WeekDay AM: 10 Things you need to know this morning
Fighting returns to Syria, Notre-Dame reopens, and the rise of AI book publishers

 
today's international story

Syrian rebels launch major offensive

What happened
Anti-government rebels have suddenly gone on the offensive in northern Syria, reigniting a civil war that had long been dormant. The fighting between jihadists and President Bashar al-Assad's forces has killed almost 200 people, including civilians hit by Russian air force strikes, according to a monitor.

Who said what
The jihadist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham and allied factions launched a surprise attack in northern Aleppo province on Wednesday, triggering the fiercest fighting in years, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. The death toll "has risen to 182, including 102 fighters from HTS", 19 from allied factions "and 61 from regime forces and allied groups", added the observatory. After years of negligible gains, the rebels have suddenly captured 40 towns and villages, as well as a Syrian military base.

The offensive "unites various rebel factions" that "represent the last vestiges of a once-sprawling array of opposition groups", said the New York Times. HTS is "led by Al-Qaeda's former Syria branch", said France24, and controls "swathes" of the Idlib area as well as slivers of other provinces. Since the start of the uprising the Syrian government has characterised all opposition groups as "terrorists".

What next?
The rebel groups are hoping to "capitalise on Israel's efforts to weaken Iran's regional proxies", said CNN. According to Nanar Hawach, from the International Crisis Group think tank, they "see an opportunity to test the front lines with Hezbollah weakened, a pressured Iran and a Russia busy with Ukraine".

 
 
today's television story

Wallace stands aside over MasterChef allegations

What happened
MasterChef presenter Gregg Wallace is to step away from his role after the BBC received complaints about alleged misconduct.

Who said what
Top BBC broadcaster Kirsty Wark, who was a Celebrity MasterChef contestant in 2011, said he had told "sexualised" jokes in front of the contestants and crew during filming. She told the BBC that she felt the comments were "really, really in the wrong place".

BBC News said other allegations had been made against Wallace, including "taking his top off in front of a female worker and saying he wanted to 'give her a fashion show', and telling a junior female colleague he wasn't wearing any boxer shorts under his jeans".

What next?
Wallace's lawyers said allegations that the MasterChef star had engaged in behaviour of a sexually harassing nature were false. Wallace is "committed to fully co-operating throughout the process", according to a statement from the show's production company Banijay UK.

 
 
Today's architecture story

Notre-Dame opens its doors after restoration

What happened
The Notre-Dame basilica is reopening today, with Emmanuel Macron conducting a televised tour to mark the nearly 900-year-old cathedral's five-year renovation after the devastating fire of 2019.

Who said what
The French capital's "Gothic jewel" has been "rescued, renovated and refurbished", said the BBC, offering visitors "what promises to be a breath-taking visual treat".

According to National Geographic, which was given a sneak peek of the renovations, visitors will be "stupefied" and "awestruck" when they tour it. Not because of any major changes to the building, but because the entire cathedral has been polished "all at once".

What next?
After a €700 million (£582 million) restoration project, the reopening "marks a new chapter in Notre-Dame's 860-year-old story", said CNN.  Some locals are yet to be convinced, said the Associated Press. The bells of Notre-Dame "are chiming again", added the news agency, but "scaffolding still clinging to the cathedral's exterior is puzzling some Parisians", who are asking whether the "grand post-blaze reopening is more symbolic than substantive".

 
 

It's not all bad

Even in Alaska's most remote corners, yesterday's Thanksgiving dinner came with turkey on the table thanks to the "Alaska Turkey Bomb", said the New York Post. Pilot Esther Keim spent the holiday dropping frozen turkeys from her plane to families that live too far out to just pop to the shops. Delivering some 32 turkeys by air this year, Keim co-ordinated the operation on social media before "buzzing" over the houses in her plane to alert the owners to their incoming turkeys. "As far as precision and hitting our targets, I am definitely not the best aim," joked Keim. "I've gotten better ... I have never hit a house, a building, a person or a dog."

 
 
under the radar

Spines and the rise of AI book publishers

Book industry figures have described the team behind a publishing AI startup as "dingbats", "opportunists" and "extractive capitalists".

The new company, Spines, will charge authors up to $5,000 (£4000) to have their books edited, proofread, formatted, designed and circulated with the help of artificial intelligence, but it's already cooked up a storm in the book world.

Spines co-founder Yehuda Niv insists that the company "isn't self-publishing" or a vanity publisher. Niv, who previously ran a publishing services business in Israel, prefers to describe his new venture as a "publishing platform".

His company, which secured $16 million (£12 million) in a recent funding round, promises to reduce the time it takes to publish a book to two to three weeks and said that authors would retain 100% of their royalties.

The publishing industry has not welcomed the news of Spines' launch with much cheer. "Let's be clear," said Mary Kate Carr on A.V. Club. If you're spending $5,000 to have AI edit and publish your book you're "throwing your money away".

Anna Ganley, chief executive of The Society of Authors, told The Guardian that the Spines model was "very unlikely to deliver on what an author is hoping they might achieve", was "most unlikely to be their best route to publication", and "if it also relies on AI systems" there would be "concerns about the lack of originality and quality of the service being offered".

AI "is a hot-button topic", editorial consultant Anna Hervé told Times Now, adding that while it could assist, "human creativity and critical thinking remain essential".

 
 
on this day

29 November 1982

Michael Jackson's sixth studio album "Thriller" was released, spawning seven hit singles including "Beat It" and "Billie Jean", as well as the eponymous title track. It is widely considered to be the best-selling album of all time, having moved more than 70 million copies worldwide. The album's producer Quincy Jones, who died this month, described it as "an absolutely one-of-a-kind album, for an absolutely one-of-a-kind artist".

 
 
Today's newspapers

New polling shows that more than half of voters support proposed legislation to legalise assisted dying, The i Paper says. The legislation, which will be voted on today, is a "once in a decade" opportunity, says the MP who is leading the bill in The Guardian. "BBC in fresh sex scandal", is The Telegraph's headline, reporting on the news that Gregg Wallace will step aside following claims of inappropriate behaviour. "Arrivals jump", says the FT, as net UK migration figures hit a record 900,000 last year.

See the newspaper front pages

 
 
tall tale

Killer fashion statement

It's a trend that's been passé for more than 37 years, but dead salmon hats are now back in vogue with a group of orcas off the coast of Washington state. It's "the first time they've donned the bizarre headgear since the summer of 1987", said LiveScience, when the fad was started by a female whale before the rest of her pod followed suit. Scientists aren't quite sure why this odd behaviour is resurfacing, or why killer whales do it at all. But one theory is that the same whales that pioneered the trend decades ago could be reviving it now.

 
 

Morning Report was written and edited by Arion McNicoll, Sorcha Bradley and Chas Newkey-Burden, with illustrations by Julia Wytrazek.

Image credits, from top: Zana Halil / dia images / Getty Images; David M. Benett / Getty Images; Magali Cohen / Hans Lucas / AFP / Getty Images.