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It is time to lock in on baseball as the postseason is upon us. We have four games to enjoy today, with all the opening-round games kicking off. Fanatics Sportsbook is offering you an additional way to enjoy the games. New users can users promo code FOXNEWS350 to wager $20 on the Cubs vs. Padres and earn $350 in FanCash. The Cubs stumbled a bit before the end of the year. They owned the #1 spot in the Wild Card race for multiple months. September was a struggle with multiple bullpen collapses and failures from the starting lineup. They still ended with the second Wild Card spot, and now they are on the road instead of hosting a playoff series. Likely MVP Pete Crow-Armstrong should garner a lot of attention, and if he hits the way he did the rest of the season, it could be a difference-maker for the Cubs. The pitching staff has struggled, and the team needs to find a way to get four or five innings before turning the ball over to a shaky bullpen. The San Diego Padres were not very good for much of the season, but a great post-All-Star Break run put them in this position. Instead of stumbling like the Phillies and Cubs, the Padres surged and took with them the #1 Wild Card spot, earning the right to host this series. For the season, they ended with 91 wins.They were most successful at home with a 51-30 record, completely dominating opponents in San Diego. That means the Padres were essentially .500 on the road. That makes this a very important series for them to host. Fanatics Sportsbook is offering new users $350 in FanCash from a $20 bet on the Cubs vs. Padres game when using promo code FOXNEWS350. *Odds are subject to change* 

Ella Langley shared an inspiring message with her fans during her latest concert.During one of her recent performances in Columbus, Ohio, the 27-year-old singer opened up about the amount of criticism she’s received since her breakthrough in the industry, saying, “I don’t think I’ve ever had more opinions on myself in my life than I have in this last year.””The way I look. The way I speak. The way I dress. The way I move. The way I sing. The way I write,” she explained per a TikTok video. “At first it bothered me. I won’t even lie. At first I was like, what am I going to do about this? I don’t know, if this is what I’m signing up to do, I don’t know about this.”She went on to say that what she “signed up” for was to make music, but if this was going to continue for her entire career, she thought, “I don’t know if I’m strong enough for this, Lord.”ELLA LANGLEY TELLS FANS TO STOP MEASURING THEMSELVES AGAINST SOCIAL MEDIA IN VIRAL CONCERT VIDEOWhile it bothered her at first, Langley explained she began imagining that the critiques were being aimed at her younger self who put in the hard work to get her to where she is today, which put into perspective how strong she actually has had to be.”That’s the girl that rode in the 15-passenger van night after night after night. She rode in a Honda Accord night after night after night, chasing her dream, living on bar food, living on tip jar money. She didn’t have anything but a dream and the ability to get up and do it every single day. So I’m going to tell you right now, I am proud of that girl that everybody seems to be picking on a little bit,” she said.The singer recently went viral when a video of her turning down a fan who asked her out on a date following her concert in Knoxville, Tennessee.In the video, TikTok user Tiki is heard taking his chance to ask the singer out on a date, shouting through a fence in the parking lot, “Ella, how many likes to take you on a date?” She replied, “Not enough in the world,” as she frowned and looked away.GET ENTERTAINMENT SCOOP DELIVERED RIGHT TO YOUR EMAIL BY CLICKING HERELIKE WHAT YOU’RE READING? CLICK HERE FOR MORE ENTERTAINMENT NEWSSome fans in the comments section were not pleased with Langley’s reaction to the fan. “This rubbed me the wrong way. And I like her,” one fan wrote. Another asked, “Literally what is her problem?”Another added, “She could have laughed and said no in a whole different way.”Along with the online criticism comes career highs and record-breaking songs, as Langley’s hit song, “Choosin’ Texas,” has stayed at the top of the Billboard Hot 100 list for a historical 24 consecutive weeks.The previous record was held by Mariah Carey for her hit, “All I Want for Christmas Is You,” which spent topped the list for 22 cumulative weeks between 2019 and 2026.PUT YOUR ENTERTAINMENT KNOWLEDGE TO THE TEST AND SEE HOW YOU SCORE”I’m genuinely trying to find the words to help explain what’s going on in my brain today,” she said on Instagram last week. “What? I don’t know. Thank you so much. Thank you for loving this song, for listening to it. I feel like… I just don’t even know what to say at this point. I’m running out of hyperboles to describe how I feel, so I will just let my dog in the background show you his excitement,” she continued as her dog barked. Adding: “Just thank you. Thank you so much. It’s changing my life. It’s changing the lives of the writers of this song. It’s changing the lives of my family, and it is truly growing an atmosphere for something I’m gonna be able to do the rest of my life and I just… today doesn’t feel like a real thing,” Langley said. “It feels fake and somebody’s going to come in and be like ‘haha we’re kidding the whole time just kidding.'””I’m really excited to just experience a moment like this in my life,” she said.The country music star told her fans that she was going to celebrate tonight before ending with, “Choosin’ T… that’s the one huh?”

Tropical Storm Rachel grew stronger Monday evening as it moved along Mexico’s southern Pacific coast Monday, roughly in the path of Hurricane Polo.

Mystery Explosions: Syria’s Recovering Gas Network Keeps Getting Sabotaged

Syria has reported at least two acts of major sabotage against its gas infrastructure in six weeks, and it raises questions over who or what group is behind it, and what this means for future energy transit projects.

Monday evening saw a fire rage out of control for many hours at a gas pipeline between al-Shola and Deir Ezzor following a mystery explosion. 

Syrian media: illustrative file image.Syrian Petroleum Company (SPC), which oversees the site, called it an act of sabotage which abruptly halted gas flows from the Jbeissa gas plant to power generation stations, according to details from state-run SANA.

The New Arab writes that “In January, the SPC began pumping raw gas from the Jbeissa fields in Hasakah to the Furqlus gas plant in Homs province, with around 1.2 million cubic metres passing through the network each day to support electricity generation.”

The report adds, “Damascus has also been working to reconnect other major eastern gas facilities to the national network.”

For several years stretching through much of the last decade, Syrian cities – including the capital – have suffered intermittent and long power outages. It was especially during the tail-end of the proxy war to oust Assad that lack of fuel and electricity became a major crisis.

Damascus residents, for example, often had a mere one hour of electricity in their homes per day – if at all. Entire remote villages and towns simply proceeded with daily life amid a total and persistent blackout. This was to a large degree the result of a US-led sanctions war which in effect strangled the population. US troops had even for years directly occupied Syria’s eastern oil and gas fields, which had been crucial for meeting domestic energy needs.

But now after Jolani and his HTS jihadists seized power, and with Washington sanctions declared removed, the country is trying to restore and rebuild services.

While no group has yet claimed responsibility for sabotaging facilities in the east, it illustrates how the country is still in a deeply unstable situation.

Powerful explosion hits a gas pipeline in Syria’s Deir ez-Zor, near the Iraqi border.
Follow: https://t.co/Ez42KDdHXv pic.twitter.com/G0eS2BUCO1
— PressTV Extra (@PresstvExtra) September 28, 2026
As for the initial attack among these two latest, it happened on August 18 and involved an explosion at the Jbeissa plant’s gas export pipeline. Other sabotage examples back when the war was at its height are plentiful.

One explanation which has emerged for Monday’s incident is being reported in The National:

Hisham Al Saleh, a gas sector official at the Syrian Petroleum Company, said crews began isolating the area immediately after the fire broke out.

The local official said that the explosion was apparently caused by thieves who broke into the pipeline to steel the gas. “It seems that the theft had gone wrong. It takes a degree of professionalism to break into a gas pipeline and emerge unscathed,” the official said.

Whether sabotage or theft, it raises big questions as regional officials talk about ‘reviving’ energy pipelines crossing Syria as an ‘alternative’ to Hormuz Strait shipping, given the war-ravaged country’s longtime geopolitical importance and access to the Mediterranean. A future Iraq-Syria oil pipeline, for example, could be a prime target for unknown terror entities.

Tyler Durden
Tue, 09/29/2026 – 18:50

As seven anonymous Arizona State Sun Devils hockey players called for their coaching staff to be placed on administrative leave, the House and Senate education chairs have also called for an independent investigation into the team’s workout that left a player hospitalized, still fighting for his life in a coma.Matthew Mayich remains on life support after an Aug. 20 workout in the blazing Arizona heat left him unconscious, and far worse than the players who wrote a 26-page letter that said they were initially told by head coach Greg Powers and the staff.On Monday, House Education Committee Chairman Matt Gress and Senate Education Committee Chairman Hildy Angius called on the Arizona Board of Regents to retain an independent investigator to examine the workout.CLICK HERE FOR MORE OUTKICK SPORTS COVERAGEIn a letter sent on Monday to Board Chairman Doug Goodyear, Gress and Angius cited unresolved questions about whether the school followed its own policies and allegations from the anonymous players, who all fear retaliation by the current staff for speaking up about their account of the incident.Arizona State conducted an initial review, which acknowledged the hockey team’s staff didn’t submit a plan of training activities as part of the investigation. Also, the review’s findings were that Mayich didn’t receive proper hydration and had inadequate medical care after collapsing.ARIZONA STATE HOCKEY PLAYER, BLUES DRAFT PICK HOSPITALIZED AFTER COLLAPSING DURING TRAINING”Seven players who were on that field have raised serious questions that ASU’s own review does not answer,” Gress said in a press release. “We need an independent investigation to determine whether ASU followed its own rules, who was responsible for protecting these athletes, and what happened when Matthew Mayich showed signs of distress. ASU should not be left to investigate its own conduct and decide whether anyone should be held accountable.”The lawmakers are asking the Board of Regents to figure out who authorized the workout, which the players said was led by an ex-U.S. Army Green Beret, as well as “whether required vetting and heat-safety procedures were followed, why ASU’s strength and conditioning professionals did not review the workout, and why the final exercise proceeded after the outside consultant left.”They also wish to have protection against retaliation for student-athletes and witnesses in this case.”Student-athletes should never have to choose between telling the truth and protecting their scholarship, roster spot, or playing time,” Angius said. “If players fear retaliation for speaking about what happened to a teammate, the Regents need to act. They should protect these students and appoint an investigator who answers to the Board, not ASU.”A response by Gress and Angius was requested from the Board of Regents by Oct. 9.In the 26-page letter from the players, which was obtained by The Athletic, the players said they were put through a “grueling” workout by the Green Beret that day, but while the ASU review said players were given a water break about 20 minutes into the workout, that wasn’t the case, they claimed.They said that the water break was around 40 minutes into the 75-minute activity, but it was just a few seconds. The players added that only about eight players actually drank water because they were the first to finish a bear crawl drill beforehand.”The first of us to finish had a few seconds at the bottles before being ordered back while others, including Matthew, were still crawling,” the players’ letter read. “This was the only water break.”The players also wrote that the ex-Green Beret admitted forgetting they needed a water break, but added he didn’t drink water during combat missions.THE CRAIG CARTON SHOW–UNFILTERED, UNAPOLOGETIC AND UNMISSABLE. DOWNLOAD HIS DAILY PODCAST NOW!As for Mayich, a draft pick of the NHL’s St. Louis Blues, the players wrote that their teammate showed signs of distress early on in the workout, saying he started to become disoriented during the bear crawl. Also, he was unable to carry a teammate during a buddy carry exercise.”No one at ASU properly monitored him during the workout and no one intervened,” the letter read.When Mayich eventually collapsed, the players claim he remained in direct sunlight for several minutes, which contradicts Arizona State’s report stating he sat upright twice. The players say that Mayich needed to be carried into the shade by his teammates.As for cooling him down, the players said the only things available were towels from a cooler, water from the bottles and a garden hose. This was in Arizona heat, which in August regularly sits somewhere in triple digits.”Matthew spent most of his ‘off’ time in his air-conditioned apartment because the heat was too oppressive for him,” the players wrote about the Ontario native. The players also noted that outdoor workouts prior to Aug. 20 last around 15 minutes before going back inside.Powers was asked earlier this month about the incident, but he didn’t speak due to the “difficult time” it has been for the program. Players, though, said their head coach downplayed Mayich’s condition when initially speaking to them about it. They said that he simply suffered a “little heat stroke,” while adding they were “closer to making the Frozen Four because of the workout…””From what we could tell, at no point did Coach Powers seem to appreciate the severity of the situation,” the players’ letter added.SIGN UP FOR THE DAILY OUTKICK NEWSLETTER

The Syrian Democratic Forces’ Anti-Terrorism Units (YAT) and International Coalition forces conducted joint raids targeting senior ISIS terrorists. The United States now expects the Syrian army, whose ranks include former ISIS and al-Qaeda members, to take over counterterrorism operations. Photo courtesy of the SDF.
The September 30 withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq will end the use of that country as a military platform for counterterrorism operations in Syria. The departure follows the U.S. exit from Syrian bases, including Qasrak air base in Hasakah province on April 16.
Intelligence and assets in Jordan and the Gulf will support future counter-ISIS cooperation, according to the Atlantic Council. Preventing the group’s resurgence will depend more heavily on Damascus. Syria joined the coalition against ISIS in November 2025, when al-Sharaa visited Washington. Its Interior Ministry also cooperates with American personnel in Damascus to track the group’s remnants.
The problem with this arrangement is that Syria’s leader, Ahmed al-Sharaa, has ties to ISIS and al-Qaeda and fought Kurdish forces before coming to power.
Al-Sharaa, known during his militant career as Abu Mohammed al-Jawlani, began in al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI), the group that later became ISIS. According to the State Department, AQI leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi sent al-Jawlani to Syria in late 2011 to organize terrorist cells that became the al-Nusrah Front. In April 2013, Baghdadi announced that AQI and al-Nusrah would merge as the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant. Al-Jawlani rejected the merger, broke with ISIS, and pledged allegiance to al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri.
In May 2013, the State Department designated al-Jawlani a Specially Designated Global Terrorist and later offered up to $10 million for information on his location. His group, later renamed Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), led the offensive that toppled Assad in December 2024. Washington revoked HTS’s terrorist designation effective July 8, 2025, citing the group’s dissolution and the Syrian government’s commitment to combat terrorism.
Analysts have warned that Damascus cannot be trusted to protect the Kurds because its army is composed of former Islamic extremists. Syria’s new army is built around HTS, the successor to al-Nusrah, which the State Department described as al-Qaeda’s affiliate in Syria.
Damascus also incorporated foreign jihadists. At least six foreign nationals were among the Defense Ministry’s 49 military appointments in December 2024, including Albanian Abdul Jashari, a U.S.-designated terrorist. Three were appointed brigadier generals: Turkish citizen Omar Mohammed Jaftashi, Jordanian citizen Abdul Rahman Hussein al-Khatib, and Abdulaziz Dawood Khudaberdi, commander of the Turkistan Islamic Party’s (TIP) forces in Syria.
In June 2025, Syrian defense officials said about 3,500 foreign fighters, mainly Uyghur TIP members, would join the army’s newly formed 84th Division. A TIP political official told Reuters the group had officially dissolved and integrated into the army. Asked whether Washington approved, U.S. envoy Tom Barrack said there was “an understanding, with transparency.”
The State Department describes the TIP as a violent extremist group active in Syria and Afghanistan. The Long War Journal identifies it as an al-Qaeda-affiliated group that has long operated within the Taliban-al-Qaeda axis. In a 2016 edition of its Arabic-language publication, the TIP stated that establishing an Islamic caliphate was its primary objective.
Beijing designates the TIP as a terrorist group, but the United States does not designate it under that name. In November 2020, the State Department removed the East Turkistan Islamic Movement (ETIM) from the Terrorist Exclusion List, saying it had seen no credible evidence for more than a decade that the group still existed. Washington still lists ETIM as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist to comply with UN obligations. The State Department says Beijing inaccurately labels the TIP as ETIM.
The UN Security Council lists ETIM under the alias Eastern Turkistan Islamic Party. It identified the group’s leader, Abdul Haq, as a member of al-Qaeda’s Shura Council as of 2005. The U.S. Treasury designated him in 2009.
Washington required no enforceable commitments to protect minorities and set no prohibition on integrating jihadists into the new military. In 2025, the Foundation for Defense of Democracies wrote that al-Sharaa had failed to address the SDF’s core security concerns, including the threat from within the army’s own ranks.
In May 2026, FDD urged Washington to pressure Damascus to remove or demote foreign fighters in its security forces, particularly members of U.S.-designated terrorist organizations serving in the army. Syria scholar Joshua Landis said U.S. Central Command does not trust the Syrian military to take part in actual raids.
A member of Syria’s security forces carried out the December 13, 2025, attack near Palmyra, a Syrian government official confirmed. CENTCOM identified him as a lone ISIS gunman. He killed two U.S. service members and an American civilian interpreter and wounded three other soldiers at the gate of a fortified command facility belonging to the Syrian Internal Security Forces leadership. The attack came one month after Damascus entered the counter-ISIS coalition.
The national army has also fought the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), Washington’s former key partner against ISIS. Aleppo’s two Kurdish-majority neighborhoods were the first targets of the government’s January 6 offensive. Fighting displaced up to 148,000 people and ended with the SDF’s withdrawal from Aleppo on January 10.
The Rojava Information Center, a research group based in northeast Syria, reviewed about 180 pieces of visual material showing abuses against SDF personnel and mostly Kurdish civilians. Army personnel and affiliated forces tortured and beat detainees, subjected them to religious and racial insults, and forced them to recite the Shahada.
Damascus has also absorbed the Turkish-backed Syrian National Army (SNA) into its military. After Assad’s fall, Mohammed al-Jassem’s faction, known as Amshat, became the army’s 62nd Division. Ahmad al-Hayes, known as Abu Hatem Shaqra, led Ahrar al-Sharqiya and took command of the 86th Division.
When the U.S. Treasury sanctioned al-Jassem in 2023, it said he directed brigade members to forcibly displace Kurdish residents, seize their property, and kidnap residents for ransom. In 2021, Treasury sanctioned Ahrar al-Sharqiya for crimes against civilians, particularly Syrian Kurds, including unlawful killings, abductions, torture, and property seizures. It also said the group had incorporated former ISIS members. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the group had been implicated in the unlawful killing of Kurdish politician Hevrin Khalaf in October 2019.
In August 2026, the army removed al-Jassem, Abu Hatem Shaqra, and Hamza Division commander Sayf Bulad from their command posts. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the SDF had made al-Jassem’s removal a condition for its integration into the military.
The SDF’s integration into Syrian army brigades culminated in commander Mazloum Abdi’s August 25 announcement that the group had dissolved. After September 30, Damascus will carry more of the responsibility for preventing an ISIS resurgence in Syria, with an army whose ranks include former HTS fighters, members of the dissolved TIP, former SNA factions sanctioned for abuses against Kurds, and the former SDF fighters those factions once fought.

The post Washington’s Counter-ISIS Partner in Syria Built Its Army Around Jihadists appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.