• Biden issues record pardons: U.S. President Joe Biden is commuting the sentences of roughly 1,500 people who were released from prison and placed on home confinement during the COVID-19 pandemic and pardoning 39 Americans convicted of nonviolent crimes.
• Trump invites Xi to inauguration: President-elect Donald Trump has invited Chinese leader Xi Jinping to attend his Jan. 20 inauguration.
• Louisville police reform: Louisville, Kentucky, agrees to reform its police department after an investigation prompted by the 2020 killing of Breonna Taylor found a pattern of discrimination against Black residents. 
• British LGBTQ+ veterans: British military veterans who were discharged or suffered other forms of discrimination will receive up to $89,300.

Read these news briefs.

For Israel, like others, the Assad regime’s fall creates challenges. Invoking its security, Israel moved quickly to seize border positions and smash Syrian military equipment. But can it translate its strategic advantage into diplomatic achievements?

More people are seeking homes than there are places to buy or rent, which contributes to high prices. Here’s what led to the housing crisis, and some potential solutions.

Natural disasters are often events that awaken thought. Our writer reflects on honing priorities as a wildfire looms – and building local connections along the way.

Early marriage can perpetuate a cycle of poverty among Nigerian girls. One nonprofit helps young brides and widows work toward self-sufficiency.

This year offered no “Barbenheimer,” but there were still hundreds of films to keep our critic busy. His Top 10 list includes an animated delight, and dramas from around the world that consider the human condition – and what makes a life meaningful.

Just a day after capturing Syria’s capital Dec. 8, the rebel group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) felt compelled to issue a rule for its fighters: Do not interfere with “the right” of women “to choose their attire or appearance.”

Whether the Islamist group – with roots in Al Qaeda – sticks to the rule remains in doubt. In areas long under its control in northwest Syria, HTS has not put any women in high government positions.

Yet the timing was telling. To quickly unify a shattered nation after a half-century of dictatorship, HTS will need the support of Syrian women, whose views on gender equality have risen since the 2011 Arab Spring, the spread of social media, and 13 years of conflict and mass displacement.

“We’re not afraid of them,” a nurse named Noor told the BBC. “I don’t think they will force us to cover ourselves from head to toe.” And, she added, “They are from our country, they are not Islamic State.”

Another woman said, “I believe that the women and men are going to rebuild our country together and Syria will improve.”

Syrian women have always been fighting for a space for themselves and won’t accept being pushed back, says Rim Turkmani, a researcher of the Syrian conflict at the London School of Economics. “And they’re not going to accept just lip service for representation,” she told CNN.

In a 2021 PBS interview, the HTS leader, Ahmed al-Sharaa, said his style of rule will be Islamic, “but not according to the standards of [the Islamic State] or even Saudi Arabia.” Perhaps he has been following the women’s protests in Iran, Saudi Arabia, and a few other Muslim nations.

In a 2024 opinion survey of the Middle East and North Africa, Arab Barometer found most people believe “having women in positions of political power advances women’s rights.” Despite some backsliding, citizens across the region “are still largely supportive of moves towards gender equality.”

After the fall of the Assad regime Sunday, one Syrian woman, Shifaa Sawan, walked the streets of Damascus singing a famous protest song, “Janna, Janna Ya Watana” (“Heaven, Heaven, Our Country Is Heaven”). She told the news site Syria Direct that Syria is no longer a “republic of fear.”

“I hope that, in the new Syria, there will be freedom, dignity, justice and development.”