Syria Unearths Years of Atrocities

Summary

Podcast Summary: The Daily - "Syria Unearths Years of Atrocities"

Episode Overview Released on December 17, 2024, The Daily by The New York Times delves deep into the aftermath of Bashar al-Assad's fall in Syria. Hosted by Sabrina Tavernise and featuring on-the-ground reporting by Christina Goldbaum, the episode titled "Syria Unearths Years of Atrocities" explores the harrowing discoveries in Syrian prisons, the quest for justice by families, and the nation's struggle to reconcile with its tumultuous past.

---

1. Introduction to Syria's New Reality

Sabrina Tavernise sets the stage by highlighting the monumental shift in Syria following the collapse of Assad's regime. Tens of thousands of prisoners were released, many after enduring years of detention without clarity on their fate.

• Sabrina Tavernise [02:17]: "After the fall of Bashar al-Assad and the opening up of Syria, tens of thousands of people were released from prisons across the country. Many had been locked away for years."

2. First Impressions on the Ground

Christina Goldbaum recounts her initial experiences arriving in Damascus shortly after the rebels seized power. The streets were a mix of jubilation and lingering fear as citizens grappled with newfound freedom and the horrors they were uncovering.

• Christina Goldbaum [03:04]: "We saw posters of Bashar al-Assad that used to be ubiquitous, that had been torn down and either ripped apart or burned."

3. Exploring Sednaya Prison

Goldbaum provides an in-depth look into Sednaya Prison, one of Syria's most notorious detention facilities. Accompanied by local activists, she describes the frantic efforts of families searching for their missing loved ones amidst the remnants of torture chambers and solitary confinement cells.

• Christina Goldbaum [06:09]: "Prison 2012, they were screaming the names of their relatives who had been lost into this prison."

4. The Plight of the Families

The emotional toll on families is palpable as they navigate the chaotic scenes outside the prison, hoping for answers. The discovery of nearly four dozen bodies paints a grim picture of the atrocities committed, fueling anger and a desperate need for justice.

• Christina Goldbaum [10:28]: "Some of them had shown signs of what looked to be torture... It was incredibly intense."

5. Bilal Shahadi's Harrowing Story

A central narrative of the episode is Bilal Shahadi's harrowing experience. Arrested for deserting the army, Bilal endured unimaginable conditions in Sednaya, including overcrowded cells, minimal sustenance, and brutal torture. His eventual escape coincided with the regime's collapse, a beacon of hope amidst despair.

• Bilal Shahadi [18:39]: "My brother in law, he's been in."

• Christina Goldbaum [18:50]: "He described the conditions in the prison as being just absolutely horrifying."

6. Life Inside Sednaya

Detailed accounts of daily life reveal the dehumanizing conditions prisoners faced. From scarce food and water to constant fear of violence, Bilal's testimony underscores the severe psychological and physical toll of incarceration.

• Bilal Shahadi [19:07]: "A tiny hole, yeah."

• Christina Goldbaum [21:16]: "He spent most of the two years that he was in Sednaya praying to die."

7. The Escape and Its Aftermath

Bilal's escape is a pivotal moment, symbolizing the fragile hope for liberation. His account of fleeing the prison, coupled with the emotional reunion with his family, highlights both the relief and the lingering grief over missing relatives.

• Bilal Shahadi [26:31]: "It was a dream."

• Christina Goldbaum [27:08]: "They are incredibly grateful and happy and overjoyed that they finally have one of their sons home."

8. Ongoing Search for Justice

Despite Bilal's release, the fate of many remains uncertain. Families continue their relentless search for answers, grappling with the loss of loved ones and the absence of closure. The episode emphasizes the long road ahead for Syria to address past atrocities and heal its fractured society.

• Christina Goldbaum [30:30]: "What his father kept coming back to was wanting to have their bodies in their arms, to know where they are and to be able to bury them themselves."

---

Key Takeaways

• Human Cost of Conflict: The episode underscores the profound personal tragedies resulting from Syria's prolonged conflict, highlighting individual stories amidst broader political upheaval.

• Quest for Accountability: Families are determined to uncover the truth about their missing loved ones, seeking justice and closure in the wake of systemic abuses.

• Resilience and Hope: Despite the grim circumstances, stories like Bilal's exemplify resilience and the enduring hope for a better future.

Notable Quotes

• Christina Goldbaum [06:36]: "Let's go to the other side. And walking around, there were these quiet testimonies of what life was like inside this prison."

• Bilal Shahadi [19:50]: "I think I lost hope. No."

• Christina Goldbaum [28:53]: "He wanted some kind of justice for everything that his family had endured."

Conclusion

"Syria Unearths Years of Atrocities" offers a poignant exploration of the lingering scars left by Assad's regime. Through meticulous reporting and personal narratives, The Daily paints a comprehensive picture of Syria's struggle for truth, justice, and healing in the aftermath of profound suffering.

Transcript

[T. Rowe Price Host]

How could market forces impact investment strategies? Tune into the Angle from T. Rowe Price for sharp insights on today's key trends. From the blue economy and AI to the impacts of the US Election. This award winning podcast brings you an information edge with thought provoking questions to changing market themes and gives curious investors dynamic perspectives from their global investing team and special guests. Better questions, better insights. Listen and subscribe to the Angle on Spotify or Apple podcasts and learn [e-mail] TheAnglePodcast.

[Christina Goldbaum]

This is Christina Goldbaum. I'm in Damascus, capital of Syria, right now, and I'm walking through a prison that's underneath one of the intelligence branches in the Capitol. There are these three solitary confinement rooms and etched onto the walls are messages from prisoners who were held here. One of the messages says, I love you Mom. There are others that are praying to God. There's also an etching of a mosque. What's inside that folder?

[Colleague]

He's reading.

[Christina Goldbaum]

And earlier, as we were going through the building, we found a folder with pictures of what looked like prisoners who had been tortured and killed.

[Colleague]

This is like a report for the death.

[Christina Goldbaum]

And death certificates next to them. You know, when we first arrived in Syria, just a day after the rebels took the country, there was a lot of celebration, a lot of people out on the streets finally feeling this taste of freedom. And as the week has gone on and we've come to more and more of these prisons and torture facilities, it's just clear how, just how much of a reckoning the country is going to have to go through now to confront and reconcile with all of the horrors that happened over the past couple decades.

[Sabrina Tavernisi]

From the New York Times, I'm Sabrina Tavernisi, and this is the Daily after the fall of Bashar al Assad and the opening up of Syria, tens of thousands of people were released from prisons across the country. Many had been locked away for years. Today, my colleague Christina Goldbaum takes us inside one of those prisons and tells us the story of a man who made it out. It's Tuesday, December 17th. Christina, what was it like when you first got to Syria?

[Christina Goldbaum]

So my colleagues and I drove into Syria towards the capital, Damascus, 24 hours after the rebels had seized the country. And the highway was filled with these very surreal scenes here. General security, usual.

[Colleague]

Wow.

[Christina Goldbaum]

This is they used to stop us here. There were checkpoints where usually you would spend hours being interrogated by police officers and security forces that had been completely abandoned. We saw posters of Bashar al Assad that used to be ubiquitous, that had been torn down and either ripped apart or burned. And we also began to see, the closer we got to the capital, signs of the rebels who had entered the city. They were driving these cars that had been painted in this kind of beige mud, almost like a makeshift camouflage from their rapid offensive towards the capital. And then we saw people from Damascus who were out on the streets. They were putting their fingers in a V in the air signifying victory. And they were cheering on the rebels as they drove past them to celebrate this incredible moment in the country's history. But for a lot of people here, that moment is also about finally getting answers. The Assad government had set up this vast network of detention facilities and prisons and torture chambers that had swallowed up tens of thousands of people across the country. And for years, this was a complete black box. People would disappear into the system and their families would have no idea what happened to them, where they went, or whether or not they were still alive. But now, with the fall of that government, suddenly people hoped for answers. And as we were driving through the city, we saw a huge convoy of cars going to the epicenter of that system, a prison called Sadnaya, which is one of the most notorious in all of Syria. And my colleague Khwait Assad and I joined them as they went on that journey. As we were driving towards the prison, you can see leading to the prison, there is this massive convoy of cars, all people who are trying to get there, others have. We got caught in this traffic because there were thousands of people on Monday morning trying to get there. We ended up getting out of our car with a lot of other people and just walking down the road for about an hour until we reached the outskirts of the prison. We then walked with people up this kind of footpath that led up the hillside and to the prison gates. Let's go. Let's try. Let's try. People inside were in an absolute frenzy. There were these crowds of people cramming into different cells.

[Bilal Shahadi]

My brother in law, he's been in.

[Christina Goldbaum]

Prison 2012, they were screaming the names of their relatives who had been lost into this prison. Some of them had print out photos of their sons or brothers or husbands and were shoving them in people's faces, asking, have you seen this person? Have you seen this person?

[Bilal Shahadi]

These cases are missing, their relatives are missing and they love you.

[Christina Goldbaum]

Let's go to the other side. And walking around, there were these quiet testimonies of what life was like inside this prison. There were feces across the floor and messages scrawled into the walls, some of which were begging for death rather than staying there. And a lot of prisoners had escaped on Sunday morning after the government fell. But there were still thousands of others that families suspected of being in Sednaya who were still unaccounted for. And so these families were going around the prison looking for any kind of scraps of information, any clues as to where their relatives were. What's over here?

[Bilal Shahadi]

This is another section of the prison.

[Christina Goldbaum]

Let's look. You know, one of the first rooms that we walked into looked like maybe it had been an electrical room in the prison. And we came across one guy there who had a shovel in hand. What is he doing? And he was knocking against the wall and the floor, trying to hear an echo that maybe would signal there was something hollow underneath, maybe a room beneath the floor.

[Bilal Shahadi]

He can see wires here, but where.

[Christina Goldbaum]

These wires are going, he started also kind of pulling apart the wires, saying, you know, where does this go? You know, again, thinking that maybe it led to something underneath the prison, Some cells that were there.

[Bilal Shahadi]

There are people here.

[Christina Goldbaum]

As we stepped into another room, there was also a woman who seemed to be just convinced that she was hearing voices on the other side of a wall. And she was trying to get the guys around her who had these pickaxes to tear through it, because she was saying that she heard voices there. She heard them there.

[Bilal Shahadi]

She doesn't know what's in prison. Maybe he's here.

[Christina Goldbaum]

She was looking for her son who had gone missing 12 years ago. @ one point, people believed that maybe there were hidden cells, like, three stories underground. And so they started picking up pickaxes and hammers and shovels and just tearing into the floors, trying to find any kind of shaft or opening or room that might have been hidden. And people were maybe stuck inside. And as they were doing that, this kind of massive crowd started forming around them because people thought that maybe they had discovered something. They had discovered a secret door or a secret stairwell, and they wanted to get a glimpse of what was underneath.

[Bilal Shahadi]

Move backward, move backward. Let us work.

[Christina Goldbaum]

And the few rebels who were there around them were screaming at the crowd, telling them to back up and give them space and let them work, because it was just such a chaotic scene.

[Sabrina Tavernisi]

And, Christina, did they find anything in all this digging?

[Christina Goldbaum]

So hours and hours after tearing up this place, the rescue workers who were there said that they didn't think that there were any hidden compartments underneath the prison and that all the prisoners who were there and who were still alive were released already. But the next morning, there was also news that 38 bodies had been discovered in the prison, and they were brought to a hospital at the center of the city. So my colleagues and I went to that hospital and to the morgue where there were forensic examiners going through each of these corpses, trying to find any identifiable symbol, any tattoo, any birthmark, anything.

[Colleague]

Every picture has a number.

[Christina Goldbaum]

Taking photos of them and then posting them on telegram so that families could look through and see if they recognized any of these corpses.

[Colleague]

Most of them are dying because of the beating and torture.

[Christina Goldbaum]

The doctors believed that some of those people had died days earlier, but there were others that they thought had been dead for weeks or a month. And you could smell that as they opened the tarps and informal body bags they had with this just stench that filled the room. Tons of people started coming there determined to get a look at these bodies themselves. There were just throngs of women and men who were just shoving and trying to get into the examination room itself, saying that they didn't recognize any of the photos and they wanted to see the bodies themselves. And at one point, as the day dragged on, one of the doctors just kind of gave up and said, okay, fine, if you want to see these people, come in, open the doors. And this massive crowd of people came into this refrigerator room and started opening the tarps of bodies and looking at them in just this kind of horror. Some of them had shown signs of what looked to be torture. There were red marks around one of the necks of one of these bodies. Another had kind of puncture wounds that one of the doctors thought were from a hot iron that this person had likely been hit with many times. One of these bodies didn't have a face anymore. It was just this charred skull, just beyond recognition. It was incredibly intense. I mean, women were leaving that room in tears and screaming and cursing Assad and asking that he burn in hell. You know, until that point, I think people had really believed that there was a way of finding folks alive, that there was some secret rooms or some other detention facility or, you know, somewhere where they'd be broken free from. And I think it's one thing to see the scribblings on the wall of this really grim prison. It's another to see not just that people might have died, but how they died and what they endured before they died. But we did meet one family at the prison that day who got some answers. Their son had been released from s when the rebels took the city. And so he was able to tell us the story of life inside the prison for the first time. Thank you so much for having us in your house. So his name is bilal Shahadi. He's 26 years old, and we met him at his house. Me and my colleague Reham Marched, who was translating, and walked in and sat down on the floor of their living room. There was a small heater there, too, because it was a pretty cold day.

[Colleague]

I grew up here in this. It was actually good.

[Christina Goldbaum]

And he was telling us about how he had grown up in the suburb of the city with a pretty big family. He's one of four brothers and a number of sisters, too. His dad worked selling fresh water to people in the neighborhood. And, you know, he remembers when he was younger going to these amusement parks in Damascus with his siblings and going swimming and having barbecues on the hillside, and this life that felt very peaceful and full of promise for him and his family. But when the war started in 2011, Bilal was in the sixth grade, and his parents got very nervous about everything going on, so they pulled him out of class. And pretty early on, the war started to take its toll on his family. Two of his older brothers were both arrested by security forces. His dad tried to get both of them back to their families without any luck. And at one point, he was describing this to me and said how he had asked someone in the security forces for more information on one of his sons and was told that his son would be released in two hours after questioning.

[Colleague]

And now he stayed in prison for.

[Christina Goldbaum]

14 years, but it has been over a decade since.

[Sabrina Tavernisi]

And why were Bilal's brothers arrested?

[Christina Goldbaum]

So, like a lot of families in Syria, they never actually got a clear answer of what either of the brothers was accused of. And that's something that was pretty common under Assad's government, these kind of arbitrary arrests where people are picked off the street, thrown into prison, and families don't know where they went or what happened to them or what the charges against them are. But I think his brother's arrest instilled a lot of fear in him. He was conscripted into the army when he was 18 years old, as men are required to do. And soon after, when he sees the horrors of the civil war and the risks that Syrian soldiers are facing, he deserts the military and goes back to his family. But deserting the army is what eventually gets him arrested by the police as well. So he's moved from detention facility to detention facility and eventually put in a truck with around 150 other people, all of them with iron cuffs on their wrists, tied to each other, and brought to Sednaya.

[Sabrina Tavernisi]

We'Ll be right back.

[T. Rowe Price Host]

At T. Rowe Price global teams leverage extensive experience to see investment potential differently. Instead of fast answers, they understand that the true road to confident investing is curiosity. It's what drives them to ask smart questions about our ever changing world, like how can clean water transform farmland? Can healthcare innovations create a healthier world? How will AI be part of a new tomorrow? T. Rowe Price's curiosity runs deep, and with it comes the power to help you invest more confidently. Better questions, better outcomes. TRO price. Learn [e-mail] Curiosity this podcast is supported by Doctors Without Borders. When an emergency strikes, every second counts. For Doctors Without Borders teams around the world, seconds can often mean the difference between life and death, so they don't waste a single one. Every second and every dollar is a critical resource. That means more vaccines given, more wounds bandaged, more surgeries performed, and more life saving research done. With your support, they can respond rapidly to emergencies and make every second count. Make a life saving donation today at doctorswithoutborders.org thedaily with Instacart, you can get all your holiday essentials delivered in as fast as 30 minutes. Whether it's the white elephant gift everyone will want to steal or the secret ingredient that makes great Grandma Jo's cookie recipe so great, just download the Instacart app to find recipes, shop ingredients and whip out dishes so delicious your aunts and uncles will forget to ask about your love life. Enjoy free delivery on your first three orders. Service fees and terms apply.

[Sabrina Tavernisi]

So Christina, this man you met, Bilal, told you about how he got arrested and sent to Sidnaya Prison. What did he say about what life was like inside the prison?

[Christina Goldbaum]

He described the conditions in the prison as being just absolutely horrifying. He's brought to the cell that's underground and rarely ever sees sunlight again. A tiny hole.

[Colleague]

A tiny hole, yeah.

[Christina Goldbaum]

There were about 100 other people in the cell with him.

[Colleague]

All the men, they have to.

[Christina Goldbaum]

Only one toilet in the corner of the room that all of them had to share. The cell always smelled like sewage and there was this kind of layer of grime across the floor and the walls. How much food were they getting? He said that usually they would only.

[Colleague]

Get one potato for eight.

[Christina Goldbaum]

One potato for eight people in a day and that they would have to cut up that single potato into tiny portions for everyone who was sharing it.

[Colleague]

With him in the best way you will take a bigger slice.

[Christina Goldbaum]

And they barely got any water with that too.

[Colleague]

So the people didn't think about anything except the food.

[Christina Goldbaum]

And every morning.

[Colleague]

Okay, every day in our room, they take the names.

[Christina Goldbaum]

The prison guards would come around and do a roll call of everyone in the cell. And when that happened, they had to have their faces against the wall. And he never actually saw any of the guards who were there. He only ever heard their voices. And then occasionally, he said often when they were in a bad mood or angry about something, they would drag one of the prisoners out and beat and torture him. Bilal said that occasionally he was the one who was brought out and taken to this room.

[Colleague]

Sitting like this.

[Christina Goldbaum]

As he was describing this to me, he kind of stood up and bent over, his hands by his ankles.

[Colleague]

I don't know.

[Christina Goldbaum]

Stick. Yeah. Between his legs. And said that they would usually put an iron rod between his knees. Okay, okay. And then what happened? And then they would kick him.

[Colleague]

And two, sit on my back.

[Christina Goldbaum]

They stepped on his back. They stomped on his back. They would stomp on his face, and they would hit him in the back. What were they beating him with?

[Colleague]

It's a leather.

[Christina Goldbaum]

Leather. Okay, okay. And he told us that usually when this happened, there would be other guards in the room who would be yelling curses at him and kind of cheering on whoever was actually beating him that day, if anyone.

[Colleague]

If they beat anyone else.

[Christina Goldbaum]

Noel heard the screaming, and usually other prisoners could hear whoever was being beaten or tortured that day from their cells. They could hear the sound of. They would hear them screaming and crying out for help, and they would know what would come the next time that they were pulled out of the room.

[Sabrina Tavernisi]

How does Bilal describe his mental state through all of this?

[Christina Goldbaum]

He said it was absolutely unbearable.

[Colleague]

If I die, it will be better. So I was praying for dying.

[Christina Goldbaum]

And he spent most of the two years that he was in Sednaya praying to die, because that felt easier than enduring the torture anymore. And things continued on like that for a while until about a week and a half ago when he told me he started to notice a bit of a change.

[Colleague]

They came, a soldier, to our room, and they seem afraid.

[Christina Goldbaum]

What made you think they were afraid? He said it started with the roll calls that they used to do every morning. And typically they would say, roll call you an to all of the prisoners in the cell.

[Colleague]

He came to our room, and for the first time, he didn't call us animals.

[Christina Goldbaum]

But then one morning, they said, roll call, you guys, which just struck him as being a little bit strange somehow.

[Sabrina Tavernisi]

They were being more humane to the prisoners all of a sudden.

[Christina Goldbaum]

Exactly. And then the next day, they asked them.

[Colleague]

They told him, how are you?

[Christina Goldbaum]

How they were in the morning, which he thought was even more strange. Bilal turned his head, and he was so surprised that he turned his head around to look at the guard. He didn't beat him, but he also wasn't beaten for doing that.

[Colleague]

The food, it was good.

[Christina Goldbaum]

And then the next day, oh, they give them biscuits. The guards started giving the prisoners small cookies, which he hadn't had in the two years he had been there. And he told me that as this was happening, he was talking to the other prisoners, trying to figure out what exactly was going on.

[Colleague]

I thought the regime make a decision that they. They will not anymore.

[Christina Goldbaum]

But they didn't even imagine that they were only days away from walking out the prison's gates and being free. And then on Saturday night, he told me, wake up.

[Colleague]

They are here.

[Christina Goldbaum]

One of his cellmates shook him to wake him up and was telling him that something was going on, that maybe they would be freed.

[Colleague]

I told him, I want to go to sleep. Don't lie to me. Why are you telling me this?

[Christina Goldbaum]

And Bilal didn't believe him. He told him to leave him alone. He was asleep.

[Colleague]

He told him, here, listen, Allahu Akbar, you are. And they hear allahu Akbar.

[Christina Goldbaum]

And Bilal hears people shouting, God is great. And he realizes that something is going on. And eventually he pieces together that one of the prison guards had stripped off his uniform, opened one of the cells, dropped the keys and ran.

[Colleague]

He'd go.

[Christina Goldbaum]

All the men go out, and all of the prisoners from that cell had taken the keys, had unlocked the other cells there, and they were rushing out of the doors, out of the prison.

[Sabrina Tavernisi]

Christina, why had the guard done that?

[Colleague]

The officer, the regime officer.

[Bilal Shahadi]

He changed his clothes.

[Christina Goldbaum]

We don't know for certain, but it seemed like maybe the guard had heard that the rebels were nearing the prison and thought that if he opened the prison cells and wore civilian clothes, he could blend in with prisoners leaving themselves and escape. Wow. Okay, so, Bilal, so you go out, you see that everyone is sleeping. Where do you go? What did you do? So Bilal gets out of his cell.

[Colleague]

He entered the offices for the officers.

[Christina Goldbaum]

He runs to an office within the prison, finds a photo of Bashar Al Assad. I burned Bashar's pictures and burns it. And then he walks out of the prison gates. And in that moment, how would you describe how you felt?

[Colleague]

It was a dream.

[Christina Goldbaum]

He told me that he felt like he was dreaming this entire time, that he couldn't actually believe that he had been freed.

[Sabrina Tavernisi]

How has it been for Bilal to be home.

[Christina Goldbaum]

I think the past week and a half has been a kind of whirlwind of emotions for Bilal and his family. I talked to his mom about this. For his mother, when you saw Bilal.

[Colleague]

This is a happiness. Crying and hunting.

[Christina Goldbaum]

On the one hand, they are incredibly grateful and happy and overjoyed that they finally have one of their sons home, that he's okay, that he's with their family, that he's alive. And Bilal himself is overjoyed to be free. To be able to be with his family and be back in his home and not live in the perpetual fear of being beaten or tortured in prison. But at the same time, I think with every day that's passed since the Assad government fell, his mom, his dad, Bilal have all realized more and more that it's very unlikely his brothers are coming home.

[Colleague]

I think I lost hope. No.

[Christina Goldbaum]

Why?

[Colleague]

Because they. They are not here. They didn't come with her son, the other son. This is what she said.

[Christina Goldbaum]

What she. And a few days after we went to Bilal's home, I talked to his father, who had sent a relative back to Sanaya. And he had found a death certificate for one of his sons.

[Sabrina Tavernisi]

Oh, wow.

[Christina Goldbaum]

But there still isn't any other news of the other.

[Sabrina Tavernisi]

So they got one answer, but still don't have the other.

[Christina Goldbaum]

Exactly.

[Sabrina Tavernisi]

When you talk to Bilal's father, how was he feeling about this?

[Christina Goldbaum]

He was incredibly sad and crying. But at the same time he was talking about how he wanted revenge for what happened to his sons. He told me the first time he went to Saniya, he wanted to burn it down. He wanted to find who did this to them and break their neck. He wanted some kind of justice for everything that his family had endured. He was also incredibly angry about the fact that he still, even now, doesn't have answers.

[Sabrina Tavernisi]

Christina, do they plan on continuing their search in the coming days?

[Christina Goldbaum]

They do. They have sent relatives back to Sidnaya. They've talked to friends who've gone to other detention facilities that have rifled through the papers there. I think that until they find something concrete, until they know where their sons were buried, if they're both killed and can hold them in their arms themselves, there isn't really a sense of closure. That's what his father. What his mother kept coming back to was wanting to have their bodies in their arms, to know where they are and to be able to bury them themselves. Until that happens, their search will continue.

[Sabrina Tavernisi]

Christina, thank you.

[Christina Goldbaum]

Thanks for having me.

[Sabrina Tavernisi]

We'll be right back.

[T. Rowe Price Host]

At T. Rowe Price Global teams leverage extensive experience to see investment potential differently. Instead of fast answers, they understand that the true road to confident investing is curiosity. It's what drives them to ask smart questions about our ever changing world, like how can clean water transform farmland? Can healthcare innovations create a healthier world? How will AI be part of a new tomorrow? T. Rowe Price's curiosity runs deep, and with it comes the power to help you invest more confidently. Better questions, better outcomes. T. Rowe Price learn [e-mail] Curiosity from gift swaps with friends to office holiday parties to big family dinners, tis the season to spend with loved ones. Walgreens knows the holidays are busy, so they make getting vaccinated quick and easy. Walk in or schedule ahead to get both your flu and COVID 19 vaccines for free, all in one trip. Help keep your family protected at your neighborhood. Walgreens vaccines available at no cost to you with most insurance. Check with your insurance plan for eligibility. Vaccines subject to availability, stage age and health related restrictions may apply.

[Polestar Advertiser]

Time is luxury. That's why Polestar 3 is thoughtfully designed to make every minute you spend driving it the best time of your day. That means noise canceling capabilities and 3D surround sound on Bowers and Wilkins speakers, seamlessly integrated technology to keep you connected, and the horsepower and control to make this electric SUV feel like a sports car. Polestar 3 is a new generation of electric performance. Book a Test [e-mail].

[T. Rowe Price Host]

Here'S what else.

[Sabrina Tavernisi]

You should know today. On Monday, the German government collapsed after Chancellor Olaf Scholz lost a no confidence vote in the country's parliament. Scholz was forced to take the unusual step of calling for the vote because his three party coalition splintered last month, leaving him without a parliamentary majority to pass laws or a budget. New elections are slated for late February and a judge has rejected the argument made by President Elect Donald Trump that he is protected by presidential immunity when it comes to his conviction. In the State of New York, Judge Juan Merchan said on Monday that the immunity argument does not apply because as the case involves unofficial and personal acts that preceded Trump's first term, if the decision withstands the expected appeal, he could become the first felon to serve as president. Today's episode was produced by Rochelle Banja, Claire Tennisketter, Lindsey Garrison and Stella Tan, with help from Eric Krupke. It was edited by Patricia Williams with help from Lindsey Garrison. Contains original music by Dan Powell, Marion Lozano and Rowan Nemisto and was engineered by Chris Wood. Our theme music is by Jim Brunberg and Ben Landsver of Wonderly. Special thanks to Hwaita Saad and Reham Moshed. That's it for the Daily I'm Sabrina Tavernici. See you tomorrow.

[T. Rowe Price Host]

This podcast is supported by nrdc. We must fight the Trump administration's Assault on our environment. The Natural Resources Defense Council is fighting in and out of court to protect public health, the environment, and climate progress from Trump's Project 2025 agenda. We've done it before, filing over 160 lawsuits during his first disastrous term and winning almost 90% of resolved cases. We need your help to do it again. Support our work to safeguard our planet. Donate [e-mail] thedaily all gifts match for a limited time.