![Reaching out. Christopher Lesh, student at Central Catholic High School, serves ice cream during the event on March 2, 2025, at the Portland waterfront. Central Catholic was just one of the schools that sent student volunteers out to cook, prepare, dish, and serve food. Interact club’s co-president Rachel Gerber, junior, plated the food during the event. “I like how direct the contact is,” Gerber said. “You’re there [and] you’re just doing something good. It’s simple, it’s easy, you can feel good about it.”](https://wlhsnow.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/interact-1-edited-1200x744.jpg)
![At the bottom of the third inning, the Lions are still scoreless. Rowe stands at home plate, preparing to bat, while Vandenbrink stands off to the side as the next batter up. Despite having the bases loaded, the team was unable to score any runs. “It’s just the beginning of the season. We’re just going to be playing out best by June, [and] that’s where champions are,” Rowe said.](https://wlhsnow.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/IMG_3077-1200x900.jpg)
*WEB CONTINUATION: This article originally appeared in Volume 105 Issue 2 of our news magazine the Amplifier.
In the past month, conflict in the Levant region of the Middle East has seen development on multiple fronts, between the escalation in Iranian nuclear stockpiling, the Israel-Palestine war, and most recently, the war in Syria.
As of Dec. 8 2024, The 13-year-long Syrian Civil War has produced favorable results for anti-Assad rebels in the region.
Over two weeks, the rebel group Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS) made ground in capturing major cities and strategic targets in the West of Syria, until finally reaching the capital earlier this month.
Now through the streets of Damascus, there flies the red, white, green, and black, now in the form of the historical opposition flag.
The Assad regime that has led the country for 50 years has ended, with President Bashar Al Assad fleeing to Russia. In his place is Islamist leader Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, who made an appearance at the historical Umayyad Mosque on the day of the city’s capture.
It’s been said that Assad’s lack of presence is welcome for the many factions fighting throughout the country, as most of Syria remains largely contested by conflict.
However, on the geopolitical stage, this development has affected dynamics, both regional and international, as most notably, Russian-backed forces and the Assad regime are facing fiercer combat. With this foothold and the power vacuum made by Tahrir al-Sham, there is worry around their governance and aid for Syrian civilians, considering their close ties with Al Qaeda and their label as a terrorist group by multiple countries in the international community, including the United States and Russia.
In the past, Syria had been a proxy of Russia, having close ties with the Russian government and the Putin administration. The Assad regime has received much of its aid from Russia, in the form of both military and humanitarian goods since the times of the Soviet Union.
Since the ‘80s, Syria has received large amounts of advanced weaponry, from formidable fourth-generation MiG-29 fighters and nuclear-capable Sukhoi-24 bombers, to armor and small arms, all Russian manufactured.
Though much of the Syrian air force has been crippled by Israeli air raids following Assad’s deposition, much of the remaining equipment now sits in the hands of Hayat Tahrir Al Sham and other groups.
While the fighting in Damascus is over, Syria’s future and the outcome of the civil war is unknown.
