Author: Emmanuel

5/14: CBS Evening News – CBS News

5/16: CBS Evening News – CBS News

5/15: CBS Evening News – CBS News

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has called for Syria’s transitional authorities to be supported, warning that the country could be only weeks away from “potential collapse and a full-scale civil war of epic proportions”.At a hearing of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, he defended President Donald Trump’s decision last week to lift sanctions on Syria before meeting President Ahmed al-Sharaa, a former al-Qaeda commander who led the rebel offensive that overthrew Bashar al-Assad in December.Trump’s rationale was that other countries wanted to help Sharaa’s administration and send aid but were afraid of the sanctions, Rubio explained.There was no immediate comment from Syrian officials.The US imposed sanctions on Syria in response to atrocities committed by forces loyal to Assad during the country’s devastating 13-year civil war, in which more than 600,000 people were killed and 12 million others were forced from their homes.The State Department had previously insisted on several conditions being met before they were lifted, including protecting religious and ethnic minorities.Although Sharaa has promised to do that, the country has been rocked by two waves of deadly sectarian violence in recent months.In March, almost 900 civilians, mainly members of Assad’s Alawite sect, were killed by pro-government forces across the western coastal region during fighting between security forces and former regime loyalists, according to one monitoring group. The loyalists reportedly killed almost 450 civilians and 170 security personnel.And at the start of May, more than 100 people were reportedly killed in clashes between gunmen from the Druze religious minority, the new security forces and allied Sunni Islamist fighters in two suburbs of the capital Damascus and the southern province of Suweida.Even before the violence, many members of minority communities were worried about the new transitional authorities, which are dominated by Sharaa’s Sunni Islamist group, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS). It is a former al-Qaeda affiliate still designated as a terrorist organisation by the UN, the US, the EU and the UK.Sharaa himself also continues to be listed by the US as a “specially designated global terrorist”, although the Biden administration announced in December that the US would scrap the $10m (£7.5m) bounty offered for his arrest.Despite Sharaa’s past, Trump took the opportunity to meet him while attending a summit of Gulf leaders in Saudi Arabia last week.Afterwards, the US president told reporters that he was a “young, attractive guy”, adding: “Tough guy. Strong past. Very strong past. Fighter.””He’s got a real shot at pulling it [Syria] together,” he said, adding, “it’s a torn-up country”.Sharaa meanwhile said Trump’s decision to lift the sanctions on Syria “was a historic and courageous decision, which alleviates the suffering of the people, contributes to their rebirth and lays the foundations for stability in the region”.Speaking to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in Washington DC on Tuesday, Rubio quipped that “the bad news is that the transitional authority figures… didn’t pass their background check with the FBI”.”But on the flip side of it is, if we engage them, it may work out, it may not work out. If we did not engage them it was guaranteed to not work out,” he added.”In fact, it is our assessment that, frankly, the transitional authority, given the challenges they’re facing, are maybe weeks, not many months, away from potential collapse and a full-scale civil war of epic proportions, basically the country splitting up.”He did not elaborate but said Syria’s minorities were “dealing with deep internal distrust… because Assad deliberately pitted these groups against each other”.He said the Trump decided to lift the sanctions quickly because “nations in the region want to get aid in, want to start helping them. And they can’t because they are afraid of our sanctions”.As Rubio spoke, European Union foreign ministers agreed to also lift economic sanctions on Syria.”We want to help the Syrian people rebuild a new, inclusive and peaceful Syria,” the bloc’s foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas wrote on X.”The EU has always stood by Syrians throughout the last 14 years – and will keep doing so.”The Syrian foreign ministry said the decision marked “the beginning of a new chapter in Syrian-European relations built on shared prosperity and mutual respect”.

Skip image galleryTelegraphExpressStarMailTimes1 of 520 May 2025Newcastle among clubs set to hold talks with Liam Delap but Manchester United lead race to sign Ipswich striker, Manchester City will battle Liverpool for Bournemouth left-back Milos Kerkez. Newcastle United are among the clubs set to hold talks with Ipswich Town’s 22-year-old English striker Liam Delap this week. (Talksport)Manchester United lead the race to sign Delap but a defeat in the Europa League final and consequential inability to offer him European football next season would hand Chelsea the advantage. (ESPN)Manchester City will battle Liverpool for 21-year-old Bournemouth and Hungary left-back Milos Kerkez. (i paper – subscription required)Brighton have agreed a deal to sign 27-year-old French defender Olivier Boscagli on a free transfer from PSV Eindhoven. (Sky Sports)Liverpool have received enquiries from the Saudi Pro League over 25-year-old Uruguay forward Darwin Nunez, Portugal forward Diogo Jota and Colombia winger Luis Diaz, both 28. (Sky Germany)Manchester United are set to proceed with paying Wolves the £62.5m release clause in instalments for 25-year-old Brazil forward Matheus Cunha. (Fabrizio Romano)Manchester United are also hoping they can tempt Sporting and Sweden striker Viktor Gyokeres, 26, to sign for them this summer. (L’Equipe – in French) Aston Villa are not planning to stand in the way of Argentina goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez, 32, if it becomes clear he wants to leave Villa Park. (Givemesport) Chelsea are understood to have opened talks with Ajax over a potential transfer deal for Netherlands defender Jorrel Hato, 19, who is also a target for Liverpool and Arsenal. (Caughtoffside) Barcelona have reached an agreement with Brazil forward Raphinha over a new deal that will keep the 28-year-old at the club until June 2028. (Fabrizio Romano) Nottingham Forest manager Nuno Espirito Santo might leave at the end of the season because of internal tensions at the club. (Footmercato – in French) Leicester City are poised to sack manager Ruud van Nistelrooy and are in advanced talks to appoint former Southampton boss Russell Martin. (Football Insider) Related topicsFootball

After more than a year and a half of the war in Gaza, Britain appears to have finally lost patience with Israel.Speaking to MPs, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and Foreign Secretary David Lammy sounded genuinely angry.Sir Keir said the level of suffering in Gaza, especially among innocent children, was “intolerable”.Israel’s decision to allow in a small amount of aid was, he said, “utterly inadequate”.The prime minister added he was “horrified” by Israel’s decision to escalate its military campaign.Lammy employed similar language, saying the situation in Gaza was “abominable”.He condemned as “monstrous” the suggestion by Israel’s hardline finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, that Gaza should be cleansed of its civilian population.Israel’s actions, Lammy said, were isolating Israel from friends and partners around the world and “damaging the image of the State of Israel in the eyes of the world”.Nor is Britain alone in expressions of outrage or threats of concrete action.The EU says it’s reviewing its association agreement with Israel, which governs its political and economic relationship.Kaja Kallas, the EU’s foreign policy chief, said a “strong majority” of members favoured looking again at the 25-year-old agreement.On Monday night, Britain joined France and Canada in signing a strongly worded joint statement, condemning Israel’s military action and warning of “further concrete actions” if the humanitarian situation in Gaza did not approve.Another statement followed, signed by 27 donor countries including the UK, condemning a new Gaza aid delivery model being promoted by Israel.The model aims to replace existing humanitarian agencies, including the UN, with civilian contractors, backed by the Israeli military.The UN and its donors say the new model is poorly conceived and politically motivated, incapable of replacing the decades-long tried and tested international humanitarian ecosystem in Gaza.A representative of one of the aid agencies operating in Gaza told me the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation scheme was “totally premature,” adding that Israel had never provided evidence to back up its assertion that Hamas was responsible for the widespread diversion of aid.One western diplomat, quoted in Israel’s liberal Haaretz newspaper, described the new model as a “crazy plan and absolute madness”.During a passionate debate in the House of Commons, Lammy clashed with his Conservative opposite number, Dame Priti Patel, who suggested Hamas was benefitting from international criticism of Israel.Lammy accused her of refusing to confront the reality of what was happening in Gaza.Other MPs said Britain wasn’t going far enough, with several suggesting, once again, that the time has come for Britain to recognise a Palestinian state.The government’s view is that taking such a significant step for purely symbolic reasons wouldn’t actually change anything.But with France possibly poised to recognise Palestine at a conference it’s co-hosting with Saudi Arabia next month, some are hoping Britain follows suit.Even if it doesn’t, it’s clear that Israel’s supporters are increasingly exasperated, and fearful that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s latest military operation, dubbed “Gideon’s Chariots” is poised to heap misery on Gaza just as the area’s two million civilians face the very real prospect of starvation.Even US President Donald Trump has expressed impatience, warning that “a lot of people are starving” as he concluded his regional tour last week.Netanyahu’s government is losing support, even among some of Israel’s staunchest allies.At a World Jewish Congress conference in Jerusalem, the organisation’s president Ronald Lauder challenged Israel’s foreign minister Gideon Sa’ar.”All the best things Israel does are being destroyed by Smotrich because his statement about starving the Gazans and causing destruction is broadcast all over the world,” Lauder said, asking why Netanyahu does nothing to stop him.According to veteran Israeli journalist Ben Caspit, Sa’ar’s answer was brief.”Duly noted.”

Former President Biden’s weekend announcement that he has an “aggressive” form of prostate cancer that has metastasized to his bone sparked the usual sympathy from supporters — and sharp suspicions among detractors. The announcement comes amid fresh reporting on Biden and his inner circle hiding the degree to which his mental acuity was slipping during his presidency and campaign for reelection last year, and the advanced stage of his cancer drew immediate accusations from the right that the former president was also hiding problems with his physical health.President Trump said he was surprised the cancer “wasn’t notified a long time ago,” suggested the public wasn’t being properly informed and said that “people should try and find out what happened.”The Times spoke to six doctors who are experts in prostate cancer. They said the information Biden’s office has shared about his condition is indeed limited, but also that many of the assumptions being made publicly about the progression of such cancers, the tests that can screen for them and the medical guidelines for care among men of Biden’s advanced age — 82 — were simply off base.The cancerIn its statement Sunday, Biden’s office said the former president was seen last week “for a new finding of a prostate nodule after experiencing increasing urinary symptoms,” and on Friday was “diagnosed with prostate cancer, characterized by a Gleason score of 9 (Grade Group 5) with metastasis to the bone.”Dr. Mark Litwin, chair of UCLA Urology, said that description indicated Biden has a more advanced and aggressive form of prostate cancer than is diagnosed in most men, but that it was nonetheless “a very common scenario” — with about 10% of such cancers in men being metastatic at diagnosis.Dr. Howard Sandler, chair of the Department of Radiation Oncology at Cedars-Sinai, agreed.“It’s a little unusual for him to show up with prostate cancer that’s metastatic to bone at first diagnosis, but not extraordinary,” he said. “It happens every day to elderly men.”That’s in part because of the nature of such cancer, the modern screening guidelines for older men, and the advanced treatment options for such cancer when it is found, the doctors said.Prostate cancer in small, slow-growing amounts is prevalent among men of Biden’s age, whether it’s causing them problems or not. Most prostate cancers can be slowed even more dramatically — for years after diagnosis — with medical intervention to block testosterone, which feeds such tumors.For those reasons, many doctors recommend men stop getting tested for prostate-cancer-related antigens, through what’s known as a PSA test, around age 70 or 75, depending on the individual’s overall health.That advice is based in part on the idea that finding a slow-moving prostate cancer and deciding to act on it surgically or otherwise — which many alarmed patients are inclined to do when they get such news — can often lead to worse outcomes than the cancer would have caused if simply left alone. That includes impotence, incontinence and life-threatening infections.Also, if an older patient does start experiencing symptoms and is found to have a more advanced prostate cancer, modern treatments are capable of stalling the cancer’s growth for years, the doctors said — often beyond the point when those patients are statistically likely to die from something else.Even when older patients are tested and show somewhat elevated PSA levels, it is not always of immediate concern, and they are often told to just keep an eye on it, Litwin said. Simply put, doctors “typically don’t get too exercised about a diagnosis of prostate cancer in an 82-year-old,” he said.Dr. Sunil Patel, a urologic oncologist and an assistant professor of urology and oncology within the Brady Urological Institute at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, said that’s because the average life expectancy for an American man is under 85.“And so most men at that time, at 75, they’re like, ‘OK, well, if it’s not going to kill me in the next 10 years, I’m going to leave it alone,’” Patel said. “That’s a really shared decision between the patient and the physician.”When advanced, aggressive prostate cancers are found, as with Biden, the prognosis — and treatment plan — is of course different, the doctors said. “He is for sure going to need treatment,” Litwin said. “This is not the type that we can just observe over time like we often do.”But that doesn’t mean Biden’s doctors dropped the ball earlier, he and others said.The diagnosisBiden’s office has not said whether he was receiving PSA screenings. A letter from Biden’s White House physician in February of last year made no mention of PSA testing, despite other recent presidents’ medical assessments including that information. Biden’s aides did not respond to requests for comment. The doctors The Times spoke to had no special insight into Biden’s medical care, but said his diagnosis did not make them feel any less confident about the caliber of that care or suggest to them any nefarious intent to hide his condition.For starters, “it would be considered well within the standard of care” for Biden to have forgone testing in recent years, given his age, Sandler said. “Certainly after 80.”Litwin said he believes Biden probably was still tested, given his position, but that doesn’t mean he was necessarily hiding anything either. Some forms of aggressive prostate cancer don’t secrete antigens into the blood at levels that would be flagged in a PSA test, while others can grow and even metastasize rapidly — within a matter of months, and between routine annual screenings, he said.Patel said he has personally found “very aggressive disease” in patients who had relatively normal PSA levels. “I don’t think anyone can blame anyone in terms of was this caught too late or anything like that,” he said. “This happens not too infrequently.”Dr. Alicia Morgans, associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, a genitourinary medical oncologist and the director of the Survivorship Program at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, agreed. Even if a patient is diligent about getting screened annually, “there will be some cancers that arise between screening tests,” she said.Morgans said things gets even more complicated as men get older, when their PSA number may increase and start getting monitored before it is considered a clear indicator of cancer.“Maybe it’s up a while. It was not cancer before, it hasn’t really changed that much. Now it has become cancer. It’s not the fault of anyone,” she said. “You can do everything right and things like this can happen.”The treatmentBiden’s office said his cancer appeared “to be hormone-sensitive, which allows for effective management.”The doctors The Times spoke to were relatively bullish about Biden’s short-term — and even medium-term — prognosis. “It’s not curable, but it’s highly treatable,” Morgans said.“Without meaning to sound glib, there’s never been a better time to have metastatic prostate cancer in the history of medicine,” Litwin said — in part thanks to Biden’s own cancer “moonshot” initiative and the funding it sent to institutions such as UCLA, which has helped develop new drugs.“There are numerous, very effective treatments for a patient in his situation,” Litwin said.The standard and most likely course of care for Biden will be ADT, or androgen deprivation therapy, which involves a pill or shot that will shut down testosterone production, the doctors said.“Now, an 82-year-old doesn’t have the same testosterone production as a 22-year-old anyway, so there’s not that far to go. But we shut it off,” Litwin said. “And by shutting it off, it cuts out the principal hormone that feeds the prostate cancer. That alone can be very, very effective.”Dr. Geoffrey Sonn, urologic oncologist and associate professor of urology at Stanford Cancer Center, said Biden’s cancer is serious, but the ADT treatment “will make prostate cancer cells shrink down, stop growing, at least temporarily, in the vast majority of guys.”“That is, it’s not a permanent fix, in that those cells will eventually figure out a way to grow even with low levels of testosterone,” Sonn said. “But that can take several years, and sometimes longer.”Recent studies have shown that adding additional medications to an ADT regime can extend life even further, Sonn said, to “four, five, seven, 10” years or more after a metastatic prostate cancer diagnosis. Dr. Mihir Desai, a urologist with Keck Medicine of USC, said with modern advancements, prostate cancer is just different than other cancers.“If you find, say, colon cancer or pancreatic cancer or liver cancer are metastasized, then the deterioration is fairly fast and the outcomes are very poor,” he said. But with previously untreated metastatic prostate cancer, “there are many lines of treatment that can, if not cure it, certainly keep it under control for many years, with good quality of life.”Sandler, who focuses on radiation oncology, said ADT treatment can cause loss of bone density or muscle mass, so Biden will likely be encouraged to stick to a fitness regimen or take medications to counter those effects.He may also receive radiation to more heavily target specific pockets of cancer, including where it has metastasized to the bone, but that would depend on the number of metastatic sites, Sandler said — with radiation more likely the fewer sites there are.“If there’s cancer all over the place, then there’s probably no benefit,” he said. More to Read

5/17: CBS Weekend News – CBS News

Heavy rainfall and storms have been battering southern France since Monday. The rains have caused widespread damage across the region, flooding streets and causing power and water outages. At least three people have died in the flooding with several hundred emergency rescuers being deployed to the region.

When Annie Tammearu, also known as Mother Soki, created the song “Rivet Gun” in her humble apartment in Minneapolis, she never expected that Grammy award-winning pop star Ellie Goulding would take notice.”It’s crazy because my sister and I used to watch her music videos all the time,” said Mother Soki. “I feel very honored that she like loved it so much and decided to post a video to it. And that means she understands my vision, too, which is great.”The 21-year-old published the song on social media less than a month ago, where she’s developed a modest fanbase as an unsigned artist — but “Rivet Gun” was different.”It was the first time I wrote a song where it’s like all the lyrics came out like vomit, like it was crazy,” she said.Mother Soki took it to her friends and collaborators.

“I brought it to the studio with Jack Pfeffer, Elijah Herchert and Mo Todd. Eljiah rewrote the guitar over my vocals and sort of just made the empty space feel so necessary,” she said.  

Mother Soki

WCCO

Proud of what they’d accomplished, she put it out before it was finished. “‘Let me just post this demo of Rivet Gun.’ Bad idea, but also good idea,” she said.It was shared more than 100,000 times on TikTok in the first 30 hours, and has grown from there. 

It now has 1.5 million streams on Spotify, and Mother Soki just signed a deal with Mom + Pop, an independent record label whose roster includes Alicia Keys and Tom Morello, co-founder of Rage Against the Machine and Audioslave.”Bringing people in was like the best thing for me and my art, because sometimes you have to ask for help, you know. Like I can’t do everything by myself,” she said.A good lesson for music and for life.”It still feels like my own, which is great, but it’s also ours,” she said.Mother Soki is working on a music video for the single and additional songs for an album.