Assad flees to Moscow as Syrian rebels capture Damascus
CNN
Strikes were heard in Damascus early Monday, according to a CNN team in the Syrian capital, after President Bashar al-Assad and his family fled to Russia in the face of an astonishingly swift rebel offensive.
• Israel said its military struck Syria’s chemical weapons capabilities on Monday morning after President Bashar al-Assad and his family fled to Russia following a swift rebel offensive. • The toppling of the Assad regime following more than 50 years of brutal dictatorship was a “victory for the entire Islamic nation,” said Abu Mohammad al-Jolani, the leader of the main rebel group, HTS, which was formed out of an al Qaeda affiliate. • Assad’s removal was met with jubilation by Syrians at home and abroad. In Damascus, rebels and civilians ransacked the former dictator’s palaces, with videos revealing Assad’s luxurious lifestyle and large car collection, including a Ferrari F50. • As US President Joe Biden welcomed the fall of the Assad regime, the US military said it struck more than 75 ISIS targets in Syria to prevent the terrorist group from taking advantage of the situation in the country. Meanwhile, Israel ordered its military to establish a “security zone” inside Syrian territory. Syria’s former Assad regime prime minister has agreed to hand over power to his rebel counterpart, the outgoing PM Mohammad Ghazi Al-Jalali told Al Arabiya TV, according to Reuters. The Syrian rebels shared a video of the leader of the main rebel group HTS, Abu Mohammad al-Jolani, meeting with al-Jalali.
The actor skipped the Academy Awards only to show up in Ukraine — where he was presented with a statuette made from the metal of a train hit in a Russian attack.
More than 400 people were killed and 265 wounded in an airstrike by Pakistan on a drug rehabilitation center in Kabul, a spokesperson of the Afghan Taliban government said on Tuesday, in the deadliest incident since fighting between the two began in October last year.
Israel said that it killed Iran’s security chief, Ali Larijani, in a strike on Tehran, demonstrating Israel’s continued determination to pursue senior figures in the Iranian regime, even those seen as pragmatists like Larijani.
Oil prices spiked Tuesday and US gas prices rose as Iran intensified its attacks on energy infrastructure across the Middle East and a senior regime figure suggested that the crucial Strait of Hormuz wouldn’t become safe for ships anytime soon.
US President Donald Trump is trying to garner international support for securing the Strait of Hormuz — the vital waterway where the transport of oil has shuddered to a halt since the United States and Israel began their war with Iran.
Ukraine does not “want to lose the Americans” while they are “without question, currently more focused on the Middle East,” President Volodymyr Zelensky has said.
Images of him being bullied by his enclosure-mates, retreating to safety and clinging to a plushie look-alike for comfort won hearts around the world. But finally, Punch the monkey is fitting in.
US President Donald Trump said he is not yet ready to make a deal with Iran to end the war, and renewed calls for international allies to help secure the Strait of Hormuz.
Violence against women and girls was a problem in Ukraine even before Russia launched its full-scale invasion, but more than four years of war has deepened the crisis.
Before he dismantled Nepal’s political elite, Balendra Shah was destroying his opponents in underground rap battles.
The Biden administration was all in on EVs. The Trump administration pulled the plug, ahem, on government support. How is the US car industry dealing with the whiplash.
For the Persian Gulf’s oil-rich and mostly cosseted residents, Iran’s pummeling has been as unexpected as it has been terrifying. Many expats have beaten a retreat home, as Iran launched missile and drone salvos, tearing up airports, apartment blocks and oil terminals.
An explosion struck overnight at a Jewish school in Amsterdam in what the city’s mayor called a “targeted attack against the Jewish community.”