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Go to blackout coffee.com, promo code PDB, for 20% off your first-time purchase. It's Tuesday, It's I'm It's on the

I'm Mike Baker, your eyes and ears on the world stage.

Let's get briefed.

First, with Syrian rebel leadership,

naming a new interim prime minister in an attempt to avoid a dangerous power vacuum,

following their overthrow of the Assad regime, debate is raging in Washington, D.C. over whether

the Islamist rebel insurgents will break from their radical past. We'll discuss

the current debate over whether the West can trust Syria's new leaders. There's so much pontificating

and punditory happening right now in the West. Then, in the latest escalation from the South China Sea,

because of course that's what we needed right now, a bit of escalation.

The Chinese military has staged their largest show of force in decades in the waters around Taiwan, a likely message to the incoming Trump administration about the consequences of

intervention.

But first, our afternoon spotlight.

...