal economic partners, the Arab Gulf states, with the regional balance of power tilting towards Hezbollah. 

It was not supposed to be like this. The Baabda Declaration in June 2012, reached after a process of national dialogue, was meant to secure Lebanon’s neutrality in regional conflicts, with both sides promising to hold back on external alliances and coexist despite difference over major regional issues like the war in Syria, the standoff between the US and Iran or relations with Israel or the Gulf states.

This has worn away. The Baabda declaration itself became a sham when Hezbollah inserted itself into the war in Syria in support of the Assad regime and overtly got involved in Iraq and Yemen as an Iranian proxy. This was followed by Saudi opposition to concessions by Hariri that led to the election of General Michel Aoun, an ally of Hezbollah, as president in October 2016; again, after a political paralysis that lasted 29 months with no active government and no head of state.  

The Saudis were also furious when President Aoun’s son-in-law, Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil, abstained from condemning the burning of the Saudi embassy in Tehran at an Arab League meeting in Cairo in January 2016, citing the need to preserve national unity.

Fearing that he was simply providing Hezbollah with protection in the guise of compromise, the Saudis pressured Hariri to resign in November 2017 during a trip to Riyadh, but he later challenged that by retracting on his resignation when back in Beirut. Lebanon was caught between two sides, and as the regional conflict intensified from tension to open confrontation, neutrality was no longer an option.

Gulf connections

An estimated 350,000 Lebanese expats live and work in Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar and Kuwait. These countries are also the main clients for Lebanese contractors, consultants and advertising companies, some of which have offices there. The domestic tourism industry relies heavily on Arab Gulf visitors and they are a principal source of foreign investments especially in the real estate sector.

Lebanon also enjoyed a certain degree of political and economic protection from the US and the Gulf, and Hezbollah benefited indirectly from that protection, as it also shielded it to a certain degree from sanctions.

The deterioration of relations meant that the country was cut off by its Gulf partners. This was manifested in travel bans for Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) nationals to Lebanon and a decrease in investments and bank deposits, as well as a decrease in remittances from Lebanese expats, partly because of economic crisis in the Gulf countries themselves.

Saudi Arabia withdrew $4 billion of aid to the Lebanese army and internal security forces, and no aid or deposits were forthcoming as the economic and financial situation deteriorated. 

The costs to the Lebanese economy include the opportunity cost created by the annual threat of war with Israel, after which trips are cancelled and projects postponed. Hezbollah also controls a section of Beirut port where it pays no duty or taxes. Add to that the economic fallout from the war in Syria, such as the impact on exports, the inflow of refugees and the cost of Hezbollah’s involvement.

The burden of these political factors is difficult to estimate but it constitutes the ransom that the Lebanese economy bears as a cost of the compromise. This is not to absolve Lebanese politicians from corruption or bankers of mismanagement but to add that political factors cannot be ignored.

The cumulative cost and economic impact of being cut off from its main economic partner eventually bankrupted the country. The fiscal and financial aspects, with Lebanon’s inability to service its debt, are but a reflection of these political factors. In the long run, the key to avoiding complete collapse is to restore relations with the GCC and free Lebanon from that very costly grip.




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Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) Awarded 2015 Chatham House Prize

13 October 2015

Médecins Sans Frontières, the medical humanitarian organization, has been awarded the Chatham House Prize 2015 for its life-saving work in combating the outbreak of Ebola in West Africa.

Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has been awarded the Chatham House Prize 2015.

The Chatham House Prize is presented annually to the person or organization deemed by members of the Royal Institute of International Affairs to have made the most significant contribution to the improvement of international relations in the previous year.

This year, members voted for MSF in recognition of its work in combating the 2014 Ebola outbreak in West Africa. MSF was among the first groups to respond to the epidemic in March of that year and remained engaged on the ground throughout the crisis, caring for the majority of patients in Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone. MSF leaders and staff were persistent and forceful in their action to halt the spread of the epidemic and, as a result, were instrumental in saving thousands of lives. 

Dr Joanne Liu, MSF’s international president, will represent MSF at the Chatham House Prize award ceremony in London where she will be presented with a crystal award and a scroll, signed by Her Majesty The Queen, patron of the institute. Previous recipients of the Prize include former president Lula of Brazil, Burmese democracy campaigner Aung San Suu Kyi, former US secretary of state Hillary Clinton, and Melinda Gates, co-founder of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Dr Robin Niblett CMG, director of Chatham House, said: 

'I warmly congratulate Médecins Sans Frontières on being voted the recipient of this year's Chatham House Prize. This is the first time an organization has been awarded the Prize and I am delighted that their vital work has been recognized in this way. MSF led the fight against Ebola by sounding an early alarm on its dangers. It put into place a highly effective operation that saved thousands of lives, and helped prevent a more wide-spread catastrophe, risking and, in some cases, losing the lives of its own staff.'

Dr Joanne Liu, international president of MSF said:

'I am honoured that MSF will be the recipient of this year’s Chatham House Prize and I look forward to accepting this award on behalf of the thousands of people who worked in the Ebola outbreak. This includes the doctors, nurses and logisticians who volunteered from around the world, and the thousands more national staff in Guinea, Liberia, Mali, Nigeria and Sierra Leone who made our work possible. Knowing that they did this while coping with the fear of Ebola in their communities and in the face of incredible stigma makes their contribution even more remarkable. While we continue to work on the ground, our focus is also trying to ensure that next time there is an outbreak, that patients get the care and treatment they need, on time, before it spreads and turns into a killer epidemic. But we all still have a long way to go and it is important that we work together to respond to these challenges and opportunities.'

Members Event

Chatham House Prize 2015: In Conversation with Dr Joanne Liu of Médecins Sans Frontières
13 October 2015 - 17:00 - 18:00

Sponsors

Chatham House gratefully acknowledges the support of our lead sponsor Royal Dutch Shell, and other sponsors AIG, BHP Billiton, Chevron and DTCC.

Nominees

There were three other nominees for the Chatham House Prize 2015:

  • Mahamadou Issoufou, President, Republic of Niger (2011-) 
  • Juan Manuel Santos, President, Republic of Colombia (2010-)
  • Angela Merkel, Chancellor, Federal Republic of Germany (2005-)

About the Chatham House Prize

The annual Chatham House Prize, launched in 2005, is awarded to the person or organization that is deemed by Chatham House members to have made the most significant contribution to the improvement of international relations in the previous year.

The selection process draws on the expertise of Chatham House's research teams and three presidents, who nominate candidates. Our members are then invited to vote for the winner in a ballot.

Further information about the Chatham House Prize




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Mechanistic insights explain the transforming potential of the T507K substitution in the protein-tyrosine phosphatase SHP2 [Signal Transduction]

The protein-tyrosine phosphatase SHP2 is an allosteric enzyme critical for cellular events downstream of growth factor receptors. Mutations in the SHP2 gene have been linked to many different types of human diseases, including developmental disorders, leukemia, and solid tumors. Unlike most SHP2-activating mutations, the T507K substitution in SHP2 is unique in that it exhibits oncogenic Ras-like transforming activity. However, the biochemical basis of how the SHP2/T507K variant elicits transformation remains unclear. By combining kinetic and biophysical methods, X-ray crystallography, and molecular modeling, as well as using cell biology approaches, here we uncovered that the T507K substitution alters both SHP2 substrate specificity and its allosteric regulatory mechanism. We found that although SHP2/T507K exists in the closed, autoinhibited conformation similar to the WT enzyme, the interactions between its N-SH2 and protein-tyrosine phosphatase domains are weakened such that SHP2/T507K possesses a higher affinity for the scaffolding protein Grb2-associated binding protein 1 (Gab1). We also discovered that the T507K substitution alters the structure of the SHP2 active site, resulting in a change in SHP2 substrate preference for Sprouty1, a known negative regulator of Ras signaling and a potential tumor suppressor. Our results suggest that SHP2/T507K's shift in substrate specificity coupled with its preferential association of SHP2/T507K with Gab1 enable the mutant SHP2 to more efficiently dephosphorylate Sprouty1 at pTyr-53. This dephosphorylation hyperactivates Ras signaling, which is likely responsible for SHP2/T507K's Ras-like transforming activity.




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The heme-regulatory motifs of heme oxygenase-2 contribute to the transfer of heme to the catalytic site for degradation [Protein Structure and Folding]

Heme-regulatory motifs (HRMs) are present in many proteins that are involved in diverse biological functions. The C-terminal tail region of human heme oxygenase-2 (HO2) contains two HRMs whose cysteine residues form a disulfide bond; when reduced, these cysteines are available to bind Fe3+-heme. Heme binding to the HRMs occurs independently of the HO2 catalytic active site in the core of the protein, where heme binds with high affinity and is degraded to biliverdin. Here, we describe the reversible, protein-mediated transfer of heme between the HRMs and the HO2 core. Using hydrogen-deuterium exchange (HDX)-MS to monitor the dynamics of HO2 with and without Fe3+-heme bound to the HRMs and to the core, we detected conformational changes in the catalytic core only in one state of the catalytic cycle—when Fe3+-heme is bound to the HRMs and the core is in the apo state. These conformational changes were consistent with transfer of heme between binding sites. Indeed, we observed that HRM-bound Fe3+-heme is transferred to the apo-core either upon independent expression of the core and of a construct spanning the HRM-containing tail or after a single turnover of heme at the core. Moreover, we observed transfer of heme from the core to the HRMs and equilibration of heme between the core and HRMs. We therefore propose an Fe3+-heme transfer model in which HRM-bound heme is readily transferred to the catalytic site for degradation to facilitate turnover but can also equilibrate between the sites to maintain heme homeostasis.




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The Escherichia coli cellulose synthase subunit G (BcsG) is a Zn2+-dependent phosphoethanolamine transferase [Glycobiology and Extracellular Matrices]

Bacterial biofilms are cellular communities that produce an adherent matrix. Exopolysaccharides are key structural components of this matrix and are required for the assembly and architecture of biofilms produced by a wide variety of microorganisms. The human bacterial pathogens Escherichia coli and Salmonella enterica produce a biofilm matrix composed primarily of the exopolysaccharide phosphoethanolamine (pEtN) cellulose. Once thought to be composed of only underivatized cellulose, the pEtN modification present in these matrices has been implicated in the overall architecture and integrity of the biofilm. However, an understanding of the mechanism underlying pEtN derivatization of the cellulose exopolysaccharide remains elusive. The bacterial cellulose synthase subunit G (BcsG) is a predicted inner membrane–localized metalloenzyme that has been proposed to catalyze the transfer of the pEtN group from membrane phospholipids to cellulose. Here we present evidence that the C-terminal domain of BcsG from E. coli (EcBcsGΔN) functions as a phosphoethanolamine transferase in vitro with substrate preference for cellulosic materials. Structural characterization of EcBcsGΔN revealed that it belongs to the alkaline phosphatase superfamily, contains a Zn2+ ion at its active center, and is structurally similar to characterized enzymes that confer colistin resistance in Gram-negative bacteria. Informed by our structural studies, we present a functional complementation experiment in E. coli AR3110, indicating that the activity of the BcsG C-terminal domain is essential for integrity of the pellicular biofilm. Furthermore, our results established a similar but distinct active-site architecture and catalytic mechanism shared between BcsG and the colistin resistance enzymes.




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Thioredoxin regulates human mercaptopyruvate sulfurtransferase at physiologically-relevant concentrations [Enzymology]

3-Mercaptopyruvate sulfur transferase (MPST) catalyzes the desulfuration of 3-mercaptopyruvate (3-MP) and transfers sulfane sulfur from an enzyme-bound persulfide intermediate to thiophilic acceptors such as thioredoxin and cysteine. Hydrogen sulfide (H2S), a signaling molecule implicated in many physiological processes, can be released from the persulfide product of the MPST reaction. Two splice variants of MPST, differing by 20 amino acids at the N terminus, give rise to the cytosolic MPST1 and mitochondrial MPST2 isoforms. Here, we characterized the poorly-studied MPST1 variant and demonstrated that substitutions in its Ser–His–Asp triad, proposed to serve a general acid–base role, minimally affect catalytic activity. We estimated the 3-MP concentration in murine liver, kidney, and brain tissues, finding that it ranges from 0.4 μmol·kg−1 in brain to 1.4 μmol·kg−1 in kidney. We also show that N-acetylcysteine, a widely-used antioxidant, is a poor substrate for MPST and is unlikely to function as a thiophilic acceptor. Thioredoxin exhibits substrate inhibition, increasing the KM for 3-MP ∼15-fold compared with other sulfur acceptors. Kinetic simulations at physiologically-relevant substrate concentrations predicted that the proportion of sulfur transfer to thioredoxin increases ∼3.5-fold as its concentration decreases from 10 to 1 μm, whereas the total MPST reaction rate increases ∼7-fold. The simulations also predicted that cysteine is a quantitatively-significant sulfane sulfur acceptor, revealing MPST's potential to generate low-molecular-weight persulfides. We conclude that the MPST1 and MPST2 isoforms are kinetically indistinguishable and that thioredoxin modulates the MPST-catalyzed reaction in a physiologically-relevant concentration range.




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The First World War and the transformations of the state

13 March 2014 , Volume 90, Number 2

Pierre Purseigle




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Asfari Forum: The Role of Civil Society in Tackling Sectarian and Interfaith Conflicts in the MENA Region

Invitation Only Research Event

12 November 2015 - 2:00pm to 5:15pm

Chatham House, London

This roundtable will explore the role of and the challenges faced by both the international community and local civil society in countering sectarian narratives in the Middle East and North Africa region. Speakers will draw on their experiences working with communities in Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, and Egypt to discuss potential contributions that can be made at the local, national, and international level in tackling the root causes of religious division and facilitating positive community relations.

This inaugural Asfari Forum is sponsored by the Asfari Foundation.

Attendance at this event is by invitation only.

Event attributes

Chatham House Rule