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President Bashar Al-Assad's regime in Syria has fallen.

It happened after a sudden offensive by the Islamist militant group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and allied rebel factions.

The offensive lasted just 12 days and saw two key cities - Homs and the capital Damascus - taken over the weekend.

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Donald Trump has said he will hit China, Mexico and Canada with new tariffs on day one of his presidency, in an effort to force them to crack down on illegal immigration and drug smuggling into the US.

The US president-elect said he would sign an executive order imposing a 25% tariff on all goods coming from Mexico and Canada, after being inaugurated on 20 January 2025.

He also said "we will be charging China an additional 10% tariff, above any additional tariffs" until it cracked down on fentanyl smuggling.

The threat could mark a major escalation in tensions with the US's three top trading partners. It could also lead to higher prices for Americans, since tariffs work as a form of tax on imports.

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Crowds have gathered in the centre of Syria's capital Damascus to celebrate the fall of the Assad regime, bringing the family's 50-year rule to a sudden end.

The swift offensive by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and allied rebel factions started just 12 days ago.

The coalition quickly captured Aleppo, before sweeping southwards to Damascus.

The military then collapsed and former president Bashar al-Assad fled to Russia.

On Monday, people in Syria have described their tentative hope, and their fears, as they look towards an uncertain future.

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Rebel fighters have captured the Syrian capital of Damascus, effectively toppling Bashar al-Assad's regime that has been in power in the country since 1971.

Forces led by opposition group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) entered the city in the early hours of Sunday morning, before appearing on state television to declare Syria to now be "free".

Assad, who's now reported to be in Russia where he's been granted asylum, fled after HTS took control of Damascus.

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President Bashar al-Assad’s downfall, swept from power by rebel fighters, ends more than half a century of Syria’s rule by a family dynasty.

When Bashar Assad became President following his father, he was hailed as a reformer and courted by western leaders.

But mass protests in 2011 during the Arab Spring led to brutal repression and a civil war that claimed hundreds of thousands of lives and tore Syria apart.

Clive Myrie presents BBC News at Ten reporting by Jeremy Bowen.Subscribe here: http://bit.ly/1rbfUog

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BBC journalist Barbara Plett Usher entered Damascus as rebel forces seized the Syrian capital and President Bashar Al Assad fled the country.

Later, Russia confirmed that Syria’s leader had arrived in Moscow and being given asylum.

Clive Myrie presents BBC News at Ten reporting from Barbara Plett Usher and Feras Kilani in Damascus and Steve Rosenberg in Moscow, on a momentous day in the Middle East.

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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has called the downfall of Bashar al-Assard in Syria an “historic day" for the Middle East and vowed to "take action against possible threats" in the country.

Israel’s military has moved reinforcements to the occupied Golan Heights - which it captured from Syria in 1967.

Netanyahu has announced his forces would temporarily seize the so-called buffer zone between the two countries which has existed since 1974.

He posted on X that the collapse of the Assad regime "offers great opportunity", but caveats that it is also "fraught with significant dangers".

The IDF also warned residents in five villages in southern Syria to stay in their homes because Israel would not hesitate to act if it felt it needed to.

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Reinforcement learning - where the machines are taught to mimic humans - is how AI is trained.

It aims to make the robots less robotic, and more multi skilled.

BBC’s Lara Lewington has gone to the world leading MIT computer science and artificial intelligence lab to teach the robots so they can behave as humanly as possible.

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This special report for 100 Women asks: Is Iceland the best place in the world to be a woman? The country tops world rankings when it comes to gender parity: parental leave conditions are so good that nearly 90% of working-age women have jobs, and progressive teaching methods aim at reversing gender stereotypes.

But it is also a country with persistently high rates of gender-based violence: about 40% of women subjected to physical and sexual violence – significantly higher than the global average. Is Iceland the gender equality paradise it is branded to be?

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Syrian rebel forces in Damascus have declared the capital city "free" of Bashar al-Assad after nearly 25 years of rule, as the former ruler is said to have left by plane for an unknown destination.

The initial offensive to defeat Assad's regime was led by the Islamist militant group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) - which was set up in 2012 under a different name, al-Nusra Front, and pledged allegiance to al-Qaeda the following year.

HTS publicly broke ranks with al-Qaeda in 2016, but is still designated as a terrorist organisation by the UN, US, Turkey and other countries.

The US has named the group's leader, Abu Mohammed al-Jawlani, as a specially designated global terrorist and offered a $10m reward for information that leads to his capture.

Jawlani told CNN on Friday that "the goal of the revolution remains the overthrow of this regime" and that he planned to create a government based on institutions and a "council chosen by the people".

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