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World Bank to Finance Syria with $146 Million to Restore Electricity

Syrians walk in a dark street in Douma. Reuters file photo
Syrians walk in a dark street in Douma. Reuters file photo
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World Bank to Finance Syria with $146 Million to Restore Electricity

Syrians walk in a dark street in Douma. Reuters file photo
Syrians walk in a dark street in Douma. Reuters file photo

The World Bank approved a $146 million grant to help Syria restore reliable, affordable electricity and support the country's economic recovery, it said in a statement on Wednesday.

“The Syria Electricity Emergency Project (SEEP) will rehabilitate damaged transmission lines and transformer substations and provide technical assistance to support the development of the electricity sector and build the capacity of its institutions,” it said.

After 14 years of war, Syria's electricity sector has been suffering from severe damage to its grid and power stations, aging infrastructure, and persistent fuel shortages.

"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," said World Bank Middle East Division Director Jean-Christophe Carret.

"This project represents the first step in a planned increase in World Bank support to Syria on its path to recovery and development,” he added.

According to the World Bank statement, the SEEP will finance the rehabilitation of high voltage transmission lines, including two critical 400 kV high-voltage interconnector transmission lines damaged during the conflict, restoring Syria’s regional connectivity to Jordan and Türkiye.

The project will also repair damaged high-voltage transformer substations near demand centers in the most impacted areas that host the highest number of returnee refugees and internally displaced people and provide necessary spare parts and maintenance equipment.

In addition, the SEEP will provide technical assistance to inform the country’s key electricity sector strategies, policy and regulatory reforms, and investment plans for medium to long term sustainability. It will also provide capacity building support to the electricity sector institutions to implement these strategies and reforms.

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Trump Announces 30% Tariffs Against EU, Mexico to begin August 1

President Donald J. Trump speaks at a roundtable discussion at the Community Emergency Operations Center in Kerrville, Texas, Friday, July 11, 2025. (Ricardo B. Brazziell/Austin American-Statesman via AP)
President Donald J. Trump speaks at a roundtable discussion at the Community Emergency Operations Center in Kerrville, Texas, Friday, July 11, 2025. (Ricardo B. Brazziell/Austin American-Statesman via AP)
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Trump Announces 30% Tariffs Against EU, Mexico to begin August 1

President Donald J. Trump speaks at a roundtable discussion at the Community Emergency Operations Center in Kerrville, Texas, Friday, July 11, 2025. (Ricardo B. Brazziell/Austin American-Statesman via AP)
President Donald J. Trump speaks at a roundtable discussion at the Community Emergency Operations Center in Kerrville, Texas, Friday, July 11, 2025. (Ricardo B. Brazziell/Austin American-Statesman via AP)

President Donald Trump on Saturday announced he's levying tariffs of 30% against the European Union and Mexico.

Trump announced the tariffs on two of the United States' biggest trade partners in letters posted to his social media account.

In his letter to Mexico's leader, Trump acknowledged that the country has been helpful in stemming the flow of undocumented migrants and fentanyl into the United States. But he said the country has not done enough to stop North America from turning into a “Narco-Trafficking Playground.”

“Mexico has been helping me secure the border, BUT, what Mexico has done, is not enough,” Trump added, The AP news reported.

Trump in his letter to the European Union said that the US trade deficit was a national security threat.

“We have had years to discuss our Trading Relationship with The European Union, and we have concluded we must move away from these long-term, large, and persistent, Trade Deficits, engendered by your Tariff, and Non-Tariff, Policies, and Trade Barriers,” Trump wrote in the letter to the EU. “Our relationship has been, unfortunately, far from Reciprocal.”

Trump is in the midst of an announcement blitz of new tariffs with allies and foes alike, a bedrock of his 2024 campaign that he said would set the foundation for reviving a US economy that he claims has been ripped off by other nations for decades.

With the reciprocal tariffs, Trump is effectively blowing up the rules governing world trade. For decades, the United States and most other countries abided by tariff rates set through a series of complex negotiations known as the Uruguay round. Countries could set their own tariffs – but under the “most favored nation’’ approach, they couldn’t charge one country more than they charged another.

With Saturday's letters, Trump has now issued tariff conditions on 24 countries and the 27-member European Union.

The European Union’s chief trade negotiator said earlier this week that a trade deal to avert higher tariffs on European goods imported to the US could be reached “even in the coming days.” Maroš Šefčovič told EU lawmakers in Strasbourg, France on Wednesday that the EU had been spared the increased tariffs contained in the letters Trump sent on Monday, and that an extension of talks would provide “additional space to reach a satisfactory conclusion.”

The bloc collectively sells more to the US than any other country. US goods imports from the EU topped $553 billion in 2022, according to the Office of the US Trade Representative.

Trump on April 2 proposed a 20% tariff for EU goods and then threatened to raise that to 50% after negotiations did not move as fast as he would have liked. Sefcovic did not mention any tariff figures.

The higher tariffs as well as any EU retaliation had been suspended as the two sides negotiate. However the base rate of 10% for most trade partners as well as higher rates of 25% on autos and 50% on steel and aluminum had gone into effect.

Douglas Holtz-Eakin, a former Congressional Budget Office director and president of the center-right American Action Forum, said the letters were evidence that serious trade talks were not taking place over the past three months. He stressed that nations were instead talking amongst themselves about how to minimize their own exposure to the US economy and Trump.

“They’re spending time talking to each other about what the future is going to look like, and we’re left out,” Holtz-Eakin said.

He added that Trump was using the letters to demand attention, but, “In the end, these are letters to other countries about taxes he’s going to levy on his citizens.”