"No words will do justice to the children killed, their mothers, their fathers and their loved ones." This was the single-sentence statement issued by Unicef, the UN's children's fund, this week in response to the Syrian government's ongoing siege of Eastern Ghouta. The rest of the statement was left deliberately blank, intended as testament to the inadequacy of language to convey the full horror being experienced by Syria's children. Of the 250 civilians estimated to have been killed in Eastern Ghouta over a 48-hour period, 58 are children. A footnote to the statement asks: "Do those inflicting the suffering still have words to justify their barbaric acts?"
The answer is that Bashar Al Assad will not pause to consult his conscience just because the world has been robbed of words. Unicef's speechlessness might be little more than a publicity stunt to generate traction on social media but as the hellish footage shows, the bodies of little girls and boys continue to pile up in Eastern Ghouta as Mr Al Assad stamps out the last remnant of resistance to his rule. Syria, according to a report released by the charity Save the Children at this month's Munich Security Conference, is now the most dangerous place on the planet to be a child. The war there is "the single largest contributing factor to many of the worsening global trends in children and armed conflict" across the world, which over the past two decades has witnessed an alarming rise in the number of children exposed to violence.
A total of 357 million children – equivalent to one in six – live in conflict zones. Children in parts of the Middle East are at the greatest risk of experiencing conflict while Asia has the ignominy of having the largest number of children (166 million) living in constant fear for their lives. The UN toll of "grave violations" of children makes for horrific reading: maiming and killing, sexual violence, abduction, recruitment as child soldiers, denial of humanitarian services and attacks on schools and hospitals. Millions live with the constant risk of being endangered in conflicts not of their making.
Today the world celebrated the 18th year of the Optional Protocol on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict. Children who grow up witnessing atrocities are haunted by their memories for the rest of their lives. Many who lived through the Second World War as children are still traumatised by it. Boys conscripted as child soldiers in Uganda and Sierra Leone might never outgrow their agonising past. Their experiences give a horrifying indication of what lies in store for children who survive the war in Syria and for the millions more trapped in conflicts elsewhere. Reacting with speechlessness simply doesn't do them justice. The world's silence is complicit in the Syrian nightmare. It is time to atone with meaningful action to protect the most vulnerable members of society and speak up, loud and clear, for those who have been robbed of a voice.
The White Lotus: Season three
Creator: Mike White
Starring: Walton Goggins, Jason Isaacs, Natasha Rothwell
Rating: 4.5/5
PROFILE OF SWVL
Started: April 2017
Founders: Mostafa Kandil, Ahmed Sabbah and Mahmoud Nouh
Based: Cairo, Egypt
Sector: transport
Size: 450 employees
Investment: approximately $80 million
Investors include: Dubai’s Beco Capital, US’s Endeavor Catalyst, China’s MSA, Egypt’s Sawari Ventures, Sweden’s Vostok New Ventures, Property Finder CEO Michael Lahyani
The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
Specs
Engine: Dual-motor all-wheel-drive electric
Range: Up to 610km
Power: 905hp
Torque: 985Nm
Price: From Dh439,000
Available: Now
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Greatest Royal Rumble match listing
50-man Royal Rumble - names entered so far include Braun Strowman, Daniel Bryan, Kurt Angle, Big Show, Kane, Chris Jericho, The New Day and Elias
Universal Championship Brock Lesnar (champion) v Roman Reigns in a steel cage match
WWE World Heavyweight ChampionshipAJ Styles (champion) v Shinsuke Nakamura
Intercontinental Championship Seth Rollins (champion) v The Miz v Finn Balor v Samoa Joe
United States Championship Jeff Hardy (champion) v Jinder Mahal
SmackDown Tag Team Championship The Bludgeon Brothers (champions) v The Usos
Raw Tag Team Championship (currently vacant) Cesaro and Sheamus v Matt Hardy and Bray Wyatt
Casket match The Undertaker v Rusev
Singles match John Cena v Triple H
Cruiserweight Championship Cedric Alexander v Kalisto
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
Specs
Engine: 51.5kW electric motor
Range: 400km
Power: 134bhp
Torque: 175Nm
Price: From Dh98,800
Available: Now
Learn more about Qasr Al Hosn
In 2013, The National's History Project went beyond the walls to see what life was like living in Abu Dhabi's fabled fort:
UAE tour of the Netherlands
UAE squad: Rohan Mustafa (captain), Shaiman Anwar, Ghulam Shabber, Mohammed Qasim, Rameez Shahzad, Mohammed Usman, Adnan Mufti, Chirag Suri, Ahmed Raza, Imran Haider, Mohammed Naveed, Amjad Javed, Zahoor Khan, Qadeer Ahmed
Fixtures: Monday, first 50-over match; Wednesday, second 50-over match; Thursday, third 50-over match
