A new poll finds that American voters are approaching the presidential election with deep unease about what could follow. They are worried about the potential for political violence, attempts to overturn the results, and the implications for democracy.
"Look, they got them up. I'd like to bring them down. It's hard to bring things down once they're up. You know, it's very hard." —Donald Trump
A Uyghur militant group that helped to topple Bashar-al Assad has vowed to take the fight to China.
Israel wasted no time after Bashar al-Assad’s fall to bomb all the Syrian military assets it wanted to keep out of the rebels’ hands – striking nearly 500 targets, destroying the navy, and taking out, it claims, 90% of Syria’s known surface-to-air missiles.
Abu Mohammad al-Jolani, leader of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), has become Syria’s new strongman, replacing the Alawite regime of Bashar al-Assad. Once a partner of al Qaeda, Jolani now speaks the language of tolerance towards Syria’s ethnic and religious minorities and told his fighters to refrain from extrajudicial violence. Videos emerging on social media, including one apparently showing the execution of four suspected regime collaborators, suggest that not all of his fighters are following hi
Insurgents seized Myanmar's border with Bangladesh in one of the bloodiest battles of the civil war.
North Korean troops have captured a village from Ukrainian forces in Russia’s Kursk region, Russian military bloggers have reported.
Billionaire investor Mark Cuban said he ignored notes that Vice Presidential Harris’s campaign was giving him while he was their acting surrogate on the trail. “I would go into immigration and, you know, I was honest, I would not let the Harris campaign tell me what to say. They would try to give me notes…
A US serviceman was sentenced to five years in prison for kidnapping and raping an underage girl last year, an official from Naha District Court on the southern Japanese island of Okinawa told CNN Friday.
STORY: Just weeks ago, Farhan al-Khouli was manning a military outpost in Idlib, northern Syria, for Bashar al-Assad's army.The story of his desertion - one of many - shows how Assad's army crumbled as the rebels advanced.Khouli's commanding officer called to say a rebel convoy was heading their way.They were just three men, badly paid and demoralized, one deemed unfit by his superiors to bear arms.They were meant to be nine but others had bribed their way out.They should stand and fight, the officer said.Instead Khouli put his phone on airplane mode, changed into civilian clothes, dropped his rifle and fled.Ending up in Damascus, now taken by the rebels, where he got this job at a horse stable.On the road he saw other groups of deserting soldiers.“Those who were with me in the room, I no longer know anything about them. Everyone went in a different way, some went this way, others went that way. I wanted to reach the highway, because if I reached the highway, I would no longer worry. I reach Hama, I reach Homs, I have no problem. I saw all the people gathering. It was over, they fled, the whole area was gone. I said praise be to God, I am here, by God Almighty, when they said that the whole area had fallen, I started to cry with joy.":: November 29, 2024Reuters spoke to a dozen sources, including Syrian military and security sources and allied militia commanders. As Aleppo came under attack in late November, army units were not given a clear plan but were told to work it out for themselves, two Syrian security sources said. Within two weeks, the rebels had toppled Assad's brutal regime. His army lacked leadership and a defense strategy, the sources said, and had lost much of its command structure - the Iranian military advisors and militia allies such as Hezbollah - who'd left as war with Israel escalated.The army also lacked loyalty, as Khouli's story describes.Khouli didn't want to sign up but says he was forced to. He ended up at that remote post in Idlib because he'd tried to desert once and been jailed for it.One former major told Reuters the use of forced conscripts was a "fatal mistake." Khouli says he had to do heavy manual labor in extreme heat and cold.Reuters was not able to verify the details of his experiences.He says he was paid $40 a month and went hungry.“We used to get sugar, and we used to get ghee, and we used to get oil, but it all went away, it used to get stolen, and we wouldn't see any of it. What we received was a pot of bulgar wheat, mostly bulgar, I mean, we used to go 4 or 5 days with only bulgar, and each person had a pinch of tomato and potato. Each person received his portion, I mean, it wasn’t enough to fill you up.”:: North Hama, Syria:: Released December 1, 2024In 2020, the army had 130,000 personnel, according to the IISS think tank, depleted by the long civil war and functioning more like a militia.A U.S. official told Reuters Washington was learning of high-level desertions and military forces changing sides in the days before Assad fell.Corruption went up through the ranks.Colonel Makhlouf Makhlouf served in an engineering brigade stationed in Hama but deserted before the city fell on December 5.He said if anyone complained about corruption they were questioned at a military court, which happened to him more than once. A serving senior military intelligence officer told Reuters anger had been building against Assad personally within the military, especially over the past year......including among core high-ranking supporters from his minority Alawite community.Despite his army past, Khouli says he has no fear for the future. "I'm happy and at ease," he says. "I'm not afraid at all."
Imagine the scene, at noon, on January 20, on the west front of the US Capitol.
Senate Democrats were livid after Sens. Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.) and Joe Manchin (I-W.Va.), two longtime members of their caucus, voted Wednesday to block President Biden’s nominee, Lauren McFerran, to serve another five-year term on the National Labor Relations Board. Senate Democrats blasted their votes to sink Biden’s nominee and hand Republicans a major victory as…
Some have long called for the practice of changing the clock twice a year to end.
Nancy Pelosi is reportedly campaigning against Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s (D-NY) bid to be the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee. The former speaker of the House of Representatives is instead pushing Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-VA) to win the high-ranking role, and is “actively working to tank” AOC’s bid while “making calls” on behalf of Connolly, Punchbowl News reported Thursday. The report adds that Pelosi’s behind-the-scenes maneuvering displays the sheer “amount of political capi
Russia launched a massive aerial attack against Ukraine on Friday, firing 93 cruise and ballistic missiles and almost 200 drones, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said, describing it as one of the heaviest bombardments of the country's energy sector since Russia's full-scale invasion almost three years ago. Ukrainian defenses shot down 81 missiles, including 11 cruise missiles that were intercepted by F-16 warplanes provided by Western allies earlier this year, Zelenskyy said.
Victims of major public corruption cases in Pennsylvania and Illinois are angry that President Joe Biden granted clemency this week to the two convicted officials.
Images showed thick clouds of smoke billowing into the sky shortly after the attack on Oryol, Russia
Russia's military presence at two key bases in Syria fell into uncertainty after the Assad regime fell last weekend.
Boulos helped Trump secure Arab-American votes, but his resume presented by Trump’s transition team seems to be largely fabrication, according to an examination of education and business records
American air bases in the US and UK have reported dozens of mysterious drones hovering over sensitive sites, in a bizarre and concerning trend under investigation by the Pentagon.
Nearly 90 million Americans didn’t vote – which is more than the number of people who voted for Trump or Harris
