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☆ Lebanon's central bank chief says he will not renew his term
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-19 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

CAIRO, Feb 19 (Reuters) - Lebanon's embattled central bank chief Riad Salameh said on Sunday he would leave his post once his latest term ends in July even if he is asked to stay longer. "No one has asked me to continue [as central bank chief] but even if they do, I think this is enough," he said in a televised interview with Egypt's AlQahera News on Sunday. Salameh, who became the head of the central bank in 1993, has come under increased scrutiny both at home and abroad since Lebanon's financial system began unraveling in 2019. The collapse has locked most savers out of their bank accounts and pushed more than 80% of Lebanon's population below the poverty line. The central bank had announced in November 2022 that a "specialized and professional international auditing firm" had completed an audit of the gold reserves but had not announced its value.

☆ Syrian baby born in earthquake adopted by aunt and uncle
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-18 | by ( Khalil Ashawi | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/4] Khalil Al-Sawadi, the uncle-by-marriage of a baby girl born during a deadly earthquake earlier this month, holds her, in rebel-held town of Jandaris, Syria February 18, 2023. REUTERS/Khalil AshawiJANDARIS, Syria Feb 18 (Reuters) - An infant child born in northern Syria during this month's devastating earthquake was reunited on Saturday with her aunt and uncle, after her parents and siblings died in the disaster. Footage circulating widely on social media after the quake showed a rescuer scrambling down a hill of rubble carrying a tiny dust-covered baby. Ataa was born three days after the earthquake and Sawadi said he would raise them together. A woman gave birth to a child in the city of Aleppo during the earthquake and said he "brought her back to life."

☆ Four U.S. troops wounded in raid that killed Islamic State official
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-17 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

BEIRUT/WASHINGTON, Feb 17 (Reuters) - Four U.S. troops were wounded during a helicopter raid that killed an Islamic State group leader in northeast Syria, U.S. officials said on Friday. The U.S. military said the troops and a military working dog suffered the injuries when the target of the raid - identified as Hamza al-Homsi - triggered an explosion. Buccino said the raid was carried out with the Syrian Democratic Forces, an alliance led by Kurdish fighters that has waged a years-long campaign against Islamic State in the country's north. A separate raid also killed an Islamic State assassination cell leader, Buccino added, without going into detail. Islamic State named a new top leader in December after its former chief killed himself during a raid in southern Syria.

☆ South Korea's new 'stealthy' fighter jet just hit a supersonic milestone
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-17 | by ( Maya Carlin | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

South Korea's KF-21 Boramae "Fighting Hawk" made its first supersonic flight in January. Roughly 65% of the KF-21's parts are domestically produced, a major feat for South Korea. Positioned near the PRC and the Hermit Kingdom, South Korea considers aerial-defense capabilities to be paramount to its security. ReutersDespite its advanced electronics capabilities, Seoul refers to its KF-21 fighter as a 4.5-generation fighter. The Boramae's recent test flight makes Seoul the eighth nation to produce a supersonic fighter.

More than 105,000 people were injured in the quake, he said, with more than 13,000 still being treated in hospital. Afterwards, Gungor's relatives hugged the rescue team, made up of military personnel and members of the disaster management authority AFAD. Families in both Turkey and Syria said they and their children were dealing with the psychological aftermath of the quake. A first convoy of U.N. aid entered rebel-held northwest Syria from Turkey via the newly-opened Bab al-Salam crossing. Russia also said it was wrapping up its search and rescue work in Turkey and Syria and preparing to withdraw.

The combined death toll in Turkey and Syria has climbed to more than 41,000, and millions are in need of humanitarian aid, with many survivors having been left homeless in near-freezing winter temperatures. It asked Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to open more border crossing points with Turkey to allow aid to get through. "I shouted, shouted and shouted. Civil war hostilities have obstructed at least two attempts to send aid to the northwest from elsewhere in Syria, but an aid convoy reached the area overnight. "The children and I, by some miracle, we ended up in this small space that I had left empty."

☆ Fact Check-Fabricated Lauren Boebert tweet on M&M candy being ‘woke’ circulates online
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-13 | by ( Reuters Fact Check | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

A screenshot purporting to show a tweet published by Republican congresswoman Lauren Boebert calling M&M candy “woke” is fabricated. The image appears to show a tweet sent via Boebert’s official Twitter account (@laurenboebert) featuring a picture of a single red M&M candy that reads: “I bought a bag of M&M’s and they don’t have M’s anymore. A Twitter advanced search did not reveal any such tweet published via Boebert’s official account (archive.is/wip/Tyvmh). An archive of Boebert’s deleted tweets compiled by PolitiTweet did not reveal any such post (here). No such tweet was published via Boebert’s account.

[1/7] Children draw at a makeshift shelter that hosts about 250 people, half of whom are children, following the the deadly earthquake in Mersin, Turkey, February 13, 2023. Anti-Syrian slogans such as "We don't want Syrians," "Immigrants should be deported," and "No longer welcome" trended on Twitter. TENSIONS ON THE RISETurkey is home to nearly 4 million Syrian refugees, having opened its borders to those fleeing the civil war that erupted there in 2011. Turkey has spent more than $40 billion since 2011 accommodating the refugees at a time of intense economic hardship in the country. Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Monday a new influx of refugees from Syria to Turkey was "out of the question".

☆ The M&Ms spokescandies are back. Here’s how the chocolate candy went from a wartime treat to playing a starring role in the culture wars
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-13 | by ( Lara O'Reilly | Alex Bitter | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +1 min

M&Ms brought back its talking candy mascots after Sunday's Super Bowl game. The “spokescandies” went on “an indefinite pause” as part of the brand’s Super Bowl ad play. But after Sunday's Super Bowl game, M&Ms ran a 15-second ad making clear that Rudolph's tenure as spokesperson was ending. "I mean, as a walking, talking candy, my options are pretty limited." M&Ms is among the oldest candy brands in the US, and its talking candies are relatively recent additions.

☆ M&Ms Super Bowl commercial: How ads have become weeks-long campaigns
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-12 | by ( Danielle Wiener-Bronner | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

The Super Bowl commercial, billed as the conclusion to weeks-long drama surrounding the status of the “spokescandies,” left some viewers scratching their heads. But if you weren’t paying attention, the final commercial might be a head scratcher -— one risk a brand takes when it uses a weeks-long campaign ahead of its Super Bowl commercial. In a change for the decades-old Super Bowl ad wars, it’s actually become a commonplace strategy to use social media to tease, preview and create buzz ahead of their Super Bowl commercials. Companies spend millions just for a Super Bowl ad slot — reportedly over $7 million for some 30-second spots — before investing into the commercials themselves. Dance contests and bettingDespite the high cost of a Super Bowl commercial, companies are eager to nab a spot.

☆ Islamist group approval issues hold up Syria quake aid, U.N. says
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-12 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

BEIRUT, Feb 12 (Reuters) - Earthquake aid from government-held parts of Syria into territory controlled by hardline opposition groups has been held up by approval issues with Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), a United Nations spokesperson told Reuters on Sunday. A spokesperson for the U.N.'s humanitarian aid office told Reuters "there are issues with approval" by HTS, without giving further information. An HTS source in Idlib told Reuters the group would not allow any shipments from government-held parts of Syria and that aid would be coming in from Turkey to the north. The European Union's envoy to Syria on Sunday urged authorities in Damascus to "engage in good faith" with aid workers to get help to those in need. "It is important to allow unimpeded access for aid to arrive in all areas where it is needed," Dan Stoenescu told Reuters.

☆ After quake, Syrian schools silent as teachers, students perish
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-12 | by ( Khalil Ashawi | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Some of those children and teachers would not be coming back, Suleiman said. For years, schools would regularly shut because of fighting, mortar fire by rebel groups or air strikes by the Syrian government or Russia. The earthquake destroyed more than 115 schools in Syria and damaged hundreds more, according to a United Nations update published Saturday. Suleiman has been trying to track down some of the nursery children from whose families he has not heard. "I went around to buildings where I know some of the students live - and 90% of them were destroyed.

The richest Black mothers and their babies are twice as likely to die as the richest white mothers and their babies. Yet there is one group that doesn’t gain the same protection from being rich, the study finds: Black mothers and babies. The researchers found that maternal mortality rates were just as high among the highest-income Black women as among low-income white women. The richest Black women have infant mortality rates at about the same level as the poorest white women. Generally, rates for Hispanic mothers and Asian mothers track more closely with those of white mothers than Black mothers.

[1/8] Seho Uyan, who survived a deadly earthquake, but lost his four relatives, sits in front of a collapsed building in Adiyaman, Turkey February 11, 2023. Turkey said about 80,000 people were in hospital, with more than 1 million in temporary shelters. U.N. aid chief Martin Griffiths described the earthquake as the region's worst event in 100 years, predicting the death toll would at least double. He praised Turkey's response, saying his experience was that disaster victims were always disappointed by early relief efforts. It has killed 24,617 inside Turkey, and more than 3,500 in Syria, where tolls have not been updated since Friday.

☆ EU envoy to Syria: 'absolutely unfair' to be accused of shirking earthquake aid
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-12 | by ( Maya Gebeily | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Dan Stoenescu told Reuters the bloc and its member states have gathered more than 50 million euros to provide aid and back rescue missions and first aid in both government-held and rebel-controlled parts of Syria. "It is absolutely unfair to be accused of not providing aid, when actually we have constantly been doing exactly that for over a decade and we are doing so much more even during the earthquake crisis," Stoenescu said in written comments. The war carved the country into various competing zones of control, making aid provision difficult even before Monday's 7.8 magnitude quake. Stoenescu said the EU was encouraging member states to provide help and that sanctions "do not impede the delivery of humanitarian aid." "We call the authorities in Damascus not to politicise the humanitarian aid delivery, and to engage in good faith with all humanitarian partners and UN agencies to help people," he said.

[1/6] Rescue workers try to rescue a 15-year-old girl trapped under the rubble, in the aftermath of a deadly earthquake in Kahramanmaras, Turkey February 10, 2023. The death toll exceeded 24,150 across southern Turkey and northwest Syria a day after Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said authorities should have reacted faster to Monday's huge earthquake. Earlier, the World Food Programme said it was running out of stocks in rebel-held northwest Syria as the state of war complicated relief efforts. A similarly powerful earthquake in northwest Turkey in 1999 killed more than 17,000 killed in 1999. In the Samandag district of Turkey, rescuers crouched under concrete slabs and whispered "Inshallah" - "God willing" - as they carefully reached into the rubble and plucked out a 10-day-old newborn.

☆ UN aid chief says earthquake is region's 'worst event in 100 years'
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-11 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

Feb 11 (Reuters) - UN aid chief Martin Griffiths described on Saturday the devastating earthquake that hit southern Turkey and northwestern Syria as the "worst event in 100 years in this region". Speaking during a news briefing in the Turkish province of Kahramanmaras, Griffiths also lauded Turkey's response to the disaster as "extraordinary". He also told Reuters he hoped in Syria aid would go to both government and opposition-held areas, but that things with this regard were "not clear yet". Reporting by Maya Gebeily; Writing by Hatem Maher Editing by Tomasz JanowskiOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

[1/4] Survivors rest while a woman reacts at a hospital in the aftermath of an earthquake, in Kahramanmaras, Turkey February 10, 2023. REUTERS/Suhaib Salem 1 2 3 4Authorities say some 6,500 buildings in Turkey collapsed and countless more were damaged. The U.S. Agency for International Development will provide $85 million in urgent humanitarian assistance to Turkey and Syria. SYRIA OVERWHELMEDIn Syria, relief efforts are complicated by a conflict that has partitioned the country and wrecked its infrastructure. The Syrian government views the delivery of aid to rebel-held areas from Turkey as a violation of its sovereignty and territorial integrity.

☆ Take a Look at Some of the Best Super Bowl Ads Ahead of the Big Game
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-10 | by ( Aidan Pollard | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul return as Walter White and Jesse Pinkman in one of the much anticipated Super Bowl commercials. This year some advertisers have released what appear to be full-length Super Bowl commercials early, posting them to social media and YouTube. The Super Bowl has long been a kind of, well, Super Bowl for advertisers, leading companies to go bigger every year with their ads. The commercial pokes fun at corporate "rock stars" by splicing real rock and heavy metal icons into everyday office situations. Diddy does hitsA commercial released this week shows musician Diddy in a meeting with marketers from Uber who are asking him to write a song for the Uber One membership service.

☆ How M&M’s ‘Trendjacked’ the Super Bowl
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-09 | by ( Benjamin Mullin | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

Let’s back up: Last month, the Fox News host Tucker Carlson joined the chorus of conservative voices criticizing Mars Wrigley for giving its chocolate-y M&M mascots what they deemed a woke makeover. The green M&M “spokescandy” (you know, the full-lipped one, in go-go boots, that even other M&M’s crave) was given comfortable sneakers to soothe its arches, a fashion choice that rankled Carlson. But Mars Wrigley has parlayed the controversy into what amounts to free advertising for its new spokeswoman, Maya Rudolph.

☆ First aid convoy bound for NW Syria from Turkey nears border -sources
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-09 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

[1/2] Rescuers search for survivors at the site of a collapsed building, in the aftermath of an earthquake, in Latakia, Syria February 9, 2023. REUTERS/Yamam al Shaar/File PhotoFeb 9 (Reuters) - The first convoy of humanitarian assistance for people in northwest Syria since Monday's devastating earthquake is en route to the southern Turkish border with the hope of crossing on Thursday, two aid sources told Reuters. A Turkish official said the Bab al-Hawa border crossing was open for humanitarian aid and authorities will open a few more crossings after two days if security is sound. The United Nations has described access to the opposition-controlled area of Syria through Bab al-Hawa as a "lifeline" for some 4 million people who it says rely on humanitarian assistance. U.N. aid from Turkey served 2.7 million people in northwest Syria per month last year compared with 43,500 people a month who received aid from routes within Syria since August 2021.

Damascus has long said aid to the rebel enclave in the north should go via Syria not across the Turkish border. Jordan and the UAE, which once backed Syria's opposition but have normalised ties with Assad in recent years, have sent aid to Damascus, Syrian state media has reported. WRANGLE OVER RESOURCESMoscow has long argued that delivering aid to northwest Syria from Turkey violates Syrian sovereignty. But he said aid flows must be coordinated with the government and delivered through Syria not across the Turkish border. The Damascus-based Syrian Red Crescent called for lifting of sanctions, which Syria's government has long blamed for mounting economic hardship.

☆ Quake halts UN cross-border aid to Syria, unclear when will resume
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-07 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Even before the quake struck in the early hours of Monday, the United Nations estimated that more than 4 million people in northwest Syria, many displaced by the war and living in camps, depended on cross-border aid. Sun-Suon said aid workers were also struggling with limited access to water and power as well as looking for their own colleagues and loved ones. Aid already positioned within the northwest will likely be rapidly depleted, aid officials said. "We have heard there are some supplies in the system for the next 3 - 5 days however our concern is that these will be exhausted rapidly," Kieren Barnes, country director for Mercy Corps Syria, told Reuters. "We will need to significantly increase resources for northwest Syria and ensure supply lines are clear for us to respond."

☆ Seniors urge Congress to protect Social Security, Medicare ahead of State of the Union
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-07 | by ( Lorie Konish | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

President Joe Biden speaks about protecting Social Security, Medicare, and lowering prescription drug costs, during a visit to OB Johnson Park and Community Center, in Hallandale Beach, Florida, on Nov. 1, 2022. Kevin Lamarque | ReutersSocial Security and the debt ceiling debateThe future of Social Security and Medicare have increasingly come up in the debate around the debt ceiling. Both Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy have vowed to keep changes to Social Security and Medicare off the table. That would include Social Security's pension and disability, Medicare Part A and highway trust funds. Social Security changes require bipartisan support

[1/2] A man stands near a damaged vehicle, following an earthquake, in rebel-held Azaz, Syria February 6, 2023. REUTERS/Mahmoud HassanoSummary Quake strikes central Turkey, northwest SyriaHundreds of buildings across the region brought downRescuers begin hunt for untold numbers trapped in rubbleDIYARBAKIR/ANKARA, Turkey, Feb 6 (Reuters) - A major earthquake of magnitude 7.9 struck central Turkey and northwest Syria on Monday, killing about 200 people as buildings collapsed across the snowy region, and triggering a search for survivors trapped in rubble. "I have never felt anything like it in the 40 years I've lived," said Erdem, a resident of the Turkish city of Gaziantep, near the quake's epicentre, who declined to give his surname. The United States was "profoundly concerned" about the quake in Turkey and Syria and was monitoring events closely, White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said on Twitter. More than 17,000 people were killed in 1999 when a 7.6-magnitude quake struck Izmit, a city southeast of Istanbul.

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