Syria's new rulers are forming a government after more than half a century of dictatorship under former leader Bashar al-Assad and his father.

Syrian rebels have overturned one of the oldest dictatorships in the world. It has been a long struggle, including more than a decade of civil war. But it all began in 2011, during the Arab Spring.

NPR's Jane Arraf has just crossed over the Jordanian border into Syria, and she is with us now. Jane, good morning. JANE ARRAF, BYLINE: Good morning, Michel. MARTIN: So I understand that you've ...

NPR's Michel Martin talks to Russian historian Sergey Radchenko about what happens to Russia's sphere of influence in the Middle East with Assad gone.

Federal government faces shutdown after stop-gap funding bill fails in the House, fighting rages in eastern Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk, Syria forming a new government after fall of Assad regime.

NPR's Leila Fadel speaks with Stephen Rapp, a former U.S. ambassador-at-large for war crimes issues, on his trip to Syria to help preserve evidence from mass graves.

Greenfield, the outgoing U.S. ambassador to the U.N., about her career in foreign service and American diplomacy.

NPR's Michel Martin talks to retired Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, who served on the National Security Council, about the bomb attack on a Moscow street, outside a residential building.

Stories from men conscripted into the Syrian military help explain why it collapsed. Leila Fadel is a national correspondent for NPR based in Los Angeles, covering issues of culture, diversity, and race.

Syria's military said it had carried out a "temporary troop withdrawal" in Aleppo to prepare for a counteroffensive against "terrorists". And it admitted insurgents had entered large parts of the ...

Palestinians are confronting painful new information about a man many had viewed as a defender of their rights, the ousted Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad. Now they're seeing new stories about the atrocities Assad carried out against his own people. NPR's Michele Kelemen has this report.

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