The Week 1519

What happened Thousands of Syrians lined the streets of Damascus and other cities last Friday, to celebrate the fall of Bashar al-Assad a week earlier. The rebel leader Abu Mohammed al-Jolani had urged people to mark “the blessed revolution” led by his Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group. The joyful mood was tempered, however, by further revelations about the atrocities committed by the regime, which is believed to have tortured and killed hundreds of thousands of people in its gulag system (see page 11). On Tuesday, it was reported that a mass grave, which may contain tens of thousands of bodies, had been found north of Damascus. In his first public comments since fleeing to Moscow, Assad denied that he’d planned to leave Syria. Instead, he said that Russia had…

What happened Prince Andrew was again engulfed in scandal owing to the revelation that one of his business confidants is an alleged Chinese spy. The case came to light last Thursday when a specialist tribunal in London upheld a 2023 ban on the businessman – named on Monday as Yang Tengbo – entering the UK. The Duke of York had invited Yang to his birthday party in 2020 and told him that he could act on his behalf when dealing with potential investors in China. In a file found on a digital device when Yang was detained at a UK port in 2021, Andrew’s adviser told Yang that he was in a privileged position with the Duke – “at the very top of a tree that many, many people would…

Pupils from English schools have performed better than expected in the international TIMSS assessment, which ranks children’s abilities in maths and science every four years. Year 5 pupils maintained a strong score in maths, while Year 9 pupils’ scores rose slightly, and both groups saw improvements in science. England was ranked ninth out of 66 countries in primary maths, sixth in secondary maths, and fifth in primary and secondary science. Singapore topped the table. An 88-year-old has passed his grade 8 piano exam with distinction, 67 years after he achieved grade 7. Ray Eveleigh, a retired vicar who lives in East Yorkshire, took up the piano as a child to accompany his father’s ukulele, and passed his grade 7 when he was at university. But after that, he says that…

Controversy of the week “Fifteen. That is the number of times the authorities were informed that Sara Sharif was potentially in danger,” said The Times. As well as these documented opportunities, there were no doubt many undocumented chances “to rescue this child from the fate that awaited her” at the hands of her father Urfan Sharif, 43, and her stepmother Beinash Batool, 30. Sara was found dead, aged ten, at her home in Woking, in August 2023. A post-mortem found that she had at least 71 external injuries, including bruises, burns and human bite marks. She had 29 bone fractures, including one to her neck and 10 to her spine, from being beaten with a cricket bat and a metal pole. Plastic hoods, with holes for her mouth, had been…

The Government has announced that the ban on prescribing puberty blockers to under-18s with gender dysphoria is to be made permanent (see page 13). In extending the ban, which was introduced using emergency legislation by the Conservatives in May, Health Secretary Wes Streeting cited independent medical experts, who had found there was an “unacceptable safety risk” in giving the drugs to children. “We do not yet know the risks of stopping pubertal hormones at this critical life stage,” he added. The ban applies to NHS and private clinics. However, a clinical trial by NHS England into the use of puberty blockers will go ahead next year. The ban will be reviewed in 2027.…

The UK economy shrank for the second month in a row in October, by 0.1%. Figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) showed that the fall in GDP – which followed a 0.1% drop in September – was driven by declines in construction and production, and a stagnant services sector. Economists polled by Reuters had expected to see growth of 0.1%. The ONS also found that pay growth hit 5.2% a year between August and October, meaning wages are still rising faster than prices.…