What you need to know

Syria's Suwayda province descends into chaos as Druze-Bedouin clashes escalate

Violence erupted in Syria’s southern Suwayda province on Sunday after long-simmering tensions between Druze and Bedouin tribal factions exploded into armed conflict.

Damascus dispatched military units to contain the violence, Druze militias ambushed the incoming forces, killing more than ten soldiers. In response, the Syrian interim government ordered the forcible disarmament of Druze factions in the province, triggering further fighting.

The confrontation has drawn in regional actors. Israeli fighter jets entered Syrian airspace from the direction of Homs and struck several Syrian army tanks approaching Israeli positions in southwestern Syria. Although the airstrikes were interpreted as a warning to Damascus, Israel has so far refrained from deeper involvement or direct support for the embattled Druze militias.

According to figures compiled after three days of fighting, the estimated death toll includes 18 government soldiers and interior ministry personnel, 28 soldiers and militiamen aligned with the government in Damascus, 46 Druze fighters, and at least 2 non-combatants.

The situation escalated overnight as elite Syrian army units, previously involved in the battle for Aleppo, launched a coordinated assault and succeeded in entering Suwayda city early this morning.

Druze leaders in Suwayda, including the powerful Sheikh Hikmat Hijri, at first issued a statement this morning welcoming the presence of government security forces and urging a resumption of dialogue with Damascus.

Later in the morning, Hijri claimed that he issued the statement under duress, and is now calling for resistance.

Druze in Israel have called on Israel to intervene more aggressively to support the Syrian Druze. At this time they are blocking roads in northern Israel with burning tires in a show of support for their co-religionists across the border. However, the Israeli government is claiming that the U.S. has requested that they not intervene.

The Syrian transition, following the removal of the regime of Bashar al Assad in December last year, is extremely fragile. Southern revolutionaries, who led the assault on Damascus last year, are wary of ceding authority to the new government in Damascus. Many in the Druze community want to maintain autonomy, with some even calling for union with Israel. The Alawite community on the coast, from which the Assad family emerged, has suffered tremendously under the new regime. The majority of the country remains under the control of the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces, who are mostly Kurdish but have considerable Arab tribal backing, and are not keen to reunite with a centralized Syrian state.

Should Syria collapse into civil war again, the consequences for the region, and for Europe, will be serious. Suwayda appears to have been recaptured by government forces this morning, but the multiple simmering conflicts in Syria are far from over.

Europe's center of gravity shifts east, politics moves right, hostility to migrants from the south rises, as ties with the U.S. fray

France’s National Court of Asylum (CNDA) has issued a landmark ruling declaring that all residents of the Gaza Strip are now eligible to apply for full refugee status in France.

The court determined that the intensity and scale of Israeli military operations in Gaza amount to persecution severe enough to meet the threshold set by the 1951 Geneva Convention.

Crucially, the ruling does not require individual applicants to demonstrate personal targeting or specific threats; instead, their origin from Gaza is considered sufficient grounds for asylum.

This decision effectively overrides earlier limitations tied to the presence of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) in the region, acknowledging that the agency can no longer offer adequate protection.

As a result, Gazans arriving in France may now obtain ten-year renewable refugee permits, rather than the shorter-term subsidiary protection previously offered.

The move has been welcomed by human rights advocates as a humanitarian necessity, while critics have raised concerns about integration, national security, and the implications of France assuming a disproportionate share of the refugee burden.

This is a legal judgement, not a political judgement, and it is one that is far to the left of average French opinion on such matters. It is likely to provide additional fuel to anti-immigrant feeling in France. Should other European courts follow this precedent, there will be a political impact across the continent.

Move fast and break things

Supreme Court allows plan to dismantle Education Department to resume

The Supreme Court has given the green light for President Donald Trump’s controversial plan to begin dismantling the U.S. Department of Education.

In a narrow ruling, the court lifted a lower-court injunction that had temporarily blocked the administration’s efforts to restructure and downsize the agency. The decision effectively allows the dismissal of nearly 1,400 department employees, part of a broader push by the Trump administration to return educational authority to states and local governments.

The move marks a significant step toward fulfilling a long-standing conservative objective of reducing federal involvement in education policy. Trump’s plan includes redistributing key functions of the department to other federal agencies and empowering state-level authorities to exercise greater autonomy over school standards, funding mechanisms, and curriculum design.

The ruling is expected to face further legal and legislative challenges, particularly in Congress, where Democratic lawmakers have vowed to resist any attempt to defund or dismantle the department.

Nevertheless, the Supreme Court’s action signals judicial backing for an executive-branch-led restructuring of federal agencies, a precedent that will embolden future efforts to overhaul other bureaucracies.

It’s now the U.S. vs China, everyone else needs to pick a side

Australia conducts first HIMARS launch during largest Talisman Sabre exercise

Australia has carried out its first live-fire launch of the U.S.-supplied High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS), a notable development in its ongoing defense modernization.

The event took place during the largest iteration of Exercise Talisman Sabre to date, which brought together more than 35,000 troops from 19 countries, including the U.S., Japan, the United Kingdom, South Korea, and several regional partners. Centered in Queensland and the Northern Territory, the exercise showcased Australia’s growing emphasis on long-range precision strike capabilities amid heightened tensions in the Indo-Pacific.

The incorporation of HIMARS into Australian land forces reflects Canberra’s broader efforts to deepen interoperability with allied doctrines and enhance preparedness for potential regional contingencies.

The launch was one component of a wider series of drills that included amphibious landings, joint air and naval operations, and long-range logistics coordination. These were all activities intended to simulate the demands of high-intensity warfare.

Australia is working on developing the capability to deter aggression through the forward deployment of long range advanced weaponry.

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