World Briefing: December 19, 2024

Turkey looks set to play an outsize role in shaping the new Syria after Assad. Turkey is already visibly active in Syria. The Turkish Embassy in Damascus is up and running. And Turkey’s intelligence chief paid a visit to Damascus last week and met with the leader of HTS, Ahmed al-Sharaa — formerly known by his nom de guerre, Abu Mohammed al-Jolani — who is now the de facto leader of the new Syrian administration. In an interview with Turkish newspaper Yeni Safak on Wednesday, HTS leader Sharaa said there would be “strategic relations” between the two countries. “Of the many countries Syrians sought refuge in, Turkey welcomed them and respected them the most. I hope that Syria won’t forget this kindness,” Sharaa said. experts say the new Syrian leaders will have to rely on Turkey to help them establish public order, form institutions and provide resources, like water and electricity. With much of Syria destroyed, Turkish construction companies are likely to seek a lead role in reconstruction. “We trust that Turkey will transfer its experience in economic development to Syria,” Sharaa told Yeni Safak newspaper. Then there is the matter of the Syrian refugees in Turkey. Many of them now speak Turkish fluently and have business relations and other ties with Turkey, which could provide more means of influence for the Turkish government, should they return to Syria - NPR

British troops may be sent to Ukraine to train up soldiers in its war against Russia, the defence secretary has hinted. John Healey has said Britain needs to “make the training a better fit for what the Ukrainians need” and left the door open to it taking place in the war-torn country. On Wednesday, speaking to The Times during a visit to Kyiv, Mr Healey said: “We [need to] make it easier to the Ukrainians to access and we [need to] work with the Ukrainians to help them motivate and mobilise more recruits,” he said to The Times on a visit to Ukraine. Asked if this meant extending training of Ukrainian recruits inside the UK to Ukraine itself, he said: “We will look wherever we can to respond to what the Ukrainians want. They are the ones fighting.” The Independent

President-elect Donald Trump delivered a likely death blow to bipartisan congressional budget negotiations on Wednesday, rejecting the measure as full of giveaways to Democrats after billionaire ally Elon Musk whipped up outrage toward the bill and cheered on Republican lawmakers who announced their opposition. Trump’s joint statement with Vice President-elect JD Vance, which stopped the bill in its tracks, punctuated a daylong torrent of social media posts by Musk attacking the legislation for what he described as excessive spending. “Stop the steal of your tax dollars!” Musk wrote on his social media platform X as he dangled primary challenges against anyone who voted for the budget deal, a threat Trump later echoed in a post of his own. The episode showcased the growing political influence of Musk, whom Trump has selected alongside entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy to spearhead the Department of Government Efficiency, a nongovernmental task force formed to find ways to fire federal workers, cut programs and reduce regulations - AP

Iraqi police intercepted and killed at least two would-be suicide bombers who had planned to assassinate Pope Francis during a papal visit in 2021, the pontiff revealed in his upcoming autobiography. His advisors had warned him against making the three-day trip, which required intense security after years of rising sectarian violence. The country was also in the grip of the COVID-19 pandemic, heightening the risks. But Pope Francis felt he had to go, he wrote in a book except published by the Italian daily Corriere della Sera. As soon as he landed in Baghdad, he was told, “A woman packed with explosives, a young suicide bomber, was heading to Mosul to blow herself up during the papal visit. And a van had also sped off with the same intent,” he wrote in his book Spera, which means “Hope.” The next day, he asked his Swiss Guards what they knew about the attackers. “The commander told me laconically, ‘They are no more.’ The Iraqi police had intercepted them and blown them up,” the pontiff wrote. “This too was the poisonous fruit of war.” The except also describes the pope’s interfaith meetings in Iraq and his attempts to bridge religious divides. Despite previous attempts, his visit marked the first time a pope traveled to the country believed to have been the birth place of Abraham. Spera is set to be released on Jan. 14. - Daily Beast

The U.K. and U.S. governments said the comments of Russian Security Council Deputy Chairman Dmitry Medvedev following the assassination of a high-ranking Russian general by Ukrainian security services were irresponsible and yet another sign of Moscow’s desperation. Medvedev, reacting to an editorial in the London-based Times newspaper that called the December 17 killing of a high-ranking Russian officer “a legitimate act of defense by a threatened nation,” said Moscow should apply the same logic. Medvedev accused NATO and officials from countries allied with Ukraine in its battle to repel invading Russian troops of being participants in the conflict, making them “legitimate military targets.” The U.S. State Department told RFE/RL that Medvedev’s comments amounted to more irresponsible rhetoric from the Kremlin and reiterated that the United States and NATO do not seek a military conflict with Russia - RFE/RL

In the wake of two severed Internet cables in the Baltic Sea, NATO is reportedly working to deploy a new type of underwater surveillance to protect them. NATO Admiral Pierre Vandier told Defence News the alliance is working on a permanent way to have eyes above and below the water for any potential cable sabotage. The network of unmanned surface vehicles (USVs) or drone ships would work like street-lights to find if and when any underwater crime is occuring, both on the surface of the water and below, Vandier told the news site. The new strategy comes just weeks after two Baltic Sea cables - one connecting Lithuania to Sweden and another from Finland to Germany - were disrupted in an apparent sabotage operation - Euronews

This Briefing is reprinted with the author’s permission. Please find the original here.