For the wife, Zhao Yaliang, the pictures are visual love letters from her husband, the imprisoned artist Gao Zhen.
Mr. Gao is in a Chinese detention center, awaiting trial and almost certain conviction on charges that he broke a law against slandering the country’s heroes and martyrs, according to Ms. Zhao. He is being prosecuted for irreverent sculptures of the revolutionary leader Mao Zedong that he made more than 15 years ago, before the law even existed.
Mr. Gao, 69, is part of a generation of avant-garde Chinese artists that achieved international fame in the 2000s. While he later emigrated to the United States, Mr. Gao was detained in August 2024 at his studio on the outskirts of Beijing when he and his family visited China.
The authorities have since blocked Ms. Zhao, a writer and photographer, from leaving the country. She and their son, who is a U.S. citizen, have been stuck in China for over a year. The State Department said in a statement that the United States was “deeply concerned” about Mr. Gao’s arrest and the restrictions placed on Ms. Zhao. “We strongly oppose any exit ban that prevents a U.S. citizen child from departing China,” it said.
Speaking by video chat, Ms. Zhao, 47, says that while in detention, her husband wrote letters and made some 80 of these hand-torn pictures — a version of the traditional folk art of Chinese paper cutting, or jianzhi.
The poem reads: ‘The waning moon shines at midnight, the moment I wake from a dream of longing. The pain of our parting has yet to heal. Tears fall lamenting the late return.”
“He’s telling me to take better care of myself and our son,” she said, pointing to an image of a woman with two streaks running down her face — a portrait of herself weeping.
Yaliang Zhao wiping her eyes after describing the meaning of the poem that husband Gao Zhen has written for her earlier this year, at their home in Beijing, China, in October.
Mr. Gao faces up to three years in prison for acts that “damage the reputation” of Chinese heroes and martyrs.
His arrest under that law, which was passed in 2018, is testimony to how much the space for expression has shrunk in China. In the early 2000s, he and his younger brother Gao Qiang held secret exhibitions in Beijing and got away with taking on taboo topics like the 1966-76 decade of political turmoil known as the Cultural Revolution, which resulted in the death of their father, and the 1989 Tiananmen Massacre. Known as the Gao brothers, the duo were seen as cultural ambassadors to the West, representing a China that was more willing to face its past.
In today’s China, that kind of reckoning has become nearly impossible, as the leader Xi Jinping has overseen a crackdown on the questioning of official narratives. The law against slandering martyrs and heroes has also been used to punish journalists, stand-up comedians and regular citizens making comments online.
Mr. Gao was arrested for three provocative sculptures of Mao Zedong that he made with his brother. In one, the revolutionary is depicted with breasts and a Pinocchio nose; in another, a group of Chairman Maos with guns prepare to execute Jesus Christ. The third, called “Mao’s Guilt,” portrays the former leader, who was responsible for years of famine and upheaval, kneeling in repentance.
“Mao’s Guilt”, a sculpture by Gao brothers, Gao Zhen, left, and Gao Qiang, in Beijing, China, in 2009.Shiho Fukada for The New York Times
“Execution of Christ” by the Gao brothers, in Beijing, in 2009.Shiho Fukada for The New York Times
“Miss Mao” by Gao brothers, in Beijing, in 2009.Shiho Fukada for The New York Times
“Mao Zedong has been dead for nearly half a century, yet his ghost still haunts China, harming Chinese people,” said Mr. Gao’s brother, who also emigrated to New York. He said the Chinese authorities had arrested Mr. Gao merely for doing his job as an artist.
“This humiliation,” the brother said, “torments me every day.”
The trigger for Mr. Gao’s detention may not have been his art but his decision to move to the United States. He and his family relocated from Beijing to New York in 2022, joining his brother and other government critics who have been driven away by Mr. Xi’s crackdown and severe pandemic-era controls.
When his mother-in-law became ill last year, his wife decided to return for a visit. Mr. Gao insisted on joining her and their son, even though friends warned it could be dangerous. He wanted to revive their work studio and argued he was not important enough for the police to bother with. As a permanent U.S. resident Mr. Gao had traveled back and forth between China and the United States without issue for the last decade.
But on the morning of Aug. 26, almost three months after he had returned to China, more than 30 police stormed Mr. Gao’s art studio in Sanhe City in Hebei Province, near Beijing. Four of the officers grabbed Ms. Zhao, forcing her and their son into the kitchen. She tried to comfort their son as they watched officers pin her husband to a couch and handcuff him.
“Now with him being taken away, I realize that we were always living on the edge of a cliff,” Ms. Zhao said.
Yaliang Zhao and her son looking towards the art studio of Gao Zhen from their home in Beijing, in October.
Yaliang Zhao and her son looking at images of their life in the USA at their home in Beijing, in October.
Victoria Zhang, a friend of the Gao brothers and president of Kunlun Press and the Borderless Culture and Art Center in New York, believes the Chinese authorities want to make an example of Mr. Gao to silence others who have moved overseas.
“Don’t assume that just because you’ve fled abroad, the Chinese Communist Party can’t touch you. The moment you return home they will punish you,” Ms. Zhang said.
Ms. Zhao later attempted to return to New York with her son but was stopped at the airport in Beijing by officials who said she was not allowed to leave on national security grounds. When she tried to go to the U.S. Embassy for help, the two were intercepted by police and taken back to Sanhe City.
“It’s the strategy they always use — controlling your family to get you to confess quickly,” she said. Despite this, she says her husband will not plead guilty.
She and their son are staying in an apartment in Sanhe City, where they lead an existence in limbo. While Jia longs for New York, where he went by the name of Justin, Ms. Zhao tries to keep his life as normal as possible. After he missed the first semester of first grade, the police found a local school for him to enroll in. The mother and son’s days are now filled with school and after-school activities, and her attempts to limit his screen time. They spend weekends in the 798 Art District in Beijing, where the Gao brothers once held exhibitions.
Yaliang Zhao, her son, and Gao Shen, one of Gao Zhen’s brothers, spending time at the cafe owned by Yaliang Zhao at 798 Art District, in Beijing, in November.
The 798 Art District, in Beijing, in November.
Still, she worries about the trauma her son has experienced. For a time, he refused to leave her side, and he still wakes up at night with nightmares. Although the boy saw his father being detained by police, Ms. Zhao tells him that “Dad is just away at work.” This has also become the story that the son now repeats at school when classmates ask.
“In reality, he understands. He knows everything. He just wants to comfort me,” Ms. Zhao said.
Along with the letters, the torn paper portraits were a source of solace for Ms. Zhao, but now all their correspondence has been stopped. In August, Ai Weiwei, the dissident Chinese artist, published a letter that appeared to be from her husband. Since then, Mr. Gao has been cut off from getting pen and paper, in what Ms. Zhao believes is punishment for that public communication. And he can no longer send or receive letters.
Ms. Zhao says her husband’s health has suffered during detention. He has often needed a wheelchair, and he may be suffering a hardening of the blood vessels called arteriosclerosis, which could cause a stroke and other problems.
She worries about his mental health too. He has been banned from using the detention center’s library and he is not allowed time outdoors, she said.
Ms. Zhao now spends her days working on some of her husband’s projects and keeping a diary with Jia. Their lawyer is allowed to have weekly meetings with Mr. Gao at the detention center, but she is not allowed to see him. She and her son go anyway, waiting outside.
“I get to feel a little closer to him,” she said.
Yaliang Zhao and her son visiting 798 Art District, in Beijing, China, November.
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Davis, who has been quiet since the news of the Paul event cancellation, was posting on X after watching the action. Many of his comments were criticising Roach, calling his recent rival a ‘gatekeeper’ and saying that he lost the fight despite the majority draw cards.
When pushed on why he was not criticising Cruz, Davis said:
“I’m taking him next, soon as my knee gets better.”
Back in 2021, Cruz was the first man to push ‘Tank’ the twelve-round distance. He had previously won on points just once, in a six-rounder in 2014.
Post-fight — after a unanimous decision with the scores 115-113, 115-113 and 116-112 was announced in his favour — Davis said that he had injured his hand early on and fought without his usual signature power punches.
Though Davis has always expressed interest in the rematch, and Cruz — currently the WBC Interim Super Lightweight champion — would of course be open to another high-profile fight, some believe that the Baltimore puncher is just as likely to retire quietly.
In a seperate post, he denied the allegations against him and claimed Paul had cancelled their fight for other reasons.
A prominent Sudanese doctor’s group has accused the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) of raping at least 19 women as they fled the city of el-Fasher in Darfur.
The Sudan Doctors Network said in a statement on Sunday that it documented the rapes among women who had fled to the town of al-Dabba in the neighbouring Northern State.
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Two of the women were pregnant, the group said.
“The Sudan Doctors Network strongly condemns the gang rape being perpetrated by the RSF against women escaping the horrors of El-Fasher, affirming that it constitutes a direct targeting of women in a blatant violation of all international laws that criminalise the use of women’s bodies as a weapon of oppression,” the group wrote on X.
Sudan Doctors Network: We have documented 19 cases of rape committed by the Rapid Support Forces, including two pregnant women, at Al-Afad Camp in Al-Dabba
The Sudan Doctors Network team at Al-Afad Camp in Al-Dabba has documented the rape of 19 women while they were fleeing from… pic.twitter.com/u5qWp4bdSD
— Sudan Doctors Network – شبكة أطباء السودان (@SDN154) December 7, 2025
Sudan has been engulfed in civil war since April 2023, when fighting erupted between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary RSF. The conflict has killed tens of thousands of people and displaced more than 12 million, according to the United Nations. It has also left some 30 million in need of humanitarian aid.
The RSF took the city of el-Fasher, the capital of the state of North Darfur, in October after an 18-month campaign of siege and starvation. The city was the Sudanese army’s last stronghold in the region.
Survivors who fled the city in the subsequent days recounted mass killings, rape, pillaging and other atrocities, prompting an international outcry.
Amnesty International has accused the RSF of “war crimes”, while the UN Human Rights Council has ordered an investigation into the abuses in el-Fasher. Officials who visited Darfur and spoke to survivors described the region as an “absolute horror show” and a “crime scene”.
Widespread sexual assault
Mohammed Elsheikh, a spokesperson for the Sudan Doctors Network, told Al Jazeera on Sunday that he was “100 percent sure” that sexual violence committed by RSF fighters is far more widespread than reported.
“Because most of the communities look at it as a stigma, most of the raped women tend not to disclose this information,” he said.
Elsheikh said the network had also documented 23 cases of rape among women who fled el-Fasher for the nearby town of Tawila.
“Unfortunately, the age of these raped victims varies from 15 years to 23 years old,” he said.
In its statement, the Sudan Doctors Network urged the international community to take urgent action to protect Sudanese women and girls.
It also called for “serious pressure on RSF leaders to immediately stop these assaults, respect international humanitarian law, and secure safe corridors for women and children”.
The latest accusations came amid a growing outcry over another RSF attack on a pre-school in the state of South Kordofan that local officials said killed at least 116 people. Some 46 of the victims were children, according to the officials.
On Sunday, Justice Minister Abdullah Dirife said Khartoum was willing to pursue political talks aimed at ending the conflict, but insisted that any settlement must “ensure there is no presence for ‘terrorist’ militias in both the political and military arenas”.
Speaking to Al Jazeera on the sidelines of the Doha Forum, he said the rebels “need to agree to give their weapons in specific areas and leave all these cities, and the police should take over”.
Dirife also called for putting a stop to the “transfer of weapons and the infiltration of mercenaries into Sudan” and claimed that fighters and arms were entering from regions including South America, Chad and the UAE.
The RSF currently holds all five states of Darfur, while the Sudanese army retains control of most of the remaining 13 states, including Khartoum.
Dirife also accused the RSF of repeatedly breaking past commitments to adhere to regional and global mediation initiatives.
“The last initiative we signed was the Jeddah Declaration. However, this militia didn’t commit to what we agreed on,” he said in Doha.
The Jeddah Declaration – brokered by the United States and Saudi Arabia in May 2023 – was meant to protect civilians and lay the groundwork for humanitarian access. Several ceasefires followed, but both sides were accused of violating them, prompting the mediators to suspend talks.
The UN has meanwhile formally declared famine in el-Fasher and Kaduguli in South Kordofan and warned of the risk of a hunger crisis in 20 additional areas across the Greater Darfur and Greater Kordofan regions.
The World Food Programme’s Deputy Executive Director Carl Skau told Al Jazeera on Sunday that the agency was providing aid to five million people, including two million in areas that are difficult to reach, but warned that assistance has fallen far short of needs.
“World attention needs to be on Sudan now, and diplomatic efforts need to be stepped up in order to prevent the same disaster we saw in el-Fasher,” he said.
California startup Ecno Evil takes a big swing at the hardcore off-road trailer market but from different angle … or at least a seemingly forgotten angle. Instead of weighing down its trailer with all the comforts of home, it strips it down to the barest of minimums and focuses on building a squaredrop that exudes the motto “rugged is not a look; it’s a test.” And even more exciting than the hardwearing build is a low base price that brings back attainability.
When you get down to it, the small, teardrop-size camping trailer should be a very simple tool. It needs to provide reliable shelter and space for the necessities of surviving a few days in nature. It needs to dependably follow the tow vehicle through thick and thin to base camp. A set of hard walls and a comfortable mattress separate it from a basic tent, and a sturdy construction allows it to outlast that same tent long enough to make it well worth the investment.
That’s really it. Everything else is bells and whistles. You can bring your own stove, water, portable toilet, power station and miscellaneous gear, and a tiny, basic trailer certainly doesn’t need to promote a lifestyle as or beyond as luxurious as home – save all that for larger, more expensive travel trailers.
Most of all, such a trailer should cost less than the vehicle towing it – way less, like a fractional amount.
Sadly, the teardrop market has drifted away from those dead-simple roots, loading in extraneous features and prices that match. It’s become rare to see a new teardrop or squaredrop trailer that starts below $20,000 and not so rare to see one that’s over $50K.
Sure, some buyers are happy to pay that and drive away with a miniaturized McMansion, but there should still be something for those who aren’t, those who have spent years amassing all kinds of camping gear and just want something to carry it to camp and provide a comfy night of sleep once there.
The Ecno Evil Unit-1 has only one door, with a window on the opposite side
Ecno Evil
With the 12.4-foot (3.8-m) Unit-1, Ecno Evil aims to deliver just that something, and it does so with a wood-free construction meant to outlast traditional aluminum-skinned wood teardrops by eliminating the rot, mold and degradation to which they’re susceptible. The Unit-1 build hinges around a brutalist, marine-grade welded high-density polyethylene (HDPE) squaredrop box bolted atop an aluminum tube chassis. Ecno compares the frameless body to the type of white HDPE tank that RVs use to carry water around and reinforces it with structural screws to boost toughness. There’s no interior paneling or exterior skin, just one rugged hunk of HDPE.
To help drive home the vision of toughness, Ecno skips the usual idyllic, drone-captured camping promo footage to instead zero in on company staff beating the hell out of the Unit-1 body with 2x4s, mallets and fast-sprinting vehicles full-throttling through open desert and water.
You can see the edge trim get a little smooshed up in the gif below, so we wouldn’t recommend clubbing your brand-new trailer in quite that way, but beyond that, the body absorbs the blows as it taunts the viewer to bring forth more punishment … which quickly comes by way of mallet.
We’d like to see more trailers and RV modules go through this type of testing
Ecno Evil
Two out of two videos on the young startup’s YouTube channel are just throwing the trailer through a regimen of pure torture.
As much as we like to list interesting features, what we really love about the Unit-1 is its lack thereof. Ecno Evil keeps the spec as simple as possible, which, of course, helps it keep base price (and weight) as low as possible. The trailer comes equipped with a single lockable entry door with window, a wide, openable window on the opposite wall, a 6-in (15-cm) trifold mattress inside, a roof fan, a shore power hookup, interior storage shelves and cubbies, and a series of interior and exterior lights.
Ecno does a nice job in separating the Unit-1 from other inexpensive wood-free tear/squaredrop trailers by carving out some dedicated external-access storage. The upper compartment isn’t as generously sized as a full-on tailgate galley, but it offers a shelf placed at a convenient height for using a camping stove and/or water jug. And it’s augmented by a lower compartment where users can store additional gear.
A key feature of the Unit-1 design is its rear tailgate and trunk storage
Ecno Evil
While other composite trailer builders have hit similar ~$15K price points, the ones we’ve looked at previously have done so in part by eliminating external-access storage. The Boreas UB is a very nice-looking rugged squaredrop, but its tailgate opens directly into the cabin, meaning you’ll be storing your filthy, dusty camping gear directly where you sleep … or in the tow vehicle. The Bean Stock 2.0, which started at $16K two years ago but has quickly spiked to $20K, doesn’t have a tailgate at all.
We’re not disparaging those others, which seem like high-quality options, but we do like the idea of storage space separate from the cabin. One of the big advantages of a camping trailer in general is being able to keep it loaded with all (or at least most) of the gear you need for a camping trip. This way, camping is less about spending hours of time packing up and more about simply hitching up and hitting the road.
The Unit-1 may not be able to load all your gear (the cooler will probably have to find home in the tow vehicle), but it can at least save you a few trips back and forth by serving as a permanent storage cabinet for the stove, cookware, chairs and other essential items. Less time packing equals more time relaxing and enjoying the trip.
The Unit-1 interior is simple with some upper cubby and overhead net storage
Ecno Evil
I’ve actually been looking for an affordable, minimalist zero-wood trailer just like this, and a galley/external storage area is one of the features I’ve found lacking in other products. I already own loads of camping gear, including multiple stoves, portable grills, water containers, electric faucets and shower systems, power stations and folding solar panels, cookware and portable toilets. So a trailer hard-wired with all those types of features becomes unnecessarily redundant and pricy. I just want trailer space to store my gear, preferably separated from the mattress-lined sleeping cabin.
The Unit-1 has a base weight of 780 lb (354 kg) and a GVWR of 2,000 lb (907 kg) delivered by a Timbren Axle-Less suspension. That leaves plenty of payload for carrying gear. A 2-in rear hitch receiver comes standard for bike racks and the like, and rooftop crossbars are available as a $900 option.
The Unit-1’s aluminum chassis is made to save weight and prevent corrosion that can affect steel
Ecno Evil
Ecno Evil has launched the Unit-1 in two sizes: a 4 x 8-foot floor plan that starts at US$13,990 and a 5 x 8-foot version that starts at $16,490. It currently lists lead time at a crazy-fast two weeks. The trailer runs 205/75/R15 tires on 15-in aluminum alloy wheels, and Ecno Evil offers off-road tires as an optional upgrade. Other options include a tongue box, 100-W solar panel (trailer is prewired as standard), and Ecoflow power station.
A year ago, the war that President Bashar al-Assad seemed to have won was turned upside down.
A rebel force had broken out of Idlib, a Syrian province on the border with Turkey, and was storming towards Damascus. It was led by a man known as Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, and his militia group, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS).
Jolani was a nom-de-guerre, reflecting his family’s roots in the Golan Heights, Syria’s southern highlands, annexed by Israel after it was occupied in 1967. His real name is Ahmed al-Sharaa.
One year later, he is interim president, and Bashar al-Assad is in a gilded exile in Russia.
Syria is still in ruins. In every city and village I have visited this last 10 days, people were living in skeletal buildings gutted by war. But for all the new Syria’s problems, it feels much lighter without the crushing, cruel weight of the Assads.
Getty Images
Syria is still in ruins. In cities and villages, many people are living in skeletal buildings gutted by war
Sharaa has found the going easier abroad than at home. He has won the argument with Saudi Arabia and the West that he is Syria’s best chance of a stable future.
In May, the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia arranged a brief meeting between al-Sharaa and US President Donald Trump. Afterwards, Trump called him a “young attractive tough guy”.
At home, Syrians know his weaknesses and the problems Syria faces better than foreigners. Sharaa’s writ does not run in the north-east, where the Kurds are in control, or parts of the south where Syrian Druze, another minority sect, want a separate state backed by their Israeli allies.
Sharaa sits between two Syrian flags – Trump called him a ‘young attractive tough guy’
A year ago, the new masters of Damascus, like most of the armed rebels in Syria, were Sunni Islamists. Sharaa, their leader, had a long history fighting for al-Qaeda in Iraq, where he had been imprisoned by the Americans, and then was a senior commander with the group that became Islamic State.
Later, as he built his power base in Syria, he broke with and fought both IS and al-Qaeda.
People who had travelled to Idlib to see him said that he had developed a much more pragmatic set of beliefs, better suited to governing Syria, with its spectrum of religious sects. Sunnis are the majority. As well as Kurds and Druze, there are Christians, many of whom find it hard to forget Sharaa’s jihadist past.
Image of a man who outgrew his jihadist roots
In the first week of December last year, it was hard to believe that the HTS offensive was moving so fast. It took them three days to capture Aleppo, Syria’s northern powerhouse.
Compare that with the tortured years between 2012 and 2016, when the regime’s army and rebel militias had fought for control of the city: that had ended in victory for Assad after Russia’s president Vladimir Putin deployed his air force and artillery to add decisive firepower to the regime’s ruthless tactics.
When I visited the former rebel strongholds in eastern Aleppo a few weeks after they had fallen to the regime, large areas were devastated by Russian bombing. Some streets were blocked by rubble that went up to first-floor balconies.
But by the end of 2024, across the country, government troops had melted away. Both reluctant conscripts and regime loyalists were no longer prepared to fight and die for a corrupt and cruel regime that repaid them with poverty and oppression.
AFP via Getty Images
One year ago – celebrations marking the dawn of a new era for Syria
It perches high on a crag overlooking Damascus, designed as an ever-visible reminder for the city’s citizens of the all-seeing power of the Assads. By then Jolani had discarded his name, along with his combat fatigues.
Sharaa sat down in the chilly halls of the unheated palace wearing a smart jacket, pressed trousers and shiny black shoes. He told me that the country was exhausted by war and was not a threat to its neighbours or to the West, insisting that they would govern for all Syrians. It was a message that many Syrians and foreign governments wanted to hear.
Israel dismissed it, however. And jihadist hardliners branded Sharaa as a traitor, selling out his religion and his own history.
Watch: BBC speaks to Syrian rebel leader Ahmed al-Sharaa
I had packed in a hurry to report on a war, never expecting the regime to crumble so fast. My formal attire was back at home in London. After the interview one of his aides complained that I should have worn a suit to interview a national leader.
His grumble was about more than my sartorial choices. It was the continuation of a long campaign that had started years earlier as Sharaa built up his power in Idlib. The campaign was designed to present him as a man who had outgrown his jihadist roots to become a worthy leader of all Syria, a leader the rest of the world should take seriously and treat with respect.
A weakened IS in Syria
Sharaa took power amid huge uncertainty about what he might do, and what might be done to him by his enemies. Among them were dark fears that the jihadist extremists of Islamic State, still existing in sleeper cells, could try to kill him, or cause chaos with mass casualty attacks in Damascus.
Jihadists rage on social media about Sharaa’s charm offensive in the west. After he agreed to join the US-led coalition against Islamic State, prominent voices online branded him an apostate, a Muslim who had turned on his own religion. Extremists could take that as a licence to kill.
The reality is that IS in Syria is weak. Its attacks this year have been mostly against Kurdish-led forces in the north-east.
The war that President Bashar al-Assad seemed to have won was turned upside down one year ago
As security forces have raided IS cells, the jihadists have killed three soldiers and two former Assad operatives in cities controlled by the government, according to data collected by Charles Lister, a leading commentator on Syria, and published in the newsletter Syria Weekly. IS social media channels monitored by the BBC continue to tell Syrian Sunnis that Sharaa has betrayed them.
Without producing any proof, they have posted claims that he has been an agent of the US and UK, working to undermine the jihadist project.
Winning over Trump and the west
Sharaa’s overtures to the west have been remarkably successful.
Within two weeks of taking power in Syria, he received a delegation of senior American diplomats. Immediately, the Americans scrapped the $10 million bounty the they had put on his arrest.
Since then, sanctions imposed on Assad’s Syria have been steadily reduced. The most swingeing, the Caesar Act, has been suspended and could be repealed by the US Congress in the new year.
A major milestone came in November when Sharaa became the first Syrian president to visit the White House.
AP
Trump sprayed Sharaa with cologne, before presenting him with his own supply to take home
Trump’s welcome in the Oval Office was relaxed. He sprayed Sharaa with Trump-branded cologne, before presenting him with his own supply to take home for his wife, jokingly asking him how many he has. “One,” Sharaa answered, as he blinked away clouds of fragrance.
Away from the larking around for the cameras, Saudi Arabia as well as western governments see Sharaa as the best bet – the only one – to stabilise a country that sits at the heart of the Middle East.
If Syria slipped back into civil war, there would be zero chance of reducing the violent turbulence in the region.
One senior western diplomat told me that the conditions for civil war still exist. That is because of the lasting scars of half a century of dictatorship and 14 years of a war that started as an uprising against the Assads’ oppressive rule and turned into an increasingly sectarian fight.
AFP via Getty Images
Many western governments see Sharaa as the best bet to stabilise Syria. His minister for foreign affairs, Assad al-Shaibani is front right
Sharaa is a Sunni Muslim, Syria’s largest religious group. His government does not control the whole country. In the last year he has not been able to persuade, or force, Kurds in the north-east and Druze in the south to accept the authority of Damascus. On the coast, the Alawite community is nervous and restive.
The Alawites are a sect that originated in Shia Islam, with their heartland on Syria’s Mediterranean coast. The Assads are Alawites.
The founder of the regime, Bashar’s father Hafez al-Assad built his power on the Alawite minority, around 10% of the population. Just the sound of the Alawite accent, especially coming from a man in uniform – or worse, a leather-jacketed operative from one of the regime’s intelligence agencies – used to make other Syrians nervous.
Syria will not recover if sectarian killing continues. Stopping more serious outbreaks of violence in the next 12 months is the government’s most serious challenge.
The slow pace of justice
Just before the anniversary of Assad’s fall, the UN human rights office (OHCHR) expressed serious concern about the slow pace of justice. A spokesman said that “While the interim authorities have taken encouraging steps towards addressing past violations, these steps are only the beginning of what needs to be done.”
Some Syrians have taken matters into their own hands, along, at times, with government forces. The OHCHR said that the hundreds have been killed over the past year “by the security forces and affiliated groups, elements associated with the former government, local armed groups and unidentified armed individuals”.
They added: “Other reported violations and abuses include sexual violence, arbitrary detentions, destruction of homes, forced evictions, and restrictions on freedoms of expression and peaceful assembly.”
Alawite, Druze, Christian and Bedouin communities were mainly affected by the violence, the OHCHR said, which has been fed by rising hate speech both on- and offline.
Anadolu via Getty Images
A graduation ceremony for general security personnel last month
A big risk for 2026 is a repeat of last March’s sectarian violence in Alawite areas.
In the security vacuum that followed the fall of the Assad regime, the new government attempted to stamp its authority on the Syrian coast with a series of arrests. An investigation by OCHCR found that “pro-former government fighters responded by capturing, killing, and injuring hundreds of interim government forces”.
Damascus responded harshly and lost control of militant armed factions that carried a systematic series of deadly attacks on Alawites.
The UN found that some 1,400 people, predominantly civilians, were reported killed in the ensuing massacres. The vast majority were adult men, but victims included approximately 100 women, the elderly and the disabled, as well as children.
The Sharaa government cooperated with the UN investigation. Some of its forces managed to rescue Alawites and it has put some of the ringleaders of the massacres on trial.
Reuters
The UN found that some 1,400 people, predominantly civilians, were reported killed during sectarian violence in Alawite areas in March
The UN Syria Commission of Inquiry confirmed it had found no evidence the authorities had ordered the attacks. But the concern then and for the future was that the Damascus government could not control armed Sunni groups that had supposedly joined its security forces.
In July in the southern province of Sweida, serious violence between Druze and Bedouin communities shook the Sharaa administration to its roots. The Druze religion developed out of Islam around a thousand years ago, and its followers, who some Muslims believe are heretics, amount to around 3% of Syria’s population.
When government forces entered Sweida, supposedly to restore order, they ended up fighting Druze militias. Israel, which has its own Druze community that is fiercely loyal to the Jewish state, intervened. Its airstrikes included the near destruction of the ministry of defence in Damascus.
It took a rapid American intervention to force a ceasefire that stopped a spiral down into much worse violence. Tens of thousands of people were driven from their homes and remain displaced.
Getty Images
A UN inquiry found no evidence the authorities had ordered the attacks in March. But the concern was that the Damascus government could not control armed Sunni groups
The Israel question
It is still not clear whether Sharaa and his interim government are strong enough to survive another crisis as serious as that. Israel remains a looming and dangerous presence to Syrians.
After the fall of Assad, the Israelis launched a series of major air strikes to destroy what was left of the old regime’s military capacity. The IDF advanced out of the occupied Golan Heights to take control of more Syrian territory, which it still holds.
The Israelis were taking advantage of the chaos in Syria to weaken a country it saw as hostile, destroying weapons it said might be turned in its direction.
Attempts by the US to broker a security agreement between Israel and Syria have stalled in the last two months or so.
Syria wants to return to an agreement originally negotiated by Henry Kissinger when he was US Secretary of State in 1974. Netanyahu wants Israel to stay in the land it seized and has demanded that Syria demilitarises a large area south of Damascus.
In the last month Israel has intensified its ground incursions into Syria. Syria Weekly, which collects data on violence, calculates that there were more than twice as many as the monthly average for the rest of the year.
We visited the border village of Beit Jinn, which was raided by IDF troops on 28 November. The IDF said they were arresting Sunni militants who were planning attacks.
Local men fought back, wounding six Israelis as the raiding party was forced into a hurried retreat, abandoning a military vehicle that they later destroyed with an airstrike. The Israelis killed at least 13 local people and wounded dozens, state media reported.
It was a sign of how hard it will be to broker a security deal between Syria and Israel. The Damascus government called it a war crime. Calls for retaliation intensified.
Dia Images via Getty Images
The border village of Beit Jinn was raided by IDF troops on 28 November
In Washington, Trump was clearly worried by the raid. He posted on his Truth Social platform that he was “very satisfied” with Sharaa’s efforts at stabilising Syria.
He warned that it was “very important that Israel maintain a strong and true dialogue with Syria, and that nothing takes place that will interfere with Syria’s evolution into a prosperous state”.
In Beit Jinn I met Khalil Abu Daher on his way back from hospital, his arm in plaster after surgery for a bullet wound. He invited me to his home, which is close to where the Israelis were exchanging fire with village men.
Khalil told me he was here with his family when the Israelis entered the village at 03:30 am. They tried to find a safe place.
“I was in my house with my children. We went from one room to another. They shot at my two daughters. One was hit, and the other died instantly. When I picked her up, I was shot in the hand.”
The dead girl was 17-year-old Hiba Abu Daher, who was shot in the stomach. They sheltered, Khalil said, alongside Hiba’s dead body for two hours before they were rescued and taken to hospital.
When I visited, Khalil’s nine-year-old daughter was lying on a blanket on the sofa, recovering from surgery to take a bullet out of her hip.
Khalil’s nine-year-old daughter lying on the sofa, recovering from surgery to take a bullet out of her hip
The girls’ mother, Umm Mohammad, sat with the women of the family, desperately worried about the future.
“We want peace of mind,” she told me. “We want to live in our homes, and we want a clinic and medical staff because we don’t have one.
“We also want a doctor because there isn’t one in Beit Jinn, nor is there a pharmacy. We want security.”
‘We go to sleep and wake up afraid’
A year after the end of Assad’s rule, Syria’s new rulers have scored some important achievements.
They are still in power, which was not guaranteed when they took Damascus. President Trump has become Sharaa’s most important backer. Sanctions are being lifted. The economy is showing signs of life and business deals are being done, including modernising oil and gas installations and privatising the airports in Damascus and Aleppo.
But deals that are in the pipeline have not yet changed the lives of most Syrians. The government has no rebuilding fund. Reconstruction is up to individuals. Sectarian tensions are unresolved and could ignite again. The US-mediated dialogue with Israel has stalled.
NurPhoto via Getty Images
The government has no rebuilding fund. Reconstruction is up to individuals
Benjamin Netanyahu insists that Damascus might demilitarise a large area of southern Syria and shows no signs of ordering the IDF to pull back. Both points amount to a major violation of Syrian sovereignty. The Beit Jinn raid makes it harder for Damascus to offer concessions.
Government in Damascus is centred on Sharaa himself, assisted by the foreign minister Asaad al-Shaibani and a few trusted associates. No serious attempt seems to be happening to create an accountable framework of government.
Syria without the Assad family is a better place. But Umm Mohammad summed up the feelings of far too many Syrians.
“The future is difficult. We have nothing, not even schools. Our children are living in hell here. There is no safety for them. How will we live?
“We want safety. We go to sleep and wake up afraid.”
Top picture credits: AFP via Getty Images and Anadolu via Getty Images
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For years, Binance has dodged questions about where it plans to establish a corporate headquarters. On Monday, the world’s largest crypto exchange made an announcement that indicates it has chosen a location: Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates.
In its announcement, Binance reported that it has secured three global financial licenses within Abu Dhabi Global Market, a special economic zone inside the Emirati city. The licenses regulate three different prongs of the exchange’s business: its exchange, clearinghouse, and broker dealer services. The three regulated entities are named Nest Exchange Limited, Nest Clearing and Custody Limited, and Nest Trading Limited, respectively.
Richard Teng, the co-CEO of Binance, declined to say whether Abu Dhabi is now Binance’s global headquarters. “But for all intents and purposes, if you look at the regulatory sphere, I think the global regulators are more concerned of where we are regulated on a global basis,” he said, adding that Abu Dhabi Global Market is where his crypto exchange’s “global platform” will be governed.
A company spokesperson declined to add more to Teng’s comments, but did not deny Fortune’s assertion that Binance appears to have chosen Abu Dhabai as its headquarters.
Corporate governance
The Abu Dhabi announcement suggests that Binance, which has for years taken pride in branding itself as a company with no fixed location, is bowing to the practical considerations that go with being a major financial firm—and the corporate governance obligations that entails.
When Changpeng Zhao, the cofounder and former CEO of Binance, launched the company in 2017, he initially established the exchange in Hong Kong. But, weeks after he registered Binance in the city, China banned cryptocurrency trading, and Zhao moved his nascent trading platform. Binance has since been itinerant. “Wherever I sit is going to be the Binance office,” Zhao said in 2020.
The location of a company’s headquarters impacts its tax obligations and what regulations it needs to follow. In 2023, after Binance reached a landmark $4.3 billion settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice, Zhao stepped down as CEO and pleaded guilty to failing to implement an effective anti-money laundering program.
Teng took over and promised to implement the corporate structures—like a board of directors—that are the norm for companies of Binance’s size. Teng, who now shares the CEO role with the newly appointed Yi He, oversaw the appointment of Binance’s first board in April 2024. And he’s repeatedly telegraphed that his crypto exchange is focused on regulatory compliance.
Binance already has a strong footprint in the Emirates. It has a crypto license in Dubai, received a $2 billion investment from an Emirati venture fund in March, and, that same month, said it employed 1,000 employees in the country.
At least 153 students and 12 teachers taken from a Catholic school last month remain in captivity.
Nigerian authorities have secured the release of 100 children who were among hundreds kidnapped from a Catholic school in northern Nigeria last month, officials and local media have reported.
The 100 children arrived in Nigeria’s capital, Abuja, and are set to be handed over to local government officials in Niger State on Monday, an unnamed United Nations source told the AFP news agency.
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“They are going to be handed over to Niger State government tomorrow,” the source told the AFP news agency.
Nigeria’s The Guardian newspaper reported on Sunday that the rescued children were receiving medical evaluations and would be reunited with their families after a debriefing.
Presidential spokesman Sunday Dare also confirmed reports to the AFP that 100 children were being freed.
Armed gunmen kidnapped 303 students and 12 teachers from St Mary’s School in the Papiri community of Niger State’s Agwara district on November 21.
They included both male and female students aged between 10 to 18 years, according to the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN).
Fifty of the students escaped captivity in the days after they were kidnapped, returning home to their families. Following the release of 100 students on Sunday, 153 students and 12 teachers are believed to remain in captivity.
Days earlier, gunmen abducted 25 schoolgirls from the Government Girls Comprehensive Secondary School in the neighbouring Kebbi State’s Maga town,170km (106 miles) away.
“We have been praying and waiting for their return. If it is true, then it is a cheering news,” said Daniel Atori, spokesman for Bishop Bulus Yohanna of the Kontagora diocese, which runs the school.
“However, we are not officially aware and have not been duly notified by the federal government.”
The latest abductions are the worst seen in Nigeria since more than 270 girls from Chibok town were snatched from their school in 2014.
In total, more than 1,400 Nigerian students have been kidnapped since 2014, in almost a dozen separate incidents.
The most recent kidnappings came soon after United States President Donald Trump said that Nigeria’s Christians are facing genocide, a claim that has been questioned by local officials and Christian groups, who say that people from different faiths have been caught up in ongoing violence in parts of the country.
Kimiebi Imomotimi Ebienfa, a spokesman for Nigeria’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, told Al Jazeera last month that people of all faiths have been affected by the ongoing violence.
“We’ve continuously made our point clear that we acknowledge the fact that there are killings that have taken place in Nigeria, but those killings were not restricted to Christians alone. Muslims are being killed. Traditional worshippers are being killed,” Ebienfa said.
“The majority is not the Christian population.”
Trump has threatened military intervention in Nigeria, alleging that the country is failing to protect Christians from persecution. He has also threatened to cut aid to Nigeria.
Nigeria, a country of more than 200 million people, is divided between the largely Muslim north and mostly Christian south.
According to Pew Research Center estimates, Muslims make up 56 percent of Nigeria’s population, while Christians make up just more than 43 percent.
Armed groups have been engaged in a conflict that has been largely confined to the northeast of the country, which is majority Muslim, and has dragged on for more than 15 years.
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