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U.S. indictment accuses two Syrian officials of torture at notorious prison
U.S. prosecutors are accusing two senior Syrian officials of overseeing a notorious torture center that abused peaceful protesters, including a 26-year-old American woman who was later believed to have been executed.
The indictment was released Monday, two days after a shock rebel offensive overthrew Syrian President Bashar Assad. The U.S., U.N. and others accuse him of widespread human rights abuses in a 13-year battle to crush opposition forces seeking his removal from power.
The war, which began as a largely nonviolent popular uprising in 2011, has killed half a million people.
The indictment, filed Nov. 18 in federal court in Chicago, is believed to be the U.S. government’s first against what officials say were networks of Assad intelligence services and military branches that detained, tortured and killed thousands of perceived enemies.
It names Jamil Hassan, director of the Syrian air force’s intelligence branch, who prosecutors say oversaw a prison and torture center at the Mezzeh air force base in the capital, Damascus, and Abdul Salam Mahmoud, who prosecutors say ran the prison.
Victims included Syrians, Americans and dual citizens, the indictment said. The U.S.-based Syrian Emergency Task Force has long pushed federal prosecutors for action on one case, that of 26-year-old American aid worker Layla Shweikani.
The group presented witnesses who testified of Shweikani’s 2016 torture at the prison. Syrian rights groups believe she was later executed at the Saydnaya military prison in the Damascus suburbs.
The whereabouts of the two Syrian officials were not immediately known, and the prospects of bringing them to trial were unclear. Assad’s toppling by the rebels over the weekend has scattered his government and left citizens searching prison torture centers around the country for survivors and evidence.
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It’s the GOP’s world in Washington. Democratic governors are getting ready
Beverly Hills, California — Democrats, who are about to be locked out of power in Washington as Republicans take control of all three branches of government in January, see the state capitals run by Democratic governors as the clearest path of resistance to President-elect Donald Trump’s second term.
The 16 governors and three governors-elect who gathered for their annual conference in Los Angeles this past weekend welcomed areas of compromise they can find with a Trump White House, but they’re already planning which fights to pick and are considering how they’ll proceed.
Many of the governors at the conference were elected during the blue wave in 2018 and have experience working with a Trump White House, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We were able to find ways,” said Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly, who was one of these governors and serves as the chair of the Democratic Governors Association. “We really took a positive approach to it, and this time around, I think we’ll end up doing the same thing, because really, we have no idea what’s coming down. So, we’ll evaluate it as it comes to us.”
Politically, Democratic governors are also primed to fill a leadership vacuum in the party in the coming years. Some potential 2028 presidential candidates have already been taking action.
In early December, California Gov. Gavin Newsom launched a special session to “safeguard California values” and bolster funds for legal defenses against potential federal actions on abortion, climate and immigration. A week after the election, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker partnered with Colorado Gov. Jared Polis to start the “Governors Safeguarding Democracy” group, a think tank to create a “toolbox” of policies and responses to Trump’s presidency.
“Anything that’s happening right now in Washington, states are gonna be the front line of defense on that,” said Democratic strategist Corey Platt, who was the DGA’s political director from 2013 to 2018. “There’s always a disconnect from voters to D.C. Folks are always angry at D.C., and yet, states have to make things work every day.”
No “perfect answer” for 2024 losses
Still fresh in the minds of these governors were the party’s widespread losses in the 2024 election. North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein’s victory in the governor’s race was an electoral bright spot for Democrats in the battleground state, where Vice President Kamala Harris lost by 3 points.
He said he didn’t “have a perfect answer” on why he won (though his scandal-plagued GOP opponent helped give him an advantage) and Harris lost. Stein blamed a “tough national environment,” but noted that his state often splits their ticket: in seven of the last nine presidential elections, North Carolina has voted for a Republican for president and a Democrat for governor.
“People were definitely anxious economically, because they were seeing and feeling price increases,” he said. “Typically, when you’re unhappy, you blame the party that’s in control of the White House. Even if it’s not nationally their fault.”
New Jersey and Virginia, a potential flip opportunity for Democrats, have off-year gubernatorial elections in 2025. The 2026 map is vast, with 36 states electing governors. Several of those states, such as Georgia, Nevada and New Hampshire, could be targeted pickups for the party. Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear will be taking over as DGA Chair in 2026.
“Lifting up as many people as we can that are running on these common sense, common ground areas that people care about the most, will also create that critical mass for people to say the Democratic Party is for working people,” said Beshear, the rare Democratic governor who has won in a Republican state.
Platt, a former DGA political director, agreed that the 2026 gubernatorial races can help find “the good surrogate for Democratic policy and Democratic ideas that has empathy, that folks can understand.” He added that while a large number of governors are going to be “in that conversation” as the party recalibrates, it won’t just be them.
“We’re gonna need leaders that can speak to real people,” he said. “It doesn’t happen because of a poll. It doesn’t happen because of a tactic. It’s real and authentic, and I’m excited to see how that happens.”
Courtney Alexander, communications director for the Republican Governors Association, opposes potential attempts by Democratic governors to counter the incoming Trump administration.
“The fact that Americans resoundingly rejected the Democratic Party agenda just one month ago, and yet Democrats continue to believe running against an agenda of lower costs, more safety, and more freedom is their winning message shows just how wholly out of touch they are with the country,” Alexander told CBS News.
Trump’s mass deportation plan
Some governors are laying the groundwork to counter Trump’s plans for mass deportations of undocumented immigrants.
Trump said in an interview with NBC News’ “Meet the Press” that deporting undocumented migrants who are convicted criminals is the first priority in his mass deportation plan, but other, nonviolent undocumented migrants may also be subject to removal.
“I think you have to do it, and it’s a hard — it’s a very tough thing to do. But you have to have, you know, you have rules, regulations, laws. They came in illegally,” Trump said.
New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham said while she’d accept federal assistance to help locate and deport undocumented migrants who are convicted criminals, there would be “zero way” she’d cooperate with a broader mass deportation plan.
She noted her control over the state police force, said she wouldn’t grant licenses for physical detentions, and said providing the federal government private information about undocumented residents would endanger transgender residents or women who travel from states with abortion bans.
“I don’t doubt that he will make every effort,” Lujan Grisham said about Trump and his mass deportation plan. “He’s going to have trouble executing that. But I also am not Pollyanna about how serious [he is]…. I take him at his word, which is why I know what I must do and will do. And let’s see if my strategy works the way that I think it will across the country.”
Kelly said she would not permit the Kansas National Guard “to perform that kind of service” and said it’s not the job of the Kansas State Police either.
“No doubt, if there are things they push us to do that we think are wrong or illegal, we’ll draw the line,” said Kelly.
Stein, who will be taking office as North Carolina governor in January, said the mass deportation of all undocumented migrants in his state “would create real economic challenges,” but he has doubts about how likely it is that the mass deportations will be implemented.
“[Trump] is a master of saying something and creating a great deal of noise, and then the reality may be different. I’m going to wait to see exactly what it is he ultimately proposes,” Stein said.
CBS News
Americans are paying more than ever for health insurance. Denials add to their pain.
Health insurance costs are far outpacing inflation, leaving more consumers on the hook each year for thousands of dollars in out-of-pocket expenses. At the same time, some insurers are rejecting nearly 1 in 5 claims. That double whammy is leaving Americans paying more for coverage yet sometimes feeling like they’re getting less in return, experts say.
Frustration over denials and medical costs has fueled an outpouring of vitriol against health insurance companies in the wake of the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. Also last week, a similar outcry led Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield to reverse a decision to limit anesthesia coverage during surgeries.
The anger may be rooted in fears that unexpected medical costs could prove financially ruinous, as well as concerns that essential care could be denied by an insurance company, putting health and well-being at risk even for those who have health insurance.
Some of those anxieties are well-founded: The top cause of bankruptcy in the U.S. is health care-related debt, underscoring the financial stresses that can stem from high medical costs.
In fact, most adults say they worry about their ability to pay for health care services or unexpected medical bills, a sentiment shared by people regardless of whether they’re financially comfortable or struggling, a KFF survey found earlier this year.
In 2024, the average health insurance premium for families carried a price tag of $25,572 per year, while single workers paid an average of $8,951, representing a 6% and 7% increase from the year earlier, KFF data shows. Since 2000, the rise in health insurance premiums has outpaced inflation for all but a handful of years, the health policy research firm found.
“Unhappiness with insurers stems from two things: ‘I’m sick and I’m getting hassled,’ and the second is very much cost — ‘I’m paying more than I used to, and I’m paying more than my wages went up’,” said Rob Andrews, CEO of the Health Transformation Alliance, a cooperative representing major companies such as American Express and Coca-Cola that works on improving health insurance for their employees. “A lot of people think they are getting less” from their insurers, Andrews said.
And while Americans have unhappily encountered other types of inflation in recent years — sky-high grocery prices have been credited with helping President-elect Donald Trump claim victory last month — health insurance can take on an even more personal edge, Thomas pointed out.
“It’s not like, ‘How much do I have to pay for a lawn chair or a steak,'” Andrews noted. “People are sick or having some sort of health problem they are worried about.”
To be sure, people with employer-sponsored health insurance typically don’t pay the full premium, as their employers pick up much of the tab.
Yet KFF data shows that employees’ share of their premiums are also on the rise, with a worker with family coverage typically paying premiums of $5,700 per year in 2017, the most recent year for that data, up from about $1,600 in 2000, KFF data shows. The average family deductible — the amount paid out-of-pocket before insurance kicks in — has increased from $2,500 in 2013 to $3,700 in 2023, according to KFF.
About 81% of Americans last year said they were dissatisfied with the cost of health care in the U.S, a 16-year high, Gallup polling found.
“We’ve gotten to a point where health care is so inaccessible and unaffordable, people are justified in their frustrations,” Dr. Céline Gounder, CBS News medical contributor and editor-at-large for public health at KFF Health News, told CBS Mornings on Friday.
Health insurance denials
Aside from rising health insurance costs, Americans are also expressing anger at coverage denials, which a KFF analysis of nongroup qualified health plans in 2021 found impacted almost 1 in 5 claims. However, their study found denial rates varied considerably by insurer, with some as low as 2% while others were as high as 49%.
“When you are paying for something, and then they don’t give it to you and they keep raising prices, of course you will be frustrated by that,” noted Holden Karau, a software engineer who created a free service called Fight Health Insurance to help people appeal their denials.
Karau says she came up with the app, which uses AI to craft appeal letters, after her own and her dog’s experience with insurance. Her pet insurer initially refused to pay for anesthesia for her dog’s root canal, while Karau, who is transgender, said she dealt with many appeals to get her own procedures and surgeries covered by her insurance.
More insurance companies are using AI to review claims and issue denials, which isn’t always obvious to consumers. The shift to AI-based reviews has sparked lawsuits against insurers, with UnitedHealthcare sued last year by the families of two now-deceased customers who alleged the insurer knowingly used a faulty algorithm to deny elderly patients coverage for extended care deemed necessary by their doctors.
“With AI tools on the insurance side, they have very little negative consequences for denying procedures,” Karau added. “We are seeing really high denial rates triggered by AI. And on the patient and provider side, they don’t have the tools to fight back.”
Most people may not be aware that they have the right to appeal a denial, Karau noted. The majority of people who are hit with a denial or billing errors don’t contest, a study found earlier this year. For those that do, a first appeal will be dealt with by the insurer, but if that in-house appeal is also denied, you have the right to ask for an independent reviewer to look at your claim, according to the National Association of Insurance Commissioners.
“There are multiple levels of appeal, and in my experience, I would say it’s important to appeal until you at least get to an independent reviewer,” Karau said. “If you don’t appeal, you won’t get the care you need.”