What to Do After a Dark Day
  December 16, 2025 Greetings Meteor readers, I’m typing to you all from beneath a pile of assorted doughs as I made the terrible error of deciding to gift mini cookie boxes this holiday season. Please send help. And more butter if you’ve got it. In today’s newsletter, we look at two polar-opposite responses to similar tragedies, mourn the death of a true feminist, and celebrate the birth of a literary icon. Plus, one year after the end of civil war in Syria, journalist Tara Kangarlou speaks to women who have returned home to rebuild their lives. C is for cookie, Shannon Melero  WHAT’S GOING ONThere’s a better way: This week, on opposite sides of the world, two horrifying acts of violence took place. On Saturday, a gunman killed two people at Brown University. The following day, news broke that two gunmen in Australia had killed 15 people gathered for a Hanukkah celebration at Bondi Beach. This year in America, there were 17 school shootings and 392 mass shooting events. This year in Australia, there was a grand total of one mass shooting event—this one. It’s the country’s first since 2018 and its deadliest in almost three decades. In the hours following the Brown University shooting, the Trump administration circulated misinformation and told reporters, before he even offered condolences, “Things can happen.” Following the Bondi Beach tragedy, the Australian Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, promised to make the existing gun laws even stricter, saying, “The government is prepared to take whatever action is necessary.” Several new measures have already been proposed by Albanese and other members of his government, including limiting the number of guns an individual can own. Australia has been here before: After that deadly shooting 28 years ago—in Port Arthur—Australia passed some of the strictest gun laws in the world, including a national buyback program. Other countries like Norway, the United Kingdom, and New Zealand (whose prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, explicitly cited Australia as an inspiration) have reacted similarly to mass shootings. But not here—not yet. Granted, there’s no panacea for any of this. Gun violence will never be entirely preventable; we know this from basic statistics. Even with its strict laws, Australia had 31 gun homicides last year. But that is .21 percent of the U.S.’s 15,000. In the wake of a very bloody weekend, it’s comforting to remember that some leaders and governments have swift, appropriate responses to horrific violence. And that there’s absolutely no reason why we couldn’t, too. AND:
 ROB AND MICHELE EARLIER THIS YEAR (VIA GETTY IMAGES)
 MOTHER. (VIA GETTY IMAGES)
 Syria’s Mothers are Fighting to Rebuild Their HomesBY TARA KANGARLOU One year after the end of a long war, they describe what coming home has really been like. KANGARLOU AND LANA, A 35-YEAR-OLD MOTHER FROM SYRIA’S ZABADANI REGION STANDS IN THE RUINS OF WHAT WAS ONCE HER FAMILY HOME. (COURTESY OF KANGARLOU) “There are very few mothers here who haven’t lost a child or a spouse, and very few children who haven’t lost a mother or a wife,” says 62-year-old Khadijah as she sits on the floor of a heavily bombed building—flattened, except for the one room where she now lives with her 75-year-old husband, Khaled. Like most of her neighbors, Khadijah, her husband, and her children—previously displaced across Syria and neighboring Lebanon and Turkey—are now returning to their devastated hometown of Zabadani, wondering how to pick up fragments of a life uprooted. The nearly 13-year war in Syria is known as one of the worst humanitarian crises of the 21st century. According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the conflict displaced more than 13 million Syrians, six million of whom fled to neighboring countries. For years, the war functionally dismantled the country’s healthcare and infrastructure and robbed an entire generation of children of their childhood and education—losses that ripple through every fabric of Syrian society today. The UN Human Rights Office has documented over 300,000 civilian deaths, with some estimates approaching half a million. Multiple mass graves have been found across the country, and President Bashar al-Assad’s deployment of chemical weapons in Ghouta and Duma against his own people marked the deadliest use of such agents in decades. This month marks a year since the fall of al-Assad, and over that time, millions of Syrians have been adjusting to their newly liberated reality. More than four million have made their way back to their villages across Syria—their homes reshaped by years of siege, bombardment, and civil war. In Zabadani, Eastern Ghouta, Madaya, Duma, and other hard-hit regions across the country, mothers—like Khadijah—are navigating these losses firsthand as they work to restore a semblance of stability for their families.  DESTROYED STRUCTURES SERVE AS DAILY REMINDERS OF CIVIL WAR ACROSS SYRIA. (PHOTO COURTESY OF TARA KANGARLOU) It should be a time of celebration, but for those living among the remnants of destruction, grief is pervasive. “Before the war, I would always wear white, but ever since the first death in our family, I’ve not taken off my black scarf,” Khadijah says. “I continue to be in mourning,”  FOLLOW THE METEOR     Thank you for reading The Meteor! Got this from a friend? |
