Slovakia’s prime minister, Robert Fico, cut a lonely figure in Beijing this week as the only EU leader to attend China’s World War II anniversary events, standing in a line-up alongside Xi Jinping, Vladimir Putin, Kim Jong-un and other authoritarian rulers – an image analysts described as a snapshot of …

Ilham Ahmed, co-chair of the AANES foreign relations department, met with Syrian Foreign Minister Assaad al-Shibani, signalling potential progress in negotiations, Al-Hal reports. Efforts to bridge divisions in post-conflict Syria gained momentum this week as representatives from the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES) entered high-level talks with …

The collapse of the Assad regime on 8 December 2024 unleashed one of Syria’s most complex economic challenges in decades. Soaring inflation, eroded confidence in the Syrian pound, and the dominance of black-market speculators have turned the national currency from a medium of exchange into a symbol of financial collapse. …