Beyond the Caesar files: A newly revealed trove of photos depicts 10,000 people who had died in Bashar al-Assad’s brutal prison system during his last decade in power. www.washingtonpost.com/world/intera...

Some personal news: I've been fired from the Washington Post in the aftermath of the Charlie Kirk shooting. Thread incoming. substack.com/@karenattiah...

Surrounded by ICE facilities in rural, remote Louisiana, an immigration lawyer tries to keep up with the churn of Trump’s deportation operation. New in @washingtonpost.com’s Deep Reads today: wapo.st/41W1NMa

@washingtonpost.com's @kareemf.bsky.social and Zakaria Zakaria on how the Shara' government's attempts to impose control nationwide through force actually risk breaking Syria apart: www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/0...

@washingtonpost.com's Ed Ram and @kareemf.bsky.social on the devastating impact of Western aid cuts to Syria at its moment of greatest need. www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/0...

For a long time, gulf countries saw “Iran as the biggest destabilizing force in the region,” and a threat they needed to counter. “That calculus has changed. The most destabilizing actor is Israel." www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/0...

“What is happening is more than just the ceasefire being violated,” Chaabane said. “It is the transformation of the south of Lebanon. … It has become a de facto security strip.” www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/0...

Sigh of the times: “I may emigrate,” says Gülsüme Oğuz, a clinical psychologist. “My usual white-collar clients can’t afford regular sessions anymore, and I can’t afford the rent.” www.ft.com/content/5999...

Rich People And Pundits Really Do Not Want Zohran Mamdani to Be Mayor Allies of former NY Governor Andrew Cuomo are breaking New York City spending limits trying to make him mayor. Mamdani is still closing the gap.

“We have been working for years to avert such a showdown, because we will be the ultimate victims,” said Bader Al-Saif from Kuwait University. "Those who assumed people in the Gulf were happy with the strikes against Iran should think twice. This is such an intertwined, interconnected region.”

New IPC assessment of hunger and famine risks in Gaza: ”The entire population is facing high levels of acute food insecurity, with half a million people (one in five) facing starvation.” www.ipcinfo.org/ipcinfo-webs...

Video obtained by @nytimes.com confirms the IDF fired on and killed clearly identified Red Crescent medics in Gaza. 15 were killed. Satellite pics analyzed by @ckoettl.bsky.social & @sanjanamv.bsky.social show the IDF then buried the medics andambulances. Story 👇 www.nytimes.com/2025/04/04/w...

US issues broad order to consulates to vet student visas over ‘terrorist activity’ by @jgedeon.bsky.social www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

Turkey detains journalists covering protests in house raids bianet.org/haber/turkey...

In the days after Assad’s fall, rescue workers began to receive calls about the trail of bodies that his loyalists had left in people’s homes. They had lived with them for years, scared they would be blamed for murder if they told the authorities. www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/0...

“They bombed again,” Isleem told him. 
“Who bombed?” the man asked. 
“Who do you think?” Isleem said. @leloveluck.bsky.social @cheesemanab.bsky.social @kareemf.bsky.social @washingtonpost.com www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/0...

“Our bookshop has made noise for them for many, many years. I know in my mind, they are trying to frighten us.” Israeli police raid storied Palestinian bookstore, seize books @cheesemanab.bsky.social www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/0...

🧵 A friend in Gaza told me “The first thing I will do after the ceasefire is go to my mother’s grave and share the news with her. I wish she were here with me in this moment.”

It's people who don't have much who are showing up for others. www.latimes.com/delos/story/...

“They said the sanctions were meant to hit the powerful, but look around here. Who is suffering the most?” www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/0... by @leloveluck.bsky.social, Zakaria Zakaria and Emin Özmen

A peer-reviewed study published in The Lancet estimates more than 64,000 deaths in Gaza due to traumatic injury between Oct. 7, 2023 and June 30, 2024 — a figure 41% higher than the Gaza Health Ministry’s official count. www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...

#Hezbollah-backed candidate Sleiman Frangieh says he is withdrawing from #Lebanon’s presidential race and will back army commander Gen. Joseph Aoun

A statement from the Washington Post Guild on today's unconscionable layoffs.

@washingtonpost.com's @kareemf.bsky.social and Zakaria Zakaria on fear among some Alawite Syrians, as reports circulate of killings and abductions and militants – not always identified clearly – target what they say are old regime "remnants": www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/0...

“Nobody chooses how he is born." Fear in Alawite communities amid hunt in Syria for regime felool, Zakaria Zakaria and Alice Martins www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/0...

These yearly roundups are always great, but everything put out by @turkeyrecap.bsky.social is worth reading if you're interested in Turkey—or in something that interests Turkey, like Syria. Really a quality newsletter!

Bear in mind that one of the three DEM representatives who met with Bahceli today is Ahmet Turk. Mardin's elected mayor, Turk was ousted in early November, upon the appointment of a government trustee. In his address to the party group the day after, Bahceli criticised the ousting of Turk +

On a chilly Friday in Damascus, a rally to support families of people detained and missing, and to demand “truth and justice.”

“He hadn’t shaved his white beard for five days, and when Rudaw asked about it, he just lit another cigarette without saying when he’d shave it.”

“We don’t just want to put up Christmas trees and not to be called minorities, we want all our rights.” www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/1... @mohamadelchamaa.bsky.social @salwangeorges.bsky.social

10 northern Gaza residents described widespread targeting of civilian neighborhoods by Israeli forces, dangerous mass evacuations where men and teenage boys were separated from women and children and the abuse and arbitrary detention of some trying to flee. www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/1...

Long read on the collapse of the Assad regime, based on interviews on every side. by @washingtonpost.com’s @mohamadelchamaa.bsky.social @leloveluck.bsky.social @kareemf.bsky.social @berileski.bsky.social @gregpmiller.bsky.social & Loveday Morris www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/1...

Major @hrw.org report: Israeli actions in Gaza are not mere negligence, but a calculated policy of deprivation leading to the deaths of thousands from dehydration and disease that is nothing short of the crime against humanity of extermination — and an act of genocide www.hrw.org/news/2024/12...

Read the first dispatch from myself and @justinsalhani.bsky.social from Syria. The torture and disappearance of Syrians under Assad was so extreme and gruesome that those who died may never turn up, while those who survived sometimes can't recall their own names. www.aljazeera.com/features/202...

“Tell them about the killings, tell them about the four bodies.” Revenge attacks in post-Assad Syria fuel fear and mistrust www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/1...

My latest: The unique destructiveness of Israel's war on Gaza www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/1...

"I have only my body left to secure his release." www.theguardian.com/world/2024/d...

Gentle reminder to journalists flooding into the Syrian capital Damascus for the first time in more than a decade (an undeniably riveting opportunity): Any documents you come across are the property of the Syrian people & crucial evidence. It’s not finders keepers.

Hayat Tahrir al-Sham said it has entered neighborhoods of the city of Hama. The Syrian army appeared to concede its loss of Hama saying that “military units stationed there have redeployed and repositioned outside the city” @kareemf.bsky.social & I report www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/1...

Anas al-Kharboutli, a talented 32-year old Syrian photojournalist, was killed Wednesday in a government airstrike, after a passing warplane he and colleagues were filming veered, then doubled back. www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/1...

"Everything will burn" — A year of videos posted by Israeli soldiers in Gaza show the destruction of neighborhoods, torching of homes and schools, and troops posing next to dead bodies while calling for the extermination and expulsion of Palestinians. www.washingtonpost.com/investigatio...

Syrian rebel fighters’ lightning advance was aided by better organization, the weakening of Bashar al-Assad’s military allies and, possibly, luck: Few expected the Syrian army to collapse as quickly as it did. www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/1... @leloveluck.bsky.social & @kareemf.bsky.social

Hayat Tahrir al-Sham's advance abruptly redrew the front lines of Syria’s civil war. Videos posted by HTS & confirmed by The Post appeared to show rebel fighters at an entrance & other locations on the western side of the city. @kareemf.bsky.social & I report www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/1...

Everyone is understandably focused on rebel advances inside Aleppo, but the countryside matters a lot as well. By seizing Hader, Saraqeb, M5 etc they fragment loyalist defenses, hold new areas at risk, and block reinforcements. www.enabbaladi.net/726359/%D9%8... www.enabbaladi.net/726355/%D9%8...

A furious Israeli military offensive against Hezbollah dealt Lebanon death and destruction and, after a ceasefire early Wednesday, left something else: a vacuum of authority, with the country’s future hanging on how it would be filled. by @kareemf.bsky.social www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/1...

Lebanon’s Ministry of Public Health releases latest casualty figures of the war: Almost 4,000 people killed, more than 16,500 wounded. On Tuesday, the day before the fragile ceasefire came into effect, 78 people were killed. #lebanon

The #Beirut skyline at the moment following multiple Israeli airstrikes #lebanon

Smoke and devastation after an Israeli strike hit a residential building in central Beirut early this morning, damaging buildings and houses all around. At least 11 people dead, relatives awaiting news of many more.

“The readiness of Lebanon’s army is a matter of growing urgency as the Biden administration makes a new push for an end to the war between Israel and Hezbollah." @kareemf.bsky.social Suzan Haidamous and I report for @washingtonpost.com with photos by Ed Ram www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/1...

“The court is essentially finding on a preliminary basis that these were not just military operations gone awry, or the unfortunate consequences of urban warfare, but these were attacks against a civilian population,” said @adhaque.bsky.social. www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/1...