Politics
After 13 years of civil war and a long period of stalemate, Syrian rebels swept into Damascus, bringing an end to the Assad regime that has ruled Syria for 53 years. Bashar al-Assad, who had been president since 2000, fled to Moscow. Social media depicted scenes of jubilation in the capital. The rebels were led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, an Islamist group. One of its leaders, Muhammad al-Bashir, is to head a caretaker government until March. The fall of the Assad regime is a huge blow to Iran, which is also contending with the dismantling of Hizbullah, its proxy in Lebanon, by Israel. And also to Russia. Its main military force in the Mediterranean is based at Syrian ports.
Israel took advantage of the situation in Syria to advance its defences. The Israeli air force launched strikes throughout Syria and destroyed storage plants for chemical weapons, which the Assad regime has used on its own people. Israeli tanks rolled into a buffer zone in the Golan Heights. And Israeli warships bombed naval ships in Syria’s ports of Al-Bayda and Latakia. The government said its aim was to “destroy strategic capabilities” that could threaten Israel.
The fall of the Assad regime threw the future of Syrian refugees in Europe into doubt. Several countries, including Germany, announced that they would not process any more applications from Syrians until the situation became clearer. Germany has taken in 1m Syrians. Austria’s interior minister said asylum applications would be reviewed and his department would “prepare an orderly return and deportation programme”. Turkey, where 3m Syrians live, said it would work towards their “safe and voluntary return home”.
Having his day in court
Binyamin Netanyahu testified for the first time at his trial for corruption. The Israeli prime minister said the charges against him were “absurd” and the result of a witch-hunt conducted by Israel’s left-wing media.
John Mahama won a presidential election in Ghana, making it one of several African countries this year to boot out an incumbent. He promised to “reset Ghana”, which is reeling from its worst economic crisis in a generation. Some supporters of the president-elect were arrested for attacking state offices and ransacking buildings, in an attempt to oust officials working under the current government.
As he struggled to announce a new prime minister, Emmanuel Macron was able to take his mind off the political turmoil in France by hosting an event to mark the ceremonial reopening of Notre Dame in Paris. The cathedral’s renovation is a triumph, completed just five years after a fire caused extensive damage to the building. Around 50 world leaders attended the ceremony, including Donald Trump.
In Paris Mr Trump met Volodymyr Zelensky, and later called for an immediate ceasefire in the war in Ukraine to end the “madness”. The next day the Ukrainian president said that a diplomatic resolution made sense, and that he had discussed freezing the current lines of control with Mr Trump.
America’s Treasury Department transferred $20bn to a fund at the World Bank that Ukraine can use for non-military spending. The money comes from frozen Russian assets and forms part of the G7’s $50bn aid package announced in June. The Treasury said the aim is to make Russia “increasingly bear the costs of its illegal war”.
Amid allegations of Russian interference in the country’s presidential election, Romania’s highest court annulled the process shortly before the run-off was due to be held. The winner of the first round, Calin Georgescu, hails from the pro-Russian hard right and was a rank outsider before the vote. The court ruled that the whole process must start again. A new election will take place in 2025.
Hundreds of farmers from across Britain took their tractors on a slow drive through London to protest against the government’s plans to end an exemption on inheritance tax on farms with assets over £1m ($1.3m). The tractors started off from Whitehall, causing gridlock in central London.
South Korea’s president, Yoon Suk Yeol, was placed under formal investigation for his brief imposition of martial law. MPs fell short of the votes needed to impeach Mr Yoon but his party delegated his authority to the prime minister, leading to confusion about who was leading the country. Mr Yoon has apologised for his actions, but has vowed to “fight until the end”. The justice ministry has told him to remain in South Korea.
China sent dozens of naval and coastguard vessels into waters stretching from Japan to the South China Sea. It was the country’s largest maritime operation since 1996, said Taiwan, which China claims. The drills appeared to be an expression of anger over visits by Taiwan’s president, Lai Ching-te, to Hawaii and the American territory of Guam.
India’s opposition parties submitted a motion to impeach the vice-president, the first-ever attempt to remove someone from the country’s second-highest office. The opposition claims that Jagdeep Dhankhar has been “extremely biased” as chairman of the upper house of parliament and acted like a spokesman for the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party. There are not enough votes to remove him, but the motion will worsen the already fraught relationship between the government and opposing parties.
President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of Brazil underwent an emergency brain operation to drain internal bleeding. The hematoma is linked to a minor haemorrhage that was caused by the president slipping in a bathroom in October and hitting his head. After the operation Mr da Silva had another medical procedure to prevent further bleeding in his brain. He is still expected to return to work soon.
At least 180 Haitians were murdered in Port-au-Prince by a gang whose leader believed they had used witchcraft to make his son sick. The victims were mostly elderly people. The UN says at least 5,000 people have been killed in Haiti this year. An international police force is ill-equipped to quell the violence.
The crypto-country
In what would be a boost for Nayib Bukele, El Salvador’s president, the government was reported to be inching closer to agreeing a deal with the IMF for a $1.3bn loan programme. The Central American country will allay the IMF’s concerns about bitcoin, the sticking point for a deal, by making it voluntary instead of compulsory legal tender for local businesses.