Since the rapid collapse of the Assad government and the takeover of Damascus by US-designated terror group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) on December 8, Syrians by the hundreds or even thousands have been filmed in city streets celebrating, expressing hope for a new era. But for every scene of hundreds gathered in a city square in front of Al Jazeera or CNN cameras, the reality is that there are many tens of thousands more families holed up in their homes, deeply fearful of venturing outside , with the more fortunate ones having stocked up on supplies just prior to Abu Mohammad al-Jolani's army of mujahideen fighters entering the capital. With the basically overnight and shock collapse of a state system earlier this month which had been in place for over a half-century, Syrians whether in Aleppo, Hama, Homs, Latakia, or Damascus have no clue which armed factions might be patrolling the neighborhoods just around the corner from their apartments . A big looming dark fear is the possibility of "reprisal" killings meted out by the jihadists against any community, especially along religious lines, merely perceived as 'loyalist' or at least which never came out openly against the Assad government. We and others have been documenting that this is already taking place . Political alignment aside, all communities of the capital have historically been "Syria first"—that is, the common populace tends to frame identity foremost along nationalistic lines. The ideology of the conquerors, in their own words and patches/symbols on their tactical vests, are without doubt Takfirism, Salafism, and Wahhabism . This has been exhaustively documented over many, many years of the tragic proxy war in Syria - yet now suddenly Western leaders and media lackeys have 'forgotten' it all. Non-Sunni Muslims are especially being targeted, for nothing else other than religion and identity Mainstream media cameras in Damascus have been carefully trying to hide or at least downplay this reality. They present the euphoria of those few on the streets praising the 'revolution' and downfall of Assad while ignoring the many more who are bracing for a sectarian bloodbath at the hands of the jihadists. American correspondents have even been caught 'coaching' bearded militants waring ISIS patches on how to improve their image in front of an international audience... Watch: Syrian 'Moderate Rebel' Removes ISIS Patch At Prompting Of American Journalist . HTS goons open fire on demonstrators protesting extrajudicial revenge killings and the destruction of Alawite shrines just days after Jolani received friendly delegations of US and UK diplomats and journos pic.twitter.com/nVWA49wNgK This fear of being targeted for ethno-religious genocide is perhaps greatest among Christians, Alawites, and Druze. Dread or anxiety at what tomorrow will bring is also a reality among some business-oriented Sunnis of Aleppo and Damascus. Major urban centers in Syria had always had a definite secular and pluralist public vibe—with liquor stores and nightclubs a common sight in central areas—and women in the Islamic veil a little bit more of a rarity. Some liquor stores especially in Aleppo and the north have already been smashed and destroyed . Now, for the first time in Syria's modern history, women who dare to venture out in the city center of Damascus are being asked their sectarian affiliation: Are you Sunni, Shia, Christian, Druze? Or else they are being told to put on the Islamic veil, by bearded militants from outside cities or villages, or worse who are from other countries . Latakia, as well as parts of the countryside, are already witnessing armed jihadist gangs conducting summary executions. Syria: “When we build the Islamic caliphate, Christians will pay Jizya under Islamic Sharia.” - Abu Mohammad al-Jolani, HTS Islamist leader and new ruler of Syria Forcing Christians to become second-class citizens and be extorted through a protection tax is not moderate. pic.twitter.com/BGvnvM8w3C Gruesome videos (too horrific to link to) are filling up social media platforms like X and Telegram, in some instances with unidentified victims being dragged to death behind vehicles . Others show HTS-linked factions or else foreign jihadist groups cleansing entire villages of 'Nusayris' —a derogatory term for Alawites, which is ethno-religious background of the Assad family. Jolani's officials have recently tried to urge for militants to not film their atrocities or upload them to the internet . * * * Rania Khalek is an independent journalist who has long reported from the region. Her contacts across Syria are telling her that the jihadists are killing civilians in various places far away from CNN or Al-Jazeera cameras. Below is a report she posted to X [emphasis ZH]... Some concerning developments in Syria that were being largely ignored or dismissed until horrific videos of sectarian violence and executions began emerging in recent days... In some mixed Syrian towns and villages as well as minority neighborhoods around Homs, Hama and on the coast, security was breaking down and people felt scared to speak about it, according to multiple contacts. The Hama-Homs highway had decapitated bodies strewn about , according to one contact. He wanted to take pictures of the bodies on the highway but he didn’t dare out of fear. At one roadblock they forced him to open his phone and they went through it. He said they spoke Arabic but it was a hybrid fusha accent he could barely understand. A contact reported being stopped by HTS at a barricade. He then had to wait for his business partner who is Sunni to come and vouch for him. Not a good sign. Flyers have been disbursed in multiple areas informing women how they should dress and act . Minorities in mixed villages have been subjected to robberies, killings, kidnappings , etc. Some have responded by organizing armed men to protect their neighborhoods from raids. This is not everyone’s experience of course. But these sorts of incidents were increasing. And they reached a fever pitch after the video of the destruction of an Alawite shrine surfaced. While the random violence and score settling speaks to the chaos that comes with a regime change like this, the sectarian violence is much more concerning. There are militias HTS either has no control over because they’re spread too thin or they don’t care to stop them. Some expressed that they suspect HTS is secretly calling the shots and then playing dumb . Whatever the case, there is deep distrust of HTS in many minority communities due to their past violence combined with recent events. "I don't trust them at all, the fact that they are so insistent on collecting guns from people is so worrying, they even want licensed guns, and this is actually scary. They are always trying to appear as nice people talking about peace, but yet every day someone gets killed and they do nothing about it ," said one contact in Latakia. The sectarian violence is reminiscent of post 2011 days when the regime would be kicked out of an area and extremist militias would quickly take over and then chaos and sectarian violence would ensue. The pro-HTS side is framing any pushback or measure of self defense in vulnerable communities as Iranian-provoked or Assadist, which isn’t helpful and exacerbates the sectarianism. As the gun battles heat up, it’s hard to ignore the signs of potential civil unrest to come with violent zones of state collapse. I hope stability wins the day but it doesn’t look good .BRIEFLY
Austin Ekeler was concussed late in the Commanders' loss and taken to hospital for evaluationPedro escaped punishment after swinging an arm at Bees substitute substitute Yehor Yarmoliuk without making contact. VAR reviewed the second-half incident but deemed there was no violent conduct. Frank and Brighton head coach Fabian Hurzeler disagreed about the decision. “As I understand the rules, you can’t swing your arm to try to hit someone,” said Frank. “If you hit them or not, it’s a red, that’s the way I understand the rules.” Frank spoke to the match officials, including referee Andy Madley, about the flashpoint at full-time. “They haven’t seen the situation yet, not on TV afterwards,” said Frank. “To be fair to him, I think the angle can be tricky so that’s why you’ve got VAR.” Asked about Frank’s assessment, Hurzeler replied: “Interesting opinion. I see it completely different. “For me, it’s not a red card. He tried to get free from a person.” Brighton were booed off after their winless run was stretched to six top-flight games. Albion dominated for large periods and hit the woodwork inside four minutes through Julio Enciso. Bees goalkeeper Mark Flekken made some important saves before being forced off injured in the 36th minute, albeit his replacement Hakon Valdimarsson was rarely tested on his Premier League debut. The Seagulls remain 10th ahead of Monday’s trip to Aston Villa, with Brentford a position and two points below moving towards their New Year’s Day showdown with Arsenal. Hurzeler thought the jeers at full-time were unfair. “The team doesn’t deserve that because in all the games we had in the last weeks they were all good, they were all intense, they were all where we thought we deserved more” said the German, whose team have lost to Fulham and Crystal Palace and drawn with Southampton, Leicester and West Ham in recent matches. “We try to work hard to satisfy our supporters, we try to give them what they deserve, we try to make them proud. “But the Premier League is tough. We know there will be (tough) periods we have to go through, especially with this young squad. “We try to stick together, find the positive and keep on going.” Brentford, who remain without a top-flight away win this term, had an early Yoane Wissa finish ruled out for offside following VAR intervention but barely threatened, despite an improved second-half showing. Frank, who is awaiting news on Flekken and defender Ben Mee, who also left the field injured, said: “I thought it was a fair point. “Brighton were better in the first half, no big, clearcut chances, and I thought we were better second half. “Overall, I’m happy with the performance, especially the way we defended. “We haven’t had too many clean sheets this season, so in that context I thought it was very impressive against a good Brighton team. “We know we have a lot of players out – we get two more injuries during the game. “The way the players showed their mentality and character and dug in was hugely impressive.”
Mohamed Salah has said he is hopeful that Liverpool can lift the Premier League title this season, saying this campagin "feels different." Liverpool boss Arne Slot is in his first season in charge at Anfield, although he could equal the feat of Jürgen Klopp by delivering a league title to the club after moving seven points clear with a 3-1 win over Leicester City on Thursday. Editor's Picks Man City's aura of invincibility has been shattered, and even Haaland is affected 7h Rob Dawson Fernandes naivety sets up Man United for third straight loss 2h Nick Judd Why Arsenal need a top striker to make Premier League title charge 14h Mark Ogden Salah, who has repeatedly said he could leave at the end of the season amid the final year of his contact , called for his Liverpool teammates to keep pushing for the title. "The most important thing is the team winning -- hopefully we win the Premier League," he told Amazon Prime. "It is great, but we focus on each game and hopefully we carry on like that. "[This year] it feels different, but the most important thing is we need to stay humble. This one is very special, hopefully we win the Premier League and for this club it is something I dream of." Salah netted the third goal against Leicester, his 100th home goal since joining the club in 2017. Liverpool were denied the title on several occassions by Pep Guardiola's imperious Manchester City sides in recent seasons. However, City have been way off their best this term, with Chelsea , Nottingham Forest and Arsenal their biggest rivals for the title at present. Regarding his future at Liverpool , the Egypt forward sidestepped a question asking for any update to his contract situation. As it stands, he will be free from Jan. 1 to talk to other clubs about a free transfer in the summer.
Google Street View | PACE vans help seniors make it to their medical appointments. Access to senior care in the most rural areas of the Central Valley has long been a challenge. Transportation, managing doctor and specialist visits or struggling to find in-home care options, many seniors in the Valley are left with a “what about me?” feeling. For Tulare and Kings counties, help is on the way at the new PACE Center. Opened this past summer, the center fills a much-needed role for senior care in an underserved region. But how did senior health care get so difficult to access in the Valley, and what does PACE (Program of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly) hope to bring to the community? It’s well known that the region has trouble recruiting health care professionals. That’s exacerbated by the sheer demand as the population ages. Rural areas have it the worst. Anshuman Srivastava, a Visalia physician, said that nationwide, 57 million Americans reside in rural areas. The Central Valley has historically fallen behind urban regions in senior care access. “Because of this the health disparity has gotten worse compared to the urban areas,” Srivastava said. “If you compare the data...we have around a 21,000-health-professional shortage in rural areas compared to only a 900-shortage in urban areas.” Srivastava said the issue often stems from prioritization of other essential needs over health — not due to lack of concern, but lack of awareness. “I’m not going to blame any people, patients or populations about it,” Srivastava said. “It’s more because health was never a priority for them.” Grady Dodson, the Visalia PACE Program Director at Family Healthcare Network, agreed that a lack of health care professional incentives also have caused the Valley to fall behind. The opening of a new PACE Center, providing senior care to residents in Tulare and Kings counties, hopes to change the narrative for senior care. PACE stands for Programs of All-inclusive Care for the Elderly and aims to provide just that — a continuum of well-rounded, holistic care for seniors, comprising many of the various specialties the community requires under one roof. Founded by Dr. William Gee and social worker Marie-Louise Ansak in San Francisco in 1971, the program keeps senior citizens out of hospitals and nursing homes, focusing on improving the quality of life for communities’ most health-vulnerable populations. “We want to see seniors age in place, remain in their communities,” Dodson said. “We know the quality of life for them is much higher there than it is, per say, going into a skilled nursing home.” The PACE Center in Visalia is funded by Medicare and functions as its members’ primary care provider, along with offering specialist services and partnering with local specialists to fill the gaps not directly provided by PACE itself. The 25,000 square-foot center, located at 500 E. School Ave. in Visalia, also boasts its own facilities including a day center for recreational therapy activities. Programming is meant to combat depression and loneliness — something that is elevated in the senior community. At the PACE center, members receive a hot lunch, engage in games and activities and also have access to a quiet room, as well as bathroom facilities with showers for members in need of hygiene assistance. “It’s really a holistic approach to their care,” he said. “The PACE Program also helps with taking care of their medications.” PACE’s system has patients working closely with an interdisciplinary team (IDT) to determine their individual needs. “Each member of the IDT, they all do their assessments — they spend a great amount of time with the participant,” Dodson said, evaluating their diets, social needs and other health concerns. “Each new participant gets that thoroughness to individualize their care plan.” Dodson added that each patient also has their own voice, granted the ability to advocate for themselves. Families also have the ability to voice their concerns. “It really becomes personal because there’s not a ‘cookie cutter,’ unlike other health care models that are out there,” he said. “PACE is guided by that principle.” Dodson said that through PACE’s work, MediCal has saved $131 million in health care costs through finding correct services for patients, preventing overlap of services and improving general day-to-day life through continuous care. In addition to the personalized services offered at PACE, the center also offers transportation — a key need for many senior residents in more rural communities. “Many of our seniors suffer from health issues simply because of a lack of transportation,” Dodson said. “If you have parents and loved ones, aunts and uncles, grandparents — some of them are not getting there because you’re busy at work and they can’t get to their next appointment.” An employee in the health care field for 17 years, Dodson, a Valley native, said that he has seen many different medical models, but said that PACE’s holistic approach and access to care is second-to-none in the health care industry. The center’s treatment of its members differs from the standard health care industry’s technique of “for service” visits. “Similar to Costco, they’re a member,” Dodson said. “You don’t treat members the same way you treat a customer; a customer’s going to be a one-time shopper...that’s the current model we have in health care now.” WelbeHealth company recently announced plans to build a second Visalia PACE center — 17,000 square feet at 1150 S. Ben Maddox Way in a complex that already includes a Kaweah Health clinic and DaVita Dialysis, reported the Sun-Gazette newspaper. WelbeHealth is a physician-led public benefit company founded in 2015 that provides comprehensive health care services for seniors. There are 99 PACE Centers and Alternative Care Sites in 27 counties serving 22,000 participants annually throughout California. Tulare and Kings county residents interested in PACE must be 55 years or older, live in the region served by a local PACE Center, be certified in the State of California as requiring nursing home-level care and be able to live safely in the community with PACE assistance. The Tulare/Kings County PACE Center can be reached at (877) 326-PACE (7223) or by email at pace@fhcn.org. Visitors are also welcome to stop by for more information at the PACE Center in Visalia, located at 500 E. School Ave. Access to senior care in the most rural areas of In a competitive real estate business that is constantly changing, On Tuesday, Dec. 10, The Business Journal hosted its 11th Access Plus Capital, a nonprofit community development financial institution thatUni boss’ bold plan to slash university fees and end $50,000 arts degrees
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OpenAI said Monday it’s releasing its buzzy AI video-generation tool, Sora, later in the day. The AI video-generation model works similarly to OpenAI’s image-generation AI tool, DALL-E: A user types out a desired scene, and Sora will return a high-definition video clip. Sora can also generate video clips inspired by still images and extend existing videos or fill in missing frames. The Microsoft -backed artificial intelligence startup, which burst into the mainstream last year thanks to the viral popularity of ChatGPT, introduced Sora in February. It’ll debut to U.S. users as well as to “most countries internationally” later today, according to OpenAI’s YouTube livestream, and the company has “no timeline” yet for launching the tool in Europe and the U.K., as well as some other countries. OpenAI said users don’t need to pay extra for the tool, which will be included in existing ChatGPT accounts such as Plus and Pro. Employees on the livestream and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman demonstrated features like “Blend” (i.e., joining two scenes together at the user’s direction), as well as the option to make an AI-generated video endlessly repeat. Until now, Sora has mainly been available to a small group of safety testers, or “red-teamers,” who test the model for vulnerabilities in areas such as misinformation and bias. Reddit users asked OpenAI executives in October about Sora’s release date, questioning whether it was being delayed “due to the amount of compute/time required for inference or due to safety.” In response, OpenAI’s product chief Kevin Weil wrote, “Need to perfect the model, need to get safety/impersonation/other things right, and need to scale compute!” “We obviously have a big target on our back as OpenAI,” Rohan Sahai, OpenAI’s Sora product lead, said on the livestream, adding that the company needs to prevent illegal use of the technology. “But we also want to balance that with creative expression.” OpenAI closed its latest funding round in October at a valuation of $157 billion, including the $6.6 billion the company raised from an extensive roster of investment firms and Big Tech companies. It also received a $4 billion revolving line of credit , bringing its total liquidity to more than $10 billion. It’s all part of a serious growth plan for OpenAI, as the Microsoft -backed artificial intelligence startup battles Amazon -backed Anthropic, Elon Musk’s xAI, Google , Meta , Microsoft and Amazon for the biggest slice of the generative AI market, which is predicted to top $1 trillion in revenue within a decade. Earlier this month, OpenAI hired its first chief marketing officer , indicating plans to spend more on marketing to grow its user base. And in October, OpenAI debuted a search feature within ChatGPT that positions it to better compete with search engines like Google , Microsoft ’s Bing and Perplexity and may attract more users who otherwise visited those sites to search the web. With Sora, the ChatGPT maker is looking to compete with video-generation AI tools from companies such as Meta and Google , which announced Lumiere in January . Similar AI tools are available from other startups, such as Stability AI’s Stable Video Diffusion. Amazon has also released Create with Alexa, a model that specializes in generating prompt-based short-form animated children’s content. Video could be the next frontier for generative AI now that chatbots and image generators have made their way into the consumer and business world. While the creative opportunities will excite some AI enthusiasts, the new technologies present serious misinformation concerns as major political elections occur across the globe. The number of AI-generated deepfakes created has increased 900% year over year, according to data from Clarity, a machine learning firm. OpenAI has made multimodality — the combining of text, image and video generation — a prominent goal in its effort to offer a broader suite of AI models. News of Sora’s release follows protestors’ decision to leak what appeared to be a copy of Sora over concerns about the ChatGPT maker’s treatment of artists. Some members of OpenAI’s early access program for Sora, which it said included about 300 artists, published an open letter in late November critiquing OpenAI for not being sufficiently open or supporting the arts beyond marketing. “Dear corporate AI overlords,” the protestors’ open letter stated, “We received access to Sora with the promise to be early testers, red teamers and creative partners. However, we believe instead we are being lured into ‘art washing’ to tell the world that Sora is a useful tool for artists.” The letter added that hundreds of artists provided unpaid labor for OpenAI through bug testing and feedback on Sora, and that “while hundreds contribute for free, a select few will be chosen through a competition to have their Sora-created films screened — offering minimal compensation which pales in comparison to the substantial PR and marketing value OpenAI receives.” “We are not against the use of AI technology as a tool for the arts (if we were, we probably wouldn’t have been invited to this program),” the open letter stated. “What we don’t agree with is how this artist program has been rolled out and how the tool is shaping up ahead of a possible public release. We are sharing this to the world in the hopes that OpenAI becomes more open, more artist friendly and supports the arts beyond PR stunts.” In late November, an OpenAI spokesperson responded to the protestors’ actions in a statement to CNBC. “Hundreds of artists in our alpha have shaped Sora’s development, helping prioritize new features and safeguards,” the OpenAI spokesperson said at the time. “Participation is voluntary, with no obligation to provide feedback or use the tool. We’ve been excited to offer these artists free access and will continue supporting them through grants, events, and other programs.”
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South Korean president banned from leaving countryThe NBA got viewers for Christmas, even while going up against NFL games. The NBA's five-game Christmas lineup was the league's most-watched in five years, with the games averaging about 5.25 million viewers per game across ABC, ESPN and its platforms, the league said Thursday based on Nielsen's preliminary numbers. It's an 84% rise over the NBA's Christmas numbers from 2023. The Los Angeles Lakers’ 115-113 victory over the Golden State Warriors — a game pitting Olympic teammates LeBron James and Stephen Curry — averaged 7.76 million viewers and peaked with about 8.32 million viewers toward the end of the contest, the league said. Those numbers represent the most-watched NBA regular season game in five years. “I love the NFL,” James said in his televised postgame interview Wednesday night. “But Christmas is our day.” The NBA said all five Christmas games on its schedule — San Antonio at New York in Victor Wembanyama's holiday debut, Minnesota at Dallas, Philadelphia at Boston, Denver at Phoenix and Lakers-Warriors — saw year-over-year viewership increases. Wednesday's numbers pushed NBA viewership for the season across ESPN platforms to up 4% over last season. The league also saw more than 500 million video views on its social media platforms Wednesday, a new record. For the NBA, those are all good signs amid cries that NBA viewership is hurting. “Ratings are down a bit at beginning of the season. But cable television viewership is down double digits so far this year versus last year," NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said earlier this month. “You know, we’re almost at the inflection point where people are watching more programing on streaming than they are on traditional television. And it’s a reason why for our new television deals, which we enter into next year, every game is going to be available on a streaming service.” Part of that new package of television deals that the NBA is entering into next season also increases the number of regular season games broadcast on television from 15 to 75.
The Falcons are sticking with Kirk Cousins and may get a break thanks to a soft schedule
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