Syria's President Bashar al-Assad addresses the new members of parliament in Damascus, Syria in this handout released by SANA on August 12, 2020.
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Assad says he didn’t plan to flee Syria, in apparent first public statement

A statement posted to social media in Moscow appears to detail the events leading to former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad’s decision to flee the country for Russia. CNN’s Frederick Pleitgen breaks it down.

2:40 • Source: CNN
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Syria's President Bashar al-Assad addresses the new members of parliament in Damascus, Syria in this handout released by SANA on August 12, 2020.
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Assad says he didn’t plan to flee Syria, in apparent first public statement
2:40
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• Source: CNN
ANTALYA, TURKEY - NOVEMBER 12: California Governor Gavin Newsom speaks an event at the America Is All In pavilion at the COP31 UNFCCC Climate Conference on November 12, 2026 in Antalya, Turkey. The COP31, which is being held jointly by Turkey and Australia and will run from November 9-20, is bringing together stakeholders, including international heads of state and political leaders, scientists, environmentalists, indigenous peoples representatives, activists and others to discuss and agree on the implementation of global measures towards mitigating the effects of climate change. (Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images)
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Jensen Huang, chief executive officer of Nvidia Corp., during a news conference at the Nvidia GTC conference in San Jose, California, US, on Tuesday, March 17, 2026. Nvidia Corp., the company at the center of an explosive build-out of AI computing, expects to generate at least $1 trillion from its Blackwell and Rubin chips through the end of 2027. Photographer: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images
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<p>CNN's Fred Pleitgen spoke with US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff at Moscow's Vnukovo Airport as Witkoff and Donald Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, prepared to board their flight out of Russia following their meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.</p>
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CNN speaks with US envoy Steve Witkoff
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Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang waves to the media as he arrives at Gimpo airport in Seoul on June 5, 2026. (Photo by Jung Yeon-je / AFP via Getty Images)
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