Ronahî: The new school year of two thousand twenty-six to two thousand twenty-seven has started, yet in many towns across Rojava students did not enter their classrooms. In Hasaka, hundreds of students refused to begin lessons.

Ronahî: The dispute centers on a decision issued by the Ministry of Education on the twenty-seventh of August. According to that decision, Kurdish is treated as an optional subject and receives only three hours each week. The students want all their lessons taught in Kurdish.

Kamîran: And this is not limited to Hasaka — similar demonstrations have taken place in several towns at once.

Ronahî: Exactly. In Kobani students also stayed out of class. In Amuda, families and community elders gathered in front of the education center and demanded that children be taught in their mother tongue. Kurdish-language teacher Arshek Parvi, who was there, said residents oppose the Ministry's decision.

Kamîran: We discussed protests over the same decision earlier this year. What is different today is that schools have reopened and the students themselves have refused to attend.

Ronahî: Yes. A student named Nurcan Mihemed said, "We want our right to learn in Kurdish." Meanwhile, intellectuals in Qamishli argue that three lessons are not enough and call for Kurdish to be recognized as an official language and written into Syria's new constitution.

Kamîran: From Rojava we turn to Ankara, where the DEM Party held its large party congress.

Ronahî: Yes, the fifth ordinary grand congress took place at the Nazim Hikmet Cultural Center in Yenimahalle. Nearly six hundred delegates cast votes, and Tuncer Bakirhan and Tulay Hatimogullari were re-elected as the party's co-chairs.

Ronahî: The election was held on a single list, and a new party council was also elected. A banner reading "Woman, Life, Freedom" was hung on the wall of the hall.

Kamîran: Delegates came from all across northern Kurdistan and Turkey, is that right?

Ronahî: Yes, participation was broad, with people arriving from many cities.

Ronahî: Six people lost their lives and twenty others were wounded in the Israeli strike on villages in Nabatieh Governorate in southern Lebanon.

Ronahî: According to Lebanon's Ministry of Health, two people died and two were wounded in the village of Upper Nabatieh, while eight people were wounded in the Rahibat neighborhood, including a woman and a child.

Kamîran: The same day another strike took place in Gaza.

Ronahî: Yes. An airstrike in western Gaza City hit a house, killing two people — an elderly man and a child — and wounding six others. The information comes from health sources in Gaza.

Kamîran: Another aspect of life in Syria is putting extra pressure on families — the economy.

Ronahî: Since the beginning of two thousand twenty-six a new Syrian currency has been in circulation. Since then, economic discussions have continued over the shortage of cash and its impact on families' purchasing power.

Ronahî: The exchange of the old currency for the new one is still under way, and prices have risen along with it, further burdening markets and households.

Kamîran: So the issue is not only prices; cash itself is scarce, and some payments are also delayed.

Ronahî: True, the two problems are linked.

Kamîran: We close with an international story — new efforts to end the Russia-Ukraine war.

Ronahî: U.S. envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner met today in Kyiv with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. This is part of the Donald Trump administration's diplomatic push.

Ronahî: Before traveling to Kyiv, the two men held a three-hour meeting in Moscow with Russian President Vladimir Putin. No clear information has emerged about the outcome of those meetings.

Kamîran: So meetings are taking place, yet nothing concrete is on the table yet.

Ronahî: It appears that way, yes.