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The US air force bombed nine targets in Syria, Centcom said on Tuesday, claiming the strikes were in response to attacks by Iran-backed militias against its forces.
The strikes, carried out over a 24-hour period, represent the latest in years of clashes in eastern Syria in the aftermath of the international struggle against ISIS. That conflict has left about 900 US soldiers present, assisting Kurdish militia groups who worked with them, with the coalition in loose control of swathes of the country’s east bordering Iraq.
The fresh clashes between US forces and groups largely equipped and funded by Iran comes amid reports that the incoming Donald Trump administration has tapped Iran-hawks for top cabinet positions. Mr Trump has, however, has long said he wishes to withdraw US forces from Syria.
The US also conducts air strikes against ISIS on a near-monthly basis, amid continuing reports that the group is attempting to regenerate in Syria. Centcom’s statement said its forces were present to “defeat ISIS”, and that the militia attacks could disrupt the effort.
Israel too, has conducted almost-weekly strikes in Syria, mainly against Iran-linked targets in what it says are attempts to cut off weapons supplies to Lebanon's Hezbollah, but also hitting government forces, and civilians.
Iran-backed groups have also sporadically attacked US forces co-located with the Iraqi army in western Iraq’s Anbar desert province.
According to the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, a think tank which has been tracking attacks by the militias, the groups have launched nearly 200 attacks on US forces since the October 7 Israel-Gaza war began, aligning themselves with Hamas and Iran’s wider regional militia alliance, which includes Yemen’s Houthis and Lebanon’s Hezbollah.
In Iraq, through a coalition called the Islamic Resistance, which includes powerful Iran-armed groups such as Kataib Hezbollah, they have threatened more attacks if Israel launches another retaliation on Iran, following waves of tit-for-tat ballistic missile and air strike campaigns by the two rivals, since April.
A recent Washington Institute report said many militia attacks against US forces amounted to intimidation and “aimed to miss” but would probably “draw a lethal US response”, eventually.
No US personnel were injured in the recent militia attacks, but as of late Monday the Pentagon did not provide further details on what US sites in Syria had been attacked or which sites the US struck in return.
Nonetheless, the simmering conflict has the potential to rapidly escalate. In February the US launched a massive attack that included 85 air strikes on Iranian-backed militia sites in Syria and Iraq, in response to a drone attack in Jordan that killed three US soldiers.
Syria and Iraq could remain a significant flashpoint between the US and Iran next year, amid reports that Donald Trump could nominate Marco Rubio for Secretary of State and Mike Waltz for National Security Advisor. Both take a hard line on Iran, urging a tougher US response to its nuclear research program and network of regional militias.
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The figure was broadly flat immediately before the Covid-19 pandemic, standing at 216,000 in the year to June 2018 and 224,000 in the year to June 2019.
It then dropped to an estimated 111,000 in the year to June 2020 when restrictions introduced during the pandemic limited travel and movement.
The total rose to 254,000 in the year to June 2021, followed by steep jumps to 634,000 in the year to June 2022 and 906,000 in the year to June 2023.
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It will take centuries to achieve gender parity in workplaces around the globe, according to a December report from the World Economic Forum.
The WEF study said there had been some improvements in wage equality in 2018 compared to 2017, when the global gender gap widened for the first time in a decade.
But it warned that these were offset by declining representation of women in politics, coupled with greater inequality in their access to health and education.
At current rates, the global gender gap across a range of areas will not close for another 108 years, while it is expected to take 202 years to close the workplace gap, WEF found.
The Geneva-based organisation's annual report tracked disparities between the sexes in 149 countries across four areas: education, health, economic opportunity and political empowerment.
After years of advances in education, health and political representation, women registered setbacks in all three areas this year, WEF said.
Only in the area of economic opportunity did the gender gap narrow somewhat, although there is not much to celebrate, with the global wage gap narrowing to nearly 51 per cent.
And the number of women in leadership roles has risen to 34 per cent globally, WEF said.
At the same time, the report showed there are now proportionately fewer women than men participating in the workforce, suggesting that automation is having a disproportionate impact on jobs traditionally performed by women.
And women are significantly under-represented in growing areas of employment that require science, technology, engineering and mathematics skills, WEF said.
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