I met Assad and his wife in 2009, before he turned to mass murder

Published

10 months ago

December 8, 2024

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Bashar al Assad started out as a doctor and ended up a mass murdering tyrant now on the run.

The man who trained to save lives in Damascus and London would go on to take them in their hundreds of thousands, bombing hospitals and gassing his own people.

He was a strangely unimpressive man to meet. Tall, slightly gauche, with a lisp and thin tufty moustache.

Christopher Hitchens called him the human toothbrush. The writer recalled Hannah Arendt’s phrase the “banality of evil” when he remembered meeting another dictator, Argentina’s General Videla. But it applied equally well to Mr Assad.

He was ordinary, more oddball than evil, with a high-pitched awkward laugh.

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It was a very different time in a very different Syria when Mr Assad and his wife invited Sky News to Damascus. We went on a walkabout with them on a warm spring evening in 2009.

Barack Obama had just been inaugurated president in America. In his reedy voice, Mr Assad said he would like to invite the young president to Syria, via Sky News. He almost giggled as he said it. His British-born wife beamed at his side.

Back then everything seemed possible but just two years later Syria erupted in protest caught up in the contagion of the Arab Spring. Mr Assad would respond with brutal force. That fateful decision put Syria on the path to a devastating civil war.

Mr Assad had become president unexpectedly and it seemed reluctantly.

His elder brother Bassel had been groomed for the job. He was everything Bashar wasn’t, good looking and confident, a special forces soldier, his father’s favourite. But Bassel died in a car crash.

Did Mr Assad’s ruthlessness later spring partly from sibling resentment? Was he needing to prove himself to his domineering dead father to be as strong as his brother? Did the weaker, overlooked Bashar overcompensate for his inadequacies with the mass slaughter of hundreds of thousands?

Take the Roys of Succession and add weapons

The Assads were quite the family. Take the Roys of Succession and add weapons, both chemical and biological.

Hafez, the cold calculating patriarch whose achievement of seizing power in Syria and dominating it for decades was threatened by his scheming, weaker children.

Bashar, the brooding heir, and Maher, his psychotic, deranged brother who has personally overseen much of the regime’s reign of terror.

When his father died in 2000, Mr Assad was called back from London, cutting short his career as an eye doctor to succeed him. At first he promised reform. The country seemed to be opening up.

Assad’s wife was part of the act

Mr Assad’s telegenic wife, Asma, brought up in West London by Syrian parents, was part of the act, presenting a modernising future. She was much better at it than her husband, a natural in front of the cameras.

She told me she had travelled the country incognito after her husband took power, to help him understand its needs.

They were a normal middle-class couple she said, who loved nothing better than surprising Damascenes by popping up in restaurants on date nights in the capital.

Vogue magazine was pilloried later for calling Ms Assad Syria’s “Desert Rose” but it was not the only one taken in. There was in those days a genuine sense Syria was on a new path. Perhaps Mr and Mrs Assad believed it too.

But in the background, repression and corruption never went away.

Mr Assad was handing out lucrative privatisation contracts to cronies and family. The Assads’ secret police were stifling dissent as brutally as before.

The eruption of civil war

Two years after that invitation to Mr Obama, Mr Assad was forced to choose between a new way forward and the repressive ways of his father.

Children had been arrested in the southern city of Deraa for protests inspired by the Arab Spring sweeping the region. The police tortured them, killed them and returned their mutilated bodies.

Protests engulfed the south. The Assad regime seemed uncertain at first how to respond. If there was an attempt at conciliation, it was shortlived.

Mr Assad returned to old family tactics. In 1982, his father Hafez had slaughtered thousands in the city of Hama after an uprising there.

Peaceful protests erupted across the country. Mr Assad ordered his security forces to crush them, opening fire on peaceful unarmed crowds. His brother Maher was filmed doing so personally.

Ultimately, Syrians had little choice but to resort to arming themselves. The uprising mutated into armed rebellion. Then outside powers joined in, turning the conflict into both a proxy and civil war.

Assad could never afford to lose

Mr Assad was all in. From the minority Alawite sect, he could never afford to lose.

Desperate to prevail, he resorted to more and more desperate methods. Thousands of barrel bombs were dropped from helicopters. And then chemical weapons; chlorine gas, sarin and mustard.

Opponents disappeared in their tens of thousands into jails, where torture, sexual abuse and mass hangings were commonplace.

Mr Assad could never have held on without his allies. Russia in the air and Iran on the ground. Their support swung the war in his favour, the rebels kettled into the northwest of the country, a killing zone in the province of Idlib.

Assad’s rotten and hollow regime has folded

The conflict seemed frozen for years but Mr Assad’s enemies have used the time to re-arm and learn new tactics and discipline.

His allies were distracted, Russia in Ukraine and Iran was weakened by events in Lebanon.

Mr Assad, the young eye doctor with the glamorous British wife, had become an evil murderous despot, perverted and corrupted utterly by power.

His rule lost all legitimacy years ago. Rotten and hollow, without external support, his regime has folded, a lesson to others, not least his allies, in Moscow and Tehran.

It has taken years and cost hundreds of thousands of lives but Syrians have finally overthrown their hated dictator. The dynasty Mr Assad’s father thought he was building has collapsed.

Mr and Mrs Assad may find refuge abroad, but the fate of the rest of their dreadful family remains unknown.

World

‘Priceless’ jewellery stolen from Louvre museum in Paris – as authorities reveal details of daring raid

Published

6 hours ago

October 19, 2025

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'Priceless' jewellery stolen from Louvre museum in Paris - as authorities reveal details of daring raid

“Priceless” jewellery has been stolen from the Louvre museum in Paris – as authorities revealed details of the daring raid that has forced the closure of the world famous landmark.

The museum, which is the world’s most popular, drawing up to 30,000 visitors a day, said on X it was closing for “exceptional reasons” on Sunday.

In a separate post, culture minister Rachida Dati said there had been a robbery and she was on site alongside museum and police teams.

French interior minister Laurent Nunez said the “major robbery” involved intruders entering the museum via a basket lift using a platform mounted on a lorry.

“They broke a window and went towards several display cases where they stole jewellery,” he added.

“These are jewels that have genuine heritage value and are, in fact, priceless.”

Mr Nunez told France Inter radio the robbery lasted seven minutes, while the interior ministry said the criminals fled on two motorbikes. No injuries have been reported.

The robbers were well-prepared, Mr Nunez said, and “had done scouting”, cutting window panes “with a disc cutter” before escaping “on a TMAX” (a type of Yamaha maxi-scooter).

The robbery took place between 9.30 and 9.40am (8.30-8.40am UK time), the French government said in a statement, adding an investigation has begun, forensic work was under way and “a detailed list of the stolen items is being compiled”.

Hooded criminals carrying “small chainsaws” entered the building from the River Seine side, where construction work is taking place, French daily newspaper, Le Parisien, said, quoting preliminary findings from the police investigation.

Intruders went to the Galerie d’Apollon (Apollo Gallery), home to a selection of the French Crown Jewels, the ministry said.

The robbers escaped with nine pieces of jewellery from Napoleon and the Empress’s collection.

A necklace, a brooch, a tiara, were among the items taken from the Napoleon and French Sovereigns display cases. A third robber stayed outside, Le Parisien said.

One of the stolen gems was later found broken outside the museum, according to the paper, which said it was believed to be Empress Eugenie’s crown.

Police sealed off the museum and evacuated visitors. New arrivals were turned away and nearby streets were closed, according to the interior ministry.

Social media users posted pictures and videos from in and outside the building, with one people leaving in what the user described as “total panic”.

On person on X said they were there and reported a confused-sounding scene of police “running near pyramid and trying to enter the Louvre from glass side doors but they were locked and they could not enter”.

“Everyone inside was running and banging on glass doors to get out, but could not open. Police and military police arrived,” they added.

It’s not the first time the museum, one of the world’s most famous and a French national landmark, has been targeted by thieves.

In 1911, the Mona Lisa vanished from its frame, stolen by a former worker who hid inside the museum and walked out with the painting under his coat.

It was recovered two years later in Florence – an episode that helped make Leonardo da Vinci’s portrait the world’s best-known artwork.

In 1983, two Renaissance-era pieces of armour were stolen and only recovered nearly four decades later.

The museum’s collection also bears the legacy of Napoleonic-era looting, containing 33,000 works of art, including antiquities, sculptures and paintings.

In addition to the Mona Lisa, its star attractions feature the Venus de Milo and the Winged Victory of Samothrace.

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World

Hamas hands over bodies of two more hostages, Israel confirms

Published

15 hours ago

October 19, 2025

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Hamas hands over bodies of two more hostages, Israel confirms

Israel has received the bodies of two more hostages from the Red Cross, the Israeli prime minister’s office has confirmed.

Shortly after 10pm UK time on Saturday, Israel’s military said Hamas handed over “two coffins of deceased hostages”.

There has been no identification of the bodies yet.

The news came as tensions were beginning to rise over the closure of the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt.

Benjamin Netanyahu‘s office had said earlier on Saturday evening that it would stay closed “until further notice” – as the deadline for Hamas to return the bodies of the hostages had passed with no confirmation.

Mr Netanyahu had warned that its reopening would depend on how Hamas fulfilled its role in returning the remains of all 28 dead hostages.

The handover brings the count of returned bodies to 12 hostages, up from 10, according to Israel’s tally. Another 16 deceased hostages would then still have to be returned.

All 28 were supposed to have been handed over by last Monday.

The handover of remains is among key points – along with aid deliveries into Gaza and the devastated territory’s future – in the ceasefire process meant to end two years of war.

Israel’s foreign ministry had originally said the Rafah crossing would likely reopen on Sunday – another step in the fragile ceasefire. This has now been revised to being closed “until further notice”.

A fully reopened crossing would make it easier for Gazans to seek medical treatment, travel internationally or visit family in Egypt, which is home to tens of thousands of Palestinians.

It is unclear who will operate the crossing’s heavily damaged Gaza side once the war ends.

Meanwhile, Gaza’s ruins were being scoured for the dead, over a week into a ceasefire. Newly recovered bodies brought the Palestinian toll above 68,000, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.

The ministry, part of the Hamas-run government, does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its count. But the ministry maintains detailed casualty records that are seen as generally reliable by UN agencies and independent experts.

Famine declared

Israel has disputed them without providing its own toll.

Hamas-led militants killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted 251 people in the attack on southern Israel that sparked the war on October 7 2023.

Gaza’s more than two million people are hoping the ceasefire will bring relief from the humanitarian disaster caused by Israel’s offensive. Throughout the war, Israel restricted aid entry to Gaza – sometimes halting it altogether.

Famine was declared in Gaza City, and the UN says it has verified more than 400 people who died of malnutrition-related causes, including more than 100 children.

Officials in Israel say they have let in enough food, accusing Hamas of stealing much of it. The UN and other aid agencies deny this claim.

World

Volodymyr Zelenskyy believes ‘Putin is afraid’ that Donald Trump could still supply Ukraine with Tomahawk missiles

Published

1 day ago

October 18, 2025

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Volodymyr Zelenskyy believes 'Putin is afraid' that Donald Trump could still supply Ukraine with Tomahawk missiles

Volodymyr Zelenskyy has not ruled out the possibility that he can secure long-range Tomahawk missiles from the US, adding that he believes “Putin is afraid” of the consequences.

In an exclusive interview with NBC News’s Meet the Press, Ukraine’s president discussed some of the details of his two-hour meeting with Donald Trump on Friday, including his desire for the weapons after three years of war with Russia.

“It’s good that President Trump didn’t say ‘no’, but for today, didn’t say ‘yes’,” he said about the supply of the missiles, as part of a discussion which will air on Sunday.

Ukraine war latest: Zelenskyy proposes ‘drone for Tomahawk’

He admitted the US president was concerned about a potential escalation with Russia, but Mr Zelenskyy told NBC, Sky News’s US partner, that the weapons are a genuine concern for Vladimir Putin.

“I think that Putin [is] afraid that United States will deliver us Tomahawks. And I think that he [is] really afraid that we will use them,” he said.

The weapons have a significantly longer range than any other missiles in Ukraine’s armoury and have the potential to be a game-changer in the war against Russia.

While Mr Trump did not rule out providing the Tomahawk missiles, he appeared cool to the prospect as he looked ahead to a meeting with the Russian president in Hungary in the coming weeks.

‘US doesn’t want escalation’

Following the meeting with Mr Trump, who held a phone call with Mr Putin on Thursday, Mr Zelenskyy told reporters: “We spoke about long-range (missiles) of course. And I do not want to make statements about it.”

But he added: “We don’t speak about it because… United States doesn’t want this escalation”.

Later in a post on X, Mr Zelenskyy said he was counting on President Trump to “bring this war closer to an end”.

“We discussed all key issues – our positions on the battlefield, long-range capabilities and air defence, and, of course, diplomatic prospects,” he said.

“Russia must end the aggression it started and continues to deliberately prolong. We count on the United States’ pressure.”

In a roundtable with journalists following the meeting, Mr Trump confirmed that hitting targets deep inside Russian territory would be an “escalation”.

He also said he was hesitant to tap into the US’ supply of Tomahawks, saying: “I have an obligation also to make sure that we’re completely stocked up as a country, because you never know what’s going to happen in war and peace.

“We’d much rather have them not need Tomahawks. We’d much rather have the war be over to be honest.”

Analysis: Is Trump being ‘played’ by Putin?

Before Donald Trump met with Volodymyr Zelenskyy, he hosted one of his favourite singers, Andrea Bocelli, in the Oval Office.

The Italian tenor serenaded him with the signature track Time To Say Goodbye, a song about hope and new beginnings.

But the next event on his agenda suggested antipathy between Trump and the Ukrainian president are firmly lodged in the past.

On the key issue of whether Vladimir Putin actually wants peace, the pair continue to fundamentally disagree.

Trump repeated several times his belief that Putin is committed to ending the war, which may come as a surprise to the people of eastern Ukraine, being pummeled by an expanded Russian offensive in the past few months.

Trump also spoke about “bad blood on both sides”, again inferring equal blame on Zelenskyy, whose sovereign nation was invaded, and Putin, who is doing the invading.

It’s in Putin’s gift to stop the fighting immediately, but that was glossed over.