Turkey-Syria earthquake: Rebel leader in Idlib calls for urgent international help as families devastated by quake

Published

2 years ago

February 10, 2023

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Syria’s suffering is a unique desolation and inside Idlib we’ve seen the face of utter desperation.

Here, they thought their plight couldn’t get any worse than running from shelling and cowering from regime bombs, but what was already an horrendously wretched life for millions, has become a whole lot more tragic since the earthquake.

People fear the cold and hunger will kill them now.

Turkey-Syria earthquake – latest: Turkey refuses aid from neighbouring Cyprus

Those who’ve fled from Bashar al Assad’s bombs and bullets for 12 years, have found themselves running again as their homes collapsed and the earthquakes tore into infrastructure already massively weakened by years of war.

We watched in Salquin as the White Helmets, a Syrian civil defence group which receives funding from the UK, searched through piles of rubble.

The chances of finding anyone alive now seems crazily optimistic but they don’t give up their digging and searching. It goes on day and night.

Just 12 hours earlier, a young man had been pulled out of here alive. Instances like that keep them going.

They’re spurred on too by the grim realisation they are on their own and there’s no one coming anytime soon to help them.

Five days on from the worst set of earthquakes in this region in a century, there appears to be no international aid of any note and no teams of search and rescue experts.

Idlib is the last pocket of Syria holding out against Basher al Assad’s regime in Damascus and is held by an armed group called Hayat Tahir al Sham (HTS), headed by Abu Mohammed al Jolani.

He was once a member of al Qaeda before falling out with the group and forming his own fighting not only al Qaeda remnants, but Islamic State cells and the Assad regime as well.

He’s still on a terrorist most-wanted list drawn up by a number of nations including the US.

But when we spoke to him at the destroyed site in Salquin where they were searching for a missing family, he denounced the international community for not helping the desperate people of northwest Syria.

“The children being found under this rubble are not terrorists,” he said.

He called on the world to discard politics, concentrate on the people, and send help to the region.

We saw a father sitting in the dark, clutching a blanket wrapped round his dead four-year-old son.

The child – his face covered with dust and the blue-grey cold mask of death – was called Mohammed.

He’d been pulled out after four days trapped in the rubble, still wearing his pyjamas.

His father, Saleem, was in shock, his face stony hard, devoid of any emotion.

He had his little boy laid near a fire for warmth, which he could no longer feel, as if somehow it helped him, as if it might bring him the comfort his father couldn’t provide for the previous four days.

Saleem had no way of knowing if his little boy had laid there, alive but trapped and frightened for days on end waiting for the help which never arrived.

Saleem somehow scrambled to safety while grabbing the hand of his little girl, Mace, and running.

Mace is eight years old and she and Saleem are the only ones who made it out.

Behind them, men from the White Helmets operated diggers tearing into the rubble while colleagues lifted rocks and pulled at blankets peeping out from them.

They were trying to find Saleem’s 10-year-old son Abdul Razek and his wife Amira.

“I will not leave until I find them,” he said. “I cannot.”

He breaks off occasionally, pleading with the White Helmets to try different corners of what was once their home.

The Team leader is Mustafa Kharzum and he knows all about the grief of losing a son.

His died from illness but the loss of a child never leaves a heartbroken parent.

“I know what he’s going through and I’ve promised him I will not leave here until we find his family,” Mustafa says.

They’re there all night and then all morning. By midday they’re confident they are not still in the rubble, so they start to trek through the hospitals.

Could they still be alive and, somehow, someone has taken them there?

There’s a tiny moment of hope yet again but it’s soon crushed when they find the bodies of both mother and son in the morgue of a hospital.

Saleem is distraught. “They were my world,” he says, “I worked for them. I did everything for them.”

His little girl Mace sobs as crowds of mourners gather round the family home in Mashhead Roheen, close to the Turkish border.

The family fled Ma’arat al Numan where they used to live when the Assad regime troops moved in three years ago.

They survived the long war only to see half the family wiped out in the earthquake.

At the home, the family’s female relatives wash the little boys’ bodies ready for burial.

Tiny children are wailing and howling with grief.

The grandmother, Fatima, collapses and is carried to a chair. She’s seen three of her sons die in the fighting and war – now she’s mourning a daughter and two grandsons.

This misery is too much to bear for them. The heartache is never ending for the Syrian people and once again, they’re feeling no one anywhere is hearing their cries or cares about their sorrow.

Alex Crawford was reporting from Idlib in northwestern Syria with camera operator Jake Britton, and producers Chris Cunningham and Mahmoud Mosa.

There will be a special programme called Disaster Zone: The Turkey-Syria Earthquake on Sky News this evening at 9.30pm.

World

‘Wolf of Wall Street’ Jordan Belfort breaks silence on Trump’s tariffs

Published

5 hours ago

April 11, 2025

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'Wolf of Wall Street' Jordan Belfort breaks silence on Trump's tariffs

‘Wolf of Wall Street’ Jordan Belfort has told Sky News there’s “no way” Donald Trump is guilty of insider trading or market manipulation.

Opponents say the president has questions to answer after he said it was a “great time to buy” shares – four hours before the stock market surged on Wednesday when he paused tariffs.

Mr Belfort told Gillian Joseph the fact Mr Trump made the statement on social media meant it was public, rather than him tipping off a few people.

Tariffs latest: Trump – ‘everything will be beautiful in the end’

Speaking on The World programme, Mr Belfort said: “I personally don’t find it overly suspicious. Especially since he’s told it to everybody at once.

“If he hadn’t said anything and told five of his best friends ‘I’m gonna ease this tariff situation – you should be buying’, that would be illegal.”

Insider trading is when people take advantage of non-public information to buy or sell shares and make a gain.

The former stockbroker was famously played by Leonardo DiCaprio in the film about his early life and admitted crimes related to stock manipulation.

Mr Belfort said Mr Trump’s post was just repeating what the president had said previously, and that buying when share prices plunge is a well-known investment move.

“He had been saying that all along [to buy], it wasn’t the only time he’d said that,” said Mr Belfort.

“[Treasury] Secretary Bessent had been saying that too. It’s a really basic piece of advice.”

Stock markets around the world plunged dramatically on Monday due to the start of America’s wide-ranging tariffs on imports from around the world.

The world economy was rattled again just two days later when the president said nearly all of the taxes would go on hold for 90 days.

The key S&P 500 index jumped nearly 10% – a huge daily increase.

Rival Democrat politicians say Mr Trump‘s encouragement to buy raises “grave ethics concerns”.

Some are calling for an urgent inquiry into whether any of his family or administration officials benefited by dealing in the stock market ahead of time.

The White House said the president’s post was simply reassuring Americans “about their economic security in the face of nonstop media fearmongering”.

Mr Belfort accused Democrat figures of trying to “earn brownie points with the media and their party”.

‘Not gonna be pretty’

Despite the mid-week surge, turbulence in stock markets appears far from over – chiefly because China and the US remain locked in a tariffs stare down.

American indexes closed down again on Thursday, Japan’s Nikkei fell about 5% early on Friday, and Hong Kong stocks are heading for their worst week since 2008.

Gold meanwhile, considered a “safe haven” asset, has climbed to a record price and earlier today passed the $3,200/oz level for the first time.

Mr Belfort told Sky News that while he was against tariffs generally, President Trump’s dramatic intervention was necessary as the US has an “insane” trade imbalance and imports far more than it exports.

“The United States has been drained of its wealth, drained of its factories,” he said.

“It’s not gonna be pretty,” added Mr Belfort. “There’s going to be pain – but the path we were on before is simply unsustainable. It had to change.”

He said he was sceptical over fears the tariffs will hit US consumers hard, with some predicting goods – including popular items such as the iPhone – could jump in price if costs are passed on.

The former trader said he believes firms would shift production from China, which is subject to a tariff of more than 100%, to places such as India, and that exemptions would eventually be agreed.

He also gave the thumbs up to Elon Musk‘s controversial government efficiency role which has forced thousands of jobs cut.

“I love what is being done because the amount of abuse and waste and fraud, it’s absolutely insane,” said Mr Belfort.

“It’s a great thing that’s happening. Obama talked about doing it, Clinton tried it; this is not a new idea to try to make the government more efficient.”

If Mr Musk leaves or quits in the near future, as is rumoured, Mr Belfort said the world’s richest man has installed “some very seasoned business people that really care about the country”.

World

Day 82: Stock market whiplash – did Trump’s friends get richer?

Published

5 hours ago

April 11, 2025

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Day 82: Stock market whiplash - did Trump's friends get richer?

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With markets tumbling again, President Trump has been meeting his cabinet – where more questions were put to him over his turbulent tariff plan. On Day 82, US correspondents Mark Stone and James Matthews discuss what happened.

Plus, Mark has been on the road in Wisconsin and Minnesota, speaking to people caught up in the crossfire of the trade war.

If you’ve got a question you’d like James, Martha, and Mark to answer, you can email it to trump100@sky.uk.

Don’t forget, you can also watch all episodes on our YouTube channel.

World

How Trump changed his mind on tariffs

Published

20 hours ago

April 10, 2025

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“Liberation Day” just gave way to Capitulation Day.

US President Donald Trump pulled back on Wednesday on a series of harsh tariffs targeting friends and foes alike in an audacious bid to remake the global economic order.

Mr Trump’s early afternoon announcement followed a harrowing week in which Republican lawmakers and confidants privately warned him that the tariffs could wreck the economy.

His own aides had quietly raised alarms about the financial markets before he suspended a tariff regime that he had unveiled with a flourish just one week earlier in a Rose Garden ceremony.

Tariffs latest: Beijing takes fight to Trump

The stock market rose immediately after the about-face, ending days of losses that have forced older Americans who’ve been sinking their savings into 401(k)s to rethink their retirement plans.

Ahead of Mr Trump’s announcement, some of his advisers had been in a near panic about the bond markets, a senior administration official told Sky News’ US partner network NBC News.

Interest rates on 10-year Treasury bonds had been rising, contrary to what normally happens when stock prices fall and investors seek safety in treasuries.

The unusual dynamic meant that at the same time the tariffs could push up prices, people would be paying more to buy homes or pay off credit card debt because of higher interest rates. Businesses looking to expand would pay more for new loans.

Two of Mr Trump’s most senior advisers, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, presented a united front on Wednesday, urging him to suspend the tariffs in light of the bond market, the administration official said.

In a social media post, Mr Trump announced a 90-day pause that he said he’ll use to negotiate deals with dozens of countries that have expressed openness to revising trade terms that he contends exploit American businesses and workers.

One exception is China. Mr Trump upped the tariff on the country’s biggest geopolitical rival to 125%, part of a tit-for-tat escalation in an evolving trade war.

Mr Trump reversed course one week after he appeared in the Rose Garden and unveiled his plan to bring jobs back to the United States. Displaying a chart showing the new, elevated tariffs that countries would face, Mr Trump proclaimed: “My fellow Americans, this is Liberation Day.”

It proved short-lived. Markets plunged in anticipation of heightened trade wars, wiping out trillions of dollars in wealth.

Democrats seized on the issue, looking to undercut a source of Mr Trump’s popular appeal: the view that he can be trusted to steer the nation’s economy.

“Donald Trump’s market crash has vaporised a whopping $104,000 from the average retirement account,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, said on Wednesday on the Senate floor, hours before the president’s reversal.

The episode laid bare the rifts within Mr Trump’s team of senior advisers as the White House struggled to offer a clear, consistent argument about the duration of the tariffs.

While Mr Bessent seemed open to negotiations, Peter Navarro, a senior trade adviser, appeared to take a more hard-line posture.

Elon Musk, the billionaire Tesla chief executive who has been advising Mr Trump on the government workforce, called Navarro “dumber than a sack of bricks,” while Mr Navarro described Mr Musk as someone who is merely “a car assembler, in many cases”.

But the weeklong drama also underscored the peril of a policymaking process that is often tied to the wishes and vagaries of one man: Donald Trump.

Asked about the dust-up between Mr Musk and Mr Navarro, Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, a golf partner of Mr Trump’s, said: “I don’t think it matters. The only one who matters is Trump.”

Markets tend to favour predictability, as do business leaders deciding where to build new plants. When Mr Trump sets a course, however, there are bound to be detours.

A friend of his who spoke to him in recent days said Mr Trump gave no sign he was about to “back down quickly on this stuff”.

Mr Trump believes other countries trade unfairly and sees tariffs as a tool to make the United States more competitive, the person said.

“He’s very confident it’s going to work for him,” the person added, speaking on condition of anonymity.

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And yet in the run-up to Wednesday’s announcement, Mr Trump and his aides were also hearing from GOP lawmakers and outside allies urging an alternative path.

One was Larry Kudlow, who hosts a show on Fox Business Network and was a senior economic adviser in Mr Trump’s first term.

Mr Kudlow told NBC News that he has had “ongoing” talks with friends in the West Wing about the need to negotiate with other countries before the United States slaps them with tariffs that stand in perpetuity.

Describing Mr Trump’s move Wednesday as “fabulous,” Mr Kudlow added: “Dealmaking is the best thing to do. In the last 48 hours, Trump has gone from non-negotiating to negotiating.

“It’s very clear that Bessent is now the point man on trade. Very clear.”

Anxious GOP lawmakers also weighed in.

Mr Graham said he spoke to Mr Trump at length on Tuesday night and told him he had been hearing from car manufacturers who are worried about how the tariffs would affect their business. BMW operates a plant in Mr Graham’s home state and is one of the companies he said he had spoken to.

Senator John Kennedy, a Republican lawmaker who was also in touch with the administration, said on Tuesday that he planned to have lunch with Mr Bessent. On Wednesday, he told NBC News he was also talking to the White House.

Mr Kennedy likened Mr Trump to the “pit bull who caught the car”. Now, he said, the question becomes: “What are you going to do with the car?”

After more market losses this week, and with pressure mounting from Republicans on Capitol Hill, Mr Trump began having second thoughts.

In his first term, he often viewed the ups and downs of the stock market as a kind of report card on his presidency, celebrating its rise. The downturn had got his attention.

“People were getting a little queasy,” he acknowledged Wednesday on an event with NASCAR racing champions.

“Over the last few days” he began to more seriously consider pausing the additional tariffs, he told reporters later in the day in an Oval Office appearance.

One prospect that intrigued him was personally negotiating new trade deals with the countries looking to get out from under the tariffs, the senior administration official said.

He’d made up his mind. Sitting with Mr Bessent and Mr Lutnick, he crafted the note announcing the 90-day postponement and ending, for the time being, the biggest economic crisis of his young presidency.

“We wrote it from our hearts, right?” Mr Trump said. “It was written as something that I think was very positive for the world and for us, and we don’t want to hurt countries that don’t need to be hurt, and they all want to negotiate.”

The day closed with the Dow Jones Industrial Average up nearly 8%, erasing some – but not all – of the “post-Liberation Day” losses.

Messy as it all may have seemed, his administration insisted that all is unfolding as planned.

“You have been watching the greatest economic master strategy from an American president in history,” White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller posted on Wednesday afternoon.