Syrian government forces have seized swathes of territory from Kurdish groups – including camps holding IS prisoners. Will Christou reports on why this is a dangerous moment

Will Christou reports on Syria for the Guardian and has been watching the new government’s lightning-fast takeover of territory in the country’s north-east. “All of a sudden, two major provinces that were under the Kurdish forces’ control fell in a number of hours and Syrian government forces swept in,” he tells Annie Kelly.

Soon the forces were at al-Hawl camp, the largest camp holding suspected Islamic State militants – and then they were taking it over. In the chaos of the handover, more than 100 prisoners escaped and not all were found again. The camps have long been controversial: al-Hawl has an area filled with foreign fighters whose governments, for the most part, refuse to take them back. Then there are the women and children, some of whom have grown up at the camp. Thousands are languishing there, suspected but never tried.

The prime minister may have seen off the challenge for the moment – but what will be the cost to his leadership? Peter Walker reports

Ever since Andy Burnham abandoned Westminster to become Greater Manchester’s first ever mayor in 2017, he has been dogged with questions about returning to parliament for the top job. He never hid his ambition to become prime minister one day – he couldn’t, really, given that he tried and failed twice to become Labour party leader. But he insisted time and again that he was perfectly happy back in his beloved north, and had no plans to get back to London.

Then on Saturday night, he finally cracked. He wrote to Labour’s ruling body to ask for permission to stand in Gorton and Denton, promising a “hopeful and unifying campaign”, in what he admitted was a risky move. Winning the byelection was not a given and he would have to give up being the mayor if he succeeded. But instead he was blocked by the committee, including Keir Starmer, from standing at all.