Eurotopics.net

After eight years, rebels are back in the Syrian city of Aleppo. An alliance led by the Islamist militant group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) swiftly seized control of the city in the north of the country. The HTS is seen as the successor to the Al-Nusra Front, which was aligned with Al-Qaeda. Syria's ruler Bashar al-Assad has already announced a counter-offensive. The latest developments threaten to reignite the civil war.

Friday's general election in Ireland seems to have changed the balance of power. The two major centre-right parties, Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil, will continue to play a decisive role in the formation of a new government, but they will need a new coalition partner because the Green Party is expected to drop from 12 seats in the lower house to just one.

Retired General Keith Kellogg is to become US special envoy for Ukraine and Russia under Donald Trump. Kellogg was security advisor for the White House during Trump's first term in office - and presented a plan last spring for ending the war in Ukraine according to which the US would bring the parties to the conflict to the negotiating table by exerting pressure on both sides.

Following a complaint by a candidate who was eliminated, Romania's Constitutional Court ruled on Thursday that the votes in the first round of the presidential election won by far-right candidate Călin Georgescu are to be recounted. The court is reconvening this Friday to decide whether the election will be annulled. The parliamentary elections on Sunday are to go ahead as planned.