When the Aleppo high-rise apartment of Syrian civil engineer Abdulmoez Raouf shook from the earthquake across the border in Turkey this week he was confident the residents would be OK.
“The Soviets built it in the 1970s to house their advisers,” Mr Raouf said by phone from the southern middle-class Sheikh Saeed neighbourhood of the city.
After the 7.8-magnitude earthquake, Mr Raouf went to check on relatives in impoverished eastern parts of Aleppo, where he says most of the damage occurred.
Two days after the worst natural disaster in the Middle East in decades, a picture is emerging of its effects on Syrian regime territory, despite severely restricted media access.
President Bashar Al Assad's regime also restricts the movement of international organisations. Residents avoid giving information for fear of retribution.
The government has been saying the earthquake mainly affected Aleppo, Hama to the south, and other regime areas on the coast.
The disaster has also brought out disparities within communities perceived as loyal to Mr Al Assad and mainly comprising members of his Alawite sect.
Mr Raouf said buildings in eastern Aleppo were especially weak because the former rebel area was a main target of Russian and regime bombing in 2015.
The Russian intervention that year enabled forces loyal to Mr Al Assad to recapture Aleppo, Syria's second city, along with other parts of the country.
“The buildings that collapsed in the east were waiting to fall,” Mr Raouf said,
He said most of them had been built without a permit, or what is called in Syria “ashwaeiyat”: illegal structures lacking engineering standards.
Before 2011, around 60 per cent of all construction of Syria was ashwaeiyat.
An initial assessment of earthquake damage in regime areas by the UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs put the number of collapsed buildings in and around Aleppo at 40, and 53 in the coastal Latakia governorate. The organisation reported three collapsed buildings each in Hama and Tartous.
While the report pointed out damage to urban water reservoirs and cautioned that infrastructure could be affected, the destruction appears relatively modest compared with areas outside regime control to the north and west of Aleppo, especially in Idlib governorate, where Turkey holds sway.
In the rural centre of Jindayris, the opposition local council said 257 buildings had collapsed. The town, which is north of Aleppo, has a population of 100,000.
Mr Raouf said there did not seem to be much effort being put into rescuing people in eastern Aleppo.
“You might see the odd army bulldozer here and there with dozens of soldiers loitering around it,” he said.
The Syrian Foreign Ministry blamed US sanctions for what it described as a lack of equipment and medicine to deal with the earthquake.
While Idlib, Hama and Aleppo are stigmatised Sunni regions because many of their residents took part in the 2011 revolt, the governorates of Latakia and Tartous have large proportions of Alawites, who have been dealt an uneven hand by the disaster.
Leila, a kindergarten teacher in Latakia, said most of the damage in the city appears to have occurred in ashwaeiyat districts.
She moved a decade ago from a modest dwelling to a new residential property built by her wealthy husband.
“I hate to think what would have happened if we had stayed there,” she said.
Signs of discontent with the regime have emerged in outlying areas in the past few years, particularly among Alawites who have not seen windfall profits from the war economy, such as a multibillion dollar narcotics trade.
They have been hit by massive purchasing power decline, due to the collapse of the Syrian pound.
The currency is trading at 7,150 pounds to the dollar, the same rate as on Sunday, the day before the earthquake. But it was at 50 to the dollar on the eve of the outbreak of the conflict in March 2011.
A Facebook news page on Jableh, a coastal city south of Latakia, showed photos of Russian forces bringing in a crane to lift rubble from a collapsed building.
The Russian military is based in Hmeimim, on the outskirts of the city.
“What took them so long to get there?” one resident said of the pictures, in one of many expressions of anger in regime areas about slow relief efforts.
Across pro-regime social media channels, there were pictures of collapsed buildings on the coast with appeals for aid.
Jumaa Al Harer, another resident of Jableh, said the authorities had not yet dispatched any engineers to advise people whose dwellings remained standing on whether they could return inside.
The municipality, he said, is “only good at cleaning the streets when officials in their luxury cars come for visits”.
The earthquake killed at least 2,032 people across Syria. Sixty per cent of them were living in areas not under regime control.
An unemployed man in Latakia said deficiencies in the relief efforts were glaring, even in core regime areas.
He was fired from his government job last year for criticising the regime for not delivering on promises of reconstruction and economic revitalisation.
“There is no state in Syria,” he said. “The earthquake just made it more obvious.”
Ten tax points to be aware of in 2026
1. Domestic VAT refund amendments: request your refund within five years
If a business does not apply for the refund on time, they lose their credit.
2. E-invoicing in the UAE
Businesses should continue preparing for the implementation of e-invoicing in the UAE, with 2026 a preparation and transition period ahead of phased mandatory adoption.
3. More tax audits
Tax authorities are increasingly using data already available across multiple filings to identify audit risks.
4. More beneficial VAT and excise tax penalty regime
Tax disputes are expected to become more frequent and more structured, with clearer administrative objection and appeal processes. The UAE has adopted a new penalty regime for VAT and excise disputes, which now mirrors the penalty regime for corporate tax.
5. Greater emphasis on statutory audit
There is a greater need for the accuracy of financial statements. The International Financial Reporting Standards standards need to be strictly adhered to and, as a result, the quality of the audits will need to increase.
6. Further transfer pricing enforcement
Transfer pricing enforcement, which refers to the practice of establishing prices for internal transactions between related entities, is expected to broaden in scope. The UAE will shortly open the possibility to negotiate advance pricing agreements, or essentially rulings for transfer pricing purposes.
7. Limited time periods for audits
Recent amendments also introduce a default five-year limitation period for tax audits and assessments, subject to specific statutory exceptions. While the standard audit and assessment period is five years, this may be extended to up to 15 years in cases involving fraud or tax evasion.
8. Pillar 2 implementation
Many multinational groups will begin to feel the practical effect of the Domestic Minimum Top-Up Tax (DMTT), the UAE's implementation of the OECD’s global minimum tax under Pillar 2. While the rules apply for financial years starting on or after January 1, 2025, it is 2026 that marks the transition to an operational phase.
9. Reduced compliance obligations for imported goods and services
Businesses that apply the reverse-charge mechanism for VAT purposes in the UAE may benefit from reduced compliance obligations.
10. Substance and CbC reporting focus
Tax authorities are expected to continue strengthening the enforcement of economic substance and Country-by-Country (CbC) reporting frameworks. In the UAE, these regimes are increasingly being used as risk-assessment tools, providing tax authorities with a comprehensive view of multinational groups’ global footprints and enabling them to assess whether profits are aligned with real economic activity.
Contributed by Thomas Vanhee and Hend Rashwan, Aurifer
Results:
First Test: New Zealand 30 British & Irish Lions 15
Second Test: New Zealand 21 British & Irish Lions 24
Third Test: New Zealand 15 British & Irish Lions 15
THE BIO
Favourite car: Koenigsegg Agera RS or Renault Trezor concept car.
Favourite book: I Am Pilgrim by Terry Hayes or Red Notice by Bill Browder.
Biggest inspiration: My husband Nik. He really got me through a lot with his positivity.
Favourite holiday destination: Being at home in Australia, as I travel all over the world for work. It’s great to just hang out with my husband and family.
The specs
Engine: 5.0-litre V8
Power: 480hp at 7,250rpm
Torque: 566Nm at 4,600rpm
Transmission: 10-speed auto
Fuel consumption: L/100km
Price: Dh306,495
On sale: now
Quick pearls of wisdom
Focus on gratitude: And do so deeply, he says. “Think of one to three things a day that you’re grateful for. It needs to be specific, too, don’t just say ‘air.’ Really think about it. If you’re grateful for, say, what your parents have done for you, that will motivate you to do more for the world.”
Know how to fight: Shetty married his wife, Radhi, three years ago (he met her in a meditation class before he went off and became a monk). He says they’ve had to learn to respect each other’s “fighting styles” – he’s a talk it-out-immediately person, while she needs space to think. “When you’re having an argument, remember, it’s not you against each other. It’s both of you against the problem. When you win, they lose. If you’re on a team you have to win together.”
Mohammed bin Zayed Majlis
Zayed Sustainability Prize
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Who's who in Yemen conflict
Houthis: Iran-backed rebels who occupy Sanaa and run unrecognised government
Yemeni government: Exiled government in Aden led by eight-member Presidential Leadership Council
Southern Transitional Council: Faction in Yemeni government that seeks autonomy for the south
Habrish 'rebels': Tribal-backed forces feuding with STC over control of oil in government territory
The lowdown
Badla
Rating: 2.5/5
Produced by: Red Chillies, Azure Entertainment
Director: Sujoy Ghosh
Cast: Amitabh Bachchan, Taapsee Pannu, Amrita Singh, Tony Luke
AGL AWARDS
Golden Ball - best Emirati player: Khalfan Mubarak (Al Jazira)
Golden Ball - best foreign player: Igor Coronado (Sharjah)
Golden Glove - best goalkeeper: Adel Al Hosani (Sharjah)
Best Coach - the leader: Abdulaziz Al Anbari (Sharjah)
Fans' Player of the Year: Driss Fetouhi (Dibba)
Golden Boy - best young player: Ali Saleh (Al Wasl)
Best Fans of the Year: Sharjah
Goal of the Year: Michael Ortega (Baniyas)
