Syria is joining the global coalition against the Islamic State group, a US official said Monday hours after President Donald Trump welcomed his Syrian counterpart Ahmed al-Sharaa for historic White House talks.Sharaa, whose rebel forces ousted longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad late last year, was the first Syrian leader to visit the White House since the Middle Eastern country’s independence in 1946.But the 43-year-old’s landmark visit to the Oval Office came just days after Washington removed him from its terrorism list. Sharaa’s group, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), was formerly affiliated with Al-Qaeda.”During the visit, Syria announced that it is joining the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS,” becoming the 90th member of the alliance and “partnering with the United States to eliminate ISIS remnants and halt foreign fighter flows,” a senior administration official said.According to the official, Syria will also be allowed to resume diplomatic relations with Washington “to further counterterrorism, security, and economic coordination.”Trump said he wanted Syria to become “very successful” after more than a decade of civil war and added that he believed Sharaa “can do it, I really do.””He’s a very strong leader. He comes from a very tough place, and he’s a tough guy,” Trump told reporters after the meeting, which was closed to press.”People said he’s had a rough past, we’ve all had rough pasts… And I think, frankly, if you didn’t have a rough past, you wouldn’t have a chance.”Trump said Syria was a “big part” of his plan for a wider Middle East peace plan, which the US president is hoping will prop up the fragile ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.”Having a stable and successful Syria is very important to all countries in the Region,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform after the meeting.Despite this, Trump would not confirm reports that Syria would sign any non-aggression pact with long-term foe Israel.Afterwards Sharaa was interviewed by broadcaster Fox News, saying Syria’s ongoing dispute with Israel over the Golan Heights territory would make entering peace talks difficult now. But he suggested talks facilitated by Trump and Washington could help start negotiations.The Syrian president’s visit capped a remarkable turnaround for a former jihadist who once had a $10 million US bounty on his head.In dramatic scenes as he left his meeting with Trump, he climbed out of his motorcade to greet crowds of supporters outside the White House, surrounded on all sides by bodyguards.- ‘Astonishing transformation’ -Syria’s presidency said on X that Sharaa and Trump discussed the bilateral relationship, “the ways to strengthen and develop it, as well as a number of regional and international issues of common interest.”It published photos of Trump standing and shaking hands with a smiling Sharaa beside the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office.Other pictures showed the Syrian leader sitting opposite Trump with top US officials including Vice President JD Vance, Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth and top US military officer Dan Caine.Since taking power, Syria’s new leaders have sought to break from their violent past and present a more moderate image to ordinary Syrians and foreign powers.Sharaa’s White House visit is “a hugely symbolic moment for the country’s new leader, who thus marks another step in his astonishing transformation from militant leader to global statesman,” said Michael Hanna, US program director at the International Crisis Group.The Syrian met Trump for the first time in Saudi Arabia during the US leader’s regional tour in May. At the time the 79-year-old Trump dubbed Sharaa, 43, as “a young, attractive guy.”Sharaa was expected to seek US funds for Syria, which faces significant challenges in rebuilding after 13 years of devastating civil war.After his arrival in Washington, Sharaa over the weekend met with International Monetary Fund chief Kristalina Georgieva over possible aid.Sharaa’s jihadist past has caused controversy in some quarters but the State Department’s decision Friday to remove him from the blacklist was widely expected.The Syrian president has also been making diplomatic outreach towards Washington’s rivals. He met Russian President Vladimir Putin in October in their first meeting since the removal of Assad, a key Kremlin ally.

The longest-ever US government shutdown appeared headed Monday to an eventual resolution, after several Democratic senators broke ranks to join Republicans in advancing a compromise deal — sparking intra-party backlash.Since October 1, the first day of the shutdown, more than a million federal workers have been unpaid, while government benefits and services have been increasingly disrupted.Severe impacts on air traffic have begun to mount in recent days, with more than 1,000 flights canceled daily, raising the political pressure to end the stalemate.”We’ll be opening up our country very quickly,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office, adding: “the deal is very good.”After clearing a key procedural hurdle late Sunday, the Senate began the voting process late Monday to pass the compromise budget measure.It would then move to the House of Representatives, which like the Senate is controlled by Republicans. The chamber could vote on the bill as early as Wednesday to send it to Trump’s desk.”It appears to us this morning that our long national nightmare is finally coming to an end, and we’re grateful for that,” House Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters Monday. “At least some Democrats now finally appear ready to do what Republicans and President Trump and millions of hardworking American people have been asking them to do for weeks.”The House — which Johnson has kept out of session throughout the standoff — would be called back this week, he said.”I’d like to vote tonight after the Senate is done, but it takes everybody a while to get back” for a vote, Johnson told broadcaster CNN.- Obamacare – At the heart of the impasse is Democrats’ demand to extend health insurance subsidies expiring at the end of the year. Republicans insist any negotiation occur after the government is re-opened.Millions of Americans who have purchased health insurance through the “Obamacare” program would see their costs double if the subsidies are not extended.Sunday’s breakthrough agreement would re-open the government through January, with some programs funded for the full fiscal year, and reverse some of the Trump administration’s firings of federal workers.The bill notably would restore funding for the SNAP food aid program, which helps more than 42 million lower-income Americans pay for groceries.While the Senate’s Republican leadership has agreed to hold an eventual vote on health care, it does not ensure the insurance subsidies will be extended.”After 40 days of uncertainty, I’m profoundly glad to be able to announce that nutrition programs, our veterans, and other critical priorities will have their full-year funding,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune said late Sunday.While leaders were rushing to move the bill through Congress, it could still take days to make its way to Trump’s desk. Tuesday is a national holiday.- Divided Democrats -Senator Jeanne Shaheen, one of eight Democratic caucus members who backed the measure, said the Senate “took a big step forward towards protecting the health care of tens of millions of Americans.”She said the agreement would grant Democrats, despite being in the minority, the power to call a vote on health care legislation.However, with the extension of the subsidies not guaranteed, the move has angered party members who preferred to keep holding out.”Pathetic,” California Governor Gavin Newsom posted on X in reaction to the announced agreement.Top Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer voted no, saying he could “not in good faith” support a measure “that fails to address the health care crisis.””This fight will and must continue,” he vowed.Some lawmakers criticized Schumer himself for failing to keep the Democrats united.”Tonight is another example of why we need new leadership,” Massachusetts Representative Seth Moulton said Sunday. 

After years of temporary pop-up events, streaming giant Netflix will make its first foray into the theme park space this week, rivalling entertainment giants Disney and Universal Studios.The company’s “Netflix House” theme park will open its doors Wednesday at the King of Prussia mall — one of the largest shopping centers in the United States, in the suburbs of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania — in a space measuring over 100,000 square feet (10,000 square meters).The theme park, which will offer free admission, plans to host a wide range of dining and activities, all decorated to resemble some of the platform’s most popular shows and movies, including “Bridgerton,” “Stranger Things,” “Squid Game” and “KPop Demon Hunters.”Netflix Chief Marketing Officer Marian Lee said the company opted against charging for admission because “we wanted that accessibility. We want to be an everyday destination.””As we were launching these pop-up experiences, it became clear that we would actually have more flexibility if we had a permanent location,” she told AFP in an interview.Additional “Netflix House” locations are set to open after the Pennsylvania attraction, with one in Dallas, Texas scheduled to debut on December 11 and a third on the Las Vegas Strip in Nevada by 2027.”Las Vegas is a very different space. It’s not inside of a shopping center, but it is on the Strip…and so there, we will program it a little bit differently,” Lee said.Although Lee did not confirm the costs to build these theme parks, she said “you can see it’s a huge capital investment for the company to invest in both the space and like all the finishings and the fabrications of everything.”As of right now, Lee said there no plans to build a “Netflix House” internationally. “We’d have to think about it in a different way,” she said.

The United Nations climate conference opened Monday in the Brazilian Amazon with pleas for the world to keep up the fight against global warming, even as the United States turns its back.Feeble progress toward weaning off fossil fuels and cutting planet-warming emissions have opened fault lines between countries in Belem, the hot and sticky city on the edge of the rainforest hosting the two-week COP30 summit.”It’s time to inflict a new defeat on the deniers,” Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva thundered in his opening address, which followed a traditional performance from Indigenous people in feathered headpieces.He pointedly slammed those who “spread fear, attack institutions, science, and universities.”Weighing on the talks is the absence of the United States, the world’s top oil producer and second-largest polluter.But American state and local leaders, including California Governor Gavin Newsom, are set to take the stage Tuesday to show the country isn’t entirely missing in action, highlighting their own climate policies and solidarity with global efforts.”Make no mistake, humanity is still in this fight,” said UN climate chief Simon Stiell. “We have some tough opponents, no doubt, but we also have some heavyweights on our side.” He pointed to “the brute power of market forces” beginning to tip in favor of renewables, which this year overtook coal as the world’s top energy source: “extraordinary progress that was unimaginable a decade ago.”The summit opens in the wake of destructive storms in the Caribbean and Asia and a growing fear that geopolitical tensions — from wars to trade feuds — are distracting from the fight against climate change.In a stark reminder of what’s at stake, the UN’s top climate scientist reaffirmed that a temporary breach of the 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) benchmark — the safer warming goal of the Paris Agreement — was now inevitable.Those challenges and more were compounded by logistical problems in Belem, including a dire shortage of hotel rooms.Organisers say just over 42,000 delegates have gathered, fewer than at recent editions, as sky-high accommodation costs appear to have kept many away.Lula has defended the choice of location, saying he wanted to bring the world’s attention to the Amazon’s role in combating climate change, a shift mainly driven by burning coal, oil and gas.- Tough negotiations -A tough two weeks lies ahead for diplomats meeting in a cavernous conference hall, where the din of negotiations are occasionally drowned out by tropical rainfall hammering the roof overhead.Rich nations and developing countries regularly clash at COPs over how to raise the money needed for poorer regions to adapt to climate change and shift to a low-carbon future.”Our 44 countries did not light this fire, but we are bearing its heat,” Evans Njewa, a Malawian diplomat who chairs the Least Developed Countries (LDC) bloc that represents more than one billion people, told reporters.Major oil producers such as Saudi Arabia have traditionally opposed efforts at COPs to focus on fossil fuels. At COP28 in 2023, nations historically agreed to transition away from fossil fuels for the first time.Lula has floated the idea of a “roadmap” on fossil fuels at COP30, but the proposal so far lacks details.For 30 years, the countries party to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change — adopted at the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro — have met annually to strengthen the global climate regime.Those efforts culminated in the 2015 Paris Agreement, which commits the world to limiting global warming to well below 2C relative to pre-industrial levels, while striving for 1.5C.But Jim Skea, head of the UN’s expert climate science body, warned Monday it was “almost inevitable” that the world will cross the crucial warming threshold at least temporarily.The world’s failure to rein in global temperature rises is the focus of an effort by small island nations to put this on the official agenda.A Western diplomat told AFP that such nations “are ready to upend the COP” if they don’t see a stronger official response to these efforts assured at COP30.”If they don’t deliver on 1.5C, that spells our demise,” Tuvalu minister for climate affairs and environment Maina Vakafua Talia told AFP.burs-lth/ia/np/mlm

The United States will remove strong safety warnings on many hormone therapies used to alleviate menopausal symptoms, saying the risks have been exaggerated, authorities announced Monday.Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT) replaces estrogen that the female body stops producing during menopause with the aim of alleviating symptoms including hot flashes, brain fog, insomnia, night sweats and joint pain.Previously used routinely, prescription and use of the therapies have plummeted worldwide since a landmark trial in the early 2000s pointed to risks associated with specific HRT formulations.Since then “black box warnings” — the strongest warning the US Food and Drug Administration can require on prescription drugs — have sounded alarm over increased HRT risks including of certain cancers, cardiovascular conditions and probable dementia.But critics have pointed to flaws with the early 2000s Women’s Health Initiative, whose trials were halted as risks appeared: namely it focused on women who were a decade-post-menopause and in their 60s, when cardiovascular risks increase regardless.Today guidance generally indicates that healthy newly menopausal or perimenopausal women — people broadly in their 40s or 50s — are among potential candidates for treatment.There also are newer, more localized or lower-dose forms of the therapies available.”We’re challenging outdated thinking and recommitting to evidence-based medicine that empowers rather than restricts,” US health chief Robert F. Kennedy Jr said in introducing the measure.Many experts had urged revisiting the black box label, which they say can scare women for whom benefits may outweigh risks.Others have voiced concern that changes shouldn’t come without a rigorous review process.”The warnings on hormone products for menopause had become outdated and it was time to update them,” said Diana Zuckerman, president of the nonprofit National Center for Health Research. But she told AFP “these products still have clear risks and the benefits are mostly for hot flashes and related symptoms of menopause, not for general health.”FDA head Marty Makary dismissed that notion of an independent review committee, saying they are “bureaucratic, long, often conflicted and very expensive.”Over the summer Makary convened a panel of experts overwhelmingly in favor of HRT, which included people with ties to pharmaceutical lobbying.Adriane Fugh-Berman, who directs a project that promotes rational prescribing at Georgetown University, told AFP that Monday’s announcement was “embarrassing” as it was ahead of any consensus and was “not how regulation should happen.”There could be benefits of HRT for some people, she told AFP, but cautioned that real risks remain, and more high-quality study is needed.But the president of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, Steven Fleischman, commended the FDA’s move, saying “the updated labels will better allow patients and clinicians to engage in a shared decision-making process.”Fleischman noted it was important to distinguish between systemic estrogen products — including methods taken orally or via patches — and low-dose vaginal estrogen.”Like all medications, systemic estrogen products are not without risk, and their use should be based on an individualized conversation between patients and their clinicians,” Fleischman said.The FDA said it is not seeking to remove the boxed warning for endometrial cancer for systemic estrogen-alone products. Sarah Shealy — a nurse-midwife, who is also a certified practitioner by the nonprofit organization the Menopause Society — welcomed the shift.She told AFP she hoped it signaled “the tide is turning” in terms of treatment access as well as education.”We largely have a medical community that doesn’t have a broad knowledge or confidence in prescribing hormone therapy, and this has left women feeling gaslit,” Shealy said.