Explosions were heard in Damascus, Syria, Israeli media reported on Sunday, citing Syrian media outlets.
Some of the sources attributed the explosions to an Israeli attack.
This is a developing story.
By subscribing I accept the terms of use and privacy policy
Syracuse, N.Y. — Every week, syracuse.com will spotlight some of the best images from the high school winter sports season.
Click the link below each image for a full photo gallery from the event.
For free photo downloads, be sure to subscribe.
If you purchase a product or register for an account through a link on our site, we may receive compensation. By using this site, you consent to our User Agreement and agree that your clicks, interactions, and personal information may be collected, recorded, and/or stored by us and social media and other third-party partners in accordance with our Privacy Policy.
Use of and/or registration on any portion of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement, (updated 8/1/2024) and acknowledgement of our Privacy Policy, and Your Privacy Choices and Rights (updated 1/1/2025).
© 2025 Advance Local Media LLC. All rights reserved (About Us).
The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Advance Local.
Community Rules apply to all content you upload or otherwise submit to this site.
YouTube's privacy policy is available here and YouTube's terms of service is available here.
Ad Choices
Amid countless Glenn Close memes, Lee Daniels pulls back the curtains on his controversial Netflix film “The Deliverance.”
Award-winning director and producer Lee Daniels has added a new genre to his catalog with the release of “The Deliverance.” Trying his hand at a suspenseful horror film, Daniels’ new Netflix film reimagines the true story of Latoya Ammons, who claimed her three children became possessed by a demonic spirit while living in Gary, Indiana, in 2011. Known as the “Demon House” case, Daniels admits that he initially “steered away” from the film for spiritual reasons.
“I know the spirit works through me. So what kind of spirits do I want on me? So I was just like, ‘No, I’m not [going to do it],’” Daniels told The Hollywood Reporter, explaining how Ammons’ story sat with him forever. “We had never seen this story, through this lens of this African-American woman, onscreen, and I just felt we’re in such dark times, and I don’t think people really know how dark of times we are in. And I felt like I needed to get reconnected to my higher power.”
In addition to impacting his decision to make the film, the “Precious” director’s spirituality also motivated a series of decisions made within the film and its set. Understanding the history of strange incidences occurring during the production of horror films, Daniels reportedly had a deliverer on set the entire time to not only guide the cast but also to “protect [the cast and crew] from the set.” After his mother additionally warned of the spiritual implications of recreating the story, the director revealed that he and the cast and crew prayed every day.
“Listen, I read those books about the making of “Poltergeist” and the making of “The Exorcist.” And I’m like, ‘Nope, not today, Satan. Ain’t happening today up in this motherf***.’ So we prayed every day,” Daniels said, per Variety. “We figured out a system where I could say, “I don’t mean to be offensive, but for those of us that aren’t into prayer, feel free to leave the set.” And there were a few people that did, but most people, most of the 200 or so crew [members] knew that they wanted to be protected.”
Haniyah Philogene
Panama Jackson
Mariel Turner
Mariel Turner
Mariel Turner
Haniyah Philogene
Rev. Dr. Alisha Lola Jones and Rev. Calvin Taylor Skinner
Rev. Dr. Alisha Lola Jones and Rev. Calvin Taylor Skinner
The director’s spiritual journey also impacted some of his casting choices. As previously reported by theGrio, Daniels’ new Netflix film marks his second project with actress Mo’Nique after their public fallout in 2009.
“[I learned] that I had to forgive and I had to show forgiveness. I had to apologize. And not only apologize but apologize publicly. And not only apologize publicly but say, ‘Hey girl, let’s hit it again.’ But not only, ‘let’s hit it again,’ but let me put you in something that’s the complete opposite of what it is that you did [in ‘Precious’],” he told theGrio. “I get emotional even talking about it now, because it was a reunion with my sister that I can’t even talk about. It felt cozy. It felt like, ‘I’m never going to let [a feud] happen again.’”
The film also stars Andra Day, who Daniels worked with on “The United States vs. Billie Holiday,” Caleb McLaughlin, and, controversially, Glenn Close. The 77-year-old Oscar nominee’s role as Alberta, a white woman with a biracial Black daughter and Black grandchildren, sparked controversy and endless memes on social media.
“Every Black person knows an Alberta. She’s part of the fabric of our community, but we’ve never seen her on screen before. Thank you Glenn for bringing her magnificently to life,” Daniels wrote on X, defending his casting choice.
However, many viewers were not fans of Close’s inclusion in the film, particularly as the real-life Alberta was an unambiguously Black woman.
“This n*** added a white woman to a true story that did not involve a white woman, then said it’s because white women like her are part of the FABRIC OF THE BLACK COMMUNITY. He is objectively worse than Tyler Perry I’m sorry…he is like if Tyler Perry & Kenya Barris had a baby,” one user wrote.
Another added: “[T]here is literally NO scenario ever where a non-black person is the actual “fabric” of a black cultural community, literally ever…especially when black grandmothers and black matriarchs have been central within our community since the beginning.”
Despite the film’s critiques — and ongoing debate about Close’s character — Daniels seems to be enjoying some of Black Twitter’s response to it, laughing along with users on X. Ultimately, the director hopes “The Deliverance” motivates people spiritually.
“I’m here to scare you to your higher power,” he told theGrio. “For me, it’s Jesus. For [others], it could be Allah or Buddha, or whoever your higher power is. But to bring you to a higher spirituality, because I found myself not in a place of [a] spiritualist prior to this [film].”
More About:Film Entertainment
By TheGrio
By TheGrio
By TheGrio
By Chip Chick
By Chip Chick
By St. Johns Citizen
Weekly New Episodes
Stream Now
News Flash
DHAKA, Jan 5, 2025 (BSS) -Social Welfare Adviser Sharmeen Soneya Murshid today said that the relationship between Bangladesh and Algeria is very close and friendly.
"Bangladesh's relation with Algeria is very close and friendly. The relationship between the two countries will be closer in the coming days," she said when Algerian Ambassador to Bangladesh Dr Abdelouahab Saidani called on her at her office in the ministry here.
Sharmin, also women and children affairs adviser, said there are many opportunities to expand mutual cooperation between Bangladesh and Algeria in the economic and commercial fields.
During the meeting, the adviser and the ambassador discussed various issues of mutual interest between the two countries, said a press release of Social Welfare Ministry.
The envoy said that Algeria maintains bilateral relation with Bangladesh for more than fifty years.
He said that Bangladesh is currently passing a transition period.
He expressed deep sympathy to the martyrs and injured of the July uprising.
Managing Director and Chief Editor : Mahbub Morshed
Copyright © 2025 BSS. All Rights Reserved.
Copyright © 2025 BSS. All Rights Reserved.
Hundreds of Massachusetts motorists will no longer lose eligibility for commercial driver’s licenses after Gov. Maura Healey signed a new law Thursday preventing some decades-old offenses from counting against them.
The bill (H 5139) Healey signed exempts most passenger vehicle offenses committed before Sept. 30, 2005 from counting against commercial license eligibility, effectively mirroring a similar policy at the federal level.
The governor’s office said about 280 people who were facing disqualification will be sent letters starting Thursday informing them that they no longer need to worry due to the new law. Another 65 drivers will benefit from the law after they address other outstanding obligations, Healey’s office said.
Drivers with three or more operating under the influence convictions will be ineligible for commercial licenses.
State law previously disqualified drivers with certain infractions on their records from acquiring commercial licenses regardless of how old the incidents were. The Registry of Motor Vehicles over the summer informed nearly 500 drivers their licenses would be downgraded from commercial to passenger as a result, despite seemingly not fully enforcing the measure in the past.
In response to outrage over the maneuver, Healey instructed the RMV to craft new regulations allowing drivers to regain commercial eligibility after a 10-year disqualification period, and she also filed the bill that formed the new law to align state and federal eligibility timelines.
The RMV has already reversed disqualifications for about two dozen commercial drivers, according to Healey’s office.
“Our administration is committed to ensuring safety on our roads while also supporting the many hardworking Massachusetts residents who rely on Commercial Driver’s Licenses for their livelihoods,” Healey said in a statement. “The RMV will take immediate action to inform eligible drivers that their CDLs will not be disqualified and will continue updating its regulations to ensure that drivers who have served disqualifications for significant periods of time will have a pathway to reinstatement. We’re grateful to the Legislature for their expeditious review of this bill, which will save hundreds of jobs.”
Share
Disclosure: This article does not represent investment advice. The content and materials featured on this page are for educational purposes only.
Altcoin season looms as Bitcoin’s rally sparks capital inflows. XRP, Litecoin, and iDEGEN lead the top altcoins to watch.
Table of Contents
In case someone has been living under a rock, the altcoin season is about to break out. Bitcoin kicked off what could be the definitive altcoin season of the ages after hitting new all-time highs earlier in December, resulting in capital inflows spilling over into altcoins.
XRP and Litecoin, in particular, became some of the best altcoins to buy this month, with both tokens making substantial gains. Retail investors are following suit and looking for new altcoins to buy — and people can best believe everyone is sifting through stacks, looking for the best altcoins to invest in.
However, one new altcoin looks like it could quickly outperform the top 10 altcoins in terms of price appreciation potential in the form of iDEGEN, topping the list of our top 3 altcoins to buy in 2025. Here’s why.
Altcoins are a dime a dozen — but if those who are looking for the ones that can bring in substantial gains, these three choice cuts could make a nice addition to a portfolio ahead of 2025.
The term “revolutionary” is thrown around so much in crypto circles that the word has lost all meaning. If every new crypto is radical, what’s left? But every so often, one crypto befitting of the title comes around — and it’s right at the intersection of the extremely lucrative AI and meme coin narratives. Enter iDEGEN, a new AI agent conducting what could be a truly transforming social experiment.
iDEGEN was created with a blank slate and zero corporate guardrails and censorship to blunt its sophisticated large language model (LLM). iDEGEN publishes tweets, creates viral images (and soon videos) with its generative AI functionality, and responds to every single @ or mention.
Here’s the interesting part: it’s training its algorithms on the madness that is Crypto Twitter. Completely unfiltered and uncensored, iDEGEN is an exercise in the capability of AI without political correctness and woke culture — and it’s already gone viral with some of the most based and redpilled takes ever seen from an AI agent. Better yet, no one knows how far it can and will go.
More importantly, iDEGEN lays down a marker by taking a state-of-the-art AI directly to the masses instead of moderating it like a caffeinated tech exec. The early traction has already translated to $8.6m raised in its native token IDGN’s adaptively priced auction, where token prices are dictated solely by market forces. No VC shenanigans, no programmed increases, no vesting periods — just the invisible hand working its magic.
iDEGEN offers greater upside than other altcoins that have already peaked and are just chasing past glories that may never return. Still sitting at a low market cap and in its pre-market sale, iDEGEN is virtually programmed for a parabolic pump by sitting right at the forefront of meme coin virality and AI sophistication. Those who are looking for the best new altcoin to invest in ahead of 2025, only have one shot at iDEGEN before it hits exchanges.
XRP had long been underperforming relative to other altcoins that pumped all year long. However, XRP shed its laggard status by turning in upwards of 4x in the final quarter of 2024, outperforming the rest of its competition within the top 10 altcoins by market cap.
One of the key factors driving XRP buy-side pressure is the prospect of a pro-crypto administration taking over in January and putting the drawn-out SEC vs. XRP lawsuit to a conclusion. While no one expects XRP to go anywhere realistically further from 2x to 4x at most from its current prices, those gains are nothing to sneeze at for a big-cap altcoin.
Litecoin, in many ways, is a victim of its success. Forking from the original Bitcoin ledger in the Wild West days of crypto, Litecoin differentiated itself as a faster, more scalable version of Bitcoin suitable for online payments as the “silver” to Bitcoin’s “gold.” The trouble with investing in Litecoin as a speculative investment is its growth upside is limited by its widespread use.
If no one is holding Litecoin for speculation and instead uses it for online payments, there is little value to be extracted for long-term holders expecting gains. However, after a solid pump past the $100 range in December, Litecoin could, in theory, retest its 2021 all-time highs of $410 in 2025…which isn’t a bad return.
XRP and Litecoin are solid investments as far as high caps are concerned. But iDEGEN easily trumps them as far as a ceiling for price appreciation is concerned. iDEGEN has the tech, the narrative, and the community backing — not to mention it being a micro-cap.
For more information, visit the iDEGEN website.
Disclosure: This content is provided by a third party. crypto.news does not endorse any product mentioned on this page. Users must do their own research before taking any actions related to the company.
Read more about
Deep Dives
Social media is finally breaking free from the shackles of Big Tech | Opinion
From print to TikTok: PR perspectives on the end of media and influencers | Opinion
China continues to tighten crypto regulations. Do other countries take notes?
Crypto charts to watch for 2025: Bitcoin, Solana, and XRP
What does 2025 have in store for crypto and digital assets? | Opinion
Top five blockchain analytics trends for 2025 | Opinion
Is there a crypto thaw in Russia and why?
African crypto revolution continues as Ethiopia ranks among global BTC mining leaders
Top 5 reasons why Ethereum could take off in 2025
Cardano co-founder explores Delimited continuations: What does it mean for Cardano?
Related News
Shiba Inu and PEPE might have met their match with Dogen’s rising popularity
What a Trump presidency means for Ethereum, Ripple, and Lightchain AI crypto price
Top 4 altcoins to consider buying now: Dogecoin, Sui, XRP and Rollblock
Get crypto market analysis and curated news delivered right to your inbox every week.
You have successfully joined our subscriber list.
News
TV & Film
PlayStation
Xbox
Nintendo
PC
Reviews
News
TV & Film
PlayStation
Xbox
Nintendo
PC
Reviews
To make sure you never miss out on your favourite NEW stories, we're happy to send you some reminders
Click 'OK' then 'Allow' to enable notifications
Lewis Parker
There’s a super secret way to access the PlayStation 5’s in-built web browser, and Sony is doing everything in their power to stop people from doing so.
Over the years, there have been a few ways you could access the PlayStation 5’s browser, but all of these have slowly been patched out over the course of the console’s lifespan.
The most popular (and easiest) one just required you to access the Twitter app through your PS5, which you could then use to log in to your Twitter account and select literally any link posted through the app.
Advert
After that was patched out (following the removal of the Twitter app on PlayStation), people found another one by accessing the YouTube “link” page through the “Linked Services” tab. Apparently this one also doesn’t work any more either, but don’t worry – folks found another way.
Turns out, if you message a friend a link to a site through the PlayStation messaging feature… you can then just open that link and access the web browser that way.
Accept, wait, that’s also sort of been patched too. Users were messaging each other links to either Google or Bing, but these links are now being automatically blocked when sent through PlayStation messages.
Some bright spark on the r/playstation subreddit recently discovered a brand new workaround though: Wikipedia.
Advert
You see, if you send someone the link to a page on Wikipedia, Sony won’t block the link. From there, you can access the Bing Wikipedia page… because the Bing Wikipedia page has a link for the Bing search engine on it.
Then you can assumedly use Bing to search for Google, so you don’t actually have to use Bing.
I wouldn’t be surprised if Sony starts blocking Wikipedia links soon too, so keep an eye out for a brand-new exploit in the coming weeks.
Oh, hey, I wonder if you could just send your friends a link to this article instead? Here’s a link to Google for future testing.
Topics: PlayStation 5, PlayStation, Sony
Advert
Advert
Advert
Français 
English