Hello, you're listening to the free edition of the world in brief from The Economist.

As a reminder, if you subscribe to The Economist, you'll get access to a deeper look at the day ahead, updated three times a day.

If you're already an Economist subscriber, visit

economist.com slash espresso or visit our espresso app to start listening. Here's today's

free edition.

This is the world in brief from The Economist.

Our top stories.

Donald Trump said he would lift all sanctions on Syria to give the country a chance at greatness.

Western sanctions have long been imposed on Syria to isolate Bashar al-Assad,

its fallen dictator. But such penalties have hobbled the new government's attempts to

reconnect Syria to the global economy. Mr. Trump will reportedly meet Ahmed al-Shara, Syria's new

president in Saudi Arabia this week.

Mr. Trump signed a strategic economic partnership worth $600 billion with Muhammad bin Salman,

Saudi Arabia's de facto ruler. That includes a $142 billion arms deal and a commitment by Humane, the Kingdom's AI company,

to build infrastructure using chips made by NVIDIA, an American firm. Mr. Trump and MBS are

also expected to discuss regional security in meetings on Wednesday.

Nissan reported a net loss of $671 billion or $4.5 billion for the year to March.

The Japanese carmaker forecast sales of $12.5 trillion for the next financial financial year but did not predict net profit, citing

economic uncertainty caused by tariffs. The stricken firm also confirmed that it would cut

20,000 jobs around the world. Nissan is dangerously weak, having lost market shares in North

America and China.

America's annual inflation rate fell to 2.3% in April from 2.4% in the previous month.

...