Donald Trump’s pick to oversee 18 intelligence agencies with a $100 billion spy budget is facing renewed scrutiny over an unannounced trip to Syria in 2017 where she met with the now-deposed dictator twice.

Qatar's Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani will visit Damascus on Thursday, Qatar's Al Jazeera reported, as Syria's new interim government begins a political transition after Islamist rebels ousted the Assad regime last year.

Tulsi Gabbard, President Trump's nominee to serve as the director of national intelligence, will testify Thursday morning at a confirmation hearing before the Senate Intelligence Committee. The 43-year-old former Democratic congresswoman from Hawaii and combat veteran would oversee the nation's 18 spy agencies.

Weeping, Fairuz Shalish grasps the red earth at an unmarked grave in Syria that she believes may hold her son, one of tens of thousands of people who vanished under ousted president Bashar al-Assad.Thousands poured out of the country's web of prisons in the final days of Assad's rule and after Islamist-led rebels toppled him on December 8.

Syrian leader al-Sharaa reportedly also demands reparations as Moscow delegation seeks to secure strategic power bases.

Russia deployed troops to Syria in 2015 to support Assad regime's brutal crackdown against anti-government forces.

Sharaa, who took the helm after Bashar al-Assad's ouster last month, has been appointed interim president and tasked with forming a transitional legislature, state media reported.A rebel alliance led by Sharaa's Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) ousted Assad on December 8 after a lightning offensive,

Former rebel commander also declares himself president after weeks of de facto rule.

Al-Sharaa is not willing to continue cooperation with Moscow without 'concrete measures such as compensation, reconstruction, and recovery' after years of support for the Assad regime

The Muhajireen presidential palace in central Damascus, one of the Syrian capital's most beautiful architectural landmarks, bears few scars from the looting that took place in December 2024 as the end of Bashar Al Assad's regime loomed.

Sharaa, was declared head of state for a transitional phase and empowered to form a new legislative council on Wednesday, in an announcement by the armed groups that toppled Bashar al-Assad. Syria's constitution was also suspended and the existing parliament dissolved,