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In July 2024, famine was confirmed in Zamzam, a camp in Sudan’s North Darfur region that houses half a million people displaced from the ongoing civil war. The war that broke out last April between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and its rival paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) sparked a hunger crisis with some 25 million people, about half of the Sudanese population, facing acute hunger. International experts used set criteria to confirm famine in Zamzam and added that there is a high risk that these conditions will continue beyond October if the conflict persists. To comprehend why experts are concerned about the spread of famine in Sudan, it’s important to understand how rare famine is, how it is determined, who officially declares it, and how war exacerbates it.
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While the situation in Syria highlights Iran’s eroding foothold and Israel’s growing sense of control, Israel now faces the challenge of an unpredictable HTS-led Syrian government.
On December 15, 2024, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu approved a plan to double the Israeli population in the Golan Heights, as Israel’s defense minister Israel Katz justified the initiative due to “enormous security importance.” After Bashar Al-Assad, the former president of Syria, was ousted by rebel forces who took over Syria, Israel launched airstrikes targeting Syria’s military assets, marking its first entry into Syrian territory in 50 years and expanding its ground control in the Golan Heights. Bashar’s falling is great news for Israel, for now. The Iranian threat has been weakened (again), and Israeli troops are already taking control of the northern border. Nonetheless, Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) replacing Bashar is still not the best news for Israel’s safety. The latest events in Syria are once again demonstrating how Israel has been gaining power over Iran and its axis of resistance throughout this year. Israel’s recent operations in Syria and in the Golan Heights reflect Israel’s strategy to have control over the situation to ensure its safety. Eventually, Syria’s new leaders are less predictable and might represent a new threat to Israel in the Middle East. Executive Summary
Protecting the global network of undersea cables is vital to U.S. national security and global stability. Malign actors can easily target these cables, disrupting the flow of information sharing between the U.S. and its allies. This disruption creates an avenue for competition between the U.S. and its adversaries. Every day, an estimated $10 trillion USD worth of financial transactions flows through undersea cables, as well as 99% of all internet traffic. The importance of securing these cables was highlighted in March 2024, when three damaged undersea cables in the Red Sea affected 25% of internet traffic in the region. Whether intentional or not, this incident called attention to the strategic importance of these cables and the ambiguity surrounding cable regulation, protection, and maintenance. Impact of Public Transportation for Low-Income Individuals Accessing Employment in Kansas City2/12/2025 The Problem
Low-income households in Kansas City, Missouri, face infrequent and unreliable access to connect them to areas with high employer concentration. Approximately 28 million Americans are dependent on public transit to travel outside of their residence. Those who rely on public transportation tend to be disproportionately low-income individuals. Simultaneously, many routes exclude the low-income populations that rely on them most. This remains true in Kansas City, Missouri, where 32% of households earn less than $50,000 in yearly income but only 13% of those households are within a half mile of high-frequency full-day transportation. The bus routes offered by the Kansas City Area Transportation Authority (KCATA) leave over 75% of low-income residents without accessible and reliable transportation to work, perpetuating economic disparities. While the KCATA has made strides in reducing barriers that residents face in utilizing their offered public transportation, equity in access must be resolved to see substantial increases in take-up of these services. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's asylum in Moscow marks a turning point, leaving Russia grappling with diminished diplomatic, military, and economic influence in a post-Assad, Hayat Tahrir al Sham (HTS)-led Syria amid the prioritized Russia-Ukraine conflict.
On December 8, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad landed in Moscow and was granted asylum on humanitarian grounds, leaving behind a rebel-ruled Syria and the legacy of a decades-long regime backed by Russia. The now-marred Assad family “dynasty” had been formerly supported by the Soviet Union, both due to Baathist-Soviet ideological alignment and as a byproduct of Cold War-era power dynamics in the Middle East. Russian President Vladimir Putin inherited these vested priorities, helping to keep Bashar al-Assad's regime intact during the Syrian Civil War and thereafter while maintaining its enduring diplomatic commitments, tactically-situated military bases, and evolving economic interests in conflict-ridden Syria. With Assad now out of Syria and no longer in power, Russia is likely to suffer a major geopolitical loss in the Middle East along these diplomatic, military, and economic fronts. As the Russia-Ukraine war remains the Kremlin’s priority, it is unclear whether Russia currently has the bandwidth to preserve its holdings in Syria by negotiating with the new HTS-led Syrian government. |
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