The main question after strikes on Syria: How does Russia respond?

For President Trump, choosing targets and launching cruise missiles to punish the Syrian regime for using chemical weapons this week may have been a relatively clear-cut decision. The big problem is what comes next.

The military had been preparing options for a strike against President Bashar al-Assad since well before 2013, when the Syrian dictator killed more than 1,000 of his own people in a devastating nerve gas attack.

A chemical attack Tuesday blamed on the Assad regime killed scores of civilians and triggered a response from the Pentagon, which launched approximately 50 cruise missiles at a Syrian military airfield late on Thursday.

[Why these missiles are the most likely option for a strike in Syria]

“The basic questions haven’t changed,” said Phil Gordon, a senior official in the Obama White House who took part in many earlier debates about how to punish Assad. “Is there a set of military strikes that you can use to degrade the Syrians’ ability to deliver chemical weapons and, if you do that, what do they do in response?”The biggest difference between 2013, when President Barack Obama last threatened airstrikes against Assad, and today is that the risks of widening the conflict are much greater.

The initial American war plans to punish Assad in 2013 were aimed largely at his chemical weapons capability, said former U.S. officials involved in those deliberations. A direct strike on the Assad regime’s chemical weapons storage facilities was seen as too risky to civilians, because it would have produced a plume of noxious gas.

[Which chemical weapon was used in Syria? Here’s what investigators know.]

Instead military planners drew up a target list that included Assad’s chemical weapons units and the aircraft and artillery that the regime would need to deliver the ordnance. “The intent was to strike the various chemical weapons units,” said a former U.S. official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss military planning. “We had postured our intelligence units to give us bomb damage assessments — and if we didn’t get the effect we were looking for, we would have hit them again.”

The biggest difference that Trump and his commanders confront now is the presence of Russian troops on the battlefield and Russian air defense systems that are capable of shooting down U.S. planes. Today, Russian troops are intermingled with Syrian forces, and any strike on a Syrian military target could also produce Russian military casualties.

Retired Gen. John Allen, who coordinated the campaign against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria during the Obama administration, said that the military strikes could have had a “decisive” impact on the war had they been launched in 2013. He described Obama’s decision not to strike as devastating.

“It is much harder now,” Allen said. “The United States has to ask itself a question: How angry do we want to be on this issue? Are we enraged enough morally that we are ready to take action even with the possibility of dead Russians?”

Don Rickles, Comedy’s Equal Opportunity Offender, Dies at 90

Don Rickles, the acidic stand-up comic who became world-famous not by telling jokes but by insulting his audience, died on Thursday at his home in Los Angeles. He was 90.

The cause was kidney failure, said a spokesman, Paul Shefrin.

For more than half a century, on nightclub stages, in concert halls and on television, Mr. Rickles made outrageously derisive comments about people’s looks, their ethnicity, their spouses, their sexual orientation, their jobs or anything else he could think of. He didn’t discriminate: His incendiary unpleasantries were aimed at the biggest stars in show business (Frank Sinatra was a favorite target) and at ordinary paying customers.

His rise to national prominence in the late 1960s and early 1970s roughly coincided with the success of “All in the Family,” the groundbreaking situation comedy whose protagonist, Archie Bunker, was an outspoken bigot. Mr. Rickles’s humor was similarly transgressive. But he went further than Archie Bunker, and while Carroll O’Connor, who played Archie, was speaking words someone else had written — and was invariably the butt of the joke — Mr. Rickles, whose targets included his fellow Jews, never needed a script and was always in charge.

One night, on learning that some members of his audience were German, he said, “Forty million Jews in this country, and I got four Nazis sitting here in front waiting for the rally to start.” He said that America needed Italians “to keep the cops busy” and blacks “so we can have cotton in the drugstore,” and that “Asians are nice people, but they burn a lot of shirts.” He might ask a man in the audience, “Is that your wife?” and, when the man answered yes, respond: “Oh, well. Keep your chin up.”

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As brutal as his remarks could be, they rarely left a mark. (“I’m not really a mean, vicious guy,” he told an interviewer in 2000.) Sidney Poitier was said to have once been offended by Mr. Rickles’s racial jokes. But in “Mr. Warmth: The Don Rickles Project,” a 2007 documentary directed by John Landis, Mr. Poitier sang Mr. Rickles’s praises.

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Recalling the first time he saw Mr. Rickles perform, Mr. Poitier said: “He was explosive. He was impactful. He was funny. I mean, outrageously funny.”

Mr. Rickles got his first break, the story goes, when Sinatra and some of his friends came to see him perform in 1957 — in Hollywood, according to most sources, although Mr. Rickles said it was in Miami. “Make yourself at home, Frank,” Mr. Rickles said to Sinatra, whom he had never met. “Hit somebody.” Sinatra laughed so hard, he fell out of his seat.

Mr. Rickles was soon being championed by Sinatra, Dean Martin and the other members of the show business circle known as the Rat Pack. Steady work in Las Vegas followed. But he was hardly an overnight success: He spent a decade in the comedy trenches before he broke through to a national audience.

In 1965, he made the first of numerous appearances on “The Tonight Show,” treating Johnny Carson with his trademark disdain to the audience’s (and Carson’s) delight. He also became a regular on Dean Martin’s televised roasts, where no celebrity was safe from his onslaughts. (“What’s Bob Hope doing here? Is the war over?”)

Mr. Rickles’s wife, who he said “likes to lie in bed, signaling ships with her jewelry,” was not immune to his attacks. Neither was his mother, Etta, whom he referred to as “the Jewish Patton.” But off the stage, he didn’t hesitate to express his gratitude to his mother for unflaggingly believing in his talent, even when he himself wasn’t so sure.

Don Rickles (1926–2017)

Don Rickles was born May 8, 1926 in New York. After the Golden Era of Hollywood ended, Don Rickles is one man still living to tell his tales. One of the most respected talents in entertainment, Rickles got his start in the night clubs, toiling for over 20 years, until 1958, when Don made his film debut in Run Silent Run Deep (1958). The movie was a big hit. Afterward, Rickles continued acting, starring in films like X (1963), Bikini Beach (1964), Enter Laughing (1967), and Kelly's Heroes (1970). In 1973, Don became a regular on Dean Martin's Celebrity Roasts. From 1973 until 1984, Don appeared frequently on Dean's show, paying tribute to some of his friends, like Bob Hope, Frank Sinatra, Lucille Ball, and was even the roast master on the roast for Dean Martin himself. In 1976, Don his own TV series CPO Sharkey (1976), which enjoyed a two year run. After 1984, Don began taking it easy, appearing in a few minor film roles. But in 1995, Don made a big comeback, appearing with Tom Hanks and Tim Allen in Toy Story (1995) in the role of the grouchy Mr. Potato Head. In 1999, he returned as Mr. Potato Head in Toy Story 2 (1999).

The women who sleep with a stranger to save their marriage

Farah - not her real name - met her husband after being introduced to him by a family friend when she was in her 20s. They had children together soon afterwards but then, Farah says, the abuse began.

"The first time he was abusive was over money," she tells the BBC's Asian Network and Victoria Derbyshire programme.

"He dragged me by my hair through two rooms and tried to throw me out of the house. There would be times where he would just go crazy."

Despite the abuse, Farah hoped things would change. Her husband's behaviour though became increasingly erratic - leading to him "divorcing" her via text message.

"I was at home with the children and he was at work. During a heated discussion he sent me a text saying, 'talaq, talaq, talaq'."

"Triple talaq" - where a man says "talaq", or divorce, to his wife three times in a row - is a practice which some Muslims believe ends an Islamic marriage instantly.

It is banned in most Muslim countries but still happens, though it is impossible to know exactly how many women are "divorced" like this in the UK.

"I had my phone on me," Farah explains, "and I just passed it over to my dad. He was like, 'Your marriage is over, you can't go back to him.'Farah says she was "absolutely distraught", but willing to return to her ex-husband because he was "the love of my life".

She says her ex-husband also regretted divorcing her.

This led Farah to seek the controversial practice known as halala, which is accepted by a small minority of Muslims who subscribe to the concept of a triple talaq.

They believe halala is the only way a couple who have been divorced, and wish to reconcile, can remarry.

Halala involves the woman marrying someone else, consummating the marriage and then getting a divorce - after which she is able to remarry her first husband.

But in some cases, women who seek halala services are at risk of being financially exploited, blackmailed and even sexually abused.

It's a practice the vast majority of Muslims are strongly against and is attributed to individuals misunderstanding the Islamic laws around divorce.

But an investigation by the BBC has found a number of online accounts offering halala services, several of which are charging women thousands of pounds to take part in temporary marriages.

'Desperation'

One man, advertising halala services on Facebook, told an undercover BBC reporter posing as a divorced Muslim woman that she would need to pay £2,500 and have sex with him in order for the marriage to be "complete" - at which point he would divorce her.

The man also said he had several other men working with him, one who he claims initially refused to issue a woman a divorce after a halala service was complete.

There is nothing to suggest the man is doing anything illegal. The BBC contacted him after the meeting - he rejects any allegations against him, claiming he has never carried out or been involved in a halala marriage and that the Facebook account he created was for fun, as part of a social experiment.

In her desperation to be reunited with her husband, Farah began trying to find men who were willing to carry out a halala marriage.

"I knew of girls who had gone behind families' backs and had it done and been used for months," she says.

"They went to the mosque, there was apparently a designated room where they did this stuff and the imam or whoever offers these services, slept with her and then allowed other men to sleep with her too."But the Islamic Sharia Council in East London, which regularly advises women on issues around divorce, strongly condemns halala marriages.

"This is a sham marriage, it is about making money and abusing vulnerable people," says Khola Hasan from the organisation.

"It's haram, it's forbidden. There's no stronger word I can use. There are other options, like getting help or counselling. We would not allow anyone to go through with that. You do not need halala, no matter what," she adds.

Farah ultimately decided against getting back with her husband - and the risks of going through a halala marriage. But she warns there are other women out there, like her, who are desperate for a solution.

"Unless you're in that situation where you're divorced and feeling the pain I felt, no-one's going to understand the desperation some women feel.

"If you ask me now, in a sane state, I would never do it. I'm not going to sleep with someone to get back with a man. But at that precise time I was desperate to get back with my ex-partner at any means or measure."

From Pepsi to Nivea: Some of the worst advertising fails

Pepsi apologised and pulled the ad after accusations that it trivialised recent street protests across the US. But it wasn't the only company copping flak for poor creativity this week.

German skincare brand Nivea also said sorry over its "white is purity" deodorant advert that was deemed discriminatory and racially insensitive.

Meanwhile, in the UK, the Co-op supermarket was accused of "outrageous sexism" in an advert for chocolate Easter eggs that encouraged parents to "treat your daughter for doing the washing up", while Cadbury was criticised after dropping the word "Easter" from its egg hunts.

These campaigns have now taken their place in the pantheon of bad advertising.Here are a few more picks from recent memory.

Writers' Strike: Are US TV shows about to fall off air?

In a letter to media buyers, the Writers Guild of America (WGA) has threatened to strike from 2 May.

It's to do with a row over pay - writers say they have been losing revenue in recent years, 23% in the last two years alone.

Also, because so many series are getting shorter but writers contracts remain the same length, many of them find themselves locked into a contract without other work.

"Should this [strike] occur, writing for television, feature films and digital series will cease," the letter says.

Mother 'threw anorexic daughter's body into the sea'

Police believe the distraught mother of Katerina Laktionova put her remains into the suitcase after she died from her condition, Italian media say.

The body was found, wrapped in a black plastic bag, by fishermen on 25 March.

Gulnara Laktionova confessed to a friend, Italian media said.

Police found no evidence of violent death during an autopsy.

'The world fell apart'

The Corriere Romagna newspaper reported that a male friend became concerned that he had not heard from the mother and daughter since 10 March, and then learned about the grisly discovery.

He phoned the young woman's mother several times, and she eventually told him she had shut the body in the suitcase and thrown it into the water, after keeping it in her house for at least a week, the newspaper said.

Gulnara Laktionova, 48, flew back to Russia shortly before the body was found, reports say.

She told her lawyers that she had "lost her mind" and that "the world fell apart," according to the Italian news agency ANSA.

Katerina Laktionova had been hospitalised for a short period in Italy in 2015 and had requested a residency permit in February to continue treatment for her anorexia, ANSA said.

Gulnara Laktionova was quoted by Russia's NTV as saying: "I don't know anything. I don't remember anything. I'm not feeling quite right in the head."

The Italian investigation is continuing.

Previous reports had linked the body to a missing Dublin-based woman, who has not been seen since 10 February when she boarded a ship to Genoa.

Chinese-born Xing Lei Li is still unaccounted for, and her husband Daniel Belling was arrested in Rome attempting to board a flight to Dublin last month.