What the prelude to ceasefire looks like in Beirut (tldr; an escalation by any other name): • Evac warnings issued in past hour for 4 areas in central Beirut, followed by air strikes on 3 of them • 33 strikes on wider Beirut today + more across Lebanon ft.com/content/4e43e4…

Lebanon's parliament will vote on a new president Jan 9 Hizbollah's arms will be the most divisive issue in backroom talks over a candidate, analysts told Financial Times Jolt to political deadlock came as Israel shelled border towns, testing a fragile truce on.ft.com/3CRbVfJ

Rebel forces have swept into Syria’s second city Aleppo after mounting a lightning offensive this week. It's the biggest threat in years to Assad’s regime and underscores its weakness after years of domestic and external pressures. Financial Times w/ Andrew England on.ft.com/3Z5ANHS

Me, Charles Lister, Dareen Khalifa Haid Haid, Malik al Abdeh talking to Financial Times Malaika Kanaaneh Tapper (ملايكة) Andrew England on the rebel group launching the unprecedented offensive in Syria #HTS ft.com/content/9449ee…

Euphoria overtakes Syria's capital as the Assad regime falls. People are taking home Bashar and Asma's plates and perfume as they run freely through halls that once symbolized the government's merciless rule on.ft.com/41nLI2s

“Events sped up dramatically…The revolution lasted for 13 years and the regime ended in less than 13 days.” ‘We’ve been waiting 50 years’: #Assad’s fall sparks euphoria in Syrian capital - Malaika Kanaaneh Tapper (ملايكة) buff.ly/3ZJGVHB

Important story by ⁦Malaika Kanaaneh Tapper (ملايكة)⁩: The Assads’ Syrian heartland casts them aside via Financial Times #Syria #Assad on.ft.com/4g5daqd

The mood was charged but the tone polite, as a millennial HTS technocrat asked civil servants exactly what their jobs entailed. A privilege to witness the untangling of the kleptocratic Baathist state with one of its keenest observers Sarah Dadouch | سارة دعدوش on.ft.com/3ZLNFEL

Assad left without so much as a whisper to the people who had pledged fealty to him for decades. He didn’t even bother warning relatives, including cousins, siblings, nieces & nephews, who were left to fend for themselves as the rebels marched on Damascus: on.ft.com/3P6QZnH

On the eve of Dec. 7, Bashar al-Assad & his son got in a Russian vehicle that drove them away from Damascus, leaving his brother, his wife’s nieces & nephews, family friends & loyalists to fend for themselves. Once gone, he instructed his army to fold. on.ft.com/3P6QZnH

Palestinians re-entering their abandoned neighbourhoods have found the bodies of loved ones crushed beneath the ruins of their homes. Gaza’s Civil Defence has said there are 10,000 bodies still trapped below the rubble on.ft.com/40pvqnG

“I can make you anything that enters your mind,” Jaafar Atallah swore when I first asked about his pottery. He was sure, as sure as he'd been that he would find clay wherever he was displaced. A column about how Palestinians know their land for @ft on.ft.com/3DimhWE

Former pro-regime fighters “are ready to jump on any ship” after the disbanding of Syria’s army, says ETANA’s military expert. The coastal region is “fertile ground” for regime remnants to mobilize. ✍️ Sarah Dadouch | سارة دعدوش Malaika Kanaaneh Tapper (ملايكة) 🔗 buff.ly/Oa91uj2 #Latakia

This is Hossam’s team, and we are sharing his final message : “If you’re reading this, it means I have been killed—most likely targeted—by the Israeli occupation forces. When this all began, I was only 21 years old—a college student with dreams like anyone else. For past 18