Israeli President Isaac Herzog called Elon Musk “in the last few days” to discuss a revival of talks to secure the release of hostages currently held in Gaza, according to a source close to President Herzog.

The communication comes after President-elect Donald Trump, to whom Musk has closely allied himself, said Monday that there would be “ALL HELL TO PAY in the Middle East” if the hostages being held in Gaza aren’t released before he is sworn in as president on January 20.

It is believed there are 100 hostages, both dead and alive, currently being held in Gaza, 96 of whom were taken during Hamas’ October 7 attack on Israel last year.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is under intense pressure from the families of those captured to secure their release, but repeated efforts to strike a ceasefire-for-hostages agreement have fallen short.

Last November, Musk travelled to Israel to meet leaders and the relatives of hostages, as part of his efforts to walk back an antisemitic tweet in which he agreed with a user that Jewish communities push “hatred against Whites.”

This story has been updated.

Israeli troops also forced health care workers and patients to leave the facility, and destroyed critical medical supplies, according to a statement by Dr Hussam Abu Saifya, the hospital director.

In the early hours of Friday, the Israeli military sent two plain clothed messengers into the hospital, who told people over a megaphone to evacuate, Abu Saifya added. The military detained a “large number” of young men in the two-hour raid, including health workers and Palestinians who had sought refuge, added Abu Saifya.

Israeli quadcopters unleashed a blaze of “intense and direct fire” as military vehicles encircled the facility, Abu Saifya recalled, before corralling patients, displaced people and health workers in the courtyard and forcibly taking them to a checkpoint further south, towards Gaza City.

“Initially, there was a series of airstrikes on the northern and western sides of the hospital, accompanied by intense and direct fire,” Abu Saifya said in a statement on Friday. “They approached me and ordered me to evacuate all patients, displaced persons, and medical staff, gathering everyone in the hospital’s courtyard and forcibly taking them to the checkpoint.

“In the morning, we were shocked to see hundreds of bodies and wounded individuals in the streets surrounding the hospital,” the doctor added. “The situation is catastrophic in northern Gaza, particularly in the vicinity of Kamal Adwan Hospital.”

Members of an Indonesian medical delegation – the only team performing surgery at Kamal Adwan – were among those forced to leave and not allowed to return, according to Abu Saifya.

Hours later, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) withdrew from one of the last remaining functioning facilities in northern Gaza. Hospital staffers and patients left the facility to find hundreds of bodies and wounded people lining surrounding streets, Abu Saifya added.

“IDF troops continue to operate against terror infrastructure and terrorists in the Jabaliya area, including adjacent to the Kamal Adwan Hospital,” it said. “Simultaneously, in recent weeks, coordinated efforts with international organizations have been underway in order to transfer patients, companions, and medical staff to other hospitals which are operating in the Gaza Strip.”

The statement added that the IDF is in “continuous contact” with Kamal Adwan to deliver supplies and equipment. According to COGAT, the Israeli agency that manages policy for the Palestinian territories and the flow of aid into the strip, 161 aid trucks entered Gaza on December 4.

There was no official evacuation order ahead of the raid on Kamal Adwan Hospital, according to a United Nations official. “People started to climb the wall to escape, and this panic attracted IDF fire,” the UN health’s agency representative for the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Rik Peeperkorn, said on Friday.

Human rights agencies have repeatedly accused Israel of subjecting residents in parts of northern Gaza to relocation or starvation. Since October, 2023, 58% of 273 missions led by the UN’s World Health Organization were denied, canceled or impeded, the agency said on Friday.

‘All forms of killing and violence’

The attack on Friday was the second such raid by the Israeli military since forces sprung an incursion on three cities in northern Gaza on October 5, razing entire streets, spawning severe hunger and leaving emergency crews unable to rescue people wounded by the onslaught.

The Israeli military has said the assault is targeting Hamas’ renewed presence there. More than 3,700 Palestinians have been killed, according to Gaza’s Government Media Office (GMO). Another 10,000 people have been injured, the GMO said on Monday.

At least 30 people were killed by Israeli bombing on houses around Kamal Adwan overnight, according to Dr Munir Al Bursh, the director general of the Ministry of Health in Gaza.

In another clip filmed outside the hospital, dozens of men could be seen looking around helplessly, and trying to lift wounded people heaped under thick layers of debris.

At least 1,050 health workers have been killed since Israel launched its war in Gaza after the Hamas-led October 7 attacks, according to the Ministry of Health in Ramallah. The Israeli military launched a renewed incursion on three cities in northern Gaza on October 5, saying it is targeting Hamas’ renewed presence in the area.

“Kamal Adwan Hospital is now being subjected to a new war crime, and the occupation forces are practicing all forms of killing and violence in it and around it,” the health ministry in Ramallah said on Friday. “The remaining wounded inside it are suffering from severe wounds and are in immediate need of treatment.

“For more than a year, the ministry has been appealing on a daily basis to provide protection for treatment centers, health cadres, ambulance crews and vehicles and volunteer medical teams, to stop the aggression, and to allow the entry of urgent medical supplies and the exit of the wounded for treatment.”

Reporting contributed by Belal Mortaja.

Ahmed Al Sharaa, an Islamist militant in his late 20s, moved back to Syria from Iraq in 2011 with six men and a monthly stipend of $50,000 from Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who would go on to become the world’s most wanted terrorist. His mission was to establish Al Qaeda’s Syrian affiliate, Jabhat Al Nusra.

Sharaa is now commanding thousands of men in an armed rebellion threatening to topple the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. He’s better known by his nom de guerre Abu Mohammed al-Jolani.

Born in the Saudi capital Riyadh to Syrian parents from the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights and raised in Damascus, Jolani said in an interview with PBS in 2021 that he was galvanized by the Second Palestinian Intifada (uprising) against Israel in the early 2000s and went on to become a jihadist in Iraq after the 2003 US invasion. His deep knowledge of Syria caught the attention of his commanders in Iraq as they were looking to expand their foothold in Syria during the country’s uprising.

Sharaa is now commanding thousands of men in an armed rebellion threatening to topple the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. He’s better known by his nom de guerre Abu Mohammed al-Jolani.

Over the years, his influence grew despite his identity being kept under wraps. During television interviews, he never faced the camera directly and always covered his face in public appearances.

His public debut was in a 2016 video when he announced a split from Al Qaeda to create what he said was a Syria-focused anti-regime front with other local factions, called Jabhat Fateh al-Sham (the Front for the Conquest of the Levant), which later changed to Hayat Tahrir Al Sham (HTS), or the Organization for the Liberation of the Levant.

“This new formation has no relation to any external party,” he said at the time, distancing it from his radical Islamist past.

The split was strategic. The goal was to fend off attacks from world powers like the United States and Russia, both of which had intervened in the Syrian civil war to target Islamist groups like Al Qaeda and ISIS. It was also the start of Jolani’s gradual transformation from the classic anti-West jihadist, to a more palatable revolutionary. He told PBS in 2021 that he had no desire to wage war against Western nations.

Western-style blazer

In the years that followed, Jolani replaced his jihadist camo attire for a Western-style blazer and shirt, established a semi-technocratic government in Idlib, which his group held control over, and promoted himself as a viable partner in regional and Western efforts to curb Iran’s influence in the Middle East. He conducted operations against ISIS including the 2023 high-profile killing of ISIS leader Abu Hussein Al-Husseini al-Qurashi.

This week, his group publicly published his real name for the first time in a statement announcing the capture of Hama.

“He’s shredded all transnational ties and objectives and rooted out ISIS and Al Qaeda operatives in areas he controls,” said Dareen Khalifa, a senior advisor at the Brussels-based International Crisis Group think tank.

His media appearance of late have also attempted to promote leadership qualities he gained over the years governing 4 million people in Idlib province, northwest Syria.

In Idlib he embarked on a campaign to eliminate ISIS as well as potential threats to his influence, arresting former commanders and eliminating rivals.

Despite attempts to distance his group from extremist organizations, the United States still designated his new group a terror organization and targeted members of HTS who once fought for Al Qaeda, proving his rebranding attempts a failure.

But the landscape in Syria and the Middle East has changed since. A collapse of the Syrian regime could finally break Iran’s so-called Axis of Resistance – a network of allied regional states and militias. Jolani may be positioning himself to play a key role in that outcome, hoping it will earn him favor both in the region and with the West.

A man is recovering from serious injuries after leaping onto a polar bear to protect his wife from being mauled by the animal, according to police in Canada’s Ontario province.

A man and a woman in the town of Fort Severn had left their home before 5 a.m. local time to look for their dogs and, while in the driveway, “a polar bear lunged at the woman,” Nishnawbe Aski Police Service (NAPS) said in a news release Tuesday.

“The woman slipped to (the) ground as her husband leapt onto the animal to prevent its attack. The bear then attacked the male, causing serious but non-life-threatening injuries to his arm and legs,” the service added.

The man “is expected to recover,” police said.

While the man grappled with the animal, “a neighbour arrived with a firearm and shot the bear several times. The bear retreated to a nearby wooded area where it died from its injuries,” NAPS said.

Police officers, who arrived at the scene after receiving reports of gunfire and a possible bear sighting in the area, “located a deceased polar bear,” the service said, adding: “Police continued to patrol the area to ensure no other bears were roaming the community.”

Fort Severn is located near Hudson Bay.

At the time of the attack, “maybe this bear was a little hungrier than usual,” she added.

McCall said changing sea patterns due to climate change could impact how far inland bears go throughout the year and recommended locking away waste in order not to attract them.

“If you’re attacked by a polar bear, definitely do not play dead — that is a myth,” she added. “Fight as long as you can.”

A military police officer has been arrested in Brazil after a video emerged of him throwing a civilian over a bridge in Sao Paulo on Monday, sparking protests in the city.

The video, which was shared widely on social media and the Brazilian press, showed an officer grabbing a civilian by the shirt and walking him towards the side of a bridge. Moments later, the officer lifts the man – who appears unarmed and not applying any resistance – and pushes him over the edge.

The state’s public ministry said the incident was “appalling and absolutely unacceptable” in a statement posted Tuesday.

“There is no other way to classify the images of the moment in which a military police officer throws a man from the top of a bridge,” the public ministry said, adding that in the video it is “evident that the suspect was already subdued by security agents, who had the functional duty of taking him, intact, to a police station so that the incident could be recorded.”

An arrest warrant was issued for the officer, Luan Felipe Alves, who was taken into custody early Thursday, state media Agencia Brasil reported. He was later ordered to remain under preventive detention by Sao Paulo’s military court as investigations around the incident are conducted, Agencia Brasil added.

The man is believed to have survived the fall, and authorities are currently searching for him for questioning, according to Agencia Brasil.

It is unclear what charges Alves may be facing but his legal team said in a statement that his arrest “demonstrates that there is an anticipation of guilt.”

The state’s military police removed several officers from their main duties, including Alves, while the incident and the officers are investigated, Agencia Brasil reports.

“I have ordered the immediate removal of the police officers involved in this regrettable scene,” Secretary of Public Security of the State of Sao Paulo, Guilherme Derrite, said Tuesday in a video post on X, adding that the “this type of attitude” differs from the mission of the military police.

The incident hit a nerve in the city where there has been growing public anger over police violence, including an incident where an off-duty policeman killed a man for allegedly stealing soap from a market, Reuters reported.

A protest against police violence broke out on Thursday in Sao Paulo, where demonstrators demanded for Derrite’s resignation, according to Reuters. “We really need our voices to be heard. We need to fight more and more. We need to take to the streets to expose the police which are so violent in the state of Sao Paulo and in Brazil,” one protester told Reuters.

The European Union reached a blockbuster free trade agreement Friday with Brazil, Argentina and the three other South American nations in the Mercosur trade alliance, capping a quarter-century of on-off negotiations even as France vowed to derail the contentious accord.

Provided it is ratified, the accord would create one of the world’s largest free trade zones, covering a market of 780 million people that represents nearly a quarter of global gross domestic product.

The accord’s proponents in Brussels say it would save businesses some $4.26 billion in duties each year, slashing red tape and removing tariffs on products like Italian wine, Argentine steak, Brazilian oranges and German Volkswagens.

Its critics in France, the Netherlands and other countries with big dairy and beef industries say the pact would subject local farmers to unfair competition and cause environmental damage.

From Uruguay, the host of the Mercosur summit, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen hailed the deal as a “truly historic milestone” at a time when global protectionism is on the rise.

“I know that strong winds are blowing in the opposite direction, toward isolation and fragmentation, but this agreement is our clear response,” von der Leyen said, an apparent reference to U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s vows to protect American workers and goods.

Under pressure from his country’s powerful and vocal farming lobby, French President Emmanuel Macron said Friday the deal remained “unacceptable” as it stands and stressed that governments have not yet seen “the final outcome” of negotiations.

“The agreement has neither been signed nor ratified. This is not the end of the story,” Macron’s office said, adding that France demands additional safeguards for farmers and commitments to sustainable development and health controls.

For France to block the deal, it would need the support of three or more other EU member states representing at least 35% of the bloc’s population.

The French government, which has been rallying countries to oppose the pact, named Austria, Belgium, Italy, the Netherlands and Poland as other wary states that share French concerns about the deal.

To take effect, the pact must also be endorsed by the European Parliament.

In remarks aimed at her “fellow Europeans,” and perhaps in particular French skeptics, von der Leyen promised the accord would boost 60,000 businesses through lower tariffs, streamlined customs procedures and preferential access to raw materials otherwise supplied by China.

“This will create huge business opportunities,” von der Leyen said.

She then turned to address European farmers who fear that an influx of cheap food imports will jeopardize their livelihoods. South American countries do not have to adhere to the same standards for animal treatment and pesticide use.

“We have heard you, listened to your concerns, and we are acting on them,” von der Leyen said.

Outrage over environmental rules, rising costs and unregulated imports has unleashed massive farmers’ protests across the continent over the past year.

Leaders on both sides of the Atlantic who long have pushed for the deal praised the announcement Friday, welcoming the results as a boon for export industries.

It marks the first major trade agreement for Mercosur, which is comprised of Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, Paraguay and, newly, Bolivia. The bloc had previously only managed to conclude free-trade deals with Egypt, Israel and Singapore.

“An important obstacle to the agreement has been overcome,” said Chancellor Olaf Scholz of Germany, where the nation’s vaunted car industry is poised to profit.

From Spain, Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez called the agreement “an unprecedented economic bridge.”

At the Mercosur summit in Uruguay’s capital of Montevideo, Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva praised “a modern and balanced text which recognizes Mercosur’s environmental credentials.”

“We are securing new markets for our exports and strengthening investment flows,” he said.

The Brazilian Trade and Investment Promotion Agency said it expects the pact to boost the nation’s Europe-bound exports by $7 billion.

Libertarian President Javier Milei of Argentina described the accord as aligning with his free market principles. Argentines are excited about selling more beef and agricultural products in the EU.

The deal is the product of 25 years of painstaking negotiations, dating back to a Mercosur summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1999. Talks collapsed over differences in economic priorities, regulatory standards and agricultural policies. The rise of protectionist tendencies also repeatedly upended hopes.

Momentum picked up in 2016, as former President Trump imposed harsh tariffs on Europe. At the same time, market-friendly governments came to power in South America’s biggest economies, Brazil and Argentina, which had been closed for years.

In June 2019, negotiators announced a deal that included provisions for tariff reductions and commitments to environmental standards.

But it was never implemented. In Brazil, the region’s economic powerhouse, right-wing former President Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil, presided over record levels of deforestation in the Amazon, prompting EU governments to demand tougher sustainability criteria. In Argentina, a new left-wing protectionist government opposed the deal.

But things picked up as the region’s politics shifted again in 2023. Brazil’s President Lula rode to power on pledges to rein in illegal logging, soothing concerns that the pact could accelerate deforestation. Argentina’s Milei is working to open the nation’s notoriously closed and crisis-stricken economy.

But if past EU trade agreements are any indication, ratification could take years.

“We celebrate it, but it’s still far from reality,” Milei said of the accord.

In 2016, the EU and Canada signed a pact, known as the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement, or CETA, but the approval process is still lumbering along.

Germany’s parliament only signed off on that pact two years ago, and the French Senate rejected it in March this year.

“Anyone with any memory is skeptical,” said Brian Winter, a vice president of the New York-based Council of the Americas. “They have trotted out leaders and declared victory and celebrated, and yet there always seems to be a hitch.”

Mexican authorities are investigating the deaths of 13 children suspected to be linked to contaminated bags of intravenous nutrition in four hospitals in central Mexico.

The children were 14 or younger, say Mexico health officials, who suspect they died from an infection of a multidrug-resistant bacteria Klebsiella oxytoca.

The deaths took place in three public medical centers and one private clinic in the State of Mexico, according to a statement shared by Mexico’s Health Secretariat on Thursday.

“This outbreak is preliminarily linked to intravenous parenteral nutrition solutions or to the supplies used for their application that could be contaminated,” the statement read.

In total, authorities said they identified 20 possible cases of Klebsiella oxytoca, with 15 being confirmed, four marked as probable and one being ruled out. Seven other children are currently hospitalized and “under control,” according to the State of Mexico’s secretary of health, Macarena Montoya.

Health authorities have since issued a nationwide epidemiological alert and ordered the suspension of the use and administration of intravenous solutions from the medical device company Productos Hospitalarios.

On its website, the company – which hasn’t made any public statements related to the outbreak – says it has “36 years of experience in the development of innovative solutions for health care.”

Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum called the situation “very sad” on Friday and said her government’s objective is to “care for the families” and determine the cause of the deaths.

Klebsiella oxytoca is a bacteria notorious for hospital-acquired infections such as pneumonia, urinary tract infection, soft tissue infection and a type of blood poisoning which often leads to septic shock.

According to the CDC, in hospital settings, “patients with devices like ventilators (breathing machines) or intravenous (vein) catheters, and patients taking long courses of certain antibiotics are most at risk for Klebsiella infections.”

Global stakeholders now have to reckon with the geopolitical impact of a rebel offensive led by an Islamist group in Syria that could potentially threaten President Bashar al-Assad’s hold over the country.

Syrian rebels have made a lightning advance in the north of the country, taking two major cities: Aleppo, the second biggest city, and Hama, a strategically important city that lies on a vital supply route. The rebels are saying they’ll advance further south to Homs, just over 100 miles from the Syrian capital of Damascus.

While Assad has many enemies in the region and beyond, his fall wouldn’t be welcomed by all.

Western and Arab states, as well as Israel, would like to see Iran’s influence in Syria curtailed, but none wish for a radical Islamist regime to replace Assad. For Russia, Syria’s fall could mean losing its closest Middle Eastern ally and undermining its ability to project power while it fights a war in Ukraine. For Iran, it could shatter its so-called Axis of Resistance, comprising allied states and militias.

Here’s how the events in Syria could impact key players in the Middle East:

Arab states

The rebel advances in Syria mark the first real test of powerful Arab states’ commitment to reconcile with Assad.

At the height of the Syrian civil war, Sunni Arab states, including regional powerhouses Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, broke ties with the Iran-allied Assad regime, moved to isolate it and threw their weight behind opposition groups trying to topple it, seeing it as an opportunity to curb Tehran’s regional influence.

But Assad, aided by Russia, Iran and Lebanon’s Hezbollah, survived and reclaimed territory lost to the rebels. Under heavy US sanctions, Syria turned into what some experts have called a “narco-state,” fueling a drug crisis in neighboring countries.

Syria’s new reality prompted Arab nations to extend a hand to the Assad regime, and over the past few years, Saudi Arabia and the UAE have led efforts toward his regional and international rehabilitation. In 2023, the Syrian regime was readmitted to the Arab League.

Over a decade after they backed the Syrian opposition, Gulf Arab states, including Saudi Arabia and the UAE, are now siding with Assad as he once again faces a rebellion.

“In 2011, a very large number of countries rather quickly came to the view that they would be better off if Assad fell and they wanted to get rid of him… but the Saudis, Emiratis and others in the region see this now as a challenging and destabilizing situation for them if Assad falls at this point,” said Trita Parsi, executive vice president of the Washington DC-based Quincy Institute.

In their annual Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) summit last weekend, Gulf Arab leaders called for the preservation of Syria’s territorial integrity, declared respect for its sovereignty and rejected regional interference in its internal affairs. By contrast, the statement after the 2011 GCC summit called on Assad to “immediately stop the killing machine, put an end to the bloodshed and release detainees.”

“We might see that many of these countries would want to take advantage of the situation to improve their own position inside Syria, particularly with Iran, but that necessitates that Assad is weakened but stays – a very different position from what they had earlier on when they were throwing everything at him to get rid of him all together,” Parsi said.

Iran

Iran has used Syria to expand its regional influence through proxy groups stationed in the country. The Islamic Republic, along with its most formidable proxy Hezbollah, have proven instrumental in keeping Assad in power, by helping Syrian government forces regain lost territory, while sending its own Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) commanders to advise Assad’s military.

After the Palestinian militant group Hamas launched its attack on Israel in October last year, Hezbollah began exchanging fire with Israel, prompting an Israeli retaliation that had the group’s top brass assassinated and significantly debilitated its capabilities. As a result, Hezbollah pulled its forces out of Syria to focus on its war with Israel, leaving Assad exposed, experts said.

In Syria, Israel has consistently targeted Iranian personnel and supply routes used to transfer weapons to its proxies. The fall of Aleppo and potentially other cities bordering Lebanon could further disrupt those routes, placing Iran in a difficult position. Last week, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told the Qatari news outlet Al Araby Al Jadeed that Tehran would consider sending troops to Syria if requested by the Assad regime. However, escalating the war in Syria could undermine Iran’s efforts to pursue diplomacy with the West and Arab states.

Losing Syria would be “a huge blow” for Iran, Parsi said. “The investment Iranians have made in Syria is very significant, it’s an important land bridge to Lebanon, but also the alliance the Iranians have with the Assad regime has lasted across the Islamic Republic’s history.”

Iran may also use its proxies in the region as leverage in potential talks with an incoming Trump administration, Parsi said.

“If Iran loses too much of their position in the region, will they be too weak to negotiate? But if they fight back to try and retain as much of that position as possible, do they risk escalating the war to the point where diplomacy may no longer be possible?” he said. “They’re walking a fine balance,”

Israel

Israel too is caught in a difficult position. Assad, who views Israel as an enemy, has not posed a direct threat to the country, opting not to respond to the regular Israeli strikes in Syria over the past year. But the regime has allowed its territory to be used by Iran to supply Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Hadi al-Bahra, a Syrian opposition leader representing anti-Assad groups, including the Turkey-backed Syrian National Army (SNA), said rebels felt encouraged to make an advance for Aleppo last week after Israel debilitated Hezbollah and weakened Iran’s footprint in the region.

“Due to the Lebanese war and decrease in Hezbollah forces, (Assad’s) regime has less support,” Al Bahra told Reuters in an interview, adding that Iran-backed militias also have fewer resources, and Russia is providing less air cover to Assad’s forces due to its “Ukraine problem”.

The group leading the rebellion, however, is Hayat Tahrir Al Sham (HTS) whose leader Abu Muhammad Al Jolani is a former al Qaeda fighter with an Islamist ideology that opposes Israel.

Israel has to make sure that the offensive will not evolve into a “new challenge” posed by HTS and the Sunni rebels leading the offensive in Syria, he added.

Russia

Assad was on a losing streak in Syria until Russian President Vladimir Putin intervened in 2015. Without Russian air support, the recapture of Aleppo in 2016, a turning point for the embattled Syrian president, would have been difficult, if not impossible.

The Kremlin said this week it will “certainly continue to support” Assad as Russian jets stepped up strikes on opposition forces in northern Syria.

Nicole Grajewski, a fellow in the Nuclear Policy Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace with a focus on Russia, said the Assad regime was caught off-guard during the rebels’ latest offensive, and the rebels may have taken advantage of Russia’s distraction with Ukraine to take land in Syria.

Moscow hadn’t committed a large number of forces to Syria and may still be capable of supporting it, she added, but Russia’s ability to mobilize forces would be difficult given how quickly the rebels are advancing across northern Syria.

Turkey

Turkey has tried to distance itself from the rebels’ actions in northern Syria, but it is the primary backer of the Syrian National Army, one of the groups pushing the offensive.

Ankara has also represented the opposition in negotiations with Russia over several years in the past decade, which eventually led to a ceasefire agreement in 2020 between parties in Syria each of them supports.

Despite its support for opposition forces, Turkey has not ruled out a rapprochement with Syria. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has called for a meeting with Assad, the man he once labeled a terrorist, to reset relations. Assad has refused to meet him as long as Turkey continues to occupy parts of his country.

Turkey has also sought a solution for an estimated 3.1 million Syrian refugees it hosts – more than any other country. The refugees have become a major point of contention in Turkey, often leading to anti-Syrian riots and calls for mass deportation by opposition parties.

Until recently, the Syria situation was seen in Turkey as “regime is winning, opposition is losing” with the Iran-Russia axis defining the developments on the ground, said Galip Dalay, a senior consulting fellow at Chatham House, a think tank in London. But the recent rebel push has changed that power dynamic.

Another goal for Turkey is to push back Kurdish insurgent groups located along the Turkish-Syria border and create a buffer zone. Erdogan has long opposed Kurdish nationalism and made it clear that his ultimate goal is to eliminate the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), a Kurdish far-left militant and political group based in Turkey and Iraq that has fought the Turkish state for more than three decades.

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol has apologized to the nation in his first public comments since his abortive attempt to impose martial law threw the country into political chaos and led to calls for his impeachment.

“This emergency martial law declaration stemmed from my desperation as the ultimate responsible party for state affairs,” Yoon said in a two-minute address.

“I am deeply sorry and sincerely apologize to the citizens who must have been greatly shocked,” Yoon said, adding he “caused anxiety and inconvenience” to South Korean citizens.

Yoon, who is expected to face an impeachment vote in parliament this weekend, said he “will not avoid the legal and political responsibility related to this martial law declaration.”

Yoon declared martial law in an unannounced television address late Tuesday night, accusing the main opposition party of sympathizing with North Korea and of “anti-state activities.” He cited a motion by the Democratic Party, which has a majority in parliament, to impeach top prosecutors and reject a government budget proposal.

Yet within just six hours, the leader was forced to back down, after lawmakers forced their way past soldiers into parliament to unanimously strike down the decree.

Addressing rumors that martial law will be invoked again, Yoon said “there will absolutely be no second attempt at a constitutional amendment.”

“I will entrust my party with methods to stabilize the political situation, including the remainder of my term… I apologize to the citizens for the concerns I have caused,” Yoon concluded as he stepped off the podium and bowed.

The declaration of a military emergency, although short-lived, was met with shock and anger across the country, which remains deeply scarred by the brutality of martial law imposed during decades of military dictatorship before it won a long, bloody fight for democracy in the 1980s.

Pressure on Yoon has mounted in the days since, with protesters and opposition figures demanding his impeachment – and support wavering even within his own party and military.

The leader of South Korea’s ruling party said after Yoon’s address that the president’s resignation is now inevitable.

Speaking to reporters, Han Dong-hoon, chief of Yoon’s own People Power Party, said it was “impossible for the president to carry on his normal duties,” adding that his “early resignation is inevitable.”

On Friday, Han said Yoon needs to be immediately suspended from duty to protect the country from “grave danger,” in a dramatic reversal of opinion that compounds the pressure building on the president ahead of an impeachment vote in parliament.