Syrian Court Sentences Bashar al-Assad to Death in Absentia

This is the evening edition of the One News Page Global Briefing, for Tuesday, the eleventh of August, twenty twenty-six. Here is what matters now.

A Syrian court has sentenced former president Bashar al-Assad to death in absentia for crimes against humanity and war crimes committed during the country's fourteen-year civil war. His brother Maher al-Assad was also sentenced to death in absentia, while their cousin Atef Najib, who appeared in the courtroom inside a cage, was found guilty of leading the twenty eleven Daraa crackdown that helped spark the conflict. The verdicts mark the first judicial outcome against Bashar al-Assad since he fled to Moscow in twenty twenty-four after being ousted by rebel forces. The civil war has left about five hundred thousand people dead.

Meanwhile, in the Middle East, Iran's newly appointed secretary of the Supreme National Security Council said the Strait of Hormuz will remain closed as long as the United States does not change its behavior and accept Tehran's conditions to end the war. A spokesman for the Iranian Foreign Ministry said talks with Oman on shipping routes were separate from discussions to fully reopen the waterway. President Donald Trump responded by instructing his representatives to demand compensation from Iran.

In the United Kingdom, health authorities have issued amber heat-health alerts for almost all of England as temperatures are forecast to reach 36C to 38C this week. The alerts will remain in place until Friday evening, covering high and potentially extreme temperatures. The Met Office said only average conditions are needed for the remainder of August for summer twenty twenty-six to become the United Kingdom's hottest on record, surpassing the record set just last year. Experts warned of adverse health effects and possible disruption to travel and power generation, while drought has been declared across most of England.

Elsewhere, Russia has released Robert Gilman, a former U S Marine who had been imprisoned for more than four years. Gilman was arrested in twenty twenty-two and accused of assaulting a police officer following an incident on a train in Voronezh, south of Moscow. President Donald Trump said the Kremlin released Gilman on a humanitarian basis. Gilman's family and an advocacy group had said he was in dire physical condition.

In England, Clifford Wilby, sixty-three, has been found guilty of harassing Labour M P Stella Creasy for an incident that took place on a Victoria line train in July twenty twenty-five. Westminster Magistrates' Court heard he was abusive and aggressive, blocked the Walthamstow M P from leaving, filmed her and talked about her "failings as a member of parliament."

In sport, U S President Donald Trump has warned F I F A it would be a "terrible mistake" to remove Gianni Infantino as president of world football's governing body. In a Truth Social post, Trump called Infantino "fantastic" and predicted financial doom if he were ousted. Infantino has been under pressure following his abandoned plan to sell stakes in the men's World Cup to private investors.

In entertainment news, Lucy Davis, best known for playing Dawn Tinsley in The Office, has said she has incurable stage four breast cancer. The fifty-three-year-old said she was diagnosed a year and a half ago and the disease has metastasised to her bones, including her spine, right hip and ribs. She said it is too late for chemotherapy.

In the United States, four leading U S human rights organizations have sued the Trump administration over its sanctions campaign against the International Criminal Court, calling the effort unconstitutional. The lawsuit, filed in federal court, challenges an executive order targeting the I C C for its investigation of Israeli crimes in Palestine. The groups accuse the administration of using crippling sanctions to undermine global efforts to prosecute war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Back in the U K, Prime Minister Andy Burnham has asked the justice secretary to find a way to exclude two of P C Andrew Harper's killers from an early release scheme aimed at easing prison overcrowding. The scheme is due to take effect in October. Burnham is said to be determined to find a solution amid increasing pressure from Harper's family and police. None of the available options is quick or easy, and some carry political risk.

In Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia used North Korean ballistic missiles in strikes on Zaporizhzhia that killed at least six people and injured nineteen. Zelensky has repeatedly raised alarms over deepening military ties between Moscow and Pyongyang while appealing for more Western air-defence supplies.

Also in the U K, Abdul Nabizada, a former translator for the British Army in Afghanistan who became a taxi driver after arriving in Scotland, has been jailed for seven years for raping a female passenger. He attacked the woman while driving her home from a night out.

That was the evening edition of the One News Page Global Briefing. Read the complete briefing and explore its supporting coverage at one news page dot com.