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Call of Duty game cocreator Vince Zampella dies in car crash in the US
Vince Zampella, the creator of the wildly successful Call of Duty video game series, passed away in a car crash in California at the age of 55, according to Electronic Arts, the studio’s parent company.
Zampella’s death, according to the company, was confirmed by reports on Monday that the developer and executive had been killed in a car accident the day before.
The statement stated that “Vince had a significant and profound impact on the video game industry.”
His work, which he described as a friend, coworker, leader, and visionary creator, contributed to the development of contemporary interactive media and inspired millions of players and developers all over the world.
On Sunday afternoon, Zampella and a passenger were killed when his Ferrari collided on Southern California’s picturesque Angeles Crest Highway, according to local broadcaster NBC4.
Without naming the two victims, the California Highway Patrol said in a statement that “for unknown reasons, the vehicle veered off the road, struck a concrete barrier, and completely engulfed.”
The crash and its aftermath, in which the car’s mangled wreckage was engulfed in flames, were captured on video and posted on social media.
a long list of successes
Zampella is most well known for co-creating the Call of Duty franchise, which has sold more than half a billion games worldwide and has more than 100 million active players each month.
Before Activision bought the studio, Zampella cofounded the Infinity Ward studio in the 1990s as a designer of shooter games. In 2002, he also assisted in the launch of Call of Duty.
Before being bought by Electronic Arts seven years later, he later left Activision and founded Respawn, the studio that produced Titanfall, Apex Legends, and the Star Wars Jedi games.
He became a key figure in contemporary first-person shooter games as he led the revitalization of the Battlefield series, which was a direct competitor to Call of Duty. Battlefield 6 set a new franchise record this year for sales.
“Gamer at heart”
Respawn called Zampella “a titan and legend of this industry, a visionary leader, and a force who shaped teams and games in ways that will be felt for generations” in a statement.
It stated that “His impact extended far beyond any one game or studio.”
In a social media post, Geoff Keighley, a journalist and co-creator of The Game Awards, described Zampella as “an extraordinary person.”
Zampella described himself as a “gamer at heart,” but also as “a visionary executive with a rare ability to recognize talent and empower people to create something truly great.”
Keighley remarked, “While he created some of the most influential games of our time, I always believed that he still had the greatest game in store for him.”
Sudan’s PM Kamil Idris presents peace plan to UNSC to end war
As fighting continued in the Kordofan and North Kordofan States, Sudan’s prime minister has presented a peace plan to end the brutal conflict with the UN Security Council (UNSC). He appealed to members to stand “on the right side of history” by backing the initiative.
Idris gave a briefing to the UNSC on Monday that would include the UN, the African Union, and the Arab League’s monitoring of the conflict, as well as the withdrawal of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary from the country they controlled.
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He claimed that the proposal would require RSF forces to be stationed in camps and disarmed in order for the truce to have a “chance for success,” as well as RSF forces, who have been engaged in vicious clashes with the Sudanese military since the conflict broke out in April 2023.
Idris also pledged to hold free elections following a transition period to foster “inter-Sudanese dialogue,” and that the plans would allow RSF fighters who are not connected to war crimes to be reintegrated into society.
He asserted that winning a war is not important. It’s about bringing an end to a decades-old war against Sudan.
He urged the council’s 15 members to support the initiative, claiming that it would “mark the moment when Sudan steps back from the brink and the international community – you, you!” – positioned itself as historicalally correct”.
Fighting continued in Sudan as he addressed the UN, with the Sudanese army reporting on Monday that it had recaptured a town in North Kordofan State southwest of the city of al-Rahad.
More than 1,500 people were killed when the RSF seized the western Darfur city of El-Fasher in October. The conflict, which involved the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) commander Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and the RSF commander Mohamed Hamdan “Hemedti” Dagalo, has caused tens of thousands of deaths and displaced about 14 million people.
Quad supports the proposal for a truce
However, US Ambassador Jeffrey Bartos made a different suggestion that addressed the humanitarian crisis.
He urged the Sudanese government and the RSF to accept a different approach to a humanitarian truce, suggested by the US and key mediators Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and the United Arab Emirates (also known as the Quad).
He urged “we urge both belligerents to accept this plan without conditions right away.”
A three-month truce was demanded in a Quad statement in September, which would result in a permanent ceasefire, humanitarian assistance for the injured, and the establishment of a political transition process.
The RSF stated in early November that it complied with the Quad’s request for a humanitarian truce. The most severe clashes have occurred in Kordofan, where at least 100 civilians have been killed since early December, and more than 50 000 have been displaced.
More than 40, 000 people have died as a result of the conflict in Sudan, according to the UN, despite aid groups’ claims that the actual number could be higher. Additionally, there have been outbreaks of disease and famine in some of the country.
About 1,700 internally displaced people, the majority of them women and children, have recently arrived at a displacement camp near Kosti, in White Nile State, according to officials, who are reportedly fleeing violence as RSF advances in their towns in the violence-wracked Kordofan region.
According to Mohamed Vall, a journalist for Al Jazeera, the camp lacked adequate shelter to handle the influx.
He claimed that they lack the equipment and tents necessary. “They don’t have enough food.
“Homemade – not imposed on us.”
Idris told the UNSC that his government’s peace plan was “homemade – not imposed on us,” in an apparent reference to the Quad-backed proposal for a humanitarian truce.
Sudan’s announcement came toward the end of the meeting, according to Al Jazeera’s Gabriel Elizondo, who was a member of the UN.
In response to concerns posed by a number of UNSC members in private, Elizondo asked Idris if his proposal was realistic on the day of the meeting.
“I believe so,” The Sudanese leader reaffirmed that it is feasible, realistic, and possible.
However, UAE Ambassador Mohamed Abushahab also endorsed the Quad’s request for a humanitarian truce, stating that there was a chance to immediately provide aid to impoverished Sudanese civilians.
Aleppo clashes expose hurdles in SDF’s integration into Syrian army
In Syria’s second-largest city, Aleppo, there were no unintended clashes between the Syrian government forces and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).
As the SDF’s inclusion in the Syrian armed forces’ end-of-year deadline approaches, there are high angsts between the two parties.
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The fighting broke out on Monday afternoon during a visit by Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, but it had already come to an end when the two parties had agreed to stop firing.
According to analysts, the Syrian government and the SDF, under the leadership of military leader Mazloum Abdi (also known as Mazloum Kobani), are at a negotiating table over how to integrate the Kurdish fighters into the new state military structure, and that failing to arrive at a serious agreement could cause the two parties to resume fighting or military hostilities.
The Turkiye/Damascus conflict is strikingly incompatibily, according to Thomas McGee, the Max Weber Fellow specialising in Syria at the European University Institute in Florence.
Negotiations
A historic agreement between the SDF and the new Syrian government in Damascus, led by Ahmed al-Sharaa, and on March 10 announced the inclusion of the latter group into Syria’s new armed forces by 2025.
The People’s Defense Units (YPG), the military branch of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), make up the majority of the SDF. The PKK is labeled a “terrorist” by Turkiye, the European Union, and the United States.
A potentially explosive conflict between Damascus and the US-trained SDF was viewed as a result of the agreement. However, despite the agreement’s ability to prevent conflicts between the two parties, little has changed in the last ten months.
One side would have to concede otherwise, McGee said, so that the status quo would continue to exist.
Conflict appears to exist between the SDF’s preferred position, which is to integrate their existing battalions into Syria’s armed forces with some autonomy, and Damascus’ preferred position, which is to allow individual SDF fighters to be integrated.
These two positions were likely untenable, according to analysts, and an agreement didn’t seem likely to be in sight, according to Al Jazeera.
In the event of a compromise, Turkiye has backed Damascus and even threatened unilateral military action.
We only hope that negotiations, dialogue, and peaceful resolutions occur. We don’t want to see another instance of using military force. However, SDF should be aware that the relevant actors are unable to maintain their patience, according to Turkish Foreign Minister Fidan.
The PKK has been engaged in an armed rebellion for decades, and Turkiye has reached an agreement to disarm and dispose of its weapons. Analysts said Fidan’s strong words were unlikely to cause it to want to sabotage those discussions by engaging militarily with the SDF.
Self-administration in Kurdistan
Millions of Syrians were reunited with their nation on December 8 after more than five decades of the Assad regime’s rule ended. This was especially true in SDF-controlled areas during the Syrian civil war, when many Kurds claimed they were treated as second-class citizens under Bashar al-Assad’s rule.
However, the SDF gained autonomy in the northeast during the uprising and the ensuing nearly 14 years of civil war under the direction of the Arabs. The group is hesitant to renounce that authority, according to analysts.
According to Robin Yassin-Kassab, a Syrian writer and co-author of the book Burning Country: Syrians in Revolution and War, “they believe they have achieved something they’ve never had before, and they don’t want to give it up.”
Asaad al-Shaibani, the country’s foreign minister, claimed on Monday that the SDF “showed no willingness” to reintegrate into Damascus.
However, according to analysts, Damascus and the SDF share a deep mistrust and that the government could have acted to bolster this trust.
According to McGee, “the government has not taken advantage of some opportunities to demonstrate good faith in the implementation of the agreement.”
He added that there were other options open to the government, including acknowledging the rife Kurdish statelessness that persisted under the Assad regime or recognizing Newroz as a national holiday.
Many locals also commented on the lack of access to services like civil documentation that had been provided by the Assad regime through the Security Squares of Qamishli and Hasakah since December last year, according to McGee.
Little improvement
The new administration of Syria could have gained more confidence in its dealings with the SDF given its significant international and regional support.
In recent months, al-Sharaa made a historic appearance at the White House and appeared to have won US President Donald Trump’s approval.
In addition, the US provided training and supplies to the SDF in its fight against ISIL (ISIS). However, Tom Barrack, Trump’s special representative in Syria, has stated that the US opposes the SDF from disbanding to form an autonomous or even semi-autonomous state like Iraqi Kurdistan. The government’s “reasonable options” were also praised by Barrack for their recommendations to the SDF.
Wladimir van Wilgenburg, an analyst of Kurdish politics based in Erbil, stated on Al Jazeera that the US wants the SDF to join the new Syrian transitional government but doesn’t want the SDF to enter conflict because it will give ISIL more opportunities to manifest in vacuums.
As long as Damascus cedes some chains of command and opens its territory to other Syrian army units, the SDF “expressed openness to the SDF reorganizing its roughly 50, 000 fighters into three main divisions and smaller brigades,” according to a Reuters news agency report from Friday.
However, officials also disclosed to Reuters that more discussions were required and that a deal didn’t appear to be imminent.
However, according to analysts, the March 10 agreement between al-Sharaa and Abdi in Damascus did help to lessen clashes.
According to McGee, “It is notable that there hasn’t been a single direct conflict between the Syrian government and self-administration since the signing of the agreement,” which suggests that at least the “peace clause” has been widely accepted. However, it is obvious that “other provisions have not made much progress.”
Analysts believe that it’s unlikely that SDF fighters will join government forces before the end of 2025, but it’s still unclear how the clashes on Monday might impact the deal.