Thursday Briefing: The struggle for order in Syria
Good morning. We’re covering the rebels’ struggle to create order in Syria and the F.B.I. director plan to resign. Plus, China’s surprising box office hit.
Revenge shadows efforts to restore order in SyriaThe leader of the rebel force that overthrew Bashar al-Assad called on other countries to hand over any “criminals” who had fled Syria so they could be held accountable for the torture or killing of prisoners under al-Assad. It wasn’t immediately clear if the comments were directed at Russia, which invited al-Assad and his family to seek exile there. The remarks by Ahmed al-Shara, leader of the group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, came as a war monitor said that armed groups had carried out retaliatory attacks on civilians in areas that were once considered loyal to Assad. It may be a struggle for the onetime rebels to uphold the rule of law while managing the fierce desire for retribution against members of the Assad regime, which ruled the country with an iron fist for decades. Truce in Manbij: Kurdish-led fighters backed by the U.S. said that they had agreed to a U.S.-brokered cease-fire in the city of Manbij in northern Syria, where they have been battling forces backed by Turkey. Tour Assad’s former palace: Rebels allowed Ben Hubbard, a New York Times correspondent, and a photographer to explore the presidential palace. U.S. diplomacy: President Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, is scheduled to meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Israel today. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will visit Turkey and Jordan this week to discuss the developments in Syria.
The F.B.I. director said he intends to resignChristopher Wray, the F.B.I. director, said he would step down in January. The decision comes after President-elect Donald Trump announced his intention to replace Wray with a longtime loyalist, Kash Patel, before the director’s 10-year term expired. Wray’s F.B.I. repeatedly investigated Trump, including by searching his Mar-a-Lago estate in 2022 for classified documents. “I’m very unhappy with the things he’s done,” Trump said in an interview broadcast Sunday. Hegseth controversy: Senator Susan Collins of Maine met with Pete Hegseth, Trump’s pick for defense secretary, and pressed him on a range of issues, including the sexual assault allegations against him and the role of women in the military. She has not made a decision on supporting him yet. More on the transition: Trump selected Andrew Ferguson, a current Republican member of the Federal Trade Commission, to be its chair, and picked Mark Meador, a former Senate Republican antitrust counsel, to join the agency. The moves effectively squeezed out the current Democratic chair, Lina Khan.
The gold rush at the heart of Sudan’s civil warWar has shattered Sudan’s economy, collapsed its health system and reduced much of Khartoum, the once-proud capital, to rubble. The country is stalked by ethnic cleansing and one of the world’s worst famines. But the gold trade is booming. There are rich deposits of the precious metal across Sudan and production and trade has surpassed prewar levels. Billions of dollars in gold are flowing out of Sudan at a time when world prices are hitting record highs. A windfall like that could help the legions of hungry and homeless people. Instead, warring factions are using the gold to bankroll their fight, employing what U.N. experts call “starvation tactics” against tens of millions of people. Read more. |
