The Taliban’s mounting pressure campaign on key cities across Afghanistan continued Wednesday as fighters battled government forces in the capital of Badghis province, the latest advance in a string of attacks on government-controlled districts since foreign forces began to withdraw in May. Clashes reached the city center Wednesday, but Afghan …

China’s controversial investment push into the Balkans has notably sidestepped Kosovo, a state it does not recognise. From Montenegro’s ‘road to ruin’ to Serbia’s Smederevo steel mill, China is all over the Balkans these days. Except in Kosovo. “In Kosovo you can find many goods from China, but no investment …

After years of crises and fraught relations with old Western allies, President Erdogan is putting out feelers to the West – to save the economy and his regime, experts say. “Tensions have eased in our relations. We will … reengage in joint work,” French President Emanuel Macron announced on June …

The Czech president talks about riding to the rescue of Prime Minister Babis’s ANO party, while speculation rises about whether Donald Tusk will do the same for Poland’s opposition. Speculation about former Polish prime minister and European Council president Donald Tusk returning to the domestic political fray and leading the …

The rights of women, Roma, people with disabilities and the LGBT community barely feature in Moldova’s July 11 election. Where Moldova’s pro-European Action and Solidarity Party, PAS, devotes an entire chapter of its 45-page election manifesto to the rights of women, its chief rival in this month’s election, the pro-Russian …

Relatives of war victims from the small Kosovo village of Rezalla say the recent discovery of bodies that had been hidden in a mass grave in Serbia has revived traumatic memories of the brutal killings in 1999. Heavy rain cut short Besim Deliu’s work at the memorial site in the …

Forget talk about ‘re-sets’ in relations; the US is on collision course with two implacable adversaries that are bent on testing its leadership and resolve. The US is on a collision course with China and Russia over both ideology and influence. As a liberal democracy, the US system of government …

Stefan Löfven und die schwedischen Sozialdemokraten retten sich erneut an die Macht. Aber ist es den Preis wert? Schweden hat wieder einen Ministerpräsidenten. Und dass der neue auch der alte ist, gibt jenen Recht, die den Sozialdemokraten Stefan Löfven mit der sprichwörtlichen Katze vergleichen: Die hat in Schweden nicht nur …

The England team of 2021 is one that simply would not exist if Priti Patel had been in charge of the Home Office a generation ago. Minutes after the full-time whistle blew in Rome on 3 July, concluding England’s 4-0 victory over Ukraine in the quarter-finals of the European Championships, …

A study on Libyan household economic vulnerability to price fluctuations and access to cash in the first five months following the devaluation of the Libyan dinar showed that there have been improvements. The study has drawn on 15 months of price data to explore other factors that might affect Libya’s …