Following the fall of the Assad regime in Syria, a global pursuit has begun to trace billions of dollars hidden by the family over five decades of authoritarian rule. According to an article published in The Wall Street Journal, this investigation—expected to take years—resembles efforts to recover wealth concealed by dictators such as Saddam Hussein and Muammar Gaddafi, which yielded only partial success.

The Journal reports that the Assad family accumulated its fortune through market manipulation, monopolies, and drug trafficking, primarily Captagon—a drug popular across Arab nations. The family's network spans the globe, with estimated wealth ranging between $1 billion and $12 billion. Much of this wealth was hidden in countries outside the reach of international law or in tax havens, complicating efforts to locate and recover the assets.

A 2022 report by the US State Department highlighted how the regime exploited economic manipulation and illicit activities to consolidate power. Bashar al-Assad leveraged the family's economic network to maintain control during his presidency, while his younger brother, Maher, facilitated drug smuggling through his military unit. Revenue from Captagon alone generated an estimated $2.4 billion annually, helping the regime circumvent Western sanctions. Meanwhile, Assad's cousin, Rami Makhlouf, served as the regime's primary financier, dominating sectors like telecommunications, banking, and duty-free services.

In 2020, tensions surfaced within the Assad family when Bashar began curbing Makhlouf's influence. Makhlouf was placed under house arrest and stripped of some of his assets, a move analysts interpreted as an attempt to tighten control over Syria's collapsing economy.

With the Assad regime's collapse in December 2024, Syrian citizens began taking matters into their own hands. Videos shared on social media showed people looting the family's presidential palace in Damascus, seizing furniture, artwork, and luxury vehicles, including Aston Martins and Lamborghinis.

Simultaneously, human rights organizations and Western nations launched efforts to trace the family's hidden assets. In one notable case, a French court in 2019 froze €90 million in assets held by Rifaat al-Assad, Bashar's uncle. However, similar efforts to locate assets in Dubai and Russia are expected to face significant challenges due to a lack of cooperation from these nations.

One central question in this investigation is the fate of any recovered funds. With Syria now in political chaos and rebel forces vying to fill the power vacuum, it remains unclear how the retrieved wealth will be allocated.

Human rights attorney Toby Cadman told The Wall Street Journal that the Assad family combined economic crime with brutal violence to sustain its rule. "We must return these funds to the Syrian people," he urged.

Beyond legal efforts, international stakeholders hope that recovering the assets could aid in rebuilding Syria and alleviate the severe economic crisis affecting the country, where 70% of the population lives below the poverty line.

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Archaeologists have uncovered unprecedented evidence of Chinese-Israeli relations in Jerusalem. The rare 16th-century Chinese inscription was discovered on a porcelain bowl fragment during recent excavations conducted by the Israel Antiquities Authority and the German Protestant Institute of Archaeology on Mount Zion.

The find emerged from a three-year joint excavation project between the two institutions. While the dig, led by Professor Dieter Vieweger, has primarily yielded artifacts from the Byzantine period and Second Temple era – dating back more than 1,500 years – excavators were astonished to uncover this artifact from a significantly later period and unexpected origin.

The breakthrough came last summer when Michael Tchernin, an archaeologist with the Israel Antiquities Authority, spotted a colorful object emerging from cleared soil debris during routine preparations for the new excavation season. Upon cleaning the object, Tchernin identified an inscription on its base. Ceramics expert Dr Anna De-Vincenz confirmed the inscription's Chinese origin, after which researcher Jingqiao Chen from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem translated the poetic message: "May we forever preserve the eternal spring."

Dating analysis places the bowl between 1520-1570 CE, during the height of the Ming Dynasty. "While previous excavations in Israel have yielded ancient Chinese porcelain vessels, this marks the first discovery of such a vessel bearing an inscription," researchers explain. The artifact's presence aligns with historical records documenting robust trade relations between the Chinese Empire and the Ottoman Empire, which controlled the region during the 16th century. Ming Dynasty chronicles record approximately 20 Ottoman delegations visiting the imperial court in Beijing between the 15th and 17th centuries.

Contemporary merchant accounts further illuminate these inter-empire connections. A 1541 text by Chinese scholar Ma Li notes the presence of Chinese merchant communities in Lebanese coastal cities, including Beirut and Tripoli, and references other significant regional centers such as Jerusalem, Cairo, and Aleppo.

Eli Eskozido, director of the Israel Antiquities Authority, emphasized the significance of the find: "While archaeological research has previously revealed evidence of trade relations between Israel and the Far East through discoveries such as spices, encountering direct evidence through a Chinese inscription is extraordinary – particularly in such an unexpected location as Mount Zion in Jerusalem."

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A senior advisor to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has recently characterized the deadly terror attacks perpetrated by Palestinians against Israelis in Judea and Samaria as "self-defense," according to the Palestinian Media Watch. 

The remarks come following a week of an unprecedented rise in terror attacks in the region, with multiple car bombings, the murder of three Israeli police officers, and the discovery of an explosive in a baby stroller.

Mahmoud Al-Habbash portrayed the attacks as justified responses to what we said was an Israeli plan "to empty the West Bank of its residents." He further asserted that "resistance" – a term often used as a euphemism for the murder of Israelis – is a Palestinian "right."

Al-Habbash, advisor to Abbas on religious affairs and Islamic relations, accused Israel of planning to "transfer" the Gaza scenario to the West Bank. He claimed, "The events in Tubas, Tulkarm, Jenin, Nablus, and Hebron are part of an Israeli war of annihilation to expel Palestinians from their homeland." He framed the war as "a one-sided war against the Palestinian people," insisting that Palestinians have the right to resist what he termed Israeli aggression."

Al-Habbash's remarks represent the latest in a series of statements by senior Palestinian officials that justify deadly attacks on Israelis. The pronouncements, coupled with the PA's controversial policy of providing financial compensation to terrorists and their families – often referred to as "pay-for-slay" – have been widely criticized for inciting further violence against Israelis.

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The American website Breaking Defense reported that, according to the U.S. Congressional report, the United States needs to expand its military industry and acquire more aircraft, ships, and submarines. The website states that the Pentagon's current national defense strategy is outdated, the U.S. military is inadequately structured, and the American industrial base is insufficient to address the dual threat of Russia and China, according to a new, powerful formal review.

"The U.S. public are largely unaware of the dangers the United States faces or the costs (financial and otherwise) required to adequately prepare" for a global conflict, reads an early page from the final report of the Commission on the National Defense Strategy, published today. "A bipartisan 'call to arms' is urgently needed so that the United States can make the major changes and significant investments now rather than wait for the next Pearl Harbor or 9/11. The support and resolve of the American public are indispensable."

According to Breaking Defense, the commission was established by the National Defense Authorization Act of 2022 to review that year's national defense strategy. Beyond presenting a troubling picture of America's national security, the 114-page report offers several recommendations for policymakers in the White House, strategists at the Pentagon, and legislators—primarily advocating for an aggressive approach. The boldest suggestion is a call for the creation of a "multi-domain force" to address the current "outdated" version.

"he Commission believes the United States needs a force-planning approach that is both global and prioritized. … An exclusive focus on a single adversary or single region, as some have suggested, is a fundamentally flawed response to the global nature of challenges posed by such adversaries as China and Russia and to the growing cooperation between adversaries across regions," the report stated. "That said, the United States' force-planning approach must be prioritized to effectively and efficiently allocate finite resources, address threats of varying scope and scale, and ensure a mix of U.S. instruments of national power that are tailored to specific strategic objectives."

Breaking Defense notes that the report describes changes needed in the U.S. defense system, including acquiring more ships and shipbuilding infrastructure for the Navy and more satellites for the Space Force. It also supports the Air Force's effort to acquire a next-generation air superiority aircraft, a project currently facing an uncertain future.

Regarding the Indo-Pacific theater, the commission calls for more underwater assets - "eparticularly Virginia-class submarines but also large, uncrewed underwater vessels" - as well as more long-range bombers and long-range munitions.

In Europe, the report says that the National Defense Strategy has underestimated the Russian threat. "Ultimately," it states, "the goal is for Europe to take on a larger role in providing for its defense, with assured and critical support of the United States. In light of the potential for simultaneous conflicts, capability targets apportioned to European allies through the NATO Defense Planning Process should be intentionally selected to reduce overreliance on the United States for key capabilities enablers."

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