Rebels assert control after Assad regime collapse

Good morning. In today’s news:

• A $30bn advertising deal is in the offing

• Washington law firms ramp up tariff teams

• How companies are working to retain international recruits

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But we begin with events following the astonishing collapse of President Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Syria.

Rebels in military uniforms from the Islamist group Hayat Tharir al-Sham have today fanned out across Syria’s capital Damascus to restore order after a day of looting.

HTS, led by Abu Mohammad al-Jolani, toppled the government after a 12-day lightning offensive which started in the rebel stronghold of Idlib before capturing Syria’s second-largest city of Aleppo and ending in Damascus, bringing the curtain down on more than 50 years of authoritarian rule in Syria.

Russia, a longtime backer of the Assad regime, said the Syrian president had resigned. Tass, the Russian state newswire, later said Assad and his family had arrived in Moscow where they had been offered asylum.

Turkey’s foreign minister today called on the UN and other international actors to “extend a hand to the Syrian people and support the formation of an inclusive administration” as regional powers scramble to respond to the stunning turn of events.

The UN Security Council is expected to convene a meeting later today to discuss the rapidly evolving situation in Syria. Our live blog is following the latest developments.

And here’s what else we’re keeping tabs on today:

• Economic data: Brazil’s central bank releases the results of a weekly economic survey with more than 100 financial institutions. It will include forecasts for GDP, interest rates and inflation rates. Chile’s central bank publishes trade figures for November and Mexico’s statistics agency publishes consumer price figures for last month.

• Company results: Oracle is expected to report a rise in second-quarter revenue as it benefits from healthy spending on its cloud services amid stiff competition from larger rivals such as Microsoft and Amazon.

• FT and Schroders Business Book of the Year: The winner is announced at a ceremony in London. Here is the shortlist.

Join us on Wednesday as Financial Times editor Roula Khalaf and other FT experts discuss their predictions for the world in 2025. Register here.

Five more top stories

1. Donald Trump yesterday said he would not seek to remove Federal Reserve chair Jay Powell before his term expires in May 2026. But the US president-elect did promise to push ahead with sweeping tariffs, mass deportations and tax cuts in his first days in the White House. Here’s more from Trump’s Meet the Press interview on NBC News.

2. Omnicom and Interpublic are in talks to merge in a deal worth more than $30bn, and that would create the world’s largest advertising agency. The combined US group would probably overtake France’s Publicis and WPP in the UK and reshape the global marketing industry. Here’s how the deal would be structured.

3. China has relaxed its monetary policy, sending stocks and bond prices higher as investors bet policymakers were taking the economic situation more seriously. The party next year “must implement more proactive fiscal policies and moderately loose monetary policies”, the government said in a statement. Read more.

4. US law and accountancy firms are gearing up for a fee bonanza as companies prepare for the possibility of trade wars under the incoming Trump administration. Across Washington, foreign diplomats have been plotting strategies to contain the mercurial president’s threats while businesses have sought to get fresh advisers. Here’s more on how companies are preparing.

5. Efforts by tech billionaires Patrick Soon-Shiong and Jeff Bezos to overhaul two of America’s most storied newspapers in an effort to “restore trust” in the news media are raising alarm among press advocates. Billionaires have emerged as “white knight” acquirers for large regional US newspapers that were cash-strapped but still wielded influence.

The Big Read

South Korea is more globally renowned for its vibrant popular culture and manufacturing prowess than for its traumatic past. But the events of the past week, triggered by President Yoon Suk Yeol’s surprise martial law declaration, demonstrated how the country is still shaped by the particularly brutal period of dictatorship and the subsequent troubled transition to democracy in the 1980s.

We’re also reading . . . 

• Syria: Now we can dream of a future again, writes Ammar Azzouz, a research fellow at the University of Oxford who was born in Homs.

• Geopolitics: Between China’s rise and Donald Trump’s America, Europeans need to learn some lessons about power — and fast, writes Rana Foroohar.

• UK privatisation: Important lessons on its benefits and limits can be drawn on from the country’s varied experience, writes Martin Wolf.

Chart of the day

How do you pay workers in different locations? The traditional answer — based on what the local market demands — is facing new pressure from an increasingly global talent pool. In response, organisations are increasingly adopting a hybrid system for salaries. But complexities may still arise when workers move from one location to another as differences not just in pay but also benefits become apparent.

Take a break from the news

From Taylor Swift to Margrethe Vestager, The FT Weekend Magazine’s Women of 2024 celebrates 25 women who are remaking the world we live in today, written by the world’s most influential women.