Bashar al-Assad Flees Syria

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Quick Hits: Today’s Top Stories

• Syrian rebel forces took control of the capital of Damascus over the weekend, forcing the long-time dictator, President Bashar al-Assad, to flee to Russia on Sunday, and marking the end of his family’s half-century rule. Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, one of the main rebel groups that led the offensive, began as an al-Qaeda offshoot, and the U.S. currently designates it as a terrorist organization, although its leader has tried to publicly distance the group from its terrorist roots. President Joe Biden celebrated the fall of the Assad regime, calling it a “fundamental act of justice” and a “historic opportunity,” but he also emphasized the “risk and uncertainty” of the situation. Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday that the Israeli military has temporarily seized control of a buffer zone along the Syrian border after Syrian army forces withdrew from their positions.
• The Romanian Constitutional Court ruled on Friday to cancel the results of the November 24 first round of voting in the country’s presidential elections following allegations that Russian interference affected the outcome. The court had initially validated the results in a decision earlier last week, and the runoff election was scheduled to be held on Sunday. But after Romanian intelligence and security officials declassified details of a widescale Russian campaign to influence the election, the court reversed itself. The ruling, a first in Romanian history, means the country will have to restart its entire electoral process.
• South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol dodged an impeachment vote on Saturday after lawmakers from his People’s Power Party boycotted the vote. But the party’s leader, Han Dong-hoon, claimed Sunday that Yoon would step down and the country’s prime minister would manage the president’s responsibilities in the interim. “The president will not be involved in any state affairs including diplomacy before his exit,” he said. It was unclear as of Monday morning if Han was speaking for the entire party and whether Yoon had agreed to step down. Opposition lawmakers criticized the plan for the prime minister to step in, saying Yoon should resign immediately or be impeached.
• The D.C. federal appeals court on Friday upheld the law requiring TikTok to be divested from its Chinese ownership or else face a ban in the United States, rejecting TikTok’s challenge to the law on free speech grounds. “The First Amendment exists to protect free speech in the United States,” Judge Douglas Ginsburg wrote in the majority opinion. “Here the Government acted solely to protect that freedom from a foreign adversary nation and to limit that adversary’s ability to gather data on people in the United States.” TikTok suggested it plans to appeal the decision to the Supreme Court, but barring that appeal, or a sale of the company to bring it into compliance with U.S. law, the app is scheduled to be banned in the U.S. beginning on January 19, 2025. 
• In his first post-election network television interview, President-elect Donald Trump on Sunday outlined some of the top priorities for his second term. The president-elect told NBC News’ Kristen Welker that he still plans to end birthright citizenship on day one of his presidency—citing only “executive action”—and will “most likely” pardon people convicted for their involvement in the January 6 attack on the Capitol, possibly with “some exceptions.” Trump reaffirmed his intent to pursue widescale deportations of illegal immigrants beginning with people who have criminal records but widening deportations to include the millions of people here illegally. He also said he wanted to work with Democrats to come up with a plan to allow “DREAMers”—people who were brought to the U.S. illegally as children—to stay. Trump also said he has no plans to ask Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell to step down, despite criticizing Powell earlier this year and claiming the Fed’s monetary policy was intended to help Democrats’ electoral chances.
• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Sunday that 43,000 Ukrainian soldiers have been killed and 370,000 wounded since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, marking the first official accounting of Ukrainian losses since February, when the death toll was put at 31,000. The figures came a day after Zelensky met with President-elect Donald Trump in Paris. “Zelensky and Ukraine would like to make a deal and stop the madness,” Trump wrote on Truth Social following the meeting, which Zelensky simply described as productive. Meanwhile, the Biden administration announced a nearly $1 billion military aid package to Ukraine on Saturday, the 22nd package the administration has sent via its Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative, which gives Ukraine the ability to purchase capabilities directly from U.S. defense contractors.
• Mass protests in Georgia against the ruling party Georgian Dream’s decision to suspend European Union membership talks continued into their 11th straight day on Sunday. Thousands of people have taken to the streets even as authorities have carried out an increasingly violent crackdown that has drawn condemnation from European officials. 

Assad’s Regime Is No More

Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad—responsible for sweeping human rights abuses, brutal repression, and crimes against humanity perpetrated against his own people—fled Syria on Sunday in what marks the end of more than five decades of the Assad family’s despotic rule. 

Assad’s ignominious departure signaled the toppling of the Syrian government after the rebel coalition’s surprise, rapid-fire advance across government-held territory. Now, the ground is shifting in Syria, but it’s not clear what the landscape will look like when the tremors stop.

The Syrian civil war started in 2011 and had seemed more or less frozen in recent years, but warmed up again late last month as a coalition of Syrian rebels—led by the Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS)—launched a blitz across government-held areas. In city after city, the government forces fell away with little serious resistance. In just three days, the rebels had taken Syria’s second-largest city, Aleppo—the first time they’d set foot there since 2016. Days later, they took Hama, a key city on the road to the capital, Damascus. Next, rebels took Homs, the final major obstacle before reaching Damascus on Sunday. 

As the rebels closed in, Assad …

As a non-paying reader, you are receiving a truncated version of The Morning Dispatch. Our 946-word item on the Assad regime’s fall is available in the members-only version of TMD.

Biden’s Hail and Farewell to Africa

During a visit to Angola last week, President Joe Biden spent several days trying to make the case that Africa would be a key part of U.S. strategy going forward. “The United States is all-in on Africa,” he said on Tuesday. 

“Africa is the future,” Biden proclaimed Wednesday. Too bad that until last week, neither he, nor any sitting U.S. president, had stepped foot on the continent since 2015. 

Biden’s likely final diplomatic trip—and the first ever to Angola by a sitting president—was meant to signal the U.S. commitment to engagement with the continent in the unfolding era of great-power competition with China. But it’s yet to be seen whether the incoming Trump administration will have any interest in maintaining the Biden administration’s belated focus on sub-Sarahan Africa, and whether, even if it does, the U.S. can hope to outcompete China for …

As a non-paying reader, you are receiving a truncated version of The Morning Dispatch. Our 1,730-word item on the competition for influence in Africa is available in the members-only version of TMD.

Worth Your Time

• Writing for The Economist, Jesse Singal detailed the lawsuit brought against Johanna Olson-Kennedy, one of the world’s leading youth gender medicine clinicians, by a former patient who underwent gender treatment but has since de-transitioned. “Dr Olson-Kennedy is being sued by a former patient, Clementine Breen, who believes that she was harmed precisely by a lack of gatekeeping,” Singal wrote. “And many of Ms Breen’s claims appear to be backed up by Dr Olson-Kennedy’s own patient notes, which Ms Breen and her legal team have shared with The Economist. … The lawsuit’s defendants are Dr Olson-Kennedy, the gender therapist to whom Dr Olson-Kennedy referred her, the surgeon who performed the double mastectomy and 20 as-yet-unnamed ‘Doe Individuals’ who were agents, servants, and employees of their co-defendants.’ Ms Breen’s attorneys accuse them of medical negligence on a number of grounds, including an alleged lack of psychological assessment, poor management of Ms Breen’s mental health and a lack of concern about the effects of puberty blockers on Ms Breen’s bone health.” 
• In an essay for the New York Times, Georgian writer Anna Japaridze and photographer Frankie Mills documented what’s been happening on the streets of Georgia in recent days and weeks. “In the capital city of Tbilisi, the gates of the Parliament building have been battered, its windows smashed and burning objects thrown through,” Japaridze wrote. “For more than a week, Rustaveli Avenue, the city’s central street, has been a nightly battleground of tear gas and pyrotechnics. Anti-government protesters hurl fireworks that explode over the heads of the special forces and the lights of laser pointers swarm like insects. People pry off anything that will come loose — benches, plant pots, construction hoarding—and feed it into makeshift fires or onto barricades. The state responds with water cannons and tear gas, which seeps down the avenue, stinging our eyes and throats. … But each day the fear of losing momentum increases, as does the fear of the state’s increasing fury.”

Presented Without Comment

Politico: South Korean President Says He Won’t Seek To Impose Martial Law Again, ‘Truly Sorry’ for Anxiety

Also Presented Without Comment

Reuters: Trump and Macron Can’t Let Go of Their Handshake Duel

Also Also Presented Without Comment

New York Post: Juan Soto Signing With Mets on Gargantuan $765 Million Contract As Yankees Miss Out

In the Zeitgeist

Following a devastating fire and painstaking restoration, the Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris reopened on Saturday in a ceremony attended by dozens of world leaders.

Toeing the Company Line

• Ryan Brown, community and partnerships manager, will answer your questions in the December Monthly Mailbag (🔒)! Members can ask him about his job at The Dispatch and why he made the switch from the editorial team to the business side, Mitt Romney’s role in him meeting his wife, and why being a dad is the greatest job in the world.
• In the newsletters: Nick Catoggio unpacked why MAGAworld is rallying around Pete Hegseth’s nomination, Jonah Goldberg made the case for impeaching Joe Biden over the Hunter pardon, Chris Stirewalt drilled down on (🔒) the moderate Democrats and Republicans who outperformed the top of the ticket in competitive districts, and Megan Dent explored the faults of “gentle parenting” in Dispatch Faith.
• On the podcasts: Jonah ruminated on the true form of the flagship podcast, Jamie was joined by Jonathan Spyer on The Dispatch Podcast to discuss the rebel insurgency in Syria, Luis talked to Emma Camp and Christine Emba on The Skiff (🔒) about what recent pop hits have to say about modern dating culture, and Michael discussed (🔒) interfaith cooperation and religious freedom with Asma Uddin.
• On the site over the weekend: Jeffery Tyler Syck explained the true lesson of Wicked, Jessica Schurz took stock of Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour as it comes to a close, and Paul Miller explored two Aesopian and classical metaphors for the cultural position of conservative Christians. 
• On the site: In this week’s Monday Essay, Nathan Beacom explores the writings of the Chinese philosopher Mengzi and his teachings on virtue.