--:-- Shamita Basu: Good morning. It's Friday, February 10th. I'm Shamita Basu. This is Apple News Today.
--:-- Shamita Basu: On today's show, a new program lets you help refugees get to America, a preview of the Super Bowl matchup, and Rihanna talks about what she's got planned for the big halftime show. But first, the death toll from the earthquakes in Turkey and Syria is now above 21,000, making it the deadliest earthquake disaster in more than a decade.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Aid is now trickling into Syria, but there's a long way to go. There are fears of what the World Health Organization calls the secondary disaster. People who lost their homes now face bitter cold and snow without vital food, water and power.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Humanitarian efforts have been halting and inadequate. Washington Post reporter Sarah Dadouch covers Syria and the wider region. She spoke to us from Beirut.
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--:-- Sarah Dadouch: The roads from Turkey to Syria had been so heavily destroyed that they had to find alternative routes. But the aid going in is likely not going to be enough.
--:-- Sarah Dadouch: Even before the earthquakes, millions of Syrians relied on humanitarian assistance. People in Syria's rebel-held Idlib province and its surroundings have really been largely left to dig out their dead on their own.
--:-- Sarah Dadouch: There's been more than a thousand killed and many, many injured, but the area is run by a local government that isn't recognized by any country. And there's out of the 4.5 million people living in that pocket, there's nearly 2.9 million who have been displaced from elsewhere in Syria.
--:-- Sarah Dadouch: Beyond the physical dangers, survivors face an agonizing wait for news about missing loved ones trapped under the rubble. Even the rescuers themselves told me that one of them said he went 18, 19 hours without even knowing if his family was alive or not.
--:-- Sarah Dadouch: Many of the rescues happening in areas held by Syrian opposition are being done by the volunteers known as the White Helmets. This part of the country has been the target of relentless bombing by the Assad regime and its allies.
--:-- Sarah Dadouch: So the White Helmets have a lot of experience rescuing people from destroyed buildings and making temporary shelters. You could see the men just like a well-oiled machine putting up tents, despite the wind, hammering the tarp onto the metal.
--:-- Sarah Dadouch: Because they've done this so many times, because they keep putting up temporary encampments every time there's been bombardment. But this time you can't even point blame at Russian warplanes or Syrian warplanes. It's just a human disaster, and I think they're just struggling to understand why no one is sending them enough help.
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--:-- Shamita Basu: We've talked before about how the earthquake damage is intensifying the refugee crisis. In an area where millions were already displaced by civil war. So it's worth taking a moment to talk about a U.S. government program launched just before the earthquake.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Vox reports on what's called the Welcome Corps, which lets groups of Americans sponsor refugees to help them settle in the United States. At least five adults need to commit to form a group. They need to raise a total of $2,275 for each person they plan to help resettle.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Sponsors also help with securing housing, employment, places in school for children. In other words, they're a ready-to-go social support system from the moment a refugee arrives in the country.
--:-- Shamita Basu: This program could help fill gaps in refugee resettlement. The Biden administration has been criticized for falling short. It had a target of resettling 125,000 refugees last year, but it only took care of 25,000 people.
--:-- Shamita Basu: That was a record low since the Refugee Act was signed into law in 1980. Recent programs have focused on refugees from specific places, like Afghanistan and Ukraine. But with this new Welcome Corps program, private citizens can sponsor refugees who qualify from anywhere.
--:-- Shamita Basu: If you are interested in sponsoring someone, you can read Vox article with a step guide on the Apple News app.
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--:-- Shamita Basu: Super Bowl weekend is upon us. I've got Apple News sports editor Shaker Saman here with me now to talk about it.
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--:-- Shaker Saman: Hey, how's it going?
--:-- Shamita Basu: Good. So we've got the Philadelphia Eagles versus the Kansas City Chiefs. Two really strong teams, a great matchup in a lot of ways.
--:-- Shaker Saman: These have been, for the majority of the season, the best two teams in football. They both went 14-3 in the regular season. They were both the number one seeds in their conference.
--:-- Shaker Saman: They both pretty much dispatched anyone who stood in their way in the playoffs. On one side, you have the Eagles, who are a little more well-rounded by football outsiders metrics.
--:-- Shaker Saman: They have the number three offense, the number six defense in the country, whereas the Chiefs, on the other hand, have by far the most explosive offense in the NFL.
--:-- Shaker Saman: Patrick Mahomes has these guys running on all cylinders. And the Eagles, on the other hand, kind of use a rushing attack to try to stifle their foes.
--:-- Shaker Saman: It should be a really fun clash of styles and should hopefully be a high-scoring game.
--:-- Shaker Saman: Yeah. And this year, for the first time in Super Bowl history, we will see two black starting quarterbacks. Patrick Mahomes, you already mentioned him, the Chiefs quarterback, and Jalen Hurts on the Eagles.
--:-- Shaker Saman: So tell us about them.
--:-- Shaker Saman: Yeah. So there was a really interesting story in The Ringer about how Mahomes for years was almost this sort of trick shot wizard.
--:-- Shaker Saman: He was pretty naturally talented. He could throw the ball a country mile and he was doing things that blew our minds.
--:-- Shaker Saman: But he would often make mistakes when he didn't need to. And his sort of development this season from all-world quarterback to maybe the best passer we've ever seen happened by getting more boring.
--:-- Shaker Saman: He did the simple things. He went back to basics and he just started picking teams apart.
--:-- Shaker Saman: Jalen Hurts, on the other hand, he was a starter at Alabama before he got benched for Tua Tagovailoa in the national championship game.
--:-- Shaker Saman: He transfers to Oklahoma and sort of explodes and comes into himself, gets drafted by the Eagles.
--:-- Shaker Saman: People still aren't sure about him there. And then in the last year and a half has just gone out and shown like, no, this is a genuine NFL superstar.
--:-- Shaker Saman: Whereas Mahomes does it all with his arm, Hurts has just devastating, like running abilities and instincts.
--:-- Shaker Saman: And he a big reason why the Eagles have the best rushing offense in the NFL.
--:-- Shaker Saman: So who the favorite to take the title? Vegas wants you to know that the birds are favorited just slightly but honestly it pretty wide open.
--:-- Shaker Saman: If someone wants to tell you with certainty that one of these teams is going to win it all, they either have insider information or they're trying to sell you a bridge.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Shakra Saman, thank you so much.
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--:-- Shamita Basu: And of course, the Super Bowl is about much more than football. The halftime show is the biggest stage in music, and this year, Rihanna is the headliner.
--:-- Shamita Basu: This will be her first live performance in years. She told Apple Music's Nadeska Alexis that she went through dozens of possible set lists to pack the right combination of songs into 13 minutes.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And Rihanna says it'll be a celebration of her catalog and her Caribbean heritage.
--:-- Shamita Basu: I mean, that's a big part of why this is important for me to do this show. Representation, representing for immigrants, representing for my country, Barbados, representing for black women everywhere.
--:-- Shamita Basu: I think that's really important. That's key for people to see the possibilities. And I'm honored to be here. I'm honored to be doing this.
--:-- Shamita Basu: You can find more about the Super Bowl, the game, the halftime show, the ads, plus all of today's news in the Apple News app.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And check out the latest episode of our interview show, In Conversation.
--:-- Shamita Basu: I talk with Julia Carpenter, personal finance reporter from The Wall Street Journal, about money and relationships.
--:-- Shamita Basu: She talks about what the research says and offers some advice, like how to stop fighting about money and start talking about it instead.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Start by asking someone about their earliest experiences with money. So you just ask someone, how did you talk about money growing up?
--:-- Shamita Basu: And I think learning about how someone learned about those things is hugely informative, but it's also a way to grow closer.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Also, if you called in and left us a voicemail about your money fights with your partner, you might hear it in this episode.
--:-- Shamita Basu: That's queued up to play next if you're listening in the Apple News app.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Have a good weekend. I'll be back with the news on Monday.
