Eurasia

As the Russian-brokered Tafas agreement in the western countryside of Daraa between the Syrian regime and the Central Committee enters into force, the regime is now seeking to take over the towns outside its control in southern Syria before the upcoming 2021 presidential elections.

The latest arrests come three months after Egypt released Soltan’s cousins from arbitrary detention. Egyptian security forces have raided the homes of Egyptian-American activist Mohamed Soltan’s relatives and arrested two of his cousins in what his US-based advocacy group Freedom Initiative described as a “campaign of retaliatory aggression.”

The Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Navy recently commissioned its last batch of Type 056A corvettes specialized in coastal defense, with the total number of the Type 056 series reaching 72, as analysts predicted on Wednesday that China could then shift focus to produce more larger warships as part of …

Key Western defense officials appear to be signaling that a deteriorating situation in Afghanistan will not permit for the withdrawal of some 10,000 troops under the terms of a deal signed with the Taliban last February.

Washington and Tokyo have decided to extend an agreement on Japanese financial support for thousands of US troops stationed in the country. In a statement released on Wednesday, Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed that the agreement, which had been due to expire next month, would be extended for a …

Intense fighting has been reported along several fronts outside the Yemeni city of Marib, controlled by the Saudi-backed Yemeni government of President Abdrabbu Mansour Hadi. Iran-backed Houthi rebels, who control the nearby capital of Sanaa, have been trying to capture Marib and strategic points surrounding it, including oil and gas …

Indictment Expands 2018 Case that Detailed Attack on Sony Pictures and Creation of WannaCry Ransomware by Adding Two New Defendants and Recent Global Schemes to Steal Money and Cryptocurrency from Banks and Businesses while Operating in North Korea, China

The proposed new advertising tax that prompted a blackout protest represents “just the tip of the iceberg” in government pressure on the independent media, according to the authors of a new report on media freedom in Poland.

Under Aleksandar Vucic’s Progressives, the line between the state and organised crime has become increasingly blurred, raising the question – is Serbia a mafia state? According to the Hungarian sociologist Balint Magyar, in a ‘mafia state’ “The state itself, at the top, works as a criminal organisation.”

Ahead of the October elections, a new liberal party is looking to mobilise segments of the Czech public who have given up on politics to depose the governing ANO party. But LidePRO is finding the pandemic an obstacle to its grassroots campaign.