Question
While storming this country’s Mezzeh Air Base, members of the Idlib-based Islamist group HTS found large caches of the illicit amphetamine captagon. For 10 points each:
[10e] Name this country where a December 2024 lightning offensive by rebel groups ousted dictator Bashar al-Assad.
ANSWER: Syria [or Syrian Arab Republic; or al-Jumhūriyyah al-ʿArabiyyah as-Sūriyyah]
[10m] In a victory speech, this leader of the HTS rebels said that Assad turned Syria into “the largest captagon factory in the world.” As interim president, he signed a March 2025 transitional constitution.
ANSWER: Ahmed Hussein al-Sharaa [or Ahmed ash-Sharaa; or Abu Mohammad al-Julani; or Abu Mohammed al-Jolani]
[10h] Assad loyalists kept resisting for months in Latakia (“lat-uh-KEE-uh”) and this nearby governorate. Al-Sharaa canceled the lease of a Russian naval base in this governorate’s same-named capital, from which ships fled as Assad’s regime fell.
ANSWER: Tartus Governorate [or Tartous Governorate]
<Current Events>
Summary
2025 ACF Nationals | 04/19/2025 | Y | 24 | 17.50 | 100% | 54% | 21% |
Data
Arizona State | Florida | 10 | 0 | 0 | 10 |
Chicago B | Texas | 10 | 0 | 0 | 10 |
Maryland | Cornell B | 10 | 0 | 0 | 10 |
NYU | Georgia State | 10 | 10 | 10 | 30 |
Georgia Tech | MIT | 10 | 10 | 0 | 20 |
Illinois B | North Carolina B | 10 | 0 | 0 | 10 |
Iowa State | Cornell A | 10 | 10 | 0 | 20 |
LSE | WUSTL B | 10 | 10 | 0 | 20 |
Vanderbilt | Michigan | 10 | 10 | 10 | 30 |
Minnesota | Harvard | 10 | 10 | 0 | 20 |
Chicago A | North Carolina A | 10 | 10 | 0 | 20 |
Illinois A | Northwestern | 10 | 0 | 0 | 10 |
Yale | Ottawa | 10 | 0 | 0 | 10 |
Rutgers | UC Berkeley A | 10 | 10 | 0 | 20 |
Columbia A | Stanford | 10 | 0 | 0 | 10 |
Indiana | Toronto A | 10 | 10 | 10 | 30 |
Toronto B | Johns Hopkins | 10 | 0 | 0 | 10 |
UC Berkeley B | British Columbia | 10 | 0 | 0 | 10 |
UCF | RIT | 10 | 10 | 0 | 20 |
Virginia Tech | Toronto C | 10 | 10 | 0 | 20 |
Virginia | Columbia B | 10 | 0 | 0 | 10 |
Waterloo A | WUSTL A | 10 | 10 | 10 | 30 |
Penn State | Waterloo B | 10 | 10 | 10 | 30 |
Ohio State | Winona State | 10 | 0 | 0 | 10 |