Drugs

The attack on Venezuela and the abduction of President Nicolas Maduro over the weekend have sent shockwaves across Latin America, where many countries fear a return to a period of overt United States interventionism.

Those fears are particularly prominent in Mexico, the US’s neighbour and longtime ally.

The country was one of several — along with Cuba and Colombia — that US President Donald Trump singled out in remarks after Saturday’s attack on Venezuela, which killed dozens of people and was widely condemned as a violation of international law.

Trump suggested that the US could carry out military strikes on Mexican territory in the name of combating drug traffickers.

“Something’s going to have to be done with Mexico,” Trump said in an interview with Fox News on Saturday morning, after the Venezuela strikes.

“She [President Claudia Sheinbaum] is very frightened of the cartels,” he added. “They’re running Mexico.”

‘We are free and sovereign’

Sheinbaum has responded to Trump’s threats with a firm insistence on Mexican sovereignty.

“We categorically reject intervention in the internal matters of other countries,” Sheinbaum said in comments to the media on Monday.

“It is necessary to reaffirm that, in Mexico, the people rule and that we are a free and sovereign country,” she added. “Cooperation, yes; subordination and intervention, no.”

Even in good times, Mexican leaders have walked a line between seeking productive relations with their powerful northern neighbour and defending their interests from possible US encroachment.

That balancing act has become more difficult as the Trump administration employs rhetoric and policies that have drawn parallels to earlier eras of imperial intervention.

“Historically, there’s a record of US intervention that is part of the story of Mexican nationalism,” Pablo Piccato, a professor of Mexican history at Columbia University, told Al Jazeera.

Many of those instances loom large in the country’s national memory. The US launched a war against Mexico in 1846 that saw US troops occupy Mexico City and annex enormous swaths of territory, including modern-day California, Nevada, and New Mexico.

Later, during the Mexican Revolution, from 1910 to 1920, US Ambassador Henry Lane Wilson worked with conservative forces in Mexico to overthrow the country’s pro-reform president.

US forces also bombed the port city of Veracruz in 1914 and sent forces into northern Mexico to hunt down revolutionary leader Pancho Villa.

“These are seen as important moments in Mexican history,” said Piccato.

“There is a quote attributed to Mexican President Porfirio Diaz, ‘Poor Mexico. So far from God, so close to the United States.’”

In recent statements, Trump has linked the US’s history in the region to his present-day agenda. While announcing Saturday’s strike, he cited the Monroe Doctrine, a 19th-century policy that the US has used to assert primacy over the Western Hemisphere.

“The Monroe Doctrine is a big deal, but we’ve superseded it by a lot, by a real lot. They now call it the ‘Donroe Doctrine’,” Trump said.

On Monday, the US State Department also shared an image of Trump on social media with the caption: “This is OUR hemisphere.”

‘Balancing on a thin wire’

Sheinbaum’s insistence on Mexican sovereignty has not prevented her from offering concessions to Trump on key priorities, such as migration, security and commerce.

When faced with Trump’s threats of 25 percent tariffs last February, Sheinbaum agreed to deploy 10,000 Mexican National Guard troops to her country’s border with the US, to help limit irregular immigration and drug-trafficking.

Mexico has also maintained close security ties with the US and cooperated in its operations against criminal groups, including through the extradition of some drug traffickers.

In February, for instance, Sheinbaum’s government extradited 29 criminal suspects that the US accused of drug trafficking and other charges. In August, it sent another 26 suspects to the US, earning a statement of gratitude from the Trump administration.

Washington has historically pressured Mexico to take a hardline stance towards combating drugs, leading to policies that some Mexicans blame for increasing violence and insecurity in their country.

Still, while Sheinbaum has received praise for managing relations with Trump, she has consistently said that unilateral US military action on Mexican territory would be a red line.

Experts say Sheinbaum’s willingness to cooperate should be an incentive for the US government not to launch attacks on Mexican soil.

“Sheinbaum has gone out of her way to cooperate with the US,” said Stephanie Brewer, the director of the Mexico programme at the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA), a US-based research group. “There would be no rational reason to break this bilateral relationship by crossing the one red line Mexico has set out.”

But the strikes on Venezuela have also underscored the Trump administration’s increasingly aggressive posture towards Latin America.

“I don’t think US strikes on Mexican territory are any more or less likely than they were before the attacks in Venezuela,” said Brewer. “But they do make it abundantly clear that the Trump administration’s threats need to be taken seriously, and that the US is willing to violate international law in its use of military force.”

“Sheinbaum is doing a balancing act on an increasingly thin wire,” she added.

The UN human rights office says the US military intervention that ousted Venezuela’s leader violates international law and the UN Charter, warning it undermines global security and risks worsening human rights. It says Venezuela’s future must be decided by its people.

Venezuelan state TV footage shows Vice President Delcy Rodriguez being formally sworn in as interim president in Caracas days after President Nicolas Maduro was abducted to face narco-terrorism charges in New York.

In less than 24 hours, the US bombed Venezuela, brazenly abducted President Nicolas Maduro and his wife from their compound in Caracas and whisked them to a detention centre in New York. Here’s how regime change unfolded overnight.

The US says a search is underway for survivors after it bombed what it said was a suspected drug trafficking convoy. The attack is believed to have taken place off the coast of Venezuela.

SACRAMENTO — Many low-income Californians prescribed wildly popular weight-loss drugs will lose their coverage for the medications in the new year.

Health officials are recommending diet and exercise as alternatives to heavily advertised weight-loss drugs like Wegovy and Zepbound, advice that experts say is unrealistic.

“Of course he tried eating well and everything, but now with the medications, it’s better — a 100% change,” said Wilmer Cardenas of Santa Clara, who said his husband lost about 100 pounds over two years using GLP-1s covered by Medi-Cal, California’s version of Medicaid.

California is joining several other states in restricting an option they say is no longer affordable as they confront soaring pharmaceutical costs and steep Medicaid cuts under the Trump administration, among other financial pressures. Despite negotiated price reductions announced in November that the White House said would “dramatically lower cost to taxpayers” for the drugs and enable Medicaid to cover them, states are going ahead with the cuts, which providers say may undermine patient health.

“It will be quite negative for our patients” because data show people typically regain weight after stopping the drugs, said Diana Thiara, medical director of the UC San Francisco Weight Management Program.

Although California and New Hampshire will not cover GLP-1 prescriptions for obesity beginning Jan. 1, they will continue to cover the drugs for other health issues, such as type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease and chronic kidney disease.

Michigan, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina and Wisconsin are planning or considering restrictions, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation’s most recent survey of state Medicaid programs.

That reverses a trend that saw 16 states covering the medications for obesity as of Oct. 1. Interest in providing the coverage “appears to be waning,” the survey found, probably because of the drugs’ cost and other state budget pressures. North Carolina pulled back GLP-1 coverage in October, but Gov. Josh Stein reinstated it in December, bowing to court orders despite a lingering budget shortfall.

Catherine Ferguson, vice president of federal advocacy for the American Diabetes Assn. and its affiliated Obesity Assn., said it’s unclear how states will adjust to the White House plan to lower the cost of several of the most popular GLP-1s through TrumpRx, an online portal for discounted prescription drugs. The price of Wegovy, for example, will be $350 per month for consumers, versus the current list price of nearly $1,350, and Medicare and Medicaid programs will pay $245, according to the plan.

“Many states are facing budgetary challenges, such as deficits, and are working to address the impacts of the changes to Medicaid and SNAP,” Ferguson wrote, referring to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. “As more details become available for the Administration’s agreements, we will see how state Medicaid responds.”

The Department of Health and Human Services referred questions to the White House, which did not respond to requests for comment on states’ termination of Medicaid coverage for the weight-loss drugs.

California projected its costs to cover GLP-1s for weight loss would have more than quadrupled over four years to nearly $800 million annually if it didn’t end Medi-Cal coverage for that use. Medi-Cal has covered weight-loss drugs since 2006, but use of GLP-1s soared only in recent years. By 2024, more than 645,000 prescriptions were covered by Medi-Cal across all uses of the medications. The California Department of Health Care Services could not readily provide a breakdown of whether the drugs were for weight loss or other conditions.

When asked whether the state would reconsider its plans in light of the announced price cuts, Department of Finance spokesperson H.D. Palmer said it had no plans to do so. California’s cut is written into the state’s budget law.

California officials would not say how much it could save under the TrumpRx plan, citing federal and state restrictions on disclosing rebate information.

Healthcare providers don’t expect the Trump administration’s negotiated price cuts to make much difference to consumers, because pharmaceutical companies already offer discounts.

“The out-of-pocket costs will still be very cost-prohibitive for most, especially individuals with Medicaid insurance,” Thiara said.

New Hampshire will also end its coverage Jan. 1. Officials with the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services did not respond to requests for comment.

About 1 in 8 adults are taking a GLP-1 drug for obesity, disease or both, up 6 percentage points from May 2024, according to KFF poll results released in November. More than half of users said their GLP-1s were difficult to afford, and many who had stopped the treatment cited the cost.

Public and private payers have been trying to wean patients off of the drugs to save costs. California health officials said Medi-Cal members and their healthcare providers should consider “other treatment options that can support weight loss, such as diet changes, increased activity or exercise, and counseling.” That echoes advice from the New Hampshire Medicaid program.

California Department of Health Care Services spokesperson Tessa Outhyse said in an email that the official advice to try those other approaches now “is not meant to dismiss any past efforts, but to encourage Medi-Cal members to take a renewed, proactive, and medically supported approach with their healthcare provider that may appropriately include these additional options.”

But that may be unrealistic, said Kurt Hong, founding director of the Center for Clinical Nutrition at Keck School of Medicine of USC.

“We definitely want patients to do their part with the diet and exercise, but unfortunately, and from a practical standpoint, that itself frequently is not enough,” Hong said, adding that usually by the time patients see doctors, they have failed at achieving results through those means.

Hong understands why Medicaid programs, as well as private providers, want to cut back on covering the drugs, which can cost thousands of dollars per patient per year. However, they can produce twice the weight loss as the medications typically used previously, he said.

A school of medical thought supports people gradually ending their use, but Hong said obesity is generally considered a chronic condition that requires indefinite treatment.

“Once they reach their target weight, a lot of people will try to see whether or not they can wean off,” Hong said. “We do see a lot of patients — when they try to get off, unfortunately, then the weight comes back.”

Medi-Cal members younger than 21 will remain covered for purposes including weight loss, California officials said, citing a federal requirement.

Medi-Cal members will be able to keep their GLP-1 coverage if they can demonstrate it is medically necessary for purposes other than weight loss, the Department of Health Care Services said. Members who are denied coverage can seek a hearing, the department said in a letter to members.

Members will still be able to pay for the prescriptions out of pocket and may be able to use various discounts to lower costs. Another option is new pills to treat obesity, which will be cheaper than their injectable counterparts. The Food and Drug Administration approved a pill version of Wegovy on Dec. 22, which probably will cost $149 a month for the lowest dosage, and similar weight-loss pills are expected to be available in the first half of the year.

Although Cardenas said his husband, Jeffer Jimenez, 37, uses GLP-1s primarily for weight loss, Jimenez’s prescription is for diabetes, so the couple hoped to continue receiving coverage through Medi-Cal.

“He tried a thousand medications, pills, natural teas, exercise program, but it doesn’t work like the injections,” Cardenas said. “You need both.”

Thompson writes for KFF Health News, a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF.

Tensions are flaring along the Tajikistan-Afghanistan border in Central Asia with the Tajik government reporting multiple armed incursions this month, straining its fragile relationship with Afghanistan’s Taliban leaders.

More than a dozen people have been killed in attacks by men whom Tajik authorities call “terrorists” and the resulting clashes with Tajik forces, officials in Dushanbe and Beijing said. Victims include Chinese nationals working in remote areas of the mountainous former Soviet republic.

In the latest fighting this week, at least five people were killed in Tajikistan‘s Shamsiddin Shokhin district, including “three terrorists”, officials said.

Tajikistan has long opposed the rise of the Taliban in Afghanistan, a country it shares a largely unsecured 1,340km (830-mile) border with.

Despite cautious diplomatic engagement between the two countries to adjust to new regional realities, analysts said, the frequency of the recent border clashes risks eroding the Taliban’s credibility and raises questions about its capacity to enforce order and security.

Here is all we know about the clashes along the Tajik-Afghan border and why they matter:

What’s happening on the Tajik-Afghan border?

The border runs along the Panj river through the remote, mountainous terrain of southern Tajikistan and northeastern Afghanistan.

On Thursday, Tajikistan’s State Committee for National Security said in a statement that “three members of a terrorist organisation” crossed into Tajik territory on Tuesday. The committee added that the men were located the following morning and exchanged fire with Tajik border guards. Five people, including the three intruders, were killed, it said.

Tajik officials did not name the armed men or specify which group they belonged to. The officials, however, said they seized three M-16 rifles, a Kalashnikov assault rifle, three foreign-made pistols with silencers, 10 hand grenades, a night-vision scope and explosives at the scene.

Dushanbe said this was the third attack originating from Afghanistan’s Badakhshan province in the past month that has resulted in the deaths of its personnel.

These attacks, Tajik officials said on Thursday, “prove that the Taliban government is demonstrating serious and repeated irresponsibility and non-commitment in fulfilling its international obligations and consistent promises to ensure security … and to combat members of terrorist organisations”.

The Tajik statement called on the Taliban to “apologise to the people of Tajikistan and take effective measures to ensure security along the shared border”.

Tajikistan has not suggested what the motive for the attacks may be, but the assaults have appeared to target Chinese companies and nationals working in the area.

How is China involved in all this?

Beijing is Tajikistan’s largest creditor and one of its most influential economic partners with a significant footprint in infrastructure, mining and other border-region projects.

China and Tajikistan also share a 477km (296-mile) border running through the high-altitude Pamir Mountains in eastern Tajikistan, adjacent to China’s Xinjiang region.

Two attacks were launched against Chinese companies and nationals in the last week of November. On November 26, a drone equipped with an explosive device attacked a compound belonging to Shohin SM, a private Chinese gold-mining company, in the remote Khatlon region on the Tajik-Afghan border, killing three Chinese citizens.

In a second attack on November 30, a group of men armed with guns opened fire on workers employed by the state-owned China Road and Bridge Corporation, killing at least two people in Tajikistan’s Darvoz district.

Tajik officials said those attacks had originated from villages in Afghanistan’s Badakhshan province but did not disclose any affiliation or motive behind the attacks.

Chinese nationals have also come under attack in Pakistan’s Balochistan province and along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border.

China’s embassy in Dushanbe advised Chinese companies and personnel to evacuate the border area. Chinese officials demanded “that Tajikistan take all necessary measures to ensure the safety of Chinese enterprises and citizens in Tajikistan”.

Who is carrying out these attacks?

While the attackers have not been identified, analysts and observers believe the attacks carry the hallmarks of the ISIL (ISIS) affiliate in Khorasan Province (ISKP), which, they said, aims to discredit Afghanistan’s Taliban leaders.

“The ISKP has attacked foreigners inside Afghanistan and carried out attacks on foreigners inside Afghanistan as a key pillar of their strategy,” said Ibraheem Bahiss, a Kabul-based analyst at the International Crisis Group think tank.

“The aim is to shatter the Taliban’s image as a security provider with whom the regional governments should engage,” Bahiss told Al Jazeera.

How has the Taliban reacted to these attacks?

Kabul expressed its “deep sorrow” over the killings of Chinese workers on November 28.

The Taliban blamed the violence on an unnamed armed group which, it said, is “striving to create chaos and instability in the region and to sow distrust among countries”, and it assured Tajikistan of its full cooperation.

After this week’s clashes, Sirajuddin Haqqani, the Taliban’s interior minister, said Kabul remains committed to the 2020 Doha Agreement, its deal with the United States for a phased foreign troop withdrawal from Afghanistan in exchange for Taliban commitments to prevent Afghanistan from being used as a base for attacking other countries.

Addressing a police cadet graduation ceremony at the National Police Academy in Kabul on Thursday, Haqqani said Afghanistan posed no threat to other countries and the door to dialogue remains open.

“We want to address problems, distrust or misunderstandings through dialogue. We have passed the test of confrontation. We may be weak in resources, but our faith and will are strong,” he said, adding that security had improved to the extent that Taliban officials now travel across the country without weapons.

The Taliban insists that no “terrorist groups” are operating from Afghanistan. However, in a recent report, the United Nations sanctions-monitoring committee cited the presence of multiple armed groups, including ISKP, Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, al-Qaeda, the Turkistan Islamic Party, Jamaat Ansarullah and Ittehad-ul-Mujahideen Pakistan.

Jamaat Ansarullah is a Tajik group linked to al-Qaeda-aligned networks and active primarily in northern Afghanistan near the Tajik border.

How are relations between Tajikistan and the Taliban?

For decades, the relationship between Tajikistan and the Taliban has been defined by deep ideological hostility and ethnic mistrust with Dushanbe one of the group’s fiercest critics in Central Asia.

In the 1990s, Tajikistan aligned with the anti-Taliban Northern Alliance, led by Afghan military commander and former Defence Minister Ahmad Shah Massoud.

After the Taliban’s return to power in Afghanistan in August 2021, Tajikistan stood as the lone holdout among its neighbours in refusing to officially recognise the new government.

However, pragmatic diplomatic engagement quietly began about 2023, driven by economic necessity and shared security fears over the presence of ISKP. Stepping up the restoration of relations, a high-level Tajik delegation visited Kabul in November, the first such visit since the Taliban’s return to power.

But the two governments continue to trade accusations that the other is harbouring “terrorists”, the major thorn remaining in their bilateral relationship, and that drug smuggling is occurring across their border.

The Tajik-Afghan border has long been a major trafficking route for Afghan heroin and methamphetamine into Central Asia and onwards to Russia and Europe, exploiting the area’s rugged terrain and weak policing.

“The rising frequency [of the clashes] is new and interesting and raises a point: whether we might be seeing a new threat emerging,” Bahiss said.

Badakshan province, from which Tajik authorities said the attacks on Chinese nationals originate, presents a complex security situation for the Taliban as it has struggled to stem the threat from armed opposition groups, Bahiss added.

This security issue has been further complicated by the Taliban’s crackdown on poppy cultivation in the province, he said. The Taliban has faced resistance to this policy from farmers in the north. This is largely because the terrain of Badakshan means poppies are the only viable cash crop.

How is the Taliban faring with other neighbours?

Since the Taliban retook control of Afghanistan in 2021, some of its neighbours have maintained a pragmatic transactional relationship while others have not.

Relations with Pakistan, previously its patron, have particularly deteriorated. Islamabad accuses Kabul of harbouring fighters of Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, also known as the Pakistan Taliban. Tensions over this issue boiled over in November when Pakistan launched air strikes in Kabul, Khost and other provinces, prompting retaliatory Taliban attacks on border posts.

Dozens of people were killed before a ceasefire was brokered by Qatar and Turkiye. However, both sides have engaged in fighting since, blaming each other for breaking the fragile truce.

The Taliban denies Islamabad’s allegations and has blamed Pakistan for its “own security failures”.

Meanwhile, the Taliban is now invested in developing a new relationship with Pakistan’s archrival, India, with delegations visiting Indian cities for trade and security discussions. New Delhi was earlier part of the anti-Taliban alliance. However, that approach has changed with the deteriorating ties between Pakistan and the Taliban.

Jordan’s military said the attacks ‘neutralised arms and drug traffickers’ and destroyed their laboratories and factories.

Jordan’s military has launched strikes on drug and weapons smugglers in the country’s northern border regions with Syria, targeting sites used as “launch points” by trafficking groups into Jordanian territory, according to reports.

The Jordan News Agency, Petra, said the strikes on Wednesday “neutralised a number of arms and drug traffickers who organise weapons and narcotics smuggling operations along the northern border of the Kingdom”.

Jordan’s armed forces destroyed “factories and workshops” used by the trafficking groups, Petra reports, adding that the attacks were carried out based on “precise intelligence” and in coordination with regional partners.

The Jordanian military did not name the partner countries involved in the strikes but warned that it would “continue to counter any threats with force at the appropriate time and place”, Petra said.

Syrian state broadcaster Al-Ikhbariah TV reported on its Telegram channel that the Jordanian army had carried out air strikes on locations in the southern and eastern countryside of Syria’s Suwayda governorate.

A resident of Syria’s Suwayda border region told the AFP news agency that the bombardment “was extremely intense and targeted farms and smuggling routes”, while the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said jets and helicopters had reportedly taken part in the raid.

The observatory said photos taken at the scene of the attacks showed destruction at an abandoned military barracks of the former al-Assad regime in Suwayda.

There were no initial reports of casualties from the Jordanian attacks and no official comment from authorities in Damascus.

A farm believed to have been used for storing drugs was among the targets, according to the Zaman Al Wasl online news site, which also reported that similar Jordanian attacks had been carried out previously in a bid to stem the flow of captagon – an addictive, amphetamine-type stimulant.

Before the removal of Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad in December 2024, captagon had become the regime’s largest export and key source of funding amid the country’s years of grinding civil war.

Produced in vast quantities in Syria, the synthetic drug flooded the region, particularly the Gulf states, prompting neighbouring countries to announce seizures and call on both Lebanon and Damascus to ramp up efforts to combat the trade.

Although Damascus denied any involvement in the drug trade, analysts estimated that production and smuggling of captagon brought in billions of dollars for al-Assad, his associates and allies as they looked for an economic lifeline amid the civil war, which was fought between 2011 and the regime’s toppling last year.

A FORMER Nickelodeon child star has laid bare his life on the streets, revealing a staggering list of drugs he says he is taking even as his mother urges fans not to help him financially.

Tylor Chase, 36, once a fresh-faced teen actor on Ned’s Declassified School Survival Guide, is now roaming the streets of Riverside, California, picking up cigarette butts and discarded Christmas cards.

When reporters found Chase behind a 7-Eleven on Monday, he was digging in the dirt, dressed in a torn jacket, a scruffy LA Raiders polo and pants patched with characters from Rugrats.

His hands were cut and blistered, dirt packed under his fingernails.

Offered food, Chase instead asked for marijuana.

“I could use maybe a joint or a bong. Do you guys smoke weed?” he told the Daily Mail.

He also revealed the list of drugs he says he is taking while living on the streets.

“I like to vape,” Chase said, adding that he takes “Prozac, Adderall, Sudafed, Wellbutrin or also Zoloft,” which he claimed were prescribed by a psychiatrist, though he denied having any diagnosed mental health conditions.

Chase rose to fame at 15 playing brainy Martin Qwerly on the Nickelodeon hit from 2004 to 2007.

After the show wrapped, his acting career fizzled and his life slowly unraveled.

In 2014, he posted bleak poetry online hinting at his mental state.

In one poem titled Bipolar, he wrote: “I’m a leaf in a running gutter with the inevitable fate of ending up in a drain… Perhaps I am doomed. Perhaps I have done nothing. Perhaps I am nothing.”

The former actor eventually moved to Riverside “about seven to nine years” ago, where his mother lives.

He tried to pursue art, self-publishing two fantasy novels in 2020 and continuing to post poetry online until 2021.

But Chase also began spending more time on the streets and racked up a long rap sheet.

Riverside County court records show 12 criminal cases since August 2023, including eight this year.

His most recent arrests involve alleged shoplifting and being under the influence of a controlled substance. Both cases are ongoing.

Riverside Police say Chase is not wanted for any crimes.

Police spokesman Ryan Railsback told the Mail that during all interactions with cops, Chase “has been cordial and cooperative”.

He added that officers offer him shelter, treatment and mental health services weekly, all of which he has declined.

Despite his appearance, Chase insisted he is not homeless.

“I stay around here locally. My mom is here,” he said.

“I have a lot of good people helping me.

“It’s not too shabby. A lot of people help out. It goes a long way.”

Chase said he may move back to Georgia to live with his father and enter a housing assistance programme.

“I’m not really active homeless at this time,” he said.

“I’m thinking that I would like to go see my dad… Probably a housing assistance program in Georgia most likely.”

After videos of Chase looking unrecognisable went viral, a GoFundMe raised more than $1,200.

But his mother, Paula Moisio, demanded it be taken down.

“Tylor needs medical attention not money. But he refuses it,” she wrote in messages shared online.

“Money would not be a benefit to him. He can’t manage money for his meds by himself.”

Authorities have shuttered drug factories that were cash pipeline for former ruler Bashar al-Assad, UN report.

Syria’s government has cracked down on the Captagon industry, which boomed under former longtime leader Bashar al-Assad, according to a United Nations report.

Since al-Assad’s ouster a year ago, Syria’s new authorities have dismantled a network of factories and storage sites, a research brief published on Monday by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) said.

For more than a decade, Syria produced most of the world’s Captagon, a highly addictive, amphetamine-like pill, bringing in billions of dollars for al-Assad’s government.

However, interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa has carried out a clampdown as he tries to legitimise his government and strengthen diplomatic ties globally.

Overall, 15 industrial-level laboratories and 13 storage sites have been shuttered, according to the UNODC report. The agency said the action has “drastically changed” the Captagon market across the region.

Syria’s role in the drug trade had previously drawn scrutiny from numerous Gulf states, where the pill is popular, including Saudi Arabia. It also helped to prompt Western sanctions.

‘Political will and international cooperation’

For years, the Captagon trade provided billions of dollars in profit for networks and individuals aligned with the former government “either within the leadership of the regime’s security apparatus, Syria’s commercial sector and business elite, and/or family members of Bashar al-Assad”, according to Caroline Rose, an expert on Syrian drug trafficking at the New Lines Institute think tank.

Maher al-Assad, Bashar’s brother and former commander of the army’s elite Fourth Division, was identified as a key player, profiting from protecting shipments through Latakia, a former al-Assad stronghold.

Despite the current Syrian government’s targeting of the industry, large seizures of the drug across the region suggest that significant stockpiles of the pills originating from Syria remain in circulation, the report noted.

Smaller-scale production is also likely continuing inside Syria and in neighbouring countries, the UNODC added, with Gulf countries still the top buyers of the drug.

The UN agency said the disruption of the Middle East’s Captagon industry shows that with “political will and international cooperation … even highly complex drug markets can be destabilised within a relatively short period of time”.

However, it warned that the shift risks pushing regional consumers towards new synthetic substances, like methamphetamine, which has recently grown in popularity.

“Without addressing the underlying demand for ‘Captagon,’ trafficking and use are likely to shift toward other substances, such as methamphetamine, with new routes and actors emerging to fill the gap,” it said.

THE slashing deaths of Hollywood star Rob Reiner and his wife have sparked a raft of questions, many of which stem from their alleged killer son, Nick.

Here is a look at five mysteries that leave glaring holes in the murder investigation, from hazy information about Nick’s mental health to debates on his unconfirmed motivation.

Nick, 32, is accused of murdering his parents, filmmaker Rob, 78, and his wife Michele, 68, after a chaotic weekend that spiraled from a celebrity bash to a late-night arrest near the University of Southern California.

The couple was found dead at their Brentwood home on Sunday with their throats slashed.

Nick was arrested later that night and is charged with two counts of first-degree murder, meaning he could face the death penalty if convicted.

However, his fate is still hanging in the balance, as his arrest is complicated by missing hours, unclear motives, and unanswered questions about what he did while his parents lay dead.

READ MORE ON ENTERTAINMENT

CALL FOR HELP

New Rob Reiner scene details revealed by first cops to arrive at his home

TROUBLING HISTORY

Nick Reiner was ‘violent’ with parents at least once before murders

Here is what has been revealed about the case and what remains to be revealed.

WHAT HAPPENED AT CONAN O’BRIEN’S PARTY?

On Saturday night, Rob, Michele, and Nick were all said to have attended a star-studded holiday party hosted by comedian Conan O’Brien.

And according to several insiders, the night reportedly went sideways for the trio.

Guests present at the party claimed that Nick behaved erratically the entire night

According to the Wall Street Journal, there was one awkward moment where Nick interrupted Saturday Night Live alum Bill Hader during a private conversation and was told to butt out.

Nick was said to have asked Hader odd questions like ” What’s your name? What’s your last name? Are you famous?”

One witness told the Daily Mail, “Nick just stood there and stared before storming off.”

Tensions escalated when multiple attendees saw Rob, Michele, and Nick locked in a heated argument.

At one point, a guest suggested calling the police, Daily Mail reported.

“They got into an argument, the father and son. It got so bad and loud someone wanted to call the police to report it,” an insider told the outlet.

Timeline of Rob and Michele Reiner’s death

Rob Reiner and his wife of Michele Singer Reiner were found dead in their Los Angeles home on December 14, 2025.

Timeline:

• December 13, 2025: Reiner and his wife Michele attended a holiday party on the evening of December 13 with their son, Nick.
• Sources conveyed to The U.S. Sun that the couple and their son were engaged in a heated public argument while at the event.
• December 14, 2025: Reiner and Michele were found dead in their Brentwood home in Los Angeles at around 3:30 pm PST.
• The couple’s daughter, Romy, reportedly discovered her parents’ bodies.
• Online police records show Reiner and Michele’s 32-year-old son, Nick, was arrested at 9:15 pm PST on December 14.
• December 15, 2025: Authorities in Los Angeles announce that Nick Reiner was arrested and charged with murder.
• Nick was booked into a Los Angeles jail at 5:04 am and was being held on $4 million bail, which was later revoked.
• December 16, 2025: Los Angeles District Attorney Nathan Hochman formally charged Nick Reiner with two counts of first-degree murder.
• Hochman said his office would consider the death penalty in Nick’s case.
• Nick’s scheduled court appearance on December 16 was postponed due to what his attorney said was a procedural issue.

But O’Brien reportedly intervened before anyone rang 911, the insider claimed.

“But Conan stepped in and said, ‘it’s my house, my party, I’m not calling the police.’ He talked them out of calling the police.”

“When the s**t was hitting the fan, somebody said we need to call the police. The conversation was about getting this kid put into a mental-health hold,” the source told the Mail.

Nick eventually stormed off the party.

Outlets have also reported that Rob confided to friends that he is scared of Nick.

“I’m petrified of him,” Rob told his friends.

“I can’t believe I’m going to say this, but I’m afraid of my own son. I think my own son can hurt me.”

WAS NICK HIGH ON DRUGS?

No official details have been released saying Nick was on drugs or drunk at the time of the alleged killings.

But questions are swirling because he has a documented history of substance abuse, and the hours after the party, and after he is believed to have fled the family home, are still largely unaccounted for.

Nick had a substance abuse problem for years, his parents also tried to help him recover from it.

WAS NICK ON MEDS FOR SCHIZOPHRENIA?

According to a TMZ report, Nick was receiving care from a Los Angeles-based rehab facility that focuses on mental illness and substance abuse, and costs $70,000 a month.

Nick had been diagnosed with schizophrenia, and a report claims his behavior became increasingly “alarming” as doctors worked to fine-tune his treatment.

Things got worse three to four weeks before the murders after doctors changed his medication, leaving him even more unstable.

“Nick was out of his head,” a source told TMZ, with the report also alleging his substance abuse made his condition worse.

COULD HE GET OFF ON MENTAL HEALTH GROUNDS?

Nick’s defense could try to lean on mental health in court, but that doesn’t mean he will walk free.

One avenue his attorney, Alan Jackson, could explore is having him declare mentally unfit for trial, which would pause the proceedings while he is evaluated and treated.

That’s different from an insanity defense, which argues he wasn’t legally responsible at the time of the alleged killings.

Los Angeles criminal defense lawyer Daniel Rubin told Fox News the defense strategy will depend on “the weight and admissibility” of evidence, witness testimony, the events before the deaths, “the defendant’s mental health issues,” and any mitigating factors.

Rubin said if Reiner is found mentally incompetent, a judge can order a formal competency assessment by specialists.

“If he is found ‘incompetent,’ he will need to be medicated or treated to the point where he will be able to assist in his own defense and understand the proceedings,” Rubin added.

This process could take several weeks to several months.

If a judge finds him unfit, the case typically goes on ice while doctors work to restore competency, and it can restart if he stabilizes.

Even if he’s never restored, that doesn’t mean he goes home; he could still be held in a secure hospital setting rather than a prison.

And if he’s found fit and later convicted, prison is still very much on the table.

WILL HE GET HIS PARENTS’ FORTUNE?

If Nick already has cash or there is a trust that allows discretionary payouts, it’s possible funds could be used toward his legal bills while the criminal case is pending – because he’s presumed innocent and the inheritance question isn’t “final” yet. 

Some reports say that, until there’s a conviction or a civil finding, he isn’t automatically treated as disqualified in every setting. 

But any move to use estate or trust cash could trigger an immediate probate war, with other relatives or beneficiaries pushing to freeze payouts while the murder case is pending.

If Nick is convicted, California’s so-called “slayer statute” would likely kick in, a law that blocks someone from inheriting from a person they feloniously and intentionally killed.

In that scenario, he’d be treated as if he died before his parents for inheritance purposes, meaning he wouldn’t collect from their estate.

If he’s barred, the money would typically flow to other heirs or whoever is next in line under the will or trust.

Rob and Michele’s combined estate has been estimated at around $200 million, making the financial stakes enormous as the case heads toward court.

The executive order calls on the US attorney general to expedite federal reclassification, creating fewer barriers for studies.

United States President Donald Trump has signed an executive order to federally reclassify marijuana as less dangerous.

The move on Thursday requires Attorney General Pam Bondi to expedite the process under the Drug Enforcement Administration for reclassifying marijuana.

In the US, drugs and other chemical substances are divided into a five-tier classification system, with Schedule I representing the most restricted tier and Schedule V the least.

Marijuana was previously in the Schedule I category, where it was classed alongside potent narcotics like heroin and LSD. With Thursday’s order, it would be fast-tracked down to Schedule III, in a class with ketamine and anabolic steroids.

Trump said the change “is not the legalisation” of marijuana, and he added that it “in no way sanctions its use as a recreational drug”.

The change, however, will make it easier to conduct research on marijuana, as studies on Schedule III drugs require far less approval than for Schedule I substances.

Speaking earlier in the week, Trump told reporters the change was popular “because it leads to tremendous amounts of research that can’t be done unless you reclassify, so we are looking at that very strongly”.

The change is in line with several states that have moved to legalise marijuana for both medical and recreational use. That has created a patchwork of state-level regulations at odds with federal law, wherein marijuana remains illegal.

Former US President Joe Biden had taken several steps to lessen federal penalties related to marijuana, including a mass pardon for those handed harsh sentences for simple possession.

Such convictions had disproportionately affected minority communities and fuelled mass incarceration in the US.

The Biden administration had also begun the process of reclassifying marijuana to Schedule III, but the effort was not completed before the Democratic president left office in January.

Trump has faced some pushback from within his party about the classification shift. Earlier this year, 20 Republican senators signed a letter urging the president to keep the more severe restrictions.

The group argued that marijuana continues to be dangerous and that a shift would “undermine your strong efforts to Make America Great Again”, a reference to Trump’s campaign slogan.

Meanwhile, public support for legalising marijuana for recreational use has nearly doubled in recent years, increasing from 36 percent support in 2005 to 68 percent in 2024, according to Gallup polls.

Saying the unedited video of a September 2 strike on a boat in the Caribbean is “top secret,” US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told reporters that its viewing will be restricted to select lawmakers, not the general public.