Introduction

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad was given a warm welcome at an Arab summit yesterday. Republican US Senator Tim Scott has entered the 2024 presidential race. Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin won a coveted 3.4 billion NASA contract to build a spacecraft to fly astronauts to and from the moon's surface. And we'll keep it global as the international director of Hay Festival, Christina Fuentes, tells us about the Eurovision of books.