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1. Earthquake tragedy in Turkey i syria flares up
.A week after the overwhelming earthquake that wreaked havoc on the Turkish-Syrian border, the death toll is beginning to stabilize, and the true magnitude of the tragedy that occurred in the early hours of Monday morning is beginning to sink in.
New official figures now put the total number of dead at 33,000 (29,700 in Turkey and 3,500 in Syria, respectively). It seems that the balance has been slightly worse than expected, after the passage of the first hours after the earthquake, which are key to the rescue of survivors trapped under the rubble.
On the other hand, international aid has been key throughout the first days. The help provided by EU countries, as well as by some Middle Eastern countries, in the rescue tasks and in the construction of temporary residential camps for those who have lost everything, have been key for the situation not to get out of control. Other gestures, such as the easing of US economic sanctions on the Al-Assad regime, are intended to help in the medium- to long-term reconstruction of the areas affected by the earthquake. Ms.
Such has been the hecatomb, that it seems that the earthquake has left Syria, even the war in the background. In the area of Turkish Kurdistan, bordering the earthquake, the Kurdish forces have announced a cease-fire, accompanied by a promise not to attack or move in the areas affected by the earthquake. At the opposite extreme seems to be the behavior of the jihadist group in Ibid, territory controlled by rebel factions, where Hayat Tahrir al Sahm, threatens not to allow the delivery of humanitarian aid, both from international organizations and the Syrian government of Bashar Al-Assad Typical geopolitical tensions also seem to have eased between Turkey and its neighbors, Greece and Armenia, which have facilitated the passage of humanitarian aid across their usually strict borders
Further developments over the past few days remain to be seen. The earthquake has also caused some new tensions. In Syria, it adds to the misfortunes of a region tormented in recent years by war, besieged in no man's land by government forces, rebels and Turkish militias. In Turkey, some sectors of the opposition already hold the government responsible for the deficient infrastructures, and some of these construction companies are already being fined or closed down.
2. USA i Canada ablate up to 4 balloons in their air zone
.Last week a news worthy of a movie caught the attention of the presentable. The American authorities had warned of the presence of an unidentified aerial object inside their airspace. After shooting it down they saw that it was nothing more nor less than an air balloon.
Throughout these days, both U.S. and Canadian authorities have been spotting more of these objects, until this Monday the fourth of these contraptions has been shot down in Lake Huron, near Michigan.
While the confusion continues, Canadian and U.S. intelligence services continue to gather information about the devices and their purpose. Recall that the authorship of these same balloons was timidly acknowledged by China, which pointed out that they were devices made for the purpose of collecting meteorological information, an explanation that (evidently) has not convinced the United States.
Another surprising news is how the Chinese government itself has claimed the discovery of another unidentified aerial object over its airspace, this time over the Yellow Sea, near Qingdao.
These mysterious events coincide with the increase of both Chinese and Japanese military operations, the latter with the direct support and collaboration of the United States over the South Sea of East Asia, a territory of geopolitical tensions and disputes for decades. We will see how this scale of tensions will turn out in the last few weeks
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3. Ukraine arms shipment gets more complicated
.About a year into the Russian-Ukrainian war, arms support to the country presided over by Volodomir Zelenski seems to be faltering. After weeks of tense negotiations, and with the push from the Americans, the Germans gave in on the intention to send Leopard tanks, estimated to be key to the development of the conflict in the coming weeks.
But not everything has gone as expected, what was expected to be an avalanche of support aroused by the sending of more than 100 tanks by, mainly, the United Kingdom, the United States and Germany has been received with a certain coldness. Only Poland, which maintained a resolutely bellicose position throughout the conflict, Portugal and Canada have joined this initiative (and with rather limited contributions).
On the other side, countries such as Sweden, Spain, Denmark or the Netherlands indicate that they are willing to help, but do not specify when or how. This attitude has caused some discomfort in the Germanic country, which has already asked them for a greater resolution. .
In view of the situation, and in view of the Russian offensive expected for the end of February, which we mentioned last week, Germany has opted to send also the old Leopard tank models, adding up to the delivery of about 80 Leopards in total, sent throughout this year.
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It seems that the storms are abating. From Brussels, yesterday it was confirmed that the specter of recession has been dodged, although "just barely". Thus, the GDP rate is not expected to decline, but is expected to increase by 0.9%. Regarding the Spanish economy, it seems that the forecasts also improve, expecting a growth of 1.4% (four tenths above the 1% previously expected). This places Spain among the countries that will grow the most within the EU, ahead of, for example, Italy (0.8%) or France (0.6%)
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According to the EU, the reasons behind the Spanish growth, in this complicated year marked by the war, have been the recovery of the tourism (diminished the previous years by the COVID crisis), an increase in private consumption, the moderation of inflation and the impulse of the recovery plans, which have facilitated the investment, both national and foreign in the Iberian territory.
However, the EU has pointed out that optimism should not run wild and result in counterproductive policies, such as excessive wage increases, which could lead to an upward trend in prices.
On a more European note, there is also good news. It seems that the EU assumes that we have reached the inflation ceiling, and that inflation is starting to moderate. In addition, energy prices also seem to have stabilized, a fact facilitated by the lower energy use due to a winter that has not been as harsh as expected.
In short, the new economic forecasts have been greeted with guarded optimism in Brussels, which notes how "we have to be cautious, but we are confident" in the words of Pascal Donohoe, finance minister
5. Self-consumption PV doubles by 2022
.Last year saw a combination of factors that led to an unprecedented increase in the installation of photovoltaic self-consumption systems. The skyrocketing prices due to the war, coupled with aid from the Next Generation fund, seem to have accelerated the transition to these new forms of consumption.
Last year alone, there were more than 200,000 installations in Spain in homes and 23,000 in companies. These figures increase the number of homes with this technology to 300,000, as well as 54,000 companies. It is estimated that the capacity to generate energy would reach almost 2% of the national demand.