Colleagues, friends,

2025 has been a year of surprises. Some of these surprises, professional and personal, forced me to drop off from writing newsletters for several months. But now I am back, wiser, more travelled, and with much more to share.

As we enter December, it is only natural to talk about endings and beginnings.

Somehow, we end the year as we started it: with fragile hope. A fraught and fragile ceasefire is holding in Gaza—for now. Syria is slowly moving forward in its transition, with the final set of US sanctions set to be lifted soon. But conditions on the ground have yet to improve for the average Syrian. Benjamin Netanyahu remains in power in Israel and is a wildcard, with his military expansionism abroad and cut-throat dealmaking at home threatening to push the region to the brink of war and back.

Meanwhile, Arab states and Turkey hope to move the region towards cooperation and integration, and turn the page on 15 years of violent competition. There are hopes but no guarantees that 2026 will bring a calmer year for the Middle East.

Meet Me at Doha Forum 2025

I will be attending this year’s Doha Forum as a moderator and speaker on Dec 6 and 7. If you are at this year’s Forum and want to catch up, please drop me a line at thetaylorluck@gmail.com. And if you can, please drop by my panel on Dec 6 at 4:40pm ‘Protecting Children in a New Era: Advancing an Inclusive Humanitarian Response’.

......or Damascus

From Doha I will be jetting off to Damascus to cover the one-year anniversary of the Assad regime’s fall. I will be writing a special send on December 8^th, the night of the anniversary, with the voices, hopes, and fears of everyday Syrians from Damascus to Homs.

Radical Fairness

On October 23, I was privileged to take part in Monitor Night Live at Principia College under the slogan ‘Above the Fray: How to Heal the Divide, Think Critically and Love the News’. In addition to sharing with students how journalism makes an impact in the Middle East, I shared my thoughts on stage on the unique impact of Monitor journalism: https://www.youtube.com/live/NYhAgNlzwkY?si=4GJM6Gb7Vw0lDsVw​

The Christian Science Monitor. Never cruel. Never cowardly. Fearlessly fair.

I will be sharing more soon. Until then, be well, be healthy, be kind.

-Taylor

Visit thetaylorluck.com for my latest stories and reports.

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The contents of this newsletter do not reflect the views of Taylor Luck's employers or affiliated organizations.