US hostage envoy in Beirut to seek information on missing journalist Austin Tice

WASHINGTON (AP) — The State Department says the U.S. government’s top hostage negotiator is in Beirut in hopes of collecting information on the whereabouts of Austin Tice, an American journalist missing in Syria for 12 years. Spokesman Matt Miller told reporters Monday that the special presidential envoy for hostage affairs is talking to officials in the region following the overthrow of Bashar Assad’s government to find out where Tice is and “get him home as soon as possible.” Lebanon has been involved for years in mediating talks over Tice’s fate. President Joe Biden said Sunday that his administration believed Tice was alive, though he also acknowledged it had “no direct evidence” of that.