A meteoric rise has propelled National Rally's young president to the top of French politics. His easy charm and expensive social media set-up now means 1 in 4 young French adults say 'Oui'
This bureaucratic sham is meant to make the Assad regime look credible but instead just demonstrates its sclerosis. Little wonder most Syrians don't bother.
Macron has spent a fortune, bond yields are going up, stocks are falling, Brussels is demanding reform, the IMF is preparing an emergency package, and populists are at the gate... Sacré bleu!
A big pro-EU bloc should still hold sway even if the ultra-nationalists make gains. More broadly, the results will act as a barometer of public mood in the first vote since Russia invaded Ukraine.
The ruling party is not used to coming second at the ballots, so there were emotive words from the president as he sought to understand what went wrong. Meanwhile, the victorious CHP gets on with it.
President Tebboune's decision to bring forward polls to 7 September was influenced by domestic and foreign policy considerations. Wide backing for it indicates officials had gotten a heads-up.
A win for President Erdoğan's AKP party could further marginalise the opposition he defeated in 2023's general election, making constitutional reform more likely
The murky poll outcome is not conducive to pursuing a robust foreign policy, especially with India. The foreign ministry will need to lean heavily on the military establishment for guidance.
The 74-year-old former PM is campaigning across the country, vowing to position Pakistan as an economic powerhouse in Asia ahead of general elections on 8 February.
President-elect Lai will certainly be limited in his capacity to enact any major shift in the coming years. Meanwhile, Beijing's Taiwan policy has proven ineffective and may need a change of course.
Beijing would like the week to mark a historic turning point in which a unipolar world finally gave way to multipolarity. To others, it was just tub-thumping bravura. In reality, it was a bit of both.
The country now sits at an energy crossroads: will its recovery be anchored in oil and gas, or will it seize the chance to lean into renewables and build something more resilient?
After Israel dealt Iran and its regional axis a string of crippling blows last year, Lebanon now finds itself better-positioned to reclaim its eroded state sovereignty. Will it grab the chance?
Recent books from Yemen, Egypt, and Syria take a new look at the 10th-century philosopher's famed letter 'The Epistle of Forgiveness', which is said to have inspired Dante's 'Divine Comedy'
An earthquake in Afghanistan earlier this week levelled entire villages and left people trapped under rubble for days, but in the shadow of the Hindu Kush, saviours were thin on the ground