Large fees to avoid military conscription have helped turn Syria’s diaspora into a major source of revenue for the cash-strapped government. Men who don’t pay face the threat of their family’s assets in Syria being seized.

(Credit: ZUMA Press, Inc. / Alamy Stock Photo)

The last few months have been the most difficult for independent Russian journalists since the Soviet era. Here’s how the Putin regime is using ‘foreign agent’ designations to squeeze the life out of critical outlets that hold it to account.

Authorities have opened multiple probes, including into Brookfield’s alleged part in floods that deluged the eastern city of Raul Soares.

Photo by Leonardo Augusto

Leaked data exposes loopholes in Kenya’s procurement process, enabling graft.

Credit: Svetlana Tiourina

Fearing conscription by the Assad regime? Want to start a new life in Europe? 

Surf online a bit, and you’ll find that a quick chat with the right people might just solve your problem. 

Human smugglers in Syria have taken increasingly to the social media app TikTok in recent months to advertise their services, which include “traveling without borders” in luxury vehicles that breeze through the military checkpoints dotting the mountain highway from Damascus to Beirut.