Trump's Secret Flight, Assad Sentencing, & Gorilla Watch Party

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Adam Rogers
August 12, 2026

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A Syrian court sentenced ousted President Bashar Assad and his brother Maher to death in absentia Tuesday for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed during Syria's 14-year civil war. The verdicts are the first against Assad or members of his inner circle since his family's five-decade rule ended in December 2024.
Assad and his brother fled to Russia after rebel forces toppled the government and were granted political asylum, making enforcement of the sentences unlikely unless they are returned to Syria. Syria's new government has asked Moscow to hand them over.
The court also sentenced Assad's cousin Atef Najib, a former security chief who is in Syrian custody, to death. Najib oversaw the 2011 crackdown in Daraa, where the arrest and torture of teenagers for anti-government graffiti helped ignite protests that eventually spiraled into the civil war.

President Donald Trump was secretly flown out of Turkey aboard a military aircraft last month as U.S. officials concealed his location amid security concerns related to the war with neighboring Iran. Trump had publicly appeared to board Air Force One in Ankara, but officials instead transported him to a separate C-32 military jet.
The operation reportedly involved Trump slipping off Air Force One using a catering truck before secretly boarding the C-32, which flew him to a U.S. air base in Britain. Journalists aboard Air Force One were instructed to close their window shades and flew to Britain without knowing the president was on another aircraft.
Once in Britain, Trump secretly reboarded Air Force One so he could publicly emerge from the aircraft before transferring to the newer, Qatar-donated presidential jet.

Divers have discovered a roughly 2,100-year-old Roman shipwreck containing hundreds of well-preserved clay jars off the coast of Sicily. The vessel, believed to date between the second and first centuries B.C., had remained undisturbed about 150 feet beneath the Mediterranean.
The wreck was discovered after an underwater fisherman noticed what looked like a rock on his boat's sonar about three miles offshore. He dove roughly 150 feet to investigate and instead found a vast field of amphorae on the seabed, immediately reporting the discovery to authorities.
The ship was carrying mostly Dressel 1A amphorae, tall clay containers commonly used to transport wine throughout the Roman world. Archaeologists say the remarkably preserved cargo could provide new information about ancient Mediterranean trade routes and maritime commerce.

A judge ordered jurors in Luigi Mangione’s murder trial to remain anonymous, citing threats of harassment and supporters who reportedly planned to approach prospective jurors during jury selection. (More)

A judge temporarily blocked New York City’s new pied-à-terre tax amid a lawsuit alleging its rollout wrongly identified many full-time residents among 900,000 potentially subject to the tax. (More)

Former U.S. Marine Robert Gilman was released from Russian custody after more than four years, following concerns about his deteriorating health and appeals from the Trump administration. (More)

Turkish lawmakers overwhelmingly approved conditional pardons for thousands of PKK militants, advancing a peace process after the Kurdish group agreed last year to lay down its weapons. (More)

Hungarian lawmakers elected former Supreme Court chief András Baka as president, as Prime Minister Péter Magyar’s government moves to loosen its predecessor’s influence over state institutions. (More)

A Houthi missile attack on a cargo ship in the Red Sea killed four crew members, while a second strike killed two Yemeni personnel attempting to rescue them. (More)

US stock markets closed lower on Tuesday (S&P -0.32%, Nasdaq -0.60%, Dow -0.34%) as key technology stocks weighed the market down. (More)

CoreWeave shares jumped 12% after hours after quarterly revenue surged 112% to $2.58 billion, beating expectations, while its backlog reached $104 billion amid booming AI infrastructure demand. (More)

Oil prices rose Tuesday after Iran said the Strait of Hormuz would remain closed until Washington meets its conditions, extending crude’s gains to more than 6% this week. (More)

The NBA will open its season Oct. 20 with the Knicks raising their championship banner against LeBron James’ new-look 76ers, followed by a Thunder-Spurs West finals rematch. (More)

Mexico defeated the United States 2-0 to win its second straight Concacaf U-20 Championship, with Cristóbal Alfaro scoring twice as the Americans finished without a shot on target. (More)

Kyler Murray will start at quarterback for Minnesota after winning the preseason competition, relegating 2024 first-round pick J.J. McCarthy to backup after only 10 career starts. (More)

Researchers modeled how ant colonies coordinate without leaders, finding that once movement and interactions cross a critical threshold, virtually any individual ant can trigger a wave of collective activity. (More)

Astronomers released the largest two-dimensional map of the universe ever created, combining 5.6 trillion pixels to capture nearly 4 billion celestial objects across three-quarters of the sky. (More)

Kazakhstan released its first wild tiger in more than 70 years, beginning an ambitious effort to restore the predator and establish a self-sustaining population of roughly 50. (More)

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