In exclusive, leaked 2018 footage aired by Al Arabiya, ousted Syrian regime leader Bashar al Assad is seen driving with former adviser Luna al Shibl as he mocks a destroyed mosque in Eastern Ghouta — an area where his forces committed some of the civil war’s worst atrocities, including a chemical weapon massacre. He cursed the region, calling its people the “worst" of society, while blaming them for building mosques despite struggling for money, comparing them to irresponsible "pharaohs." | TRT

The fall of the Assad family’s 50-year regime in Syria brings with it still-uncertain new balance of power in the region, but Arab scholar Bassam Haddad says the immediate relief of those suffering under Assad’s totalitarian regime should not be ignored or invisibilized. | Democracy Now!