Balance of Power
Israel and Turkey are seeking to shore up their interests along the border with Syria.
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A joke currently doing the rounds in Turkey is that it’s about to become “neighbors” with Israel due to the turmoil in Syria.

While that’s an obvious exaggeration, a blurring of Syria’s borders with Israel to the southwest and Turkey to the north is already underway, as the two nations seek to shore up their interests in the region.

Turkey quickly emerged as a clear winner following the toppling of Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad by Islamist-led rebels two weeks ago.

US President-elect Donald Trump called the country a key player in shaping a post-Assad nation and footage of a warm embrace between the Turkish foreign minister and Syria’s new leader when they met yesterday was the latest evidence of its influence.

Turkey has security concerns in northern Syria over the presence of US-backed Kurdish forces, which it says are militants with links to the outlawed PKK.

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s ultimate aim is to create a buffer zone along the entire 900-kilometer (560-mile) Syria-Turkey border, though that looks ambitious.

Israel appears equally keen to seize the moment. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is wary of a new threat after more than a year battling Iran-backed groups Hamas and Hezbollah, and wasted little time carrying out air strikes on Syrian military facilities.

Israel has also extended its control over the strategic Golan Heights and wants to expand settlements there. The area offers fertile land and is an important source of water.

The government in Ankara perhaps has the strongest incentive to secure influence over how Syria is eventually run.

Turkey hosts more than 3 million refugees from its southern neighbor — a legacy of a more than 13-year war — while Turkish companies would be at the front of the line to benefit from postwar reconstruction. — Beril Akman

IDF soldiers on the Syrian side of the border in the Golan Heights. Photographer: Kobi Wolf/Bloomberg

Global Must Reads

Trump’s second US presidential term doesn’t start for a month, but his trade warnings are already upending global politics, helping trigger a cabinet crisis in Canada and weakening already-wobbling governments in Europe. Panama’s president yesterday rebuffed Trump’s threat to reimpose US control over the Panama Canal, saying that sovereignty over the waterway isn’t negotiable.

WATCH: Panamanian President José Raúl Mulino rejected Trump’s threat to reimpose US control over the Panama Canal. Jill Disis reports on Bloomberg TV.

Trump meanwhile sought to play down concerns about the influence of Elon Musk on his incoming administration, saying that he — and not the world’s richest man — will be in charge. Musk, who Trump has tapped to lead a cost-cutting and deregulation effort called the Department of Government Efficiency, took aim at the Federal Reserve today, saying in a post on his X platform that the US central bank is “absurdly overstaffed.”

French Prime Minister François Bayrou is running out of time to meet a self-imposed deadline of naming a new cabinet before Wednesday that won’t be quickly toppled by another no-confidence vote. The top priority for Bayrou and his new government will be crafting a 2025 budget to replace emergency legislation that ensures the minimum level of spending to avoid a shutdown.

Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico said he discussed the looming end of a natural-gas supply deal with Russian President Vladimir Putin during a rare visit to Moscow by a European leader yesterday. Fico said Putin confirmed that Russia was ready to continue delivering gas to the West via Ukraine, but this would be “practically impossible” after Jan. 1 given opposition in Kyiv.

Putin, right, and Fico in Moscow yesterday. Photographer: Gavriil Grigorov/Sputnik/AFP/Getty Images

More than 50 Ontario lawmakers from Justin Trudeau’s Liberal Party came to a “consensus” at the weekend that he must step down as prime minister, the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. reported. Trudeau’s government, which lacks a majority and relies on other parties to pass legislation, has been in turmoil since Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland resigned last week, saying she and the premier were at odds over policy.

Taiwan’s government said a legal change to budget rules could derail its 2025 spending plan, underscoring challenges the opposition is posing to the new leader of the democracy at the core of China-US tensions.

Italian officials are growing concerned about the prospect of an increased French presence in its finance industry, with two major deals in the works that could potentially reshape the market.

Romanian Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu is poised to stay in power with the backing of a new coalition that will aim to end the country’s biggest political crisis in decades.

Mozambique’s Constitutional Council will declare the final outcome of disputed Oct. 9 elections today, with the opposition leader threatening “chaos” if it confirms what he calls a fraudulent result.

Trump hinted that he still wants to buy Greenland, a self-ruling territory of Denmark, saying that US ownership and control of the island is an “absolute necessity” for national security.

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Chart of the Day

Chinese automakers captured their smallest share of Europe’s electric-vehicle market in eight months in November, after new tariffs added as much as 35% to the cost of importing cars to the region. The EU imposed the additional levies following an investigation that concluded state aid had given China’s EV industry an unfair advantage.

And Finally

Russia faces increasing difficulty shipping commodities to China through its vast eastern rail network, a sign of the growing economic challenges stemming from war and sanctions over its invasion of Ukraine, despite the Kremlin’s assurances that all is well. State-owned Russian Railways last week approved a 30% cut in its investment program for next year amid soaring borrowing costs, Tass news agency reported. An increase in war-related cargoes is compounding existing bottlenecks, while sanctions weigh on cross-border payments.

Thanks to the 17 people who correctly answered the Friday quiz and congratulations to Elaine Milbank, who was first to name France as the country that got its fourth prime minister in a year last week.

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