The Cooling Welcome
NEED TO KNOW
The Cooling Welcome
MIDDLE EAST
Life has never been easy for the 12 million Syrian refugees who fled their country’s brutal civil war since it broke out in 2011. That doesn’t mean their lives can’t become harder, though.
In neighboring countries like Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey, refugees who have fled the fighting between rebel forces and the repressive regime of Syrian President Bashar al Assad are facing new challenges that are making them feel unwelcome.
Oussama and Hala, two siblings, for example told the National they were forced to move out of their apartment in the northern village of Raashine in Lebanon after their landlord refused to give them a new lease because they could not produce residency papers. The Lebanese government was taking too long to issue the documents. They took to living on the streets next to their home.
“It’s suffocating,” said Oussama of their inevitable eviction. “They make it difficult for us to renew our residencies because they don’t want Syrians in Lebanon. The goal is to prevent us from living here.”
They are part of a much larger wave of expulsions, with at least 3,865 Syrians being forcibly evicted from Lebanese villages since April, according to the Access Centre for Human Rights, which monitors and documents human rights abuses of Syrian refugees displaced by home country’s civil war.
Critics within Lebanon have slammed the government for issuing diplomas to unregistered Syrian students, too, saying the move could lead to more refugees becoming Lebanese citizens, reported the New Arab. Other proposals could prevent Syrian refugee children from even receiving an education, according to the Arab News.
The United Nations, meanwhile, has approved a Lebanese plan to repatriate 30,000 Syrian refugees even though Assad’s forces continue to commit human rights violations against his people, Middle East Monitor wrote.
Many Syrian refugees in Jordan are similarly living in limbo.
Jordanian leaders have publicly groused about the cost of supporting the 1.4 million Syrians who have sought asylum in the Middle Eastern country – a number equal to 14 percent of Jordan’s population, noted the Middle East Forum.
With the UN’s aid to Jordan falling short by $264 million, Jordan has cut monthly food stipends for Syrian refugees from $32 to $21, for example, for example, World Politics Review explained.
Jordan also hiked the price of work permits for Syrian refugees from $14 to $700 and increased social insurance fees, the New Humanitarian reported. For many refugees, the costs are an “insurmountable obstacle” that will force them to consider moving elsewhere if they want to be able to make a living and feed their families.
In Turkey, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who cut ties with Assad in 2012, is now considering making up with the Syrian president after popular support for Turkey’s hosting of 3.1 million Syrian refugees declined sharply, wrote the Times. A few months ago, for example, three days of anti-Syrian riots erupted in central Turkey after a Syrian man allegedly sexually abused a seven-year-old Syrian girl, Al Jazeera wrote.
In a move that is likely designed to satisfy public sentiments, Erdogan is now also deporting undocumented Syrians back to the warzone they recently fled, the Economist added. That’s because a solid majority of Turks want them to return to their country. But the violence is new.
As the Economist added, some of the anti-Syrian sentiment across the region has to do with the prevailing economic crisis, while in Turkey, some fear the cultural impact. But the Syrians themselves, many of whom have lived in their adopted countries now for more than a decade, say they are easy targets.
“The (economic) crisis makes us perfect scapegoats,” one Syrian transplant in Turkey told Le Monde.
THE WORLD, BRIEFLY
Risky Business
ISRAEL/ LEBANON
Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah’s leader for over three decades, was killed in an Israeli airstrike in the Lebanese capital over the weekend, triggering jubilant scenes in Israel, widespread outrage among the group’s allies in the Middle East, and speculation over who will be the next leader of the armed group, NPR reported.
The Iran-backed group confirmed Nasrallah’s death, mourning him as a “great martyr” and “heroic leader” after the Israeli strike targeted his main headquarters beneath a residential building in Dahiyeh, Beirut.
Israel’s military claimed the strike also killed Hezbollah’s acting deputy, Ali Karki, and other commanders involved in planning future attacks against Israel.
Meanwhile, Iranian media reported that Brig. Gen. Abbas Nilforoushan, an operational leader of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps, was killed in the same strike. His death could have wider regional implications, given Iran’s long-standing support of Hezbollah.
In Israel, the mood was celebratory following Nasrallah’s assassination, with many welcoming the death of the man who led the armed Shia movement in numerous conflicts against Israel.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described his killing as an “essential condition” for Israel to achieve its war goals and neutralize a major threat. Israel’s Defense Minister Yoav Gallant called it the closure of a “long-standing account” with Nasrallah, whose leadership was marked by bloodshed on both sides of the conflict.
However, Nasrallah’s death has also fueled outrage across Hezbollah’s base and its regional allies: Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei condemned the strike as a “massacre” and announced five days of mourning for the fallen leader.
Khamenei also vowed that the Lebanon-based group would continue to lead the resistance against Israel. In Iraq, the government declared a three-day mourning period, with some lawmakers vowing that Nasrallah’s death would intensify the fight against Israel.
The conflict between Hezbollah and Israel has escalated sharply since Oct. 8, when Hezbollah began firing missiles into northern Israel following Hamas’s attack the day before that killed around 1,200 Israelis and saw more than 250 taken hostage.
According to the Israeli government, Hezbollah has launched about 9,300 rockets since October 2023, killing 49 people and injuring 372. Meanwhile, Israeli strikes have killed more than 1,000 people in Lebanon and forced tens of thousands to flee to neighboring Syria.
As Hezbollah mourns its leader, attention has turned to Hashem Safieddine, Nasrallah’s cousin and a senior figure within the armed group, as the most likely successor, according to Agence France-Presse.
Known for his fiery speeches, Safieddine, a member of Hezbollah’s Shura Council and a close ally of Iran, has been vocal in supporting Palestinian fighters and opposing Israeli forces. He has also vowed to continue the fight against Israel.
Changing of the Guard
JAPAN
Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) elected Shigeru Ishiba as its leader and the country’s new prime minister, following a party election that could prompt potential shifts in both domestic policies and Tokyo’s foreign relations, particularly its key alliance with the United States, Politico reported.
Ishiba, a 67-year-old former defense minister, was elected president of the LDP in a close runoff vote victory against lawmaker Sanae Takaichi, winning by 215 votes against 194.
He will take office Tuesday and replace outgoing Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, who has struggled with declining popularity despite his strong foreign policy record.
Though a longtime LDP member, Ishiba has often been an outsider within the party’s elite ranks: He left the LDP briefly in the past and challenged its leadership multiple times, failing in four previous bids for the top role.
Known for his pragmatism and obsession with policy detail, Ishiba has clashed with prominent party figures, including the late Shinzo Abe, whose “Abenomics” policies he opposed. Despite these tensions, Ishiba has gained in popularity with rank-and-file party members and the general public.
His win defied predictions that favored Takaichi, a pro-business candidate and supporter of “Abenomics.”
On the international front, Ishiba’s defense and foreign policy stances have sparked debate.
He has called for revisions to Japan’s pacifist constitution and a renegotiation of the US-Japan Status of Forces Agreement, which dates back to 1960. These proposals are seen as part of his broader goal of “restoring Japanese sovereignty,” though they have raised concerns in Washington, given Japan’s critical role in US efforts to counter China in East Asia, according to Politico.
Ishiba also plans to continue Japan’s defense buildup, with military spending set to double by 2027.
To solidify his leadership, Ishiba plans to dissolve the House of Representatives and hold a general election on Oct. 27, Kyodo News added.
His cabinet is expected to include key figures, such as former Defense Minister Takeshi Iwaya, signaling a focus on defense, disaster management and economic security.
Even so, observers noted that internal divisions within the LDP remain a challenge, and Ishiba will have to unify a fragmented ruling party.
YES, Again
CZECH REPUBLIC
The main opposition party of former Prime Minister Andrej Babiš secured most votes in the Czech upper house of parliament elections Saturday, a victory that bodes well for the populist leader ahead of next year’s legislative elections, Bloomberg reported.
The ANO party (or “YES” party) won eight of 27 seats up for grabs in the 81-seat senate in the two-round election. It was the first time the party secured that many seats in the upper house, although it is far short of a majority.
The ruling coalition of Prime Minister Petr Fiala still retained a majority in the upper chamber.
Although most of the legislative process is dominated by the lower house, the Senate plays an important role in passing constitutional amendments and approving constitutional court judges, the Associated Press wrote.
ANO’s victory comes a week after the party won 10 out of 13 regions in play during the country’s regional elections.
Both results underscore ANO’s growing popularity ahead of the 2025 parliamentary vote. Commentators said that Babiš’s party is favored to win next year’s poll.
Meanwhile, Babiš has said that he will seek to become prime minister again, a post he previously held between 2017 and 2021.
DISCOVERIES
The Earth’s New Guest
Earth welcomed a new neighbor Sunday that will be orbiting our planet for the next two months as a “mini-moon.”
Meet 2024 PT5, a 33-foot-long asteroid that has been chasing after Earth for years and finally got close enough to be pulled closer by the planet’s gravity, according to the Independent.
Astronomers first spotted the celestial object last month through NASA’s Asteroid Terrestrial-Impact Last Alert System (ATLAS), a global network of telescopes designed to spot potential asteroid threats.
Fortunately for humanity, 2024 PT5 is too small to cause any damage to our planet – about 1,000 times smaller than the space rock that wiped out the dinosaurs more than 65 million years ago.
Researchers believe it originated from the Arjuna asteroid belt, a group of objects that share Earth-like orbits around the Sun, making them more likely to approach Earth.
The mini-moon will stay within Earth’s gravitational pull until Nov. 25, they wrote in their study. During this time, it will act as a temporary satellite before breaking free from Earth’s gravity and resuming its orbit around the Sun.
But it will visit us again sometime in 2055.
Sadly, stargazers and amateur astronomers won’t be able to see it unless they own a professional telescope.
“A telescope with a diameter of at least 30 inches plus a CCD or CMOS detector is needed to observe this object; a 30-inch telescope and a human eye behind it will not be enough,” Carlos de la Fuente Marcos, a co-author of the study, told Space.com.
Mini-moons are not a new phenomenon and Earth has had its share of visiting space rocks, including in 1992 and 2022.
For an object to become a temporary satellite, it “needs to come close enough to Earth to get diverted by our planet’s gravity,” University of Maryland astronomer Derek Richardson, who was not involved in the paper, explained to the Washington Post.
“At the same time, it must approach relatively slowly, at a speed of 2,200 miles per hour – too fast, and the asteroid might escape Earth’s gravitational leash entirely,” he added.
Although described as a satellite, 2024 PT5 won’t complete a full orbit around Earth but will follow a horseshoe-shaped path.
The incomplete orbit has prompted some researchers to refrain from calling it a mini-moon, the Smithsonian wrote.