Welcome to the Weekend Briefing. On the World News podcast: Syrian police arrested Reuters journalist Suleiman al-Khalidi in 2011 during an uprising against Bashar al-Assad. Hear what he witnessed then and what it was like to see prisoners freed after Assad's downfall. We take a look at the technology that Brazil is using to crack down on the illicit Amazon gold trade, and this week's edition of City Memo takes you to Madrid. I'll see you again on Jan. 4, 2025. Thank you for sharing Saturdays with me and my colleagues.
Fallout: The opposition-led parliament voted to suspend Yoon Suk Yeol from official duties over his attempt to impose martial law. He is the second conservative president in a row to be impeached.
Fly by night: Bashar al-Assad cut just about everyone loose in his flight from Syria, keeping even relatives in the dark. He urged ground forces to hold out, summoned his media adviser to write a speech and promised his army and security chiefs that Russian help was on their way. One of his maternal cousins died in an attempt to flee by car to Lebanon.
At any speed: Tesla opposes a government car-crash reporting requirement. Elon Musk spent a quarter of a billion dollars on Trump's re-election campaign. The new Trump team recommends getting rid of the rule. Read about Musk's efficiency push for the incoming administration and how it might spur tech deals. We also cover the potential effect of U.S. tariffs on the trucking-industry slump and how deportations could affect the restaurant business.
New prime minister François Bayrou said he faces a Himalaya of a challenge in tackling France's budget deficit. Given that he's President Macron's fourth prime minister in 2024, it's safe to say that Mont Blanc wasn't quite high enough a metaphor.
Speaking of mountains:Israeli troops will spend the winter atop the 2,800-meter-high Mount Hermon (9,186 feet for my fellow Americans), suggesting that Israel will keep its presence in Syria for a while.
Georgian lawmakers elected Mikheil Kavelashvili, a critic of the West, as the country's new president, amid protests against the government over a halt to EU accession talks.
It's probably not the Jersey Devil: The White House, FBI and Homeland Security said they had no evidence that the drones spotted over New Jersey posed national-security or safety threats.
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