Monday Briefing: Al-Assad flees Syria as rebels claim power
Good morning. We’re covering the fall of Bashar al-Assad and uncertainty in South Korea. Plus, Notre-Dame reopens.
Al-Assad flees Syria as rebels take DamascusPresident Bashar al-Assad has resigned and fled Syria for Russia, according to Russian state news media outlets, a stunning fall for a longtime dictator who had kept rebel forces at bay for years with the help of Moscow and Tehran. Follow for live updates here. Earlier Sunday, the main group in the rebel coalition, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, announced that its fighters had taken the capital, Damascus. State television broadcast an announcement by a group of rebels. “The city of Damascus has been liberated, the tyrant Bashar al-Assad has been toppled,” one of them read out, adding, “Long live a free and independent Syria for all Syrians of all sects.” It was a moment filled with hope, as many Syrians no longer feared al-Assad’s oppressive regime. Celebratory gunfire crackled around Damascus. Prisoners were freed from notorious prisons. “The main legacy of the Assad family that dominated Syria politically, militarily and economically for more than 50 years will be the savage oppression of the population,” Neil MacFarquhar, who has reported from across the Middle East, told me, adding: “Bashar abandoned any attempt at reform after he realized it would mean dismantling the older Assad’s legacy, even after the uprising.” But the present remains rife with uncertainty. Mohammad Ghazi al-Jalali, the prime minister, said he was ready to work with whomever Syrians chose as their leader, and Hayat Tahrir al-Sham said it would work with him. “This is going to result in so many different unfolding outcomes that it is difficult even to think through what they will all be,” said Alissa Rubin, a senior Middle East correspondent. “But for those people who were so terribly persecuted by Assad, this is a moment of incredible joy, relief, and also a sense of all that’s been lost. For all those people who fled Assad for Turkey, this is a time of new uncertainty of possibly going back to a home they haven’t been to in years to pick up their life as Syrians in Syria. And for those who were close to the Assad regime, there’s great uncertainty about their safety.” Who are the rebels? After attracting little notice for years, Abu Mohammad al-Jolani led the offensive that caused the fall of al-Assad. Regional powers: Iran’s “axis of resistance” has largely unraveled in a breathtakingly short period. What’s next? How the situation unfolded in Aleppo may hint at what’s to come.
President Yoon survives impeachment voteSouth Korean lawmakers’ attempt to impeach President Yoon Suk Yeol ended in failure on Saturday night, prolonging the uncertainty that has enveloped the country since his short-lived imposition of martial law this week. The move by the opposition to impeach Yoon was foiled by his conservative People Power Party. All but one member of the party walked out of the room before the impeachment motion was put to a vote, making the effort moot. Earlier on Saturday, Yoon bowed before the nation and apologized in a brief televised address, his first public appearance since he tried to install martial law. Han Dong-hoon, the chairman of Yoon’s party, has presented himself as the government’s decision maker and has said the president is no longer running the country, even though South Korea’s Constitution doesn’t allow for anyone to replace the president unless he resigns or is impeached.
Trump lays out his agenda in extended interviewIn his first broadcast interview since winning the election, President-elect Donald Trump outlined an aggressive opening plan for his second term to crack down on immigration and pardon some of his violent supporters. Speaking with Kristen Welker on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” he also said that he would seek to end automatic citizenship for children born in the U.S. to immigrant parents and that “you have to” deport everyone in the country illegally. Read more about the interview here, and see our fact check.
Sports
More than five years after a devastating fire, the Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris reopened to the general public yesterday. A centuries-old cornerstone of European culture and faith, the building is reborn, with the interior limestone walls dazzlingly bright and clean and a new spire containing a scroll with the names of the people who took part in the restoration. Take a look at photos of the interior and a 3-D model, read about how 250 companies and 2,000 people did the work and see photos of the opening weekend. Lives lived: Chiung Yao, a romance writer who published some of the best-selling novels in the Chinese-speaking world, died at 86.
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What Alice Munro knewBefore the Nobel Prize-winning author Alice Munro died earlier this summer, she was known in Canada as “St. Alice,” a paragon of virtue and compassion. Now she has come to symbolize something else: maternal dereliction. The youngest of her three daughters, Andrea Skinner, revealed in July that she had been sexually abused by Munro’s partner, Gerald Fremlin. The revelation made transparent how Munro’s appalling failures as a mother seem to have been instrumental to her artistic project: her stories, particularly those from the years after she learned of the abuse, are full of violated children, negligent mothers and marriages founded on secrets and lies. In the months since, The Times Magazine revisited Munro’s stories, spoke with members of her family and tracked down a number of her unpublished letters. Read the article here.
Cook: The secret to this cacio e pepe is stirring the mostly cooked pasta vigorously so that its starch emulsifies with the seasonings. Listen: Our critic pulled together the week’s most notable new tracks, including a debut solo album by Blackpink’s Rosé. Plant: Indoor green spaces, even small ones, have physical and mental benefits. Here’s how to bring more nature into your home and workspaces. Play: Spelling Bee, the Mini Crossword, Wordle and Sudoku. Find all our games here. That’s it for today. See you tomorrow. — Gaya We welcome your feedback. Send us your suggestions at briefing@nytimes.com.
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