Story by Joe Roberts — Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s popularity appears to be plummeting in the US following the release of …

Taylor Hatmaker@tayhatmaker -- techcrunch -- Netflix founder and co-CEO Reed Hastings announced Thursday that he would step down after more than two decades at the company. While news of his departure comes as a shock, Hastings noted that Netflix has planned its next era of leadership “for many years” in the announcement, which was shared on the company’s blog. In 2020, Netflix named Ted Sarandos, who has long led content efforts at the company, as co-CEO alongside Hastings. At the time, Netflix characterized the change as formalizing the way that the company was already operating. Netflix will maintain the co-CEO structure in Hastings’ absence, promoting COO Greg Peters to the tandem role with Sarandos. “It was a baptism by fire, given COVID and recent challenges within our business,” Hastings said of Sarandos and Peters taking the reins. “But they’ve both managed incredibly well, ensuring Netflix continues to improve and developing a clear path to reaccelerate our revenue and earnings growth. So the board and I believe it’s the right time to complete my succession.”

Hastings will stay involved with the company as executive chairman of the board, following a precedent shared by other prominent major tech company founders, including Amazon’s Jeff Bezos and Microsoft’s Bill Gates. The news came shortly before Netflix reported its fourth-quarter earnings. The company beat expectations in Q4, adding 7.7 million subscribers — well over the 4.5 million it anticipated. The company brought in $7.85 billion during the final quarter of 2022, extending its recent trend of slowing revenue growth. Netflix credited the popularity of content it released in Q4 for the huge subscriber boost, including the “Addams Family” reboot “Wednesday,” the stand-alone “Knives Out” sequel “Glass Onion” and the royals documentary “Harry & Meghan.”

Like most of tech, Netflix’s stock price has fallen well short of previous pandemic highs over the last year, but the company did recover from its midy

 Lebanese MPs spend night in parliament in push to end political deadlock

By Jamie Prentis - thenationalnews.com -- Update: Using candles and phone torches to illuminate the room, two Lebanese MPs spent the night in the country's parliament in an attempt to end the impasse that has left Lebanon without a president for two and a half months. In 11 sessions, Lebanon’s divided and factional parliament has come nowhere near to electing a successor to Michel Aoun as the country grapples with one of the worst economic crises in modern history. The two MPs, lawyer Melhem Khalaf and chemistry professor Najat Saliba, want parliament to hold successive sessions without interruption until a president is elected and say they will not leave the legislature until that happens. They are urging their fellow MPs to do their job, respect the constitution and come to parliament to agree on Lebanon's next president.

 “The first message is to give hope to the people,” Mr Khalaf told The National on Friday night from parliament, as he lamented the fact that people in Lebanon did not have people in power willing or able to solve the country's multitude of problems. “You think it’s normal? We don’t have a government, we don’t have a president and more than that, we have a parliament that is completely incapable. This is a dangerous situation.” He described electing the next president as “a national, constitutional and moral obligation”.

The impasse over the presidential election is not without precedent — it took 46 sessions or Mr Aoun to finally ascend to the presidency in 2016, after a series of back-door deals between major players. “Last time we elected a president we stayed in a vacuum for about two and a half years,” Ms Saliba told The National. “We don’t want this scenario to be repeating itself. It is not constitutional and it’s just devastating to the country. “We really want people to go on with their lives, we want the economy to get back up on its feet. This is not sustainable, we cannot continue like this.”

The move came after Thursday’s latest presidential session, which highlighted how deeply divided the 128-seat parliament is. Blank, protest and invalid papers far outstripped the votes given to Michel Moawad, who has consistently polled best of the real candidates put forward. Ms Saliba and Mr Khalaf are part of a new generation of MPs elected last year who are affiliated with the 2019 protest movement against Lebanon’s ruling classes that led to the collapse of the government. Several of their fellow “Change MPs” have joined them in parliament in solidarity. Mr Khalaf said it was “not the way to build the future” for a parliament to be constantly fighting within itself.

As images of the two MPs sitting in near-darkness made the rounds on social media, they pointed out that this is the same situation that many in Lebanon face. There is a near-absence in state electricity or expensive private generators, for the few who can afford them. In a statement on Thursday explaining his decision, Mr Khalaf had said “the people are hungry, desperate, miserable, tired of everything”. “The display of repeating the sessions for the election of the president of the republic without any result has, unfortunately, become absurd and reprehensible,” Mr Khalaf said. “The continued vacancy of the presidency leads us to more misery and fatal collapse.”

 The 11th parliament session to elect a president of the republic ended on Thursday but no head of state was chosen. Results …