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The senior source familiar with Syrian government thinking said that the UAE role in persuading Assad should not be underestimated. A Syrian source close to the Gulf said the UAE had used its "soft power" on Assad and a Turkish official also said the UAE had played a part in persuading him. Moscow has tussled with Western states repeatedly at the Security Council over cross-border aid into Syria, arguing it violates Syria's sovereignty. Other Arab states, including U.S. allies, have also moved to normalise ties with Assad. The UAE official said there was an "urgent need to strengthen the Arab role in Syria".

[1/6] Godwin Nnamdi, 27-year-old fitness trainer and first-time voter, poses for a portrait at a gym in Lagos, Nigeria February 15, 2023. But his active social media campaign and promises to break with Nigeria's gerontocratic past have endeared him to many younger voters. The young and tech-savvy, first-time voters rallying around Obi call themselves the "Obi-dients" - a somewhat incongruous choice for an anti-establishment movement. The former banker has promised jobs, skills training and funding to young Nigerians, but so too have Tinubu and Atiku. If Obi loses, Ndukwe said he would join the wave of skilled Nigerians leaving the country in its perpetual brain drain.

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."

☆ Leaked recording shows Amazon CEO Andy Jassy delivering a brutally honest rallying cry for employees to 'redefine' the company
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-14 | by ( Eugene Kim | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy told employees on Tuesday that it'll take many months to redefine the company. But he said if everyone works together as a team, Amazon will get through it stronger. Amazon CEO Andy Jassy delivered a brutally honest motivational pep talk at an internal staff meeting on Tuesday, urging employees to band together as the company tries to get through an unusually challenging time. But he promised employees that the progress they make will "redefine" Amazon and better-position the company going forward, according to a recording of the all-hands meeting obtained by Insider. I don't really know any other company that's pursuing a set of innovations like that," Jassy said.

☆ UN aid chief: quake rescue phase 'coming to a close'
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-13 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

ALEPPO, Syria, Feb 13 (Reuters) - The phase of the rescue after the major earthquake struck Turkey and Syria a week ago is "coming to a close" with urgency now switching to shelter, food, schooling and psychosocial care, the U.N. aid chief said during a visit to Syria on Monday. The Feb. 6 earthquake struck a swathe of northwest Syria, a region partitioned by the 11-year-long war, including insurgent-held territory at the Turkish border and government areas controlled by President Bashar al-Assad. Griffiths said the United Nations would have aid moving from government-held regions to the rebel-held northwest, a front line across which aid has seldom passed during the conflict. The United Nations said more than 4,300 had been reported killed in the northwest, and more than 7,600 injured. Reporting by Reuters TV; Writing by Timour Azhari/Tom Perry, Writing by Clauda Tanios; Editing by Toby ChopraOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Joe Biden Is Bernie Sanders
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-09 | by ( Daniel Henninger | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

When Mr. Biden finally announces his re-election bid, he will be running as a democratic socialist. That is the clear takeaway from the more than 70 minutes Mr. Biden spent describing his plans to push federal spending and mandates into every nook of American life. What a welcome departure this is from the misrepresentation Rep. Jim Clyburn perpetrated on voters to get Mr. Biden elected as a centrist in 2020. Recall how the South Carolina congressman endorsed Mr. Biden before his state’s primary, explicitly warning on ABC’s “This Week” against the insurgent campaign of Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders: “I do believe it will be an extra burden for us to have to carry. This is South Carolina, and South Carolinians are pretty leery about that title ‘socialist.’ ”

[1/9] Rescuers work at the site of a damaged building in the aftermath of a deadly earthquake in Kahramanmaras, Turkey, February 8, 2023. said Melek, 64, in the southern city of Antakya, adding that she had not seen any rescue teams. With the scale of the disaster becoming ever more apparent, the death toll - now 6,234 in Turkey - looks likely to keep on rising. In neighbouring Syria, already devastated by 11 years of war, the death toll climbed to more than 2,500 overnight, according to the Syrian government and a rescue service operating in the rebel-held northwest. The initial quake struck just after 4 a.m. on Monday, the dead of night in the dead of winter, giving the sleeping population little chance to react.

☆ Nigerian rights panel, underfunded and overmatched, begins probe of powerful military
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-07 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +11 min

REUTERS/Temilade Adelaja/File PhotoFeb 7 (Reuters) - A special panel named by Nigeria's National Human Rights Commission launched an investigation Tuesday into recent Reuters reports on rights abuses by the country’s army. Nigerian military leaders said the abortion program did not exist and that children were never targeted for killing. The U.S. defense and state departments, the United Nations Secretary-General, the German foreign minister, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch all called for Nigeria to investigate the Reuters findings. In a 2002 paper, two Nigerian scholars called the body "a red herring” to distract from human rights violations. In 2013, the military allegedly killed as many as 200 civilians in the town of Baga, in northeastern Borno state.

☆ Democrats make South Carolina first presidential primary voting state
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-04 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

South Carolina will now kick things off for Democrats, with Michigan — and potentially Georgia — joining the early states in the biggest shakeup of the presidential primary in years, while Nevada will go second. "The Democratic Party looks like America," Harrison added, "And so does this proposal." Iowa Democratic Party Chair Rita Hart said the removal of Iowa will expose the party to charges that they have "turned their back on Iowa and rural America." New Hampshire Democrats have asked for more time to try to come up with a solution, but most Democrats say the writing on the wall and expect there will be no solution to the impasse. "Y'all, for far too long, our party's nominating calendar has not reflected this country looks like," said Georgia Rep. Nikema Williams, who is also the chairwoman of the state Democratic Party.

☆ Protesters mark Myanmar coup anniversary, junta due to make statement
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-01 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

[1/3] Filipino activists stage a protest in solidarity with Myanmar citizens, two years since Myanmar's military coup, outside the Embassy of Myanmar in Makati City, Philippines, February 1, 2023. REUTERS/Eloisa LopezFeb 1 (Reuters) - Protesters marked the two-year anniversary of Myanmar's military coup with a "silent strike" in major cities and rallies overseas on Wednesday, as exiled civilian leaders vowed to end what they called the army's "illegal power grab". Myanmar's military took power after complaining of fraud in a November 2020 general election won by Suu Kyi's party. PROTESTS IN BANGKOKIn the main commercial cities of Yangon and Mandalay, images on social media showed deserted streets in what coup opponents said was a silent protest against the junta. State media recently announced tough requirements for parties to contest, a move that critics say could sideline the military's opponents and cement its grip on politics.

DANA POINT, Calif. — Ronna McDaniel won re-election to a fourth term as Republican National Committee chairwoman on Friday, besting insurgent challenger Harmeet Dhillon in a secret ballot vote at the party’s annual winter meeting. Publicly, roughly 30 RNC members had committed to Dhillon ahead of the ballot. Harmeet Dhillon at her office in San Francisco in 2017. Anda Chu / MediaNews Group / Bay Area News via Getty Images fileEven with McDaniel in place as the next chair, many RNC members say they expect tensions to remain. All of us who are supporting Harmeet are not going away.”The RNC also approved a package of nine resolutions on Friday in a voice vote.

But members gathered here at the party’s winter meeting say that once all the votes are counted, the tensions are unlikely to quickly subside. McDaniel and Dhillon supporters who spoke with NBC News acknowledged Dhillon is facing tough odds to unseat McDaniel. For nearly two months, RNC members, particularly those backing McDaniel, have been inundated with emails from Dhillon supporters pleading with them to back the insurgent candidacy. “He’s very well thought of and carries a lot of weight here,” Bill Palatucci, an RNC committeeman from New Jersey who is backing Dhillon, told NBC News. Regardless, he expressed concern that most RNC members were choosing to ignore the grassroots backlash to another McDaniel term.

[1/5] Supporters of Brazil's former President Jair Bolsonaro demonstrate against President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva as security forces operate, outside Brazil?s National Congress in Brasilia, Brazil, January 8, 2023. Launched in November 2020 and run by Brazil's central bank, Pix is free of charge for individuals, allowing them to instantly transfer money to others via online banking apps. Since its launch, over 133 million Brazilians and almost 12 million companies have made or received Pix transfers, according to the central bank. INVESTIGATIVE TRAILPolice, money-laundering experts and central bank officials said Pix donations will be central to investigators' efforts to uncover who orchestrated the insurrection. Pix transfers are covered by bank secrecy laws, and police can only access a suspect's transaction history with judicial authorization.

☆ West backs Nigeria's war on extremists, and backs off on human rights
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-28 | by ( Reuters Graphic | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +21 min

“While respect for human rights is unquestionably a high priority, we have many other equities at stake,” McCulley wrote. He said the focus on human rights had sent relations between the two countries into the “lowest ebb” in his three years there. Nigeria’s human rights record wasn’t only a moral issue – it was a legal one. Working under these laws provided “openings to incentivise and institutionalise” human rights protections within the Nigerian military, the State Department said. The pact also noted that London and Abuja had agreed on an “enhanced human rights dialogue” to ensure compliance with international rights standards.

Carl Icahn had a textbook strategy for the Nevada-based energy utility Southwest Gas Holdings. In August, Southwest Gas' board decided against a divestiture, and the sale of subsidiaries that Icahn had urged remains uncertain. "Shareholders don't want to hear it, but you really have great difficulty selling a company at a good price today," the widely followed activist investor Icahn told Insider. via CNBCBut, like Icahn in the case of Southwest Gas, participants in this new onslaught may find themselves confounded by an increasingly complex and fraught business environment. According to Lazard, 37% of activist campaigns this year were launched by first-timers, the highest proportion since the company started tracking these figures in 2015.

☆ In Nigeria's long war, a young woman is brutalised by both sides
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-14 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +16 min

It was a pleasant evening in the summer of 2014, in her Nigerian village near the Cameroon border. Reuters could not reach representatives of Boko Haram or its offshoot, Islamic State West Africa Province, for comment. But by October 2014, the militants were enforcing extreme sharia law in her village, Aisha said. Boko Haram men often came looking for them, knocking on their door and forcing them to hide. But she did not believe she could do so with Bana, as boys were particularly valued in the Boko Haram community.

Carl Icahn had a textbook strategy for the Nevada-based energy utility Southwest Gas Holdings. In August, Southwest Gas' board decided against a divestiture, and the sale of subsidiaries that Icahn had urged remains uncertain. That means that the sale of companies like Southwest Gas is off the table for the time being — or will get done at prices far lower than before. via CNBCBut, like Icahn in the case of Southwest Gas, participants in this new onslaught may find themselves confounded by an increasingly complex and fraught business environment. According to Lazard, 37% of activist campaigns this year were launched by first-timers, the highest proportion since the company started tracking these figures in 2015.

☆ Nigerian Army massacred children in war on insurgents, witnesses say
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-12 | by ( Reuters Graphic | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +11 min

CJTF members provide the army with intelligence on suspected insurgents, serve as interpreters and help soldiers navigate sometimes unfamiliar terrain. Bello Danbatta, a spokesman for the CJTF, told Reuters that the military and CJTF forces did not target civilians. During combat operations, soldiers told Reuters, it was common to take aim at anyone they came across in areas the army did not fully control. And in a war in which insurgents have forced minors to fight, soldiers said they couldn't even trust in the innocence of children. Soldiers told the women that their children needed injections for malaria and other afflictions, she said.

☆ Nigeria military ran secret mass abortion program in war on Boko Haram
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-07 | by ( Reuters Graphic | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +10 min

The existence of the army-run abortion programme hasn’t been previously reported. The conflict zone The abortion programme has taken place in the northeastern states of Yobe, Borno and Adamawa, where the Nigerian military has been fighting Islamist insurgents. A spokesperson for Jonathan told Reuters that the former president had “no knowledge of any allegation of such heinous acts” by the Nigerian Army. Some of the most powerful military leaders in Nigeria oversaw counterinsurgency operations in the northeast as the abortion programme grew. Waging war on Boko Haram The abortion programme began during the presidency of Jonathan.

☆ Axelrod on 2024 primaries: If you're thinking of challenging Biden, 'forget about it'
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-03 | by ( ) edition.cnn.com time to read: 1 min

David Axelrod says the Democrats moving the first 2024 primary from Iowa to South Carolina shows Biden's intention to run in 2024. "I think the message here is, if you're an insurgent and thinking of challenging the President, forget about it, because there's not going to be an opportunity here to do that."

He said Abu al-Hassan al-Hashemi al-Quraishi was killed while "fighting enemies of God", without elaborating. The spokesman urged Islamic State members in all countries to pledge allegiance to the new leader, adding that "he is one of the loyal sons of the (Islamic) state". The White House welcomed the news that Abu al-Hassan al-Hashemi al-Quraishi had been killed, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters. Islamic State announced Abu al-Hassan al-Hashemi al-Quraishi as its new leader in March after the death of predecessor Abu Ibrahim al-Hashemi al-Quraishi. Islamic State emerged from the chaos of the civil war in neighbouring Iraq and took over vast swathes of Iraq and Syria in 2014.

☆ The inside story of Trump’s explosive dinner with Ye and Nick Fuentes
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-29 | by ( Marc Caputo | Marc Caputo Is A Senior National Political Reporter For Nbc News. | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +15 min

“We saw everybody in the dining room get up and start applauding, and then the president entered,” Fuentes told NBC News. “He greeted us, and he invited Ye into dinner and Ye said that he wanted to bring us with him to the table. “Trump is really impressed with Nick Fuentes,” Ye said in the video. Giorno said she had been caught in the blast radius of the dinner with Ye and Fuentes but was an unwitting participant. About halfway to Mar-a-Lago, Giorno said in an interview, she realized that Ye, Fuentes and the other man weren’t properly attired.

☆ Hakeem Jeffries, Front-Runner to Succeed Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Forged Ties Across Spectrum
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-18 | by ( Jimmy Vielkind | Natalie Andrews | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

The presumed front-runner to succeed Nancy Pelosi as leader of the House Democrats started his political career as an insurgent. Hakeem Jeffries , then a young attorney, launched his first campaign in 2000 against a longtime incumbent to represent his central Brooklyn home in the state Assembly. He failed twice before prevailing on his third try in 2006.

Christopher Gregory/Getty ImagesDonald McGahn, Trump campaign counsel: I was at the top. Trump's 2016 campaign aides said they paid about 50 people, including part-time actors, to appear as supporters for his 2016 campaign announcement. Corey Lewandowski, Trump campaign managerCorey Lewandowski: I called my wife just as we were getting onto the plane. Stuff that would be from Mars on any other campaign was perfectly normal for the Trump campaign. Mark J. Terrill/AP photo Show less Trump at the Republican National Convention while Cruz speaks on July 20, 2016.

Trump in turn has blasted back, accusing the media without evidence of favoring DeSantis in a conspiracy to deny him the nomination. There is also an effort underway to get Trump to focus less on past grievances. In a Friday post on his Truth Social network, Trump called Youngkin "Young Kin" and said, "sounds Chinese, doesn’t it?" The day earlier, Trump posted a long harangue about DeSantis that again called him Ron "DeSanctimonious" and said he owes his political fortunes to Trump. Two Florida Republicans close to DeSantis predicted the governor would be wary of responding directly, keeping his focus on the state's recovery from Hurricane Ian and policy issues.

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