Protests have erupted against another Syrian dictator

Idlib used to be Syria’s poorest province. But under the rule of Abu Muhammad al-Jolani, a former al-Qaeda jihadist, the north-west has become the country’s fastest-growing. It sports new luxury shopping malls, fancy housing estates that survived last year’s earthquake (unlike those in Turkey) and round-the-clock electricity, better than the capital, Damascus, with its perennial blackouts. Mr Jolani’s fief of 3m people has a university with 18,000 (segregated) students, two zoos, a funfair and a revamped football stadium. His jihadists are as likely to be found in cafés as plush as Dubai’s as they are on Syria’s front lines.Since Russia diverted some of its forces to Ukraine, the war feels farther away, too. Air strikes against the rebels are fewer. Bashar al-Assad, the dictator in Damascus, still vows to reconquer the breakaway north, but his regime looks too spent to pose a serious challenge.