CATEGORIES

FROM DOCTOR TO BRUTAL DICTATOR THE RISE AND FALL OF ASSAD

0N THE FACE OF IT AT LEAST, the Bashar al-Assad of 2002 presented a starkly different figure from the brutal autocrat he would become, presiding over a fragile state founded on torture, imprisonment and industrial murder.

What fresh alternatives can be used to placate coriander haters?

Everyone knows a hater of coriander - also known as cilantro - who won't go near the stuff. Itamar Srulovich, however, is not one: \"I adore fresh coriander, and always have,\" says the chef/co-owner of the Honey & Co group in London.

Farage is lying in wait.Britain cannot afford to see Starmer fail Jonathan Freedland

This government must not fail. Let's get that clear from the start. If Keir Starmer does not succeed, too many British voters will conclude that both the traditional parties, Labour and Conservative, have proved useless and that it is time to try something else with that something else being nationalist populism.

Compromise may be Macron's only hope of restoring confidence Paul Taylor

Having failed to solve France's political crisis with a prime minister dependent on the far right, President Emmanuel Macron is exploring a deal with the Socialist party (PS) to give the country a new government, pass an overdue budget and avert financial turmoil.

It's a sad story for us all that fewer children are reading for pleasure Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett

On the shelf in my son's bedroom is a row of picture books that once belonged to me.

'Gun control is dead, and we killed it'

Blueprints for 3D-printed weapons are increasingly being used by far-right extremists to evade gun control laws. So what can be done?

Help support the victims of conflict in a volatile world

When we came to choose the theme of our 2024 charity appeal, we quickly realised it would be impossible to ignore that this has been an especially harrowing year of conflict, war and human suffering.

Ring master The Trump circus is already back in town

The grand reopening of Notre Dame cathedral in Paris last Saturday was attended by around 50 heads of state and government.

Object lessons Behind the scenes of a museum's grand reserves

A tour of the newarchive collection of London's Science Museum andits associates reveals a cornucopia of wonders and treasures

Double takes The rise of the celebrity lookalike competition

When Miles Mitchell's friends saw fliers scattered across New York City last month advertising a Timothée Chalamet lookalike competition, they urged the 21-yearold college senior from Staten Island to enter.

'If I get sent to Japan, I'm not coming home'

Anti-whaler Paul Watson, who left Greenpeace to found Sea Shepherd, spent his 74th birthday in prison and faces an extradition threat

Tech brings prisoners' Tower graffiti into the light

The writing was on the wall for many of the prisoners incarcerated in the Tower of London over the centuries. Now, it can finally be deciphered.

End of an era as London's meat market set to close

Traders stunned at plan to close the historic Smithfield market, which was established in 1133 and survived Great Fire of 1666

K-pop and autocrats A nation's two sides laid bare

While some say last week's political turmoil has harmed South Korea's reputation, others say it proves resilience

A shadow of hope?

Ukraine and Russia wait warily for Trump's vision of peace

A daunting future Assad's murderous regime has fallen-but what will fill the void?

For once, use of the word \"historic\" is justified in describing the toppling of Bashar al-Assad's regime after more than 50 years of brutal dictatorship, 13 years of on-off civil war and a world of suffering.

FROM DOCTOR TO BRUTAL DICTATOR THE RISE AND FALL OF ASSAD

ON THE FACE OF IT AT LEAST, the Bashar al-Assad of 2002 presented a starkly different figure from the brutal autocrat he would become, presiding over a fragile state founded on torture, imprisonment and industrial murder.

The view from afar At last I can dream of a Syria for us all

IT HAPPENED SO FAST. In the evening, about 9.30pm UK time, 30 minutes after midnight in Homs, I spotted the first video indicating that my home city was finally free from Bashar al-Assad and his forces.

DISBELIEF TURNS TO ELATION

On the streets of Damascus, residents were in a daze as they tried to absorb Bashar al-Assad's dramatic downfall after a lightning offensive by rebel forces that swept through Syria in just 11 days

We're making a music video-but I can't play, or even act

I am in a lifeboat station on the south coast, standing beneath the stern of a rescue vessel, wearing a borrowed fisherman's jumper and holding a banjo. There are lights on me, and I am very much at sea.

BOOKS OF THE MONTH

The best translated fiction

Village people A chilly tone of doom infects these unsettling folk tales, following a settlement from the deep past to near future

The quintessential \"bad place\" is one of the staples of horror fiction. For Stephen King, the bad place - think the Overlook Hotel in The Shining - usually acts as a repository for a long-forgotten evil or injustice to resurface.

A labour of love Haruki Murakami revisits a hypnotic city of dreams and a tale of teen sweethearts, in material he's worked on over four decades

The elegiac quality of Haruki Murakami's new novel, his first in six years, was perhaps inevitable considering its origins. The City and Its Uncertain Walls began as an attempt to rework a 1980 story of the same title, originally published in the Japanese magazine Bungakukai, which Murakami, unsatisfied, never allowed to be republished or translated.

Leading questions The former German chancellor slights her enemies by barely mentioning them-and is frustratingly opaque on her own big calls

Towards the end of her 16-year tenure, former German chancellor Angela Merkel was garlanded with superlative titles: the \"queen of Europe\", the \"most powerful woman in the world\".

Double vision

Is the pay really that good? Do you get bored? We ask 'David Brent', 'Nessa' and 'Ali G' what it's like to make money as the lookalike of a comic creation

Robopop Teen star who does not exist

Miku is a 'Vocaloid' -a holographic avatar that represents a digital bank of vocal samples-performing sellout tours for thousands of very real mega-fans

The show must go wrong

How did a farce about a gaffe-filled amateur dramatic whodunnit become one of Britain's greatest ever exports, the toast of dozens of countries?

Europe's latest radical populist typifies a swing on the continent

Politics in Romania can be a bloody business, especially on the right. The excesses of the Iron Guard, an insurrectionary, violently antisemitic, ultranationalist 1930s political-religious militia, stood out even at a time when fascist parties were wreaking havoc in Germany, Italy and Spain. Given what is happening in Europe today, the events of that period are instructive.

It's high time to tax cannabis and fix French finances

France might not be broke, but the state of its public finances is, well, definitely not good. Total debt stands at €3.2tn ($3.4tn) - 112% of GDP. Interest payments on that debt are the second largest public expenditure after education (which includes everything from crêche, or preschool, to universities) and are higher than the amount spent on defence. And this year's budget deficit is projected to be 6%, three points above the EU's 3% limit.

From Beirut to Khartoum, the Arab world is in familiar trouble

For the past few months, there has been a grim new ritual whenever I meet people from some Arab countries. It's a sort of mutual commiseration and checking in. How are things with you? Where is your family? I hope you are safe, I hope they are safe. I hope you are OK. We are with you.