it began with assad. he was having dinner at mar-a-lago with president xi and during the dinner he was informed that assad had used chemical weapons. he said mr. president xi, i'll be right back and he authorized the attack on the weapons. he didn't mean to do that during the dinner but -- >> i wonder. if there's one thing president trump understands it's the symbolism of power. that's chinese saying, i don't know if it's an actual saying or one we made up. you kill the monkey to scare the chicken. >> whatever it is, we're quite aware that mr. trump is not perfect and all of us can have disagreements but i'm going to go back. it's peace through strength recognizing that the enemy is iran working with fellow dictators putin and xi and then you have backups of assad and un and lukisinka. you can think of bizarre people around the world. sadly maduro right here. you realize how dangerous that is. >> you brought up donald trump and you know that you came to realize pretty early that donald trump represented s

as bashar al-assad's tightly controlled empire unravels, we are visiting the very heart of it, the assad's family village, thrown open the heavy iron gates of the family home. there were signs it was hastily abandoned, but the house is not empty. this is the once palatial garden of the house where bashar al-assad was born, and all people realized he is not coming back. they have taken some of the furniture for firewood. >> in every room, locals have come to strip away whatever can be burned. the window frames, shutters, pitch and cupboards ripped to pieces and piled into a waiting taxi. a young boy watches as his father and uncle pat branches off the leafy trees in the ruins of the garden. this place has the error of martial law about it. neighbors watch on curiously from the streets as the now useless web of security cameras sits idle. down the road, the once illustrious tomb of bashar's father is a symbol of the rebel advance. by the entrance, a message, damning assad to the trash pile of history. the legacy of the decades of misrule marks every aspect of daily life here. as we drive alo

the assad family village. across the country, there are signs it was hastily abandoned. but the house isn't empty. this is the once palatial garden of where he was born. now people realize he is not coming back. reporter: a bitter winter is already underway. in every room, locals have come to strip away whatever can be burned. the window frames, shutters, ripped to pieces and piled into a waiting taxi. a the young boy watches as his father and uncle hack branches in the ruins of the garden. this place has the air of martial law about it. neighbors watch curiously from the street as the now useless web of security cameras sits idle. on the road, the once illustrious tomb of assad's father is the symbol of a rebel advance. cheering rebel fighters set the tomb ablaze. by the entrance, a message. to the trash pile of history. the stronghold of a regime that once seemed undefeatable lies in ruins, but the legacy of the decades of rule marks aspects of daily life here. the hollow boom of airstrikes on the highway, t

in fact putin was so bogged down in ukraine that when vicious assad dictatorshipla in syria collapsed, all he could do was watch. russian troops had to race to haul equipment and personnel out of syria should was once a center piece of kremlin global ambitions. putin's failure on save assad regime is a warning to few remaining country that might align themselves with the kremlin. now i am deeply mindful of the anguish that putin inflicted to ukraine. for ukraine these have been years of tragedy, of unnecessary agony caused by one man's imperial greed. in my final hours at ramstein as secretary of defense, i mourn for every ukrainian man, woman, and child killed in putin's murderous war. and i salute the ukrainian troops who are fighting so bravely for their country and for their freedom. and this coalition has had their backs for nearly three hard years of war. and we must not stop now. so i'm leaving this contact group not with a farewell but with a challenge. the coalition to support ukraine must not flinch. it must not falter. it must not fail. ukraine survival is on the line. but

what was the assad regime doing here? evidence of what appears to be a secret chemical lab emerges in several rooms. they find countless labeled bottles and containers filled with chemicals. our main mission today is to. document, try and find out as much as they can about the chemicals they're finding in this facility. something sets off the detector. they take pictures for experts to review the reading. it says tick. toxic industrial chemical. he checks his patch and carries on. until another alarm goes off. they realize it's one of the oxygen tanks he has to get out fast. it's becoming clear they were experimenting with dangerous substances here, tucked in the middle of a residential damascus neighborhood, the local druze community had long suspected this was more than just a state security building. as regime forces withdrew, people rushed in to see what was really inside. this feared compound. it was a local pharmacist who sounded the alarm, and the white helmets were called in. securing sites like this one is critic

so is this an early sign that the country's economy can be rebuilt post—assad ?niversity of manchester welcome to bbc news. now as we mentioned there the new government, the new leadership which in itself is forming has an enormous task ahead. huge challenges. talk us through what that looks like.- challenges. talk us through what that looks like. thank you for having _ what that looks like. thank you for having me. _ what that looks like. thank you for having me. the _ what that looks like. thank you for having me. the first - what that looks like. thank you for having me. the first point i for having me. the first point to note, maybe is that this is an unlikely political situation in the sense that this is an interim government that is leading to a transitional government that the economic challenge in the social challenge in the social challenge cannot really wait or will have to take priority as these processes go forward. so these processes go forward. so the scale of the challenge is enormous in terms of the economic situation of the country, that is dire

the sanctions had been imposed on ousted president bashar al-assad's regime since assad fled, a number of facilities have been discovered that may have been involved in developing and using chemical weapons. cnn's jomana karadsheh goes inside one of those facilities. >> they're gearing up for one of the most dangerous missions in syria and they have to be prepared. exposure could be lethal. >> while we are searching for these secret prisons, we received information that there could be hazardous materials in this facility. >> the white helmets volunteer rescue group suspects this is a chemical weapons research site. we joined their hazmat team at a former state security building. they wanted us to witness what they find throughout the war. the regime and its russian backers have repeatedly tried to discredit them with respirators, fixed and suits sealed. the final touch. chemical agent detector patches. with oxygen tanks and detection devices. these two men lead the way into the unknown. they have to move carefully and methodically. looters got here first. every surface is scanned for t

one is assad. assad's utter refusal to engage in any kind of political process is one of the things that sealed his downfall. so they should be thinking about that. now, of course, the other things that sealed his downfall is the fact that his patrons became very distracted or problems of their own making that we exacerbated, whether it was the russians in ukraine, whether it was the iranians and their attacks on israel and everything that was done in response, or whether it was hezbollah. the other thing they have to ask themselves is the taliban. there's a lesson there. the taliban projected a more moderate face, or at least tried to, when taking over afghanistan, and then its true colors came out. the result is it remains terribly isolated around the world. and so, if you're the emerging group in syria, again, if you don't want that isolation, then there's certain things that you have to do in moving the country forward and make sure you're moving it forward in an inclusive way, in a non-sectari

no assad in power, iran defanged, hezbollah decimated now a cease fire. well, president elect trump really lean in and try to make sure with the credibility he has and he has a lot inside of israel to try to ensure that this process goes forward peacefully. so i think the prime minister, he does have some space. he does need to take advantage of it. >> you wrote something interesting in the lead up to this, joel. you wrote success has many fathers and it's time to share credit. talk a little bit more about that. >> yeah. you know, chris, look, i mentioned a moment ago as well, american foreign policy is at its best when it's bipartisan. and what we're seeing is that obviously president biden and his team, they've been working this for months on end. and they are the primary ones at the table for the united states. but there is also president elect trump's team. steve witkoff, the person he appointed, has been reinforcing president biden's message. and this may be, quite frankly, the best, if not the only, example of cooperation between the trump transitio

and by summer of 2013, bashar al-assad was bombing his own people in syria. and this was sort of the will would be the red lines speech that barack obama gave, which i still remember hearing on the radio that congress may have to vote to authorize military strikes against his forces in syria. and, you know, i was a i was a local government person. i was an observer, a consumer of political news. but there's a big difference between having that role than actually having to cast a vote that would authorize the use of military force. that vote never came. but that was one of those moments where it occurred to me, i know a lot, but i don't know everything. and i really got to talk to somebody i trust about how to process this decision that would lead to lethal force being used against, you know. an army. that was quite a moment for me. how did he tell you to process it? what was his advice? he used the he was a teacher. he used the socratic method. he did not give me advice as to what i should do. he just asked me a lot of questions and helped me process what my

tulsi, i knew her and i was friends with her up until the day she visited bashar al-assad who think godhing talking points -- rushing talking points. i knew she had a little bit of affection for bashar al-assad but to visit and see russian talking points, the russian television station has called her basically "our girlfriend." that's frightening to me. >> stephen: this new documentary called the last republican which covers the last year and half of your career. a bunch of requests, people want to make documentaries about you. why say yes to director steve pink who might be best known as some people in the audience as the director of the movie "hot tub time machine." >> mr. kinzinger: true story. i love "hot tub time machine." >> stephen: it's a fine movie, not the most policy-based. >> mr. kinzinger: when he came to me, i had a lot of offers. they were interested in the human story of what i was going through. it was less about the horse race. are you going to run again? it was more the human element. that's when i love about the film. it shows first off he's very far left. it shows u

assad the assad regime is gone. >> so it means it's very hard for iran now to try to rebuild hezbollah. so hamas was all alone and understood it was all alone on the one hand. and the other dimension here is i think there is a trump effect. i don't think that prime minister netanyahu was prepared to say no to him because, as you said quite correctly, this deal is not materially different from what was available at the end of may. it's true that hamas didn't respond for five weeks to that. but when it did, the prime minister offered some clarifications. then hamas used those clarifications, especially as it related to the philadelphia corridor as a reason not to say yes. so we're looking at an agreement now that is emerging, partly because i think hamas feels alone, partly because i think that qatar and egypt in particular want to show incoming president trump that they can get things done so that they get on his right side. and prime minister netanyahu finds it very difficult to say no to him. and i heard you talking with richard about steve witkoff. it's pretty clear that if one reads

president assad closest ally in the middle east neither could keep them in power. now i cannot claim credit. they did plenty of damage all by themselves. and israel did plenty of damage to iran and its proxies. but there's no question, our actions contributed significantly. and now major authoritarian states are aligning more closely, iran, russia, china, north korea. but that is more out of weakness than that of strength. as the new administration begins, the united states is in a stronger position with respect to these countries than they were four years ago. today, i can report to the american people we are in a better strategic position with china. you all recall and the experts believe it was inevitable that china's economy would surpass ours. that would happen by the year 200 or shortly thereafter. but we in this room said no. we make the investments if ourselves. protect our workers and technology. that will not happen. now according to the latest predictions, china's current course, they will never surpass us, period. i met one-on-one with president xi at s

trip to syria that came in the wake of a chemical weapons attack carried out by dictator bashar al assadard told her, she said, that she didn't even know she was going to syria, that she intended to go to lebanon on the scheduled visit and ended up in syria. is that a credible answer? >> i talked to congresswoman gabbard this week, met with her in my office. we talked about the trip to syria. she didn't tell me that part. i think it's kind of unusual that you wind up in one place that wasn't part of the plan. but what concerns me more, especially about that trip, is it was common knowledge that assad was gassing the civilian population, using chemical weapons against the population multiple times and she didn't argue about those, but she took the time and the effort to make a case and she used experts that were not credible to try to prove that he was not using chemical weapons in those two instances and i have a hard time understanding why you would want to do that to use your political capital to try to prove something when there are multiple cases. and, you know, on top of that, when

the ceasefire in lebanon and the fall of the assad regime in syria. at the atlantic council we have sought to highlight the stakes and potential solutions across the middle east. we've done so through many years through our center for the middle east, through our scowcroft middle east security initiative and iran strategy project as well as through our strategic project hold the iranian regime accountable and establish a syrian victims fund. significantly we have also done this through our n-7 initiative in partnership with the jeffrey palpans foundation which seeks to sans the integration launched by the abraham accords between the united states, israel and arab and muslim partners around the world. thanks to will wexler and the atlantic council's take. history is in motion and you've been at the center of it. with your work to advance the united states to secure a more prosperous global future. as you wrote recently regarding u.s. forbe policy, quote, the choices the united states makes in the second half of this decisive decade will determine wheth

just look in syria with the fall of which are all assat -- of bashar all assad, but the people coming into power, the new leader of syria, he is a former member of elkind -- of al qaeda. they now control real territory with real weaponry. the truth is that is a real challenge. these terrorists are not going away, whether we think they are defeated or not. they continue to conduct these attacks. if we take our eye off the ball, they will achieve success not just like in new orleans, but in bigger and more spectacular attacks, which is their goal. >> we will take your calls. we are talking about the threat that isis poses to the united states. we are taking your calls by party. president electron has said he wants to scale back -- elect trump has said he wants to scale back the u.s. presence in the middle east. the u.s. has about 2000 troops in iraq, about 900 in syria. they are there to counter isis. what impact do you think that will have, the more isolationist or america first agenda? >> we had three presidents in a row, all of whom have wanted to reduce our force posture overseas, f

to do that the next administration must make sure the fall of assad does not lead to resurgent vicesthe region we must carryforward of the commitment that america will never and never allow iran to acquire a nuclear weapon. and the war between israel and hamas on the brink of proposal as laid out in detail months ago, finally coming to fruition. i have learned many years of public service to never, never, never ever give up. i spoke to the prime minister of israel yesterday. i spoke to the emir of qatar today and i look for to speaking with president sisi soon. pressing hard to close this, the deal we have structured which will free the hostages, halt the fighting, provide security to israel and allow us to significantly surge humanitarian assistance to the palestinians who suffered terribly in this war that hamas started. they have been through hell, so many innocent people have been killed. so many communities have been destroyed. palestinian people deserve peace and the right to determine their own futures. israel deserves peace and real security. and the hostages and their famili

foreign minister is warning syria's new leaders not to establish an islamist government after bashar al—assadyrian capital damascus alongside her french counterpart. they met syria's de facto leader ahmad al—sharaa and visited the notorious saydnaya prison where opponents of the assad regime were tortured and killed. it's the highest—level visit by western powers since the rebel group hayat tahrir al—sham, seized power. air pollution monitors say hanoi in vietnam is currently the most polluted city in the world. the city has been covered in thick smog over recent weeks. it is caused by a combination of atmospheric conditions and increased emissions, as more fuel is burnt for heating during the colder winter months. the government says it will encourage greater use of electric vehicles, to help address the problem. us presidentjoe biden has blocked the takeover of us steel by a largerjapanese firm as part of his campaign promise to keepjobs in the us. mr biden cited national security concerns while rejecting a bid by nippon steel. he said us ownership is important to keep the country's steel i

in syria, a future free from the tyranny of assad. and for the palestinian people, a credible, credible pathway to a state of their own. and for the region, a future of normalization, integration of israel and all its arab neighbors, including saudi arabia. the g-20 in deli -- delhi in september of 2023 i rallied countries from an economic carter from india across the middle east to europe. that vision can now become a reality. there are risks as well including isis in iran. even in badly weakened state, but, but we are handing off to the next team a real opportunity for a bert future for the immediate -- better fuamatu-ma'afala taour for the -- future for the middle east. let me close with this my friend for years in the united states senate, former senator george mitchell, who did so much to forge peace in northern ireland, once said about diplomacy, 700 days of failure and one day of success. 700 days of failure and one day of success. we have had many difficult days since hamas began its terrible war. we have encountered road bloc

main reasons why the us feels that ankara threw its hat in the ring with the forces whoever threw assad. if you're talking about 2 . now the one of the sides has been essentially wiped out, but nobody knows who the other side is, but i do, you know, it is turkey. okay. turkey is the one behind it. he's a very smart guy. they've wanted it for thousands of years. and he got it and those peoples that went in are controlled by turkey. and that's okay, that's another way to fight. then there's this real, which seems thrilled to see syria and chaos after a subs withdrawal. tel aviv occupied huge swaths of syrian territory, including the strategic syrian side of mount herman. this is a historic day for the middle east, the collapse of the acid regime. the tyranny in damascus offers great opportunity, but also is fraught with significant dangers. but it also means we have to take action against possible threats. one of them is a collapse of the separation of forces agreement for 1974 between israel and syria, disagreement held for 50 years last night to collapse the ceiling. i'm your band and i

however, under assad's regina such actions were suppressed immediately. so this tool, the way of hearing lots of in particular in the west, in price of the new regime. the qu, administration in syria protecting minority seems to be from what you're saying, something of a mist. honestly, western media has been working to rehabilitate the image of of mohammed al giovanni . since the fall of a size regime. they portray him as a hero who over through one of the most oppressive regimes in the middle east. but al giovanni remains a criminal. this fact has been forgotten, thanks to the efforts of western media. western outlets have re branded al giovanni has someone who has changed overnight despite his affiliations with isis and you about on those track. the media has worked to clean his image for the world. both western and syrian audiences they succeeded. i must admit, however, syrians, especially minorities, cannot forget 14 years of atrocities. the ongoing attempt to convince the west that al giovanni's group protects minorities is misleading. recently the

b, l, y, they've been accused of loyalty to the assad regime. but in fact, they, like many of the syrians, were impoverished and oppressed by that same regime. just 3 days ago this, this but it was a know goes on being on the sense of security operation meant lessons and address suspects. now most of the people the local people say they just want to feel safe. nobody told we want to secure it's a when it's pace. everything else is easy. took on the 5 days for the new security forces and those these accomplishments of that piece. and then some of them the uh, the for the, during the operation against the remnants of the defend duration, we discovered a lot of wave bins including coffee j as in machine guns. police say they for the rest of hundreds of people due to your place. and many of them have since been released causes us to hunt the investigation. fucked along on how they came into our home and searched it, but i find in anything but they took away my father who is a civilian. i my 3 brothers, 2 of them are civilians and the other was a sol

it will mark a significant step and reopening to the rest of the world following the full of the assad regime on thursday kata, it was announced that would restart slides to damascus. ultimately 15 years, international light plains have already been landing, and domestic flights have also resumed. well, for the latest we're going to go now to tional bar, who isn't damascus for us and hush him. big is a deal. is this full for the country and the syrians and, and being able to move forward and not into the rest of the world. so i'm, it has a significant political and economic implication since december the 8th. when the rebels with the opposition flights of stuck over damascus, the flies were suspended and then life stood still because of a huge security concerns about the situation. and then the new administration has been in touch with key regional players, particularly gotta owns that need to help them rehabilitate the new as it is that both of them ask us to be aligned with international safety standards that has been done to laws extend to the point why they have to decide they've d

what ahead of civil aviation and serious is the main airport, was damaged by the former assad regime. as an sweety, i'm hippo, syria has been isolated from abroad. and as can see today, the domestic is international airport has started working at yeah. we're trying to active ex how we have it because of the vandalizing by the former regime, only areas with the regime head of prisons. they tried to destroy it. we would todd in order to be able to build the airport back again. chanel bar is long for us in damascus. how soon is we've been talking about this being a real diplomatic push? can you just explain how critical these tools uh for the people of siri are and, and potentially what the future looks like. it was very important. told for the new administration and for the survey and people for the why to visa is when the, when that's t as to over here at the shop. many took over damascus. people were concerned about what would be the reaction of the t regional players and the international community. and then be so more and more delegations troubling to them, asked us to try to test t

you mention are i syria and the fall of president assad.l group that has taken power? well, this could go in one of three main scenarios, either we would have prolonged chaos or a fragmentation basically on a federal system, you have the turks in the north, you have israel coming in, you have basically the kurds with the united states, and what the hts has signalled is that they want to unify syria. however, let's remember that this rebel group is composed of six infections with another 3a factions coming into play —— six main factions. they may not all agree on a common scenario when it comes to syria. international players are there and will find the gulf states wary after fighting the muslim brotherhood and the islamist since the arab spring. hts, al—jolani has signalled to saudi arabia that they could have a role in syria, they could have a role in the reconstruction of syria and thank them for their role during the 1a year struggle they had. however, i think things would be much more complicated than that. although iran has left syria

de facto leader ahmad al—sharaa and visited the notorious saydnaya prison, where opponents of the assad. air pollution monitors say hanoi in vietnam is currently the most polluted city in the world. the city has been covered in thick smog over recent weeks. it is caused by a combination of atmospheric conditions and increased emissions, as more fuel is burnt for heating during the colder winter months. the government says it will encourage greater use of electric vehicles, to help address the problem. and us presidentjoe biden blocked the takeover of us steel by a larger japanese firm as part of his campaign promise to keepjobs in the us. mr biden cited national security concerns while rejecting a bid by nippon steel. he said us ownership is important to keep the country's steel industry and supply chains strong. australia's northern territory is home to more than 100,000 saltwater crocodiles living in the wild, the largest population anywhere in the world. although croc attacks are rare, last year saw the area's first fatal incident since 2018, reigniting the debate over culling. our a

and the assad regime was toppled. i'm how much reports from damascus. a lot of them on for cdn of dyslexia and i from the opening of the nation's oldest and largest museum is a welcome relief from was having half a sort of exhibition when it was close last month or the season. it presents syria for me. and it's the single everything in syria, and it's a place very, very close to my heart. serious national museum is now will coming visit us again. i found it more than a century ago. it was shot in the days of the sites. the game was still not put out to be we decided to close the museum for security reasons. we were afraid that looting or something similar would take place. but thankfully, that didn't happen. visit us to the museum, see the happy nothing was starting not damaged. most of these holes and the museum has only opened up recently up and do 2 years ago. we couldn't assess anywhere but the outside garden of the museum. december was not the 1st time that the museum had grows. it was shot in 2012, as for position, fight does costing on the city.

after decades of repressive rule by the assad family, syrians face an uncertain future with trepidationane pauley. "cbs news advil liqui-gels are faster and stronger than tylenol rapid release gels. ♪♪ also from advil, advil targeted relief, the only topical with 4 powerful pain fighting ingredients that start working on contact and lasts up to 8 hours. strong enamel is your best defense against acid erosion and cavities. that's why i recommend the pronamel active shield because it will strengthen your enamel and create that shield around it. i'm excited for this product. i think patients are really going to like it. >>> there's a new movement in cities across the country to protect urban wildlife, specifically birds. david pogue has the story. >> reporter: in february 2023, a you're ration eagle owl named flocko escaped from the central park zoo. for a year, he lived among the skyscrapers and became something of a manhattan mascot. >> you could see him kind of going from window to window, looking in at people's apartments. >> reporter: but then -- >> well, a sad day for new yorkers and

couple that with the fact that her meeting with assad isn't just an isolated incident. the fact that she came back from that secret meeting saying he's not an enemy of the united states, it concerns me that our allies wouldn't share critical information that keeps us safe, because they simply wouldn't trust her. >> it'll be interesting if we hear from mark warner coming out of that meeting for sure. um, also in the house, the focus now turns especially for republicans pushing for one big bill to kind of come out of the gate with of all of donald trump's priorities as he comes into office. the discussion was really pushing for that. that was sunday, monday. and now come tuesday, you're hearing it. i don't know if it's people are saying, pump the brakes or just reality is setting in. even republicans seeming to think this might not be the way to go about it. let me play what lindsey graham said. >> is it a risk to put it all in one bill? >> i think it's a risk to our country to delay border security. so if you're a tax cutting person, which i understand, and you're holdin

so we're going to return down to our coverage of syria off to the full of the assad regime. and my curve as in seen a is a global security and strategy advisor. he joins us from new york. thanks very much for being with us. once again. monica, now it's been almost a month since the sod regime fell. i mean, can you just give us an idea of how you would assess the changes that the new administration have made so far, especially when it comes to the every day economy as the syrians, the basic thing is to establish water and stability in the country. the basic order and safety, the key items, the economy is going to take a much, much longer time. it's, it's important to manage expectations. the fact toledo, shara make clear that will take at least a year to see some real drastic changes. you're talking about an economy that's been definitely designated by 14 years of more economic mismanagement, but it show each style economy for decades. and also sanctions, which i've done has another crushing effect. traditionally, syria have made a lot of hard to what it needs, and it was har

iran lost out in syria too when its ally, the dictator bashar al assad was toppled by islamist fighterse main cities and declared victory. the political shifts in the middle east over 2024 have been seismic, and it's safe to say the region will never be the same again. add to the mix in 2025 donald trump, whose foreign policy will be at the very least disruptive. so anything's possible, from a fragile peace to disaster. >>> this is robert costa in washington, which is bracing for the return of president-elect donald trump, who seems ready to rumble. >> woke is [ bleep ]. >> reporter: but change isn't easy as carl hulce knows. we met the him on capitol hill. where the butchers have an easier time than the legislators down the street. how hard is it to make the sausage in washington these days? >> it's tough. the country is polarized. so congress is polarized. and hw do you get anything done? people are dug in. >> reporter: that was made clear this month when congress averted a shutdown. could it be governing by crisis in 2025? >> it's totally the way it's going to be. >> reporter: at the

russia and iran's lackey in syria, assad, is gone. we are now at a pivotal point in the negotiations for a hostage deal and ceasefire in gaza. the president spoke with prime minister netanyahu yesterday and just got off the phone with the emir of qatar and he'll be speaking soon with president sisi of egypt. we are close to a deal, it can get den this week. i'm not making a promise or prediction but it is there for the taking and we're going to work to make it happen. there are serious and on tboing challenges in the world. the houthis continue to represent a clear and present danger. isis is trying to use the fall of assad to regenerate after years of sustained pressure and the degradation of its networks. final think there are also important initiatives that the next team should carry forward in our view to have a strong, bipartisan foundation nortd to cement america's position of strength in the world and our current lead in key areas. the work we started to revitalize our defense industrial base, the steps we've taken to protect a

minister, annalena baerbock -- we see as well a genuine hope for the future after five decades of assad regime that brutalized the syrian people. now they have an opportunity for a future that's not under the thumb of a dictator, not under the thumb of a foreign power, not under the thumb of a terrorist group, a future in which a sovereign syria respects the rights of all of its people, and the country's not used as a base for terrorism or other bad things that we've seen affect people well beyond its borders. so there as well, france and the united states are fully united in what we want to see, what we expect, and the work we're doing to help achieve that. on ukraine, as jean-noel said, france has been, from day one, one of the staunchest supporters of a free ukraine, one that can resist and overcome the ongoing aggression that russia is posing. global support for ukraine -- that france and the united states have helped bring about together -- is one of the strongest examples i've ever seen of burden-sharing. and we see that in particular in france's leadership, from training more tha

the fall of the dictator -- dictator assad of damascus is the equivalent of the fall of the berlin wall liberating eastern europe not leading to the liberation of middle east and war after can. it's known war putin and regime in tehran has lost a pup heet. putin is trying to evacuate his bases. the iran regime is pivoting toe support houthis to attack american shipping. they are more vulnerable than ever. president donald trump wants to achieve peace through strength. working with our allies, turkiye and saudi arabia. additionally, we know that he will be restoring the abraham accords which will bring security for israel and stability for the people of syria and lebanon, including the legitimate government of georgia, armenia, and azerbaijan. in conclusion god bless our troops as the global war on terrorism continues, open borders for dictators puts all americans at risk of more 9/11 attacks imminent as warned by the f.b.i. donald trump will reinstitute excisioning laws -- the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. mr. wilson: peace through strength. the speaker pro temp

it will not always work but assad is good -- assad being gone is good for the syrian people.t: independent in new york. caller: thank goodness for c-span. i have a quick question. how long was it from the time that the person that did that attack in new orleans? how long was it from the time where he left the military until he supposedly did the attack? guest: he was in the military for about 13 years. i believe and i need to double check but i think he left around 2021. it has been a few years. he did indicate he had struggles with his departure and coming back to civilian life which is one of the challenges and he also had financial troubles and troubles with his family. two daughters and a son, two marriages ending in divorce. he was going through some trouble and there was a suggestion that he had mental health issues. this demonstrates how important it is without we care for our veterans and address the mental health issues that they have. dst has a very real thing. at the same time it is kind of shocking i think to the american people that someone who was born in the un