It's Monday. Welcome to the President's Daily Brief. I'm Mike Baker. Your eyes and ears on the world stage. All right. let's get briefed. We'll kick things off with the

latest out of Syria, where the country is descending into its worst violence since the fall of

former President Bashar al-Assad. With rebel factions fractured and Assad loyalists now fighting back,

the chaos is building.

And we'll have the latest.

Later in the show, a $53 billion Arab-backed plan to rebuild Gaza is now gaining European support,

despite pushback from the U.S. and Israel.

Plus, a South Korean court has ordered the release of impeached President Yun Suk Yol setting the stage for his trial on rebellion charges.

We'll have those details.

And in today's back of the brief, this is an interesting story, a federal judge has ruled in favor of the U.S. state of Missouri in its 24 billion, that's billion with a B, lawsuit against China's Communist Party

over COVID-19. That's a decision that the state attorney's general calls a landmark victory.

But first, today's PDB spotlight. As we've been reporting here on the PDB, Syria has been a powder keg since the fall of Bashar al-Assad, and now, well, the fuse may have been lit.

The interim government, led by former al-Qaeda member Ahmed al-Shara, was supposed to restore order, but instead the country is now spiraling into its worst violence since Assad's fall. Rebel factions

remain fractured, and efforts to unify them into a national army have failed. Fighting has

exploded across Syria in recent days, with heavy clashes between security forces and Assad loyalists

in the coastal cities of Latakia and Tartus.

Much of the violence is concentrated in Alawite strongholds, areas fiercely loyal to Assad, who

himself came from the Alawite sect. The death toll is alarming. Hundreds of civilians have been

killed since Thursday, along with at least 150 security personnel. Government forces say

another 300 have been captured. Eyewitnesses describe execution-style killings, and reports

indicate hospitals have been attacked. Serious transitional government is scrambling to regain control,

forming an emergency committee to investigate human rights violations

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