This week’s parliamentary elections in Iraq have been closely watched from far beyond its borders, as the young democracy is caught up in a power struggle between the US, Israel and Iran.

Since Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani came to power in 2022, Iraq has been relatively stable. But Sudani is “seen as unlikely to remain prime minister”, said Chatham House, and the predicted hung parliament “could test Iraq’s stability” and shake its “fragile equilibrium”.

How are Iran and Israel involved?
Iraq represents a “vital sphere of influence” for Iran, which has been severely weakened by Israeli strikes, Western sanctions and the Trump administration, said the Middle East Council on Global Affairs. Iraq’s parliament is strongly influenced by a coalition of Iran-aligned militias known as the Popular Mobilisation Forces (PMF), “part of a region-wide network” that includes Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis.

Israel has “wiped out” Hezbollah’s leadership in Lebanon, as well as “decapitating” the Houthi government in Yemen, while the regime of key Iran ally Bashar al-Assad has been toppled in Syria. And Baghdad fears that Israel’s campaign “could now turn to the PMF” in Iraq. Against that backdrop, this election “could not be more critical to maintaining Iraq’s status as the lung through which Iran breathes”.

And the US?
The US still “holds significant sway” in Iraq, where its forces continue to be targets for pro-Iran groups, said Al Jazeera. The PMF has a long track record of attacks on US bases, and Washington is pressuring Baghdad to disarm them.

“Iraq has so far avoided the worst of the regional upheaval caused by the Gaza war,” said Reuters. But if the next government fails to break Tehran’s grip and dismantle the Iran-backed militant groups, it will face the “wrath” of both the US and Israel.

What’s the likely outcome?
Sudani’s bloc is forecast to win the most seats but to fall short of a majority. That could mean months of negotiations between Shia and Sunni Muslims, with the potential for Kurdish parties to “play kingmakers”, said Al Jazeera.

Internally, few believe these elections will bring meaningful change. The growing young electorate sees the elections as a “vehicle for established parties to divide up Iraq’s oil wealth”, said Reuters.

David Szalay’s “Flesh” is “almost certainly the most monosyllabic” Booker Prize winner “ever”, said Johanna Thomas-Corr in The Times. The brooding protagonist, István, largely speaks in “gruff, gruntish ‘yeahs’, ‘nos’ and ‘okays’”, giving the book the “terse narrative style of a thriller”.

It may also be the “blokiest winner” in the literary award’s history, exploring masculinity in a way that will likely appeal to that “elusive creature, the 21st-century male reader of novels”.

‘Timely anxieties’
None of this year’s shortlisted authors tackled the question of identity more “compellingly” than Szalay (pictured above), whose “urgent and honest 349-page novel taps into timely anxieties about manhood”, said Martin Chilton in The Independent.

The story follows “emotionally detached” István from his teenage life in Hungary into adulthood, where he works in London as a bouncer and then as a driver for the super-rich. Covering a wide range of themes from “everyday struggles” to murder, Szalay writes with a “terse precision”, in a prose that is “pared to the bone” yet “deeply affecting”.

Cutting us off from István’s thoughts and emotions is a “risky strategy”, said Justine Jordan in The Guardian, but the “narrative flatness hugely pays off”. The “yawning gaps” in the text turn it into a “propulsive page-turner” as we seek to “solve the puzzle” of the protagonist.

‘Wasn’t the best book’
Szalay’s novel is “decent” enough, said Cal Revely-Calder in The Telegraph, “but it wasn’t the best book on the shortlist”. That was surely Kiran Desai’s “The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny”, followed by Andrew Miller’s “The Land in Winter”. István’s thoughts are “framed plainly and clearly”, but although the novel “almost found a second gear that would have tempered the numbness” for me, “it never quite did”.

Szalay’s book “ensnared me” right from the opening pages, said Thomas-Corr in The Times, and “I’ve been raving” about his “clean, elegant prose ever since”. But I also have a “soft spot” for Miller, “one of Britain’s most underrated novelists”. Still, regardless of which book was best, “Flesh” should finally park the “hoary old claim that the male novelist stands no chance of success any more”.

The Chinese People’s Liberation Army honour guard perform drills at a welcoming ceremony in Beijing for Spain’s King Felipe VI. The monarch is embarking on his first state visit to China since coming to the throne in 2014.

Maxim Shemetov / Pool / AFP / Getty Images

Set amid the “bombs, bullets” and “punishment beatings” of the Troubles in Northern Ireland, Louise Kennedy’s “passionate love story” was “beautifully told”, said Carol Midgley in The Times. Now, “Trespasses” has been adapted for the small screen “and, happily, the TV series does not let it down”.

It’s 1975 and, in a small town outside Belfast, Catholic teacher Cushla (Lola Petticrew) crosses paths with Michael (Tom Cullen), an older, married Protestant barrister known for taking controversial cases on both sides of the sectarian divide. The pair embark on a “lusty affair” – a “Romeo and Juliet-style couple, madly in love but forced to meet in secret”.

Petticrew “steals the show” with an “impressively nuanced performance”, said Michael Hogan in London’s The Standard. She has a “magnetic screen presence” and, when “tragedy strikes”, delivers a “viscerally raw portrait of grief and trauma”.

I didn’t feel the “supposedly electric connection” between the pair, said Keith Watson in The Telegraph. The age gap made me feel as if Michael was “grooming Cushla rather than charming her”, and the “imbalanced relationship” never seemed entirely “plausible”.

The Channel 4 drama occasionally “tips into cliché”, said Nick Hilton in The Independent. Gillian Anderson, as Cushla’s alcoholic mother, “possibly overdoes the doom-laden drunk act”. But this is balanced by the show’s “sweet, sincere undertone”.

Although  “devastating” at times, “Trespasses” is “anything but misery porn”, said Hogan in London’s The Standard. “It’s warm, made with love and ultimately uplifting, complete with a spine-tingling coda. A deeply human drama about a highly charged slice of history.”

Putin Will Never Compromise on Ukraine
Casey Michel on Foreign Policy
The West thought Vladimir Putin “could be convinced that his dreams of reconquering Ukraine would never succeed”, writes kleptocracy expert Casey Michel. Yet it’s clear “Putin will never come to that conclusion” – even as “Russia’s geopolitical standing” disintegrates and “Moscow turns into a junior partner” of a “far more powerful China”. The “Russian dictator” is a “fetid, fevered Gollum” doing “everything he can to grab the ring”, but “he must simply be outlasted”.

Does Britain value culture any more? Ask the striking workers at the British Library
Zadie Smith in The Guardian
“You know a country by its values,” writes author Zadie Smith. “By what a country values.” So “if you chronically underfund your cultural institutions”, people will suspect that “you do not value culture at all”. Staff at the British Library, “one of the most famous libraries in the world”, are striking over their “poverty wages”. They’re “told there is no money” for pay rises, while “six-figure-salaried executives” eye up hefty bonuses. “Does any of that sound fair?”

I Helped Defeat the Somali Pirates. Here’s How to Do It Again
James Stavridis on Bloomberg
Recent piracy off the Somali coast has rattled “old ghosts for me”, writes retired US Navy admiral James Stavridis. I spent years in combat with Somali pirates when I commanded Nato forces, and while they had “tactical acumen”, “we were victorious”.  It requires a “team effort”, with help from China and Iran, and coordination with the shipping industry. But “the only lasting solutions lie ashore”, breaking up pirates’ “logistic chains” and digging “into the root causes” of the problem.