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DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) — Ousted Syrian leader Bashar Assad fled to Moscow and received asylum from his longtime ally, Russian media said Sunday, hours after a stunning rebel advance seized control of Damascus and ended his family’s 50 years of iron rule . Thousands of Syrians poured into streets echoing with celebratory gunfire and waved the revolutionary flag in scenes that recalled the early days of the Arab Spring uprising, before a brutal crackdown and the rise of an insurgency plunged the country into a nearly 14-year civil war. The swiftly moving events raised questions about the future of the country and the wider region. “Our approach has shifted the balance of power in the Middle East," President Joe Biden said , crediting action by the U.S. and its allies for weakening Syria’s backers — Russia, Iran and Hezbollah. He called the fall of Assad a “fundamental act of justice” but also a “moment of risk and uncertainty,” and said rebel groups are “saying the right things now” but the U.S. would assess their actions. Russia requested an emergency session of the U.N. Security Council to discuss Syria, according to Dmitry Polyansky, its deputy ambassador to the U.N., in a post on Telegram. The arrival of Assad and his family in Moscow was reported by Russian agencies Tass and RIA, citing an unidentified source at the Kremlin. A spokesman there didn't immediately respond to questions. RIA also said Syrian insurgents had guaranteed the security of Russian military bases and diplomatic posts in Syria. Earlier, Russia said Assad left Syria after negotiations with rebel groups and that he had given instructions to transfer power peacefully. The leader of Syria's biggest rebel faction, Abu Mohammed al-Golani , is poised to chart the country’s future. The former al-Qaida commander cut ties with the group years ago and says he embraces pluralism and religious tolerance. His Hayat Tahrir al-Sham group, or HTS, is considered a terrorist organization by the U.S. and the U.N. In his first public appearance since fighters entered the Damascus suburbs Saturday, al-Golani visited the Umayyad Mosque and described Assad's fall as “a victory to the Islamic nation.” Calling himself by his given name, Ahmad al-Sharaa, and not his nom de guerre, he said Assad had made Syria “a farm for Iran’s greed.” The rebels face the daunting task of healing bitter divisions in a country ravaged by war and split among armed factions. Turkey-backed opposition fighters are battling U.S.-allied Kurdish forces in the north, and the Islamic State group is still active in remote areas. Syrian state television broadcast a rebel statement saying Assad had been overthrown and all prisoners had been released. They urged people to preserve the institutions of “the free Syrian state,” and announced a curfew in Damascus from 4 p.m. to 5 a.m. An online video purported to show rebels freeing dozens of women at the notorious Saydnaya prison, where rights groups say thousands were tortured and killed . At least one small child was seen among them. “This happiness will not be completed until I can see my son out of prison and know where is he,” said one relative, Bassam Masr. "I have been searching for him for two hours. He has been detained for 13 years.” Rebel commander Anas Salkhadi appeared on state TV and sought to reassure religious and ethnic minorities, saying: “Syria is for everyone, no exceptions. Syria is for Druze, Sunnis, Alawites, and all sects.” “We will not deal with people the way the Assad family did," he added. Damascus residents prayed in mosques and celebrated in squares, calling, “God is great.” People chanted anti-Assad slogans and honked car horns. Teenage boys picked up weapons apparently discarded by security forces and fired into the air. Soldiers and police fled their posts and looters broke into the Defense Ministry. Families wandered the presidential palace, walking by damaged portraits of Assad. Other parts of the capital were empty and shops were closed. “It’s like a dream. I need someone to wake me up," said opposition fighter Abu Laith, adding the rebels were welcomed in Damascus with “love.” Rebels stood guard at the Justice Ministry, where Judge Khitam Haddad said he and colleagues were protecting documents. Outside, residents sought information about relatives who disappeared under Assad. The rebels “have felt the pain of the people,” said one woman, giving only her first name, Heba. She worried about possible revenge killings by the rebels, many of whom appeared to be underage. Syria’s historically pro-government newspaper al-Watan called it “a new page for Syria. We thank God for not shedding more blood.” It added that media workers should not be blamed for publishing past government statements ordered from above. A statement from the Alawite sect that formed the core of Assad's base called on young Syrians to be “calm, rational and prudent and not to be dragged into what tears apart the unity of our country.” The rebels mainly come from the Sunni Muslim majority in Syria, which also has sizable Druze, Christian and Kurdish communities. In Qamishli in the northeast, a Kurdish man slapped a statue of the late leader Hafez Assad with his shoe. The rebel advances since Nov. 27 were the largest in recent years, and saw the cities of Aleppo, Hama and Homs fall within days as the Syrian army melted away. The road to Damascus from the Lebanese border was littered with military uniforms and charred armored vehicles. Russia, Iran and Hezbollah, which provided crucial support to Assad, abandoned him as they reeled from other conflicts. The end of Assad’s rule was a major blow to Iran and its proxies, already weakened by conflict with Israel . Iran said Syrians should decide their future “without destructive, coercive, foreign intervention.” The Iranian Embassy in Damascus was ransacked after apparently having been abandoned. Hossein Akbari, Iran’s ambassador to Syria, said it was “effectively impossible” to help the Syrian government after it admitted the insurgents' military superiority. Speaking on Iranian state media from an undisclosed location, he said Syria's government decided Saturday night to hand over power peacefully. “When the army and the people could not resist, it was a good decision to let go to prevent bloodshed and destruction,” Akbari said, adding that some of his colleagues left Syria before sunrise. Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, speaking on state TV, said there were concerns about the “possibility of civil war, disintegration of Syria, total collapse and turning Syria into a shelter for terrorists.” Syrian Prime Minister Mohammed Ghazi Jalali has said the government was ready to “extend its hand” to the opposition and turn its functions over to a transitional government. A video on Syrian opposition media showed armed men escorting him from his office to a hotel. The U.N.’s special envoy for Syria, Geir Pedersen, has called for urgent talks in Geneva to ensure an “orderly political transition.” The Gulf nation of Qatar, a key regional mediator, hosted an emergency meeting of foreign ministers and top officials from eight countries with interests in Syria late Saturday, including Iran, Saudi Arabia, Russia and Turkey. Majed al-Ansari, Qatar’s Foreign Ministry spokesman, said they agreed on the need “to engage all parties on the ground," including the HTS, and that the main concern is “stability and safe transition.” Meanwhile, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israeli troops had seized a buffer zone in the Golan Heights established in 1974, saying it was to protect Israeli residents after Syrian troops abandoned positions. Israel’s military later warned residents of five southern Syria communities to stay home for their safety, and didn’t respond to questions. Israel captured the Golan in the 1967 Mideast war and later annexed it. The international community, except for the U.S., views it as occupied, and the Arab League on Sunday condemned what it called Israel’s efforts to take advantage of Assad’s downfall to occupy more territory. Sewell reported from Beirut. Associated Press writers Bassem Mroue, Kareem Chehayeb in Beirut; Samar Kassaballi, Omar Sanadiki and Ghaith Alsayed in Damascus; Jon Gambrell in Manama, Bahrain; Josef Federman in Doha, Qatar; and Tia Goldenberg in Jerusalem, contributed.Black Caps v England: Hagley Oval test underway

Fernanda Galan | (TNS) The Sacramento Bee Is your Thanksgiving turkey safe to eat? As poultry farms and dairies across California continue to battle bird flu outbreaks, residents may be worried about food safety this holiday season. Related Articles Health | Political stress: Can you stay engaged without sacrificing your mental health? Health | Trump chooses controversial Stanford professor Dr. Jay Bhattacharya to lead NIH Health | Abortion bans could reverse decline in teen births, experts warn Health | After institutions for people with disabilities close, graves are at risk of being forgotten Health | A stroke changed a teacher’s life. How a new electrical device is helping her move Highly pathogenic avian influenza surfaced in the United States in January 2022, the virus has been detected in wild birds and domestic poultry, according to the Fresno Bee’s previous reporting. As of Nov. 18, a total of 294 dairies in California were under quarantine due to the avian flu, state agriculture officials confirmed. More than 4 million turkeys and chickens have been killed at poultry ranches across the state in an attempt to stop the virus from spreading. Meanwhile, the bird flu virus was detected in a batch of raw milk from Raw Farm in Fresno County, the California Department of Public Health reported. The Fresno Bee talked to María Soledad, a food safety inspection service spokeswoman at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, to learn more about the virus and how it affects food safety. According to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, highly pathogenic avian influenza — also known as bird flu or H5N1 — is a highly contagious and often deadly disease primarily found in poultry. It is “caused by highly pathogenic avian influenza A (H5) and A (H7) viruses,” the agency said on its website. HPAI can spread from wild birds to domestic poultry and other animals. The virus can also infect humans in rare cases. “It is important to note that ‘highly pathogenic’ refers to severe impact in birds, not necessarily in humans,” the agency said. Unlike seasonal influenza viruses, which are typically contracted through human-to-human transmission, avian influenza viruses are spread by infected birds through saliva, mucus and feces, according to the CDC. The virus can also be present in the respiratory secretions, organs, blood, or body fluids of other infected animals — including milk. Human infections occur when the virus enters the eyes, nose or mouth, or is inhaled through airborne droplets, aerosol particles or dust. It can also be transmitted by touching contaminated surfaces and then touching the face. “Illness in humans from avian influenza virus infections have ranged in severity from no symptoms or mild illness to severe disease that resulted in death,” the CDC said. “Consumers can safely enjoy turkey this holiday season,” the U.S. Food and Drug Administration wrote in an email to The Bee, noting that food safety inspectors examine turkeys for disease “before and after slaughter.” That includes your Thanksgiving bird. “The turkeys from farms with confirmed avian influenza don’t even get sent to slaughter,” Soledad said. “They are destroyed on premises.” During an avian flu outbreak, “The chance of infected poultry or eggs entering the food chain is low,” the FDA said on its website in April, “because of the rapid onset of symptoms in poultry as well as the safeguards in place, which include testing of flocks and federal inspection programs.” “When food is properly prepared and stored, the risk of consumers becoming infected with HPAI is reduced even further,” the FDA said. UC Davis professor Linda J. Harris, who focuses on microbial food safety, says you should prepare your Thanksgiving turkey using four essential steps: clean, cook, chill and separate. You can watch the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s Holiday Food Safety video for tips on how to prepare a turkey the safe way, or check out the turkey recipe developed by the Partnership for Food Safety Education, a nonprofit organization that works to reduce food-borne illness risks. According to the USDA, any traces of highly pathogenic avian influenza in your turkey are inactivated when food reaches an internal temperature of 165 degrees. The USDA recommends following this rule anytime you’re preparing raw poultry, including chicken. On its Thanksgiving food safety website , the USDA has videos and information including calculators that help you determine the appropriate amount of time to thaw and cook your turkey. “Simply select your turkey’s weight, along with your preferred thawing and cooking methods, and you’ll immediately receive guidance on how to safely prepare your turkey this Thanksgiving!’ USDA congressional public affairs specialist Maria Machuca wrote in an email to The Bee. “There is no evidence that the virus can be transmitted to humans through properly prepared food,” the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said on its website. Pasteurized milk and other dairy products are safe to consume and cook with, according to Hebah Ghanem, infectious disease specialist at University of California San Francisco, Fresno. “The most important thing that it has to be pasteurized, because the virus is killed with heat,” Ghanem told The Bee. “Pasteurization of milk was adopted decades ago as a basic public health measure to kill dangerous bacteria and largely eliminate the risk of getting sick,” the FDA said on its website. All egg products are pasteurized as required by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. “This means that they have been rapidly heated and held at a minimum required temperature for a specified time to destroy bacteria,” the agency said. However, eggs that are still in their shells aren’t required to be pasteurized, leading to potential health risks if eaten raw or uncooked. According to the CDC, avian flu symptoms in humans may include: California dairy workers infected with avian flu have experienced mild flu-like symptoms, The Bee previously reported. “All the cases that we have here in California are very mild,” Ghanem told the Fresno Bee in October. “They haven’t needed hospitalization.” To prevent the spread of highly pathogenic avian influenza, people should avoid exposure to dead animals, Ghanem said in October. That includes wild birds, poultry, other domesticated birds and cows. People should also avoid exposure to animal feces as well as fluids. Here are other tips from Ghanem: ©2024 The Sacramento Bee. Visit at sacbee.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.So much has been written in recent years about Hindutva, the separatist ideology that aims to turn India into an aggressive "Hindu nation" in which Muslims are, at best, reduced to living as second-class citizens. Hindu nationalists saw Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s election in 2014 as their historic opportunity to push their agenda without restraints. They have a make-believe world of political and religious myths to make Muslims and other religious minorities irrelevant in India. Fears of Indian Muslims about their safety, religious identity, economic well-being and participation in politics have grown as a result of various policies pursued by the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The agenda of the BJP and its ideological fountainhead Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) is terrifying as far as Muslims and Islam are concerned. Muslims in India, numbering more than 200 million, faced discrimination in the government and private sectors for decades under the Congress party’s rule, but what the BJP is trying to do is extreme. The recently published book "Shikwa-e-Hind: The Political Future of Indian Muslims" by political scientist Mujibur Rehman looks at the situation in stark terms. There is an attempt at "de-Islamazing" India through hegemonic Hindutva power, the author argues. He teaches at Jamia Millia Islamia University in New Delhi and I recently met him to discuss some of the issues raised in his book. The anti-Islam issues are significant as Modi in June this year began his third five-year term as prime minister. Muslims have been at the receiving end of Hindu nationalist politics during his first two terms and stare at an uncertain future in the face of Hindutva's unchecked rise. Rehman's book is among the latest works on the changing political landscape of India since he is familiar with the Hindutva problem beyond its academic aspects. Students of his university were among the first to participate in protests against the controversial Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) in 2019 and faced one of the worst police attacks on a university campus. Another work, "Modi's India: Hindu Nationalism and the Rise of Ethnic Democracy," by French political scientist Christophe Jaffrelot, published in 2021 in its English version, provided a timely account of what Hindutva was and how it operated. Jaffrelot brilliantly explained the political situation in India, aptly defined Hindu nationalism, exposed Hindutva’s modus operandi and discussed what lay in store for the Muslims under Modi. Making Muslims ineffective in the electoral system is one part of the problem. There is no Muslim minister, even as a matter of tokenism, in the Narendra Modi Cabinet for the first time since India gained independence in 1947 despite the community making up 15% of the 1.4 billion population. In the 543-member lower house of Parliament, there are just 24 Muslim members, of whom none is from the BJP-led coalition. Most are from the constituencies where Muslims make up a significant part of the electorate. This annoys Hindu nationalists even more, forcing them to imagine new ways to manipulate the election process or reorganize the constituencies. "Thus, the ideological project of Hindutva politics seems to be guided by the simple logic: Muslims no more. The multi-pronged attack on everything associated with Muslims – masjids, Waqf land, dargahs, hijab, etc – suggests that the long-term goal is mainly to de-Islamise India," Mujibur Rehman writes. He told me: "My book is concerned with the political future of Muslims. Do they have a say in political power? The BJP doesn't field Muslim candidates. It has a deliberate campaign to deny them representation in the state assemblies and national Parliament." He also faults non-Hindutva parties for dubious politics. "No political party wants Muslims to be Muslims. Each one wants them to be a Muslim of their kind," he writes in the book. In the conversation with me, Mujibur Rehman said that many politicians and parties understand the need for secular politics in India, but the BJP’s onslaught has scared them and they avoid raising Muslim issues or seeking their support. The reason Muslims are targeted by the Hindutva class, led by the Brahmins and upper castes, is that they see the community as a threat to their developing majoritarian project. How Hindutva advances has implications not only for the most populous country but for the wider region and the world at large. "So far, the discussion in India about Muslims is about the violation of their rights. What I am arguing in my book is that there is a sustained campaign to de-Islamize India," Mujibur Rehman said. India has been witnessing an ideological war for more than a century, especially since the RSS was created in 1925. "What happened in 2014 is that the RSS and the BJP became hegemonic political forces. The fightback is not serious; Congress is not doing it. Hindutva forces are leading a multi-front attack through shakhas (RSS training camps) and state institutions," Mujibur Rehman told me. Hindutva organizations use all sorts of pretexts to target Muslims. Sometimes they come up with bizarre claims of Hindu temples being buried under grand historical mosques and monuments and approach courts for “surveys" to invade mosques, at other times they file police complaints about "beef" in refrigerators in Muslim households. Since the cow is considered holy by some Hindus, some regions of India have a prohibition on beef consumption (India's bizarre food politics will require a separate discussion). There have been instances of attacks on Muslim youth for simply being with their Hindu female friends or work colleagues in what has been propagated by the Indian media as "love jihad." Muslim properties have been targeted over allegations of their being illegally built, Muslim vendors have been barred by mobs from selling products in Hindu areas, police and local authorities have demolished homes of Muslims for activism or minor offenses without due process while the courts have remained mostly mute to the travesty of justice. "Any excuse will be used to attack Muslims. Everything about Muslims is illegal. They want Muslims to live as per their whims and diktats," Mujibur Rehman said. Even the consolidation of the geographical region, generally today's South Asia, which was fragmented into hundreds of kingdoms and fiefdoms until most of it was governed under the mighty Mughal empire, is not appreciated by Hindu nationalists. The empire was started by Babur in the 16th century and expanded by other rulers after his death. It went into a terminal decline after Emperor Aurangzeb died in 1707. Mujibur Rehman highlights three pivotal moments in history. The first was in 1857 when Indian Muslims became British colonial subjects, then came the subcontinent’s partition in 1947 resulting in the birth of Pakistan (including Bangladesh, which was then known as the East wing of Pakistan), and the 2014 electoral triumph of Narendra Modi. The past decade has caused a tectonic shift in Indian politics and not a short-term political turmoil, as many bewildered Muslims tend to believe. How is the Indian Muslim elite placed in this phase of history? Can elite sections provide direction to the wider community? The Congress party, since 1947, manipulated the Muslim elite to serve its symbolic secularism. Elite sections of Muslims have become depoliticized and too focused on their narrow interests. "De-politicization of Muslim elites is problematic. They can raise their voices against injustice but have mostly embraced silence because of their individual interests," Mujibur Rehman said. If the community, despite its large numbers, more than the combined population of Spain, France and Germany, remains politically passive, there are far greater dangers ahead. Mujibur Rehman warns in the book: "Only when the political future is ensured will Indian Muslims be empowered to bargain and negotiate their economic or cultural future. The systematic weakening of the political future would cause Indian Muslims to gravitate towards destitution, a permanent state of misery, a life of no rights, and endless persecution."

Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No — it’s a drone! Or — no, wait, maybe it’s a plane. Actually, hang on ... The FBI and U.S. Department of Homeland Security cast doubt Thursday on the reports of mysterious drones flying at night over New York and New Jersey in recent weeks. Federal authorities said many of the more than 3,000 drone reports received by the FBI were “actually manned aircraft, operating lawfully.” So, how do you tell the difference between a drone and a plane? It can be challenging to differentiate between the two, experts say. Particularly from a distance or at night, a craft’s blinking lights are sometimes all that can be picked out as it moves across the night sky. And both drones and planes can appear to have similar lights. But there are ways to tell them apart, according to Ian Petchenik, communications director for the live flight tracker Flightradar24. NJ Advance Media spoke to Petchenik and Pramod Abichandani, an associate professor at the New Jersey Institute of Technology and the director of its Advanced Air Mobility Lab, about how to tell a drone and a plane apart in the night sky. Here are their tips: Objects is the air may be larger than they appear. When it comes to aircraft, size matters. On the ground, it’s clear: Airplanes are larger than drones. “One thing we know is that humans, when they see something in the sky, they’re really bad at telling how far away it is,” Petchenik said. “Our depth perception is awful, particularly at night.” So what appears as a tiny, battery-powered drone a couple hundred feet up in the air might just be a commercial jet airliner cruising at 32,000 feet. “Widen your perspective, widen your field of view,” Petchenik advised. “Things you’re seeing are often further away than you think.” Listen closely. Many multi-rotor drones produce a distinct buzzing or humming noise that makes them distinguishable from the louder jet engines of planes. “Their propellers are directly connected to their motors, which is what produces the noise,” Abichandani said. Some unmanned aerial vehicles, such as fixed-wing drones, which are designed to fly longer distances and carry heavier loads, are generally quieter than multi-rotor drones. But based on the videos and eyewitness accounts he’s seen, Abichandani said many of the drones spotted are multi-rotor — and therefore distinctly noisy. Look closely at the lights. A drone will often have a simple set of anti-collision lights positioned around its body. These lights can be red, green or white, and are usually displayed in pairs. So, look for two, four or six lights close together, Abichandani said. Meanwhile, fixed-wing aircraft like airplanes have lights that are “more spaced out and a little more sophisticated,” he said. While they also sport anti-collision lights, planes will typically have uniform navigation lights: red on the left wing, green on the right wing, and white on the tail. These colors are the key to decoding a craft’s direction. For example, if you see a white light on the left and a green light on the right, that means the plane is moving from left to right from your perspective. If you see all three lights in a row, on the other hand, it means that the plane is moving directly away from you. Watch how the aircraft moves. Observing the way the unknown aircraft moves will help narrow down whether it’s a drone or a plane, according to both Petchenik and Abichandani. Multi-rotor drones can perform more aggressive maneuvers thanks to their propellers, often making tight controlled turns. They have what’s known as “six degrees of freedom,” a term that refers to an object that can move and rotate up, down, left, right, forward and backward. Fixed-wing airplanes do not have the same freedom of movement. A plane cannot hover, move sideways, or perform vertical takeoff and landing maneuvers, the way a drone can. “Planes have a non-zero turning radius,” Abichandani said. “If its nose is pointing in a certain direction, that is generally the direction it will move in.” Consider your proximity to an airport. Just because an object in the sky is far away from where you might usually see an airplane — miles away from the usual flight paths into Newark Liberty International Airport, for instance — doesn’t mean that it isn’t a plane up there. “There are all sorts of fairly benign reasons a plane might be outside of its usual environment,” Petchenik said. “Bad weather, holding patterns, loitering for traffic.” Use flight-tracking apps. Consult flight tracking websites and apps, including FlightAware or Flightradar24 , to determine whether you’re looking at an airplane. If you see the aircraft turn at any point, you can also compare that to any movement reflected on your screen, Petchenik suggested. Trust the experts. It’s entirely possible that the glut of drone sightings in more recent days is being boosted by confirmation bias, which is the human tendency to seek out information that confirms our existing views, experts say That’s why it’s so important to rely on those with expertise in aviation and drone technology, particularly those who have devoted years to studying them up close and from afar. Abichandani, who started working with drones around 2007, said he would love for members of the public, particularly those unfamiliar with the craft, to exercise caution and leave the identification work up to the specialists. “If you see something, don’t chase it or shoot it down to identify it,” he said. “Open-source it. Take good photos and videos, zoom in, post it online. Let us help you figure out what it is.” How to file a report with the FBI: Note the time and location, and take any photographs or video you can. The FBI has encouraged the public to report any information related to recent sightings of possible drones. To report information, you can: • Call the FBI at 1-800-CALL-FBI (1-800-225-5324) • Submit it online at tips.fbi.gov . Residents can also upload videos directly through the FBI’s online portal.Best stress management and tracking devices

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