Tonight on PBS News Weekend, a lightning offensive by Syrian rebels ends a half century of iron rule.

Then a documentary details how governments use commercial spyware to monitor their own citizens.

I realized, well, this is not an incidental issue.

This is not some esoteric human rights problem that's far away.

This is coming for all of us.

And from StoryCorps, a tale of small gestures that mean a great deal in two lives.

Good evening. I'm John Yang. For more than a half century, Syria had been ruled with an iron fist by the Assad regime, first Hafazal Assad, then his son Bashar. It all came to an end this weekend with stunning lightning speed as rebels moved into the Syrian capital of Damascus, took the city, and with it it the country. Across Syria today, gunfire

chanting and cheers in celebration of the end of an era. The rebels faced no opposition as they

advanced overnight. Russian state media said President Bashar al-Assad fled to Moscow, where he was granted

asylum. At a mosque in the capital city, the leader of the largest insurgent group addressed

his fighters. This victory, my brothers, is for the Islamic nation. This victory is a new history

for the region.

Ordinary citizens roamed the presidential palace in Damascus, rifling rooms and taking selfies.

Across the country, symbols of the Assad family's repressive 53 years in power came toppling down.

In 1974, President Nixon became the first U.S. President to visit Syria, meeting with

Hafez al-Assad, who had seized power in a coup.

Hafez and son Bashar ruled Syria by relying heavily on security forces to crush dissent,

and they forged alliances with

Russia and Iran.

A civil war ignited in 2011 killed hundreds of thousands and forced millions of Syrians

to flee their homeland.

Today the Syrian diaspora celebrated in Urbila Iraq, in Istanbul, in Paris.

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