President Donald Trump welcomed Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa after lifting sanctions imposed on Syria, which had been a pariah state for decades before rebel forces toppled Syrian President Bashar Assad last December.

Ahmed al-Sharaa, once branded a terrorist by the US, became the first Syrian leader to visit the White House. 

​Ahmed al-Sharaa, once branded a terrorist by the US, became the first Syrian leader to visit the White House.  

Canadian-Hungarian-British writer David Szalay won the Booker Prize for fiction on Monday for “Flesh,” the story of an ordinary man’s life over several decades in which what isn’t on the page is just as important as what is.