The United Nations adopts an Olympic Truce Resolution ahead of the Paris 2024 Games as tensions simmer over conflicts in Gaza and Ukraine.

The provisional measures are part of a case brought by the Netherlands and Canada to the UN's top court accusing Syria of torturing its own citizens during the country's civil war.

Following a criminal investigation into the 2013 chemical attacks that killed more than 1,000 people, France issued international arrest warrants for Syrian leader Bashar Assad and three other Syrian nationals.

US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin in a statement said that the airstrikes were ordered by President Joe Biden in response to repeated attacks against US troops.

The US said the air strike was designed to take out supplies, weapons and ammunition used in attacks on coalition troops in Iraq and Syria.

The city of Raqqa symbolises the tragic fate of Syria over the past 12 years. From the start of the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad in 2011, the northern city was a major target for rebel groups. It then became the stronghold of Islamic State group terrorists, who made Raqqa the capital of their self-proclaimed caliphate. The city went through three years of hell – suffering atrocities, public hangings and slave auctions – before being bombed and then liberated in 2017 by an international US-led coalition. Since then, the "Pearl of the Euphrates" has struggled to get back on track.

Syria's civil war is at a stalemate, but this month the country has seen some of the worst violence in years. Could Syria's dictator and his Russian ally be using the Gaza crisis as cover to commit war crimes?

The Syrian military has said the "armed terrorists" were behind the attack. Attendees were celebrating a graduation ceremony at the time.

Syrian President Bashar Assad is due to meet with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping. China has long provided diplomatic support to Assad's regime, and could play a role in reconstructing war-battered Syria.

As Middle Eastern countries again accept Bashar Assad's control over Syria, India is beginning to renew its ties with Damascus in order to build strategic influence in the region.

On 17 August 2023, popular protests over the high inflation rate and deteriorating economic situation in Syria erupted in the Druze majority city of Al-Suwayda, with hundreds of participants. These grew, and by 20 August, thousands of protesters chanted slogans demanding the downfall of Assad regime.

Aid deliveries from Turkey to rebel-held areas of northwestern Syria stopped in late July after a UN Security Council mandate was not extended. Damascus had demanded the UN not deal with "terrorist organizations."