death toll in the Los Angeles wildfires has climbed to 16 as the relentless blazes continue to rage for a fifth consecutive day, authorities said.
Five of the deaths were attributed to the Palisades fire and 11 resulted from the Eaton fire, the LA County medical examiner’s office confirmed.
At least four wildfires are still burning across the Los Angeles County.
The fires have burned 40,000 acres by Saturday, destroyed more than 12,000 structures and over 150,000 people are under evacuation order.
The largest inferno burned 23,654 acres in and around the upscale Pacific Palisades neighborhood near the coast. Further inland, the Eaton Fire burned 14,117 acres in the foothills in and around the city of Altadena, northeast of downtown Los Angeles, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.
The Palisades fire is 11% contained, while the Eaton fire gained more momentum in containment, rising to 15% from a low 3% on Friday.
Two other smaller fires – the Hurst and Kenneth fires – are still burning in the LA area, while the Archer and Lidia fires have been fully contained.
The US has announced an increased $25m (£20.4m) reward for information leading to the arrest of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro on the day he was sworn in for a third six-year term in office.
The inauguration ceremony was overshadowed by recrimination from the international community and Venezuelan opposition leaders.
Rewards have also been offered for information leading to the arrest and or conviction of Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello. A new reward of up to $15m for Defence Minister Vladimir Padrino has also been offered.
The UK also issued sanctions on 15 top Venezuelan officials, including judges, members of the security forces and military officials.
The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office said those sanctioned were responsible for “undermining democracy, the rule of law, and human rights violations”.
Foreign Secretary David Lammy went on to describe Maduro’s regime as “fraudulent”.
Also on Friday, the EU said it was extending “restrictive measures” against Venezuela because of “the lack of progress… leading to the restoration of democracy and the rule of law”. The bloc also sanctioned a further 15 Venezuelan officials.
Maduro and his government have repeatedly denounced many of the allegations made by Western countries and opposition leaders. He has not yet commented on the most recent set of sanctions against him.
On Friday, President Maduro took the oath before parliament, vowing his third six-year term in office would be a “period of peace”.
“Tis new presidential term will be the period of peace, prosperity, equality, and the new democracy,” he said.
“I swear by history, I swear by my life, and I will fulfil it,” he added.
The 28 July election results were widely rejected by the international community, including by Brazil and Colombia, some of Venezuela’s left-wing neighbours.
The inauguration itself was a tightly controlled affair. Most accredited Venezuelan media were not allowed inside and foreign journalists were not allowed in the country.
Maduro has a few allies remaining including Iran, China and Russia but is increasingly isolated on the world stage.
The Cuban and Nicaraguan presidents were the only leaders present at the inauguration.
The 62-year-old was declared the winner of last July’s presidential election but the opposition and many countries, including the US, rejected the result and recognised the exiled opposition candidate Edmundo González as the legitimate president-elect.
González fled Venezuela in September and has been living in Spain, but this month he went on a tour of the Americas to rally international support.
The Maduro government has issued an arrest warrant for him, offering a $100,000 (£81,755) reward for information leading to his detention.
It comes as Maduro was declared the winner of July’s presidential election by Venezuela’s National Electoral Council (CNE), which is closely aligned with the government.
Machado, whom González replaced on the ballot after she was barred from running herself, has also been targeted. She went into hiding soon after the disputed elections, and was last seen in public in August before Thursday’s rally.
The Vatican has approved new guidelines from Italian bishops that allow gay men to enter seminaries as long as they abstain from sex, in an unexpected adjustment to how the global Catholic Church considers possible future priests.
Although the Vatican had not explicitly barred gay men from entering the priesthood in the past, an earlier 2016 instruction had said seminaries cannot admit men who have “deep-seated homosexual tendencies”.
The new guidelines, posted without fanfare on the website of the Italian bishops’ conference on Thursday, say seminary directors should consider a priestly candidate’s sexual preferences, but only as one aspect of their personality.
“When referring to homosexual tendencies in the formation process, it is also appropriate not to reduce the discernment to this aspect alone, but … to understand its meaning within the whole framework of the young person’s personality,” state the guidelines.
The Italian bishops said they approved the document in November. The text is accompanied by a note from the Vatican’s clergy office, confirming the guidelines as effective for a trial period of three years.
Pope Francis, leader of the Catholic Church since 2013, has been credited with taking a more welcoming approach toward the LGBTQ community, and has allowed priests to bless same-sex couples on a case-by-case basis.
But the admittance of gay men into the priesthood has remained something of a taboo subject. Priests who are gay often express fear about discussing their sexuality.
Francis approved the 2016 Vatican instruction, which was largely an update of a previous document issued by Pope Benedict XVI in 2005.
The pope has called for careful screening of seminarian candidates, and has in the past sharply warned priests who pursue sexual relationships to leave the priesthood.
Francis also reportedly used a derogatory word about gay people when discussing homosexuality in seminaries in a closed-door meeting last year, for which the Vatican issued a rare apology on the pope’s behalf.
(AP) — The Supreme Court seemed likely Friday to uphold the law that could ban TikTok, with most of the justices appearing to take seriously the national security risks posed by the wildly popular app whose parent company is based in China.
U.S. government says Chinese authorities could force the company to hand over sensitive data on its massive American user base or influence the spread of information on the platform through its proprietary algorithm.
TikTok says those concerns are overblown and the law should be struck down because it violates the First Amendment.
The law would ban TikTok in the U.S., unless it’s sold away from its Chinese parent company.
The measure is set to take effect Jan. 19, the day before a new term begins for President-elect Donald Trump, who has 14.7 million followers on the platform. The Republican says he wants to “save TikTok.”
Here are some key things to know about the case:
Is TikTok banned?
Not now, but the short-form video-sharing app could go dark in less than two weeks if the Supreme Court upholds the law, the app’s lawyer said.
Congress passed the measure with bipartisan support, and President Joe Biden, a Democrat, signed it into law in April.
TikTok’s lawyers challenged the law in court, joined by users and content creators who say a ban would upend their livelihoods. TikTok says the national security concerns are based on inaccurate and hypothetical information.
But a unanimous appeals court panel made up of judges appointed by both Republican and Democratic presidents has upheld the law.
When will the Supreme Court decide?
The court normally takes months to decide cases, but the justices could take action on this case within days, lightning-fast movement by court standards.
TikTok lawyers want the justices to step in before the law takes effect on Jan. 19, saying even a monthlong shutdown would cause the app to lose about one-third of its daily American users and significant advertising revenue.
But during oral arguments, conservative and liberal justices seemed more receptive to the government’s arguments that the danger was real and the law’s biggest effect is on the parent company ByteDance, a foreign corporation without First Amendment guarantees.
The justices, most notably Neil Gorsuch, still had tough questions from the government about how the law might affect free speech of the people who post on the app, and whether the government should be in the business of preventing the spread of misinformation.
What has Trump said about it?
Trump took the unusual step of filing court documents asking the Supreme Court to put the law on hold so that he could negotiate a deal for the sale of TikTok after he takes office. His position marked the latest example of him inserting himself into national issues before he takes office. It also was a change from his last presidential term, when he wanted to ban it.
Parent company ByteDance has previously said it has no plans to sell, though some investors are interested. Trump met with TikTok’s CEO last month.
When asked about whether a sale would be possible given a longer timeframe, TikTok’s lawyer said it would still be “exceedingly difficult.”
What could the case mean?
Free-speech advocates are worried about the implications of upholding the law.
Gautam Hans, law professor and First Amendment expert at Cornell University, said that concerns about data collection are valid but the way the law targets a single platform “creates a very slippery slope.”
Creators are worried too.
Felicia Jackson is the owner of CPRWrap in Chattanooga, Tennessee, which helps people perform CPR in emergencies. She said she nearly tripled her sales after going viral on TikTok. No other platform has let her reach people who are “not only diverse but extremely engaged,” she said.
“It’s hard enough running a cash-strapped small business without having to worry about losing the single social media platform that kept us from closing our doors,” she said. “I still have hope there’s a way to address their concerns without taking away something that’s been so impactful and a game changer for me and businesses like mine.”
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is increasingly likely to announce he intends to step down, though he has not made a final decision, a source familiar with Trudeau’s thinking said on Sunday.
The source spoke to Reuters after the Globe and Mail reported that Trudeau was expected to announce as early as Monday that he would quit as leader of Canada’s ruling Liberal Party after nine years in office.
The source requested anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.
Trudeau’s departure would leave the party without a permanent head at a time when polls show the Liberals will badly lose to the official opposition Conservatives in an election that must be held by late October.
Sources told the Globe and Mail that they did not know definitely when Trudeau would announce his plans to leave but said they expect it would happen before an emergency meeting of Liberal legislators on Wednesday.
An increasing number of Liberal parliamentarians, alarmed by a series of gloomy polls, have publicly urged Trudeau to quit.
The prime minister’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment outside regular business hours. The prime minister’s regularly published schedule for Monday said he would participate virtually in a cabinet committee meeting on Canada-U.S. relations.
It remains unclear whether Trudeau will leave immediately or stay on as prime minister until a new Liberal leader is selected, the Globe and Mail report added.
CALLS TO RESIGN GROW
Trudeau took over as Liberal leader in 2013 when the party was in deep trouble and had been reduced to third place in the House of Commons for the first time.
If he does resign, it would likely spur fresh calls for a quick election to put in place a stable government able to deal with the administration of President-elect Donald Trump for the next four years.
The prime minister has discussed with Finance Minister Dominic LeBlanc whether he would be willing to step in as interim leader and prime minister, one source told the newspaper, adding that this would be unworkable if LeBlanc plans to run for the leadership.
Trudeau, 53, had been able to fend off Liberal legislators worried about the polls and the loss of safe seats in two special elections.
But calls for him to step aside have grown since December, when Trudeau tried to demote Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland, one of his closest cabinet allies, after she pushed back against his proposals for more spending.
Freeland quit instead and penned a letter accusing Trudeau of “political gimmicks” rather than focusing on what was best for the country.
Trudeau propelled the Liberals to power in 2015 promising “sunny ways” and a progressive agenda that promoted the rights of women and a promise to fight climate change.
But the everyday realities of governing gradually wore him down and like many Western leaders, the need to deal with the effects of the pandemic ate up much of his time.
Although Ottawa spent heavily to protect consumers and businesses, racking up record budget deficits, this provided little protection from public anger as prices soared.
A botched immigration policy led to hundreds of thousands of arrivals, straining an already overheated housing market.
The Israeli army has warned its personnel traveling abroad that they risk arrest after one of its soldiers fled Brazil while being investigated for possible war crimes in Gaza, local media reported Sunday.
It came in response to human rights organizations tracking soldiers and filing legal cases against them for taking part in the ongoing war on the Palestinian enclave, according to Israel’s Haaretz newspaper
The report said the army’s warning was particularly directed at reservists, as active-duty personnel cannot travel abroad without prior approval.
It also noted that Israel is in contact with countries where complaints have been filed against its soldiers, attempting to prevent investigations that could lead to arrests.
Israeli media reported earlier that a soldier accused of committing war crimes in Gaza had fled Brazil, where authorities were pressing for an investigation into his actions.
The move stems from a complaint filed by the Hind Rajab Foundation (HRF), a Belgium-based organization advocating for justice for Palestinian victims, said the Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation (KAN).
According to Israel’s Channel 12, the complaint includes over 500 pages of evidence such as videos, geolocation data and open-source intelligence linking the soldier to the destruction in Gaza.
Despite a court order, the soldier, a reservist who was in Brazil as a tourist, managed to leave the country and is reportedly en route to Israel, KAN said. Details of how he evaded arrest remain unclear.
In a statement, HRF condemned the soldier’s escape, accusing Israel of orchestrating his departure to obstruct justice.
The organization said earlier that it had “verified information that Israel is imminently attempting to smuggle suspected Israeli war criminal Yuval Vagdani out of Brazil because of a Brazilian court order for police to take investigative measures against him.”
His escape follows similar incidents involving Israeli soldiers abroad.
Last month, a Palestinian advocacy group in Sri Lanka called for the arrest of an active-duty Israeli soldier spotted in the country, prompting his immediate evacuation by Israeli authorities, according to Channel 12.
The Israeli army has continued a genocidal war on Gaza that has killed more than 45,800 people, mostly women and children, since a cross-border attack by the Palestinian group Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023, despite a UN Security Council resolution calling for an immediate cease-fire.
In November, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.
Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its deadly war on the enclave.
Jimmy Carter, the former U.S. president and Nobel Peace Prize laureate, has died at the age of 100. Known for his dedication to international human rights, Carter continued his efforts long after leaving the White House.
The Carter Center confirmed his death in a post on X, stating, “Our founder, former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, passed away this afternoon in Plains, Georgia.”
Who was Jimmy Carter?
James Earl Carter Jr. (October 1, 1924 – December 29, 2024) was the 39th president of the United States, serving from 1977 to 1981.
A member of the Democratic Party, he was also the 76th governor of Georgia from 1971 to 1975 and a state senator from 1963 to 1967. Carter was the longest-living president in U.S. history, reaching the milestone of 100 years.
Born and raised in Plains, Georgia, Carter graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1946 and joined the Navy’s submarine service.
After his military career, he returned to run his family’s peanut farm. An advocate for civil rights, Carter supported desegregation and became active in the Democratic Party.
As a little-known candidate, he won the Democratic nomination and went on to narrowly defeat President Gerald Ford in the 1976 election.
Ex-President Carter Leaves Behind a Legacy of Human Rights
Jimmy Carter, the former U.S. president, passed away at the age of 100. He was survived by his children: John William (Jack), James Earl III (Chip), Donnel Jeffrey (Jeff), and Amy Lynn. His wife of 77 years, Rosalynn, died on November 19, 2023, at 96.
In recent years, Carter faced multiple health challenges. He broke his hip in 2019 and underwent surgery.
He had also been diagnosed with metastatic melanoma, which spread to his brain, but he later stopped treatment after a new therapy showed positive results.
In February 2023, the Carter Center announced that Carter would begin hospice care at home, with full support from his family and medical team.
Despite his frailty, Carter attended Rosalynn’s public memorial service on November 28, 2023.
He was in a wheelchair and did not speak, but his daughter, Amy, read a letter Carter had written to Rosalynn 75 years earlier while he was serving in the Navy.
Jimmy Carter: A Legacy of Peace, Diplomacy, and Human Rights
Jimmy Carter, the son of a Georgia peanut farmer, first emerged on the national political scene in 1976 with a toothy grin and a simple declaration: “My name is Jimmy Carter, and I’m running for president.”
Carter’s administration achieved several notable milestones, including the Camp David Accords in 1978, where he brokered a peace agreement between Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin and Egyptian President Anwar Sadat.
This led to the Egypt-Israel Peace Treaty the following year. Carter also focused on energy independence during his presidency, laying the groundwork for U.S. policy in that area.
In 2002, Carter was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his work through the Carter Center, making him the third U.S. president to receive the honor, after Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson.
The Nobel Committee recognized him for his decades of effort to find peaceful solutions to global conflicts, promote democracy and human rights, and advance economic and social development.
An Azerbaijan Airlines flight that crashed in Kazakhstan on Wednesday killing 38 people was downed by a Russian air defence system, four sources in Azerbaijan with knowledge of the investigation told Reuters.
Azerbaijan Airlines flight J2-8243 came down near the city of Aktau in Kazakhstan after diverting from an area of Russia in which Moscow has used air defence systems against Ukrainian drone strikes in recent months.
A drone view shows the crash site of an Azerbaijan Airlines passenger plane near the city of Aktau, Kazakhstan December 25, 2024. REUTERS/Azamat Sarsenbayev
The Embraer (EMBR3.SA) passenger jet had flown hundreds of miles off its scheduled route from Azerbaijan’s Baku to Grozny, in Russia’s southern Chechnya region. It crashed on the opposite shore of the Caspian Sea after what Russia’s aviation watchdog said was an emergency that may have been caused by a bird strike.
Officials did not explain why it had crossed the sea, but the crash happened after Ukrainian drone strikes this month hit Chechnya. The nearest Russian airport on the plane’s flight path was closed on Wednesday morning.
One of the Azerbaijani sources familiar with the Azerbaijani investigation into the crash told Reuters that preliminary results showed the plane was struck by a Russian Pantsir-S air defence system, and its communications were paralysed by electronic warfare systems on the approach into Grozny.
The source said: “No one claims that it was done on purpose. However, taking into account the established facts, Baku expects the Russian side to confess to the shooting down of the Azerbaijani aircraft.”
A map showing the path a passengers jet took from Azerbaijan to Russia, including a length stretch where the exact path was unknown before it crashed.
WRECKAGE
Videos of the crash site posted on social media and verified by Reuters showed what appeared to be shrapnel damage to the wreckage of the tail section of the plane.
Aviation security firm Osprey Flight Solutions said in an alert to airlines on Wednesday that footage of the wreckage and the circumstances around the air space in southwest Russia indicated the possibility that the airliner was hit by some form of anti-aircraft fire.
Russia’s Dagestan and Chechnya regions have been targeted by Ukrainian weaponised military drones this month, with Russian air defences activated in response, Osprey said.
Earlier on Wednesday, the Russian defence ministry had reported the downing of 59 Ukrainian drones over several regions, it said.
Some were reportedly downed in closed air space over regions bordering Ukraine, including the Sea of Azov. Flight operations were reportedly temporarily suspended at Russia’s Kazan Airport due to the activity.
In addition, publicly available ADS-B flight tracking data shows that the aircraft experienced GPS jamming throughout its flight over southwest Russia, the alert said.
In Brussels, NATO called for a full investigation into the cause of the crash.
“Our thoughts and prayers are with the families and victims of Azerbaijan Airlines flight J28243,” NATO spokesperson Farah Dakhlallah said on X.
“We wish those injured in the crash a speedy recovery and call for a full investigation.”
Kazakhstan’s senate chairman said earlier on Thursday that the cause of the plane crash was still unknown.
In a shocking incident at a local Christmas market, Taleb al Abdulmohsen, a 50-year-old Saudi-born psychiatrist, drove a car into a crowd, resulting in the deaths of two individuals, including a child, and injuring up to 80 others. Al Abdulmohsen, who has lived in Germany since 2006 after being granted asylum, was known for his vocal criticism of Islam, support for Israel, and affiliation with far-right ideologies.
Al Abdulmohsen had previously established “wearesaudi.net,” a site aiding ex-Muslims, particularly women, escaping from Gulf countries. Despite his humanitarian efforts, he was wanted by Saudi authorities for terrorism and human trafficking, charges Germany refused to extradite him for, citing human rights concerns. His online presence included threats against Germans and anti-Islam rhetoric.
On his website, he warned prospective refugees to eschew Germany due to what he perceived as the government’s tolerance of radical Islam.
The man also posted pro-Israel content in the wake of the Oct. 7 terror attack and was a supporter of Germany’s rightwing anti-immigration party AfD, the newspaper reported.
In social media posts days before the attack, the suspect criticized the German government, claiming it was promoting the European nation’s Islamization, and also alleged authorities were censoring him because of his views.
This attack has ignited debates on Germany’s asylum and security policies, with many questioning the vetting processes and the integration of refugees into society. The incident occurred amidst a backdrop of increasing far-right sentiments in Germany, highlighted by Al Abdulmohsen’s alleged support for the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party.
A Saudi source told Reuters the kingdom had warned German authorities about the attacker, who the source said had posted extremist views on his personal X account.
The source identified the suspect as Taleb Abdul Jawad. Germany’s Der Spiegel identified the attacker as Taleb A., a specialist in psychiatry and psychotherapy who sympathised with Germany’s far-right Alternative for Germany party. The magazine did not say where it got the information.
Saudi Arabia’s foreign ministry condemned the attack.
Authorities have arrested Al Abdulmohsen, and investigations are ongoing to understand the full motive behind the attack. This tragedy has left the community in mourning and has prompted a reevaluation of public safety measures during festive events.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who sent his thoughts to those affected in a post on social media platform X, is expected to visit the scene on Saturday with Interior Minister Nancy Faeser.
As news of the attack broke, Elon Musk, the billionaire allied with U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, criticised Scholz and called on him to resign.
A video posted on social media from a position above the market shows a car driving at speed through a crowd walking between two rows of market stalls. People can be seen knocked to the ground and running away. Reuters was able to verify the location, with the trees, outline and design of the buildings matching file and satellite imagery of the area.
Footage from a local broadcaster showed people wrapped in blankets on the ground receiving care in the wake of the attack.
Bild newspaper quoted a witness identified only as Nadine saying she had been walking arm-in-arm with her boyfriend, Marco, when the car came hurtling towards them.
“He was hit and ripped away from my side,” Bild cited her as saying, adding that he had been injured on his leg and head and taken to hospital but she did not know where to find him.
“The uncertainty is unbearable,” she told Bild.
Late last month, Faeser advised people to be vigilant at Christmas markets, which have been a particular focus of security services as a potential target for extremist attacks.
The attack comes one day after the anniversary of the 2016 Berlin Christmas market attack that killed 12 people and injured 56 in the deadliest terror attack in German history.
The older brother of Paul Pogba, former Manchester United midfielder, has been sentenced to a three year jail term, two years suspended, after being convicted of attempting to extort the French footballer.
Mathias Pogba, who was also fined €20,000 (£16,500), will avoid time behind bars and instead serve one year wearing an electronic bracelet.
Five other men were found guilty of extortion and other crimes, and received sentences between four and eight years in a Paris court on Thursday.
Paul Pogba, 31, said he had been “tricked by childhood friends” who held him at gunpoint in 2022 and demanded €13m (£10.8m). He said he paid them €100,000 (£82,600).
Mathias Pogba’s lawyer Mbeko Tabula told RMC Sport the sentencing was “extremely harsh” and said “I think we will appeal”.
The other five defendants were handed the following sentences: Roushdane K received eight years, Boubacar C four years, two suspended, Adama C five years, Mamadou M five years, 12 months suspended, and Machikour K four years, three suspended.
Last year, Paul Pogba told Al Jazeera that he had considered retiring from football because of the extortion attempt.
“When there is money you have to be careful,” he said. “Money changes people. It can break up a family. It can create a war”.
Former professional footballer Mathias Pogba played for clubs including Partick Thistle, Wrexham, Crewe Alexandra and Crawley Town. His last club was Belfort in France, leaving them in 2022.
The first episode of MrBeast’s highly-anticipated game show, “Beast Games”, is now available for streaming on Prime Video.
YouTube creator James Donaldson, more popularly known as MrBeast, is the host of the new competition series that he claims has the largest cash prize in game show history. Per the show’s description, 1,000 contestants will fight through 10 episodes in physical and mental challenges for prizes include that $5 million, a private island and Lamborghinis. New episodes will premiere weekly through mid-February.
“Beast Games” has made headlines in recent months as several contestants have sued Donaldson and Amazon for workplace abuse, citing unsafe conditions, harassment and denial of necessities, like food and sleep.
Set up.
Here’s what to know about “Beast Games.”
What happens in ‘Beast Games’?
Per the “Beast Games” description on Prime Video, the show begins with 1,000 contestants fighting for the final $5 million cash prize. Over the course of 10 episodes, the contestants are narrowed down through a variety of physical and mental challenges.
“Beast Games” is a combination of Netflix’s “Squid Game,” NBC’s defunct “Fear Factor” and CBS’ long-running series “Survivor.” By the second episode, also now available for streaming, the number of contestants narrows to 500.
How to watch ‘Beast Games’
“Beast Games” is only available for streaming on Prime Video. The first two episodes released Thursday and a new episode will be released every Thursday at noon EST through Feb. 13.
The series features 10 episodes, and each episode hovers around 40 minutes long.
Do you need an Amazon Prime subscription to watch ‘Beast Games’?
Yes, viewers must have an Amazon Prime subscription to watch “Beast Games.” Amazon offers several different subscription plans:
Amazon Prime: $14.99 per month or $139 per year
Amazon Video only: $8.99 per month
Amazon Prime Student: $7.49 per month or $69 per year
Can you watch ‘Beast Games’ on YouTube?
No. MrBeast may be known for his YouTube videos, but “Beast Games” is only available for streaming on Prime Video.
Ahead of ‘Beast Games’ release, contestants sue MrBeast, Amazon
Five contestants sued MrBeast and Amazon in September for workplace abuse, including denial of pay, unsafe conditions and “a culture of misogyny and sexism.”
Per the class action lawsuit, contestants said there were various times when they were deprived of food, sleep and proper medical care. The lawsuit claims that multiple contestants also suffered physical injuries or were hospitalized during production. The lawsuit also alleges that women were subjected to “severe embarrassment” on set and contestants were not subjected to a background check before production.
The lawsuit claims that “Beast Games” contestants were required to enter “illegal contracts” that misclassified them as volunteers in order for the show to qualify for tax breaks while filming in Las Vegas.
New York Times released a report in August that detailed similar claims of unsafe conditions faced by “Beast Games” contestants. A MrBeast spokesperson told the New York Times that the show was “unfortunately complicated by the CrowdStrike incident, extreme weather and other unexpected logistical and communications issues.”
Who is MrBeast?
Donaldson, 26, is a YouTube content creator who first gained popularity in 2017 when he posted a video counting to 100,000 in 40 hours. He is known for his fast-paced videos in which he hosts larger-than-life competitions and giveaways.
In his most popular video to date, released in 2021, Donaldson hosts his own version of “Squid Game,” the Netflix television series. In the video, Donaldson pits 456 contestants against each other for a $456,000 cash prize. Unlike the Netflix series, no one actually dies in Donaldson’s video. As of Thursday, the video had more than 678 million views.
A judge in Rio de Janeiro has ordered the global removal of a 2015 song by British singer Adele due to a plagiarism claim by a Brazilian musician, which Universal Music is fighting on appeal.
The ruling, made public on Monday, came in a case filed this year by Toninho Geraes, whose compositions were made famous by some of Brazil’s most acclaimed samba singers.
Geraes accused Adele of copying his song “Mulheres”, a national hit since the 1990s. His lawyers uploaded to YouTube a comparison of that song and Adele’s “Million Years Ago”.
“The ruling shows that the Brazilian justice system is strong and that injuries to Brazilian artists won’t be ignored,” said Fredimio Biasotto Trotta, a lawyer for Geraes.
The decision orders Sony Music Entertainment and Universal Music to immediately cease “using, reproducing, editing, distributing, or commercializing” the song by any means on streaming or sharing platforms, without Geraes’ consent. It set a fine of Sh1056218.67 ($8,080.94) if the companies fail to comply with the order.
The Berne Convention, an international treaty, orders other signatory countries, including the U.S., to comply with legal decisions regarding copyright, Trotta said.
Geraes’ lawyers are now notifying streaming services, such as Spotify and Deezer, to withdraw the song in Brazil and globally. On Wednesday morning, the song was still widely available.
Universal appealed the decision on Tuesday, arguing there was no plagiarism, only an “accidental melodic similarity” due to the use of “musical clichés.”
Both Adele and Geraes have contracts with Universal, but the Brazilian musician has been trying to terminate his contract with the company due to his plagiarism claim, his lawyer said.
“I felt very disrespected,” Geraes told Reuters. He is asking the courts for compensation of more than $150,000 (Sh19.6 million).
Lawyers representing Universal Music declined to comment, and Sony Music did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
Geraes learned of the similarities between the two songs after a friend, who is also a composer, heard Adele’s “Million Years Ago” at a party in 2021.
(Reuters) – Bashar al-Assad confided in almost no one about his plans to flee Syria as his reign collapsed. Instead, aides, officials and even relatives were deceived or kept in the dark, more than a dozen people with knowledge of the events told Reuters.
Hours before he escaped for Moscow, Assad assured a meeting of about 30 army and security chiefs at the defence ministry on Saturday that Russian military support was on its way and urged ground forces to hold out, according to a commander who was present and requested anonymity to speak about the briefing.
Civilian staff were none the wiser, too.
Assad told his presidential office manager on Saturday when he finished work he was going home but instead headed to the airport, according to an aide in his inner circle.
He also called his media adviser, Buthaina Shaaban, and asked her to come to his home to write him a speech, the aide said. She arrived to find no one was there.
“Assad didn’t even make a last stand. He didn’t even rally his own troops,” said Nadim Houri, executive director of the Arab Reform Initiative regional think-tank. “He let his supporters face their own fate.”
Reuters was unable to contact Assad in Moscow, where he has been granted political asylum. Interviews with 14 people familiar with his final days and hours in power paint a picture of a leader casting around for outside help to extend his 24-year rule before leaning on deception and stealth to plot his exit from Syria in the early hours of Sunday.
Most of the sources, who include aides in the former president’s inner circle, regional diplomats and security sources and senior Iranian officials, asked for their names to be withheld to freely discuss sensitive matters.
Assad didn’t even inform his younger brother, Maher, commander of the Army’s elite 4th Armoured Division, about his exit plan, according to three aides. Maher flew a helicopter to Iraq and then to Russia, one of the people said.
Assad’s maternal cousins, Ehab and Eyad Makhlouf, were similarly left behind as Damascus fell to the rebels, according to a Syrian aide and Lebanese security official. The pair tried to flee by car to Lebanon but were ambushed on the way by rebels who shot Ehab dead and wounded Eyad, they said. There was no official confirmation of the death and Reuters was unable to independently verify the incident.
Assad himself fled Damascus by plane on Sunday, Dec. 8, flying under the radar with the aircraft’s transponder switched off, two regional diplomats said, escaping the clutches of rebels storming the capital. The dramatic exit ended his 24 years of rule and his family’s half a century of unbroken power, and brought the 13-year civil war to an abrupt halt.
He flew to Russia’s Hmeimim airbase in the Syrian coastal city of Latakia, and from there on to Moscow.
Assad’s immediate family, wife Asma and their three children, were already waiting for him in the Russian capital, according to three former close aides and a senior regional official.
Videos of Assad’s home, taken by rebels and citizens who thronged the presidential complex following his flight and posted on social media, suggest he made a hasty exit, showing cooked food left on the stove and several personal belongings left behind, such as family photo albums.
RUSSIA AND IRAN: NO MILITARY RESCUE
There would be no military rescue from Russia, whose intervention in 2015 had helped turn the tide of the civil war in favour of Assad, or from his other staunch ally Iran.
This had been made clear to the Syrian leader in the days leading up to his exit, when he sought aid from various quarters in a desperate race to cling to power and secure his safety, according to the people interviewed by Reuters.
Assad visited Moscow on Nov. 28, a day after Syrian rebel forces attacked the northern province of Aleppo and lightning drive across the country, but his pleas for military intervention fell on deaf ears in the Kremlin which was unwilling to intervene, three regional diplomats said.
Hadi al-Bahra, the head of Syria’s main opposition abroad, said that Assad didn’t convey the reality of the situation to aides back home, citing a source within Assad’s close circle and a regional official.
“He told his commanders and associates after his Moscow trip that military support was coming,” Bahra added. “He was lying to them. The message he received from Moscow was negative.”
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Wednesday that Russia had spent a lot of effort in helping stabilise Syria in the past but its priority now was the conflict in Ukraine.
Four days after that trip, on Dec. 2, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi met with Assad in Damascus. By that time, the rebels from the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) Islamist group had taken control of Syria’s second-largest city Aleppo and were sweeping southwards as government forces crumbled.
Assad was visibly distressed during the meeting, and conceded that his army was too weakened to mount an effective resistance, a senior Iranian diplomat told Reuters.
Assad never requested that Tehran deploy forces in Syria though, according to two senior Iranian officials who said he understood that Israel could use any such intervention as a reason to target Iranian forces in Syria or even Iran itself.
The Kremlin and Russian foreign ministry declined to comment for this article, while the Iranian foreign ministry was not immediately available to comment.
ASSAD CONFRONTS OWN DOWNFALL
After exhausting his options, Assad finally accepted the inevitability of his downfall and resolved to leave the country, ending his family’s dynastic rule which dates back to 1971.
Three members of Assad’s inner circle said he initially wanted to seek refuge in the United Arab Emirates, as rebels seized Aleppo and Homs and were advancing towards Damascus.
They said he was rebuffed by the Emiratis who feared an international backlash for harbouring a figure subject to U.S. and European sanctions for allegedly using chemical weapons in a crackdown on insurgents, accusations that Assad has rejected as a fabrication.
The UAE government didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Yet Moscow, while unwilling to intervene militarily, was not prepared to abandon Assad, according to a Russian diplomatic source who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, attending the Doha forum in Qatar on Saturday and Sunday, spearheaded the diplomatic effort to secure the safety of Assad, engaging Turkey and Qatar to leverage their connections to HTS to secure Assad’s safe exit to Russia, two regional officials said.
One Western security source said that Lavrov did “whatever he could” to secure Assad’s safe departure.
Qatar and Turkey made arrangements with HTS to facilitate Assad’s exit, three of the sources said, despite official claim by both countries that they had no contacts with HTS, which is designated by the U.S. and the U.N. as a terrorist organisation.
Moscow also coordinated with neighbouring states to ensure that a Russian plane leaving Syrian airspace with Assad on board would not be intercepted or targeted, three of the sources said.
Qatar’s foreign ministry didn’t immediately respond to queries about Assad’s exit, while Reuters was unable to reach HTS for comment. A Turkish government official said there was no Russian request to use Turkish airspace for Assad’s flight, though didn’t address whether Ankara worked with HTS to facilitate the escape.
Assad’s last prime minister, Mohammed Jalali, said he spoke to his then-president on the phone on Saturday night at 10.30 pm.
“In our last call, I told him how difficult the situation was and that there was huge displacement (of people) from Homs toward Latakia … that there was panic and horror in the streets,” he told Saudi-owned Al Arabiya TV this week.
“He replied: ‘Tomorrow, we will see’,” Jalali added. “‘Tomorrow, tomorrow’, was the last thing he told me.”
Jalali said he tried to call Assad again as dawn broke on Sunday, but there was no response.
Former U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi was injured on a trip to Luxembourg and has been admitted to a hospital for evaluation, her office said in a statement on Friday.
Pelosi, 84, was the first woman to serve as speaker of the House and had also been a longtime leader of the House Democratic Caucus.
“While traveling with a bipartisan Congressional delegation in Luxembourg to mark the 80th anniversary of the Battle of the Bulge, Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi sustained an injury during an official engagement and was admitted to the hospital for evaluation,” Pelosi spokesperson Ian Krager said in a statement.
“Speaker Emerita Pelosi is currently receiving excellent treatment from doctors and medical professionals. She continues to work,” he added, but did not say what caused Pelosi’s injury.
She is the second senior member of Congress to suffer an injury this week. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, 82, sustained minor injuries after falling in the Capitol.
Like Pelosi, McConnell did not seek another stint as leader in party elections that were held following November’s elections. He will be succeeded when the new Congress is sworn in on Jan. 3 by 63-year-old South Dakota Senator Jon Thune.
For several years now, aging party leaders in the House and Senate have been under pressure to open the way for a new generation of younger office-holders.
The San Francisco congresswoman stepped down from her role as speaker — a powerful position second in line to the presidency after the vice president — in 2023, when Republicans took majority control of the House and the speaker’s job.
She was reelected on Nov. 5 to a 20th consecutive two-year term with 81% of the vote.
Pelosi played a key role in passing Democratic President Joe Biden’s sweeping $1 trillion infrastructure bill in 2022 and famously feuded with Republican Donald Trump during his first four years in office, culminating with the moment when she tore up his State of the Union speech on national television in 2020.
Pelosi has been a prominent figure in the U.S. capital over a tenure spanning seven presidential administrations. She first served as House speaker from 2007 to 2011, then regained the job in 2019 after her party took back control of the chamber in the 2018 midterm elections.
Democrats lost their House majority in 2022, and Republicans will again hold a narrow majority next year, when President-elect Trump returns to the White House.
President Emmanuel Macron has named centrist leader François Bayrou as France’s next prime minister, in a bid to end months of political turmoil.
A Macron ally, Bayrou is a mayor from the southwest and leads the MoDem party. Ahead of the announcement, the two men spent almost two hours in talks described as tense by French media.
The president’s task is now to ensure Bayrou lasts longer than his predecessor. Ex-Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier lasted just three months and was ousted by MPs nine days ago.
Macron is half-way through his second term as president and Bayrou will be his fourth prime minister this year.
French politics has been deadlocked ever since Macron called snap parliamentary elections during the summer and an opinion poll for BFMTV on Thursday suggested 61% of French voters were worried by the political situation.
Far-left France Unbowed leader Manuel Bompard has complained of a “pathetic spectacle”.
President Macron has vowed to remain in office until his second term ends in 2027, despite Barnier’s downfall last week.
He cut short a trip to Poland on Thursday and had been expected to name his new prime minister on Thursday night, but postponed his announcement until Friday.
He then met Bayrou, 73, at the Elysée Palace and a final decision was made hours later.
Bayrou was set to move into the prime minister’s residence at Hôtel Matignon almost immediately, and a red carpet was rolled out for the transfer of power even before his name was confirmed.
His challenge will be in forming a government that will not be brought down the way his predecessor’s was in the National Assembly.
Macron has already held round-table talks with leaders from all the main political parties, bar the far-left France Unbowed (LFI) of Jean-Luc Mélenchon and far-right National Rally of Marine Le Pen.
The question will be whether parties from the centre left can be persuaded to join Bayrou’s government, or at least agree a pact so they do not oust him. Barnier lasted only three months in the job and LFI MPs have already indicated they would propose another vote of no confidence.
Barnier was voted out when Le Pen’s National Rally joined left-wing MPs in rejecting his plans for €60bn (£50bn) in tax rises and spending cuts. He was seeking to cut France’s budget deficit, which is set to hit 6.1% of economic output (GDP) this year.
Under the political system of France’s Fifth Republic, the president is elected for five years and then appoints a prime minister whose choice of cabinet is then appointed by the president.
Unusually, President Macron called snap elections for parliament over the summer after poor results in the EU elections in June. The outcome left France in political stalemate, with three large political blocs made up of the left, centre and far right.
Eventually he chose Barnier to form a minority government reliant on Marine Le Pen’s National Rally for its survival. Macron is now hoping to restore stability without depending on her party.
Marine Le Pen withdrew her support for the previous government, backing a left-sponsored vote of no confidence
Three centre-left parties – the Socialists, Greens and Communists – have broken ranks with the more radical left LFI and have taken part in talks on forming a new government.
However, they have made clear they want to see a leftist prime minister of their choice if they are going to join a broad-based government.
“I told you I wanted someone from the left and the Greens and I think Mr Bayrou isn’t one or the other,” Greens leader Marine Tondelier told French TV on Thursday, adding that she did not see how the centrist camp that lost parliamentary elections could hold the post of prime minister and maintain the same policies.
Carole Delga, a Socialist leader from southern France, said the French people had become exasperated by the situation, which she likened to a bad movie.
Sébastien Chenu, a National Rally MP, said for his party it was less about who Macron picked than the “political line” he chose. If Bayrou wanted to tackle immigration and the cost of living crisis then he would “find an ally in us”.
Relations between the centre left and the radical LFI of Jean-Luc Mélenchon appear to have broken down over the three parties’ decision to pursue talks with President Macron.
After the LFI leader called on his former allies to steer clear of a coalition deal, Olivier Faure of the Socialists told French TV that “the more Mélenchon shouts the less he’s heard”.
Meanwhile, Marine Le Pen has called for her party’s policies on the cost of living to be taken into account by the incoming government, by building a budget that “doesn’t cross each party’s red lines”.
Michel Barnier’s caretaker government has put forward a bill to enable the provisions of the 2024 budget to continue into next year. But a replacement budget for 2025 will have to be approved once the next government takes office.
Time Magazine has named Donald Trump as its person of the year for the second time – he previously won the honour after winning the presidential election in 2016.
In his letter to readers, Time Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs credited Trump with “marshalling a comeback of historic proportions” and “driving a once-in-a-generation political realignment” that reshaped the American presidency and altered the US’s role in the world.
The Republican president-elect rang the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange on Thursday to mark the honour alongside several of his family members and chants of “U-S-A”.
In an interview with Time magazine, Trump reiterated some of his plans for his second term.
He pledged to look “case-by-case” at the convictions of his supporters who rioted at the US Capitol in January 2021, having previously pledged to issue pardons.
In further comments before ringing the stock exchange opening bell, he promised “an economy the likes of which nobody’s ever seen before”, and he vowed to cut taxes “very substantially”.
Time magazine’s tradition – which started in 1927 as “Man of the Year” – recognises a person or movement that “for better or for worse… has done the most to influence the events of the year”.
Other previous winners include climate change activist Greta Thunberg, former President Barack Obama, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Pope Francis and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Time Magazine editors ultimately decide who wins the award.
The outlet was considering 10 people for the person of the year award, including Vice-President Kamala Harris, the Princess of Wales and Tesla CEO Elon Musk, now a close confidante of Trump set to lead an advisory board called the Department of Government Efficiency.
In a description of Trump on the short list, Time said he won the 2024 election “in a stunning political comeback”.
“He has reshaped the American electorate, activating young male voters who propelled him to a decisive victory that saw him win the popular vote for the first time and turn every swing state red,” the outlet said.
“His 2024 win is history-making in multiple ways: he will be the oldest President in U.S. history, and he was convicted earlier this year by a New York jury of 34 counts of fraud, making him the first convicted felon to be elected President.”
Trump sat for interviews with the magazine in April this year during the campaign season. He talked about his plans for a second term, including his goals of reforming the US immigration system and deporting millions of people.
Trump complained in 2015 when he was not chosen for the magazine cover during his first run for office, when the award went to former German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
But after he was named person of the year following his election win, he called it a “great honour”.
“It means a lot, especially me growing up reading Time magazine. And, you know, it’s a very important magazine,” he said at the time.
He has, however, continued to criticise the magazine’s choices since winning, including the selection of Taylor Swift as Time’s person of the year in 2023.
(Reuters) – Twenty-three-year-old Syrian military conscript Farhan al-Khouli was badly paid and demoralized. His army outpost in scrubland near the rebel-held city of Idlib should have had nine soldiers but it just had three, after some had bribed the commanding officers to escape serving, he said.
And, of the two conscripts with him, one was regarded by his superiors as mentally unfit and not trusted with a gun, Khouli said.
For years, the Islamist rebels of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) had sat behind the nearby frontline, with Syria’s long civil war frozen. But on Wednesday, Nov. 27, Khouli’s commanding officer – at another post behind the frontlines – called his mobile phone to tell him a rebel convoy was heading his way.
The officer said the unit should stand its ground and fight.
Instead, Khouli put his phone on airplane mode, changed into civilian clothes, dropped his rifle and fled. As he walked along the road back south, other groups of soldiers were abandoning their posts too.
“I looked back and saw everyone walking behind me. When they saw one person flee, everyone started to toss their weapons and run,” he told Reuters this week in Damascus, where he has found work at a horse stable.
In a little less than two weeks, the rebels would sweep into the capital Damascus, toppling former president Bashar al-Assad as his army simply melted away. The rout abruptly ended a 13-year conflict that had killed hundreds of thousands of people.
Reuters spoke to a dozen sources including two Syrian army deserters, three senior Syrian officers, two Iraqi militia commanders working with the Syrian army, a Syrian security source and a source familiar with the thinking of Lebanese group Hezbollah, one of Assad’s main military allies.
A rebel fighter outside Syria’s Air Force Intelligence Directorate on December 11, 2024. (Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Hassano)
The sources, along with intelligence documents Reuters found in an abandoned military office in the capital, painted a detailed picture of how Assad’s once-feared army had been hollowed out by the demoralization of troops, heavy reliance on foreign allies particularly for the command structure, and growing anger across the ranks at rampant corruption.
Most of the sources asked not to be named because they were not authorised to talk to media or feared retribution.
Since the war began in 2011, Assad’s army command had come to depend on allied Iranian and Iran-funded Lebanese and Iraqi forces to provide the best fighting units in Syria, all the senior sources said.
Crucially, much of the Syrian military’s operational command structure was run by Iranian military advisors and their militia allies, they said.
But many of the Iranian military advisers had left this spring after Israeli air strikes on Damascus, and the rest departed last week, said the Iraqi militia commanders, who worked alongside them.
Hezbollah fighters and commanders had already mostly left in October to focus on the escalating war in Lebanon with Israel, the source familiar with Hezbollah thinking said.
The Syrian army’s own central command and control centre no longer functioned well after the Iranian and Hezbollah officers left and the military lacked a defence strategy, particularly for Syria’s second city of Aleppo, a Syrian colonel, two Syrian security sources and a Lebanese security source familiar with the Syrian military said.
By contrast, rebels in the northwest, on paper numerically far weaker than the army, had spent years consolidating under a single operations room that coordinated their groups and units in battle, an International Crisis Group report said after the fall of Aleppo.
Reuters was unable to contact a current representative of the armed forces. Syria’s new most powerful figure, HTS chief Ahmad al-Sharaa told Reuters on Wednesday he would dissolve Syria’s security forces. Iran’s mission to the United Nations, the Iraqi militias and Hezbollah did not respond to requests for comment.
ALEPPO
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 or to fall back to the strategic city of Homs to try to regroup, two Syrian security sources said.
Aleppo fell without a major fight on Nov. 29, just two days after the offensive began, sending shockwaves through the military, three senior Syrian officers said.
What was left on the ground was a Syrian army severely lacking in cohesion, all the sources said, describing multiple units that were undermanned because officers were accepting bribes to let soldiers off duty, or had told soldiers to go home and were collecting their salaries themselves.
In 2020, the army had 130,000 personnel, according to think tank IISS’ Military Balance report, describing it as significantly depleted by the long civil war and transformed into an irregularly structured, militia-style organisation focused on internal security.
A member of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces walks near a military aircraft inside Qamishli airport on December 9, 2024 after Syrian rebels announced they had ousted Assad. (Photo: REUTERS/Orhan Qereman)
In the days ahead of the regime’s collapse on Sunday, the United States had information of broad levels of desertions and military forces changing sides, as well as some elements fleeing to Iraq, a U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said.
Reuters could not establish the overall manpower shortage in the military or current force strength.
The Syrian army sources described officers and troops alike as demoralised by pay that was consistently low even after painful military victories earlier in the war and by reports, which Reuters could not verify, that Assad’s close family were growing immensely rich.
On Nov. 28, the General Command of the Army and Armed Forces issued a telegram, ordering all troops to be on full combat readiness, according to a military document found by Reuters at an Air Intelligence office in Damascus.
In a sign the regime was desperate, Syria’s Air Intelligence Directorate, a key agency close to the Assad family, accused its men of “laxity” at checkpoints throughout the country after one was overrun by rebels in the south on Dec. 1, and warned of punishment “without leniency” if they did not fight, the document seen by Reuters shows.
Despite the orders and threats, increasing numbers of soldiers and officers began to desert, all the sources said.
Instead of confronting the rebels, or even unarmed protesters, soldiers were seen by residents of Syrian cities, and in many videos that began circulating online, abandoning their posts, changing into civilian clothes and going home.
Reuters journalists entering Syria on Sunday found army uniforms still strewn across Damascus streets.
OFFICERS
The corruption and poor morale went up through the ranks.
Many midranking officers had been growing increasingly angry in recent years that the army’s sacrifices and successes during the war were not reflected in better pay, conditions and resources, two serving, one recently retired and one defected officer said.
In 2020, Russia and Turkey agreed a deal that froze the frontlines after Assad retook all major cities and the main highway linking Damascus to Aleppo, further partitioning a country also split by Kurdish-controlled areas.
A man holds a representation of the Syrian opposition flag, as Syrian refugees celebrate, after Syrian rebels announced that they have ousted Syria’s Bashar al-Assad, in Bonn, Germany, December 8, 2024. (REUTERS)
But Syria’s economy continued to reel from U.S. sanctions and reduced foreign aid, said Aron Lund, a fellow at Middle East-focused think tank Century International. Rampant inflation ensued.
“Things just got worse for everyone, except for the oligarchs and elites around Assad. That seems to have been incredibly demoralizing,” Lund said.
While decrees in 2021 roughly doubled military salaries to keep up with inflation that topped 100% that year, buying power rapidly fell anyway as the Syrian pound crashed against the dollar.
Col. Makhlouf Makhlouf, who served in an engineering brigade, said that if anybody complained about corruption they were called in for questioning at a military court – something that had happened to him more than once.
“We were living in a scary society. We were afraid to say a word,” Makhlouf said. He had been stationed in Hama but deserted before the city fell to the rebels on Dec. 5, he said in an interview in Aleppo on Tuesday.
Anger had been building particularly over the past year or so, a serving senior military intelligence officer said, saying there was “growing resentment against Assad,” including among core high-ranking supporters from his Alawite minority community.
YEARS OF DECAY
Khouli’s military experience illustrated the army’s problems – and helps explain his lack of loyalty.
He was drafted for the obligatory 18-month service at age 19, after having paid-off an officer to delay his service for a year.
When his service period expired, he was ordered to remain in the army indefinitely. He deserted but was later picked up by a patrol, put in prison for 52 days and then sent to the remote outpost near Idlib.
He was paid 500,000 Syrian pounds ($40) a month. Army rations were often pillaged before arriving. Sometimes his entire pay went on buying more food, he said.
Comrades with money would pay officers $100, which he lacked, to get out of service, Khouli said. Khouli’s brigade was supposed to have 80 soldiers, but in fact there were only 60, he said.
He described bad treatment from officers, including being assigned heavy manual labour digging earth berms in both very hot and very cold weather and during nights.
Reuters was not able to verify independently the details of his experiences.
One former major described the use of forced conscripts as a “fatal mistake”.
A former army logistics serviceman, Zuhair, 28, said in an interview in Damascus on Tuesday he had seen officers steal and sell electricity generators and fuel. “All they cared about was using their positions to enrich themselves,” he said.
He had fought for Assad for years but he had cousins among the rebels and when they advanced, he cheered, he said. “I don’t know how to describe how happy I am,” he said.
RELIANCE ON ALLIES
To fight back the earlier opposition uprising, which began with protests in 2011, Assad relied on allies. Russia sent jets that bombed rebel positions, Iran sent military advisers and fighters from Hezbollah. Iran-backed militias from Iraq and another group it formed from Afghan Shi’ite fighters also came.
Rebels led by the Islamist militant group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham drive on a motorbike in al-Rashideen, Aleppo province, Syria on November 29, 2024. (Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Hasano)
Their fighting skill and well-being contrasted with Syria’s own soldiers. An Iraqi militia commander serving near Aleppo said he knew of a Syrian platoon meant to consist of 30 soldiers that had only eight present.
The militia often invited those soldiers to eat with them out of pity at the poor condition of their rations, the commander said.
Hezbollah and allied militias regarded the regular Syrian forces with little more than contempt, the Iraqi militia commanders and a source familiar with Hezbollah thinking said.
They did not trust them for important operations and often would not fight alongside them, those sources added.
OCT. 7 HAMAS ATTACKS
Iran’s presence in Syria was curtailed in the months following the attack on Israel by Tehran-backed Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023, the Iraqi militia commander based near Aleppo and an Iraqi military adviser based in Damascus said.
Israel’s response to Hamas’ incursion included escalating strikes on Iran-linked targets, including in Syria.
On April 1, a strike killed top commanders from Iran’s Revolutionary Guards at a building in an Iranian consular compound in Damascus. Israel has not confirmed or denied responsibility for the strike.
The Iraqi sources both said the number of Revolutionary Guards commanders present in Syria dropped significantly after that. One said Syria’s military operations command became ineffective as a result, a situation exacerbated by the withdrawal of Hezbollah in October.
Russia conducted air strikes on rebels as they advanced on Hama and Homs, both sides said at the time, but unlike in earlier phases of the war there were no effective ground forces able to benefit.
By Saturday, Dec. 7, Russia was calling for a political transition. The Kremlin and Russia foreign ministry declined to comment for this story. Russia, the Kremlin said on Tuesday, had “spent a lot of effort” to help Assad during the civil war but the situation had then deteriorated.
In Aleppo, Syrian forces had relied on Hezbollah to provide operational command, an Alawite Syrian army colonel said. Without Iranian advisers or Hezbollah, the army could not hold onto territory near the city, the colonel, the Iraqi commander and the Iraqi adviser said.
Iraqi militias sent more fighters to Syria last week, but they found all the contact channels to Iranian military advisors had been cut, the Iraqi commander said.
On Friday, after rebels had taken the city of Hama, the Iraqi groups were told to leave, he said.
“The battle for Syria was lost from day one,” the Iraqi military adviser added.
In a bold move that has captured the attention of social media, OnlyFans influencer Lily Phillips has set her sights on a new, ambitious goal. After already having engaged with 101 men in a single day, the 23-year-old now plans to attempt to sleep with 1,000 men within 24 hours, aiming to set a new world record by the end of January 2025.
In a recent interview with the UK’s Daily Mail, Phillips expressed her excitement rather than trepidation about the upcoming challenge. “I’m quite excited,” she stated, acknowledging the logistical complexities but emphasizing that the task isn’t daunting for her.
Phillips, who has become an internet sensation after her previous feat, announced her new goal via a TikTok video. “You might know me as the girl who’s been with 101 guys in a day,” she said. “Now, I’m currently in training to do 1,000 guys in a day.” She further mentioned an intermediate challenge, planning to “take on” 300 men on December 15, describing it as a “lightwork” in comparison to her ultimate target.
Despite the apparent thrill, the process has not been without its emotional toll. In a YouTube documentary by Josh Pieters released on December 7, Phillips admitted the physical and emotional intensity of her previous 101-man experience. “It’s not for the weak. If I’m honest, it was hard,” she confessed, adding that she wouldn’t recommend it to others due to the grueling nature of the act which felt more like a “routine” than intimate encounters. She described feeling “robotic” and even “disassociating” during the process, which she found to be far from normal sexual experiences.
Phillips shared insights into her preparation for these challenges, likening her approach to training for a marathon. “That was a little warm-up — to limber up for the big one,” she explained, mentioning her strategy of carb-loading with pasta the night before and ensuring personal hygiene with a good shower and a restful sleep.
The audacious plan by Phillips has sparked a range of reactions, from support within her fanbase to criticism and concern from others regarding the health implications and ethical considerations of such an endeavor. As she continues to push boundaries, her journey is set to be documented for her OnlyFans subscribers, promising another chapter in her controversial career.
Selena Gomez has revealed she is engaged to songwriter Benny Blanco.
The actress and singer posted a picture of a large engagement ring on Instagram, with the caption “forever begins now”.
It comes after the couple confirmed their relationship last year.
Pop star Taylor Swift was among the famous figures to offer congratulations.
Two-time Grammy-nominated Gomez posted further pictures of her beaming, wearing the ring, and one of Blanco embracing her in what appears to be a closet.
“Hey wait… that’s my wife,” Blanco commented on the post.
Swift replied: “Yes I will be the flower girl.”
Rapper Cardi B, actresses Gwyneth Paltrow, Jennifer Aniston and Suki Waterhouse, and singer Lil Nas X also sent well wishes.
In an Instagram Story shared with her 423 million followers, the most-followed woman on the app also revealed a video showing her ring to loved ones on the phone.
“Yes to this,” she can be heard saying, evoking screams on the other end of the video call.
Gomez and record producer Blanco had collaborated on songs I Can’t Get Enough in 2019 and Single Soon in 2023, before announcing their relationship.
Blanco, who has also worked with the likes of Rihanna, Calvin Harris and Justin Bieber, was effusive about his love on the Drew Barrymore Show back in May.
“She’s just like the best, most genuine person,” he said on the chat show.
“Everything is completely real. Everyday when I wake up, I, like, walk by the mirror as I’m, like, walking to her and I ask myself, ‘How did I get here’…
“She’s one of the sweetest, one of the most charming, one of the most humble people I’ve ever met.”
Come & Get It singer Gomez was previously in a high profile on-and-off relationship with fellow singer Justin Bieber. She also dated singer The Weeknd in 2017.
The Texas-born star rose to fame as a child actress on Barney and Disney Channel, before forging a career as a singer and in acting.
This year she joined the billionaire celebrity rich list, according to Bloomberg, amassing a $1.3bn (KSh. 168.5B) fortune – mainly deriving from her Rare Beauty make-up company.
On Monday, she received two Golden Globe nominations – one in the best supporting actress category for her role in the operatic musical ‘Emilia Pérez’ and the other for best actress in a TV series, musical or comedy, for her recurring role in ‘Only Murders in the Building’.
Swedish prosecutors on Thursday dropped a rape investigation that was launched in connection with soccer star Kylian Mbappé’s visit to Stockholm in October.
In a statement, lead investigator Marina Chirakova said there was not enough evidence to continue the investigation, which centered on an incident at a hotel.
“During the course of the investigation, there has been a designated person suspected on reasonable grounds of rape and two cases of sexual assault, but my assessment is that the evidence is not sufficient to proceed and the investigation is therefore closed,” Chirakova said. “The designated person has not been notified of suspicion of a crime.”
Prosecutors never publicly named the suspect in the investigation, but many Swedish media reported it was Real Madrid striker Mbappé, who visited Stockholm in October during a break in the Spanish league.
At the time Mbappé’s legal team dismissed those reports as false.
Mbappe’s lawyer Marie-Alix Canu-Bernard and the player’s representatives did not immediately respond to a request for comments on Thursday.
In an interview that aired Sunday on French TV station Canal Plus, Mbappé said he was “surprised” by the reports that he was the subject of a rape investigation and he had not been contacted by Swedish authorities.
“These are things that come into your life like that, you can’t see them coming,” Mbappé told Canal Plus. “It’s just incomprehension. I don’t think it weighed on me in the sense that I have never considered myself involved.”
The 25-year-old soccer star appeared in Stockholm on Oct. 10 during an international break instead of playing for France in the Nations League. Just days later Swedish media reported he was the subject of a rape investigation.
At the time Swedish prosecutors confirmed that a rape investigation began but declined to comment further.
