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Poland has marked a significant milestone in its pursuit of clean and sustainable energy by signing a groundbreaking agreement for its first-ever nuclear power plant. This momentous development underscores Poland's commitment to reducing its carbon footprint and diversifying its energy sources.

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Saudi Arabian guards killed hundreds of innocent Ethiopian and asylum migrants trying to cross the Yemen-Saudi border.

I wanted to bring/raise awareness to people in our school. I think it's wrong to kill innocent people, especially migrants. All these innocent people trying to escape their country due to poor living conditions/war. This event stuck with me because Saudi guards are killing hundreds of people just trying to escape their country to avoid war.

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Ebola started in 1976, it is caused by ebola virus. The first outbreak occurred in the Democratic Republic Of Congo in a village near ebola river.The disease known as ebola came to africa from Congo when 2 consecutive outbreaks of fatal hemorrhagic fevers occurred.

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On August 3, 2023, In saudi arabia they put a limit in selling a certain amount of oil per day . This is the second time  that they have extended it since June. It also spread to the U.S and made the oil prices go up by 1.6 %.  Saudi Arabia is one of the biggest oil producers in the world .  WHen they put limits on oil, it makes the prices go up. I chose this topic Because it sounded like an interesting place and it affected us.  Fenton students should know about this because these gas prices play a large role in their lives and their family’s lives.  Gas prices are the highest they have been all year and it makes it harder for people in this country and Fenton students.

Esmeralda Flores.

https://www.cnn.com/2023/08/03/energy/oil-production-cut-saudi-arabia/index.html https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/oil-prices-ease-bearish-china-data-fuels-demand-concerns-2023-08-09/#:~:text=Supporting%20prices%2C%20however%2C%20were%20top,by%20300%2C000%20bpd%20in%20September

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The Israel/Palestine Conflict has killed over 200 Palestinians and nearly 30 Israelis which is the highest since 2005. This violence has escalated since Palestinians still want to be their own independent state. Some Israelis and Palestinians have tried to settle the situation, but disagreements continue to fuel the violence. This event is important because it's leaving many people dead over just wanting to be their own state. This is something that should be settled peacefully, not with violence .

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UNITED NATIONS (AP) - The Israeli-Palestinian conflict has killed over 200 Palestinians and nearly 30 Israelis so far this year - already surpassing last year's annual figures and the highest number since 2005, the U.N. Mideast envoy said Monday.

Tor Wennesland told the U.N. Security Council that the upswing in violence is being fueled by growing despair about the future, with the Palestinians still seeking an independent state.

"The lack of progress towards a political horizon that addressed the core issues driving the conflict has left a dangerous and volatile vacuum, filled by extremists on all sides," he said.

While Israelis and Palestinians have taken some actions toward stabilizing the situation, Wennesland said unilateral steps have continued to fuel hostilities.

He pointed to the unabated expansion of Israeli settlements - which are illegal under international law "and a substantial obstacle to peace" - as well as Israel's demolition of Palestinian houses, its operations in the West Bank area under Palestinian administrative and police control, and attacks by Israeli settlers. He also cited "Palestinian militant activity."

Wennesland said the current situation is compounded by "the fragility" of the Palestinian Authority's financial situation and severe funding shortages facing U.N. agencies including the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA.

"While we must urgently focus on addressing the most critical issues and on de-escalating the situation on the ground, we cannot ignore the need to restore a political horizon," he said.

U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield, who chaired the meeting, condemned violence by both sides and urged immediate steps to reduce the escalating violence.

She reiterated U.S. support for a two-state solution and "good-faith dialogue" between the parties. And she acknowledged the appointment of Saudi Arabia's ambassador Jordan as non-resident consul general in Jerusalem, adding that the U.S. will support "any and all efforts that will bring us closer to a two-state solution."

Russia's deputy U.N. ambassador Dmitry Polyansky told the council the long-term stagnation of the peace process "is compounded by the ongoing illegal unilateral actions of Israel to create irreversible facts on the ground, which negates the prospects for reviving direct talks between Palestinians and Israelis." He called the "unprecedented pace" of Israel's settlement expansion the biggest threat.

Polyansky called a visit to the region by U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, expected before the end of the year, "very timely." And he reiterated Russia's call for a meeting of the so-called Quartet of Mideast mediators - the U.N, U.S., European Union and Russia -- "to revive the peace process and direct Palestinian-Israeli talks on all final status issues."

France's political coordinator Isis Jaraud Darnault also condemned "the Israeli colonization of the Palestinian territories" that it wants for its future state, and continuing Israeli demolitions, including a school in the West Bank's Ramallah region on Aug. 17 which was financed by European donors including France. She also condemned violence against Israelis.

Darnault told the council the U.N. and regional actors have an essential role to play in restoring "a credible political horizon."

"The normalization of relations between Israel and several states in the region contributes to stability and security, but this dynamic will remain incomplete as long as it is not accompanied by a resumption of the political process towards a solution that meets the legitimate aspirations of both Palestinians and Israelis," she said.

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This year over 200 Palestinians and nearly 30 Israelis have been killed, highest since 2005, UN says

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The U.N. Mideast envoy says the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has killed over 200 Palestinians and nearly 30 Israelis so far this year - already surpassing last year's annual figures and the highest number since 2005.

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On August 18 this year Ex-FBI counterespionage with Russians for money laundering. This shows that some people in Russia want to get money from us and a FBI that retried gives the information. that shows that the Russian economy is that bad. The more people that leave the more the economy goes bad. Also, most of the oil comes from Russia, and if no one buys the oil their economy goes down.

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Back in 2020 during the covid 19 pandemic in Hong Kong there were protests and riots because of their covid policy's. And even now 3 years later there are still being affected by these protests. On August 21 there is a man named Tang Kai-yin whose trial started because during one of these protests him and a couple other people started a riot and set off pipe bombs to fight off the police. After this they fled on a boat, but the police eventually caught up to them and arrested all of them. I choose this because it is showing us how people are still being affected in other country's by covid.

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A german national was arrested for supposedly spying for russia. He was arrested at his workplace in west germany. It happened because he works for the information technology & service support. Germany history with russia has been bad they had 3 wars in the past one in 1914-1918. At the moment they have been seen trading in military affairs. I selected this event because it seemed interesting and caught my attention quickly. The reason why fenton students should be aware of this is because it may cause problems with other countries if more government officials keep on spying on each other therefore it can create another war.

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the impact of climate change in South korea is growing rapidly mainly due to typhoons,heavy rain,droughts,cold waves and abnormal temperatures. In cheongju south korea the counts approach extreme weather from climate change. After at least 40 people were killed by recent flooding and landslides during a rainstorm that lasted more than 48 hours. I selected this event because of the recent events due to climate change

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"Police violence happens everyday,especially if you're Arab or black," a young man said in another french city calling justice for Nael." On june 27 of 2023, 17 year old Nael failed to follow a police officer's order which led the police officer to fire at 17 year old. Angered by the teen's death, many people took the streets to protest in Nanterre on Tuesday. A passenger in the vehicle was taken for custody while another fled the scene and is missing. The protests have gotten violent, injuring 24 police officers and at least 40 cars were set on fire. Nael's mother believes the police officer "saw an Arab face, a little kid, and wanted to take his life." she doesn't blame the police she only blames the one person who fired the shot at her son. I feel like this is important because many people focus on shootings in America when there's many more gun violence all around the world. - Ashanti

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Protests are sweeping France. Here's what you need to know | CNN

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France has been rocked by a wave of protests after a 17-year-old youth was shot by police near Paris Tuesday, sparking a ban on demonstrations in some cities, travel warnings and reigniting a debate on overpolicing in marginalized communities.

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Cuba, a Caribbean nation with a rich history, was profoundly impacted by the institution of slavery. Throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, Cuba played a pivotal role in the transatlantic slave trade, with millions of enslaved Africans brought to the island to work on sugar, tobacco, and coffee plantations. Slavery was central to the economy, shaping the island's social structure and culture. The legacy of slavery in Cuba remains a critical subject of study and reflection, as it left lasting imprints on racial relations, labor practices, and social inequalities. Understanding Cuba's history of slavery is essential for comprehending the complexities of its modern society and the ongoing efforts to address historical injustices.

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Surrey shop accused of racism removes image of tobacco plantation

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The image appears to show black people working on a tobacco plantation overseen by white men.

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Mexico faces a lot of controversies when it comes to its corrupt country, with a majority of the country's control being within the Mexican Cartel's hands, there are a lot of problems that come with that power. As of August 16th, 2023, the latest of organized crime stunts were exposed to the public. Five teens were lied to and brought to their presence, offering an entrance to their group, the teens didn't want that, which escalates to havoc. The teens were forced to brutally fight each other with firearms, resulting in only one survivor at the end. This is only one example of what the Mexican Cartel can do, there are much worse events that have happened associated with them, such as warnings, cutting off loose ends, and revenge.

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MEXICO CITY (AP) - A gruesome video circulated Wednesday on social media may have recorded the last moments of five kidnapped young men, and has transported Mexico back to the darkest days of drug cartel brutality in the 2000s.

Prosecutors in the western state of Jalisco say they are investigating the video, and relatives of the missing group of young friends told local media that their clothing resembled that worn by the men in the video.

The most horrifying thing is not just the pair of bound, inert bodies seen lying in the foreground. It is the fact that the youth seen bludgeoning and apparently decapitating another victim appears to be himself the fourth member of the kidnapped group of friends.

The fifth member of the kidnapped group - young friends who had traveled to attend a festival in the city of Lagos de Moreno in Jalisco state - may be the body police found inside a burned-out car in the area. The young men went missing Friday in an area known for cartel violence, and authorities have mounted a massive search for them.

Luis Méndez Ruiz, the Jalisco state attorney general, said Tuesday that the men seen in the video "could be the five men who are being searched for."

"This video and the information that was made public on a social media platform is now part of the investigation," Méndez said. The clothing worn by the men in the video also resembles a photo of them alive, but bound, that was released earlier.

The likelihood that the video was authentic increased further Wednesday, when investigators raided a series of brick and concrete ranch buildings where the brutal scene was apparently taped. They found bloodstains on the floor and shoes scattered about.

"This makes one think the five youths were there at this ranch," the prosecutor's office said in a statement.

The video features a text written over the image that says "Puro MZ," an apparent reference to El Mayo Zambada, the leader of a faction of the Sinaloa drug cartel. But it was unclear who was responsible for the video.

Jalisco Gov. Enrique Alfaro said it was clear that drug cartels were involved in the crime, and called for federal prosecutors to take over the case.

"What we are seeing here is an act clearly linked to organized crime," Alfaro wrote in his social media accounts.

He called the killings - and an attack in July, in which a drug cartel set off a coordinated series of roadway bombs in western Mexico killing four police officers and two civilians - acts that threaten the state's stability.

"These are irrational, violent and direct attacks against the stability of Jalisco state, and they demand a reaction from the (federal) government," Alfaro wrote.

President Andrés Manuel López Obrador gave no indication that his government will intervene anytime soon. Asked about the video Wednesday at his daily news briefing, the president jokingly pretended he had not heard the question.

If confirmed, the video - which shows someone off-screen tossing the youth a brick, so he can bludgeon the victim with it - would revive memories of the most horrifying instances of drug cartel brutality, in which kidnap victims were forced to kill each other.

In 2010, one Mexican cartel abducted men from passenger buses and forced them to fight each other to death with sledgehammers.

That tragedy came to light in 2011, when authorities found 48 clandestine graves containing the bodies of 193 people in the northern border state of Tamaulipas. Most had their skulls crushed with sledgehammers, and many were Central American migrants.

It was later revealed the victims had been pulled off passing buses by the old Zetas drug cartel, and forced to fight each other with hammers or be killed, if they refused to work for the cartel.

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Gruesome video circulating on social media recalls darkest days of Mexico's drug cartel brutality

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A gruesome video that may have recorded the last moments of five kidnapped young men has transported Mexico back to the darkest days of drug cartel brutality in the 2000s.

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Afghanistan is facing the world's worst humanitarian crisis. This means they don't have the cash to pay salaries and buy food. This happened when the loss of most international aid after the Taliban takeover in August 2021. Taliban's increasingly repressive policies like banning women from working for the UN and nongovernmental organizations. I think this current event is a big issue because over 6 million people wore driven out of their homes and it's causing conflict, violence, and poverty.

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When the Taliban took control of Kabul in August 2021, the quick collapse of the former government caught many by surprise - although the insurgent group had made significant gains across the country once it was clear that all U.S. troops would leave. Afghanistan is now facing one of the world's worst humanitarian crises.

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The Violent Attacks On The Brazil Government

On January 8, 2023, Brazil's government was attacked. Stormes of ex-president Jair Bolsonaro's followers marched into the capital building. The people were wearing national football team jerseys and were breaking and vandalizing the buildings. During this riot, at least 400 people have been arrested. The main cause of this riot was that Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was elected president in a highly suspicious election and the people did not like that and started to protest.

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Sources:

CNN
NPR
Description:
Japan used digital mapping and advanced technology, finding 7,000+ islands.
Although they were formed over time or were missed when checking the territory of Japan, Japan does own these islands.
Japan last checked in 1987 and with this new information, Japan has a total of 14,125 islands in its territory.
The criteria for an island is to have a circumference of 100 meters.
The reason why this is important is that Japan is involved in several territorial disputes, and having an accurate count of islands is a relevant matter to the national interest.
It also shows Japan's geography and how technology improved since 1987.

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Japan just found 7,000 islands it didn’t know it had | CNN

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Japan has recounted its islands -- and discovered it has 7,000 more than it previously thought.

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In South Africa August 2nd-August 10th, with the urban law giving local authorities the power to impound vehicles for driving without license or registration, caused outrage and violence in Cape Town. On day five of the strike, two civilians were killed during a protest as shootings at Cape Town International Airport happened. The British Commission was involved to tell those not involved with the protest to stay off roads for how unsafe the protesting was. Also, due to 15 minibuses being impounded led people to travel back home by foot at night or sleeping at the bus stops. The importance of this event is to show how one change in law could affect an industry that's depended on by 4.890million people and how the common people are affected by the protest.(The total of people killed were 5 and the protest lasted 7 days)

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Firefighters extinguish a burning bus that was set alight during a protest by taxi drivers in Cape Town, South Africa, on August 3, 2023 [Esa Alexander/Reuters]

At least two people have been killed in the South African city of Cape Town as protests sparked by a dispute between minibus taxi drivers and authorities entered its fifth day.

One person was killed and three were wounded in a shooting near Cape Town International Airport when a group of protesters pelted a car with stones and the driver responded by allegedly firing shots at them, police said on Monday.

The shooting happened while minibus taxis blocked a road near the airport, police said.

Police also said the shooter would be investigated for murder and attempted murder.

A man died of multiple gunshot wounds in a separate shooting that police said they believed was also related to the protests.

The British High Commission in South Africa on Monday issued a notice on Facebook after the unrest, advising travellers to delay driving "to and from the airport until the route is cleared", warning that "GPS services could divert you into less secure areas or into ongoing protests".

The South African National Taxi Council (SANTACO) called for the industrial action last week over a new municipal law that gives the city the power to impound vehicles over offences such as driving without a licence, not displaying registration plates or overloading.

Tensions rose after 15 minibuses were impounded on Tuesday.

Thousands of stranded commuters piled up at bus and taxi stations across the city on Thursday with hundreds opting to walk home late into the night while others slept at the stations as violence erupted.

On Friday night, a police officer was shot and killed in a vehicle in a township 20km (12 miles) southeast of Cape Town while on patrol.

The possibility that Friday's shooting was related to the taxi strike cannot be ruled out because officers were "performing crime prevention patrols to quell taxi-related incidents", police said.

SANTACO, which said 6,000 vehicles have been impounded since the beginning of the year, argued that it has been "left with no other option" due to "the frivolous impoundment operations run by government".

"It is clear that there has been a level of premeditation in the actions we've witnessed over the past few days," Cape Town's government said in a statement on Monday.

"There have also been clear attempts to target City staff and infrastructure," it said.

The city said two government vehicles have been torched and one hijacked and there have been four incidents of torching and stoning of private vehicles and shootings.

After failed negotiations at the weekend between SANTACO and the government, the taxi association announced the action would continue until Wednesday.

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At least two killed on fifth day of taxi drivers strike in South Africa

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Protests erupt against a new law that gives Cape Town authorities the power to impound vehicles over offences.

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Currently, the Venezuela oil crisis spill, has grown more severe, considering the low prices since 2015. It recently decreased in the Venezuelan oil production because of lack of maintenance and investment. In both states, Zulia and Falcon, have the most spills. In addition, being a threat to the Marine Ecosystem in the Caribbean and Lake Maracaibo. Not only affecting states but contaminating the water, involving species. Considering, other countries have stop buying oil from Venezuela, other states have raised oil and gas prices due to those situations, affecting citizens in a difficult situation.

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Venezuela's oil spill crisis reached new heights in 2022: report

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Venezuela sits on one of the largest deposits of proven crude oil and natural gas reserves in the world. For decades, it's been the backbone, if not the lifeline, of the national economy. But the country also has a terrible track record of oil spills, with aging infrastructure and weak regulations resulting in near-continual environmental [...]

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China launched military drills around Taiwan just after South Korea, Japan, and the US finished a summit. China launching these drills to train coordination between its military before taking over Taiwan. World leaders are calling it reckless cause China claims they have control over Taiwan. Since China has never ruled or controlled/ taken over Taiwan it could unravel into a big problem. China calls one of the leaders of Taiwan reckless but yet they go and try to take control over them when they never have.

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China launches military drills around Taiwan as US wraps up landmark summit with South Korea and Japan | CNN

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China's military launched joint air and sea patrols around Taiwan this weekend as leaders from the United States, South Korea and Japan wrapped up a landmark summit at Camp David aimed at shoring up their alliances.

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I chose Ukraine because they are currently at war with Russia. This war started in 2014 but slowed down and  began again on February 22, 2022 and is still going to this day. It started when Vladimir Putin ordered an invasion of Ukraine in an escalation of the Russia-Ukrainian war which began in 2014.The invasion killed tens of thousands on both Russia and Ukraine sides. Russian forces have been responsible for mass civilian casualties and for torturing captured Ukrainian soldiers. Both Russia and Ukraine shared heritage that goes back more than a thousand years to a time when Kyiv, now Ukraines capital. This is important to us because this means the United States will increase natural gas exports to Europe to replace Russian fuel.

Link- https://www.bbc.com/news/world-60525350

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Syria has been having a civil war for over a decade. Many groups have been involved such as Syrian rebels, the Syrian regime, the self-styled Islamic State, and more. Around 13 million refugees have been forced to leave their homes and find shelter somewhere else. There have also been over 500,000 deaths during this war. The Syrian regime was strict against peaceful protests and it quickly escalated into bigger things which started the war. This event is important because it has been going on for more than 10 years. It is also a very significant event and it has affected many people in Syria.
https://www.cfr.org/article/syrias-civil-war

-Christina R.

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The civil uprising against the longtime rule of the Assads deteriorated into protracted civil war. Here's a look at the elements that have deepened Syria's tragedy.

Twelve years after protesters in Syria first demonstrated against the four-decade rule of the Assad family, hundreds of thousands of Syrians have been killed and nearly thirteen million people-more than half the country's prewar population-have been displaced. Today, the country is fractured by actors with apparently irreconcilable interests: in areas beyond the regime's control, extremists promoting a Sunni Muslim theocracy have eclipsed opposition forces fighting for a democratic and pluralistic Syria, while regional powers have backed various local forces to advance their geopolitical interests on Syria's battlefields.

The United States was at the forefront of a coalition conducting air strikes on the self-proclaimed Islamic State, but it abruptly pulled back some of its forces in 2019 ahead of an invasion of northern Syria by Turkey, a North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) ally. Since then, the Turkish military has pushed Kurdish forces, the United States' main local partner in the fight against the Islamic State, from border areas. Russia, too, has carried out air strikes in Syria, coming to the Assad regime's defense. Iranian forces and their Hezbollah allies have done the same on the ground, inadvertently making themselves the targets of strikes by Iran's enemy Israel.

The war whose brutality once dominated headlines has settled into an uncomfortable stalemate. Hopes for regime change have largely died out, peace talks have been fruitless, and some regional governments are reconsidering their opposition to engaging with Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad. The government has regained control of most of the country, and Assad's hold on power seems secure. Meanwhile, the Syrian people are suffering an economic crisis, and a massive earthquake at the start of 2023 cast much of the population in the north into further despair.

Despite a UN Security Council resolution in 2014 aimed at securing humanitarian aid routes, aid became politicized as Assad would grant UN convoys permission to distribute food and medicine in government-held areas while denying them access to rebel-held areas, and rights advocates charged the regime with targeting medical facilities and personnel [PDF]. In 2020, Syria's ally Russia used its veto at the Security Council to allow UN aid deliveries to the rebel-held north through only one border crossing, down from four the previous year.

Opposition forces, too, have had foreign backers. For several years, the United States covertly trained and armed rebel fighters. France and the United Kingdom have provided logistical and military support. Additionally, the short-lived rapprochement by Qatar and Saudi Arabia in 2015 enabled the formation of the Army of Conquest, which comprised an array of opposition and extremist groups but effectively disbanded after several years.

UN-backed attempts to mediate a conflict-ending political transition in Syria have been stymied by differences among veto-wielding permanent members of the UN Security Council and other powers. Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey aligned with the United States against the Assad regime, while Iran joined Russia in backing it. Russia and China have cast multiple vetoes on Syria-related Security Council resolutions, and the threat of veto has deterred or watered down humanitarian and human rights measures, reinforcing a view of the council as toothless. A June 2012 multilateral document known as the Geneva Communiqué became the basis for one set of negotiations. It calls for "a Syrian-led political process," beginning with the establishment of a transitional governing body "formed on the basis of mutual consent." But multiple rounds of peace talks to implement these principles have yielded little. A core issue is Assad himself: he has no interest in negotiating his own political demise and retains Russia's and Iran's backing, while the possibility of Assad staying on in a transition is anathema to the opposition.

Because prospects for a negotiated settlement are dim, the United States has focused on counterterrorism activities while calling for de-escalation. Meanwhile, Iran, Russia, and Turkey have taken the diplomatic initiative, sidelining the UN-led process and excluding the United States. But though they have agreed in principle on maintaining Syria's territorial integrity and achieving a "lasting cease-fire," their agreements to work through their respective local allies to de-escalate the conflict have come to naught.

More than half of Syria's prewar population of twenty-two million has been displaced by the violence, with almost seven million people displaced internally and nearly the same amount having fled abroad. Neighboring countries have borne the heaviest burden: Lebanon, a country of just over five million people, is hosting eight hundred thousand Syrians, and Jordan, with more than half a million Syrians, for years blocked would-be refugees from crossing the border. Turkey is host to more than three million Syrians, straining government resources. With limited work and educational opportunities, and little hope that they will soon be able to return safely home, more than one million asylum seekers and refugees have journeyed to Europe, contributing to what the United Nations called the largest migrant and refugee crisis since World War II.

Disputes over how to settle refugees across the European Union (EU) have posed a severe challenge to the bloc, threatening to bring an end to the Schengen system of open borders on the continent and contributing to the rise of anti-immigrant, far-right parties. The EU struck an agreement with Turkey to block refugees' northward migration in 2016, but since then, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has periodically threatened to permit hundreds of thousands of migrants to cross into Europe.

The Turkish incursion drew international condemnation. The United States sanctioned top Turkish officials and threatened to raise tariffs on steel, but a brief cease-fire led Trump to lift the sanctions after one week, and the tariffs ultimately remained unchanged. Erdogan says his troops will not back down until they establish a twenty-mile-deep buffer zone in Syria for returned refugees.

With the assistance of their foreign backers, Assad's forces besieged and bombarded the rebels' final redoubts in Syria's northwest in late 2019, imperiling hundreds of thousands of civilians. By December, the regime and its allies advanced into Idlib, where Russia-backed forces launched a devastating air campaign and clashes resumed between the regime and Turkish forces seeking to protect their opposition posts in the area. A cease-fire agreement signed by Ankara and Moscow in January quickly collapsed as regime forces captured cities along the strategically significant M5 highway, which connects Damascus and Aleppo.

Hostilities between the regime and the Turks intensified in February 2020, when Syrian government forces killed Turkish troops in direct combat for the first time, spurring Turkey to retaliate with strikes against dozens of regime targets. The fighting endangered Idlib's population, which ballooned to three million as government authorities offered rebel fighters and civilians the choice of surrendering-risking conscription or arrest-or being bused north to the province. The heightened violence resulted in the war's largest mass displacement to date, with some nine hundred thousand people forced from their homes A March 2020 cease-fire agreement between Moscow and Ankara has largely quelled the fighting, despite violations on both sides.

Meanwhile, the Islamic State increased its attacks [PDF] in Syria's northeast soon after the U.S. killing of the group's leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, in October 2019. Despite the troop drawdown announced in October, some five hundred American soldiers remain in eastern Syria to prevent the Islamic State from accessing the region's oil fields.

A decade after the uprising that sparked the war, Syria was still mired in low-level conflict, political instability, and economic turmoil. The 2020 cease-fire stemmed violence in the Turkey-controlled northwest, while the regime maintained control of most of the rest of the country with help from Russia and Iran. At the same time, Israel increasingly began bombing targets in Syria said to belong to Iran-linked militias, including Hezbollah. A U.S. air strike targeted an Iraq-based militia in Syria just weeks after the inauguration of President Joe Biden in 2021.

While the violence has waned, civilians are now suffering an economic crisis. More than 90 percent of the population lives in poverty. Syrians have been the main victims of international sanctions, including the U.S. Caesar Act, which is meant to pressure the regime to reform but appears to have little effect on Assad.

Diplomacy also has yet to sway Assad's government. A UN-facilitated constitution-drafting committee that was formed in 2019 brought together 150 representatives of civil society, the regime, and the opposition. But the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic stalled talks for months, and the committee quickly reached an impasse. While the UN-led talks founder, the rival process led by Iran, Russia, and Turkey is no closer to resolving Syria's political crisis. Further complicating the diplomatic field, Qatar, Russia, and Turkey began another track of negotiations on Syria's peace process in March 2021.

Even nature has refused to spare Syria-a 7.8-magnitude earthquake rocked the country's north in February 2023. In the first week after the disaster, more than three thousand were confirmed dead in Syria and over twenty-nine thousand in Turkey. The quake leveled thousands of buildings in Syria alone, and the United Nations estimated that at least eleven thousand Syrians lost their homes. Already, nearly two million people had lived in camps or other areas with poor access to water, heat, and protection from the elements. Much of the area constituted the last rebel-held territory in Syria, and it was tragically ill-equipped for a natural disaster; not even half the country's prewar health facilities remained in operation.

Affected areas under government control appeared best prepared to cope with the earthquake, with aid immediately flowing in from longtime regime allies including Iran and Russia, as well as from others such as Egypt, India, Iraq, and the United Arab Emirates. State media reported that the government would direct some of that aid to opposition-held areas hit hardest by the quake, with assistance from international agencies. Some four million people in the mainly rebel-held northwest depend on humanitarian aid to survive, but the United Nations reported that the tremor threatened to overwhelm its response capabilities. Winter weather and equipment shortages bogged down rescue and relief efforts directly after the disaster, which also damaged the sole remaining UN-authorized border crossing to the region from Turkey. With former al-Qaeda affiliate Hayat Tahrir al-Sham in control of the city of Idlib, international sanctions against the Islamist group also hampered the delivery of assistance there.

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The civil uprising against the longtime rule of the Assads deteriorated into protracted civil war. Here's a look at the elements that have deepened Syria's tragedy.

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On February 6th, 2023 there was a set of earthquakes that started to happen. This happened because the 2 tectonic plates had a collision. I think it is important for people to know about what happens in other countries and get educated on it.

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Editor's Note: A version of this story first appeared in CNN's Meanwhile in the Middle East newsletter, a three-times-a-week look inside the region's biggest stories. Sign up here.

The devastating earthquake that hit Turkey on February 6 killed at least 45,000 people, rendered millions homeless across almost a dozen cities and caused immediate damage estimated at $34 billion - or roughly 4% of the country's annual economic output, according to the World Bank.

But the indirect cost of the quake could be much higher, and recovery will be neither easy nor quick.

The Turkish Enterprise and Business Confederation estimates the total cost of the quake at $84.1 billion, the lion's share of which would be for housing, at $70.8 billion, with lost national income pegged at $10.4 billion and lost working days at $2.91 billion.

"I do not recall... any economic disaster at this level in the history of the Republic of Turkey," said Arda Tunca, an Istanbul-based economist at PolitikYol.

Turkey's economy had been slowing even before the earthquake. Unorthodox monetary policies by the government caused soaring inflation, leading to further income inequality and a currency crisis that saw the lira lose 30% of its value against the dollar last year. Turkey's economy grew 5.6% last year, Reuters reported, citing official data.

Economists say those structural weaknesses in the economy will only get worse because of the quake and could determine the course of presidential and parliamentary elections expected in mid-May.

Still, Tunca says that while the physical damage from the quake is colossal, the cost to the country's GDP won't be as pronounced when compared to the 1999 earthquake in Izmit, which hit the country's industrial heartland and killed more than 17,000. According to the OECD, the areas impacted in that quake accounted for a third of the country's GDP.

The provinces most affected by the February 6 quake represent some 15% of Turkey's population. According to the Turkish Enterprise and Business Confederation, they contribute 9% of the nation's GDP, 11% of income tax and 14% of income from agriculture and fisheries.

"Economic growth would slow down at first but I don't expect a recessionary threat due to the earthquake," said Selva Demiralp, a professor of economics at Koc University in Istanbul. "I don't expect the impact on (economic) growth to be more than 1 to 2 (percentage) points."

There has been growing criticism of the country's preparedness for the quake, whether through policies to mitigate the economic impact or prevent the scale of the damage seen in the disaster.

How Turkey will rehabilitate its economy and provide for its newly homeless people is not yet known. But it could prove pivotal in determining President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's political fate, analysts and economists say, as he seeks another term in office.

Strong fiscal position

The government's 2023 budget, released before the earthquake, had planned for increased spending in an election year, foreseeing a deficit of 660 billion liras ($34.9 billion).

The government has already announced some measures that analysts said were designed to shore up Erdogan's popularity, including a near 55% increase in the minimum wage, early retirement and cheaper housing loans.

Economists say that Turkey's fiscal position is strong. Its budget deficit, when compared to its economic output, is smaller than that of other emerging markets like India, China and Brazil. That gives the government room to spend.

"Turkey starts from a position of relative fiscal strength," said Selva Bahar Baziki of Bloomberg Economics. "The necessary quake spending will likely result in the government breaching their budget targets. Given the high humanitarian toll, this would be the year to do it."

Quake-related public spending is estimated at 2.6% of GDP in the short run, she told CNN, but could eventually reach as high as 5.5%.

Governments usually plug budget shortfalls by taking on more debt or raising taxes. Economists say both are likely options. But post-quake taxation is already a touchy topic in the country, and could prove risky in an election year.

After the 1999 quake, Turkey introduced an "earthquake tax" that was initially introduced as a temporary measure to help cushion economic damage, but subsequently became a permanent tax.

There has been concern in the country that the state may have squandered those tax revenues, with opposition leaders calling on the government to be more transparent about what happened to the money raised. When asked in 2020, Erdogan said the money " was not spent out of its purpose." Since then, the government has said little more about how the money was spent.

"The funds created for earthquake preparedness have been used for projects such as road constructions, infrastructure build-ups, etc. other than earthquake preparedness," said Tunca. "In other words, no buffers or cushions have been set in place to limit the economic impacts of such disasters."

The Turkish presidency didn't respond to CNN's request for comment.

Analysts say it's too early to tell precisely what impact the economic fallout will have on Erdogan's prospects for re-election.

The president's approval rating was low even before the quake. In a December poll by Turkish research firm MetroPOLL, 52.1% of respondents didn't approve of his handling of his job as president. A survey a month earlier found that a slim majority of voters would not vote for Erdogan if an election were held on that day.

Two polls last week, however, showed the Turkish opposition had not picked up fresh support, Reuters reported, citing partly its failure to name a candidate and partly its lack of a tangible plan to rebuild areas devastated by the quake.

Voter defection

The majority of the provinces worst affected by the quake voted for Erdogan and his ruling AK Party in the 2018 elections, but in some of those provinces, Erdogan and the AK Party won with a plurality of votes or a slim majority.

Those provinces are some of the poorest in the country, the World Bank says.

Research conducted by Demiralp as well as academics Evren Balta from Ozyegin University and Seda Demiralp from Isik University, found that while the ruling AK Party's voters' high partisanship is a strong hindrance to voter defection, economic and democratic failures could tip the balance.

"Our data shows that respondents who report being able to make ends meet are more likely to vote for the incumbent AKP again," the research concludes. "However, once worsening economic fundamentals push more people below the poverty line, the possibility of defection increases."

This could allow opposition parties to take votes from the incumbent rulers "despite identity-based cleavages if they target economically and democratically dissatisfied voters via clear messages."

For Tunca, the economic fallout from the quake poses a real risk for Erdogan's prospects.

"The magnitude of Turkey's social earthquake is much greater than that of the tectonic one," he said. "There is a tug of war between the government and the opposition, and it seems that the winner is going to be unknown until the very end of the elections."

Nadeen Ebrahim and Isil Sariyuce contributed to this report.

This article has been corrected to say that the research, not the survey, was conducted by the academics.

The digest

Sub-Saharan African countries repatriate citizens from Tunisia after 'shocking' statements from country's president

Sub-Saharan African countries including Ivory Coast, Mali, Guinea and Gabon, are helping their citizens return from Tunisia following a controversial statement from Tunisian President Kais Saied, who has led a crackdown on illegal immigration into the North African country since last month.

Background: In a meeting with Tunisia's National Security Council on February 21, Saied described illegal border crossing from sub-Saharan Africa into Tunisia as a "criminal enterprise hatched at the beginning of this century to change the demographic composition of Tunisia." He said the immigration aims to turn Tunisia into "only an African country with no belonging to the Arab and Muslim worlds." In a later speech on February 23, Saied maintained there is no racial discrimination in Tunisia and said that Africans residing in Tunisia legally are welcome. Authorities arrested 58 African migrants on Friday after they reportedly crossed the border illegally, state news agency TAP reported on Saturday.

Why it matters: Saied, whose seizure of power in 2021 was described as a coup by his foes, is facing challenges to his rule at home. Reuters on Sunday reported that opposition figures and rights groups have said that the president's crackdown on migrants was meant to distract from Tunisia's economic crisis.

Iranian Supreme Leader says schoolgirls' poisoning is an 'unforgivable crime'

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Monday said that the poisoning of schoolgirls in recent months across Iran is an "unforgivable crime," state-run news agency IRNA reported. Khamenei urged authorities to pursue the issue, saying that "if it is proven that the students were poisoned, the perpetrators of this crime should be severely punished."

Background: Concern is growing in Iran after reports emerged that hundreds of schoolgirls had been poisoned across the country over the last few months. On Wednesday, Iran's semi-official Mehr News reported that Shahriar Heydari, a member of parliament, said that "nearly 900 students" from across the country had been poisoned so far, citing an unnamed, "reliable source."

Why it matters: The reports have led to a local and international outcry. While it is unclear whether the incidents were linked and if the students were targeted, some believe them to be deliberate attempts at shutting down girls' schools, and even potentially linked to recent protests that spread under the slogan, "Women, Life, Freedom."

Iran to allow further IAEA access following discussions - IAEA chief

Iran will allow more access and monitoring capabilities to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), agency Director General Rafael Grossi said at a press conference in Vienna on Saturday, following a trip to the Islamic Republic. The additional monitoring is set to start "very, very soon," said Grossi, with an IAEA team arriving within a few days to begin reinstalling the equipment at several sites.

Background: Prior to the news conference, the IAEA released a joint statement with Iran's atomic energy agency in which the two bodies agreed that interactions between them will be "carried out in the spirit of collaboration." Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi said he hopes the IAEA will remain neutral and fair to Iran's nuclear energy program and refrain from being affected "by certain powers which are pursuing their own specific goals," reported Iranian state television Press TV on Saturday.

Why it matters: Last week, a restricted IAEA report seen by CNN said that uranium particles enriched to near bomb-grade levels have been found at an Iranian nuclear facility, as the US warned that Tehran's ability to build a nuclear bomb was accelerating. The president of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI), Mohammad Eslami, rejected the recent IAEA report, which detected particles of uranium enriched to 83.7% at the Fordow nuclear facility in Iran, saying there has been '"no deviation" in Iran's peaceful nuclear activities.

Around the region

A new sphinx statue has been discovered in Egypt - but this one is thought to be Roman.

The smiling sculpture and the remains of a shrine were found during an excavation mission in Qena, a southern Egyptian city on the eastern banks of the River Nile.

The shrine had been carved in limestone and consisted of a two-level platform, Mamdouh Eldamaty, a former minister of antiquities and professor of Egyptology at Ain Shams University said in a statement Monday from Egypt's ministry of tourism and antiquities. A ladder and mudbrick basin for water storage were found inside.

The basin, believed to date back to the Byzantine era, housed the smiling sphinx statue, carved from limestone.

Eldamaty described the statue as bearing "royal facial features." It had a "soft smile" with two dimples. It also wore a nemes on its head, the striped cloth headdress traditionally worn by pharaohs of ancient Egypt, with a cobra-shaped end or "uraeus."

A Roman stela with hieroglyphic and demotic writings from the Roman era was found below the sphinx.

The professor said that the statue may represent the Roman Emperor Claudius, the fourth Roman emperor who ruled from the year 41 to 54, but noted that more studies are needed to verify the structure's owner and history.

The discovery was made in the eastern side of Dendera Temple in Qena, where excavations are still ongoing.

Sphinxes are recurring creatures in the mythologies of ancient Egyptian, Persian and Greek cultures. Their likenesses are often found near tombs or religious buildings.

It is not uncommon for new sphinx statues to be found in Egypt. But the country's most famous sphinx, the Great Sphinx of Giza, dates back to around 2,500 BC and represents the ancient Egyptian Pharoah Khafre.

By Nadeen Ebrahim

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Turkey's earthquake caused $34 billion in damage. It could cost Erdogan the election | CNN

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Editor's Note: A version of this story first appeared in CNN's Meanwhile in the Middle East newsletter, a three-times-a-week look inside the region's biggest stories. Sign up here .

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The United Kingdom grew slightly in 3 months to june 30th. Driven by strong rises in manufacturing and consumer and government spending. In a request to tame prices, the Central Bank. To be honest i really don't know how this is important, because we are not in london, but that's why

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UK economy records surprise growth. It may not last | CNN Business

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The UK economy grew slightly in the three months to June 30, driven by strong rises in manufacturing and consumer and government spending.