sets

‘Soon, you’ll no longer be able to use Facebook’, Meta said in messages it sent to young people ahead of the social media ban.

Meta will prevent Australians younger than 16 from accessing Facebook and Instagram from December 4, as Canberra prepares to enforce a sweeping new social media law that has sparked concerns from young people and advocates.

The US tech giant said it would start removing teenagers and children from its platforms ahead of the new Australian social media ban on users under 16 coming into effect on December 10.

The Australian government is preparing to enforce the law with fines of up to 49.5 million Australian Dollars (US$32 million) for social media companies even as critics say the changes have been rushed through without addressing questions around privacy, and the effects on young people’s mental health and access to information.

“From today, Meta will be notifying Australian users it understands to be aged 13-15 that they will lose access to Instagram, Threads and Facebook,” Meta said in a statement.

“Meta will begin blocking new under-16 accounts and revoking existing access from 4 December, expecting to remove all known under-16s by 10 December.”

There are around 350,000 Instagram users aged between 13-15 in Australia and around 150,000 Facebook accounts, according to government figures.

Meta has started warning impacted users that they will soon be locked out.

“Soon, you’ll no longer be able to use Facebook and your profile won’t be visible to you or others,” reads a message sent to users that Meta believes to be under 16.

“When you turn 16, we’ll let you know that you can start using Facebook again.”

In addition to Facebook and Instagram, the Australian government has said that the ban will be applied to several other social media platforms, including Reddit, Snapchat, Threads, TikTok, X and YouTube.

Ban ‘doesn’t add up’

A number of young people and advocates have expressed concerns about the implementation of the new ban, including journalist and founder of youth news service 6 News Australia Leo Puglisi, 18, who told an Australian senate inquiry that young people “deeply care” about the ban and its potential implications.

Puglisi says that many of the people who engage with 6 News are young people who find their content on social media.

“I think young people do have the right to be informed,” he told the inquiry.

“We’re saying that a 15 year old can’t access any news or political information on social media. I just don’t think that that adds up.”

Australian Senator David Shoebridge, has expressed concerns that “an estimated 2.4 million young people will be kicked off social media accounts… just as school holidays start.”

“I’m deeply concerned about the impacts on the ban including on young people’s mental health and privacy,” Shoebridge wrote in a recent post on X.

John Pane, from Electronic Frontiers Australia, also told a senate inquiry that the new legislation creates new risks, while trying to address other issues.

While Pane acknowledged the ban seeks to address young people potentially seeing “unsuitable content” online, he says it also creates a new “far greater, systemic risk” of “potential mass collection of children’s and adults’ identity data.”

This will further increase “the data stores and financial positions of big tech and big data and increasing cyber risk on a very significant scale,” Pane said.

Since most Australians aged under 16 don’t yet have official government ID, social media companies are planning to require some users to verify their age by recording videos of themselves.

Other countries mull similar bans

There is keen interest in whether Australia’s sweeping restrictions can work as regulators around the globe wrestle with the mixed dangers and benefits of social media.

In New Zealand, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon is planning to introduce a similar bill to restrict children’s social media use.

Indonesia has also said it is preparing legislation to protect young people from “physical, mental, or moral perils”.

In Europe, the Dutch government has advised parents to forbid children under 15 from using social media apps like TikTok and Snapchat.

An accessible set for all requires intention. There are practical needs, of course — ramps for restrooms and extra-bright neon tape on the ground to better light up and mark cues and equipment for low-vision performers and crew members. But there’s also a need to weave accessibility into the production so seamlessly that it doesn’t feel tacked on or burdensome.

On a sweltering day in June at the Van Nuys Elks Lodge, the cast and crew of “The Hog Queen,” a short film starring “Wicked: For Good’s” Marissa Bode, were doing just that: re-creating a drag show at a small-town Texas gay bar, yes, but also modeling what a set that puts accessibility and inclusion at its center can look like.

“I have been lucky in the way that ‘Wicked’ was an incredibly accessible set,” Bode tells me later over Zoom, looking back on her experience making writer-director Katherine Craft’s short horror film. “I didn’t really have to think at all about my own accessibility. However, I know that’s not the same for all my disabled peers.”

Nor is it common practice on any given set.

“Honestly, even prior to ‘Wicked,’ the No. 1 question I’m always asking when I’m collaborating with somebody is, ‘Have you worked with disabled people before? If not, how are you accommodating for that?’” Bode says. “Even when I signed on to my agency — or even my PR team, or even my manager — that was one of the first questions I asked. That’s always at the top of my mind.”

That’s what made “The Hog Queen” so rewarding. This was a production that made accessibility a priority. “I just felt taken care of in a way with this process that I have not in others,” Craft says.

Craft’s short film is part of Inevitable Foundation’s Visionary Fellowship. The yearlong program, supported by Netflix, was designed as an incubator for disabled filmmakers. Since its founding in 2021, Inevitable Foundation has supported disabled writers at various stages of their careers. But with this latest and most ambitious fellowship, founders Richie Siegel and Marisa Torelli-Pedevska wanted to put the emphasis on directors with feature-length projects ready for production.

Director Katherine Craft, left, producer Shelby Hadden and assistant director CJ Palmisano go over logistics for a scene on the set “The Hog Queen.”

(Carlin Stiehl / Los Angeles Times)

Each of the projects selected has been carefully scaled down to a short length to guarantee they could be produced within the yearlong fellowship; all five are set to be unveiled at a showcase in November.

Craft and the other members of the fellow inaugural Visionary cohort — Zayre Ferrer, Monica Lucas, Filipe Coutinho and Alys Murray — each received $55,000 in funding for their respective short films, including a production grant, health insurance, access to an experienced crew as well as marketing support and financial aid for access and travel.

Rather than merely focusing on mentorship, networking or community-building, the Visionary Fellowship was designed to give these filmmakers the production experience they’ll need to thrive in the industry. More than just a pipeline, the 12-month program is an explicit investment in disabled filmmakers and the stories they’re eager to tell. And to arm them, in turn, with an encouraging environment that aims to reframe the way accessibility is often understood.

“I think there’s this misconception that making a set accessible is going to be a huge pain in the ass, that it’s going to cost a ton of money, and it’s going to slow you down,” Craft, who has low vision, explains. “I don’t think any of that has to be true. The other thing is people think of it as something that is going to benefit someone else. But when you start looking at it through a lens of accessibility and inclusivity, you’re benefiting everyone.”

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1. Bode makes her way onto the set. 2. Christian Zamudio performs during a drag show scene. 3. The slate lights up with a digital time code. (Carlin Stiehl / Los Angeles Times)

Siegel and Torelli-Pedevska knew they needed to bake that philosophy into their process. That meant setting money aside for any accommodations early and having a line item for accessibility in the budget templates they were creating to make sure it was something they could anticipate, measure and track.

“A lot of it goes to starting early,” Siegel says. “But more importantly, it’s about rejecting the belief that [accessibility] comes at the expense of the creativity in the final product. Saying the opposite, in fact, which is: if everyone feels like this is a safe set and they can do their best work, the work will just be better.”

Bode agrees — and sees Inevitable Foundation’s approach as one that can be replicated across the industry.

Before shooting, the entire cast and crew of “The Hog Queen” received a form that sought to garner information about their needs. “It asked about everything under the sun in terms of disability,” Bode explains. “‘Do you get overstimulated? Would you need a room to go to if you do get overstimulated? What are your physical access needs? Do you need a ramp? Do you need this? Do you need that?’

“I really think that should just be standard on sets. I don’t think disability accommodations are a luxury. I think everybody should be taken care of.”

No. 1 Nebraska displayed every skill that’s made it a powerhouse program — the offense attacked every part of the court, defense never gave up on the ball and the fans showed up at the Galen Center.

In front of a sellout crowd of 9,072, USC’s nine-match win streak came to an end with a straight-set loss to Nebraska (26-0, 16-0 Big Ten).

“I just felt like the game was a little too fast for us today,” USC coach Brad Keller said. “I thought it was slow for them and fast for us.”

The No. 17 Trojans never led and were limited to a 20% point scoring percentage throughout the match. USC (20-6, 11-5) led in attacks, but its 16 errors were costly during the 25-13, 25-16, 25-20 loss to the Cornhuskers.

USC’s Adonia Faumuina taps the ball over the net against Nebraska at the Galen Center on Sunday.

(Kim Ly / USC Athletics)

“Nebraska is the real deal,” Keller said. “They are really, really good and they showed that today from point one to the very end. They’re hitting .400 and they held us down to .156, that kind of shows you a lot of where they were.

“Go Big Red Nation deserves credit and they deserve the fact that they travel and they support their team.”

USC outside hitters London Wijay, with 10 kills, and Adonia Faumuina, with nine kills, kept the Trojans in as much as possible throughout the three sets. After a break, the Trojans came out with some extra gusto to make things a little interesting for the Cornhuskers.

“We literally had nothing to lose,” Faumuina said.

During the match, Nebraska made 10 errors, with five spread across the first two sets. The Huskers moved the ball quickly around the court and if they made a mistake, the team quickly adjusted. In the third set, a ball bounced in the air close to the floor seats. Nebraska saved the ball and it later led to a kill by Virginia Adrian that put the Huskers three points from closing out the game.

Nebraska kept USC guessing, while exploiting the weaker USC back court and capitalizing on attacking errors. Throughout the match, they kept hitting the ball to the back, usually resulting in a point for them.

“There were some plays they made that I haven’t seen in a while and that was normal for them,” Keller said.

As the Trojans look ahead to their next match against Oregon on Wednesday, Keller doesn’t have a silver lining take-away from the loss.

“I love my team, I don’t care what their age is,” Keller said. “There needs to be a standard and we need to execute and if we don’t execute, we go back to the drawing board, we work on those things, we get better and we execute.”

Wijay said the loss exposed how much harder the Trojans must work to achieve their goals.

“I don’t want to brush off this loss,” Wijay said. “I think it’s good to use as fuel for the next game. It was a good test to see how far we are to get to that level. And I feel like the silver lining is to make sure that we’re all gonna be in the gym working even harder to make sure that we pursue the balls.”

“I think it made me more hungry to want to win,” Wijay added.

For 20 minutes at Murrayfield last weekend, little was going right for Damian McKenzie.

The 30-year-old, 5ft 8in, 12 stone, fair hair, fresh face, looks a little out of place among the flying breeze blocks elsewhere on the pitch.

Initially, after coming off the bench in the 44th minute against Scotland, he felt it too.

“Kyle Steyn had just scored for them when I came on,” he said.

“We kicked off, they put up a box kick from nine, I went up to catch it and wasn’t able to. I knocked my head as well.

“Blood started pouring out. We were most of the time on defence. We got a scrum, I kicked it out, but didn’t make too many metres.

“Then I missed a tackle on Darcy Graham, luckily Cam Roigard saved the try in the corner, but I cut my chin. That started bleeding and I thought, ‘here we go, it’s going to be a long last 15 minutes’.”

It was a crucial 15 minutes as well.

At that point, the score was 17-17. The All Blacks were a man down via Wallace Sititi’s yellow card. Scotland were sniffing history.

In 120 years of trying, a first win over New Zealand was a single point and a quarter of an hour away.

WASHINGTON — President Trump outlined an ambitious effort Friday to develop, produce and distribute a fully-approved COVID-19 vaccine by the end of the year, a timeline that even those in charge of the project acknowledge is highly unlikely.

Trump said the $10-billion program would have a goal of producing 300 million doses to administer to Americans by January.

Officials said the initiative would seek to streamline and coordinate the work of government agencies, private industry and the military. A former pharmaceutical executive and an Army four-star general will head the effort, which the White House called Operation Warp Speed.

“We’re looking to get it by the end of the year if we can,” Trump said in the Rose Garden. “Tremendous strides are being made.”

But Trump also hedged on the importance of the effort, declaring that America is already on the rebound from the coronavirus outbreak, which has killed about 87,000 Americans and cratered the economy.

“I want to make one thing clear — vaccine or no vaccine, we’re back,” he said. He repeated a claim he’s made since the first U.S. coronavirus cases were reported three months ago, that the virus will eventually “go away” on its own.

“I don’t want people to think this is all dependent on a vaccine,” he said.

Public health officials worry about bringing a potential vaccine to market without several rounds of clinical trials to ensure that it is safe and effective.

The National Institutes of Health says one or two possible vaccine candidates could be ready for large-scale testing by July, with several others likely to follow. Elsewhere around the world, about a dozen vaccine candidates are teed up for small-scale testing or safety studies.

The tests are necessary to determine proper dosages and to avoid negative side effects. The process usually takes several years, but some of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies are working with governments around the globe in an effort to speed up the search.

Dr. Amesh Adalja, an infectious diseases physician at Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, said setting a deadline for a vaccine is “dangerous because you’re going to give people a false sense of hope and security.”

But he said it’s possible scientists can accelerate the usual timeline given changes in laboratory practices, including the use of “vaccine platform technologies” that allow researchers to test various candidates without developing each one from scratch, and the decision to prepare factories for mass production before officials know for certain that a particular vaccine will work.

“All of that’s going to shave time off, but everything has to go perfectly,” he said.

Dr. Jere W. McBride, an infectious diseases specialist at the Sealy Institute for Vaccine Sciences at the University of Texas, noted that no vaccine has been “developed that fast before.”

“Everything has to work and in science that’s often not the case,” he added. “Is it possible? Certainly.”

Officials involved in the new initiative echoed the president’s optimism.

Moncef Slaoui, who was chairman of vaccines at British pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline until 2017, will lead the effort. He said early clinical trials have been encouraging.

“These data make me feel even more confident that we will be able to deliver a few hundred million doses of vaccine by the end of 2020,” Slaoui said. “And we will do the best we can.”

Gen. Gustave Perna, the commanding general of the Army’s Materiel Command, will serve as chief operational officer. He called the project “a herculean task,” but expressed confidence in its success.

“Winning matters and we will deliver by the end of this year a vaccine at scale,” said Defense Secretary Mark Esper.

Part of the effort involves using the military to boost production capacity before the vaccine is ready in order to expedite distribution when one is determined safe and reliable.

Dr. Stephen Hahn, the commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, said Tuesday at a Senate hearing that his agency would evaluate about 10 vaccine candidates in early studies, and then select three to five to progress into larger studies in humans.

Dr. Rick Bright, the ousted former head of the government agency charged with developing vaccines, has cast doubt on the administration’s rush to find a vaccine.

“My concern is if we rush too quickly, and consider cutting out critical steps, we may not have a full assessment of the safety of that vaccine,” Bright told a House committee on Thursday. “So it’s still going to take some time.”

Trump’s comments in the Rose Garden were at times drowned out by loud horns from truckers parked near the White House who were protesting reduced shipping rates. Trump dismissed the din as a “sign of love” for him.

Dr. Deborah Birx, the White House coronavirus response coordinator, and Dr. Anthony Fauci, the government’s top immunologist, stood behind Trump but did not speak. Both wore face masks, although Trump did not.

ONE of Canary Wharf’s trendiest hotels – and one of the few actually within the London district itself – is Tribe.

Here is everything you need to know from what the rooms are like to what you can do nearby.

Where is Tribe Canary Wharf?

Overlooking Canary Wharf’s dock, Tribe is a five-minute walk from the tube station.

The hotel was created by two Perth design fans, who have since opened 18 Tribe hotels around the world.

Aiming to be for the “modern travellers as an affordable luxury,” Tribe Canary Wharf is surrounded by some of the city’s most popular chain restaurants like Patty & Bun and Dishoom.

What is the hotel like?

The hotel is modern and stylish, with edgy graphic design and chrome gold lighting in the bedrooms.

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It’s in a prime spot in London and the cool interiors separate it from older, more traditional hotels.

What is there to do there?

Guests can pay for a day pass to the Third Space gym, one of the swankiest ones in London.

Costing £20, it includes access to all of the facilities including the gym, pool, sauna and spa.

The hotel also has a beautiful lobby area which is popular with co-workers, thanks to the number of desks and plugs.

Otherwise just outside is GoBoat if you fancy a ride around Canary Wharf’s canals, while many of London’s main tourist attractions are a short tube ride away.

Being the festive season, you can even find Canary Wharf’s ice rink popping up this month.

What are the rooms like at Tribe Canary Wharf?

The rooms have trimmed some of the frills to keep the hotel affordable for travellers – so don’t expect dressing gowns or slippers.

But the 320 rooms have everything you need, including complimentary toiletries, USB ports by the bed plus tea and coffee making facilities.

They range from Tribe Essential – the most compact – to Tribe Extra.

The huge windows in each room with views over Canary Wharf make them feel larger than they actually are.

Everything you need to know about the hotel from what is on offer to check out times are access by the TV.

What is there to eat and drink at the hotel?

The district might have all the food joints you could want, but the hotel’s Feels Like June restaurant offers a unique take on California dining.

The All Day Menu has everything from delicious Chicken Katsu Sandos to delicious rib eye steaks. Vegetarians don’t worry as there are lots of meat-free options too.

I also loved my Miami Vice – a concoction of gin, elderflower and melon sorbet.

(Make sure to grab a cocktail between 5pm and 7pm for their Happy Hour deal of two for £15).

Check out the live events at the hotel as there are sometimes live DJ sets.

It’s also a great spot for breakfast, so you can indulge in avocado on toast or a superfood smoothie bowl before checkout.

Remember to visit the 24-hour Grab & Go station near reception, which has pre-packaged meals, snacks and a coffee station.

How much is Tribe Canary Wharf?

Rooms start from £100 a night. Click here to book.

Is Tribe Canary Wharf family friendly?

The hotel is not really suited to kids but families can request a cot for children under 5.

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Is there access for guests with disabilities?

Yes, there are 16 accessible rooms and there is lift access.

Looking for a place to stay? For more hotel inspiration click here.

The U.S. Army has set a goal of buying one million new drones of all types over the next two to three years. This comes as senior officials within the service have acknowledged that it continues to lag behind global trends when it comes to fielding uncrewed aerial systems, especially weaponized types within smaller units. The Army’s planned drone shopping spree could also include large numbers of longer-range one-way attack types, something TWZ laid out a detailed case for doing just a few months ago.

Secretary of the Army Dan Driscoll talked about his service’s new drone acquisition plans in a recent phone interview with Reuters from Picatinny Arsenal in New Jersey. The service also hopes the purchases will foster an industrial base that can churn out uncrewed aerial systems at similarly high rates for years to come.

“We expect to purchase at least a million drones within the next two to three years,” Driscoll told Reuters. “And we expect that at the end of one or two years from today, we will know that in a moment of conflict, we will be able to activate a supply chain that is robust enough and deep enough that we could activate to manufacture however many drones we would need.”

The report from Reuters does not provide a detailed breakdown of what might be included in that million-drone bundle. It does indicate that Driscoll was talking primarily about smaller weaponized types, such as first-person view (FPV) kamikaze drones and ones configured to drop small munitions. These kinds of uncrewed aerial systems have existed in various forms for years, but have now been fully thrust into the public consciousness by their daily use on both sides of the ongoing conflict in Ukraine.

“Driscoll and Picatinny’s top commander, Major General John Reim, spoke to Reuters about how the United States was taking lessons from Russia’s war in Ukraine, which has been characterized by drone deployments on an unprecedented scale,” according to that outlet. “Ukraine and Russia each produce roughly 4 million drones a year, but China is probably able to produce more than double that number, Driscoll said.”

“Driscoll said he fundamentally wanted to change how the Army saw drones – more like expendable ammunition rather than an ‘exquisite’ piece of equipment,” Reuters‘ story added.

This latter point is also directly in the stated aims behind a sweeping array of drone policy and other changes the Pentagon announced back in July. The main focus of that initiative, described as “unleashing U.S. military drone dominance,” is to accelerate the fielding of huge numbers of uncrewed aerial systems, especially weaponized types, across the entire U.S. military, as you can read more about here.

All this being said, the Army’s plans to buy at least a million new drones could easily include a wide array of types intended to perform an equally diverse set of missions. As mentioned, long-range kamikaze drones in the vein of the Iranian-designed Shahed-136 could be part of this equation, as well. Russia also regularly uses variants and derivatives of that design, including ones it now produces domestically, in attacks on targets in Ukraine. Forces in Ukraine have been moving to field their own comparable designs, among many other one-way attack types.

Directly influenced by Israeli kamikaze drones, the Shahed-136 has become something of a global standard for uncrewed aircraft of this type, with similarly-sized delta-winged designs steadily emerging globally, including in the United States and China. Developments out of China include the Feilong-300D from state-run conglomerate North Industries Group Corporation, which is reportedly particularly geared toward low-cost, high-volume production. So far, the examples being built in the United States have been sold largely as training aids reflecting growing threats to friendly forces. TWZ‘s feature in September delved deeply into the benefits they could offer to the U.S. military as operational weapons in line with broader long-range fires initiatives across the services.

Another Group 3 threat system (target) broadly similar to the FLM 136 G3 ‘reverse-engineered Shahed’ threat system.

“The MQM-172 Arrowhead is designed as a high-speed, maneuverable one-way-attack and target drone platform—perfect for realistic threat emulation, training, and… https://t.co/qaEanNEC8T pic.twitter.com/DwxlGypV4E

— AirPower 2.0 (MIL_STD) (@AirPowerNEW1) August 12, 2025

This is 🇨🇳China’s version of the Geran-2 Drone, The Feilong-300D Suicide Drone, a low cost-High performance drone, and the future of combat.

It carries a High-explosive warhead, and has a range of over 1000km in just a cost of $10,000 USD. pic.twitter.com/XZBEGW1AoK

— PLA Military Updates (@PLA_MilitaryUpd) November 2, 2025

“Absolutely,” Maj. Gen. James “Jay” Bartholomee, head of the Army’s Hawaii-based 25th Infantry Division, said in response to a question from our Howard Altman about interest in Shahed-like drones at the Association of the U.S. Army’s (AUSA) annual symposium in October. “We are behind on long-range sensing and long-range launched-effect strike.”

“I think we do,” Army Lt. Gen. Charles Costanza, commander of V Corps, which has its main headquarters at Fort Knox in Kentucky and a forward command post in Poland, said separately at the AUSA gathering in response to a similar question from Howard Altman about the need for Shahed-type drones.

Costanza also offered a blunt assessment of the service’s work to field various tiers of drones, as well as capabilities to counter the growing threats they pose.

“We’re behind. I’ll just be candid. I think we know we’re behind,” the V Corps commander said. “We aren’t moving fast enough.”

“And it really took Russia’s invasion of Ukraine [in 2022], and the way they’re innovating, and Ukrainians are innovating, to realize, hey, we need to move fast,” he added.

For Ukraine, moving fast has become a matter of life or death, and rapidly iterating capabilities has become critical because of the speed at which countermeasures are also developed.

Army units in Europe have been very much at the forefront of current efforts to accelerate and expand the fielding of new weaponized drones, as well as counter-drone systems. However, some of those activities have drawn criticism for how much they still appear to be behind the curve, especially compared to what is regularly seen on battlefields in Ukraine.

Army Secretary Driscoll’s million-drone plan is clearly a new push toward a real paradigm shift, in line with the direction from the Pentagon in July. At the same time, there are significant questions about whether the service will be able to even come close to reaching its new procurement goals, especially when it comes to funding, contracting processes, and the capacity of the U.S. industrial base. The policy changes rolled out earlier this year did include several aimed at simplifying contracting processes.

Just today, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth announced further plans for even more sweeping changes to acquisition processes across the U.S. military. The goal here is also to fundamentally change how the Pentagon works with the U.S. defense industrial base, all with an eye toward moving things along faster.

“This relates to the whole industrial base, and most importantly, to the large primes [prime contractors] that we do business with today,” Hegseth said in a speech earlier today. “These large defense primes need to change, to focus on speed and volume and divest their own capital to get there.”

We’re moving from a slow, contractor-dominated system (marked by limited competition, vendor lock, and cost overruns) to an industrial base that drives speed, innovation, and investment—powered by America’s unmatched ability to scale quickly. pic.twitter.com/n9lYE02WTr

— DOW Rapid Response (@DOWResponse) November 7, 2025

As TWZ often notes, there has been steadily growing interest across the U.S. military in recent years when it comes to engaging with smaller or otherwise non-traditional companies, including to help meet complex requirements on aggressive timelines.

“Instead of partnering with larger defense companies, he [Driscoll] said the Army wanted to work with companies that were producing drones that could have commercial applications as well,” according to Reuters.

“We want to partner with other drone manufacturers who are using them for Amazon deliveries and all the different use cases,” Driscoll said.

Whether or not the Army ultimately acquires a million new drones in the next few years, and what is included in that mix, remains to be seen. However, Secretary Driscoll has started the clock now on what could be a transformational shift for the service when it comes to fielding unrewed aerial systems.

Contact the author: [email protected]

Israel has conducted more than 1,000 air strikes and more than 400 ground incursions in Syria since al-Assad overthrow.

Israel’s army has renewed its incursions into Syria, setting up a checkpoint in the southern province of Quneitra, according to local media, as it continues daily attacks, destabilises its neighbours and occupies and assaults Palestine.

State news agency SANA reported that two tanks and four military vehicles entered the town of Jabata al-Khashab in the Quneitra countryside on Wednesday, setting up the military post on the road leading to the village of Ain al-Bayda.

Damascus did not immediately comment but has repeatedly condemned Israel’s repeated violations of its sovereignty, highlighting Israel’s failure to adhere to the 1974 Disengagement Agreement that followed the 1973 war.

In that war, Syria was unable to retake the occupied Golan Heights. The 1974 agreement saw the establishment of a United Nations-patrolled buffer zone, which Israel has violated since the fall of Bashar al-Assad last December

Israel has previously said the 1974 agreement is void since al-Assad fled, breaching Syrian sovereignty with air strikes, ground infiltration operations, reconnaissance overflights, the establishment of checkpoints and the arrests and disappearances of Syrians. Syria has not reciprocated attacks.

Back in September, Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa stated that Israel had conducted more than 1,000 air strikes and more than 400 ground incursions in Syria since al-Assad was overthrown, describing the actions as “very dangerous”.

Numerous villages in Quneitra, southern Syria, have experienced Israeli incursions, according to Syrian outlet Enab Baladi.

De-escalation discussions

Syria and Israel are currently in talks to reach an agreement that Damascus hopes will secure a halt to Israel’s air strikes on its territory and the withdrawal of Israeli troops who have pushed into southern Syria.

In the background, the United States has been pushing diplomatic efforts to restore the 1974 deal. On Saturday, Trump’s special envoy Tom Barrack said the two countries are expected to hold a fifth set of de-escalation discussions.

Amid Israel’s continued belligerence and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s promotion of his vision for a “Greater Israel“, al-Sharaa has been forging closer ties with the US.

On Monday, he is heading to Washington for talks with President Donald Trump, marking the first visit by a Syrian president to the White House in more than 80 years.

Barrack said on Saturday that Syria is expected to join the US-led anti–ISIL (ISIS) coalition, describing it as “a big step” and “remarkable”.

Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad Hassan al-Shaibani said earlier this week that al-Sharaa was also expected to discuss Syria’s reconstruction with Trump.

Adrian Kempe scored his 200th NHL career goal and Drew Doughty broke the Kings record for goals by a defenseman as they beat the Winnipeg Jets 3-0 on Tuesday night.

Darcy Kuemper made 23 saves and Kevin Fiala added a late power-play goal to help the Kings get their first home win of the season in six games.

Connor Hellebuyck made 23 saves for the Jets, who dropped their first road game in five tries.

Kempe scored late in the first period to put the Kings in front, getting his sixth goal of the season by attacking the crease to put in Joel Armia’s centering pass from the trapezoid. Kempe is the ninth member of the 2014 draft class to reach 200 goals, getting there in 644 games.

Doughty passed franchise stalwart Rob Blake with his 162nd goal in 1,221 games with an empty-netter with 54 seconds remaining.

The Kings made changes by moving Armia to the top line and reuniting Mikey Anderson with longtime partner Doughty on the first defensive pair, and there were immediate returns as Armia and Anderson had the assists on Kempe’s goal.

Kings forward Corey Perry played in his 1,400th career game, becoming the 44th player in NHL history to do so and joining Brent Burns (1,511), Alex Ovechkin (1,503) and Anze Kopitar (1,464) among active players who have appeared in that many games.

Jets captain Adam Lowry made his season debut after undergoing hip surgery in late May, centering the third line. Lowry had a career-high 18 goals last season.