What to know about suspect’s arrest
US President Joe Biden on Sunday said deposed Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad should be "held accountable" but called the nation's political upheaval a "historic opportunity" for Syrians to rebuild their country. In the first full US reaction to Assad's overthrow by an Islamist-led coalition of rebel factions, Biden also warned that Washington will "remain vigilant" against the emergence of terrorist groups, announcing that US forces had just conducted fresh strikes against militants from the Islamic State organization. "The fall of the regime is a fundamental act of justice," Biden said, speaking from the White House. "It's a moment of historic opportunity for the long-suffering people of Syria." Asked by reporters what should happen to the deposed president, who reportedly has fled to Moscow, Biden said that "Assad should be held accountable." Biden -- set to step down in January and make way for Republican Donald Trump's return to power -- said Washington will assist Syrians in rebuilding. "We will engage with all Syrian groups, including within the process led by the United Nations, to establish a transition away from the Assad regime toward independent, sovereign" Syria "with a new constitution," he said. However, Biden cautioned that hardline Islamist groups within the victorious rebel alliance will be under scrutiny. "Some of the rebel groups that took down Assad have their own grim record of terrorism and human right abuses," Biden said. The United States had "taken note" of recent statements by rebels suggesting they had since moderated, he said, but cautioned: "We will assess not just their words, but their actions." Biden said Washington is "clear eyed" that the Islamic State extremist group, often known as ISIS, "will try to take advantage of any vacuum to reestablish" itself in Syria. "We will not let that happen," he said, adding that on Sunday alone, US forces had conducted strikes against ISIS inside Syria. The US military said the strikes were conducted by warplanes against Islamic State operatives and camps. Strikes were carried out against "over 75 targets using multiple US Air Force assets, including B-52s, F-15s, and A-10s," the US Central Command said on social media. Earlier, Biden met with his national security team at the White House to discuss the crisis. Assad's reported departure comes less than two weeks after the Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group challenged more than five decades of Assad family rule with a lightning rebel offensive that broke long-frozen frontlines in Syria's civil war. They announced Sunday they had taken the capital Damascus and that Assad had fled, prompting celebrations nationwide and a ransacking of Assad's luxurious home. A Kremlin source told Russian news agencies that the deposed leader was now in Moscow, along with his family. The US military has around 900 troops in Syria and 2,500 in Iraq as part of the international coalition established in 2014 to help combat the Islamic State jihadist group. It has regularly struck targets in the country including those linked to Iranian-backed militias. Tehran was a major backer of Assad's government. Biden also confirmed US authorities believe the American journalist Austin Tice, who was abducted in Syria in 2012, still lives. "We believe he's alive," Biden said, but the US has yet "to identify where he is." bur-sms/mlm
Colts, Broncos square off with significant playoff implications
Switzerland discloses $112m in frozen Syrian assetsAfter playoff chances slip away, Miami and Iowa State looking to regroup at Pop-Tarts BowlNone
APA Corporation Declares Cash Dividend on Common Shares
It is difficult to comprehend the cruelty inflicted on Sara Sharif . She was beaten, burned and tortured by the very people who were supposed to care for her. The ultimate responsibility for this act of evil will always rest with her father and stepmother. But the authorities face serious questions as to why they did not do more to protect Sara. The local council, social services and police were aware of concerns about her family but failed to rescue her from a living hell. It’s a depressingly familiar story. Sara joins Logan Mwangi , Star Hobson, Arthur Labinjo-Hughes and dozens of other children killed by their parents or step-parents. In all these cases warning signs were missed, concerns raised by relatives were ignored and the agencies failed to share vital information. And after all these cases the same words were uttered: “Never again.” For Sara’s sake it must be never again. Lessons must be learned and changes made. Never again should an innocent young child die in such inhumane, horrific circumstances. Sportswashed The custodians of the beautiful game have struck a dirty deal by awarding the 2034 men’s World Cup to Saudi Arabia. The country should have been barred from bidding for the honour on the grounds of its appalling human rights record. This is a country which muzzles the media, bans protests, authorises mass executions and treats women as second class citizens. Instead of taking a stand, Fifa fast-tracked the bidding process, turning what should have been an open contest into a coronation. It has colluded in the worst form of sportswashing – using football to divert attention from the Saudi regime’s tyrannical practices. Roads to ruin Drivers are being warned the roads could be busier than ever this Christmas. Anyone travelling should make sure they leave in good time. You wouldn’t want to be late for the traditional family argument.Report: Iowa CB Jermari Harris opts out of rest of season
Best Bets for NCAA Basketball Picks Against the Spread for Saturday, November 23Donald Trump will ring the New York Stock Exchange bell as he's named Time's Person of the Year
Hiring is underway for ’s coming administration as MAGA hopefuls have begun submitting their resumes to serve the president-elect. Aside from proving their technical qualifications, however, candidates allegedly must also to Trump in interviews with his most loyal acolytes. Several insiders including Charlie Kirk, have been tasked with screening prospective hires for senior posts inside the Pentagon and the intelligence agencies. Kirk, a right-wing activist, pro-MAGA podcaster and the founder of , is part of a personnel team led by Sergio Gor, who runs the publishing company for Trump’s books and ran a multimillion-dollar super PAC that supported the president-elect. Since the election, Kirk’s influence appears to be growing, having become one of an exclusive few from whom Trump seeks advice. In recent weeks, Kirk and fellow loyalists have met with applicants out of Trump transition headquarters in Palm Beach, Florida where sources say they grill candidates on their dedication and faithfulness to the president-elect, a report detailed. Nine people who either interviewed for jobs or were directly involved in the process spoke to about Trump’s hiring process. They say that applicants have first been asked questions about overhauling the , technologies that could improve intelligence agencies' efficiency, and their feeling about using the military to enforce immigration policy. Then, some candidates told the outlet, they were probed with a set of questions seemingly designed to suss out their loyalty to Trump. According to the report, interviewers asked who the applicants supported in the three most recent elections, what they thought about the events of Jan. 6, 2021, and if they believed the was stolen. Each of these questions, they said, appeared to only have one right answer. Applicants who claimed they criticized the violence at the Capitol on Jan. 6 or confirmed that President Joe Biden won in 2020 were met with silence. They say they were not hired. Loyalty questions, according to multiple sources close to the transition team, are par for the course for interviews related to jobs in several agencies. They say that the president-elect’s team looked into what candidates had said about Trump on the day of and in the days following the Capitol riot. While Karoline Leavitt, the incoming White House press secretary, declined to address specific questions about the job interviews when approached by , she said “President Trump will continue to appoint highly qualified men and women who have the talent, experience, and necessary skill sets to make America great again.”SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Google on Wednesday unleashed another wave of artificial intelligence designed to tackle more of the work and thinking done by humans as it tries to stay on the technology's cutting edge while also trying to fend off regulatory threats to its empire. The next generation of Google's AI is being packaged under the . Google is framing its release of Gemini 2.0 as a springboard for AI agents built to interpret images shown through a smartphone, perform a variety of tedious chores, remember the conversations consumers have with people, help video game players plot strategy and even tackle the task of doing online searches. In , Google CEO Sundar Pichai predicted the technology contained in Gemini 2.0 will “understand more about the world around you, think multiple steps ahead and take action on your behalf, with your supervision.” It's a similar goal being pursued by hard-charging rivals such as OpenAI, with its chatGPT technology, and industry powerhouse such as Microsoft with a variety of similar tools on its Windows software. A lot of Google's latest AI technology will initially be confined to test groups and subscribers who pay $20 per month for Gemini Advanced, but some features will be made available through its search engine and mobile apps. Google is planning wider releases next year that will include the technology popping up in its smorgasbord of free products, including its Chrome browser, digital maps and YouTube. Besides trying to outshine OpenAI and other ambitious startups, Google is also trying to stay a step ahead of Apple as that trendsetting company begins to blend AI into its latest iPhones and other devices. After releasing enabling the first bundle of the iPhone's “Apple Intelligence” features that spruced up the device's Siri assistant, another batch of the AI technology came out with a Google is pushing forward with its latest AI advances even as the U.S. Justice Department is the Mountain View, California, company to prevent further abusive practices by its dominant search engine, which was declared an illegal monopoly by a federal judge earlier this year as part of a landmark antitrust case. Among other things, Gemini 2.0 is supposed to improve the AI overviews that Google began highlighting in its search results over its traditional listing of the most pertinent links to websites in response to AI-powered “answer engines” such as Perplexity. After the AI overviews initially produced some goofy suggestions, including , Google refined the technology to minimize such missteps. Now, company executives are promising things are going to get even better with Gemini 2.0, which Pichai said will be able to engage in more human-like reasoning while solving more advanced math problems and even churn out some computer code. The improvements to AI Overviews will initially only appear to a test audience before a wider release next year. The technological upgrade is also supposed to infuse a still-experimental universal AI agent dubbed “Project Astra,” with even more smarts and versatility, enabling people to have more meaningful and helpful conversations with the technology. In a show of confidence, Google said it will expand the number of people testing Project Astra without providing any specifics of the group's size. As part of Gemini 2.0, Google is also going to begin testing an extension to Chrome called “Project Mariner,” which can be turned on to do online searches and sift through the results so people don't won't have to bother. If the U.S. Department of Justice gets its way, Google will be forced to sell or spin off Chrome as part of its punishment for deploying its search engine in ways that stifled competition and potential innovation. Google has ridiculed the Justice Department's proposal as “overly broad” and vowed to resist any attempt to break up the company during federal court hearings scheduled to begin in Washington D.C. next spring. Even if those proceedings culminate in a court order mandating a breakup, Google could still appeal in a process that could take years to resolve while it continues its AI expansion. “I can’t wait to see what this next era brings,” Pichai wrote in his blog post, signaling the company doesn't believe it will be deterred by regulators.