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UND falls at Illinois State to lose a fifth-straight game for the first time since 1986WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden said Sunday that the sudden collapse of the Syrian government under Bashar Assad is a “fundamental act of justice” after decades of repression, but it was “a moment of risk and uncertainty” for the Mideast. Speaking at the White House, Biden said the U.S. was not sure of Assad’s whereabouts, but was monitoring reports he was seeking refuge in Moscow. Biden credited action by the U.S. and its allies for weakening Syria’s backers — Russia, Iran and Hezbollah. He said “for the first time” that they could no longer defend Assad’s grip on power. “Our approach has shifted the balance of power in the Middle East,” Biden said. THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below. WASHINGTON (AP) — The sudden collapse of the Syrian government under Bashar Assad is forcing the Biden administration and the incoming Trump team to confront intensifying questions about the possibility of greater conflicts across the Middle East. President-elect Donald Trump said Sunday that Assad had fled his country, which his family had ruled for decades , because close ally Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, “was not interested in protecting him any longer.” Those comments on Trump’s social media platform came a day after he used another post to decry the possibility of the U.S. intervening militarily in Syria to aid the rebels, declaring, “THIS IS NOT OUR FIGHT.” The Biden administration had no intention of intervening, according to President Joe Biden’s national security adviser. Biden was meeting with his national security team at the White House on Sunday. He was expected to make public comments later in the day. The U.S has about 900 troops in Syria, including forces working with Kurdish allies in the opposition-held northeast to prevent any resurgence of the Islamic State group. Assad’s fall adds to an already tense situation throughout much of region on many fronts, including Israel’s war with Hamas in Gaza and its fragile cease-fire with Hezbollah in Lebanon. Trump, who takes office Jan. 20, 2025, made a connection between the upheaval in Syria and Russia’s war in Ukraine , noting that Assad’s allies in Moscow, as well as in Iran, the main sponsor of Hamas and Hezbollah, “are in a weakened state right now.” The Syrian opposition that brought down Assad is led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham . The Biden administration has designated the group as a terrorist organization and says it has links to al-Qaida, although Hayat Tahrir al-Sham says it has since broken ties with al-Qaida. Vice President-elect JD Vance , a veteran of the U.S.-led war in Iraq, wrote on own social media Sunday to express skepticism about the insurgents. “Many of ‘the rebels’ are a literal offshoot of ISIS. One can hope they’ve moderated. Time will tell,” he said, using another acronym for the group. Trump has suggested that Assad’s ouster can advance the prospects for an end to fighting in Ukraine, which was invaded by Russia in February 2022. Trump wrote that Putin’s government “lost all interest in Syria because of Ukraine” and the Republican called for an immediate cease-fire, a day after meeting in Paris with the French and Ukrainian leaders . Daniel B. Shapiro, a deputy assistant secretary of defense for the Middle East, said the American military presence will continue in eastern Syria but was “solely to ensure the enduring defeat of ISIS and has nothing to do with other aspects of this conflict.” “We call on all parties in Syria to protect civilians, particularly those from Syria’s minority communities to respect international military norms and to work to achieve a resolution to include the political settlement,” Shapiro said. “Multiple actors in this conflict have a terrible track record to include Assad’s horrific crimes, Russia’s indiscriminate aerial bomb bombardment, Iranian-back militia involvement and the atrocities of ISIS,” he added. Shapiro, however, was careful not to directly say Assad had been deposed by the insurgents. “If confirmed, no one should shed any tears over the Assad regime,” he said. As they pushed toward the Syrian capital of Damascus, the opposition freed political detainees from government prisons. The family of missing U.S. journalist Austin Tice renewed calls to find him. “To everyone in Syria that hears this, please remind people that we’re waiting for Austin,” Tice’s mother, Debra, said in comments that hostage advocacy groups spread on social media. “We know that when he comes out, he’s going to be fairly dazed & he’s going to need lots of care & direction. Direct him to his family please!” Tice disappeared in 2012 outside Damascus, amid intensification of what became a civil war stretching more than a decade. ___ Associated Press writer Jon Gambrell in Manama, Bahrain, contributed to this report. Will Weissert, The Associated Press

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The French 75 made quite the impact when it was first introduced, to say the least. I don’t mean the cocktail, I mean the cannon. Before gin and Champagne ever got involved, the French 75, officially “Matériel de 75 mm Mle 1897,” was a 2,700-lb field gun rolled out by the French to fight WWI. It was a closely guarded secret for years, a huge leap forward in artillery technology, capable of hitting a target six miles away with a 13.7-lb shell, and—because of a newly invented hydro-pneumatic recoil mechanism—it could do so 15 times a minute, a combination of accuracy and speed which was at the time completely unheard-of. The weapon became internationally famous among soldiers and civilians alike, and the people of France took it as a point of national pride that the French 75 was the gun that helped seal victory. “This drink is really what won the War for the Allies,” joked , an amusing little cocktail book from 1927 in which the French 75 (the drink) first appears. The weapon had been claimed as the namesake of other cocktails as early as 1915, but the recipe is the one that stuck, and after it was reprinted in Harry Craddock’s famous in 1930 it was as good as law: gin, lemon, sugar and Champagne. Craddock, ever laconic, added by way of etymology just four words: “Hits with remarkable precision.” Made as it originally was—which is to say, a full-strength cocktail into which was mixed a half glass of wine—the French 75 certainly had the firepower to earn its name. These days it’s been appropriated by the brunching set, and the proof in most recipes has been brought down to terrestrial levels. At its best, the French 75 is a bright and charming drink, a crowd pleaser of the highest order, with the kind of protean simplicity that both encourages and rewards experimentation. It is so deeply associated with celebrations that it’s practically intrinsic (just to drink them is, in and of itself, a celebration) and in my personal opinion, is an entire order of magnitude more sophisticated than the cloying obsequiousness of Mimosas. Never mind that through random historical accident the most elegant and well-known sparkling wine cocktail of all time is named after a machined steel anti-personnel cannon from WWI. These things happen sometimes. The recipe has seen some tweaking in the last 90 or so years, and there are three versions worth talking about: 1 oz. London Dry Gin (I use Beefeater) 0.5 oz. lemon juice 0.5 oz. simple syrup (1:1) 3 oz. Champagne Using actual, real here is the quickest and best way to make this drink as good as it can be. Made as above, this is very much a cocktail defined by the sparkling wine (especially as it warms), and Champagne has the depth, power and grace to handle that responsibility. It’s not important what kind of Champagne, there are enough rules in that part of the world that if the bottle says “Champagne,” it’ll be great. Also an option here is a very high-quality Cava or Franciacorta, as long as they’re made in the traditional method and have seen sufficient bottle conditioning. 1 oz. London Dry Gin (I use Beefeater) 0.75 oz. lemon juice 0.75 oz. simple syrup (1:1) 3 oz. sparkling wine While pretty much all modern French 75s come in flutes, both the original and the recipes call for the cocktail to be served in a tall glass, on ice, making this a Tom Collins with sparkling wine instead of soda water. In fact, of the 14 examples of the French 75 I could find in cocktail books from 1927 to 1977 and one in 2002, all but three of them call for the cocktail to be served on ice in a tall glass (the cocktail in flute, it seems, was a product of the ’80s and ’90s, much the same way that era saw everything appended with -tini and poured into a stemmed cone). Ice adds dilution, keeps it ice cold and reduces effervescence, but what it really does is reduce the focus on the sparkling wine. It levels the playing field—while it is obviously still great with Champagne, it’s also exceptional with much more affordable Cava or . 1 oz. VS or VSOP Cognac (I use Pierre Ferrand 1840) 0.75 oz. lemon juice 0.5 oz. simple syrup (1:1) 3 oz. Champagne Though it is very much a gin drink, many modern recipes for the French 75 call for “gin or cognac.” As best I can tell, cognac’s little coup traces back to a 1948 cocktail book called by a rather opinionated tax attorney named David Embury, who’d never tended bar professionally a day in his life, but who nonetheless wrote a book about it. “Gin is sometimes used in place of cognac in this drink,” he writes, “but then, of course, it no longer should be called French.” Whether by skill or by luck, his facile observation led to a wonderful variation of the drink (truth be told, it’s not hard to come up with great variations here, but the Cognac really is good). It’s got a richness and depth that, even in a , shares focus with the bubbles, and coaxes out all the wonderful stone fruit and mineral qualities you maybe didn’t even know your Cognac had in it. This is the house version at the aptly named Arnaud’s French 75 bar in New Orleans, and for good reason: it’s delicious. Note here that Cognac can have a little sweetness in it so I upped the citrus a touch—if you find that a little too lean, feel free to reduce the lemon juice to 0.5 oz. Sign up for . For the latest news, follow us on , , and .Understanding the science behind Hinton and Hopfield’s Nobel Prize in physicsAHL Glance

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