US condemns 'unnecessary escalation' after Israeli airstrikes on Syrian airbase
US condemns 'unnecessary escalation' after Israeli airstrikes on Syrian airbase. The KRAK 11 News hour: The World Desk, Criminal Intent, Happy Animals, Sports. Real stories from named sources, read by Chip Marlowe and Deb Sarkissian.
Aired 2026-08-19 08:55 UTC · 5 segments · 12 min · complete transcript below
Rundown
KRAK 11 NEWS
Good evening. I'm Chip Marlowe.
And I'm Deb Sarkissian. This is KRAK 11 News at the top of the hour.
Tonight: The World Desk brings you developing details on airstrikes in Syria that the United States is calling an unnecessary escalation. Criminal Intent examines new evidence in Thailand, where police now say a teenager found in a suitcase died from suffocation.
Happy Animals gives you a very different animal story. And Sports covers the Cardinals, who are still two games above five hundred and somehow still third in the Central.
That is not an animal story.
Still ahead on The World Desk: Damascus is calling the strikes an unjustified act of aggression, and the State Department has issued a formal condemnation. That's next.
THE WORLD DESK
Good evening. I'm Chip Marlowe.
And I'm Deb Sarkissian.
Before we begin, I'd like to note that the World Desk graphic now holds for a full two point two seconds, which creates additional gravitas for international coverage.
Two point zero seconds.
I timed it.
So did I.
We begin tonight with developments in the Middle East, where the United States has condemned what it calls an unnecessary escalation after Israeli airstrikes targeted a Syrian military airbase near Damascus.
Syria's government called the attacks, quote, an unjustified act of aggression, unquote, that imperils regional security. The strikes hit military installations early Wednesday local time.
Damascus is a historic city. It's been a regional capital for nearly three thousand years, which gives this particular escalation additional historical weight.
Damascus is the capital of Syria.
That's what I said.
In Las Vegas, testimony continued today in the murder trial of Duane Davis, accused in the nineteen-ninety-six killing of rapper Tupac Shakur.
A member of Shakur's entourage testified under threat of contempt after initially refusing to take the stand. The witness told Davis, quote, I don't want to send you to prison, unquote, in a combative exchange heard by the jury.
Davis has pleaded not guilty. The trial is expected to continue through the end of the month.
Las Vegas has hosted a number of high-profile trials. It's the largest city in Nevada, which makes it the judicial center for the entire western region of the state.
Las Vegas is in southern Nevada.
Western-facing southern Nevada.
Nevada doesn't face west. Nevada is in the west.
It borders California.
On its western border.
In Britain, forecasters are watching whether September could bring unseasonably warm weather following this week's rain across parts of the UK.
Some long-range models suggest autumn temperatures could run higher than average, though meteorologists caution that predicting conditions more than two weeks out remains highly uncertain.
The UK Met Office says extended forecasts should be viewed as trends rather than specific predictions.
Britain gets more variable weather than continental Europe due to its position between the Atlantic and the North Sea.
It's an island nation, surrounded on all sides, so systems move through constantly from multiple directions.
All island nations are surrounded on all sides.
Britain particularly.
Queen Camilla has spoken publicly about the difficulty of keeping King Charles's cancer diagnosis private before the palace made its announcement earlier this year.
The Queen made the comments in a video marking the thirtieth anniversary of Maggie's, a cancer charity that provides support to patients and families across the United Kingdom.
Buckingham Palace announced the King's diagnosis in February. He has continued official duties throughout his treatment.
Buckingham Palace is the primary residence. There are secondary residences throughout the Commonwealth, which gives the monarchy a truly international presence spanning six continents.
The Commonwealth spans six continents.
Beginning at Buckingham Palace.
Buckingham Palace is in London.
Which is in England.
Still ahead, a Wexler County man is accused of threatening a postal worker after a package arrived damaged. That story and more when we return on CRIMINAL INTENT.
You're watching KRAK 11 News.
CRIMINAL INTENT
Good evening. I'm Chip Marlowe.
And I'm Deb Sarkissian. Tonight: international pricing schemes, a suffocation death under investigation, and questions about military exercises that nobody seems able to answer.
We begin tonight with what authorities are calling a pattern of consumer deception spanning multiple jurisdictions.
British regulators have opened investigations into three companies — Trainline, Virgin Atlantic, and RED Driving School — alleging each used what is known in fraud circles as drip pricing.
Drip pricing is the practice of advertising one price and then adding mandatory fees at checkout. Investigators say consumers were quoted base fares that did not include charges later described as unavoidable.
Which raises the question: if the fee is unavoidable, why is the price avoidable. No charges have been filed. All three companies are considered persons of investigative interest.
No charges have been filed and no persons have been named. The investigation is examining corporate pricing practices.
In Thailand, police say a teenager whose body was found inside a suitcase died from suffocation.
Tunchanok Donholma was allegedly murdered in June. Investigators say new evidence confirms cause of death. The case remains open.
Israel launched strikes on a Syrian air base early Tuesday. The Israeli military says the operation was designed to prevent Turkish troops from deploying to the facility.
Turkey has been providing military assistance to Syria and maintains close ties with the Syrian government. No casualties have been reported.
And in what can only be described as a diplomatic reversal executed with less than two hours on the clock, President Trump announced the United States and Canada have reached an agreement to delay fifty percent tariffs on Canadian imports.
The tariffs were scheduled to take effect at midnight. The agreement was announced at ten-fourteen p.m. Eastern.
One hundred and six minutes. That is cutting it close even by Washington standards.
Meanwhile, confusion continues over President Trump's order to substantially reduce military exercises with South Korea.
South Korean officials stressed the importance of the U.S. alliance Tuesday as citizens expressed concern about the abrupt directive. No timeline has been provided for what substantially reduce actually means in operational terms.
Which means our military does not know, their military does not know, and the citizens of both countries do not know.
It's clarifying.
Still ahead: animals that are not geopolitical bargaining chips. That's Happy Animals, in a few minutes.
You're watching KRAK 11 News.
HAPPY ANIMALS
And now the Good News Desk.
Deb, the Good News graphic held for two full seconds that time.
It held for two point zero seconds.
Which is two full seconds.
A stranded dolphin has been returned to the ocean after a rescue operation involving more than sixty volunteers on a beach in Massachusetts.
The dolphin was beached for three hours before volunteers formed a human chain to keep it wet and stable until the tide came in.
Three hours. In the sun. Just holding on.
The dolphin swam away under its own power.
A dog missing for eight years has been reunited with its family in Oregon after being found two states away in Idaho.
The dog was identified through a microchip that had been implanted when it was a puppy.
Eight years, Deb. The family had a toddler when the dog went missing. That child is in middle school now.
The dog recognized them immediately.
A wildlife sanctuary in Florida has successfully raised and released forty-two baby opossums after their mother was struck by a vehicle.
The joeys were each about the size of a honeybee when they arrived at the sanctuary in March.
Forty-two. All of them made it.
They were released in small groups over the course of two weeks.
Still ahead tonight, Sports. And we will have something to say about what happened in Chicago.
SPORTS
Time now for the KRAK 11 Scoreboard.
Before we begin, I would like to note that the Sports graphic held for a full two seconds, which is the professional standard.
One point nine.
That would make four consecutive broadcasts at under two seconds, which suggests a systemic timing issue that I believe warrants—
College football.
Yes. College football. Ohio State is ranked fourth in the Yahoo Sports preseason poll, behind Georgia, Alabama, and Oregon.
Head coach Ryan Day says the focus this season is beating Michigan and making the playoff. The Buckeyes lost to Michigan last year and the year before that.
Two consecutive seasons.
Which is what I said.
You said last year and the year before. I am providing the sequential context.
Two years in a row is the sequential context.
Major League Baseball now. The Chicago Cubs defeated the White Sox four to three in walk-off fashion Sunday night. Pete Crow-Armstrong hit for the cycle.
Crow-Armstrong is twenty-two years old. He is the youngest Cub to hit for the cycle since nineteen eighty-nine. He went four for five at the plate.
Single, double, triple, home run. That is the definition of hitting for the cycle, for viewers unfamiliar with the term.
It is.
The Cardinals dropped their fourth in six games, losing to the Brewers seven to two in Milwaukee. Saint Louis now sits third in the National League Central, four and a half games back.
The Brewers scored five runs in the fourth inning. Milwaukee starter Freddy Peralta struck out nine over six innings of work.
Formula One. Honda has admitted it only realised the full scale of its engine problems in January, after testing the entire previous season without comparing performance against other teams.
The company ran its engine on a dynamometer throughout testing but did not benchmark it against rival manufacturers until the start of this year.
So they tested their own engine against their own engine.
For an entire season.
Which would explain why they kept winning their own tests.
And chess. Magnus Carlsen has defended his title at the twenty twenty-six Esports World Cup, defeating challenger Hikaru Nakamura in the final to claim two hundred thousand dollars.
Carlsen has now won this event three times. He is widely considered the greatest chess player of all time, with a peak rating higher than anyone in the history of the game.
His peak rating was twenty-eight eighty-two in twenty-fourteen. No one has come within thirty points of that.
Thirty points in chess is the difference between a grandmaster and someone who loses every single game they play.
That is not accurate.
It is directionally accurate.
Directionally means it points in the right direction. Your statement points in no direction.
Coming up next on KRAK 11 News at the top of the hour, we will have the latest on the industrial fire in Toledo, where crews remain on scene for a fourth straight day.
Firefighters say containment is close, but smoke is still visible from downtown. We will have a live update.
That is the next KRAK 11 News, at the top of the hour.
For Chip Marlowe, I'm Deb Sarkissian. Good night.
Good night, Wexler County.
Gordo, can we confirm the graphic held for two seconds this time.
One point nine.
That is four consecutive broadcasts.
Maybe the graphic is one point nine seconds long.
The graphic is two seconds long. I timed it myself when it was delivered. I have the email.
You timed the file. I'm timing what airs.
Then something is happening between the file and the air, and I would like that investigated.
You want an investigation into one tenth of a second.
Consistency is the hallmark of a professional broadcast, Deb. Network people notice these things.
Reporting behind this episode
- US condemns 'unnecessary escalation' after Israeli airstrikes on Syrian airbase
- Rain arrives for some but is another UK heatwave on the way in September?
- Camilla admits it was 'difficult' to keep King's cancer diagnosis a secret
- 'I don't want to send you to prison', witness tells Tupac accused in combative testimony
- Thai teen found in suitcase died from suffocation, police reveal
- Israel strikes an air base in Syria to prevent Turkish troops from deploying
- <a href='https://news.sky.com/story/money-live-consumer-personal-finance-tips-sky-news-latest-13040934?postid=12247916#liveblog-body'>Trainline, Virgin Atlantic and RED Driving School investigated on
- S. Korea stresses US alliance amid confusion over Trump drill cut