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Syrian troops reached a key area near Turkey’s border Saturday after sending further reinforcements to the region, in what a war monitor said was its largest deployment there in years.
Syrian regime forces entered the provincial borders of the town of Ras al-Ain, state news agency SANA said.
The regime forces entered the area, which was taken by Turkish forces following a weeks-long offensive against Syria’s Kurds.
Troops also deployed along a road stretching some 30 kilometers (18 miles) south of the frontier, SANA added.
Turkey and its Syrian proxies on October 9 launched a cross-border attack against Kurdish-held areas, grabbing a 120-kilometer-long (70-mile) swathe of Syrian land along the frontier.
The incursion left hundreds dead and caused 300,000 people to flee their homes, in the latest humanitarian crisis in Syria’s brutal eight-year war.
This week, Turkey and Russia struck a deal in Sochi for more Kurdish forces to withdraw from the frontier on both sides of that Turkish-held area under the supervision of Russian and Syrian forces.
A Syrian security forces member takes a selfie by a Russian military vehicle during a patrol near the Syria-Turkey border, in northern Syria, Oct. 25, 2019.
On Saturday, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said some 2,000 Syrian troops and hundreds of military vehicles were deploying around what Turkey calls its “safe zone.”
In the army’s “largest deployment” in the area in years, regime forces were being accompanied by Russia military police, the Observatory said.
Moscow has said 300 Russian military police had arrived in Syria to help ensure Kurdish forces withdraw to a line 30 kilometers (18 miles) from the border in keeping with Tuesday’s agreement.
Despite Saturday’s deployment, the Observatory said that Kurdish fighters and Ankara’s Syrian proxies traded artillery fire in the region.
There were no immediate reports of casualties.
Under the Sochi deal, Kurdish forces have until late Tuesday to withdraw from border areas at either end of the Turkish-held area, before joint Turkish-Russian start patrols in a 10-kilometer (six-mile) strip there.
Ankara eventually wants to set up a buffer zone on Syrian soil along the entire length of its 440-kilometre-long border, including to resettle some of the 3.6 million Syrian refugees currently in Turkey.
The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces has objected to some provisions of the Sochi agreement and it has so far maintained several border posts.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned Saturday that Ankara would “clear terrorists” on its border if the Kurdish forces, which his country view as an offshoot of its own banned insurgency, did not withdraw by the deadline.
Russia’s defense ministry on Saturday attacked U.S. plans to maintain and boost the American military presence in eastern Syria as “international state banditry” motivated by a desire to protect oil smugglers and not by real security concerns.
U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper said on Friday Washington would send armored vehicles and troops to the Syrian oil fields in order to prevent them from falling into the hands of Islamic State militants.
His comments came after President Donald Trump earlier this month pulled some 1,000 U.S. military personnel out of northeast Syria, a move that prompted Turkey to launch a cross-border incursion targeting the Kurdish YPG militia, a former U.S. ally against Islamic State.
Trump’s decision drew an angry backlash from Congress, including key Republicans who saw the pullout as a betrayal of the Kurds and a move that could bolster Islamic State.
In a statement, Russia’s defense ministry said Washington had no mandate under international or U.S. law to increase its military presence in Syria and said its plan was not motivated by genuine security concerns in the region.
“Therefore Washington’s current actions – capturing and maintaining military control over oil fields in eastern Syria – is, simply put, international state banditry,” it said.
U.S. troops and private security companies in eastern Syria are protecting oil smugglers who make more than $30 million a month, the statement said.
Russia, which backs Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and has helped him turn the tide of a bloody civil war, has long insisted that the U.S. military presence in Syria is illegal.
Moscow has further bolstered its position in Syria following the U.S. withdrawal from the northeast of the country, negotiating a deal this week with Turkey’s President Tayyip Erdogan to help remove the Kurdish YPG militia from within a 30 km (19 mile) strip along the Syrian-Turkish border.
Ankara views the YPG as terrorists linked to Kurdish insurgents operating in southeast Turkey.
The United States and South Korea this week held fresh negotiations over how to split the cost of the 28,000 U.S. troops stationed in South Korea. The current deal expires at the end of the year, and U.S. President Donald Trump has reportedly demanded a fivefold increase in how much Seoul pays.
Trump says South Korea and other allies are taking advantage of the U.S. He reportedly wants Seoul to pay more than five times the amount it contributes now. Analyst Shin Beom-chul said some South Koreans would see such a demand as absurd, and that it could fuel anti-U.S. sentiment.
South Korea experienced mass anti-U.S. protests as recently as the late 2000s. However, these days, it’s hard to find overt displays of anti-U.S. sentiment. Polls suggest both conservative and liberal South Koreans broadly support the U.S. alliance.
FILE – South Korean (blue headbands) and U.S. Marines take positions as amphibious assault vehicles of the South Korean Marine Corps fire smoke bombs during a U.S.-South Korea joint landing operation drill in Pohang, South Korea, March 12, 2016.
It’s not guaranteed to stay that way, though. As Trump turns up the heat on cost-sharing, some familiar pockets of protest are getting louder.
Four hours south of Seoul, local villagers have set up a permanent roadblock to protest a controversial U.S. anti-missile system. As a result, the U.S. must deliver supplies to the base via helicopter.
Activist Kim Young Jae said he was also upset about the cost-sharing dispute. He said the U.S. was asking for more than what he saw as the total cost of the U.S. military presence, and he wondered how South Koreans could accept this.
Local resident Lee Jong-hee said that even if Trump wound up getting more money from South Korea, it would drive a wedge between Washington and Seoul.
It’s an outcome that Trump seems increasingly willing to risk.
U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres urged leaders to listen to the problems of their people as demonstrations multiply in cities around the world.
“It is clear that there is a growing deficit of trust between people and political establishments, and rising threats to the social contract,” he told reporters Friday.
He cited economic problems, political demands, discrimination and corruption as some of the issues driving protests.
“People want a level playing field – including social, economic and financial systems that work for all,” Guterres said. “They want their human rights respected, and a say in the decisions that affect their lives.”
Demonstrations have erupted this year in scores of countries stretching across nearly every continent.
In Hong Kong, protestors have been on the streets since June, angered by a proposed bill that would allow extradition to mainland China. Hong Kong has been under Chinese rule since 1997. The bill was withdrawn last month, but protesters’ anger has not abated.
In the Middle East, demonstrations started sweeping Lebanon last week, after the government mismanaged the containment of massive forest fires and then, days later, announced plans to tax WhatsApp Internet-based phone calls.
Tens of thousands of protesters in the tiny country are demanding the cabinet’s resignation and early parliamentary elections. They want government corruption investigated, the minimum wage increased, and basic services provided — including clean water and 24-hour electricity.
Guterres said the Lebanese must solve their problems with dialogue and he urged maximum restraint and non-violence from both the government and the demonstrators.
In Iraq, the U.N. says at least 157 people have died and nearly 6,000 have been injured during protests that began October 1. Young people are frustrated with the lack of jobs and services, as well as government corruption and inefficiency.
“Governments have an obligation to uphold the freedoms of expression and peaceful assembly, and to safeguard civic space,” the U.N. chief said of all protests. “Security forces must act with maximum restraint, in conformity with international law.”
Guterres said he is “deeply concerned” that some protests have led to violence and loss of life.
In Latin America and the Caribbean, protests have erupted in Nicaragua, Ecuador, Haiti, Honduras, Bolivia and most recently Chile. While in Africa this year, demonstrators have raised their voices in Malawi, Zimbabwe, Guinea and Ethiopia. In Sudan, protesters succeeded in ousting the president who had been in power for 30 years.
Europeans are angry too. France, Britain and Spain have seen disruptive and sometimes violent protests, while in the United States, civil rights groups have marched for women’s rights. Supporters and opponents of President Donald Trump have also taken to the streets during the year.
Under a broad plane tree near Albania’s border with Greece, Jorgji Ilia filled a battered flask from one of the Vjosa River’s many springs.
“There is nothing else better than the river,” the retired schoolteacher said. “The Vjosa gives beauty to our village.”
The Vjosa is temperamental and fickle, changing from translucent cobalt blue to sludge brown to emerald green, from a steady flow to a raging torrent. Nothing holds it back for more than 270 kilometers (170 miles) in its course through the forest-covered slopes of Greece’s Pindus mountains to Albania’s Adriatic coast.
This is one of Europe’s last wild rivers. But for how long?
Albania’s government has set in motion plans to dam the Vjosa and its tributaries to generate much-needed electricity for one of Europe’s poorest countries, with the intent to build eight dams along the main river.
Hydropower boom
It’s part of a world hydropower boom, mainly in Southeast Asia, South America, Africa and less developed parts of Europe. In the Balkans alone, about 2,800 projects to tame rivers are underway or planned, said Olsi Nika of EcoAlbania, a nonprofit that opposes the projects.
Some tout hydropower as a reliable, cheap and renewable energy source that helps curb dependence on planet-warming fossil fuels. But some recent studies question hydropower’s value in the fight against global warming. Critics say the benefits of hydropower are overstated — and outweighed by the harm dams can do.
FILE – The sky is reflected in the Vjosa River after sunset near the village of Badelonje, Albania, June 30, 2019. Rivers are a crucial part of the global water cycle. They act like nature’s arteries.
Rivers are a crucial part of the global water cycle. They act as nature’s arteries, carrying energy and nutrients across vast landscapes, providing water for drinking, food production and industry. They’re a means of transportation for people and goods, and a haven for boaters and anglers. Rivers are home to a diversity of fish — including tiny minnows, trout and salmon — and provide shelter and food for birds and mammals.
But dams interrupt their flow, and the life in and around them. While installing fish ladders and widening tunnels to bypass dams helps some species, it hasn’t worked in places like the Amazon, said Julian Olden, a University of Washington ecologist.
Dams block the natural flow of water and sediment. They also can change the chemistry of the water and cause toxic algae to grow.
Some will lose property
Those who live along the riverbank or rely on the waterway for their livelihood fear dams could kill the Vjosa as they know it. Its fragile ecosystem will be irreversibly altered, and many residents will lose their land and homes.
In the 1990s, an Italian company was awarded a contract to build a dam along the Vjosa in southern Albania. Construction began on the Kalivac dam but never was completed, plagued with delays and financial woes.
Now, the government has awarded a new contract for the site to a Turkish company. Energy ministry officials rejected multiple interview requests to discuss their hydropower plans.
FILE – People raft on the Vjosa River near Permet, Albania, June 25, 2019. Some tout hydropower as a reliable, cheap and renewable energy source, but critics say the benefits of hydropower are overstated and are outweighed by the harm dams can do.
Many locals oppose the plans. Dozens of residents from the village of Kute joined nonprofits to file what was Albania’s first environmental lawsuit against the construction of a dam in the Pocem gorge, a short distance downriver from Kalivac. They won in 2017, but the government has appealed.
The victory, while significant, was just one battle. A week later, the government issued the Kalivac contract. EcoAlbania plans to fight that project, too.
Ecologically, there is a lot at stake.
A recent study found the Vjosa was incredibly diverse. More than 90 types of aquatic invertebrates were found in the places where dams are planned, plus hundreds of fish, amphibian and reptile species, some endangered and others endemic to the Balkans.
Thwarting fish
Dams can unravel food chains, but the most well-known problem with building dams is that they block the paths of fish trying to migrate upstream to spawn.
As pressure to build dams intensifies in less developed countries, the opposite is happening in the U.S. and Western Europe, where there’s a movement to tear down dams considered obsolete and environmentally destructive.
More than 1,600 have been dismantled in the U.S., most within the past 30 years, according to the advocacy group American Rivers. In Europe, the largest-ever removal began this year in France, where two dams are being torn down on Normandy’s Selune River.
With so few wild rivers left around the globe, the Vjosa also is a valuable resource for studying river behavior.
“Science is only at the beginning of understanding how biodiversity in river networks is structured and maintained,” said researcher Gabriel Singer of the Leibniz-Institute in Germany. “The Vjosa is a unique system.”
FILE – An abandoned bulldozer sits on the banks of the Vjosa River at the construction site of the Kalivac dam in Albania, June 23, 2019.
For Shyqyri Seiti, it’s much more personal.
The 65-year-old boatman has been transporting locals, goods and livestock across the river for about a quarter-century. The construction of the Kalivac dam would spell disaster for him. Many of the fields and some of the houses in his nearby village of Ane Vjose would be lost.
“Someone will benefit from the construction of the dam, but it will flood everyone in the area,” he said. “What if they were in our place? How would they feel to lose everything?”
But the mayor, Metat Shehu, insisted that his community “has no interest” in the matter.
“The Vjosa is polluted. The plants and creatures of Vjosa have vanished,” Shehu said. The biggest issue, he added, is that villagers are being offered too little to give up their land. He hopes the dam will bring investment to the area.
‘Irreparable’ damage
Jonus Jonuzi, a 70-year-old farmer who grew up along the river, is hopeful the Vjosa will stay wild.
“Albania needs electrical energy. But not by creating one thing and destroying another,” he said. “Why do such damage that will be irreparable for life, that future generations will blame us for what we’ve done?”
This was produced in partnership with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
Alaska’s famed Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race has joined a new global partnership billed as the World Series of long-distance sled dog racing and aimed at bringing more fans to the cold-weather sport.
The Iditarod has teamed up with Norway pet food supplement company and series creator, Aker BioMarine, and other races in Minnesota, Norway and Russia for the inaugural QRILL Pet Arctic World Series, or QPAWS, next year.
Logistics were still being worked out, but the series will use a joint point system over a still-undetermined time frame, GPS tracking and an online platform to follow the racing teams. Talks with potential broadcast outlets also are under way, organizers say.
FILE – Defending Iditarod champion Joar Lefseth Ulsom of Norway greets fans on the trail during the ceremonial start of the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, March 2, 2019, in Anchorage, Alaska.
“Together with Iditarod and the other unique events, we will make QPAWS a winning TV concept in order to build the sport for the future,” series project manager Nils Marius Otterstad said in an email to The Associated Press. He said the Iditarod was approached about the idea a year ago and agreed to move forward on it during this year’s race in March.
The other races
At 1,000 miles (1,610 kilometers), the Iditarod will be the longest race among those participating the first year, as well as serve as the finale to the series next March. The series also will feature races kicking off in late January with the John Beargrease Sled Dog Marathon in Minnesota, followed by the Femundlopet in Norway in early February by the Volga Quest in Russia a week later.
Discussions also are under way to add other races, including the 1,000-mile (1,610-kilometer) Yukon Quest International Sled Dog Race traversing Alaska and Canada’s Yukon each February. Marti Steury, the Quest’s executive director for Alaska, said Quest officials are watching to see how the first year goes.
New Iditarod CEO Rob Urbach poses for a photo in Anchorage, Alaska, Oct. 15, 2019.
Participants in any of the QPAWS races don’t have to join the circuit if they prefer to stick to just one contest, according to the Iditarod’s new CEO, Rob Urbach. Because the races are so globally distant and scheduled so closely together, he said the circuit could take place over two years.
“The complexity of our racing is unique in the world of sports, and therefore may see some different ways to do the series,” he said.
The Iditarod is already well-steeped in technology, despite the low-tech aspect of the trail, which spans two mountain ranges and the frozen Yukon River before it heads up the wind-scrubbed Bering Sea Coast to the finish line in the Gold Rush town of Nome. Sleds are equipped with GPS trackers that allow fans to follow them online and enable organizers to ensure no one is missing.
Race volunteers and contractors working out of an Anchorage hotel process live video streamed from village checkpoints, using satellite dishes. Some volunteers handle race-standing updates sent through equipment that activates a super-size hot spot in the most remote places with satellite connections.
Troubled time for Iditarod
The move to QPAWS follows a troublesome time for the Iditarod that was marked in recent years by multiple challenges, including escalating pressure from animal-welfare activists over multiple dog deaths, a 2017 dog-doping scandal and the loss of major sponsors.
Urbach, a former CEO of USA Triathlon, recently met with representatives of the Iditarod’s harshest critic, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. PETA’s executive vice president Tracy Reiman called the new racing circuit a “World Series of Cruelty” destined for failure.
“Just as Ringling Bros. circus struggled to find an audience for its abusive elephant shows, the dogsledding industry is desperately scrambling for viewers — but kind people today have no interest in watching dogs being forced to run until their paws bleed, they choke on their own vomit, and they drop dead on the trail,” Reiman said in an email.
Branding expert Conor O’Flaherty said the venture has the potential to create a bigger audience.
“What’s important for a sport like this is it not only represents the distinct community, it also represents part of cultural history that’s important to protect,” said O’Flaherty, managing director at New York-based SME Branding.
Urbach contends QPAWS will go far in raising the exposure of long-distance mushing and better educate the public about the special relationship the dogs have with their human teammates.
“You could argue that the sport needs a rejuvenation,” said Urbach, who took the helm of the Iditarod in July.
Mushers interested, cautious
With so many details about the series still unknown, many mushers are taking a wait-and-see approach. Defending champion Pete Kaiser said he plans to participate only in the Iditarod.
“My main concerns are, what do you have to do to win this thing and what are the logistics,” he said.
Three-time winner Mitch Seavey, who comes from a multigenerational family of mushers, also is watching developments closely.
“I’m in favor of the Iditarod and other races doing new things. We need to change our demographic. We need to change our fan base, or at least expand it. We need to modernize and appeal to more people,” Seavey said. “Give them a chance. That’s what I’m saying.”
Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro said on Thursday the South American nation will drop its requirement that visiting Chinese and Indian tourists or businesspeople obtain visas.
Bolsonaro, a far-right politician, came to power at the beginning of the year and has made it a policy to reduce visa requirements from a number of developed countries. But the announcement, made during an official visit to China, is the first he has made expanding that policy to the developing world.
Earlier this year, the Brazilian government ended visa requirements for tourists and businesspeople from the United States, Canada, Japan and Australia. Those countries, however, have not in return dropped their visa requirements for Brazilian citizens.
The initiative to end polio has been a long haul. It has been going on since 1988, and, while it’s close, it’s not finished yet. The good news is that the disease has been reduced by 99.9%. But as we hear from VOA’s Carol Pearson, the poliovirus is stubbornly hanging on in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Ending polio has been a long haul. The global campaign to eradicate the virus has been going on since 1988, and while it’s close, it’s not over. Sometime in 2020, Africa may be declared polio-free. But the disease is hanging on stubbornly in Pakistan and Afghanistan, and as long as it hangs on, it can spread around the globe.
The effort to end polio started more than 30 years ago. It’s been a massive program that relies on global funding, countless volunteer vaccinators, negotiations with political and religious leaders and parents. Vaccinators sometimes work in conflict zones, all to save lives and prevent lifelong disability.
Polio cases down 99.9%
In Kenya, facts about polio and the vaccine are taught in schools. Children are even taught what to tell their parents.
The international effort has seen the polio cases drop by 99.9%. Nigeria had its last case more than three years ago. It’s possible that next year Nigeria, and all of Africa, will be declared polio free.
Another victory: There used to be three strains of the virus. As of this week, there is now only one.
Afghan women wearing burqas from a polio immunization team walk together during a vaccination campaign in Kandahar, Oct. 15, 2019. Polio immunization is compulsory in Afghanistan, but distrust of vaccines is rife.
Pakistan-Afghanistan border
It is here, at the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan where the wild polio virus spreads. People are constantly crossing from one country to another, mostly to visit family members. Both countries saw cases increase in 2019 from the previous year. Oliver Rosenbauer is a spokesman for the World Health Organization. He spoke to VOA by Skype.
“The reality is that both countries are essentially one epidemiological block, and there is so much population movement. The same virus family is being ping-ponged back and forth across the border with population movements,” he said.
A second challenge concerns restrictions the Taliban have placed on vaccinators. The vaccine can only be given at immunization centers. Door-to-door immunizations are now banned.
WATCH: Another Partial Victory in Ending Polio
Another Partial Victory in Ending Polio video player.
Program’s success
Still another challenge is a result of the program’s success. There are so very few cases in the two countries, the global program now has to address other urgent needs like access to clean water and better nutrition.
Carol Pandak, head of the PolioPlus program at Rotary International, says the partners in the Global Polio Eradication Initiative have always been able to adapt.
“UNICEF, in particular, has a strategy for both Afghanistan and Pakistan to provide these complimentary services, and Rotary, for many years now, has been working with Coca Cola in Pakistan, providing water filtration systems in some of these highest risk areas,” she said.
Those involved in the Global Polio Eradication Initiative have traveled a road that is longer and harder than was expected in 1988, when the program began. It’s far from over, but Rotary International, UNICEF, the World Health Organization, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, along with countless local and federal governments, and the vaccinators themselves have not given up.
In the Nigerian city pf Maiduguri, the popular incense kaaji is a cherished, local tradition. Kaaji, made from generations-old recipes, is used during important ceremonies such as weddings to dispel evil spirits. But with the advance of technology and social media, the market for the incense is growing. Chika Oduah reports from Maiduguri.
For all of the bad press they get, vultures are an incredibly important part of any ecosystem. They eat dead animals and are a powerful part of keeping the environment clean and disease free. But in places like Pakistan they are struggling. Saman Khan reports on efforts to save these carrion eaters from extinction.
The World Health Organization says Zambia has reported its first local case of polio since 1995, in a 2-year-old boy paralyzed by a virus derived from the vaccine.
In a report this week, WHO said the case was detected on the border with Congo, which has reported 37 cases of polio traced to the vaccine this year. The U.N. health agency said there is no established link between the Zambia case and the ongoing Congo outbreak but said increased surveillance and vaccination efforts are needed, warning that “there is a potential for international spread.”
In rare cases, the live virus in oral polio vaccine can mutate into a form capable of sparking new outbreaks.
Nine African countries are currently battling polio epidemics linked to the vaccine as WHO and partners struggle to keep their efforts to eradicate polio on track. Elsewhere, cases have been reported in China, Myanmar and the Philippines.
On Thursday, WHO and partners are expected to announce they have rid the world of type 3 polio virus.
There are three types of polio viruses. Type 2 was eliminated years ago. That now leaves only type 1. But that refers only to polio viruses in the wild. Type 2 viruses continue to cause problems since they are still contained in the oral polio vaccine and occasionally evolve into new strains responsible for some vaccine-derived outbreaks.
The global effort to eradicate polio was launched in 1988 and originally aimed to wipe out the potentially fatal disease by 2000. While cases have dropped dramatically, the virus remains stubbornly entrenched in parts of Pakistan and neighboring Afghanistan. This year there have been 72 cases of polio in Pakistan after only eight in 2018.
In meeting notes from an expert polio oversight board in September, WHO’s Michel Zaffran said the status of eradication was “of great concern,” noting the Taliban’s ban on house-to-house vaccination in Afghanistan. Officials described the program in Pakistan as a “failing trajectory.”
