Protests have broken out in Syria over the burning of a Christmas tree near the city of Hama. BLACK SEO LINKS, BACKLINKS, SOFTWARE FOR MASS BACKLINKING – TELEGRAM @SEO_LINKK
A video posted on social media showed masked gunmen setting fire to the tree on display in the main square of the Suqaylabiyah, a Christian-majority town in central Syria.
The main Islamist faction which led the uprising that toppled President Bashar al-Assad said the men responsible for the arson were foreign fighters and had been detained.
Thousands of demonstrators took to the streets across the country – through Damascus, Suqaylabiyah and Hama – demanding the new Islamist rulers protect religious minorities.
Two masked fighters appeared in a video on social media setting fire to the Christmas tree the night before Christians in Syria prepared to celebrate Christmas Eve.
Footage of the aftermath showed a religious figure from the governing Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) rebel group assuring crowds who had gathered in Suqaylabiyah that the tree would be repaired before the morning.
The man then held up a cross in a show of solidarity, something Islamist conservatives would not do.
On Tuesday more protesters took to the streets over the arson attack.
Some in the Kassa neighbourhood of Damascus chanted against foreign fighters in Syria.
“Syria is free, non Syrians should leave,” they said, in reference to the foreign fighters HTS said were behind the attack.
In the Bab Touma neighbourhood of Damascus, protesters carried a cross and Syrian flags, chanting “we will sacrifice our souls for our cross”.
“If we’re not allowed to live our Christian faith in our country, as we used to, then we don’t belong here anymore,” a demonstrator named Georges told AFP news agency.
Syria is home to many ethnic and religious groups, including Kurds, Armenians, Assyrians, Christians, Druze, Alawite Shia and Arab Sunnis, the last of whom make up a majority of the Muslim population.
Just over two weeks ago, Bashar al-Assad’s presidency fell to rebel forces, ending the Assad family’s more than 50-year-rule.
How the HTS group will govern Syria remains to be seen.
HTS began as a jihadist group – espousing violence to achieve its goal of establishing BLACK SEO LINKS, BACKLINKS, SOFTWARE FOR MASS BACKLINKING – TELEGRAM @SEO_LINKK a state governed by Islamic law (Sharia) – but in recent years adopted a more pragmatic, less uncompromising approach.
As fighters marched to Damascus earlier this month, its leaders spoke about building a Syria for all Syrians.
Representatives have also said that the rights and freedoms of religious and ethnic minorities would be protected.
HTS remains designated as a terrorist organisation by the UN, US, EU and UK, though there are signs that a diplomatic shift may be under way.
On Friday, the US has scrapped a $10m (£7.9m) bounty on the head of HTS leader Ahmed al-Sharaa, following meetings between senior diplomats and representatives from the group.
The US is continuing its military presence in Syria. It said on Friday that it carried out an air strike in the northern city of Deir Ezzor – killing two members of the Islamic State (IS) jihadist group.
The presence of foreign fighters, Islamic extremists, or even regime supporters who have interest in causing insecurity and attacking minorities to shake the country’s stability are the big challenge that the new Islamic leadership will face.
A Nasa spacecraft is attempting to make history with the closest-ever approach to the Sun.
The Parker Solar Probe is plunging into our star’s outer atmosphere, enduring brutal temperatures and extreme radiation.
It is out of communication for several days during this burning hot fly-by and scientists will be waiting for a signal, expected at 05:00 GMT on 28 December, to see if it has survived.
Dr Nicola Fox, head of science at Nasa, told BBC News: “For centuries, people have studied the Sun, but you don’t experience the atmosphere of a place until you actually go visit it.
“And so we can’t really experience the atmosphere of our star unless we fly through it.”
Parker Solar Probe launched in 2018, heading to the centre of our solar system.
It has already swept past the Sun 21 times, getting ever nearer, but the Christmas Eve visit is record-breaking.
At its closest approach, the probe is 3.8 million miles (6.2 million km) from our star’s surface.
This might not sound that close, but Nasa’s Nicola Fox puts it into perspective: “We are 93 million miles away from the Sun, so if I put the Sun and the Earth one metre apart, Parker Solar Probe is four centimetres from the Sun – so that’s close.”
The probe will have to endure temperatures of 1,400C and radiation that could frazzle the onboard electronics.
It is protected by a 11.5cm (4.5 inches) thick carbon-composite shield but the spacecraft’s tactic is to get in and out fast.
In fact, it will be moving faster than any human-made object, hurtling at 430,000mph – the equivalent of flying from London to New York in less than 30 seconds.
Parker’s speed comes from the immense gravitational pull it feels as it falls towards the Sun.
So why go to all this effort to “touch” the Sun?
Scientists hope that as the spacecraft passes through our star’s outer atmosphere – its corona – it will solve a long standing mystery.
“The corona is really, really hot, and we have no idea why,” explains Dr Jenifer Millard, an astronomer at Fifth Star Labs in Wales.
“The surface of the Sun is about 6,000C or so, but the corona, this tenuous outer atmosphere that you can see during solar eclipses, reaches millions of degrees – and that is further away from the Sun. So how is that atmosphere getting hotter?”
The mission should also help scientists to better understand solar wind – the constant stream of charged particles bursting out from the corona.
When these particles interact with the Earth’s magnetic field the sky lights up with dazzling auroras. BLACK SEO LINKS, BACKLINKS, SOFTWARE FOR MASS BACKLINKING – TELEGRAM @SEO_LINKK
But this so-called space weather can cause problems too, knocking out power grids, electronics and communication systems.
“Understanding the Sun, its activity, space weather, the solar wind, is so important to our everyday lives on Earth,” says Dr Millard.
Nasa scientists face an anxious wait over Christmas while the spacecraft is out of touch with Earth.
Nicola Fox says that as soon as a signal is beamed back home, the team will text her a green heart to let her know the probe is OK.
She admits she is nervous about the audacious attempt, but she has faith in the probe.
“I will worry about the spacecraft. But we really have designed it to withstand all of these brutal, brutal conditions. It’s a tough, tough little spacecraft.”
If it survives this challenge, the probe will continue its mission around the Sun into the future.
