In Syria, about a dozen critically ill patients have been evacuated from Eastern Ghouta, a suburb of Damascus. Eastern Ghouta has been besieged by Syrian government forces since 2013. The majority of the critically ill patients evacuated this week are children. There are currently about 400,000 civilians in Eastern Ghouta, where supplies of medicine, food and water are dwindling. Meanwhile, in more news on Syria, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan denounced Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad as a terrorist mass murderer and said there’s no place for him in a post-conflict Syria. Erdogan’s comments Wednesday represent a shift away from the softer stance Turkey has taken toward Assad in recent years.