You're listening to Non-Zero World.

I'm Andrew Day.

And I'm Connor Eccles.

Each week, we break down the latest developments in U.S. Forum Policy and other global news,

and we interview a leading expert or activist.

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So, Connor, in this week's issue of The Earthling, which is the weekend edition of the Non-Zero newsletter, which we co-author along with Bob, Robert Wright.

Our mediest and most topical item is definitely the one about the situation in Syria.

Earlier today, you and I interviewed Basam Barabandi, who was previously a Syrian diplomat,

but who has defected, I guess you could say, from the Assad regime. And now he's hoping

for a peaceful post-Assad future for his country. We're going to play that interview after our

news roundup. And the first news story we wanted to start with is indeed the one about the dramatic

turn of events in Syria. So, Connor, what's been going on there this past week? Yeah, so like you said,

Andrew, there has been a really remarkable turn of events in Syria this past week. After about

four years of a more or less completely frozen civil war, a pair of opposition groups, one controversial Islamist group and the other

loose coalition of militias affiliated with Turkey, mounted this really rapid offensive that in a matter

of days has managed to take several of Syria's largest cities in a row and now appears potentially like it

could lead to the actual fall of Bashar al-Assad's regime. Most notably, you know, as we're

talking right now, Friday morning, they rebel groups are approaching Humps, which would be the third major city that they would

capture and would be this major strategic point that kind of connects the southern part of

Syria with its Mediterranean coast. If they take that, the theory is that that's pretty much

it for the regime. You know, all of this has really

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