(LONDON) — The Ukrainian Defense Ministry’s Main Directorate of Intelligence said on Monday that at least 30 North Korean soldiers were killed and wounded in weekend battles in Russia’s western Kursk region, prompting commanders to send reinforcements to frontline units.
“North Korean army units are being re-equipped after losses in assaults” around the villages of Plekhovo, Vorozhba and Martynovka in the Kursk region, the GUR wrote in a post to its official Telegram channel.
On Dec. 14 and 15, the GUR said, “units of the DPRK army suffered significant losses — at least 30 soldiers were killed and wounded,” using the acronym for the country’s official name of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
At least three North Korean troops went missing around the village of Kurilovka in Kursk, the post added.
“Due to losses, the assault groups are being replenished with fresh personnel, in particular from the 94th separate brigade of the DPRK army, to continue active combat operations in the area,” the GUR wrote.
Pyongyang is believed to have sent up to 12,000 troops to Russia in recent months, according to a November briefing by Pentagon spokesperson Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder. Their focus is believed to be the Kursk region of western Russia, where Ukrainian forces seized ground in a surprise August offensive.
Sources told ABC News in November that North Koreans may be among the approximately 50,000 troops being readied for a significant counteroffensive in Kursk.
Russian leaders have said they will not consider any peace talks while Kursk remains partially occupied, though officials in Kyiv frame their retention of Russian territory as important negotiating leverage.
North Korea’s provision of troops marked a new level of cooperation between Moscow and Pyongyang. The two neighbors have drawn closer since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, with North Korea already providing Moscow with artillery munitions and ballistic missiles.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Saturday that Kyiv has “preliminary data that the Russians have begun to use North Korean soldiers in their assaults — a significant number of them.”
“The Russians include them in combined units and use them in operations in the Kursk region,” Zelenskyy said in a statement posted to his Telegram page. “So far, only there. But we have information suggesting their use could extend to other parts of the frontline. There are also already noticeable losses in this category.”
“We will defend ourselves, including against these North Koreans,” Zelenskyy added. “And we will continue to act in coordination with all our partners to stop this war — to stop it decisively, with guaranteed peace.”
(SEOUL) — As South Korea’s Constitutional Court began the process of reviewing the impeachment of President Yoon Suk Yeol, the leader of his party, who had supported his impeachment, announced his resignation.
Han Dong Hoon, the leader of Yoon’s People Power Party, resigned Monday morning. He had wavered in his support for Yoon, the embattled president who declared a short-lived martial law earlier this month, but, in the end, announced that the party would support impeaching Yoon last week ahead of the vote this weekend.
Han faced strong backlash from his own party for openly supporting impeachment without consulting senior members of the party enough ahead of his announcement last week. The impeachment bill passed Saturday.
Han said he does “not regret supporting the impeachment,” because the emergency martial law was the wrong decision to make.
Yoon, impeached Saturday and stripped of his presidential powers and duties, briefly declared martial law on Dec. 3.
“Defending illegal martial law is a betrayal of the country, the people, the conservative spirit, and the achievements of our party that achieved industrialization and democratization,” Han said Monday.
The constitutional court has up to six months to decide whether to reinstate or formally oust Yoon. Until then, Yoon’s main constitutional powers have been transferred to Prime Minister Han Duck Soo.
(LONDON) — Two Russian tankers believed to be carrying thousands of tons of oil were damaged off the coast of Crimea in the early hours of Sunday amid stormy weather, Russian emergency services and media reported.
The Volgoneft 212 and Volgoneft 239 vessels were both damaged while transiting the Kerch Strait waterway separating the occupied Crimean Peninsula from Russia’s western Krasnodar Krai region, the country’s Emergencies Ministry reported on Telegram.
The ministry cited “bad weather in the Kerch Strait” for the damage, the extent of which is not yet clear. The state-owned Tass news agency cited an unnamed ministry source in its report that the ship’s bow was torn off. The vessel was around 5 miles from shore when it was damaged, the agency said.
An Emergency Ministry Mi-8 helicopter and a rescue boat were dispatched to the Volgoneft 212 vessel, which had 13 people aboard, the ministry wrote. “The crew requested assistance,” it said. The ministry later said that one sailor died and the remaining 12 evacuated alive.
“It is known that there are oil products on the ship,” the ministry added. “Information about the spill is being clarified.”
The Interfax news agency reported that the Volgoneft 212 was carrying 4,300 tons of oil.
The Emergency Ministry later said the Volgoneft 212 “was damaged and ran aground.”
The Volgoneft 239 had 14 people on board and was also carrying oil, the Emergency Ministry said.
The ministry reported that the vessel was drifting after sustaining damage.
(KHAN YOUNIS, GAZA) — The humanitarian crisis and ongoing conflict in Gaza has left in its wake thousands of people with life-altering disabilities.
The ongoing conflict between Hamas and Israel, coupled with Gaza’s crumbling health care infrastructure, has created what some describe as insurmountable challenges for those injured during the violence.
About 25% of the people who have sustained injuries in the conflict — an estimated 22,500 people — now require long-term rehabilitation, according to the World Health Organization. More than 106,000 people have been injured in Gaza since the war began, according to the Hamas-controlled Health Ministry.
But in Gaza, where medical resources are already stretched to the breaking point, even basic rehabilitation services remain out of reach.
Many disabled individuals face not only physical pain but also profound psychological scars and societal rejection in Gaza, international and local medical professionals said. With limited access to medical care, psychological support, and assistive devices, they are often left to navigate life with disabilities that forever alter their futures.
“In any circumstances, recovering from an extensive injury and attending physical rehabilitation takes an enormous amount of psychological strength. To do this in a conflict zone — where accessing mobility aids, appropriate transportation, or any at all, physiotherapy sessions, proper nutrition, and rest is very difficult — takes a severe toll on every individual experiencing it,” International Committee of the Red Cross spokesperson Hisham Mhanna told ABC News in an interview.
In the more than a year since Israel began its retaliatory war against Hamas, the terrorist group that attacked southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking about 250 hostage, much of Gaza has been destroyed by airstrikes, according to the United Nations. Nearly 100 hostages remain missing in Gaza with about two-thirds believed to be alive.
About 60% of all buildings in Gaza have been destroyed, a U.N. agency said in September. The Strip’s hospital system has “collapsed,” a spokesperson for Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), or Doctors Without Borders, told ABC News in October. Nineteen of the 36 hospitals and nine field hospitals formerly operating in Gaza were still partially functioning, the WHO said at the time.
Ahmed Al Haw, 17, a displaced person living in Khan Younis, a city in southern Gaza, said he is among those whose lives have been irreversibly changed. Al Haw was injured in front of Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis while visiting a sick relative. His family’s trip turned into a nightmare when a bomb exploded near their car.
“My grandfather’s leg was amputated, and as the injury developed, he passed away. My mother and sister were also injured. I lost my eye and part of my foot,” Al Haw said.
For Al Haw, the aftermath of the explosion has been almost as unbearable as the injuries themselves. He has been thrust into a reality where even the simplest tasks are a struggle. The physical pain is unrelenting, but it pales in comparison to the psychological toll he endures, he said.
“At the beginning of the injury, I was in a state of depression. I didn’t eat at all. One time, I even thought about committing suicide,” he said.
Gaza’s health care system lacks the resources to adequately address the needs of the disabled, the World Health Organization said in a recent press release announcing the publication of an analysis of the medical situation in Gaza. There is a lack of medical supplies, including prosthetics, wheelchairs and essential medications to treat people with injuries that have left them disabled, the press release said. Hospitals are overwhelmed, understaffed, and under-resourced.
“Accessing proper prosthetics and mobility aids is difficult in Gaza, where there are shortages of everything, including critical medical drugs and supplies. The focus of medical staff is on saving lives, as it must be in any emergency, but this leaves gaps in the post-recovery care in many areas.” Mhanna said.
Medical aid has accounted for about 2.5% by weight of all aid that’s been brought in Gaza since the conflict began about 14 months ago, according to the Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories, the Israeli ministry overseeing the flow of food, medical aid and other supplies into Gaza. About 28,918 tons of medical aid have crossed into the Strip, according to COGAT data.
“Israel actively and continuously operates to facilitate the increase of the medical response in Gaza,” COGAT says on its website. “This is done in close coordination with humanitarian aid organizations specializing in health services, and donor countries.”
The most common injuries medical staff see are “loss of limbs” from bombings and shrapnel, said Dr. Sami Owaimer, director of the Physiotherapy and Rehabilitation Unit at the Ministry of Health in Gaza.
“The most common injuries we see are the loss of limbs due to explosions and shrapnel, alongside eye injuries that lead to blindness and spinal injuries resulting in paralysis. These wounds often cause permanent deformities and profoundly alter lives,” Owaimer said.
Rehabilitation, a critical step in recovery, is virtually non-existent in Gaza. The region lacks specialized centers, modern equipment and trained professionals to provide comprehensive care. As a result, many disabled individuals are left without the tools or support needed to adapt to their new realities.
“There is a glaring lack of specialized rehabilitation centers and modern equipment, such as prosthetics and movement training devices,” Owaimer said. “Comprehensive programs that integrate physical, psychological and social services are desperately needed.”
For Al Haw, the psychological impact of his injuries is compounded by the stigma he faces from society, he said.
“Society does not accept me,” he said. “When I walk slowly on crutches, people start shouting at me, ‘Hurry up!’ One time, I fell to the ground. I cry every day. I have nightmares every night. I feel very lonely. I’ve become mentally ill in addition to being physically and visually disabled.”
The lack of psychological support exacerbates the suffering of those like Al Haw. Many patients, particularly young people, find themselves battling depression and anxiety with no professional guidance or emotional support.
“Adapting to life with a disability is a significant challenge,” Owaimer said. “While some programs offer psychological and social rehabilitation, the lack of resources limits their reach and effectiveness.”
The societal challenges faced by people with disabilities in Gaza, limited facilities, lack of accessibility and entrenched stigma leave many feeling isolated and marginalized. Al Haw described this isolation as being particularly painful. As the oldest of seven siblings, he said he feels a deep responsibility to support his family, especially with his father imprisoned in an Israeli jail.
“I’ve lost my feet and my sight, the most precious things I had. My dreams have deteriorated. I can’t support my mother and sisters. My future is completely unknown,” he said.
Despite the obstacles he faces, Al Haw keeps going, driven by his love for his family.
“Because of my family, I am struggling to continue living. I want to have a good future, to support my family in the absence of my father,” he said.
“These individuals are not just numbers — they are human beings with rights who deserve dignity, education, and proper rehabilitation,” Owaimer said.
“In the chaos of conflict, many people with disabilities are forgotten,” Mhanna, of the Red Cross, said. “But they are civilians and receive special protection under international humanitarian law. People with disabilities, and the different challenges and needs they have, must be taken into account by parties to a conflict during active hostilities.”
(SEOUL) — The South Korean National Assembly has voted to impeach President Yoon Suk Yeol on Saturday in a divisive vote.
Thousands of people celebrated outside the National Assembly compound as the news was delivered while, across the city, thousands of President Yoon’s supporters gathered in the city center to express their anger and rage at the result.
All 300 assembly members cast their votes for the impeachment bill on Saturday as the bill passed with a total of 204 votes for impeachment, 85 against, 3 abstentions and 8 invalid votes.
“I vow to do my best for South Korea until the end,” President Yoon said in a televised speech right after the impeachment bill passed.
The constitutional court now has up to six months to decide whether to reinstate or formally oust him.
The country’s Prime Minister Han Duk-su is to take charge until that time, according to the law.
Meanwhile, the opposition Democratic Party is trying to impeach Prime Minister Han as well for not being able to stop the president from putting the country under emergency martial law, which lasted six hours.
In addition to the impeachment, the Democratic Party is seeking to arrest the president for perpetrating an insurrection.
The police have already arrested the Defense Minister, the chief of the National Police, the head of the Metropolitan Police and the military counterintelligence commander for collaborating in the insurrection.
Insurrection in South Korea is punished by death or life-long prison sentences.
(NEW YORK) — The climate crisis is not a distant threat; it’s happening right now and affecting what matters most to us. Hurricanes intensified by a warming planet and drought-fueled wildfires are destroying our communities. Rising seas and flooding are swallowing our homes. And record-breaking heat waves are reshaping our way of life.
The good news is we know how to turn the tide and avoid the worst possible outcomes. However, understanding what needs to be done can be confusing due to a constant stream of climate updates, scientific findings, and critical decisions that are shaping our future.
That’s why the ABC News Climate and Weather Unit is cutting through the noise by curating what you need to know to keep the people and places you care about safe. We are dedicated to providing clarity amid the chaos, giving you the facts and insights necessary to navigate the climate realities of today — and tomorrow.
Report finds that geothermal energy could meet 15% of global energy demand through 2050
The Earth produces a lot of heat. Scientists believe our planet’s inner core is nearly as hot as the sun. Radioactive particles in rocks slowly decay, constantly replenishing the heat. Geothermal energy harnesses that heat to create energy and warm homes and buildings.
However, geothermal energy isn’t widely used despite being clean and renewable. It’s expensive and often location-specific, usually near tectonic plate boundaries.
But according to a new report from the International Energy Agency (IEA), geothermal power could become a significant source of electricity for the world. The intergovernmental organization found that “geothermal energy could meet 15% of global electricity demand growth between now and 2050 if project costs continue to decline.”
That would be enough power to meet the current demand of the United States and India combined. Unlike wind and solar, the IEA says geothermal can provide 24/7 energy generation. It also has the added benefit of heat production and storage.
“New technologies are opening new horizons for geothermal energy across the globe, offering the possibility of meeting a significant portion of the world’s rapidly growing demand for electricity securely and cleanly,” IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol said in a press statement.
The IEA says with more financial investment, the cost of geothermal energy could fall by 80%. And at a time when finding workers with green energy skills can be challenging, the report states “up to 80% of the investment required in geothermal involves capacity and skills that are transferrable from existing oil and gas operations.”
“Geothermal is a major opportunity to draw on the technology and expertise of the oil and gas industry. Our analysis shows that the growth of geothermal could generate investment worth $1 trillion by 2035,” Birol added.
November was the 2nd warmest on record
With less than three weeks to go before 2025, global temperatures in November have made it all but certain that 2024 will be the warmest year ever recorded.
According to NOAA’s monthly climate assessment, last month was the second warmest November globally, with temperatures 2.41 degrees Fahrenheit above the 20th-century average. Temperatures were above average across much of the world, with Asia experiencing its warmest November ever recorded. Oceania and South America were second-warmest.
Year-to-date, the world is experiencing its warmest period on record. That means there’s a more than 99% chance that 2024 will break the yearly temperature record currently held by 2023, according to the National Centers for Environmental Information.
According to NOAA, global tropical cyclone activity matched the long-term record with 12 named storms this year. The Atlantic saw three hurricanes in November, including Rafael, which peaked as a Category 3 storm.
Global sea ice area was the second smallest in 46 years and more than one million square miles less than the 1991-2020 average.
-ABC News Climate Unit’s Matthew Glasser
Wildfire smoke: A significant contributor to air pollution in some US communities
In recent years, wildfire smoke has emerged as a significant cause of diminished air quality across many cities in the United States, according to a new recent study presented at the American Geophysical Union annual meeting in Washington, D.C.
The findings, which have not yet been peer-reviewed, suggest that wildfire smoke can contribute to as much as 50% of annual air pollution in certain parts of the U.S. Regions in Oregon, Nevada, California, Washington, North Dakota and Minnesota were identified as some of the most affected by this smoke-related air pollution.
The researchers say the impact of wildfire smoke doesn’t just stop in remote areas; it’s also impacting major urban centers. Some of the country’s largest cities, including New York, Dallas, Chicago, Atlanta and Washington, D.C., reported significant smoke exposure in 2023. Los Angeles, Phoenix and Riverside experienced their highest smoke levels in 2020. The researchers say this year-to-year variation between locations underscores the unpredictable nature of wildfire seasons and their far-reaching consequences on air quality.
The researchers analyzed data collected from more than 800 particle monitors in over 350 areas, representing nearly 90% of the U.S. population. The team combined data from the NOAA Hazard Mapping System Fire and Smoke Product with surface PM2.5 readings to explore how these smoky days affect overall pollution levels. PM2.5 is a type of particulate matter pollution smaller than human hair that can cause a number of health problems, such as asthma and heart disease.
The results from the study raise important questions about public health and environmental policy, especially as climate change intensifies wildfire seasons. According to a study from researchers at the University of Tasmania, extreme wildfire events have more than doubled in frequency and magnitude globally over the past two decades. And the Environmental Protection Agency has found that the U.S. wildfire season has grown longer and shifted earlier in recent decades due to warmer springs, longer summer dry seasons and drier vegetation.
-ABC News Climate Unit’s Matthew Glasser and ABC News Medical Unit’s Vinh-Son Nguyen, MD
The rapidly warming Arctic tundra is now contributing to climate change
For thousands of years, the vast Arctic tundra has acted as a critical carbon sink. That means it absorbed more carbon dioxide than it produced. As a result, it has been removing a heat-trapping greenhouse gas from the atmosphere. However, rapidly warming conditions and increasing wildfire activity have now turned the region into a source of carbon dioxide emissions, according to a new report released by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
The Arctic region is warming much faster than the global average, and rapidly warming temperatures are fueling the troubling shift in several ways.
First, increasing temperatures are thawing the permafrost, releasing carbon that’s been stored in the soil into the atmosphere. Second, warmer conditions promote vegetation growth, contributing to more frequent wildfires in the region and additional carbon dioxide emissions.
The Arctic’s warmest years on record have all occurred within the last nine years. The persistent warming trend has contributed to declining snow cover and a shortening snow season. According to the report, last winter brought the shortest snow season in 26 years for portions of Arctic Canada, and overall, Arctic snow melt is occurring one to two weeks earlier than historical averages.
Less snow promotes further warming and increases the wildfire threat in the region. And these compounding factors create an unsettling cycle that feeds on itself, boosting global warming while making it increasingly difficult to reduce carbon dioxide emissions.
Rick Spinrad, NOAA’s administrator, said the addition of the Arctic tundra as a source of carbon dioxide emissions “will worsen climate change impacts.”
Local ecosystems are already having to adapt. According to the report, food sources for ice seal populations are shifting due to water temperature changes and warmer and wetter weather is devastating inland caribou herds.
If this trend continues, cascading impacts could reach far beyond the Arctic region. “What happens in the Arctic has wide-reaching implications for the entirety of North America and Eurasia,” Dr. Brenda Ekwurzel, a climate scientist at the Union of Concerned Scientists, said in a press statement.
-ABC News meteorologist Dan Peck
The US just experienced its warmest autumn on record
Another season, another climate milestone. According to a new report from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), persistent above-average to record-warm conditions across much of the United States made meteorological autumn, which lasts from September to November, the warmest ever recorded.
The record-warm fall season makes it more likely that 2024 will end up as one of the nation’s warmest, if not the warmest, years on record. As of November 2024, the contiguous U.S. year-to-date temperature was 3.3 degrees Fahrenheit above average.
Despite December’s chilly start for much of the country, with widespread below-average temperatures in many regions, NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center says that the cold will ease during the second half of the month with above-average temperatures favored from the West to the Northeast.
The stretch of abnormally warm temperatures was accompanied by extremely dry weather across much of the country, fueling dangerous wildfire conditions in regions like the Northeast. A very dry start to the season brought drought conditions to more than half of the lower 48 states by late October.
Fortunately, several significant rainfall events in November brought notable drought relief to large swaths of the country, reducing overall drought coverage by nearly 10.5% and suppressing the wildfire danger.
-ABC News meteorologist Dan Peck
Nearly one-third of the planet’s species risk extinction because of climate change
Nearly one-third of the world’s species could be at risk for extinction because of climate change if the world does nothing to reduce global warming, according to a new analysis from Science.
University of Connecticut researcher and biologist Mark Urban found that while some species are adapting to climate change, 160,000 species are already at risk. Many are now facing declining populations because of changes in our climate.
According to the study, with current global temperatures at 1.3 degrees Celsius above industrial levels, 1.6% of species are projected to become extinct. As the temperatures warm even more, Urban found the extinction rate would also increase, with the most severe scenario included (5.4 degrees Celsius of warming) putting the extinction risk at 29.7%.
“The increased certainty of predicted climate change extinctions compels action,” Urban wrote. “Extinction represents just the final endpoint of a species’ existence; even when extinction is avoided, declining abundances and shrinking ranges can strongly affect many other species, including humans.”
Urban defines the risk of extinction as the probability that any one species will go extinct without mitigation efforts. Urban found that extinction rates could increase dramatically if global temperatures rise over 1.5 degrees Celsius compared to industrial levels.
1.5 degrees Celsius is the warming limit set by the world’s nations under the Paris Agreement after the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change found that crossing that benchmark would lead to more severe climate change impacts.
Risks varied across geographic areas in the study, with Australia/New Zealand and South America facing the highest risks (15.7% and 12.8%, respectively) and Asia facing lower risks (5.5%).
-ABC News Climate Unit’s Kelly Livingston
Antarctic sea ice hits new low during Earth’s 2nd warmest November on record
Imagine you have a swimming pool with ice cubes filling it. Now, measure the total area of the pool that has ice on the surface, even if the ice cubes don’t cover it completely. Because ice often spreads out unevenly, leaving water between the chunks, scientists count areas where at least 15% of the surface is covered. So, because your pool is loaded with ice cubes, it would be considered ice covered. In the real world, scientists call it sea ice extent.
While you can add ice to your pool, you can’t to the ocean. And according to a new report by Copernicus, the European Union’s Climate Change Service, the sea ice extent in the Antarctic has dipped to its lowest value on record for the month of November. It is 10% below average. This occurred during a stretch of near-record global land and sea surface temperatures.
Last month ranked as the second warmest November on record globally, with an average temperature of 14.10 degrees Celsius, or 57.38 degrees Fahrenheit.
Copernicus noted the new data not only makes it virtually certain that 2024 will surpass 2023 as Earth’s warmest year on record, but it will likely be the first year to be 1.5 degrees Celsius warmer (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) than the pre-industrial average of 1850-1900.
The Paris Agreement aims to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius to prevent the worst outcomes of climate change.
As of November 2024, the average global year-to-date temperature was 0.14 degrees Celsius (or 0.25 degrees Fahrenheit) higher than it was in 2023, which is the warmest year ever recorded.
(LONDON) — After dedicating his life to fighting the regime of Assad, Mazen Al-Hamada did not live to see it fall.
A symbol of resilience and courage, the famous Syrian activist was found dead in the “slaughterhouse” prison of Saydnaya in Damascus, as confirmed by the Syrian Emergency Task Force to ABC News.
An unverified photo circulating online shows his disfigured face and suggests he was killed just before the rebels that ousted Assad reached the prison to liberate detainees, according to independent observers.
On Thursday, hundreds gathered in Damascus for Al-Hamada’s funeral, where one of his sisters leading the procession called him “a martyr of revolution and freedom.”
Originally from Deir Ezzor, Al-Hamada was first arrested in 2011 when he organized pro-democracy rallies in the context of the Arab Spring and documented the brutal repression from the Syrian government.
In 2012, he was arrested again for trying to smuggle baby formula into a besieged suburb of Damascus, returning to prison a second time.
He left Syria in 2013 and was granted asylum in the Netherlands a year later.
Once abroad, the world got to know the horrors endured by Al-Hamada, along with thousands of detainees, as he described them to huge crowds of students, policymakers and the press. He did not spare details of the numerous ways in which he had been tortured, reliving his trauma over and over again to raise awareness.
“Mazen poured his heart into every meeting and to anyone he spoke with,” Humanitarian Programs Director at the Syrian Emergency Task Force (SETF) Natalie Larrison, who was on the road with him and became his close friend, told ABC News. As they traveled the United States, meeting everyone who would listen, from congress members in Washington, D.C., to students in Arkansas, Larrison said he was always “in the backseat singing and clapping and jumping up and down.”
Larrison also said Al-Hamada loved American tacos, especially from Taco Bell, and that he told her he was engaged and kept the ring even after his fiancé had been killed while he was in prison the first time.
With every testimony, Al-Hamada quickly became one of the most prominent advocates for Syrian prisoners held by Assad’s regime, at least 157,000 between 2011 and August 2024, including thousands of women and children, according to a report by the Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR).
“Mazen was a gentle soul,” Sara Afshar, a friend of Al-Hamada and the director of the 2017 documentary “Syria’s Disappeared” in which he was featured, told ABC News, “A lot of people in his situation would focus on looking after themselves… but everything that motivated him, with an incredible sense of urgency, every second of the day, was how to get the other prisoners out. Because he knew what they were going through.”
Along with thousands of users on social media, Afshar called for justice for Al-Hamada and the other Syrian detainees who are dead or unaccounted for, echoing the words that Al-Hamada himself said in an interview which has been trending on social media since the news of his death.
“I will not rest until I take them to court and get justice,” Al-Hamada said in the interview, his sunken eyes in tears unable to hide the pain behind his words. “Justice for me and my friends who they killed. Even if it costs my life. Bring them to justice, no matter what.”
Al-Hamada returned to Syria four years ago in a shocking move that some people close to him described as the result of his disappointment in the international community. The last time he was active on his WhatsApp was on Feb. 22, 2020, according to the SETF.
“He became discouraged over time because he gave it his all with people promising to help, and nothing changed,” Larrison told ABC News.
Others, including his sister who spoke at his funeral on Thursday, believe the regime promised him safety if he returned to Syria in an attempt to stop his international anti-Assad campaign. She also said they threatened to hurt his family still in Syria.
“The circumstances of Mazen’s death underscore the heavy price borne by those who dared speak out against Assad’s brutal regime,” the Syrian Emergency Task Force said in a statement remembering Al-Hamada.
The Dutch government never commented on his departure, fostering rumors that it failed to support the refugee and his efforts to raise awareness for the Syrian cause.
When asked about Al-Hamada’s legacy, the people who knew him said it would be justice and his contribution to freeing Syria from Assad’s five decadeslong regime.
“Seeing his funeral service today in Damascus is a testimony to what he meant to the Syrian people. His tireless journey has not been for nothing and his legacy will continue to live on in a free Syria, and he will be remembered always for helping his people be free,” Larrison told ABC News.
“We talked about justice and accountability when he recounted the horrors he had experienced. He didn’t want revenge. What he wanted was justice in a court of law,” Afshar told ABC News. “The world failed him and the other disappeared, and now they are dead. But with all the evidence that is being gathered and the work that so many Syrians have done for years, I have hope that there will be justice. That will be Mazen’s legacy.”
(DAMASCUS, Syria) — The parents of Austin Tice, the American freelance journalist and Marine Corps veteran who was kidnapped while reporting in Syria more than a decade ago, spoke out in an interview with ABC News Live Prime on Thursday as the U.S. works to uncover their son’s whereabouts after the collapse of Bashar Al-Assad’s authoritarian regime.
Debra and Marc Tice told ABC News’ Linsey Davis they are “hopeful” that their son will be back home soon.
“We’re feeling very hopeful. You know, we’re making sure that our arms are warmed up to get a big hug,” Debra Tice said in the interview. “We’re waiting, and not exactly on pins and needles, but just very expectantly.”
Marc Tice suggested that this is the best hope they’ve had since their son disappeared in August 2012.
“We’ve always had hope and always been confident that our son’s alive and is going to come home to us,” he said. “But this is different and it feels much more immediate and much more promising than any time in memory.”
Marc Tice said that the family has been urging the U.S. to “move towards a diplomatic resolution” to bring Austin home for over a decade and “that never really took place,” but he added that this moment feels “different.”
“Now that there’s a new authority in Damascus, whom I understand is interested in developing good relationships with the United States, it just feels like a great time for whoever can help Austin get home,” he said.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken told reporters on Thursday that the U.S. is “determined to find” Austin Tice and “working to bring home” another American in Syria. Blinken would not confirm the other American’s name, citing “privacy reasons.” His comments came amid reports that the U.S. made contact with Travis Pete Timmerman, an American who went missing from Hungary earlier in the year.
On Tuesday, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller told reporters the U.S. has asked rebel groups to search for Tice as they empty Assad regime prisons in Syria.
“We do continue to believe that [Austin Tice] is alive and we continue to make clear in all of our conversations, either with entities on the ground in Syria or with entities that may be in communication with those on the ground in Syria, that we have no higher priority than the safe return of Austin Tice to his family,” Miller said.
Tice, a Houston native, disappeared in Aug. 2012 while reporting in Darayya — a suburb of Syrian capital Damascus.
As Syria descended into chaos, with rebel groups taking over the country last week and eventually toppling the tyrannical Assad regime on Dec. 8, the Tice family visited the White House on Dec. 6, where they met with National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan.
Following the meeting, the Tice family announced that they have been in contact with someone who confirmed their son’s status.
“We have from a significant source that has already been vetted all over our government that Austin Tice is alive, Austin Tice is treated well, and there is no doubt about that,” his mother Debra Tice said during a Dec. 6 press conference.
Asked by reporters about the source of the information, the Tices said they could not share more, claiming that the U.S. government is restricting the family from doing so for reasons that they do not understand.
However, his father Marc Tice said during the press conference that the family is “working toward” making more information public and that the source is “very different” from others who had given the family false hope in the past.”We are confident, in that this information is fresh,” Marc Tice said. “It indicates as late as earlier this year that Austin is alive and being cared for.”
President Joe Biden addressed U.S. efforts to bring Austin Tice back home while delivering remarks on the fall of the Assad regime on Dec. 8, telling reporters that the U.S. believes he is still alive.
“We are mindful that there are Americans in Syria, including those who reside there, as well as Austin Tice, who was taken captive more than 12 years ago,” Biden said. “We remain committed to returning him to his family.”
The president noted that the U.S. remains “committed” to bringing Tice home.
“We think we can get him back, but we have no direct evidence of that yet. And Assad should be held accountable,” Biden added.
Asked if the White House has directed an operation to retrieve Tice, Biden said, “we want to get him out,” before noting that “we have to identify where he is.”
Asked how his six siblings are doing, Marc Tice told Davis on Thursday that when Austin first went missing he and his wife urged their kids to “keep doing what you’re doing and pursuing your passions,” but they did not expect that their son would be missing for over 12 years.
“They finished university, got new jobs, got married, had babies … it’s been a very heartbreaking but also uplifting thing to see,” Debra Tice said.
As the family continued to fight for Austin’s release his siblings “made a circle” and have been “taking care of each other,” she noted.
Ahead of Biden’s Dec. 8 speech, Tice’s siblings Naomi and Jacob Tice spoke with ABC News about their agonizing 12-year fight to get their brother home and how they hope that the fall of the Syrian regime could be a turning point.
“We did keep hearing in the meetings that we were having that within chaos there is opportunity. And that is really how we’re viewing this situation,” Naomi Tice said.
Jacob Tice called on the U.S. to “take advantage of this singular moment” to bring Austin back home.
“We’re overwhelmed and our arms are open,” he said. “We are reaching to anyone and everyone asking for their help, asking for help from the people on the ground, from the media, from the White House, from the State Department, to do what they can.”
Tice’s siblings told ABC News that they are not fully satisfied with the Biden administration’s response so far and received vague answers when they met with White House officials two days earlier.
“We wanted to know that they had a plan in place. If they do, that’s definitely not something they shared with us,” Naomi Tice said.
“If they do, we hope Austin is in the forefront of those plans,” Jacob Tice added.
Since Austin Tice disappeared, the U.S. government has continuously operated under the assumption that he is still alive, but this belief is primarily founded on a lack of evidence of his death, rather than direct evidence proving he is alive, multiple sources told ABC News.
The Syrian government has never publicly acknowledged playing any part in Tice’s disappearance. However, during talks under the Trump administration, Syrian officials said they would provide proof of life in exchange for the U.S fulfilling sweeping demands, according to officials familiar with the private negotiations. The Trump administration did not comply, and the Syrian government did not hand over any information about Tice.
The FBI has offered a reward of up to $1 million for information leading to the safe location, recovery and return of Tice.
ABC News’ Molly Nagle, Christopher Boccia and David Brennan contributed to this report.
(TEHRAN, Iran) — A captivating video of an Iranian woman singer went viral in Iran, showing her performing in an empty venue for an imaginary audience.
Parastoo Ahmadi, a singer and composer, held the performance in one of Iran’s traditional venues while wearing a long black dress and showing her hair — without wearing a mandatory, conservative outfit. She called the performance “Caravansara Concert” and streamed it live on her YouTube channel Wednesday evening.
Within a day of posting, the video amassed nearly 500,000 views on YouTube and a short teaser video of the concert has been viewed nearly 2 million times on Instagram.
By Thursday morning, the Iranian judiciary had opened a case against the singer and the production team, saying it was “an illegal concert.” According to the judiciary news agency, Mizan, the concert “did not comply with the country’s legal and cultural standards.”
The judiciary statement does not specify what charges might be raised against Ahmadi and the production team.
While the concert faces judiciary investigation, some social media users have described the performance as a bold act of defiance against the restrictions the Islamic Republic imposes on women in Iran. Among those restrictions are the ban on women singing solo and showing hair or body parts — except for face and hands — in public places.
Some Iranians have taken to social platforms to hail Ahmadi’s move as “bold and courageous” and others offered praise for her vocal performance. Women’s rights activists said the concert could be seen as a continuation of the women’s resistance movement against the regime, pushing boundaries after the Woman Life Freedom movement.
In 2022 and 2023, hundreds were killed and tens of thousands were arrested, according to rights groups, during the nationwide protests in Iran to defend women’s rights and the betterment of life. The protests were launched after Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman, died in police custody after she was detained for not fully complying with the obligatory hijab rules.
“This uprising has not stopped. Every day it gives birth to new heroes and sends them to the stage to fight the forces of darkness, death, and destruction,” Iranian journalist and women’s rights activist Faranak Amidi wrote in a post on her Instagram page. “Not with weapons, violence, blood, and bloodshed, but with art, creativity, vitality, joy, singing, dancing, and stomping,” Amidi added.
In a poignant note on the YouTube video, Ahmadi introduces herself as a girl who wants to sing for the people she loves.
“A right that I could not refuse. Singing for the land I love with all my heart,” she wrote.
At the beginning of her performance, she talked to an imaginary audience and greeted them as if it was a real concert with an audience present.
Some said they find the moment “deeply touching” and “captivating,” as it shows Ahmadi’s love of singing for an audience she is deprived of having and the audience who would have loved to be there, but could not attend.
The Islamic Republic has a record of making cases against artists and singers and have accused and punished them for various charges, including propaganda against the regime.
(WASHINGTON) — The Assad regime in Syria came toppling down in lightning speed after rebel forces led a days-long offensive across the country and captured the capital, Damascus, on Sunday, with President Bashar Assad ultimately fleeing to Russia.
How did it happen so quickly?
Some Syrian analysts, as well as the Biden administration, have pointed to Assad’s chief backers — Iran, Russia and Hezbollah — as having been “weakened and distracted” in recent months. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in September said the killing of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah was a “historic turning point.”
Other close watchers of Syria have also pointed to another key factor: a tiny white pill with a pair of interlocking half-moons on one side.
The pill is the synthetic stimulant fenethylline or fenetylline, known by the brand name Captagon, that overtook the Middle East as a popular drug. According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime’s World Drug Report last year, “the main departing area for ‘captagon’ shipments” continues to be Syria and Lebanon, and, “[a]ssuming that all amphetamine seizures reported in the subregion are of ‘captagon,’ seizures doubled from 2020, reaching a record high of 86 tons in 2021.”
Caroline Rose, who studies the Captagon trade at the Washington-based think tank New Lines Institute, told ABC News the drug has a “licit” history and is incorrectly perceived as not being dangerous, and therefore doesn’t garner the stigma of party drugs like cocaine or ecstasy. It’s also popular in Muslim countries where alcohol is banned by the Quran, she said.
“It makes you feel invincible,” Rose said. “It staves [off] hunger and helps keep you up late at night, and you have taxi drivers, university students, poor people in bread lines, wealthy people who want to lose weight — you have fighters who are using it because it keeps you up late, it gives you energy and you can survive on one MRE [meals ready to eat] a day.”
The world’s leader in Captagon trade has been Syria, generating an estimated $10 billion for the country — and an estimated $2.4 billion a year directly for the Assad regime, according to a 2023 study conducted by the Observatory of Political and Economic Networks, a nonprofit that conducts research on organized crime and corruption in Syria.
One person who has had a very close eye on the Captagon trade from Syria in recent years is Rep. French Hill, one of dozens of lawmakers who co-sponsored the bipartisan Caesar Syria Civilian Protection Act of 2019, which proposed to place heavy sanctions on Assad and his closest allies. The bill ultimately passed as part of the National Defense Authorization Act for 2020.
Hill subsequently introduced the Captagon Act in 2021, which he told the publication The New Arab in 2022 was designed to “disrupt and dismantle the Assad regime’s production and trafficking of the lethal narcotic.”
“In my view, the Assad regime turning to narcotics production for its main source of revenue was a sign that the world treating Assad like a pariah was working,” Hill told ABC News. “It is clear after last week’s events that the rot in Assad’s military and finances ran deep.”
According to Rose, the booming Captagon trade was a “zombie economy” born out of the stiff sanctions imposed on Syria by the United States and Europe — and it was also lining the pockets of the Assad regime.
“If there ever was a perfect case for a narco-state, I think it was Syria, because you had the state security and political apparatus defending Captagon production and putting out a public narrative that there wasn’t Captagon but then using the president’s brother, all its security apparatus and the Fourth Armored Division all involved in carrying out the trade,” Rose said.
Meanwhile, Turkey and Saudi Arabia grew frustrated with their efforts to normalize relations with Assad, and their borders were being flooded with the drug, according to a recent report by the Carnegie Endowment.
According to Rose, in recent negotiation efforts for normalization, Assad was trying to use the power he wielded over the trade of Captagon as leverage over them, and it backfired.
“In many of my discussions with high-level officials in Gulf countries, they said the Assad regime used it [the Captagon trade] as a leverage tool for normalizations, and that the regime often explicitly acknowledged their connection to the Captagon trade,” Rose said. “This was a strategy to garner a transactional deal between Gulf states and Damascus, to incentivize them to pay the regime in return for lessened Captagon flows. And that frustrated Gulf states because it really was not the way they wanted to start normalization discussions.”
“They believed that after isolating the regime, sanctions and severed diplomatic relations, the regime should be the actor accepting their demands, not the other way around,” she added.
Matthew Zweig, a sanctions expert at the lobbying arm of the think tank Foundation for Defense of Democracies, pointed to another question related to Captagon that may have also ultimately contributed to Assad’s downfall.
“The question is whether Assad could even control the trade,” Zweig told ABC News. “Or did the trade control him? And the same question can be applied to the transitional government. Can they control the trade or will the trade control them? There is a lot of money.”
On Sunday, just hours after the Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham group, or HTS, captured Damascus and took power, its leader Abu Mohammad al-Jolani stood up in front of a crowd of supporters inside the capital’s historic Umayyad Mosque and declared: “Syria has become the biggest producer of Captagon on Earth, and today, Syria is going to be purified by the grace of God.”
The future remains uncertain when it comes to the powerful forces of a cartel economy driven by billions of dollars, high demand and a fragile transitional government.
The experts, as well as Hill, conveyed hope to ABC News that Syria would be able to pivot toward a better future with a normalized economy.
