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April 01, 2025
 

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SYRIA

Syria's new leader and Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) chief Ahmed Sharaa (right) receives Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha in Damascus on Monday.
WORLD / Politics
Dec 31, 2024
Syria eyes 'strategic' ties with Ukraine amid waning Russian influence
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he hoped providing help to Syria would be beneficial to restoring stability in Ukraine.
Syria's de facto leader, Ahmed al-Sharaa (left), greets a member of Qatar's delegation in Damascus on Dec. 23.
WORLD / Politics
Dec 30, 2024
Syria's de facto leader says holding elections could take up to four years
Drafting a new constitution could take up to three years, Ahmed al-Sharaa said, adding that it would take about a year for Syrians to see drastic changes.
Bashar Assad's fall offers a chance to rebuild Syria, but the history of Middle East stabilization is littered with failure, making the coming months crucial.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Dec 26, 2024
Rebuilding Syria after the ouster of the dictator Assad
Hope must be tempered by caution. Across the Middle East, the removal of strongmen has generally produced violent chaos.
Syria symbolized Russia's "great power" status, but Vladimir Putin's failure to stop Bashar Assad's ouster exposed Russia as merely a regional power.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 26, 2024
Russia just lost its 'great power' status
If Russia’s war in Ukraine is about identity and empire, its presence in Syria was about prestige and status.
The Russian cargo ship Ursa Major during a monitoring operation conducted by the Portuguese Navy along the Continental Exclusive Economic Zone off the coast of Portugal. Two crew members are missing after the ship sank in international waters in the Mediterranean after an explosion on board, Russia's foreign ministry said on Telegram on Tuesday.
WORLD
Dec 26, 2024
Russian state owner calls cargo ship blast a 'terrorist attack'
The cargo ship sank in international waters off Spain in the early hours of Tuesday.
Christians attend a Christmas mass at the Lady of Damascus church, after the ousting of Syria's Bashar Assad, in Damascus, Syria, on Tuesday.
WORLD
Dec 25, 2024
Syrian Christians attend Christmas mass for first time since Assad's fall
De facto ruler Ahmed al-Sharaa has told Christians and other groups that they will be safe in a Syria run by his group.
Internally displaced Syrians from eastern Ghouta queue for food in a Damascus countryside in April 2018.
WORLD / Society
Dec 24, 2024
Global hunger crisis deepens as major nations skimp on aid
The United Nations says that, at best, it will be able to raise enough money to help about 60% of the 307 million people it predicts will need humanitarian aid next year.
Supporters of the French far-right National Rally party wave French flags on Dec. 15. In Europe this year, the far right made gains in several legislatures, including that of France.
WORLD / Politics
Dec 24, 2024
Democracy heads into 2025 bloodied but unbowed
Overall, there were no attempts this year to prevent a peaceful transfer of power, but autocracies grew more repressive.
Orthopedic surgeon Mohammed al-Hanash sits at his clinic in Douma, east of the Syrian capital Damascus, on Saturday.
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Dec 24, 2024
Syrian medics say were coerced into false chemical attack testimony
The medics, who treated the wounded at a field hospital near Damascus after the April 7, 2018, attack, said they were coerced into giving false testimony.
A border fence along the Syria-Israel buffer zone near Majdal Shams in the Golan Heights on Thursday
WORLD / Politics
Dec 23, 2024
Israel and Turkey shape a new Syria from their borderlands
Syria’s leadership isn’t the only aspect of the country to be changing as a result of this month’s toppling of longtime dictator, Bashar Assad.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks at a ceremony for military combat officers at an army base near Mitzpe Ramon, Israel, on Oct. 31.
WORLD / Politics
Dec 23, 2024
Israel's Netanyahu eyes Iran after triumphs over Hamas, Hezbollah and Syria
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has had a succession of monumental wins that include the top leaders of Hamas and Hezbollah being eliminated.
Turkey's Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan (left) is received by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) leader Ahmed al-Sharaa (also known as Abu Mohammad al-Jolani), in Damascus on Sunday.
WORLD / Politics
Dec 23, 2024
Syria's new leader says all weapons to come under 'state control'
Ahmed al-Sharaa said Syria's armed "factions will begin to announce their dissolution and enter" the army.
A member of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces stands along a street, after rebels seized the capital and ousted Syrian dictator Bashar Assad, in Hasakah, Syria, on Dec. 11.
WORLD / ANALYSIS
Dec 22, 2024
Syrian Kurdish groups on the back foot as power balance shifts
Part of a stateless ethnic group straddling Iraq, Iran, Turkey, Armenia and Syria, Kurds have so far been among the few winners of the Syrian conflict.
Protesters behead a statue of Saddam Hussein's predecessor, Ahmad Hassan al-Bakr, president of Iraq from 1968 to 1979, in Baghdad's al-Mansur district in May 2003, erasing one of the last symbols of the Baath Party's 35-year regime.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 22, 2024
Can lessons from Iraq's regime change be applied in Syria?
If regional tensions escalate, disruptions to energy supplies could impact global markets, including Japan, which remains disengaged despite the mounting crisis.
Syrians step on posters of Bashar Assad and his father, Hafez Assad, in Homs, Syria, on Tuesday.
WORLD / Politics / FOCUS
Dec 22, 2024
How Bashar Assad's inner circle fled Syria after his fall
The ousted president was accompanied by only a handful of confidants, leaving both family members and loyal aides to find their own means of escape.
Ahmed al-Sharaa, head of the Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Shamthat led the lightning offensive to oust Syrian President Bashar Assad, attends a meeting in Damascus on Tuesday.
WORLD / Politics
Dec 21, 2024
U.S. drops bounty for Syria's new leader after Damascus meeting
The move follows "positive messages" from a first meeting with American diplomats that included a promise to fight terrorism.
A rebel fighter stands in front of an abandoned tank in the town of Adra on the northeast outskirts of Damascus on Monday.
WORLD
Dec 18, 2024
Conflict in Syria 'has not ended,' U.N. warns
The U.N.'s special envoy for Syria has warned of "significant hostilities" already witnessed there between Turkish-backed and Kurdish fighters.
Ghazi Mohammed al-Mohammed, a former detainee in a Damascus prison, poses for a picture with his mother at their home in Sarmada, in the northern Syrian Idlib province, on Saturday.
WORLD
Dec 16, 2024
Bashar Assad's prisoner #3006 tells his story
When Syrian military intelligence officers detained Ghazi Mohammed al-Mohammed, they told him to forget his name and who he was.
A rebel fighter inspects writings on a jail cell wall at the Syrian General Intelligence Directorate (GID) Branch 251, also known as Al-Khatib branch, in the capital Damascus on Saturday.
WORLD
Dec 16, 2024
'Torture after torture': Turkish inmate recalls time in Syria's jails
The man said he paid the price for the hatred Syria's authorities bore for Turkey's president, who early in the war urged the Syrian president to leave.
Members of the Orthodox community of Latakia attend a Sunday Mass at St. George's Cathedral in Latakia, Syria, on Sunday.
WORLD
Dec 16, 2024
Syrian Christians attend services, schools reopen a week after Assad's overthrow
Some Syrian Christians remain jittery at the prospect of an Islamist government.
Japan's biggest beef bowl chain Sukiya to shut nearly 2,000 stores after rat and bug contamination
Zensho Holdings, operator of fast-food chain Sukiya, said it will close all of its stores in Japan, except for a small number in shopping centers, between Monday and Friday following recent contamination incidents.
Alert raised for volcano in southwestern Japan
Shinmoedake, a volcano located between Miyazaki and Kagoshima prefectures, in November 2019
Japan considers all possible options as Trump threatens new auto tariffs
Subaru cars awaiting export at a port in Yokohama on Thursday.
Nankai Trough earthquake could kill 298,000 people, government says
Residents participate in an evacuation drill held with West Japan Railway in Shirahama, Wakayama Prefecture, in January 2024 to prepare for a Nankai Trough earthquake and a possible tsunami following the quake.
A Canadian made a weekend trip to Costco a Japanese pastime
Under the watchful eye of Ken Theriault, Costco representative director and Japan country manager, the American membership-model wholesaler has flourished in Japan.
A Canadian made a weekend trip to Costco a Japanese pastime
Under the watchful eye of Ken Theriault, Costco representative director and Japan country manager, the American membership-model wholesaler has flourished in Japan.
Tokyo tech failures lean into misfortune, mistakes and missteps
Tsuyoshi Domoto in Tokyo's Shinjuku Ward on March 28. As an entrepreneur, Domoto experienced plenty of setbacks but maintains a positive attitude and continues to pursue his dreams.
Who among the opposition would join the ruling coalition?
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba enters his office in Tokyo on Friday.
Traveling the Three-Star Road, the tourist route made from thin air
Scenes like this snow-covered bridge leading to the village of Shirakawa-go are what make the Three-Star Road worth traveling — its name notwithstanding.
Recent spate of wildfires in Japan and South Korea linked to climate change
Smoke and flames rise from a wildfire in Andong, South Korea, on Tuesday.

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