CATEGORIES

K-pop and autocrats A nation's two sides laid bare

While some say last week's political turmoil has harmed South Korea's reputation, others say it proves resilience

A shadow of hope?

Ukraine and Russia wait warily for Trump's vision of peace

A daunting future Assad's murderous regime has fallen-but what will fill the void?

For once, use of the word \"historic\" is justified in describing the toppling of Bashar al-Assad's regime after more than 50 years of brutal dictatorship, 13 years of on-off civil war and a world of suffering.

FROM DOCTOR TO BRUTAL DICTATOR THE RISE AND FALL OF ASSAD

ON THE FACE OF IT AT LEAST, the Bashar al-Assad of 2002 presented a starkly different figure from the brutal autocrat he would become, presiding over a fragile state founded on torture, imprisonment and industrial murder.

The view from afar At last I can dream of a Syria for us all

IT HAPPENED SO FAST. In the evening, about 9.30pm UK time, 30 minutes after midnight in Homs, I spotted the first video indicating that my home city was finally free from Bashar al-Assad and his forces.

DISBELIEF TURNS TO ELATION

On the streets of Damascus, residents were in a daze as they tried to absorb Bashar al-Assad's dramatic downfall after a lightning offensive by rebel forces that swept through Syria in just 11 days

We're making a music video-but I can't play, or even act

I am in a lifeboat station on the south coast, standing beneath the stern of a rescue vessel, wearing a borrowed fisherman's jumper and holding a banjo. There are lights on me, and I am very much at sea.

BOOKS OF THE MONTH

The best translated fiction

Village people A chilly tone of doom infects these unsettling folk tales, following a settlement from the deep past to near future

The quintessential \"bad place\" is one of the staples of horror fiction. For Stephen King, the bad place - think the Overlook Hotel in The Shining - usually acts as a repository for a long-forgotten evil or injustice to resurface.

A labour of love Haruki Murakami revisits a hypnotic city of dreams and a tale of teen sweethearts, in material he's worked on over four decades

The elegiac quality of Haruki Murakami's new novel, his first in six years, was perhaps inevitable considering its origins. The City and Its Uncertain Walls began as an attempt to rework a 1980 story of the same title, originally published in the Japanese magazine Bungakukai, which Murakami, unsatisfied, never allowed to be republished or translated.

Leading questions The former German chancellor slights her enemies by barely mentioning them-and is frustratingly opaque on her own big calls

Towards the end of her 16-year tenure, former German chancellor Angela Merkel was garlanded with superlative titles: the \"queen of Europe\", the \"most powerful woman in the world\".

Double vision

Is the pay really that good? Do you get bored? We ask 'David Brent', 'Nessa' and 'Ali G' what it's like to make money as the lookalike of a comic creation

Robopop Teen star who does not exist

Miku is a 'Vocaloid' -a holographic avatar that represents a digital bank of vocal samples-performing sellout tours for thousands of very real mega-fans

The show must go wrong

How did a farce about a gaffe-filled amateur dramatic whodunnit become one of Britain's greatest ever exports, the toast of dozens of countries?

Europe's latest radical populist typifies a swing on the continent

Politics in Romania can be a bloody business, especially on the right. The excesses of the Iron Guard, an insurrectionary, violently antisemitic, ultranationalist 1930s political-religious militia, stood out even at a time when fascist parties were wreaking havoc in Germany, Italy and Spain. Given what is happening in Europe today, the events of that period are instructive.

It's high time to tax cannabis and fix French finances

France might not be broke, but the state of its public finances is, well, definitely not good. Total debt stands at €3.2tn ($3.4tn) - 112% of GDP. Interest payments on that debt are the second largest public expenditure after education (which includes everything from crêche, or preschool, to universities) and are higher than the amount spent on defence. And this year's budget deficit is projected to be 6%, three points above the EU's 3% limit.

From Beirut to Khartoum, the Arab world is in familiar trouble

For the past few months, there has been a grim new ritual whenever I meet people from some Arab countries. It's a sort of mutual commiseration and checking in. How are things with you? Where is your family? I hope you are safe, I hope they are safe. I hope you are OK. We are with you.

The day I caught my catfish

Andrew Lloyd describes the surreal experience of tracking down the man who stole his identity and whose Facebook profile was like a shrine devoted to his face. He was surprised to find that neither Meta nor the Metropolitan police seemed interested in taking action against the perpetrator

THE CALL OF NATURE

Across the globe, vast swathes of land are being abandoned to be reclaimed by nature. To see what happens to the natural world when people disappear, look to Bulgaria

Record drug haul seized as smugglers' new route is found

Colombian authorities working with dozens of other countries have seized 225 tonnes of cocaine in the space of six weeks, a global record for any single anti-narcotics operation, finding some of that haul on a \"narco submarine\" travelling on a new drug trafficking route to Australia.

Taxing times Trump's tariff threats send ripples around the world

European companies were wondering whether they had dodged a harmful blow to their US sales after Donald Trump promised to slap trade tariffs on Mexican, Canadian and Chinese goods in social media posts last Monday.

Against the grain The hidden killer on your plate

Most of us consume far too much salt, which can lead to high blood pressure, heart attacks and strokes. But you can retrain your palate

Lost taxes and pollution The high cost of illegal gold mining boom

Felicity Nelson recalls her 17-day detention in September vividly. The 34-year-old activist was one of 53 people arrested at a junction in Accra, the capital, after protesting with hundreds of others against illegal mining.

Protests roil women's university over plan to admit men

Spray paint and protest banners cover the walls and pavements of Dongduk women's university in Seoul. \"We'd rather perish than open our doors,\" reads one slogan. Since 11 November, students have staged a sit-in, initially occupying the main building and blocking access to classroom buildings across campus, forcing classes to move online.

Ship operator 'emitted more CO2 in 2023 than a city'

The world's largest cruise line company is responsible for producing more carbon dioxide in Europe than the city of Glasgow, a report has found.

The former sailor fighting to keep cruise ships at bay

After spending most of his life on commercial vessels, Guillaume Picard is leading the battle to protect Marseille from vast liners

Trees of life Saplings from Sycamore Gap to spread hope

Saplings from the felled. Sycamore Gap tree are to be planted across the UK, including next to one of London's most famous roads, at a rural prison and at a motor neurone disease centre opening in the name of the late rugby league star Rob Burrow.

An urban plot with a sustainable ending

Oosterwold residents must grow food on at least half their property, leading to creative solutions

Blueprint outlines plans to reform end-of-life care

MPs, doctors and charities have drawn up a blueprint to deliver an . \"unprecedented transformation\" of care for 100,000 people a year in the final stages of their lives.

Ordinary voices The power behind assisted dying vote

Many influential people spoke for and against Kim Leadbeater's bill, but it was the opinions of constituents that had greatest sway over MPs