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Lebanon church leader calls for repatriation of 1.5 million Syrian refugees

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NNA - Maronite Patriarch, Cardinal Beshara Boutros Al-Rahi, strongly criticized the nature of the presidential election sessions, describing the scene in Parliament as a "continuing farce." "The farce of the election sessions continues, officials must take a stand of conscience before the oppressed people and the condition of the state that is disintegrating," Patriarch Al-Rahi said. During his homily on Sunday, the Patriarch held ministers and MPs responsible for the stigma attached to Lebanon by making it lose its right to vote in the United Nations. "The dollar has exceeded fifty thousand, and the gasoline is hitting one million soon, so how will the people live?" he questioned.

By Simon Caldwell -- catholicherald.co.uk -- -- The leader of the Maronite Church has appealed to the international community to begin the repatriation of 1.5 million Syrian refugees from Lebanon because they threaten to destabilise the country. Cardinal Bechara Boutros al-Raï, Patriarch of Antioch and All the East, said the refugees, who are overwhelmingly Sunni Muslim, represented a “real demographic, political and security threat”. “The presence of more than a million and a half Syrian refugees who emigrated and were displaced since 2011 have multiplied and turned into a heavy burden economically and financially on a country already in deep crisis,” he said. “We ask that they be repatriated to their country Syria to protect and rebuild it,” he said during a visit to London. “We demand also that the international donor agencies offer them assistance inside their own country, not in Lebanon.”

Economic crisis: Is Egypt the 'new Lebanon?'

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by Cathrin Schaer - dw -- Food prices doubled, salaries halved, banks restricting withdrawals: Egyptians now have the same problems as the Lebanese. But if things get worse here, the fallout will be far more damaging. As the value of the Egyptian pound plummets, grocery shopping has changed for many middle-class Egyptians, becoming a strict exercise in currency control. "Instead of buying three kilograms of rice when we go shopping, we just buy a kilo or a half kilo," explained Ahmed Hassan, 40, an accountant and father-of-three from the Shoubra neighborhood in Cairo. "We're trying to reduce our expenditures. Unfortunately we can't limit everything because our children need certain things," he told DW.

Egypt's currency has devalued by around one-third since late October and inflation currently stands at over 20%. Some economists suspect it's even worse than that. They put the unofficial rate — which includes Egypt's huge informal economy — as high as 101%. Food prices doubled, salaries halved and banks that restrict how much cash you can take out of your accounts: The financial freefall that many ordinary people in Egypt are experiencing today sounds very similar to the catastrophic economic crisis citizens in nearby Lebanon have been dealing with since 2019.

'Remarkable similarities' between Lebanon and Egypt

In Lebanon, desperate locals have gone so far as to rob their own banks simply to withdraw their savings, cities have been plunged into darkness as fuel for power stations has run out and the country's middle class is being pushed into debt. Things haven't gone that far in Egypt yet. But as the bad economic news keeps coming, some are asking: Could Egypt soon become "the new Lebanon?" "There are remarkable similarities between Lebanon's now abjectly failed economy and Egypt's struggling one," Robert Springborg, an adjunct professor at Canada's Simon Fraser University, wrote in a 2022 report for the Washington-based non-profit organization Project on Middle East Democracy (POMED). "The consequences of the collapse of confidence in Lebanon have been devastating but they would pale into near insignificance if repeated on an Egyptian scale," he warned. Egypt's current economic problems are the result of a number of internal issues — including political unrest, corruption and government mismanagement — which have more recently combined with external crises, like the COVID-19 pandemic, the war in Ukraine and the threat of a global recession.

Economic mismanagement

Why Corruption Is So Widespread in the Middle East

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By Sam Sweeney - The nationalreview.com -- I chuckled at the question but wasn’t surprised. I had just purchased about $1,500 worth of manufactured agricultural products directly from the factory for a small NGO I run in northeastern Syria. I was sitting in the factory’s office, which was bustling with potential customers and workers coming and going. In these situations, it isn’t the corruption that is surprising, it’s how normal it has become, with no hush-hush or backroom whispering. In a room full of strangers, the manager was asking me if I wanted him to doctor the receipts for the NGO so I could take a cut. No one batted an eye. Given that I founded the NGO and run it as a volunteer, my main thought was that if I did steal this money from the NGO, I would just be making more work for myself, because we would need to do more fundraising to replace the lost money, as we were already cutting it close on the budget needed to finish the project. For me, playing it straight was as much a practical move as a moral choice. But if I were an employee of a large international NGO whose management rarely traveled into Syria, it would have been a great opportunity to pocket a few hundred dollars.

I mentioned this anecdote to a Western employee of a large NGO working in Syria. This person said it validated what they already suspected, that corruption among their local staff was the rule, not the exception. Millions of dollars are pouring into northeast Syria via dozens of international and local NGOs to fund displaced-person camps, infrastructure projects, education and health initiatives, and other needs — urgent or otherwise. Oversight is almost impossible, despite the many checks in place that are meant to prevent corruption or nepotism. The management of these NGOs comes from an array of mostly Western countries, and if they visit Syria, their movements are heavily restricted, and they are usually confined to a compound or villa, allowing for limited interaction with the broader society. Few speak Arabic (or Kurdish or Syriac or any of the other languages used in northeast Syria), and they have little access to information outside of what they are told by their local staff.

Lebanon to restore UN payments ‘immediately’ after losing voting rights in General Assembly

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By Celine Alkhaldi -- cnn -- Lebanon vowed to restore its payments to the UN’s operating budget on Friday after losing its right to vote in the 193-member UN General Assembly, according to the country’s state-owned National News Agency (NNA). Lebanon is one of six countries to lose its right to vote for not meeting minimum contributions, along with Venezuela, South Sudan, Gabon, Dominica and Equatorial Guinea, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said in a letter on Thursday. In response to the suspension, Lebanon’s Foreign Ministry said on Friday that the payment process “will take place immediately,” NNA said. “The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Emigrants would like to clarify that all the payment stages of the required amount have been completed,” the ministry said in a statement, according to NNA. “After the necessary contacts with each of the Lebanese Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, it has been confirmed that the final payment process will take place immediately in a manner that preserves Lebanon’s rights in the United Nations.”

Former Lebanese ambassador holds sit-in at Beirut bank amid new wave of heists Under Article 19 of the UN Charter, members with arrears that equal or exceed the amount of their contributions for the preceding two full years lose their voting rights. The General Assembly also has the authority to decide “if failure to pay is due to conditions beyond the control of the Member,” in which case the country will not lose its voting rights. The minimum payments needed to restore voting rights for Lebanon is $1,835,303, the secretary general’s letter said. For more than three years, Lebanon has seen “the most devastating, multi-pronged crisis in its modern history,” as described by the World Bank. In a report on Lebanon, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) described the situation in the country as the “deepest economic crisis since the end of the civil war.”

Prince Harry’s popularity has officially nosedived in the US after his book

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Story by Joe Roberts -- Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s popularity appears to be plummeting in the US following the release of his explosive book. Spare is now the UK’s fastest-selling non-fiction book, but a new poll suggests the Duke of Sussex is now losing fans across the pond. Harry had a favourability rating of +38 on December 5, before Spare was published, according to a Newsweek survey of 2,000 US voters. The same people were asked for their opinions again on January 16, and Harry’s rating had plunged 45 points to -7. Meghan, who has not joined Harry on his media blitz of interviews, had an approval rating of +23 on December 5. It has now fallen 36 points to -13.

Harry’s popularity among Brits sunk to an all-time low in a YouGov survey that came out the day before Spare hit shelves. Almost two-thirds (64%) of people said they have a negative view of the duke, up from 58% in May, with just a quarter (26%) seeing him in a positive light. His net favourability plunged to -38, while Meghan is even lower at -42.

Netflix founder Reed Hastings steps down as co-CEO

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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

Reformist MPs begin sit-in at Lebanese parliament in protest against political deadlock

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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.”