Al Majalla’s cover story last week examines the opportunities and risks of Syria’s shift from being a corridor of Iranian influence to a state intent on containing it. Subhi Franjieh details how Damascus is increasingly cracking down on Iran’s proxy militias, while Ibrahim Jalal lays out ways that Syria can help Saudi Arabia confront the Houthi rebel group. 

And in the aftermath of the US midterms, Alex Vatanka argues that Trump and the Republican Party’s stunning loss opens a window for Iran diplomacy, while Neil Quilliam and Alice Gower offer a less optimistic take. Meanwhile, Tarek Rashed looks at the pushback within the Democratic Party over business-as-usual politics, as the party’s progressive base rebels against putting establishment figures like Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries into leadership positions.

For his part, Christopher Phillips examines the historical record on how electoral change affects foreign policy, arguing it doesn’t make much of a difference. Ibrahim Hamidi looks at how the Kurds in the region cannot escape their geography and history, while Haid Haid examines how a controversy over textbooks in Syria deepens public distrust of government.

And after NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang stepped down amid controversy, we look at who can fill one of the toughest roles in the tech world. For his part, Abdulfattah Khattab explains how Britain’s debt squeeze tests the pound’s power, while Alaa Emara explains how Climate change is redrawing national borders. Can a selfie tell how long we might live? Read our Science and Tech section to find out. And finally, Ibrahim Adel reviews five Arabic novels that paint an AI-dominated future.