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Syrian residents in Madrid have gathered in Puerta del Sol to celebrate the fall and end of the government of President Bashar al-Assad in the Arab country on December 14, 2024.

David Canales / SOPA Images via Reuters Connect

Hard Numbers: Spain top destination for asylum seekers, Pakistan’s deadly monsoons, babies born with three DNA’s, & more

12,800: Spain replaced Germany in May as the top destination in the European Union for asylum seekers, receiving 12,800 applications that month. Germany had 9,900 asylum applicants, down from 18,700 in the same period last year, as Berlin tries to stem the influx of Syrian nationals – who represent the largest of asylum seekers – following the fall of Bashar al-Assad.

69: At least 69 people have died in a fire at a shopping mall in the city of al-Kut in eastern Iraq. The origin of the fire is not yet known, but initial analysis of the site suggests that it started on the floor where cosmetics and perfumes are sold.

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An armed PKK fighter places a weapon to be burnt during a disarming ceremony in Sulaimaniya, Iraq, July 11, 2025, in this screengrab obtained from a handout video.

Kurdistan Workers Party Media Office via REUTERS

What We're Watching: Kurdish militants melt away the past, Trump to shift focus away from Congress, Germany gets a taste of US-style court battles

Kurdish militants burn their own guns

In a symbolic ending to more than 40 years of rebellion against the Turkish government, fighters from the PKK — a Kurdish militia — melted a cache of weapons in a gigantic cauldron on Friday. Earlier this year jailed PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan called for disarming as part of a process expected to deliver more cultural autonomy for Kurds, who make up 20% of Turkey’s population. The move shifts attention onto the future of affiliated Kurdish militias in Syria, as well as to Turkey’s parliament, where President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is courting support from Kurdish parties as he seeks to soften term limits.

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Members of the Basij paramilitary force hold Iranian flag, Lebanese flag, and various militia flags, during a rally commemorating International Quds Day in downtown Tehran, April 14, 2023.

Morteza Nikoubazl via Reuters Connect

Q + A: Is this the end of Iran’s “Axis of Resistance?”

As the world reacted to Israel and the US bombing Iran’s nuclear facilities last week, one group was largely silent – Iran’s network of allied militias in the Middle East.

Since the 1980s, Tehran has cultivated what it calls an “Axis of Resistance” – a network of groups closely aligned with its agenda, encompassing Hezbollah in Lebanon, Hamas in Palestine, the Popular Mobilization Forces in Iraq, and the Houthis in Yemen.

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A local Iraqi Kurdish footballer walks with his friends near a sportswear shop in the district of Soran, northeast of Erbil, Iraq, on April 6, 2019.

REUTERS/Azad Lashkari

From football fields to classrooms: How FC Barcelona is reentering the political fray

If there’s a mention of FC Barcelona’s youth soccer system, fans of the Blaugrana will think straight to La Masia, the academy that produced legends of the game like Lionel Messi, Carles Puyol, and – more recently – Lamine Yamal.

What they might not think about is the Kurdish areas of Iraq and Syria. Yet that is exactly the place the famed Catalonian club has decided to set up another six youth soccer schools.

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President Donald Trump speaks during a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the Oval Office on April 7, 2025. REUTERS/Kevin Mohatt

REUTERS/Kevin Mohatt

US-Iran talks to be held this weekend

On Monday, President Donald Trump said that the US has been engaged in “direct” talks with Iran over its nuclear program and said that a meeting with “very high-level” officials is set for this Saturday. That would be a sharp break from previous US-Iran talks, which have occurred mostly through intermediaries.

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A child, suffering from malnutrition, is treated at Port Sudan Paediatric Centre, during a visit by WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus to the country, in Sudan, on Sept. 7, 2024.

REUTERS/El Tayeb Siddig

Hard Numbers: Cholera spreads in Sudan, Democratic Republic of Congo turns to an unlikely source to boost tourism, Mass executions held in Iraq, Gunman hijacks bus in LA

430: Over 430 people have died from cholera in Sudan in the past month, according to the country’s health ministry, and the devastating civil war there is making it hard to provide treatment. Doctors Without Borders recently described the health system in Sudan as “decimated” and warned that the humanitarian response amid the cholera outbreak is “regularly obstructed by both warring parties.”

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Annie Gugliotta

Russia’s last independent pollster tells me how Putin does it

How does Vladimir Putin manage to keep this up? For all the destruction he’s visited on Ukraine, his invasion has also inflicted so much damage on Russia.

There are the financial and economic costs. There’s the diplomatic isolation. There’s the exodus of hundreds of thousands of Russians who’d rather bet on a future abroad than support Putin’s war for the past at home.

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President Joe Biden attends the return of the remains of the three slain US soldiers — Sgt. Breonna Alexsondria Moffett, Sgt. William Jerome Rivers, and Sgt. Kennedy Ladon Sanders — at Dover Air Force Base on Friday.

USA Today Network via Reuters

US strikes back after deadly drone attack

Nearly a week after a drone attack killed three American service members at a small US base in Jordan, the US responded late Friday by launching strikes against more than 85 targets in Syria and Iraq. The Pentagon blames the Iran-backed Islamic Resistance in Iraq for the deadly drone attack.

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