Syria’s first public trial of Assad-era officials opens in Damascus

DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) — The first public trial in Syria of officials linked to the rule of former President Bashar Assad opened in Damascus Sunday.

Syria Trial

Atef Najib, a former Syrian army brigadier general who was head of the Political Security Branch in southern Syria's Daraa province under Assad, appeared in the courtroom to face charges related to “crimes against the Syrian people,” state-run news agency SANA reported.

Najib was in that position in 2011 when teenagers who scrawled anti-government graffiti on a school wall in Daraa were arrested and tortured. The case became a catalyst for mass protests against the repressive policies of Assad's government security forces.

The protests were met by a brutal government crackdown and spiraled into a 14-year civil war that ended with Assad's ouster in December 2024 in a lightning rebel offensive. Assad fled to Russia, while most members of his inner circle also escaped Syria.

Assad himself and his brother, Maher, former commander of the Syrian military's 4th Armored Division — which Syrian opposition activists have accused of killings, torture, extortion and drug trafficking, in addition to running its own detention centers — were charged in absentia, along with a number of other former high-ranking security officials.

Advertisement

Najib was the only one of the defendants who was arrested and present in person in court Sunday for a preparatory session in the trial, which will continue next month.

Crowds gathered outside the courthouse to celebrate.

The government of interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa has faced criticism over delays in launching a promised transitional justice process. Syria is struggling to heal following 14 years of civil war that left an estimated half a million people dead, millions more displaced, and the country battered and divided.

Authorities now appear to be moving more aggressively to prosecute officials linked to Assad.

Syrian authorities on Friday arrested Amjad Yousef, a former intelligence officer who appeared ina video leakedfour years ago that purportedly showed him and his comrades executing dozens of blindfolded and shackled prisoners in the Damascus suburb of Tadamon during the country’s civil war.

byAdministrator

in

April 27, 2026

Syria’s first public trial of Assad-era officials opens in Damascus

DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) — The first public trial in Syria of officials linked to the rule of former President Bashar Assad opened in Damas...

Read More

Damon Wayans Sr. Has One Piece of Advice for His Community After Getting His Diabetes Diagnosis at 47 (Exclusive)

Damon Wayans Sr. was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes in 2008 after nearly falling into a diabetic coma

NEED TO KNOW

• Wayans emphasizes the importance of seeking medical care and using humor to cope with health challenges

• "It doesn't hurt to know, but it can hurt not to know," he says

Damon Wayans Sr.can laugh a lot. But, when he got his type 2 diabetes diagnosis in 2008, he knew it was no laughing matter.

“When I got diagnosed with diabetes, I needed triage,” Wayans shares with PEOPLE. He went to the hospital, and they had to administer care when he was there, as he was on the verge of a diabetic coma. When the actor, 65, got diagnosed with diabetes, he knew that his life had to change.

“I needed to take insulin. I had to change my diet and get into exercise because my sugar was at 535, which is not sustainable. Just knowing that then set me on a path to learning more about what I can do to control it and the things that I can't do and need to let a doctor do,” Wayans shares.

The comedian andIn Living Colorstar is partnering with Genentech and Diatribe to launch the‘All Eyes on DME’ Campaign. He hopes to reach his community and “eliminate some fears.”

“We have a lot of fears where I come from, with hospitals and doctors and taking care of your health. We tend to like to do things ourselves, so someone would go get some eyeglasses from the drugstore and have the eyes like this, and they think that that's enough, and it's not,” Wayan says, mimicking someone trying on glasses and making his eyes wide.

Store-bought eyeglasses are a temporary solution, but it’s more important to “know what's going on inside of you.”

“Especially if there's treatments that can actually help you to alleviate and keep your vision long-term,” Wayans shares.

Advertisement

Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE'sfree daily newsletterto stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.

He hopes to raise awareness in the Black and brown communities about DME, which is diabetic macular edema, a serious eye condition for patients with type 1 and type 2 diabetes, and can lead to temporary or even permanent vision loss.

“I found out it affects Black and brown people two to three times more for vision loss, which is terrible. It's something that is not really discussed in those communities. It's nice to be able to maybe have a voice and lend it to something that's important,” Wayans shares.

To those who might be apprehensive of getting help, he says, “there's no crime in knowing.”

“Once you know, then you can go about and try and do it your way,” Wayans shares.

One of the ways he goes about handling his diabetes is through laughter.

“I think if you can laugh, it's not that bad,” theMy Wife and Kidsactor says.

“That is the beautiful thing about this country, is that we laugh at ourselves, and once we laugh at ourselves, then we can start going, ‘maybe I should just go see a doctor.’ It doesn't hurt to know, but it can hurt not to know. It can be life-threatening,” Wayans shares.

Read the original article onPeople

byAdministrator

in

April 26, 2026

Damon Wayans Sr. Has One Piece of Advice for His Community After Getting His Diabetes Diagnosis at 47 (Exclusive)

Damon Wayans Sr. was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes in 2008 after nearly falling into a diabetic coma NEED TO KNOW ...

Read More

Suzanne de Passe Reveals the Nickname She Called Michael Jackson for 'Decades,' Recalls Seeing Jackson 5 for the First Time (Exclusive)

Suzanne de Passe discovered The Jackson 5 and convinced Motown founder Berry Gordy to give them a chance

NEED TO KNOW

• She nicknamed Michael Jackson "Casper" and called Marlon Jackson "Dudley"

• De Passe says Jafar Jackson perfectly embodies his uncle Michael in the new biopic Michael

It's unlikely that The Jackson 5 would have reached the same level of global stardom without Suzanne de Passe.

The music and film producer, 79, reflects on the first time she saw the iconic group perform while chatting with PEOPLE at the Hollywood premiere ofMichaelon April 20.

De Passe says she was invited to visit Motown singer and producer Bobby Taylor one day in the late 1960s when he mentioned a new act.

"He said, ‘I want you to see something.' And I was standing, and he clapped his hand and said, ‘Okay, fellas, this is Suzanne. She works for Mr. Gordy and she can get us the audition.' "

“They got up and they sang like four songs acapella, blew me away," de Passe, who worked as a creative assistant to Motown founder Berry Gordy at the time, says.

She continues, "This is way before cell phones. So I went back to my apartment and called Mr. Gordy. I didn't get him the first day. And when I finally spoke to him, I said, ‘Okay, so Gordy, I saw a great act.' He said, ‘Great, that's what you're supposed to do. You're my creative assistant.' I said, ‘Wait 'til you see these kids.' He went, ‘Kids? I don't want any kid acts. Do you know how much trouble Stevie Wonder is?' ”

While de Passe was still new to Gordy's team and was “still learning everything," she felt confident that she was onto something good.

“And my, I think, claim to fame is I did not give up. I was relentless," she shares. "And when he saw them, it was the beginning of this history."

The Jackson 5 was formed in 1964 and included Jackie, Tito, Jermaine, Marlon, and Michael Jackson. Taylor famously discovered the group in 1968 in Chicago, later bringing them to Michigan. By 1969, the group already had a hit with the release of "I Want You Back," which reached No. 1 on theBillboardHot 100.

Advertisement

Despite what “most people perceive,” de Passe says that Michael was “very much a kid" when the band was thrust into stardom. The singer was just 5 years old when the band was first formed and 10 by the time they were signed to Motown.

“When we were on the road, we would all be on the same floor and keep our doors open and stuff like that. And he liked to hide in my room," she recalls. "And you know, he'd be behind the curtain and you'd see his little feet sticking out from the curtain, the shower curtain, the closet and he would go, ‘Boo!' And I would go, ‘Yeah, yeah, you really scared me. I was so scared.' "

This led her to give the then-tween the nickname Casper, after the friendly ghost.

“For the next three decades, I called him Casper, and he answered. Michael was Casper and Marlon was Dudley, as in Dudley Do-Right, because he was very law-abiding,” she shares.

Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE'sfree daily newsletterto stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.

About the movieMichael, she shares that Jafar Jackson,who is playing Michael,is the “embodiment of his uncle” and “if you don't have Michael, you don't have a movie.”

“They have a movie because of Jafar. And all the things that went into it, of course, the production and the direction and all of that, the cast. But I think the big difference is Jafar.”

De Passe, meanwhile, is played by Laura Harrier in the film, an experience which she calls "good and weird!”

Michaelis in movie theaters now.

Read the original article onPeople

byAdministrator

in

April 25, 2026

Suzanne de Passe Reveals the Nickname She Called Michael Jackson for 'Decades,' Recalls Seeing Jackson 5 for the First Time (Exclusive)

Suzanne de Passe discovered The Jackson 5 and convinced Motown founder Berry Gordy to give them a chance NEED TO KNOW ...

Read More

These were our favorite breakup songs from the ’90s: Do you agree?

The ’90s were a strange and glorious decade for heartbreak. Radio could hand you grunge alienation and R&B devastation in the same hour, and somehow both felt equally true. Breakup songs arrived raw, specific, and sometimes furious in ways that older ballads had carefully avoided. That willingness to let the hurt show unfiltered is exactly why so many of them still hit hard today.

These were our favorite breakup songs from the ’90s: Do you agree?

This was the decade that proved a breakup song did not need a string section to make you cry at the wheel. It needed a voice willing to go somewhere uncomfortable. From the aching quiet of a single-camera apartment video to a three-chord throat-shred onJagged Little Pill, the ’90s gave us some of the most emotionally honest farewells ever put on tape. These were five of the favorites.

Image credit: Gsulima / Wikimedia Commons

“Nothing compares 2 u” by Sinéad O’Connor (1990)

Prince wrotethe songfor his side project, The Family, in 1985, where it went almost completely unheard. Sinéad O’Connor turned it into one of the most devastating vocal performances of the decade. The song topped the Hot 100 for four weeks and hit number 1 in 17 countries. Billboard named it the number one World Single of 1990. The tear in the iconic close-up video came from O’Connor thinking about her mother, who died in 1985.

Image Credit: livepict.com / Wikimedia Commons

“You oughta know” by Alanis Morissette (1995)

Few debut singles landed with the force of“You Oughta Know”. Flea and Dave Navarro of the Red Hot Chili Peppers played bass and guitar, but the real weapon was Morissette herself, delivering what she described as coming from a very devastated time. It hit number 1 on the Modern Rock chart and won two Grammys in 1996. The identity of the man it was written about has never been confirmed.

Image credit: BrianTheMute / Wikimedia Commons

“Don’t speak” by No Doubt (1996)

Gwen Stefani and her brother Eric originally wrote“Don’t Speak”as a love song. After bassist Tony Kanal ended his seven-year relationship with Gwen, she rewrote it into something quieter and more resigned. Never released as a commercial single, it could not chart on the Hot 100 under Billboard’s rules, yet it dominated airplay for 16 consecutive weeks at number 1.Tragic Kingdomsold approximately 15 million copies.

Image credit: LawrenceFung / Wikipedia

Advertisement

“Stay (I missed you)” by Lisa Loeb (1994)

Thesongholds a distinction no other song on this list can claim: it reached number 1 on the Hot 100 while Lisa Loeb had no record deal. Her neighbor, Ethan Hawke, passed a demo to Ben Stiller, who placed it over the closing credits ofReality Bites. The music video was Hawke’s directorial debut, shot in one continuous take in a SoHo loft.

Image Credit: DepositPhotos.com.

“Un-break my heart” by Toni Braxton (1996)

Songwriter Diane Warren has said that Toni Braxton initially refused to record“Un-Break My Heart”, fearing it would lock her into an adult contemporary image she was trying to escape. She recorded it anyway. The song spent 11 consecutive weeks at number 1 on the Hot 100 and won the Grammy for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance in 1997. It has since passed 500 million views on YouTube.

Image credit: RyanKing999 / Wikimedia Commons

Wrap up

The ’90s breakup song was not one thing. It was O’Connor’s grief and Morissette’s rage and Stefani’s exhaustion and Loeb’s confusion and Braxton’s reluctant devastation, all on the same radio dial. Which of these five still gets under your skin the most?

Ask us! What questions do you have about content, strategy, pop culture, lifestyle, wellness, history or more? We may use your question in an upcoming article!

Ask us a question

• 12 songs from the ’80s that have aged really badly

• These were our favorite breakup songs from the ’80s

Like MediaFeed’s content?Be sure to follow us.

This article was syndicated byMediaFeed.org.

byAdministrator

in

April 25, 2026

These were our favorite breakup songs from the ’90s: Do you agree?

The ’90s were a strange and glorious decade for heartbreak. Radio could hand you grunge alienation and R&B devastation in the same ...

Read More