About politics: deception, despair, escape. Reuters reports the details of Assad's escape: hours before leaving, he told his generals and intelligence chief that Russian aid was on the way, and even his brother Mahir, who is in charge of the elite troops, was kept in the dark. He told his office director to go home after work, but actually headed straight to the airport, even having a media advisor come to his house to write a speech, only to find out upon arrival that he had already fled and hadn't even mobilized the troops.