News in English by https://padlet.com/maliaowens/2ss2z8i35ax4lclp Made with anxiety for OPI en-us 2022-08-18 18:15:56 UTC 2022-08-25 15:25:33 UTC hello@padlet.com Russia and Ukraine maliaowens https://padlet.com/maliaowens/2ss2z8i35ax4lclp/wish/2264727856 Russia and Ukraine have a long history of armed conflict which began 2014 when Russia annexed Crimea. In 2019 Russia began moving troops and military equipment towards the Ukrainian border and there was concern over a potential invasion.  Russia demanded in late 2019 that the US and NATO to cease military activity in East Europe and Central Asia as well as to cease NATO expansion towards Russia and lastly to prevent Ukraine from entering NATO. The US and NATO refused and in the most recent news is Russia launched a full scale invasion February 24, 2022. According to the United Nations this has resulted in many casualties as well as Ukrainian citizens fleeing to other countries for asylum. This conflict has provoked a lot of controversy around the world and has affected many things among them being: prices of basic needs such as food and water. Gas prices and economies around the world. As of right now the war is continuing and President Putin shows no signs that he will agree to a peace treaty any time soon. Many countries have issued sanctions against Russia including the US. The UN, G7 and EU condemn Russia and demand Russia cease force in Ukraine. Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine, has been the center for many raids and attacks as it would be the biggest step for Russia in this war. Russia has control of two nuclear plants in Ukraine: 1 of them the decommissioned Chernobyl and the second Zaporizhia which it stormed on February 24th. Ukrainian workers remain inside Zaporizhia to keep it operating as it supplies electricity to the area. The plant is reportedly in critical condition and it stands as a threat of nuclear disaster. 

https://www.bbc.com/arabic/world-62605159

 
]]> 2022-08-18 18:56:11 UTC https://padlet.com/maliaowens/2ss2z8i35ax4lclp/wish/2264727856 Tunis: Political crisis Pres. Kais Saied amends the Constitution maliaowens https://padlet.com/maliaowens/2ss2z8i35ax4lclp/wish/2264728785 President Kais Saied of Tunis, one of the successful democracies formed after the Arab Spring, is pushing towards a absolute presidential government. The Tunisian political crisis began 25 July 2021, after Saied announced the dismissal of the government and the freezing of Parliament. This was seen by many as a "self coup" and was denounced by many human rights organizations. Saied's decision came after a series of protests against Ennahda, economic difficulties, and a significant rise in COVID-19 cases in Tunisia, which led to the collapse of the Tunisian health system. Tunisian Parliament Speaker and Ennahda leader Rached Ghannouchi declared this an attack on democracy and called for his supporters to protest. Initially Saied implemented a 30 day curfew but has now been extended until further notice. After a series of power grabs on  22 September, Saied issued a decree that granted him full presidential powers, allowing him to make changes to Tunisia's constitution and government, including the potential dissolution of the parliament. The most recent developments are the amendments made to the Constitution which include: the term which he can serve is now 2 consecutive 5 year terms, there is no ability in Parliament to fire the President, he can appoint the members of Parliament, he can appoint the judges. Summary: President Saied increases the amount of power which the president holds- creates lots of controversy. Claims he's moving towards a total presidential government seems more like dictatorship disguised as presidency. ]]> 2022-08-18 18:57:19 UTC https://padlet.com/maliaowens/2ss2z8i35ax4lclp/wish/2264728785 China and Taiwan maliaowens https://padlet.com/maliaowens/2ss2z8i35ax4lclp/wish/2264728943 Chinas and Taiwans economic value.- in arabic(lilassif)

China's President Xi Jinping has said "reunification" with Taiwan "must be fulfilled" - and has not ruled out the possible use of force to achieve this. Most recently China has shown its largest show of force in the air and seas around Taiwan including firing ballistic missiles. This followed Nancy Pelosi's visit to Taiwan which Beijing warned strongly against. The US recognizes China as one government but has stated that it will support Taiwan militarily. 

China views Taiwan as a breakaway province and is attempting to reunite. 
Taiwan views itself as its own island with a constitution and democratically elected leaders. 
Taiwan is located 100 miles from the coast of China. 

Experts speculate that China's military move is an effort to push further into the western Pacific region and could even threaten Guam and Hawaii. 

Realistically China's military force is the easiest way to "reunify" as it spends, second to the US, on defense and has  a huge range of capabilities, from naval power to missile technology, aircraft and cyber attack. So far China's military exercises focused on six danger zones around Taiwan, three of which overlap the island's territorial waters. These drills were to end August 7th but were continued until August 8th. Tensions are increasing but statistics say the majority of people in Taiwan are not worried about military conflict. 

Why is Taiwan important to the world? Much of the world's everyday electronic equipment - from phones to laptops, watches and games consoles - is powered by computer chips made in Taiwan. A Chinese takeover in Taiwan could give Beijing some control over one of the world's most important industries. 


https://www.voanews.com/a/explainer-why-pelosi-went-to-taiwan-and-why-china-s-angry-/6684414.html]]> 2022-08-18 18:57:33 UTC https://padlet.com/maliaowens/2ss2z8i35ax4lclp/wish/2264728943 Iraq: Al-Sadr vs Al-Sudani (protests) maliaowens https://padlet.com/maliaowens/2ss2z8i35ax4lclp/wish/2264730375 The Iraqi arena is witnessing a state of political confrontation between the supporters of the coordination framework , which insists on pushing its candidate, Muhammad Shia'a Al-Sudani to head the government, and the Sadrist movement, whose supporters are camping in front of the House of Representatives, to protest against Al-Sudani's nomination and to demand the dissolution of Parliament and the holding of early elections.
Muqtada al-Sadr is a well known Shiite cleric who achieved large success in the 2021 Iraqi elections. He was tasked with forming a new government- he formed a tripartite "Save the Homeland" with Kurdish leader Masoud Barzani’s Kurdistan Democratic Party and parliamentary speaker Mohammed al-Halbousi’s Sovereignty Alliance, a Sunni political bloc. On June 12th Sadr asked 73 parliamentary members to resign in order to "break the political deadlock". Now Sadr's pro Iranian opponents were tasked with forming a new government and July 25, they announced Mohammed al-Sudani as their prime ministerial candidate. This began the extended sit in of the Parliament building after protests toppled the security walls outside of Parliament. The "Sadrists" have been protesting since then and while Sadr has not visited the location he continues to tweet and keep the "revolution" alive. Most recently: a meeting in Baghdad with many political leaders in attempt to find a solution for the current political crisis, Sadrists didn't attend although they demanded a solution from Parliament and early elections. Government calls for the Sadrists to be a part of international dialogue.  ]]> 2022-08-18 18:59:19 UTC https://padlet.com/maliaowens/2ss2z8i35ax4lclp/wish/2264730375 Kurdish issue in Turkey, Syria and Iraq https://padlet.com/maliaowens/2ss2z8i35ax4lclp/wish/2265590514 Wikipedia page about the issue

After the Balkan wars and WWII, the fall of the Ottoman Empire and the establishment of Turkey the Kurdish people were either forced to be anti-Armenian and join the Turkish ideology of Turkish nationalism, or move out of Turkey. Turkish nationalism at the time was also known as Kemalism- an ideology that basically equates to "we are the best and must kill everyone else". This is the main reason why so many Kurds have become displaced into Iraq and Syria. Eventually  the Paris Peace conference took place and Western countries promised the Kurds and Armenians they're own separate country from Turkey, but this promise got disrupted by the Greeks and Italians conquering parts of Turkey, and the Kurds were left with no other option other than to declare their adherence to Turkey ideology. Thus creating tension between them and the Armenians. After some time the Treaty of Sevres came about, giving the Kurds another chance to establish their own government, but Istanbul saw that they lacked a proper motive, leader or form of government, and the treaty also failed to establish a solid border between the tension ridden Kurds and Armenians. The West also saw the killing by Turkey as dangerous, but favored their economic state over the Kurds. So abandoning the Treaty of Sevres, they created the Treaty of Lausanne, which completely ignored the Kurds and Armenians and granted what would be their land to Turkey and Iraq. This resulted in the Turkish community in Syria to grow and create a separatists movement and fight for the southern area of Turkey as their own land. While in Iraq- though they fought at first, Iraq granted saftey to the Kurds as long as they let them benefit from the oil and goods within their occupied land. Therefore Iraq and the Kurdish people within in face no serious struggle at the moment, and the Kurdish Labor Party is almost treated as an autonomous government. But tensions surrounding bigotry against the Kurds, and the Kurds desire for their own country to be officially recognized still causes fighting today. 

The Kurds in make up around 18% of Turkeys population, 15%-20% of Iraqs, and around 10% of Syrias. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurdish%E2%80%93Turkish_conflict_(1978%E2%80%93present)#:~:text=The%20Kurdish%E2%80%93Turkish%20conflict%20is,inside%20the%20Repub
]]> 2022-08-19 15:27:19 UTC https://padlet.com/maliaowens/2ss2z8i35ax4lclp/wish/2265590514 Proxy War in Yemen+ The Houthis https://padlet.com/maliaowens/2ss2z8i35ax4lclp/wish/2265659447 Short Aljazeera video on the matter- in English

The war in Yemen is believed to be a Proxy war against the Iran backed Houthi forces occupying it, and Saudi Arabia. But Yemen is also facing issues with its own civil war, and issues with Al-Qaeda as well. After the Arab spring in 2011 with the help of the GGC and Saudi Arabia, Yemens president Ali Abdullah-Saleh was overthrown. Saudi Arabia favored the Vice President Monsour Hadi, and made him president during the fall. But the revolution led to small factions of minorities in Yemen to grow stronger, one of which being the Houthis, a group of Zaydi muslims who desire a theocratic government. After the fall of Saleh there was also his supporters who claimed they wanted him back in power. These two factions formed an alliance against the VP Hadi, and since Saleh was the former president he still had control over parts of the military and the majority of his supporters came from his old governmental powers. This forced Hadi to flee to Saudi Arabia, leaving Yemen defenseless against the Houthi-Saleh alliance. Saudi Arabia and Hadi started suspecting the the Houthis were gaining help from Iran after they attempted to regain control of Yemen multiple times but were faced with extreme military power. Then came the fall of the Houthi and Saleh alliance when Saleh released a statement wanting to talk about a solution with Saudi Arabia, and the Houthis assassinated him. With no alliance and the military leader gone, the Houthis now control majority of the power in Yemen, forcing Saudi Arabia, America, and Europe to create an air sea and land barrier preventing any aid from getting to the Houthis. This is what is causing Yemen to be the largest humanitarian crisis in the world. And the war between the Houthis and Saudi Arabia isn't all, there are also Yemeni separatists in the south wanting to return Southern Yemen to a separate country, and Al-Qaeda and ISIL operations being held in the East. Recently though the situation has seen improvement with Sanaa(the capital) having its first commercial flight in 6 years for the month of Ramadan and a two month truth agreement being signed, but the cities of Marib(oil rich) and Taiz still belongs to the Houthis, and these are some of the bloodiest battles seen since 2021. 


https://www.hstoday.us/featured/should-the-houthis-have-remained-on-u-s-foreign-terrorist-organizations-list/]]> 2022-08-19 16:35:48 UTC https://padlet.com/maliaowens/2ss2z8i35ax4lclp/wish/2265659447 Israel and Palestine as of late https://padlet.com/maliaowens/2ss2z8i35ax4lclp/wish/2265691213 As of late the Palestinian president compared what's being done to the Palestinian people to what happened to the Jews during the Holocaust stirring up controversy between Germany and Israel. ]]> 2022-08-19 17:13:11 UTC https://padlet.com/maliaowens/2ss2z8i35ax4lclp/wish/2265691213 Nuclear Agreement with Iran aw74904 https://padlet.com/maliaowens/2ss2z8i35ax4lclp/wish/2265842367 https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/what-iran-nuclear-deal

The first Iranian nuclear deal was signed in 2015 and within it, were restrictions on Iran's nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief and aid. However, President Trump withdrew from this deal in 2018, claiming that the deal had not succeeded in limiting Iran's nuclear power.

Now, world leaders are working to come to a second Iranian nuclear deal which aims to contain their nuclear program and prevent the outbreak of a nuclear weapons crisis. 

As of now, there are only 3 points standing between this deal and reality: 1) Iran wants the U.S. to remove the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps from the designated terrorist list. 2) Iran also wants a guarantee that this deal will be binding regardless of what administration is in office (Biden can't legally promise this to them.). 3) Iran also wants the investigation of traces of uranium found at undeclared nuclear sites shut down. 

Many people believe that this iteration of the deal is now or never, as Iran has reached 60% enrichment in its Uranium stockpile (90% is needed for a bomb, and 3.47% enrichment was the limit placed on it in the 2015 deal). Iran knows it has the upper hand in this situation and is trying to take advantage of this by putting otherwise extraneous demands on the table of negotiations.]]> 2022-08-19 20:36:32 UTC https://padlet.com/maliaowens/2ss2z8i35ax4lclp/wish/2265842367 Al-Shabab In Somalia aw74904 https://padlet.com/maliaowens/2ss2z8i35ax4lclp/wish/2267644395 Al-Shabab emerged as a radical Islamic group with some ties to Al-Qaeda and once controlled the capital of Somalia, Mogadishu before being forced out by Ethiopian forces. It emerged after Somalia's inability to form a strong national government for more than 20 years. They then gained support as they promised security for the citizens of this war-torn country. However, many citizens lost their trust in the group as they rejected food aid from Western countries to help with the famine/drought in the country. 

Al-Shabab has committed many terrorist attacks all across Somalia including a large  attack on a Kenyan military base in 2016, killing around 180 soldiers. 

This extremist military group has been pushed out of many of the small towns it once controlled, though it still remains a threat in fighting the UN-backed government in Somalia.

Yesterday, Aug. 21, a hotel in the capital of Somalia was attacked, resulting in the killing of 21 people and the injuring of more than 100 others. It took more than 30 hours for Somali forces to gain control of the situation, though police have not yet released an explanation of how the events unfolded. Al-Shabab claimed responsibility for this attack, adding to the list of their recent attempts to target government officials.


]]> 2022-08-22 16:49:04 UTC https://padlet.com/maliaowens/2ss2z8i35ax4lclp/wish/2267644395 Tunis News: Aug. 22 aw74904 https://padlet.com/maliaowens/2ss2z8i35ax4lclp/wish/2267913787 Today, the Free Constitutional Party in Tunisia gave the country's president, Kais Saied, a 72 hour deadline to announce his vacancy of the presidential position and call for early presidential elections.

The leader of this party, Abir Moussa, stated that he is no longer the elected president under the new constitution, as the oath he swore in under is in violation of the constitutional oath. On top of that, his dissolution of the Parliament meant getting rid of the institution under which he swore in, which also rescinds the validity of his presidency. 

Moussa stated that if this is not done within the next 72 hours, her party will conduct protests and file an official grievance with the United Nations.


]]> 2022-08-22 21:11:09 UTC https://padlet.com/maliaowens/2ss2z8i35ax4lclp/wish/2267913787 The Taliban in Afghanistan https://padlet.com/maliaowens/2ss2z8i35ax4lclp/wish/2271563098 The American government confirmed the killing of the leader of the Taliban Atman Al-Zawahiri, but Afghanistan's leaders say they are unable to uncover his body amidst the rubble of destruction, which left the everything near unidentifiable after the drone strike that was said to kill him. They also said they are committed to keeping influential countries from threatening its security such as Russia, and that it is maintaining its dedication to the Doha agreement. The Doha agreement is a peace agreement signed by the United States and the Taliban on February 29, 2020 in Doha, Qatar, to bring an end to the 2001–2021 war in Afghanistan. This latest drone strike of the Taliban leader is only confirmed through US intelligence. ]]> 2022-08-25 15:19:02 UTC https://padlet.com/maliaowens/2ss2z8i35ax4lclp/wish/2271563098