DAMASCUS –  Syrians strolled through the palaces of President Bashar al-Assad on Sunday following his sudden ouster, wandering from room to room, posing for photographs, and with some taking away items of furniture or ornaments.

Video obtained by Reuters showed people entering the Al-Rawda Presidential Palace, as children ran through the grand, formal rooms and men slid a large trunk across the ornate patterned floor. Several men marched out of the building carrying chairs over their shoulders. In a storeroom, cupboards had been ransacked and objects strewn across the floor.

Video of another palace, the older-style Muhajreen Palace, verified by Reuters, showed groups of men and women walking across a white marble floor and through sets of tall wooden doors. A man carried a vase in his hand, and a large cabinet stood empty with its doors ajar. Chandeliers hung from the ceiling. The scenes were reminiscent of the fall of Saddam Hussein’s Baathist regime in Iraq two decades ago. Then, Iraqis saw the extravagant luxury of his palaces where the bathrooms were famously fitted with gold taps.

Syrian rebels seized control of Damascus on Sunday, forcing Assad to flee and ending his family’s decades of rule after more than 13 years of civil war in a seismic moment for the Middle East. Another video verified by Reuters showed rebels firing celebratory shots at the entrance gate to the New Shaab Palace (Peoples’ Palace), a vast complex on the western edge of Damascus that sits atop Mount Mazzeh.

“The army of Islam (the rebels) is in the presidential palace. God is great, we have seized control of it,” said one of the rebels. The group then filmed their walk through the deserted grounds and the stark, monumentalist architecture of the palace. Assad, who had not spoken in public since the sudden rebel advance a week ago, flew out of Damascus for an unknown destination earlier on Sunday, two senior army officers told Reuters, as rebels said they had entered the capital with no sign of army deployments. Russia, one of Assad’s closest allies, confirmed that Assad had left Syria but did not say where he was, including whether Moscow had given him refuge. (Reuters)

USA – President-elect Donald Trump previewed immigration actions he plans to take in his first days in office and outlined how he expects his Justice Department to handle investigations into his political opponents and the criminal cases against January 6 rioters in his first major television interview since winning November’s presidential election.

In the wide-ranging interview with NBC’s Kristen Welker that aired Sunday, Trump reiterated his campaign pledge to launch mass deportations of people who immigrated to the US illegally and to end birthright citizenship, but he also suggested he’s willing to work with Democrats to craft a plan to protect thousands of immigrants who were brought to the US as children — marking his clearest comments yet on the subject.

“We have to do something about the Dreamers, because these are people that have been brought here at a very young age, and many of these are middle-aged people now. They don’t even speak the language of their country. And yes, we’re going to do something about that,” Trump said in his “Meet the Press” interview, which was taped Friday.

“I will work with the Democrats on a plan, and if we can come up with a plan — but the Democrats have made it very, very difficult to do anything. Republicans are very open to the Dreamers,” he added. Trump had previously expressed some support for protecting Dreamers during his first term, although his administration tried to end Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, the Obama-era program that protects them from deportation. That attempt was blocked by the Supreme Court in 2020.

Trump said his administration’s mass deportation efforts will target people with criminal histories, but indicated it could go beyond deporting criminals — without specifying who the “other people outside of criminals” would be. When asked whether he plans to deport every person who has entered the country illegally, he said, “I think you have to do it.” “It’s a very tough thing to do,” he said, adding, “you know, you have rules, regulations, laws. They came in illegally.”

Asked about families with mixed immigration status — where parents are in the country illegally but their children are not — Trump said, “I don’t want to be breaking up families, so the only way you don’t break up the family is you keep them together, and you have to send them all back.” Trump also doubled down on his campaign promise to end birthright citizenship, which is protected by the 14th Amendment, and suggested he may attempt to overturn the right through executive action. (CNN)

DOHA – Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said on Sunday that Syria’s new administration must be inclusive, because Syrian people would determine their own future after the ousting of President Bashar al-Assad by rebels.

Syrian rebels declared Assad’s ouster after seizing control of Damascus on Sunday, ending his family’s iron-fisted rule after more than 13 years of civil war. In a press conference in Doha, Fidan said the Syrian people were not in a position to rebuild on their own and international actors and regional powers had to act with prudence and preserve the country’s territorial integrity. Terrorist organisations must not be allowed to take advantage of the situation, he added.

“As of this morning, Syria has reached a stage where Syrian people will shape the future of their own country. Today there is hope,” Fidan said. “The new (Syrian) administration must be established in an orderly manner, the principle of inclusiveness must never be compromised, there must never be a desire for revenge… It is time to unite and reconstruct the country,” he added.

Asked about the whereabouts of Assad, Fidan said he believed he was out of the country. He said Turkey had no contact with Assad despite a call from President Tayyip Erdogan to hold normalisation talks, after years of animosity. Fidan added Ankara had reached out to Assad but all efforts had failed.

Turkey has said it did not support the rebel operation in northern Syria, and that Assad’s refusal to engage in a serious political solution had triggered his downfall. Fidan also said that chemical weapons and related materials should be secured, and that Turkey – host to some 3 million migrants from Syria – had started work on their return. (Reuters)

VATICAN – Pope Francis issues an appeal to state leaders and to the international community to ensure a ceasefire may be reached in countries suffering from war before Christmas. Pope Francis on Sunday launched a plea directly to political leaders and to the international community that ceasefires may be agreed upon in all countries torn by war before Christmas.

“I appeal to Governments and the International Community, that a ceasefire may be reached on all war fronts by the Christmas celebrations,” he said during the Angelus prayer. His words followed his request that all men and women of goodwill join in prayer for peace in war-torn countries worldwide.

“Let us continue to pray for peace, in tormented Ukraine, in the Middle East – Palestine, Israel, Lebanon, and now Syria – in Myanmar, in Sudan, and wherever people suffer from war and violence,” the Pope pleaded. His reiterated appeal comes as violence continues to rage in Gaza, where over 40,300 people have been killed since the Hamas attack on Israel on 7 October 2023 and in neighbouring Lebanon where Israeli attacks have also escalated in the past months; as Ukraine recently marked the tragic milestone of 1,000 days from a full-blown Russian invasion of the country; in Myanmar where civil war has been ongoing g since a military coup overthrew the government in 2021; in Sudan where fighting between the army and paramilitary rebels has killed over 60,000 people and displaced millions since April 2023. The Pope also mentioned the volatile situation in Syria where a 14-year conflict appears to have come to a head in the past hours with rebels claiming to have captured the capital, Damascus. (Vaticannews)