The world couldn't believe it last December when Syria's Assad regime, after decades of iron-fisted rule, suddenly fell like a house of cards. The speed of that collapse exposed how the state had been hollowed out on the quiet. Eight months on, how weak does Syria remain?

Call it India's ignored conflict: it’s been two years since violence erupted in Manipur state, yet 60,000 people remain displaced by intercommunal tensions between the majority Meitei and the Kuki-Zo communities. We ask why mediation efforts have stalled and what's changed since the central government imposed President's rule from Delhi at the start of the year.…

Brazil has announced it's working on counter-measures should the Trump administration make good on its threat to punish the country and sanction its Supreme Court president over the coup attempt case against far-right former president Jair Bolsonaro. Brazil is one of the nations threatened with secondary tariffs for buying Russian oil – but not Trump ally Turkey.…

The Nobel Peace Prize can wait. The same Donald Trump whose administration just weeks ago paused munitions and air defence supplies for Ukraine is now turning on Vladimir Putin with threats of asset seizures and ramped-up weapons sales for Kyiv. Why the about-face? How committed to Ukraine is Trump going forward? And how committed to NATO? Allies know that the days are numbered for the United States providing the bulk of Europe's defence umbrella.…

Caught between the threat of Vladimir Putin's Russia and the wavering of Donald Trump's United States, can Europe really rely on its only two nuclear powers to guarantee deterrence from atomic attacks? We review the joint announcement by video link out of Northwood military base in England to leaders in Rome gathered for a "coalition of the willing" summit on Ukraine.…

Rubber bullets, tear gas, water cannons and live rounds: can Kenya's police beat the defiance of a new generation into submission? Monday's Saba Saba Day marches, marking 35 years since the spark of the movement that led to a return of multiparty rule, were the latest protests to turn deadly.

His post may be largely ceremonial, but his messaging is crystal clear. The first state dinner at the palace of King Charles's reign goes to France's Emmanuel Macron, not the United States' Donald Trump. At a time when the United Kingdom is forced to rethink its role in an uncertain world, is it turning its back this time on Winston Churchill's adage that "if Britain must choose between Europe and the open sea, she must always choose the open sea"?…

Benjamin Netanyahu has done it before: making positive noises about a Gaza truce before boarding a plane to America, only for it all to unravel after he lands. For the Israeli prime minister's third visit to the White House since Inauguration Day, the noises are more positive than they've been in a while, but hard evidence of progress is thin and these meetings with Donald Trump always feel loosely scripted; perhaps even improvised.…

Remember last week and that collective sigh of relief among allies that Donald Trump had a) showed up at the NATO summit and b) agreed to a sidebar meeting with his Ukrainian counterpart, after which the US president gushed that Volodymyr Zelensky "couldn't have been nicer". It was quite the contrast with that February White House ambush on live television that so spooked Europeans.…

We've seen this movie before. US President Donald Trump is talking up a ceasefire initiative, only for the killing to continue in Gaza; killing that is relentless and off-the-scales ever since the rollout of a US-Israeli aid delivery scheme that bypasses traditional international agencies.

It's the first day of July and already France and parts of Europe are enduring their second major heatwave with no respite. From the shores of the Mediterranean, warmed by waters at an alarming 26°C, to the rooftop of Europe – Mont Blanc – where the mercury's got no business venturing above freezing this early in the summer, how to adapt to the new normal?…

Where else but the city of merchants, one whose fortune was founded on global trade, to host the celebrity wedding of the digital age's king of ecommerce? In Venice, Jeff Bezos, the billionaire owner of online trading platform Amazon, is tying the knot with journalist-turned-TV personality Lauren Sanchez in a spectacle that's drawn both paparazzi and protesters. What does this spectacle out of a Fellini movie say about the age we live in?…

Allies can breathe a sigh of relief. The same Donald Trump who left the G7 summit early showed up on time for the NATO summit in the Netherlands – an abridged summit to curry favour and keep his undivided attention. The US president played with members' nerves, entertaining suspense over the United States' commitment to NATO's Article 5 but in the end reaffirming support for the Alliance's "all for one and one for all" clause in case of attack. After a victory lap over Iran, Trump was all smiles over Alliance members' commitment to boost defence spending to 5 percent of GDP.…

Donald Trump went all-in with B2 bomber raids against Iran's nuclear installations over the weekend and then surprised allies and adversaries alike with a ceasefire announcement late on Monday. All this for a victory lap at the NATO summit that's opening in the Netherlands? Whether it's strategy or impulse that's driving the US president, we attempt to make sense of an operation that was resisted for decades by all of his predecessors, including Trump himself in his first term.…

There's the plan – and then there are the unintended consequences. The United States talks diplomacy, then bombs Iran. It suggests the targeting of nuclear sites may have been a one-off, yet leaves the regime uncertain: is regime change the real objective? Following its most significant show of force since the invasion of Iraq, will Washington take ownership of what comes next? For now, the US asserts itself as the sole superpower capable of projecting force in a region where China appears reduced to the role of chief oil customer, and Russia remains preoccupied with Ukraine. And with Israel now striking Tehran's notorious Evin Prison, it's clear this goes far beyond nuclear ambitions. We look at the options left to a weakened Iran – and the consequences of toppling a militarised theocracy.…