With the world’s attention focused on conflict elsewhere, the shock advance of Islamist militant group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) into Aleppo brought Syria’s seemingly endless civil war back to the forefront of people’s minds. On Thursday, HTS also took the strategic city of Hama from regime forces and are now heading towards Homs, the final major city before Damascus. This week our reporters have been working to explain this sudden development and what it means for the Assad regime and its allies. In our First Edition briefing, Archie Bland laid out the history of the conflict and who HTS are, while international security correspondent Jason Burke explained how HTS militants were able to seize Aleppo so quickly. Russia has played a vital role in propping up Bashar al-Assad but, wrote Pjotr Sauer, with Putin’s military drained by its war on Ukraine, the sudden recapture of Syria’s second city threatens Russia’s strategic foothold in the region. Ruth Michaelson spoke to those living in Aleppo, who are extremely fearful of what will come next, whether that’s life under Islamist rule, or reprisals from Damascus and its allies. The retaliation in rebel-controlled Idlib came quickly, with regime airstrikes hitting medical facilities, including children’s hospitals, across the city. Kaamil Ahmed spoke to doctors there about the extent of the damage. In her column this week, Nesrine Malik wrote about the vast amount of pain being suffered by so many across the Arab world. Nesrine, Ruth and Kaamil’s pieces all speak to a tragic inevitability of conflict: it is ordinary people, and particularly children, who suffer the most. This has been an especially harrowing year of war and human suffering across the planet. As well as the horrors in the Middle East, Ukraine and Sudan, armed conflicts elsewhere – including those in Haiti, Columbia, Central African Republic, Myanmar, Syria, Ethiopia, and Democratic Republic of Congo – leave in their wake a trail of terror, chaos, and grief. On this theme, yesterday we launched the Guardian and Observer’s annual charity appeal. This year we are raising money for two charities that do critical work in some of the most dangerous parts of the world, Médecins Sans Frontières and War Child, as well as a third, Parallel Histories, which works to give schools the confidence and techniques to teach contested histories. You can read more about them and our appeal here. Since 2015, our appeals have raised more than £13.5m from readers for causes including supporting refugees, fighting child poverty, and tackling the climate crisis. Your generosity has been incredible and enduring. We hope we can inspire you to donate once again. You can do so by clicking here. Finally, industrial action was taken by staff in the UK on Wednesday and Thursday in response to the potential sale of the Observer, Guardian News & Media’s Sunday newspaper, to Tortoise. This is a difficult period, and I understand how strongly our staff and many readers feel about this deal, which has now been agreed in principle. But we believe that, if the deal were to conclude, it would give the Observer the chance to thrive as a standalone digital and print news brand. The Scott Trust, the ultimate owner of the Guardian and the Observer, is also committed to retaining a stake in the future of the Observer. We will keep readers updated as the talks progress. |