of the room wearing steampunk sunglasses and a flowing white dress. "And I really believed so much, Carole, that you were my friend. So thank you so much for the way you sing right to us in your music."

Toward the end of the song, Gaga modified the lyrics: "You've got a friend, yes you do, Carole, I love you."

Lady Gaga earned the first of a handful of standing ovations at the annual event, a fundraiser benefiting The Recording Academy's musician-oriented charity.

maker kicked in an extra $30,000 to the charity.

Estefan, a former MusiCares person of the year, sang "It's Too Late," and told the crowd "Tapestry" was "the No.1 most impactful" album she'd ever heard. Keys nailed "Natural Woman," a song most identified with Aretha Franklin, also modifying theIn October of last year, the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), backed by the United States, liberated the city of Raqqa from the Islamic State (ISIS) in a major defeat for the collapsing jihadist army that had proclaimed it to be the capital of its caliphate.

Four months later, NATO member Turkey has opened a military campaign in the Syrian region Afrin against the same Kurds who led the fight against ISIS.

The campaign appears to have jihadi expansionist goals. Turkey’s government-funded Diyanet (Presidency of Religious Affairs) declared that worshippers in mosques across Turkey—in at least 90,000 mosques—and across Turkish-occupied northern Cyprus will pray for “the victory of Turkey’s military operation on Afrin,” reciting the Koranic verse Surah al Fath (verse of conquest) every day until the invasion ends.

Surah al-Fath