Wednesday Briefing: A wave of post-Assad attacks

December 11, 2024

	By Gaya Gupta

Good morning. We’re covering strikes in Syria and the man charged in the killing of a C.E.O. in Manhattan.

Plus, how Netflix brought a fictional town to life.

A military vehicle passes through the gate in a fence.

An Israeli military vehicle entering the buffer zone with Syria. Jalaa Marey/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Syria was hit with a wave of post-Assad attacks

Israel said that it had destroyed Syria’s navy in overnight airstrikes, as it continued to pound targets in the country despite warnings that its operations there could ignite a new conflict and jeopardize the transition to an interim government.

Israeli military officials characterized the operations as defensive, saying it was striking suspected chemical weapons stockpiles to prevent them from falling “into the hands of extremists.”

Since the fall of President Bashar al-Assad on Sunday, Israeli warplanes have conducted hundreds of strikes in Syria, according to monitors, and Israeli ground forces made their first overt entry into Syrian territory in more than 50 years. The U.N. special envoy for Syria called on Israel to halt its military operations. These are the powers jockeying for influence in the area.

Even as rebels try to build a government after taking Damascus, armed groups with competing interests are still fighting for territory and power. In northern Syria, fierce fighting took place yesterday between rebels supported by Turkey and Kurdish forces backed by the U.S.

Here’s what else to know:

Syria’s transitional government: The rebel alliance forming an interim government appointed Mohammed al-Bashir as prime minister.

Prison search: A Syrian volunteer rescue group said it had finished searching for detainees at “the infamous Sednaya Prison” on the outskirts of Damascus. Thousands of people remain missing, the group said.

On the ground: Christina Goldbaum, a Times correspondent, traveled to Damascus to find out how residents were reacting to the sudden breakthrough in the 13-year civil war.

A group of police officers escort a man in an orange shirt to the door of a building.

Luigi Mangione being brought to a courthouse in Pennsylvania yesterday. Rachel Wisniewski for The New York Times

A man was charged in the C.E.O.’s killing in New York

Luigi Mangione, was charged with murder on Monday in the assassination of Brian Thompson, the chief executive of UnitedHealthcare. He was arrested at a McDonald’s in Pennsylvania after another customer recognized the suspect and an employee called the authorities.

Mangione, 26, saw the killing as a “symbolic takedown,” according to an internal police report that detailed a manifesto found with him at the time of his arrest. “Frankly these parasites simply had it coming,” the manifesto was quoted as saying. Here’s the latest.

The report, which was obtained by The Times, said the manifesto also indicated that he saw the killing as a direct challenge to the health care industry’s “alleged corruption and ‘power games.’”

More on the suspect: He was an Ivy League tech graduate who had suffered physical and psychological pain in recent months.

Benjamin Netanyahu, prime minister of Israel, stands smiling and wearing a suit in a crowded room, with his hands touching the wooden backrest of a bench.

Pool photo by Menahem Kahana

Netanyahu testified at his corruption trial

Eight years after the police started investigating him, and four years after his trial began, Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, took the stand yesterday for the first time. He is accused of bribery, fraud and breach of trust — all of which he denies. It was a humbling moment that he seemed determined to transcend.

“I am shocked by the magnitude of this absurdity,” Netanyahu said.

What’s next: The trial is expected to continue for years, and Netanyahu will most likely take the stand several times a week for several months. We broke down the case for you here.

MORE TOP NEWS

Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology via Associated Press

The Philippines: Nearly 90,000 people on the central island of Negros were ordered to evacuate after a volcano erupted.
U.S.: Pete Hegseth’s path to secretary of defense just got easier. A holdout senator said she wouldn’t stand in his way, and hinted at being pressured by Trump supporters.
Climate: Wildfires and thawing permafrost are causing the Arctic to add carbon dioxide to the atmosphere for perhaps the first time in thousands of years.
South Korea: Lee Jae-myung, the main opposition leader, is leading efforts to impeach President Yoon Suk Yeol. He could also end up leading the country.
South China Sea: Taiwan is on high alert over what it said was China’s largest deployment of naval and Coast Guard ships in decades.
Tech: TikTok asked a federal court to temporarily freeze a law that would force its Chinese parent company to sell the app or face a ban in the U.S.
Media: Rupert Murdoch lost his attempt to give full control of his empire to his son Lachlan and lock in Fox News’s right-wing editorial slant.
The Netherlands: The police said three people were arrested in connection with an explosion at a building in The Hague last weekend that killed at least six people.

Sports

Soccer: The Norwegian Football Federation criticized FIFA over its “flawed” bidding process for the men’s World Cup.
Football: Olympic discus champion Roje Stona has been recruited for the N.F.L.’s 2025 International Player Pathway program.
Formula 1: Carlos Sainz’s chapter with Ferrari closed with gratitude and one final moment on the podium.

MORNING READ

A photo illustration featuring the faces of Bernard Arnault, François Ruffin and Bernard Squarcini.

Illustration by Cristiana Couceiro; Photographs by Alamy

Bernard Arnault, head of the LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton luxury conglomerate, squared off in a courtroom last month with a documentary maker in a case of spying gone wrong. It was a showdown that had been brewing for years. The twisting case has attracted a lot of attention, involving characters called the shark and the mole. There’s also a homeless spy and, of course, Arnault, who is the richest person in France. Read more.

Lives lived: Nikki Giovanni, a prolific star of the Black Arts Movement who wrote irresistibly about race, politics, gender, sex and love in America, died at 81.

CONVERSATION STARTERS

Pool photo by Justin Tallis

A little scruff is enough: Whether on Prince William, above, JD Vance or Jacob Elordi, facial hair gets people talking.
A new home for art: The architect Frida Escobedo drew on her Mexican heritage to reimagine the new Modern and contemporary art wing of the Met.
Turning the page: Sarah Jessica Parker, the actress and publisher, told us that becoming a Booker Prize judge was the “thrill of a life.”

We hope you’ve enjoyed this newsletter, which is made possible through subscriber support. Subscribe to The New York Times .

ARTS AND IDEAS

The fiction town of Macondo, which was built by Netflix from the ground up for the first-ever screen adaptation of “One Hundred Years of Solitude.”

Federico Rios for The New York Times

How Netflix brought a magical town to life

The idyllic town of Macondo in Colombia is the imaginary setting for “One Hundred Years of Solitude,” the 1967 novel that helped Gabriel García Márquez win the Nobel Prize. The author had always refused to create a Hollywood adaptation, insisting that his novel, in which the real and fantastical converge, could never be rendered onscreen. His Macondo, he said, could never be built.

But Netflix built the town from the ground up for the first-ever screen adaptation of the novel. It was one of several ways Netflix overcame García Márquez’s objections to bringing the novel’s magical realism to the screen. Here’s how they did it.

RECOMMENDATIONS

Prosciutto, arugula and creamy cheese top squares of focaccia.

Kelly Marshall for The New York Times

Cook: Loaded focaccia is like a charcuterie board with an edible base.

Train: These tips can help you optimize working out in cold weather.

Discover: Here are our favorite cookbooks of 2024.

Play: Spelling Bee, the Mini Crossword, Wordle and Sudoku. Find all our games here.

That’s it for today. See you tomorrow. — Gaya

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