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☆ Assad banks on new 'global order' to help revive his status
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-22 | by ( Cnn Staff | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

During his address, Assad presented himself as an elder statesman, lecturing his neighbors about the need to take advantage of changes in global politics. “Today we are faced with an opportunity of change in the global order, which has become multipolar due to the hegemony of the West, which is devoid of principles, morals, friends or partners,” Assad told the summit, held in the Saudi port city of Jeddah. But observers have differed as to whether real economic cooperation with Syria is possible without access to the Western financial system, which has been blocked by Western sanctions on the country. “They can also try working with or through Russia, and possibly with and through Iran – although that carries its own obvious risks,” he said, referring to Arab states that want to do business in Syia. There are plenty of ways of doing this.”Assad’s ultimate goal however, said Landis, is to get sanctions lifted with the help of Arab states.

☆ Secret crypto holdings are becoming an increasingly common conflict in divorces, attorneys say
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-20 | by ( Aaron Mcdade | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Divorce attorneys told the outlet it is also becoming common for people to hide crypto from their partner. One woman said she learned her husband was hiding bitcoin then worth about $500,000 during their divorce. Conflict over ownership of cryptocurrency — especially crypto that has been kept secret by a spouse from their partner — is reportedly becoming an increasingly common trend divorce attorneys are spotting in their cases. Financial infidelity involving secret crypto holdings have made the jobs of financial advisors and divorce attorneys increasingly complex in recent years as the crypto market has expanded, according to a CNBC article. She told CNBC it was a "shock" to learn about the secret investments, but her story appears to be a part of a growing trend.

☆ Ron DeSantis: What to expect from his presidential campaign
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-20 | by ( Zachary B. Wolf | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +10 min

Ron DeSantis is expected to make his presidential campaign official next week. WOLF: More than any other Republican, DeSantis has generated national media scrutiny and buzz that he could be the candidate best positioned to challenge Trump. Are he and his advisers concerned that all that attention has not translated to a stronger position in GOP primary polls? CONTORNO: As we previously reported several months ago, DeSantis’ political operation believes he has the money and the name recognition to launch a national campaign out of the gate. CONTORNO: Some of Trump’s top advisers once ran DeSantis’ political operation, and several former Trump operatives and donors are now in DeSantis’ camp, so the sniping is already becoming pronounced.

We are not bound by the West’s sanctions,” Erdogan told CNN’s Becky Anderson. APBy contrast, Erdogan has doubled down on his relationship with Putin – and he thinks the West should follow suit. “This was possible because of our special relationship with President Putin,” he told CNN, referring to the grain deal. In his interview with CNN, Erdogan tackled another key flashpoint in Turkish tensions with the West: Sweden’s accession to NATO. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan tells CNN's Becky Anderson, left, he expects voters who value stability and confidence to back him in the May 28 runoff vote.

London CNN —There’s no denying the echoes to the late Princess Diana’s 1997 death in a car crash in Paris. As their first public appearance since Prince Harry returned from King Charles’ coronation in London, it had initially seemed a pretty routine affair. Chris Sanchez, who was part of the royal security detail, told us they were immediately followed from the event by a dozen vehicles. It is important to note that these photographers have a professional responsibility to cover newsworthy events and personalities, including public figures such as Prince Harry and Meghan Markle,” the statement outlined. However, those images appear to show Prince Harry documenting the moment on his phone, so we may yet learn more about what exactly happened from their perspective in the future.

☆ We come, we take pictures, we leave: Gaza’s grim routine
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-17 | by ( Ben Wedeman | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

Gaza City, Gaza CNN —“Journalists come, take pictures and go home!” shouted Bilal Nabhan, his voice hoarse, his eyes bloodshot. Nabhan was a day worker, every day venturing out to earn enough money to feed his wife and four children. Three times in the last three years there have been flare ups between militants in Gaza and Israel. As a young producer and later correspondent based first in Amman then in Cairo, I was a regular traveler to Israel, Gaza and the West Bank. Now I come once a year for the annual flare up between Gaza militants in Israel.

☆ Russian troops taking over from Wagner in Bakhmut are abandoning their positions, Ukrainian officer claims: 'As soon as they are afraid, they just run'
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-16 | by ( Sinéad Baker | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

A Ukrainian officer said Russian troops are abandoning their Bakhmut positions out of fear. "As soon as Wagner left and the regular Russian troops stepped in, they abandoned their positions," he said, adding: "The Wagner fighters would hold positions until the very end. The Wagner Group, which has thousands of mercenary fighters and prisoners serving in Ukraine, has spearheaded Russia's efforts to capture the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut. Western officials estimated in early March that up to 30,000 Russian troops had been killed or injured in the city. Zhydkov described a day when Russian soldiers used a grenade launcher to get into a five-story apartment building that was controlled by Ukrainian forces.

☆ Sexual harassment debate breathes new life into China’s #MeToo movement
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-15 | by ( Nectar Gan | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +8 min

Shi has strongly denied the accusations of sexual harassment in two separate statements and claimed the encounters were consensual. The falloutThe allegations have since sparked furious debate on Chinese social media, with related hashtags trending for days and racking up hundreds of millions of views on Weibo. China did not specify sexual harassment as a legal offense until 2021, when it enacted a civil code defining sexual harassment for the first time in the country’s law. But still, the failure of sexual harassment lawsuits – like Zhou’s – in recent years has made it “increasingly clear that seeking legal remedies for sexual harassment is not realistic,” said the Chinese feminist in New Jersey. “Even if I reported it, and he was summoned to the police station, how many days can he be detained for sexual harassment?” she wrote.

But for the next two weeks, he may become the most important figure in Turkish politics, potentially deciding President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s political fate. Preliminary results from the YSK showed Erdogan as having received 49.51% of the vote, while Kilicdaroglu had 44.88%. Ogan, the third candidate, received 5.17%, enough to swing the runoff vote in favor of either of the candidates. But his political career began with the far-right Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), where he spent six years before splitting with it, partly due to its growing closeness with Erdogan’s AK Party, according to Turkish media. Formerly in the opposition, the MHP joined the People Alliance that is led by Erdogan’s AK Party in this election.

☆ For Syrian refugees, Assad’s rehabilitation prompts fear of forced return
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-10 | by ( Cnn Staff | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

According to a 2022 UNHCR poll of Syrian refugees living in Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan and Iraq, only 1.7% said they would return to Syria in the next 12 months. Even before Arab normalization with the Assad regime began, human rights organizations had repeatedly warned that Syrian refugees risked facing forced returns home amid concerns for their safety. Earlier this year, Denmark – which hosts more than 35,000 Syrian refugees – deemed more areas controlled by the Assad regime to be safe for return. “The further normalization goes, the deeper the pressure will be.”Alshogre worries for himself as well as other Syrian refugees. “If I am sent back to Syria, I will be cut into small pieces by the Syrian regime; I won’t make it out of the airport in Damascus.”

☆ Hurricanes of Data: The Tiny Craft Mapping Superstorms at Sea
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-09 | by ( Porter Fox | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +35 min

The Tiny Craft Mapping Superstorms at Sea Shortly after dawn on Sept. 30, 2021, Richard Jenkins watched a Category 4 hurricane overrun his life’s work. That August, a sister ship, SD 1031, successfully entered Tropical Storm Henri, but only in its early stages. Hurricane research, modeling and forecasting requires many terabytes of data for every square mile the storm passes through, including vitally important sea-level data from inside a storm. The next day, the depression was upgraded to a tropical storm and officially given the name Sam. And four months later, Tropical Storm Megi killed more than 150, wiped out several villages with landslides and displaced more than a million people.

☆ A change in Turkish leadership might not spell the end of ties with Russia
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-08 | by ( Nadeen Ebrahim | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

The strengthening ties between Erdogan and Putin have caused jitters in the West, with some watching the upcoming elections with anticipation of a possible Erdogan exit. That makes Russia among Turkey’s biggest trade partners. The European Union, as a bloc, however remains Turkey’s largest trade partner, with bilateral trade reaching around $219 billion, according to the European Commission. But while relations with the EU might improve if the opposition wins, the road may be longer and more challenging with the US, experts say. “When we mention Turkey’s relationship with the West… we sometimes take both ends of the Atlantic (as one),” Isci said.

☆ Greg Abbott's gun law avoidance strategy in the aftermath of the Texas mall shooting
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-08 | by ( Zachary B. Wolf | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

“I hear our governor talking about mental health issues,” Spainhouer said of Texas Gov. Greg Abbott during a Monday appearance on “CNN This Morning.”“We’re always going to have mental health issues. “Until we take some definite actions, we’re changing the narrative about it being just a mental health issue and start doing something about the guns,” he added. Texas ranks last on mental health accessIt was a major understatement for Abbott to say that Texas merely lags on mental health. A report from the nonprofit Mental Health America places the state at or near the bottom of multiple metrics for mental health care.

☆ Scientists used DNA to unlock who wore a 25,000-year-old pendant
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-06 | by ( Ashley Strickland | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary AnthropologyA deer tooth pendant has revealed details about the woman who wore it between 19,000 and 25,000 years ago. The groundbreaking analysis by a team of European researchers marks the first time scientists have successfully isolated ancient human DNA from a Stone Age artifact. Gregory BretonWith large ears and adorable faces, sand cats went viral seven years ago when their kittens were photographed in the wild for the first time. Although smaller than domestic cats, sand cats live in harsh environments with scorching heat, hunt venomous Saharan horned vipers and rely on blood from prey as a source of water. To unravel the many mysteries of sand cats, researchers tracked 22 of the felines that had been fitted with radio collars for four years.

☆ Arab nations set to rehabilitate Syria’s pariah president in defiance of US
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-05 | by ( Nadeen Ebrahim | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

Officials and analysts have said that Syria’s re-admission into the Arab League, while symbolic, comes with the hope that it could pave the way for President Bashar Al Assad’s rehabilitation internationally, and potentially the removal of crippling sanctions against his regime. Arab states have argued that the status quo in Syria is untenable and has caused them a headache at home. Syria has over the past decade turned into a narco-state, exporting highly addictive amphetamines across the border to Jordan and to Saudi Arabia. It’s unclear if the US will stand in the way of Arab states’ efforts to bring Syria back into the regional fold. “The US will not impose a veto on their allies when it comes to normalization with Assad,” said Hellyer.

☆ Banking crisis: Why markets are still freaking out about banks
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-04 | by ( Allison Morrow | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

Similarly, southeastern regional bank First Horizon was teetering, having scrapped a $13 billion merger with Canada’s TD bank. That market pessimism was echoed by Bill Ackman, the billionaire investor, who tweeted Thursday that regional banks broadly are in trouble. Without a miracle from DC, the outlook for regional banks is not great. There is so much pessimism percolating on Wall Street, smaller banks are going to get crushed. That means we can expect more bank failures, and more Wall Street panic, in the weeks and months ahead.

☆ Saudi Arabia wants to be a bigger player in the Middle East — this time with diplomacy
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-03 | by ( Nadeen Ebrahim | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

“And that can only reflect well on the Kingdom.”This new diplomacy comes as Saudi Arabia prioritizes economic growth at home, which requires regional stability to succeed. Saudi efforts at revamping its image as a peace-broker may face credibility challenges, however, given its near decade-long combative foreign policy and the bad press it attracted. That group is party to the Sudan conflict that Saudi Arabia is trying to help end. Despite its controversial past, Saudi Arabia may still carry enough influence to bring quarreling parties to the negotiating table, analysts say. “Saudi (Arabia) does not pretend to be an impartial mediator but its voice carries weight with many parties in the region,” Shihabi said, adding that where it can, Saudi Arabia wants to use that influence to reduce tensions.

☆ Title 42: Why the Biden administration expects a surge at the US-Mexico border next week
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-02 | by ( Zachary B. Wolf | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +9 min

Migrant surge expectedThe surge of migrants is expected because Title 42, the Trump-era policy that allowed the government to quickly turn away certain migrants at the border during the Covid-19 pandemic, is expiring. These deployments are not unprecedented in recent years, but this one is notable since it coincides with an expected surge of border encounters. Biden administration’s plan to discourage border crossingsThe administration has tried to discourage migrants from simply crossing the border and promised that people apprehended will be turned away and potentially barred from reentry. Anger from New York’s mayorTexas has been transporting thousands of migrants to cities like New York, Chicago and Washington, DC. “Governor Abbott sent asylum seekers to NY – Black mayor; to Washington – Black mayor; to Houston – Black mayor; to Los Angeles – Black mayor; to Denver – Black mayor.

☆ Why First Republic Bank may not be the end of the crisis
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-01 | by ( Allison Morrow | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

New York CNN —After a six-week spiral, First Republic bank finally collapsed in the wee hours of Monday morning. Everyone on Wall Street appears to be drinking from the same punch bowl as Jamie Dimon, who framed the sale as a bookend to the crisis. To his mind, the sale just makes JPMorgan, already the nation’s largest bank, even bigger, and the power of the biggest Wall Street banks more concentrated. That idea got an extra boost on Monday, when the FDIC itself released a report advocating for an increase in the deposit insurance limit for business payment accounts. “You can think of federal deposit insurance as being a bit like nuclear weapons,” he said.

☆ Analysis: Bank failures and looming debt default test American confidence in the economy
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-01 | by ( Zachary B. Wolf | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

CNN —Two converging crises are testing American confidence in their financial well-being. And there’s a debt crisis, which is becoming more urgent as the US approaches the “X-date” – when it would default – and on which opposing lawmakers aren’t currently talking to each other. First Republic Bank was taken over by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation on Monday, and most of its assets were sold to JPMorgan Chase. Maintaining confidenceNone of that means this is a golden chapter for the American financial system. Now, the debt crisis and the X-dateIf only American lawmakers could take a cue from the First Republic saga and get into a room to solve the debt crisis.

☆ Turkey general election 2023 guide: what you need to know
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-01 | by ( Nadeen Ebrahim | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +9 min

And even if Kilicdaroglu wins the election, some analysts say Erdogan may not hand over power to his successor without a struggle. Here’s what you need to know about the vote that could become a pivotal moment in Turkey’s modern history:How Turkey’s elections workTurkey holds elections every five years. Parliamentary elections take place at the same time as the presidential elections. Four candidates are running for this year’s presidential election. CHP Istanbul mayor candidate Ekrem Imamoglu then went on to win the election re-run, dealing a blow to Erdogan.

☆ Deadly NYC parking garage collapse leads to safety sweep and closure of 4 garages in the city
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-30 | by ( Jordan Hart | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

NYC building officials have inspected 78 buildings so far since the collapse of a three-story parking garage in April. Officials closed four NYC parking structures over safety concerns, AP reported. City building officials said they closed down four parking garages in a safety sweep of about 78 structures, the Associated Press reported. "During our sweep of 78 parking structures, we found four locations where structural concerns necessitated areas of the buildings to be immediately vacated," he added. A 2022 mandate required parking structures to be inspected by owners at least every six years, the AP reported.

☆ The search for 100,000 new species in Earth’s oceans
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-29 | by ( Ashley Strickland | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

CNN —In some ways, Earth’s oceans are as alien to us as distant moons in the solar system. When scientists dived to the twilight zone and the mesophotic zone directly above it in recent years, they found colorful fish and sprawling pristine coral reefs. The global initiative seeks to find 100,000 unknown species over the next 10 years. While scientists believe 2.2 million marine species exist in Earth’s oceans, they estimate that they’ve only found 240,000, according to Ocean Census. Identifying new species also enables conservationists to find ways to protect them as Earth changes due to the climate crisis.

☆ Iranian drones used by Russia in Ukraine are powered by stolen Western tech, research shows
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-28 | by ( Tim Lister | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +8 min

Russia wants Iranian drones and ballistic missiles; Iran wants Russian investment and trade. And for the Russians, Iranian drones are a bargain substitute for much more costly missiles, stocks of which are dwindling, according to Western officials. Last October, the head of Ukraine’s Defense Intelligence, Kyrylo Budanov, said Russia had ordered about 1,700 Iranian drones of different types. “These modifications have prevented investigators from identifying the acquisition networks facilitating the international supply of key components into Iran,” CAR says. CARThe revenues from the sale of hundreds of Shahed-136 drones to Russia will likely be reinvested in further improving the industry.

☆ Here are Friday's biggest analyst calls: Amazon, Apple, Tesla, Royal Caribbean, Intel, Hasbro & more
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-28 | by ( Michael Bloom | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

Here are Friday's biggest calls on Wall Street: Bank of America upgrades Hasbro to neutral from underperform Bank of America said it sees resilient demand for Hasbro . Goldman Sachs reiterates Amazon as buy Goldman said it's standing by the stock after its robust earnings report Thursday. " Benchmark upgrades Intel to buy from hold Benchmark said in its upgrade of Intel that the worst is already baked in. Bank of America upgrades Pilgrim's Pride to buy from neutral Bank of America said in its upgrade of the poultry company that the worst is behind it. Morgan Stanley reiterates Apple as overweight Morgan Stanley said it's still bullish on Apple shares heading into earnings next week.

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