Assad reign ‘ending’

US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson doubled down yesterday on Washington’s call for Syrian President Bashar Assad to leave power, looking past recent battlefield gains by his Russian-backed forces to insist that ‘‘the reign of the Assad family is coming to an end’’. Tillerson made the comments after what he called a ‘‘fruitful’’ meeting with the UN’s envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, who later announced plans to resume UNmediated peace Syrian talks on November 28. It will be the eighth such round under his mediation in Geneva since early 2016.