gedaliyah

Syria is home to multiple ethnic and religious communities, often pitted against each other by Assad’s state and years of war. Many of them fear the possibility that Sunni Islamist extremists will take over. The country is also fragmented among disparate armed factions, and foreign powers from Russia and Iran to the United States, Turkey and Israel all have their hands in the mix.

For years, al-Sharaa worked to consolidate power, while bottled up in the province of Idlib in Syria’s northwest corner as Assad’s Iranian- and Russian-backed rule over much of the country appeared solid.

As Syria’s civil war intensified in 2013, so did al-Golani’s ambitions. He defied al-Baghdadi’s calls to dissolve the Nusra Front and merge it with al-Qaida’s operation in Iraq, to form the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, or ISIS.

In 2016, al-Golani revealed his face to the public for the first time in a video message that announced his group was renaming itself Jabhat Fateh al-Sham — the Syria Conquest Front — and cutting its ties to al-Qaida.

“This new organization has no affiliation to any external entity,” he said in the video, filmed wearing military garb and a turban.

With his power consolidated, al-Golani set in motion a transformation that few could have imagined. Replacing his military garb with shirt and trousers, he began calling for religious tolerance and pluralism.

Thousands who fled during the country’s civil war celebrated the toppling of the Assad government — and their long-awaited return home — at the Syria-Lebanon border crossing.

Songs written during the Syrian uprising to cheer on the fall of Mr. al-Assad blasted from car speakers, their lyrics no longer fantasy.

“I don’t have words for how I feel right now. Joy, joy, all joy,” said Khitam Chiha, 23, standing on the sidewalk as the parade of cars and people passed. Red, green and white eye shadow — the colors of the Syrian opposition’s flag — were painted across her eyelids and she held a large flag in her hand.

Antisemitic assaults have increased 491%, going from 11 in 2023 to 65 in 2024.

The Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ) released a report on Dec. 1 tracking incidents from October 2023 through September 2024, which showed that in 2023 the total antisemitic incidents in the country reached 495. For 2024, that number rose to 2062, a 316% jump.

Broken down by types of incidents, physical assaults shot up even higher—going from 11 in 2023 to 65 in 2024, a 491% increase.

Note: I was asked by @deceptichum@quokk.au to repost this story after posting from another source.

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Firefighters were called to Melbourne's Adass Israel synagogue just after 04:00 local time on Friday (17:00 GMT Thursday) and arrived to find the building fully ablaze.

Community leaders told local media that "a few people" were inside at the time for morning prayers, and they had reported seeing firebombs thrown. One person was injured and the fire caused extensive damage.

In a statement, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the incident in Ripponlea, in the city's south-east, was "clearly aimed at creating fear in the community".

"This violence and intimidation and destruction at a place of worship is an outrage," he wrote.

"I have zero tolerance for antisemitism."

Note: I was asked by @deceptichum@quokk.au to repost this story after posting from another source.

Texas banned most abortions after about six weeks of pregnancy in September 2021, and in summer 2022, expanded that ban to all abortions from the moment of conception, except to save the life of the pregnant patient.

There have since been countless stories of doctors delaying or denying pregnancy care due to fear and confusion about how the law would be applied. At least three women have died, ProPublica has reported, due to delayed or mismanaged miscarriage care. Doctors found to have violated the law face up to life in prison, fines of at least $100,000 and the loss of their medical license.

Texas’ maternal mortality committee, responsible for reviewing maternal deaths and near-misses, has come under increased scrutiny since these laws went into effect. Some of the criticisms lay at the feet of the Legislature, which created the committee in 2013. The original statute prohibits the review of abortion-related deaths, a caveat that even committee members were not aware of until a few months ago.

The committee’s last report, released in September, showed that maternal deaths surged in 2020 and 2021, even with COVID deaths excluded. Black women remain far more likely to die than anyone else, although every group except white women saw their odds of dying increase.

The true origin of candy canes is hazy, mixing recorded history with a good amount of legend. Hard candy has existed for thousands of years. The expense of sugar made it a rare treat, shared on special occasions and holidays or as a reward for children’s good behavior.

Church records show that in 1670, a choirmaster at Cologne Cathedral in Germany handed out white candy sticks to keep restless children quiet during Christmas services. The sweets took a long time to finish and kept little hands and mouths busy while they weren’t singing. Worried it might seem improper to give candy in church, he added the symbolic crook to recall the shepherds of the Nativity.

On Friday, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced that it would begin a nationwide testing program for the presence of the H5N1 flu virus, also known as the bird flu. Testing will focus on pre-pasteurized milk at dairy processing facilities (pasteurization inactivates the virus), but the order that's launching the program will require anybody involved with milk production before then to provide samples to the USDA on request. That includes "any entity responsible for a dairy farm, bulk milk transporter, bulk milk transfer station, or dairy processing facility."

The ultimate goal is to identify individual herds where the virus is circulating and use the agency's existing powers to do contact tracing and restrict the movement of cattle, with the ultimate goal of eliminating the virus from US herds.

Ethnic Kokang rebels in northern Myanmar have executed six people following a public trial in front of hundreds of people that was filmed and posted on social media, including murder, the group confirmed Friday.

The six were among 14 individuals tried on Thursday by the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army, or MNDAA, which had been fighting the junta since a military coup in early 2021, until agreeing to a ceasefire earlier this week.

In the video, which appeared to be professionally produced -- including a militaristic soundtrack and drone shots -- the convicted individuals in blue jumpsuits are held by guards as authorities in uniforms read out their crimes in Mandarin Chinese, the Kokang’s main language.

How Viktor Orban pulled off the unthinkable.

In Hungary the unthinkable happened: A state that jumped through all of the hoops to join the EU in 2004 commenced a rapid decline into authoritarianism just six years later. Other member states have endured stretches of democratic backsliding, including Romania, Slovenia, Slovakia, and, notably, Poland during the 2015 to 2023 Law and Justice government. But their political systems and societies were resilient enough to fight back and depose strongmen. Hungary did not rise from the mat.

Europe’s new pact with South America, its largest deal to date, could be a sign of how countries will diversify trade relationships as Donald Trump threatens tariffs.

The decision came days after the government asserted that there had been “cyberattacks” meant to undermine the vote and security council documents indicated possible Russian meddling.

Romania’s Constitutional Court on Friday canceled the final round of a pivotal presidential election with only two days before the vote, saying it needed to ensure the “correctness of the electoral process.”

The surprise decision, in a NATO member state that shares a border with Ukraine, came days after Romanian leaders raised allegations that “cyberattacks” had tried to undermine the vote. The court’s ruling was also the latest in a series of political upheavals across Europe, where right-wing and nationalist movements have surged this year.