Just hours after Islamist rebels ousted longtime Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad in December, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stood at edge of the occupied Golan Heights and looked out over Syria. The historic downfall will create “very important opportunities” for Israel, he said in a video message.

As Syria plunged into chaos after Assad’s fall – its war-ravaged people grappling with an uncertain future and its ethnic and religious minorities wary of the new leadership’s jihadist history – Netanyahu’s government saw an opportunity to advance his quest to reshape the Middle East, one that envisions splitting Syria into smaller autonomous regions.

“A stable Syria can only be a federal Syria that includes different autonomies and respects different ways of life,” Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar told European leaders at a meeting in Brussels last month.

Since Hamas’ October 7 attack and ensuing regional conflicts, Netanyahu has repeatedly boasted about “changing the face of the Middle East” in Israel’s favor. He views the developments in Syria as a direct result of Israel’s actions and is now seizing the opportunity to expand territorial control and establish zones of influence by seeking alliances with minority groups in Syria’s peripheries.

In the days that followed Assad’s ouster, Netanyahu ordered an unprecedented ground push into Syria, driving Israeli forces deeper into the country than ever before and upending Israel’s 50-year tacit détente with the Assads.

The escalation quickly abandoned Netanyahu’s initial pledge to practice “good neighborliness” to the new Syria. Hundreds of airstrikes targeted the remnants of Assad’s military to prevent them from falling into the hands of militant groups, and Israeli forces seized Mount Hermon, Syria’s highest peak, and a strategically vital position overlooking Israel, Lebanon, and Syria. On Monday, Israel targeted radar sites and military command centers in southern Syria, and on Thursday, it targeted Palestinian Islamic Jihad in the Syrian capital Damascus.

Shifting border

Israel’s border with Syria had remained largely unchanged since the 1967 war, when it occupied and later annexed the Golan Heights from Syria in a move rejected by most of the international community but endorsed by US President Donald Trump during his first term. But Israel’s recent actions in Syria have blurred the lines of that border as it takes more territory. Israel has never fully demarcated its borders with its neighbors.

For half a century, Hafez al-Assad and his son, Bashar, ruled Syria ruthlessly, enduring wars, rebellions, and uprisings while stoking sectarian fears to deter calls for change. The younger Assad avoided direct confrontation with Israel but provided its archenemy, Iran, with key supply routes to Tehran’s armed proxy groups, most notably Hezbollah in Lebanon, which fired thousands of rockets at Israel during the Israel-Hamas war.

Syria’s new leader Ahmed al-Sharaa – formerly known by his nom du guerre Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, and once linked to Al-Qaeda – ousted Assad in a Turkish-backed lightning offensive before assuming power in December. Shedding traditional attire and military fatigues, he adopted a suit and tie, repeatedly telling foreign news outlets that he had no interest in confronting Israel.

“He thought he could court Israel in the sense of reassuring it that there would be no violence along its border and no fight with Israel… but Israel is emboldened by the last year-and-a-half, and with the support of the Trump administration is looking for greater ambition,” Natasha Hall, a senior fellow with the Middle East Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington DC, said.

Israeli officials now say there will be an Israeli military presence in Syria “indefinitely” and have called for the protection of Syria’s Druze and Kurdish people, significant minorities living in Syria’s south and northeast respectively. The Druze populate three main provinces close to the Israeli-occupied Golan heights in the south of the country.

“Jolani (Sharaa) took off his galabiya (robe), put on a suit, and presented a moderate face – now he has removed the mask and revealed his true identity: a jihadist terrorist from the Al-Qaida school, committing atrocities against the civilian population,” Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said last week after forces loyal to Sharaa killed hundreds of members of the Alawite minority in response to an attempt by supporters of Assad to take control of cities near Syria’s Mediterranean coast.

The slaughter, which claimed more than 800 people on both sides, underscored the danger to Sharaa’s fragile regime as regional players intensify efforts to forge alliances with different communities within Syria.

If Israel succeeds in creating a demilitarized zone in Syria with the backing of local Druze residents, it will bring large parts of the country’s south under Israeli influence, representing Israel’s most significant territorial control in Syria since its founding.

If that changes, “all hell can break loose,” he added.

In recent weeks, Sharaa has taken a harsher stance on Israel’s moves, condemning its advances as “hostile expansionism” while moving to reconcile with the very minorities Israel has courted.

A day after the bloody violence on the coast over the weekend, Sharaa signed a landmark agreement with Kurdish-led forces to integrate them into state institutions, and is reportedly close to signing a similar deal with the Druze in southern Syria.

Carmit Valensi, a senior researcher at the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS) in Tel Aviv, said that Israel’s actions are driven by its concern that Syria’s unrest and instability will spill over into its territory.

Courting Syria’s minorities

As Netanyahu seeks to expand Israel’s influence in Syria, he has singled out Syria’s Druze for protection, seeking to ally with a religious minority that could become disenfranchised by Syria’s new Islamist rulers.

Netanyahu and Katz instructed the Israeli military earlier this month to “prepare to defend” the Druze in Syria and said that Israel “will not allow the extremist Islamic regime in Syria to harm” the group. Syrian Druze may also be allowed to work in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

The Druze, an ethnic Arab group following an offshoot of Islam, also have a significant presence in Israel and the Golan Heights. Although most Golan Druze identify as Syrian Arabs and reject the Israeli state, some have accepted Israeli citizenship. In Israel, Druze citizens are required to serve in the military – unlike their Muslim and Christian Arab compatriots.

Many members of the Syrian Druze community have rejected Netanyahu’s offer for support since the fall of Assad. Crowds took to the streets of Suwayda, a Druze majority Syrian city, to protest his call to demilitarize southern Syria and regional leaders representing the group accused Israel of expansionary goals.

Walid Jumblatt, a Lebanese Druze leader who is widely respected by Druze outside Lebanon, warned about Israel’s ambitions last week.

“Israel wants to use tribes, sects and religions for its own benefit. It wants to fragment the region,” he told a news conference in Beirut Sunday. The Druze “should be careful,” he added.

The group “barely registers on a scale of relevance,” Lister said. “There is a very, very small faction in Suwayda that appear to be hinting at the idea that they would be open to some kind of external protection.”

Israel also sees Syria’s Kurds as a potential ally and has called for them to be protected against a Turkish military campaign. Turkey blames Syria’s Kurdish militants of being linked the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), a militant separatist group in Turkey.

“The problem with creating alliances with non-Sunni Muslim minorities or non-Arab minorities is that most Syrians actually want to have unity, so I think Israel will continue try to create tension… because Israel was so outward in its ambitions that it has had an opposite effect and created a moment of unity amongst Syrians,” Hall said.

Spheres of influence

While Israel’s moves in Syria may have been the most visible, it is not the only regional or global player that has sought to expand its influence there.

Turkey, which had long opposed the Assad regime and pushed for his ouster, plans to sign a defense pact with Sharaa that could see the deployment of fighter jets in two bases in central Syria.

“Turkey does have plans with Damascus’ permission to occupy at least two major airbases in central Syria, deploy fighter jets into Syria in order to exert some semblance of Syrian sovereignty,” Lister said. “Of course that is directed at Israel.”

Saudi Arabia, where al-Sharaa was born and spent his early years, deployed a royal jet last month to transport him to Riyadh for meetings with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, a bold gesture that underscored the kingdom’s intent to reassert its dominance in the region while signaling the decline of Iran’s once-formidable sway over Syria.

“If any other force in Syria today believes that Israel will permit other hostile forces to use Syria as a base of operations against us, they are gravely mistaken,” Netanyahu said in a news conference with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio last month.

“Israel will act to prevent any threat from emerging near our border in southwest Syria.”

Mark Carney has been sworn in as Canada’s prime minister, succeeding Justin Trudeau, as the country faces questions about its sovereignty from US President Donald Trump and a trade war with Canada’s largest trading partner, the United States.

Carney, a former central banker who has never held public office in Canada, is stepping in to confront the challenges facing the country, including leading the Liberal Party into an election to be held later this year.

Carney was sworn in after Trudeau stepped down earlier Friday after nearly a decade in power.

Trudeau announced his resignation in January as polls showed his Liberal Party would likely face defeat in an upcoming election. But the party’s fortunes have since improved amid growing Canadian antipathy toward Trump and his policies.

In a farewell message posted on X on Friday, Trudeau said: “Thank you, Canada – for trusting in me, for challenging me, and for granting me the privilege to serve the best country, and the best people, on earth.”

The former governor of the Bank of Canada and the Bank of England was elected Liberal Party leader in a landslide on March 9. During his decades-long career in finance, Carney steered governments through major global crises and periods of upheaval — experience he’s hoping to now leverage as he prepares to take over from Trudeau.

The Liberals have been courting Carney for more than a decade, and he advised Trudeau on Canada’s economic recovery from Covid-19. But the banker-turned-politician did not make his official entrance until Trudeau announced his resignation in January. All of his competitors were sitting politicians: Carney is in the unusual situation of becoming Canada’s prime minister without holding a seat in parliament.

Advocates in Mexico are calling for an immediate and independent investigation after the discovery of what they’re describing as an “extermination camp” in Jalisco that cartels allegedly used to kill missing persons.

There, the organization found at least three crematoriums with incinerated skeletal remains hidden under a layer of earth and a brick slab. The group said they also found dozens of personal items such as clothing, hundreds of pairs of shoes, backpacks, IDs and lists of names and nicknames.

They said they learned of the existence and location of this site through an anonymous tip.

The Jalisco Attorney General’s Office said in a statement that the ranch was originally discovered in September 2024 during an operation carried out by the National Guard, in which 10 people were arrested, two kidnapped people were released, and one person was found dead.

In their initial search of the ranch in September, authorities said they discovered weapons, vests, bullets and “two batches of thermally exposed skeletal remains.”

But at the time, they failed to detect the other remains that were found last week because cartels had hidden them in a different underground space beneath a brick slab, “a method previously unused by the criminal group,” according to the state’s attorney general’s office.

Suspicions of a cover-up

A collective of human rights organizations and relatives of the disappeared suggested that local authorities may have covered up the existence of the “extermination camp.”

“It is impossible to accept that this mega-extermination camp (Teuchitlán) operated without the complicity of authorities or security forces,” they said in a statement, which urged the federal government to take over the investigation.

In a separate statement, the office said the state prosecutor “has been reviewing what happened and how thoroughly the site was inspected at the time, in order to determine whether any field procedures were neglected by the personnel then assigned during the previous Administration.”

As recently as Tuesday, several experts from the Jalisco Attorney General’s Office were working at the site, recovering evidence.

Jalisco Attorney General Salvador González said on social media Tuesday that work is underway to identify and determine the age of the human remains found.

Mexico’s Attorney General, Alejandro Gertz Manero, reinforced the idea of a possible cover-up on Tuesday, saying that “it is not credible that a situation of this nature would not have been known to the local authorities of that municipality and the state.”

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said Wednesday that the federal Attorney General’s Office, in collaboration with the Jalisco government, will investigate what happened at the site and “that the responsibilities that must be determined will obviously be determined.”

So far, Mexican authorities have not referred to the Teuchitlán property — where nearly 500 belongings were found, including at least 200 pairs of shoes — as an “extermination camp”.

Another similar discovery

On Wednesday, the group Love for the Disappeared said another alleged training and “extermination camp” had been found in Reynosa, Tamaulipas.

Iran is using aerial drones, facial recognition systems, and a citizen-reporting app to enforce mandatory hijab laws on women, according to a United Nations report released Friday.

The report highlights Iran’s escalating reliance on technology to monitor and punish women defying the mandatory dress code. Central to this crackdown is the “Nazer” mobile application, a government-backed tool that allows citizens and police to report women for alleged violations.

Investigators involved in a two-year fact-finding mission accuse Iran of systemic human rights violations and crimes against humanity in its repression of dissent, particularly targeting women and girls.

According to the report, the “Nazer” mobile application enables users to upload the license plate, location, and time of a vehicle where a woman is not wearing a hijab. The app then “flags” the vehicle online, alerting the police,” the report reads.

The app also “triggers a text message (in real-time) to the registered owner of the vehicle, warning them that they had been found in violation of the mandatory hijab laws, and that their vehicles would be impounded for ignoring these warnings,” per the report.

The app, accessible via Iran’s police, abbreviated as (FARAJA) website, was expanded in September 2024 to target women in ambulances, taxis, and public transport.

Authorities have also deployed “aerial drones” in the capital Tehran and southern Iran to surveil public spaces and “to monitor hijab compliance in public spaces,” researchers found, in addition to new facial recognition software reportedly installed in early 2024 “at the entrance gate of the Amirkabir University in Tehran, to monitor such compliance by women students.”

Though suspended in December 2024 after an internal debate, Iran’s draft law “Hijab and Chastity” looms as a severe threat for women and girls in the country.

If enacted, the law would impose penalties of up to 10 years in prison and fines equivalent to $12,000 for non-compliance, the report says. Under Article 286 of Iran’s Islamic Penal Code, women could face the “death penalty” if accused of “corruption on earth.”

The law would further delegate enhanced enforcement powers to Iran’s security apparatus while also increasing the use of technology and surveillance, the report says.

Hundreds of people were killed in protests, the UN said in 2022, against Iran’s mandatory hijab law and political and social issues following the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in the custody of the morality police in September of that year.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has called on Ukrainian troops in the Russian region of Kursk to surrender, as diplomatic back-and-forth continues over a potential US-brokered ceasefire with Ukraine.

At a meeting with members of Russia’s security council on Friday, Putin accused Ukrainian troops in the region of committing crimes against civilians, but acknowledged US President Donald Trump’s wish to spare the soldiers’ lives as Russian forces retake the area and claimed surrendering soldiers’ lives would be guaranteed.

He also said that his country is working at restoring relations with the US, after they were “practically reduced to zero, destroyed by the previous American administration.”

“Overall, the situation is starting to move,” he said on relations with the Trump administration. “Let’s see what comes out of this.”

With Kyiv is losing its grip on Kursk, its sole territorial bargaining chip, many believe that Putin may be delaying talks on a US-Ukraine ceasefire proposal until the region is back under Russian control. Earlier this week, Ukrainian officials accepted a US proposal for a 30-day ceasefire covering the entire front line after holding talks with US counterparts in Saudi Arabia.

Putin’s remarks came after meeting with US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff on Thursday in Moscow – a visit that US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said gave “reason to be cautiously optimistic.” Trump earlier in the day had struck a similar note, calling the discussions “good and productive” in a post on Truth Social, adding that “there is a very good chance that this horrible, bloody war can finally come to an end.”

Trump also said that he has “strongly requested” for Putin to spare the lives of Ukrainian troops in Kursk.

“We understand President Trump’s call to be guided by humanitarian considerations with regard to these servicemen,” Putin said on Friday. “In this regard, I would like to emphasize that if they lay down their arms and surrender, they will be guaranteed life and decent treatment in accordance with international law and the laws of the Russian Federation.”

Ukraine’s military would first have to order troops in Kursk to surrender, however, he added.

In February, the United Nation’s Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine said it was alarmed at reports that dozens of Ukrainian soldiers who surrendered to Russia since the end of August 2024 had been “shot dead on the spot.”

“All allegations of execution of captured Ukrainian military personnel and public statements calling for, or condoning, such actions must be investigated,” Danielle Bell, head of the mission, said at the time.

‘Every day of war means losing lives’

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky meanwhile on Friday expressed skepticism about Putin’s motives and urged the US to take “strong steps” to pressure Russia into ending its war against Kyiv.

In a series of posts on X, the Ukrainian leader said his country wants peace, writing that “from the very first minutes of this war, we have wanted only one thing – for Russia to leave our people in peace and for Russian occupiers to get off our land.”

“Every day of war means losing the lives of our people – the most valuable thing we have,” he said.

Zelensky also accused Putin of attempting to sabotage peace negotiations and lying about the “real situation” on the battlefield. The Russian leader on Thursday had suggested a number of conditions for truce, including that any deal address what the Kremlin sees as “root causes” of the conflict.

Russia first invaded Ukraine in 2014 and launched a full-scale invasion in 2022. At the time, Putin demanded that Ukraine never be allowed into NATO, and that the bloc roll back its military footprint in Eastern and Central Europe – which the US and its allies dismissed as non-starters, condemning the invasion as a blatant land grab.

“Putin cannot exit this war because that would leave him with nothing,” Zelensky said. “That is why he is now doing everything he can to sabotage diplomacy by setting extremely difficult and unacceptable conditions right from the start even before a ceasefire.”

Zelensky said that he “strongly urges” countries who can influence Russia, especially the US, to take steps to help end the war.

“Pressure must be applied to the one who does not want to stop the war. Pressure must be put on Russia. Only decisive actions can end this war, which has already lasted for years,” he said.

The Ukrainian leader is expected to take part in a virtual meeting with European and NATO leaders on support for Ukraine on Saturday, hosted by British Prime Minister Keir Starmer.

The head of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria has been killed in Iraq in an operation by members of the Iraqi national intelligence service along with US-led coalition forces, the Iraqi prime minister announced Friday.

“The Iraqis continue their impressive victories over the forces of darkness and terrorism,” Prime Minister Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani said in a statement posted on X.

Abdallah Maki Mosleh al-Rifai, or “Abu Khadija,” was “deputy caliph” of the militant group and “one of the most dangerous terrorists in Iraq and the world,” the statement said.

On his Truth Social platform Friday night, US President Donald Trump said: “Today the fugitive leader of ISIS in Iraq was killed. He was relentlessly hunted down by our intrepid warfighters” in coordination with the Iraqi government and the Kurdish regional government.

“PEACE THROUGH STRENGTH!” Trump posted.

A security official said the operation was carried out by an airstrike in Anbar province, in western Iraq. A second official said the operation took place Thursday night but that al-Rifai’s death was confirmed Friday. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment publicly.

The announcement came on the same day as the first visit by Syria’s top diplomat to Iraq, during which the two countries pledged to work together to combat IS.

Iraqi Foreign Minister Fouad Hussein said at a news conference that “there are common challenges facing Syrian and Iraqi society, and especially the terrorists of IS.” He said the officials had spoken “in detail about the movements of ISIS, whether on the Syrian-Iraqi border, inside Syria or inside Iraq” during the visit.

Hussein referred to an operations room formed by Syria, Iraq, Turkey, Jordan and Lebanon at a recent meeting in Amman to confront IS, and said it would soon begin work.

The relationship between Iraq and Syria is somewhat fraught after the fall of former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Al-Sudani came to power with the support of a coalition of Iran-backed factions, and Tehran was a major backer of Assad. The current interim president of Syria, Ahmad al-Sharaa, was previously known as Abu Mohammed al-Golani and fought as an al-Qaida militant in Iraq after the US invasion of 2003, and later fought against Assad’s government in Syria.

But Syrian interim Foreign Minister Asaad Hassan al-Shibani focused on the historic ties between the two countries.

“Throughout history, Baghdad and Damascus have been the capitals of the Arab and Islamic world, sharing knowledge, culture and economy,” he said.

Strengthening the partnership between the two countries “will not only benefit our peoples, but will also contribute to the stability of the region, making us less dependent on external powers and better able to determine our own destiny,” he said.

The operation and the visit come at a time when Iraqi officials are anxious about an IS resurgence in the wake of the fall of Assad in Syria.

While Syria’s new rulers – led by the Islamist former insurgent group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham – have pursued IS cells since taking power, some fear a breakdown in overall security that could allow the group to stage a resurgence.

The US and Iraq announced an agreement last year to wind down the military mission in Iraq of an American-led coalition fighting the Islamic State group by September 2025, with US forces departing some bases where they have stationed troops during a two-decade-long military presence in the country.

When the agreement was reached to end the coalition’s mission in Iraq, Iraqi political leaders said the threat of IS was under control and they no longer needed Washington’s help to beat back the remaining cells.

But the fall of Assad in December led some to reassess that stance, including members of the Coordination Framework, a coalition of mainly Shiite, Iran-allied political parties that brought current Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammad Shia al-Sudani to power in late 2022.

Cuba’s power grid collapsed Friday night, triggering a nationwide power outage and plunging its more than 10 million people into darkness.

“At around 8:15 p.m. tonight, a failure at the Diezmero substation caused a significant loss of generation in the west of #Cuba and with it the failure of the National Electric System,” Cuba’s Ministry of Energy and Mines said in a statement.

Efforts to restore service are underway, the ministry added.

It marks the latest in a series of failures on the Caribbean island struggling with creaking infrastructure, natural disasters and economic turmoil.

Cuban officials have previously blamed US economic sanctions, which increased under the previous administration of President Donald Trump, for further crippling an already ailing energy sector.

Critics also fault a lack of investment in infrastructure by the communist government.

For nearly a week in October, most of Cuba suffered near-total blackouts, the worst energy outages in decades.

Russian President Vladimir Putin cannot be allowed to “play games” over the US-backed ceasefire proposal in Ukraine, Britain’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer said ahead of a key summit of European leaders.

Starmer is hosting a meeting on Saturday of the “coalition of the willing,” a group of Western nations who have pledged to help defend Ukraine from Russian aggression in the face of dwindling and uncertain support from Washington.

After Kyiv this week accepted the terms of a 30-day ceasefire in Ukraine – endorsed by US President Donald Trump – Moscow’s response was ambiguous, with Putin saying that “we agree with the proposal” but also that the deal “wasn’t complete.”

Ahead of Saturday’s virtual summit, Starmer accused Putin of “trying to delay” the ceasefire deal, saying that “the world needs to see action, not a study or empty words and pointless conditions.”

“We can’t allow President Putin to play games with President Trump’s deal. The Kremlin’s complete disregard for President Trump’s ceasefire proposal only serves to demonstrate that Putin is not serious about peace,” he said.

Starmer is expected to press European and NATO allies during Saturday’s talks to “ratchet up economic pressure on Russia” and “to force” Putin into negotiations, according to a Downing Street statement.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is expected to attend the meeting of the “coalition of the willing” – an umbrella term Starmer has used for countries that want to defend a deal in Ukraine and guarantee peace after three years of war.

The coalition spans 25 countries, including European nations, the EU Commission, NATO, Canada, Ukraine, Australia and New Zealand.

Starmer will call on allies to “be prepared to support a just and enduring peace in Ukraine over the long term and continue to ramp up our military support to Ukraine to defend themselves against increasing Russian attacks,” Downing Street said.

To achieve this, European nations must “be ready to monitor a ceasefire to ensure” peace lasts, Starmer said.

Although Europe has shown considerable unity amid the blows the Trump administration has dealt to the transatlantic alliance, significant divisions remain over whether individual European countries are willing to deploy troops to Ukraine to keep the peace.

Trump said Friday that he got “pretty good news” on a potential ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine, without elaborating, and that his administration had “very good calls” with both countries earlier in the day.

In a separate post on Truth Social, Trump said “there is a very good chance that this horrible, bloody war can finally come to an end.”

He said in an interview taped Thursday that his administration would know a “little bit more on Monday” about the US-proposed temporary ceasefire.

Putin met with US special envoy Steve Witkoff on Thursday in Moscow – a visit that US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said gave “reason to be cautiously optimistic.”

With Kyiv losing its grip on the western Russian region of Kursk, its sole territorial bargaining chip, many believe that Putin may be delaying talks on the ceasefire proposal until the region is firmly back under Russian control.

Meanwhile the aerial assaults continued.

Russia fired 178 drones and two ballistic missiles at Ukraine overnight, killing at least two people and injuring 44, according to Ukrainian officials. The two were killed in Kherson region, the head of its military administration said, after Russia targeted critical infrastructure and residential buildings, damaging seven high-rise buildings and 27 houses.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said its air defenses had shot down 126 Ukrainian drones overnight, without saying how many drones bypassed its defenses.