Latest news with #warzone
Yahoo
14 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Syria's electricity recovery project receives $146m grant
The World Bank's board of executive directors has sanctioned a grant to strengthen Syria's power sector. A $146m grant from the International Development Association (IDA) aims to revitalise reliable, affordable electricity in war-torn regions, aiding in Syria's broader economic resurgence. The country faces an acute energy crisis due to the extensive damage and neglect suffered by its transmission and distribution infrastructure since 2020. Syria's protracted conflict has left its national grid severely impaired, with most areas receiving only two to four hours of electricity daily. This scarcity hampers vital services such as water supply, healthcare, agri-food production and housing development. The newly announced Syria Electricity Emergency Project (SEEP) will focus on reconstructing high-voltage lines and transformer substations that have been ravaged by conflict. Key 400kV interconnector lines linking Jordan and Türkiye are set for repair under SEEP, restoring critical regional connections while also addressing local needs near demand centres heavily populated by refugees returning home or displaced internally. World Bank middle east division director Jean-Christophe Carret stated: "Among Syria's urgent reconstruction needs, rehabilitating the electricity sector has emerged as a critical, no-regret investment that can improve the living conditions of the Syrian people, support the return of refugees and the internally displaced, enable resumption of other services such as water services and healthcare for the population and help kickstart economic recovery. "This project represents the first step in a planned increase in World Bank support to Syria on its path to recovery and development." Beyond physical repairs, SEEP extends technical assistance for strategic planning within Syria's electric sector. It encompasses policy reform guidance alongside regulatory advice aimed at ensuring medium- to long-term sustainability. Capacity-building measures are also planned for institutional stakeholders responsible for implementing these strategies. Overseeing this endeavour is the Public Establishment for Transmission and Distribution of Electricity (PETDE), which will coordinate rehabilitation efforts across various facets of electrical infrastructure. An international consultancy will be engaged by PETDE to provide multifaceted expertise from engineering services to environmental oversight, and ensure compliance with World Bank standards. To further ensure transparency and adherence to high operational benchmarks, a third-party monitoring agent will be appointed by the bank. This entity will enhance fiduciary surveillance along with environmental and social checks while offering expanded implementation support designed to fortify overall project management capabilities within PETDE. "Syria's electricity recovery project receives $146m grant" was originally created and published by Power Technology, a GlobalData owned brand. The information on this site has been included in good faith for general informational purposes only. It is not intended to amount to advice on which you should rely, and we give no representation, warranty or guarantee, whether express or implied as to its accuracy or completeness. You must obtain professional or specialist advice before taking, or refraining from, any action on the basis of the content on our site.
Telegraph
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
M3GAN 2.0, review: A riotous return for the viral psychotic doll
When the decision was made to produce a follow-up to M3GAN – the popular 2023 horror about an artificially intelligent doll that turns evil – writer-director Gerard Johnson faced what might be called the 'Jurassic Park problem'. In a sequel to a film in which a fun invention ends up causing the violent deaths of multiple innocent parties, how do you get one of the survivors to say with a straight face: 'Right then, guys, who's up for building another one?' This uproarious (if not especially scary) sequel has the measure of the task at hand's silliness, and leans into it with infectious glee. However you thought a M3GAN sequel might begin, it probably wasn't with a helicopter shot of a desert compound and the caption: 'Somewhere near the Turkey-Iran border' – yet here we are, in a highly topical war zone, where an even nimbler and more murderous M3GAN successor, known as Amelia (Ivanna Sakhno), is in the process of becoming a headache for the US secret services. The only way to bring this new rogue AI under control, it transpires, is to boot up the old one in all her prim, pussy-bowed glory – and hope that this time she decides to take humanity's side. No one could argue that the original M3GAN carried itself like The Texas Chain Saw Massacre: highlights included its title character singing Sia's Titanium and sashaying through a dance that subsequently went viral on TikTok. But this second chapter is so driven by antics – and wisely so – that it barely qualifies as horror at all. Tonally, the genre it most recalls, in fact, is a very specific one: films from the Eighties and Nineties, which you'd swear had originally been aimed at children but discover on rewatching that they're completely unsuitable for anyone below their mid-teens; think Gremlins, Kindergarten Cop, and so on. There is relatively little here in the way of honest fright. Rather, as M3GAN's human creator Gemma (Allison Williams) becomes increasingly embroiled in her comeback, there are glamorous parties to infiltrate, concept cars to hijack – AI self-drivers, naturally – and heists to pull off, with the aid of chloroformed handkerchiefs. M3GAN herself, played again by 14-year-old dancer Amie Donald and voiced by Jenna Davis, is less spooky possessed doll than sassy robo-mascot, with dialogue that couldn't have been cattier if it had come from a Whiskas tin. In her temporary exoskeletal form, she reminds you of Johnny Five in the Short Circuit films – there's a lovely, tactile judder to her movements as she trundles around her lair – while Amelia's quadrupedal scuttle has a stop-motion feel that adds to the film's comic bite. So too does Flight of the Conchords' Jemaine Clement, who pops up as a smug, sleazebag tech bro, and comedian Aristotle Athari, who delivers a subtly berkish variant. And while Johnson's screenplay makes great play of the topicality of the AI debate, it adds – by design, I think – absolutely nothing of value to the discussion at all. Will clips of M3GAN 2.0 appear in AI documentaries 50 years from now, as an example of what we poor saps worried was on the horizon? Almost inevitably. But for now, its loopy verve is reassuringly human. 15 cert, 120 min. In cinemas from Friday June 27
ABC News
4 days ago
- ABC News
Australians given small window to escape Iran-Israel warzone
A brief halt in hostilities has given Australians trying to get out a window to attempt to leave the warzone.
Washington Post
6 days ago
- General
- Washington Post
Yemeni shakshuka is a warm, aromatic, scrambled delight
Some of Hawa Hassan's earliest sense memories are the smell of burning tires and the sound of crackling gunfire. At age 4, she and her family are living in Mogadishu, Somalia, 'and the city of my childhood is no longer a bustling and burgeoning metropolis but a vacant and violent war zone,' she writes in her new cookbook.
CBS News
20-06-2025
- Politics
- CBS News
South Florida families concerned for loved ones stuck in Israel due to Mideast conflict
The conflict between Israel and Iran is personal for Rabbi Yossie Harlig. "My daughter is there now and now they've closed down the airports, there's no way of getting out," Harlig said. The rabbi said his 20-year-old daughter Toba Harlig went to study in northern Israel. She has already tried to leave, but hasn't been able to. "She had a flight to come back home and then got canceled and the missiles started raining again," Harlig said. The rabbi said it's typical for Jewish young adults like his daughter to want to learn about their heritage. He said Toba has been in Israel since September 2024 and this is not the only conflict she has seen. "She was woken up many times in the middle of the night having to run to bomb shelters, she had 30 seconds to make it to a bomb shelter," he said. "It definitely was a culture shock at first," Daniella Krasney, a 20-year-old University of Miami student in Israel, said. Living in a war zone has its challenges Krasney is majoring in journalism and after only one month of her internship in Tel Aviv, she witnessed an international conflict. "I am American, I'm not Israeli, I'm not used to this sort of stuff. It's definitely a little nerve wracking and I'm sure anybody living through a war zone can attest. Even before the conflict with Iran, you have a minute and a half to get to bomb shelters," she said. Leaving Israel presents challenges There are no flights in or out of Israel right now. Krasney plans to take a ferry from Tel Aviv to Cyprus on Friday morning. She will then fly to South Florida. As for Harlig, the Grey Bull Rescue Foundation will help her leave Israel over the weekend. "I feel a little bit more comfortable as a dad that these people are former soldiers," Harlig said. "The plan is on Sunday, they are going to take her to the Jordanian border, take her to the airport, get her on a plane to go to Cyprus, then get on another plane to flight to Tampa." Americans stranded in Israel can fill out an emergency evacuation form from Grey Bull Rescue, a Tampa nonprofit that helps rescue citizens in conflict zones.
