1 We welcome the fall of the regime of Bashar al-Assad in Syria. We congratulate the Syrian people for the final defeat of a dictatorship that had misruled them for over 50 years, killed hundreds of thousands of people, impoverished and displaced millions, and torn the country apart. The democratic and popular revolution of March 2011 has finally been vindicated. 

2 A huge burden has been lifted off the shoulders of the Syrian people. Assad’s fall is an opportunity for them, regardless of religion or ethnicity, to build a new free and independent Syria on the ruins of this murderous dictatorship.

3 The regime responded to the revolution by unleashing the terrible war that devastated Syria during the past decade. Helped by his allies, Russia, Iran, and Hezbollah, Assad succeeded ...

1 We salute all those who took to the streets in South Korea last night to oppose President Yoon Suk Yeol’s attempt to impose martial law and forced him to withdraw his declaration six hours later.

2 The incompetence with which Yoon and his cronies conducted the coup is no reason for complacency. This was a serious attempt to silence the opposition majority in the National Assembly and to suppress all political activity. It was directed particularly against the workers’ movement, with clauses in the declaration banning strikes and protests and ordering striking medical workers to return to work. If they are allowed a breathing space, Yoon and his right-wing supporters may learn from their mistakes and come back for a second try.

3 Korea has been a bitterly divided society ever since the civil war that followed ...