The United Nations Security Council has voted to remove sanctions on Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa and his Interior Minister Anas Khattab following a resolution championed by the United States.
In a largely symbolic move, the UNSC delisted the Syrian government officials from the ISIL (ISIS) and al-Qaeda sanctions list, in a resolution approved by 14 council members on Thursday. China abstained.
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The formal lifting of sanctions on al-Sharaa is largely symbolic, as they were waived every time he needed to travel outside of Syria in his role as the country’s leader. An assets freeze and arms embargo will also be lifted.
Al-Sharaa led opposition fighters who overthrew President Bashar al-Assad’s government in December. His group, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), began an offensive on November 27, 2024, reaching Damascus in only 12 days, resulting in the end of the al-Assad family’s 53-year reign.
The collapse of the al-Assad family’s rule has been described as a historic moment – nearly 14 years after Syrians rose in peaceful protests against a government that met them with violence that quickly spiralled into a bloody civil war.
HTS had been on the UNSC’s ISIL and al-Qaeda sanctions list since May 2014.
Since coming to power, al-Sharaa has called on the US to formally lift sanctions on his country, saying the sanctions imposed on the previous Syrian leadership were no longer justified.
US President Donald Trump met the Syrian president in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, in May and ordered most sanctions lifted. However, the most stringent sanctions were imposed by Congress under the Caesar Syria Civilian Protection Act in 2019 and will require a congressional vote to remove them permanently.
In a bipartisan statement, the top Democrat and Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee welcomed the UN action Thursday and said it was now Congress’s turn to act to “bring the Syrian economy into the 21st century”.
We “are actively working with the administration and our colleagues in Congress to repeal Caesar sanctions”, Senators Jim Risch and Jeanne Shaheen said in a statement ahead of the vote. “It’s time to prioritize reconstruction, stability, and a path forward rather than isolation that only deepens hardship for Syrians.”
Al-Sharaa plans to meet with Trump in Washington next week, the first visit by a Syrian president to Washington since the country gained independence in 1946.
More than 33 years after establishing official diplomatic ties with Israel, Kazakhstan says it will join the so-called Abraham Accords, which formalised ties between Israel and several Arab countries.
The announcement came on Thursday ahead of a meeting between United States President Donald Trump and the leaders of Central Asian countries.
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“Our anticipated accession to the Abraham Accords represents a natural and logical continuation of Kazakhstan’s foreign policy course – grounded in dialogue, mutual respect, and regional stability,” Kazakhstan’s government said in a statement, according to the AFP news agency.
Earlier in the day, US envoy for the Middle East Steve Witkoff had announced that another country would join the normalisation deals without identifying it.
“Abraham Accords are big. I’m flying back to Washington tonight because we’re going to announce, tonight, another country coming into the Abraham Accords,” Witkoff said.
It is not clear how joining the accords will affect the already established Kazakh-Israeli ties. The countries established diplomatic relations in 1992, shortly after Kazakhstan gained independence from the Soviet Union.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited Kazakhstan in 2016, and the two countries have several bilateral agreements.
The announcement comes at a time when Trump is promoting himself as a peacemaker after brokering the tenuous ceasefire in Gaza, despite the daily deadly Israeli violence against Palestinians and the escalation of Israeli attacks in Lebanon.
Kazakhstan appears to be pushing to deepen its ties with the US as its President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev visits Washington. On Thursday, the two countries signed a cooperation deal over critical minerals.
During his first term, Trump brokered the Abraham Accords, a series of deals that formalised ties between Arab countries – the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Morocco – and Israel.
The push shattered Arab states’ consensus over the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative, which conditioned recognition of Israel on the establishment of a viable Palestinian state.
Netanyahu has categorically rejected that “land for peace” framework, pushing instead for deals with Arab countries that bypass Palestinians.
Former President Joe Biden, who succeeded Trump, made expanding the deals a priority in his approach to the Middle East early on.
But the agreements – brokered between countries that were never at war – did little to resolve the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians and the decades-long occupation that leading rights groups say amounts to a system of apartheid.
Still, the normalisation deals withstood the two-year war in Gaza, which saw Israel flatten much of the territory and kill more than 68,800 Palestinians.
The UAE and other countries involved in the agreements have maintained their trade and security ties with Israel.
On Sunday, it was about avoiding looking like the outlaw Robin Hood. On Thursday, Martin O’Neill took on a different role as teacher.
The Celtic interim manager cut an exasperated figure on the sidelines in Denmark as he watched a magnificent Midtjylland teach the Scottish champions a lesson.
Although the final deficit was only two goals, the 73-year-old said “it could have been any sort of score” against the team top of the Europa League table.
Three goals in eight blistering first-half minutes had Celtic struggling for air.
Three was kind, something of a robbery. There had been nine shots on goal and a further six off target.
It was a hefty crash back down to earth for all invested in the Glasgow club’s fortunes. O’Neill had managed to build momentum and almost mute the myriad of issues at the club. But only momentarily.
“The goals that we conceded weren’t good,” he said in the aftermath of his first defeat since his return.
“It sounds from here as if I’m like a teacher telling them, but I will try and teach them the game as quickly as possible.”
In the aftermath of Sunday’s League Cup semi-final extra-time victory over Rangers, O’Neill said he had aged 20 years.
1 day ago
‘Some things don’t change’ – O’Neill
Just over a month ago, O’Neill watched Midtjylland gatecrash Nottingham Forest’s European return with an enthralling 3-2 encounter.
The veteran boss said he took heed of that performance against his former club and was prepared for a physical meeting with “a very, very good side”.
While he might have taken note of Forest’s failings, his players didn’t seem to.
Mikel Kruger-Johnsen scooped in a scrumptious second, but the two goals the 19-year-old sandwiched were not so unstoppable. But Celtic couldn’t prevent them.
Anthony Ralston failed to prevent Kruger-Johnsen’s routine clipped ball to the back post for the opener, before the teenager weaved through for the second.
Celtic as a team failed to clear their lines from a throw-in for the hosts’ third.
“In terms of defending, I’ve just said to the players in there, some things change in the game, other things don’t change,” explained O’Neill.
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“Then in the second goal, we had a 2v2 situation, and we allowed the player just to come inside and bend it into the net.
“So from our viewpoint, not good defending, really.”
The need for O’Neill to explain the concessions in such layman terms speaks volumes. Damning volumes.
While Midtjylland were majestic, Celtic didn’t exactly make them work hard for their money.
“The third goal almost puts it beyond you, so was I surprised? I don’t know whether I was surprised [or] disappointed, just disappointed in the concession of the goals,” the Northern Irishman added.
“I think just to play football at the top level, not only do you need ability, but you need mentality, and mentality sometimes overrides ability as well.
“It sounds from here as if I’m like a teacher telling them, but I will try and teach them the game as quickly as possible.
‘Nothing was solved at the weekend’ – McGregor
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The overriding questions remains, though. How long will O’Neill have to improve Celtic?
His return, alongside assistant Shaun Maloney, has brought back a feelgood factor but that was only going to last so long.
The laughs had over O’Neill’s matchday fit have faded, while Celtic’s deep-rooted problems have returned in stark fashion.
Captain Callum McGregor was at the heart of the happiness on Sunday, scoring in the extra-time win, but he was quick to assure no-one had got carried away.
“Nothing’s been solved after a really good game at the weekend,” the midfielder said after defeat in Denmark. “We know that we don’t get too up or too down.
“We come away here against a really good side, a good club, who do a lot of good things and they know what they are.
“There’s a lot of growth still left in our team as well. We know where we are and we know where we want to get to.”
It appears Celtic are far from the latter, and it’s lined up to be an almighty task to get them there, for whoever is charged with taking them there.
On a sobering night, it’s not the interim manager who will take the heat. It’s not even the players being taught by him.
Cheryl Tweedy was among the stars who stepped out at the 2025 Harper’s Bazaar Women of the Year Awards in London, and the singer looked sensational
Cheryl Tweedy has made a rare public appearance. The Girls Aloud legend attended the 2025 Harper’s Bazaar Women of the Year Awards alongside some of the biggest names in entertainment.
In recent years, the Let You singer has taken a step back from the limelight in favour of being a full-time mum to her son, Bear, whom she shares with the late Liam Payne. But on Thursday evening, she appeared at the glitzy awards held at Claridge’s Hotel, alongside the likes of Celia Imrie, Jade, Olivia Wilde and Spice Girls star, Melanie C.
Here, we take a look at some of the best looks from this evening, with Cheryl leading the glamour in her sophisticated black dress with floral detailing.
Like this story? For more of the latest showbiz news and gossip, follow Mirror Celebs onTikTok,Snapchat,Instagram,Twitter,Facebook,YouTubeandThreads.
Hundreds of protesters descended on Birmingham to demonstrate at the controversial Aston Villa match against Maccabi Tel Aviv.
Six arrests were made amid a huge police operation, with more than 700 officers deployed for the Europa League match.
A large number of pro-Palestinian supporters waved banners and flags outside Villa Park, while a smaller group of pro-Israeli campaigners marched towards the ground in the wake of the decision to ban away fans from the game.
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“We police football matches a lot. We police protests a lot. We deal with all sorts of public order scenarios, but certainly the level of interest, the level of concern around this match is pretty unprecedented.”
Among those arrested were three people on suspicion of racially-aggravated public order offences.
A man, 21, was arrested for failing to comply with an order to remove a face mask, and a boy of 17 was held for failing to comply with a dispersal order. Another person was arrested for a breach of the peace.
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Pro-Palestinian protesters gathered outside the stadium, waving flags and banners calling for an end to violence in Gaza.
A counter protest of pro-Israeli campaigners marched down a road outside Villa Park. Five flatbed vehicles were also driven past the ground prior to kick-off, carrying electronic billboards showing messages opposing antisemitism.
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On Thursday, numbers of officers from the West Midlands force were boosted by police from 10 forces across the country.
Ch Supt Joyce, Birmingham’s police commander, said police had prepared for the possibility of people turning up looking for a fight.
He told Sky News that “significant levels of hooliganism” among the Maccabi fan base was the reason for the ban.
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Villa supporter Adam Selway turned up for the match wearing a half-and-half scarf in the colours of the home side and Maccabi Tel Aviv.
The 48-year-old said he felt sympathy with fans unable to attend and simply wanted to watch a football match, but that he was not making any political statement.
Earlier, those living and working in the city near Villa Park saw shops and schools close early.
Meanwhile, Jewish Villa fan Elliot Ludvig described his apprehension about attending the match.
Mr Ludvig, who was going to the game with his son, told the BBC: “I’m apprehensive about what’s going to happen. I’m apprehensive about the potential for violence for one thing.
‘Football unites us’
He said his other major emotion was “disappointment”.
“Is it worth going to a football game to potentially put myself at some sort of risk and or expose my son to to all sorts of unpleasantries which you might not want to?,” he asked.
On Wednesday night, the chief executive of Maccabi Tel Aviv Jack Angelides said it was “incredibly sad” his side’s fans could not be there, adding: “Politics should never be drawn into football.”
As plans for protests were drawn up earlier in the week, Naeem Malik, chair of West Midlands Palestine Solidarity Campaign, said there had been national outrage over the hosting of the Israeli team.
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Palestine Solidarity Campaign, Stop the War Coalition, Muslim Association of Britain, Friends of Al-Aqsa, Kashmir solidarity campaign and Palestinian Forum in Britain had called for the match to be cancelled and jointly organised one of the protests.
Independent MP for Birmingham Perry Barr, Ayoub Khan, was among the most vocal opponents of the game taking place and attended a demonstration outside Villa Park, leading a chant of Free, Free Palestine.
“We have a very diverse community here, we have children here, families that have come out to support the plight of the Palestinians,” he said.
“We have shown that we are a welcoming community, that we want to support footballers but we don’t support hooligans, and we don’t support genocide.”
In September, a UN commission of inquiry said Israel had committed genocide against Palestinians in Gaza with reasonable grounds to conclude four out of five genocidal acts had been carried out.
Deir el-Balah and Khan Younis, Gaza Strip – Israa al-Areer stares at the big screen like she has done so many times since the bodies began arriving from Israel.
The process is repetitive. Every time the bodies of Palestinians are released by Israel, they arrive at southern Gaza’s Nasser Hospital, where they are photographed by forensic department staff. The pictures of the dead are then displayed on a screen in a large hall where families and friends of missing Palestinians watch on.
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As one picture changes into the next, those in the hall strain to recognise their loved ones, in the hope that they’ll be able to give them a proper burial and have some closure.
Israa is not looking for just one, but two people – her husband, Yasser al-Tawil, and her brother, Diaa al-Areer. She believes both of them are dead.
Contact with both of them was lost on October 7, 2023 – the day the war in Gaza started. They are believed to have been near the border fence with Israel when the fighting began, and have not been heard from since.
Israa began her now regular journey from her home in central Gaza’s Deir el-Balah to the hospital in Khan Younis on October 14, four days after the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas began. Israel handed over 45 bodies that day as part of the deal, with more returning in the days since.
Israa al-Areer kisses her daughter as she holds up a mobile phone showing a picture of her husband, Yasser [Abdelhakim Abu Riash/Al Jazeera]
“My mother and mother-in-law entrusted this painful mission to me, along with my brother and brother-in-law, saying they couldn’t bear to see the scene,” Israa said. “I couldn’t believe I had reached this point in my life: searching among the dead for my husband and brother, just to bury them and have a grave and a memory.”
But the scene that would greet Israa – and the dozens of others staring at the screens – was horrifying. Many of the bodies have decomposed, and many show signs of torture and abuse. The Israeli army has largely not provided any biographical information for the bodies it has sent to Gaza.
“They were the hardest moments of my life. Each image made me gasp in horror at what they did to the bodies,” Israa said. “I nearly lost my mind comparing the image of my beautiful husband in my memory with the horrific photos on that screen.”
“I saw bodies with stones, sand, and nails stuffed into their mouths. Some were blindfolded and handcuffed. Some had their fingernails or fingers cut off. Some had limbs missing. Others looked like they’d been run over by tanks,” she added. “It was savage, inhuman torture, nothing I ever imagined seeing. I cried all the way home, feeling my heart had burned completely.”
The session went on for four hours, but despite repeatedly trying to analyse each photo, it became clear that Yasser and Diaa were not among them.
Israa al-Areer has spent two years trying to find out what happened to her husband and brother [Abdelhakim Abu Riash/Al Jazeera]
Disappearance
Yasser, who was in his early 30s when he disappeared, typically spent his Friday night with his friends before coming back home in the morning.
Israa therefore last saw her husband earlier on Friday, which happened to be October 6, 2023.
“That night everything was normal,” said Israa. “I called him before I went to sleep, about one in the morning. Our only daughter, Abeer, four years old, had a fever. He reassured me that he would be home by 6am.”
Israa woke up on Saturday to the sounds of rockets and bombing.
“I couldn’t believe what was happening. I was terrified and immediately tried calling my husband, but his phone was unreachable,” she recalled.
“I had no electricity or internet to understand what was going on, so I went to my neighbour’s apartment to follow the news. That’s when I realised the scale of what was happening,” said Israa, who works as a journalist.
Israa tried to call Yasser, but wasn’t able to get through. Hours later, she was finally able to reach one of Yasser’s friends. He told her the group of friends had been curious and gone to eastern Khan Younis, near where they live, when they heard about the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel.
But then, in the midst of the chaos in the border region, they had gotten separated. The friend didn’t know what had happened to her husband.
“His words shocked me. I was terrified and kept wondering why he went there,” Israa said sorrowfully. “The situation that day was chaotic; many civilians crossed the border areas with Israel on October 7.”
To make matters worse, Israa’s family also informed her that her 24-year-old brother, Diaa, had gone missing too after going to the border area with his friends.
As the situation worsened, one of Yasser’s friends advised Israa to search the nearby hospitals for him among the wounded or the dead.
“I left my daughter with my neighbour and went myself, running among the bodies in the hospitals,” Israa said, swallowing her tears. “My heart was breaking. I couldn’t believe that my husband might be dead or one of those bodies.”
But she didn’t find her husband among the wounded or the killed. Her family, who searched for her missing brother in Gaza City’s hospitals, found nothing either.
“I came back home completely broken. Nothing terrified me more than losing my husband and my brother on the same day without knowing anything about them.”
Israa describes the crushing loneliness she felt spending the night at home with her only child for the first time since marrying in 2019.
“Our life was happy, rosy in every sense. Yasser was a loving husband and a kind father, very generous with us. Losing him broke my heart completely,” Israa said, as she wept.
Israa al-Areer called up her family on October 7 and found out that her brother Diaa was missing [Abdelhakim Abu Riash/Al Jazeera]
Endlessly searching
In the two years since, Israa has not been able to grieve for Yasser or Diaa. Her family has contacted the Red Cross and the Palestinian Ministry of Health, but has not received any information. There may be a small chance that the two have been detained, but Israa and her family believe that it is more likely that they are dead.
As the war dragged on, Israa and her family, like almost everyone else in Gaza, were caught in the tragedy of displacement and fear, moving more than nine times across the enclave.
The pain of war often made her think that perhaps her husband and brother were spared the unbearable suffering she was enduring.
“But the burden fell on me,” Israa said sorrowfully. “I decided to return to work as a freelance journalist with international and Arab outlets, to occupy myself and stop drowning in grief.”
The ceasefire deal brought back the possibility that Yasser and Diaa could finally be found.
Since her fruitless journey on October 14, Israa has repeatedly returned to Nasser Hospital.
The process is the same – she sits looking at the big screen, and then reviews the photos again on the Ministry of Health website whenever there is internet access.
But the condition the bodies were in made it difficult to recognise them, often causing confusion.
“We would ask the staff to go back to a photo, to zoom in on a hand or a body part to be sure. Everyone was on edge, clinging to the faint hope of finding their loved one,” Israa said.
“There was a mother next to me who screamed when she recognised her son from his clothes. She collapsed in tears, but there was relief; they had finally found him,” Israa recalled. “I was happy for her, even through my pain. I kept looking carefully at the hands of the bodies, searching for my husband’s wedding ring.”
Once, Israa was convinced one of the displayed bodies was her husband’s. “I examined every detail and was sure it was him. I went to the hospital full of hope to finally bury him. But when they checked the body, the underwear and body shape didn’t match.”
The forensic department required clear identifying marks before releasing any body to families.
“I witnessed three families arguing over one body, each convinced it was their son,” she said. “Finally, one father proved it was his, showing evidence of an old injury on the foot. The forensic doctors confirmed it and handed it over.”
“It’s an unjust world,” Israa added. “To identify the Israeli bodies held in Gaza, full excavation and detection equipment were brought in, yet not even a single DNA testing device is allowed to enter here, while dozens of bodies are buried every day without identification. What kind of logic is that?”
Israa describes this time as unbearably painful. Friends and relatives begged her to stop torturing herself and rest after she searched through yet another group of bodies that had been delivered.
“They told me, ‘Have mercy on yourself, we’ll bury you before we bury your husband. Stop this,’” she said. “But deep down, I couldn’t. What if my husband or brother were among those bodies and no one recognised them? I could never forgive myself.”
