Raffaello Pantucci is a senior associate fellow at Britain’s Royal United Services Institute and a visiting senior fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore and the co-author of Sinostan: China’s Inadvertent Empire, with Alexandros Petersen.
China's President Xi Jinping, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev and other participants attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) leaders' summit in Samarkand, Uzbekistan on Sept. 16.
An Afghan worker works on the site of an ancient monastery discovered in Mes Aynak, in the eastern province of Logar on Nov. 23, 2010. The archaeological dig is located at the world's second-biggest unexploited copper mine.
A picture taken during a guided tour organized by the Lebanese Shiite movement Hezbollah shows volunteers sorting food aid that will be distributed during the coronavirus pandemic in Beirut's southern suburbs on March 31. A poster on the wall shows the current leader of the movement, Hassan Nasrallah.
