In late December, Donald Trump declared that Isis had been defeated in Syria and US troops would be pulled out of the country. Not for the first time (as we saw with the announcement of a national emergency at the border with Mexico), the US president’s facts were off. A small band of Isis holdouts remain in Baghuz, in the east of the country on the Iraqi border. But now, for the most part, Isis has been defeated. The question now is what happens to the captured fighters and their families, particularly those who headed to Syria from the west? In this week’s cover story, we ask what comes next as Martin Chulov, who won the Orwell prize for his coverage of the rise of Isis, travels to eastern Syria where a man desperately searches for the children his wife took from the US to join the caliphate.
Britain is now just over a month away from exiting the EU. While political clarity is still in short order, the economic impact is already biting. Last weekend the East Midlands airline Flybmi announced its collapse, blaming Brexit uncertainty. Then, dramatically, on Tuesday, the Japanese carmaker Honda announced the 2021 closure of its only European plant in Swindon. Around 7,000 jobs are threatened – and that’s before supply chains and supporting businesses are taken into account. Arguments about how much of a role Brexit played in the decision will continue, but it is a body blow for ministers such as Liam Fox who has been struggling to negotiate a post-Brexit trade deal with the Japanese. On page 23, Simon Tisdall analyses the lack of success by Britain’s negotiators and wonders what will stop the UK from becoming, in Dutch PM Mark Rutte’s words: “an economy of middling size in the Atlantic Ocean”. Another thing being torn asunder by Brexit is the Labour party. On Monday, seven of its MPs announced they were resigning to form their own independent group in parliament in protest at its handling of Brexit and allegations of antisemitism. We look at what it means for the already tumultuous world of Westminster.
Last week, the world looked on bewildered at images of polar bears in Russia dining out on a rubbish dump and prowling around a playground. Locals in Belushya Guba weren’t used to their Arctic neighbours coming to visit, and their presence was seen as yet another warning about the damage that climate change is doing to their habitats. For residents of Churchill, Manitoba, coexisting with polar bears is just part of life. In a special report from the “polar bear capital of the world”, Arctic expert Kieran Mulvaney looks at how Churchill’s plans to revitalise its port will change life alongside Earth’s largest land carnivore.
