In a letter posted on his blog to Joshua Landis, a Syria analyst based in the US, a resident of Aleppo describes the decline in living standards in Syria's commercial capital city.
"The Syrian pound has fallen to 83 to the dollar," he writes. "This means that the net worth of every Syrian has fallen by over 70 per cent since the beginning of the uprising. People do not have enough to eat. More than half the country is living on 2 dollars a day or less. Hunger and fear are spreading."
Assuming he is not exaggerating (Mr Landis is, if anything, known for being mildly sympathetic towards the Syrian president Bashar Al Assad, so the letter is unlikely to be carefully inserted propaganda), it is one of the most revealing dispatches from a city that had been relatively immune to Syria's version of the Arab Spring.
There may be scant sympathy for the Aleppines, who for the past year have minded their own business while their fellow Syrians have been gunned down by the dozen, but to see in purely binary terms is to ignore the frightful lack of choice many Syrians face. The revolt has placed a huge strain on the Syrian private sector, physiologically as well as financially and economically.
Last May, I was in London and ran into a prominent Syrian businessman, a Christian and one whom the world might assume was hoping the whole mess would just go away.
What was his take on the situation? He exhaled nervously and, almost conspiratorially, took me to one side. "I am torn," he said. "My heart is with the people but my wallet is with the regime. What can I do?"
Since then, I have met more Syrians, mostly wealthy Christians from Damascus, who despite their outward cosmopolitanism and education have voiced unambiguous support for a regime that for decades has shown it will brook no dissent.
They trot out the weary line that Mr Al Assad is the only man who can stop what they see as the inevitable tide of Sunni fundamentalism that is poised to sweep across the region. Privately, a few will admit the regime's fundamental DNA is not to their liking but, as the old cliché goes, we live in a tough neighbourhood.
There are two conclusions to draw about the Syrian private sector.
The first is the one we might all jump to, that it is an elite minority that has become wealthy on the back of the regime, that deep down one senses it is not all about what will happen après le déluge. Change would simply be loaded with too much uncertainty and if that means 10,000 people have to die, then so be it. Like we said, tough neighbourhood.
I met the Syrian businessman again last week. The situation was, he declared over lunch in a Beirut restaurant, a terrible one. But again he asked the question: "what can I do?
And the truth is he and his fellow merchants, manufacturers and traders can do nothing. The private sector genuinely has its hands tied.
"He's right," said a Lebanese banker. "What can he do? Tell Bashar to stop the killing or else? Or what? The next day the business will be burnt down and the owner thrown in jail."
And so the bourgeoisie is doing the next best thing and heading to Beirut, where they are buying apartments - there are plenty on the market after all - then putting their kids in Lebanese schools and hoping that Lebanese banks will give them the letters of credit they need to carry on doing business.
"For the time being, it's over, the banker added.
"The Lebanese banks are doing very little business there at the moment because the merchant class is doing very little business," he said.
"I suppose it's a blessing that we never really did much there in the first place."
Michael Karam is an associate editor-in-chief of Executive, the Lebanese regional business magazine
Race card
6.30pm: Emirates Holidays Maiden (TB), Dh82,500 (Dirt), 1,900m
7.05pm: Arabian Adventures Maiden (TB), Dh82,500 (D), 1,200m
7.40pm: Emirates Skywards Handicap (TB), Dh82,500 (D), 1,200m
8.15pm: Emirates Airline Conditions (TB), Dh120,000 (D), 1,400m
8.50pm: Emirates Sky Cargo (TB), Dh92,500 (D)1,400m
9.15pm: Emirates.com (TB), Dh95,000 (D), 2,000m
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A MINECRAFT MOVIE
Director: Jared Hess
Starring: Jack Black, Jennifer Coolidge, Jason Momoa
Rating: 3/5
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In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
Everton%20Fixtures
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At a glance
Global events: Much of the UK’s economic woes were blamed on “increased global uncertainty”, which can be interpreted as the economic impact of the Ukraine war and the uncertainty over Donald Trump’s tariffs.
Growth forecasts: Cut for 2025 from 2 per cent to 1 per cent. The OBR watchdog also estimated inflation will average 3.2 per cent this year
Welfare: Universal credit health element cut by 50 per cent and frozen for new claimants, building on cuts to the disability and incapacity bill set out earlier this month
Spending cuts: Overall day-to day-spending across government cut by £6.1bn in 2029-30
Tax evasion: Steps to crack down on tax evasion to raise “£6.5bn per year” for the public purse
Defence: New high-tech weaponry, upgrading HM Naval Base in Portsmouth
Housing: Housebuilding to reach its highest in 40 years, with planning reforms helping generate an extra £3.4bn for public finances
The%20specs
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Surianah's top five jazz artists
Billie Holliday: for the burn and also the way she told stories.
Thelonius Monk: for his earnestness.
Duke Ellington: for his edge and spirituality.
Louis Armstrong: his legacy is undeniable. He is considered as one of the most revolutionary and influential musicians.
Terence Blanchard: very political - a lot of jazz musicians are making protest music right now.
KLOPP%20AT%20LIVERPOOL
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The rules on fostering in the UAE
A foster couple or family must:
- be Muslim, Emirati and be residing in the UAE
- not be younger than 25 years old
- not have been convicted of offences or crimes involving moral turpitude
- be free of infectious diseases or psychological and mental disorders
- have the ability to support its members and the foster child financially
- undertake to treat and raise the child in a proper manner and take care of his or her health and well-being
- A single, divorced or widowed Muslim Emirati female, residing in the UAE may apply to foster a child if she is at least 30 years old and able to support the child financially
Unresolved crisis
Russia and Ukraine have been locked in a bitter conflict since 2014, when Ukraine’s Kremlin-friendly president was ousted, Moscow annexed Crimea and then backed a separatist insurgency in the east.
Fighting between the Russia-backed rebels and Ukrainian forces has killed more than 14,000 people. In 2015, France and Germany helped broker a peace deal, known as the Minsk agreements, that ended large-scale hostilities but failed to bring a political settlement of the conflict.
The Kremlin has repeatedly accused Kiev of sabotaging the deal, and Ukrainian officials in recent weeks said that implementing it in full would hurt Ukraine.
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills