Good evening. I'm Jeff Bennett. And I'm Omna Nawaz. On the news hour tonight, a new day in Syria.

Rebel forces who ousted Bashad al-Assad's regime seek to build a functioning government. We get the Biden administration's view on the seismic shift.

The future of the Syrian people is going to depend on the choices that they make.

A person of interest is arrested in the manhunt following the shooting death of United Healthcare CEO in New York City.

And in his first network TV interview since winning the election, President-elect Trump lays out his agenda on the border,

tariffs and potential political retribution.

Welcome to the News Hour. After 13 brutal years of war, Syrians breathed free today in Damascus and most of the nation after the fall of the autocratic Assad dynasty.

Bashar al-Assad and his family are now in Russia, which extended them asylum. The lightning-fast seizure of the nation by insurgent forces over the last two weeks

rocked the region and the world.

But for many Syrians today, the task after the fall of Assad was to take stock

of the catastrophic damage done by over five decades of their rule and what the future holds.

Nick Schifrin starts our coverage.

In Free Damascus today, the foot soldiers of revolution celebrated the birth of a new nation.

And a new generation that will barely know a ruler named Assad.

Syrians who've known nothing but Assad called today victory.

And flew the flag of the Syrian Republic, now the flag of free Syria.

This great and glorious day is the new Independence Day of Syria.

People are delirious with happiness here.

Yesterday was a great day, and we are waiting for the country's children to return home

to enjoy it.

The country that millions fled, now tens of thousands of cars, tens of thousands of families,

returning to their homes.

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