History of the Middle East brought major protests, uprisings, and revolutions to several Middle Eastern countries, followed by prolonged civil wars in Syria, Iraq, Yemen, and Libya. In 2014, a terrorist group and self-proclaimed caliphate calling itself the Islamic State made rapid territorial gains in western Iraq and eastern Syria, prompting international military intervention. At its peak, the group controlled an area containing an estimated 2.8 to 8 million people, 98% of which was lost by December 2017. By country: General: Works cited History of the Middle East Home to the Cradle of Civilization, the Middle East (usually interchangeable with the Near East) has seen
Country-of-origin labeling August 1, 2008 (), August 31, 2008 (), and May 24, 2013 (). On December 18, 2015 Congress repealed the COOL law, as a part of the omnibus budget bill because of a series of WTO rulings that prohibited labels based on country of origin. "Under §304 of the Tariff Act of 1930 as amended (), every imported item must be conspicuously and indelibly marked in English to indicate to the "ultimate purchaser" its country of origin." According to the U.S. Customs, generally defined the "ultimate purchaser" is the last U.S. person who will receive the goods in the form