Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promised defiantly on Tuesday to knock down corruption allegations against him as he began testifying in his long-running trial, becoming the first sitting Israeli leader to take the stand as a criminal defendant.

The testimony is another low point for Israel's longest-serving leader, who also faces an international arrest warrant for alleged war crimes in Israel's war in Gaza.

Palestinian medical officials say an Israeli strike on a home where displaced people were sheltering in the northern Gaza Strip has killed at least 19 people.

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said the recent events in Syria, including the fall of its government, were part of a joint plan by the United States and Israel, state TV reported Wednesday.

“There should be no doubt that what has happened in Syria is the result of a joint American and Zionist plan," it quoted Khamenei as saying. “We have evidence, and this evidence leaves no room for doubt.”

The results of the 2024 U.S. presidential election rattled the country and sent shockwaves across the world — or were cause for celebration, depending on who you ask. Is it any surprise then that the Merriam-Webster word of the year is "polarization"?

"Polarization means division, but it's a very specific kind of division," said Peter Sokolowski, Merriam-Webster's editor at large, in an exclusive interview with The Associated Press ahead of Monday's announcement. "Polarization means that we are tending toward the extremes rather than toward the center."

The Golden Globes nominated more than 40 individual films Monday — and yet still managed to overlook quite a bit. That may just be the brutal truth of awards season: The field narrows and suddenly great performances and wonderful films are simply left in the dust.

The Globes have always had quirks, like A-lister tunnel vision, and while there might not be anything quite as glaring as the infamous year of "The Tourist," this batch is not without its oddities: Some good, some bad, some simply perplexing.

Israel's Defense Minister Israel Katz said Tuesday that Israel's military destroyed Syria’s fleet overnight and intends to establish a demilitarized zone “in southern Syria” to prevent attacks on Israel.

He also issued a warning to Syria’s rebels, saying that “whoever follows Assad’s path will end up like Assad — we will not allow an extremist Islamic terrorist entity to act against Israel across its border while putting its citizens at risk.”

A week after President-elect Donald Trump's victory, Elon Musk said his political action committee would "play a significant role in primaries."

The following week, the billionaire responded to a report that he might fund challengers to GOP House members who don't support Trump's nominees. "How else? There is no other way," Musk wrote on X, which he rebranded after purchasing Twitter and moving to boost conservative voices, including his own.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Monday that Americans "are beginning to wake up to the real reality that tariffs on everything from Canada would make life a lot more expensive" and said he will retaliate if Donald Trump goes ahead with them.

Trump later responded by calling Canada a state and Trudeau the governor.

The Trump Organization said Monday it has leased its brand to two new real estate projects in Saudi Arabia just weeks before President-elect Donald Trump returns to the White House.

It will partner with Dar Global, a London-based luxury real estate developer that will lease the Trump brand but fully own and develop the projects in the Saudi capital, Riyadh. The two have partnered on other projects in the region, including the development of a golf resort in neighboring Oman.

They came from all over Syria, tens of thousands. The first place they rushed to after the fall of their longtime tormentor, former President Bashar Assad, was here: Saydnaya Prison, a place so notorious for its horrors it was long known as "the slaughterhouse."

For the past two days, all have been looking for signs of loved ones who disappeared years or even decades ago into the secretive, sprawling prison just outside Damascus.