Hasan Muhammed was among more than 3 million Syrian refugees who fled their homes to escape war and seek safety in Turkey. He recently died in the Turkish area of Mardin amid clashes between the Turkish military and Kurdish forces.

Embattled Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam on Tuesday ruled out making any concessions to pro-democracy protesters in the face of escalating violence, which police said was now “life threatening” citing the detonation of a small bomb. 

“I have said on many occasions that violence will not give us the solution. Violence would only breed more violence,” Lam told a news conference.

“For concessions to be made simply because of escalating violence will only make the situation worse. On the other hand, we should consider every means to end the violence.”

Protesters have five main demands, which include universal suffrage and an independent inquiry into what they say has been excessive force by police in dealing with the demonstrations.

Hong Kong has been rocked by four months of unrest, with massive marches and at times violent protests involving tear gas, petrol bombs and live rounds, over concerns Beijing is tightening its grip on the city and eroding democratic rights.

Beijing rejects the charge and accuses Western countries, like the United States and Britain, of stirring up trouble.

The unrest poses the biggest popular challenge to Chinese President Xi Jinping since he came to power in 2012. He has warned that any attempt to divide China would be crushed. The violence has escalated since the government brought in colonial-era emergency powers on Oct. 4.

On Sunday night, protesters and police clashed in running skirmishes in shopping malls and on the streets. Black-clad activists threw 20 petrol bombs at one police station.

A crude explosive device, which police said was similar to those used in “terrorist attacks”, was remotely detonated as a police car drove past and officers cleared roadblocks. A police officer also had his neck slashed by a protester.

An 18-year-old school student has been charged with attacking the officer with a box cutter intent on causing grievous bodily harm.

Police have arrested more than 2,300 people since June when the unrest escalated, scores of them teenagers, some as young as 12, according to Lam.

The senior U.S. defense official for Asia said the United States had some concerns about some of the tactics used by demonstrators but was also concerned about the heavier hand Beijing and Hong Kong authorities had used against the protests.

Randall Schriver, the assistant secretary of defense for Indo-Pacific Security Affairs, said the United States was “100%” behind those in Hong Kong who were speaking out for respect for fundamental rights guaranteed in the 1984 Sino-British Joint Declaration.

“The general trend is concerning, that we’re seeing less autonomy, more influence from Beijing, heavier hand from the authorities there, and in general an erosion of the things that were promised the people of Hong Kong.”

‘Police state’

Hong Kong was guaranteed 50 years of freedoms under the “one country, two systems” formula when Britain returned its former colony to China in 1997.

A failed attempt to create a China extradition bill, which could have seen residents sent for trial in Communist Party-controlled courts, was seen as the latest attempt to reduce those freedoms, and ignited the unrest.

The protests have at times attracted millions onto the streets as the movement widened to include residents angry at growing inequality in Hong Kong, which boasts some of the world’s most expensive real estate.

Lam said she would focus on land and housing initiatives in her annual Policy Address on Wednesday, seeking to restore confidence in the city’s future.

Hong Kong is facing its first recession in a decade, with tourism and retail hit hard by the unrest.

High street retail rents have experienced the sharpest quarterly decline since the first quarter of 1998 at the time of the Asian financial crisis, says commercial real estate investment firm CBRE.

Protesters, residents and some lawmakers have accused police of excessive force.

Police have fire more than 3,000 rounds of tear gas, more than 600 rounds of rubber bullets and 3 live rounds. Two people have been shot and wounded and thousands injured.

U.S. Senator Josh Hawley, visiting Hong Kong on Sunday, warned the city was in danger of sliding into a “police state.” Lam rejected such criticism on Tuesday.

“The Hong Kong police force is a highly professional and civilized force,” she said. “I would challenge every politician to ask themselves if the large extent of violence acts and all those petrol bombs and arson and really deadly attacks on policeman happened in their own country, what would they do?” 

According to media, Hawley responded on Tuesday saying: “I chose the words ‘police state’ purposely … because that is exactly what Hong Kong is becoming. I saw it myself. If Carrie Lam wants to demonstrate otherwise, here’s an idea: resign.”

Mexico’s Senate will vote for a bill to fully legalize marijuana in the next few days, a key lawmaker told Reuters, marking a major step toward changing the country’s approach to the drug by removing it as a source of income for violent drug gangs.

President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, a leftist critic of Mexico’s long-standing drug war, has since last year signaled his openness to the decriminalization of marijuana as part of a broader shift on security policy.

Sen. Ricardo Monreal, the leader of Lopez Obrador’s MORENA party in the upper chamber of Congress, said in an interview late Monday that a vote on the proposal would take place later
this week or next week.

“The end of the prohibitionist policy is good for the country,” he said, adding that the bill would regulate personal use and sale of marijuana as well as research into the plant. It also contemplates creation of cooperatives that would grow marijuana, plus a new regulatory agency.

If approved by the Senate, the proposal would proceed to the lower house for a vote. MORENA and its allies hold majorities in both chambers.

Late last year, the Supreme Court said lawmakers had until Oct. 24 to legalize marijuana, after the court ruled in several cases that prohibition of the recreational use of the drug violated the constitution.

Under Mexican law, if the Supreme Court issues the same decision five times, the rulings set a precedent and the court can then order the establishment of a regulatory framework as
well as further legal action.

While the leader of MORENA in the lower house, Mario Delgado, has proposed that the government tightly administer a future marijuana market, Monreal was noncommittal. 

“There are some [proposals] that would establish a type of state-run monopoly … but we want to leave it more open,” he said.

The 59-year-old lawyer also left open the possibility that the legislation could be put on hold if a public referendum on legalizing marijuana sought by Lopez Obrador were to be authorized first.

“We will know in the next few days if we’re able to build a [legislative] consensus or if we wait for the referendum,” said Monreal.

The legislative leader emphasized that “many companies” have approached him and expressed their interest in the proposal, following similar initiatives in several U.S. states, including California, as well as Canada.

Britain’s Prince William and his wife Kate kicked off a five-day tour of Pakistan on Tuesday amid much fanfare and tight security.

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge met with President Arif Alvi and Prime Minister Imran Khan. They were scheduled to attend a cultural event later in the day.

Authorities deployed more than 1,000 police and paramilitary forces to ensure the royal entourage’s protection, setting up checkpoints and roadblocks in parts of the capital, Islamabad.

Alvi and his wife welcomed the couple, releasing a statement saying the president “commended” them for raising “awareness about mental health, climate change, and poverty alleviation.”

Prince William thanked the president for his warm welcome and the hospitality extended to him and his entourage, the statement said.

The royals were accompanied by British Ambassador Thomas Drew, the Duke’s private secretary, Simon Case, and Christian Jones, communications secretary to the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, according to a government statement.

The royal couple’s first engagements were visiting a school for girls in the capital followed by a tour of the nearby national park at Margalla Hills.

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, who are strong advocates of girls’ education, were greeted by teachers and children on their arrival at the Model College for Girls.

Wearing a royal blue traditional kurta, a loose collarless shirt, and trousers, Kate sat with children in a classroom as Prince William shook hands with a teacher.
 
According to the United Nations’ annual Human Development report, most Pakistani girls will drop out after primary school and on average go to school for seven years. Barely 27% of girls in Pakistan attend secondary school, the report said, compared to nearly 50% among boys.

Taliban militants in Pakistan violently oppose girls’ education and infamously shot Malala Yousafzai, now a leading girls’ education activist who attends Oxford University in Britain. Militants in recent years have damaged girls’ schools in the northwest, including the Swat Valley, which is home to Yousafzai.

The royal couple arrived in Islamabad Monday night.
 
William’s mother, Princess Diana, visited Pakistan in the 1990s to participate in a fund-raising event for a cancer hospital built by Khan, who took office last year. Diana died in a car accident in 1997 and many Pakistanis still remember her for her charity work.

Khan’s office later said the prime minister’s meeting with the royal couple was held in a “warm and cordial atmosphere.”

It said Khan “recalled the love and affection among the people of Pakistan for Princess Diana, because of her compassion as well as commitment to support charitable causes.”
 
Britain’s Press Association reported that Pakistan’s cricket star-turned-politician Khan during his meeting with the royal couple recalled a conversation with William some 22 years ago about his ambitions of becoming prime minister.
                   
On Tuesday, Pakistan Information Minister Firdous Ashiq Awan took to Twitter to note the visit is taking place months after British Airways resumed flights to Pakistan, over a decade after they were suspended in the wake of a truck bombing of a hotel in the capital, which killed dozens.

Pakistan has witnessed scores of attacks in recent years, though the security situation has improved recently.

While the royal couple was in Islamabad, a roadside bomb went off near a police vehicle in the southwestern city of Quetta, killing a police officer and wounding 10 people. The couple had no plan to visit that region.

For security reasons, authorities shared limited details about William and Kate’s itinerary, which is expected to include a visit to the country’s scenic northern provinces and the historic eastern city of Lahore.

New disruptions to Catalonia’s transportation network on Tuesday followed a night of clashes between activists and police over the conviction of separatist leaders, as Spanish authorities announced an investigation into the group organizing the protests.

Authorities said that three people were arrested and more than 170 others injured, including about 40 police officers and a person who lost an eye, during the clashes well into the early hours of Tuesday between angry protesters and riot police at Barcelona’s international airport and elsewhere across the northeastern Spanish region.

Thousands of passengers were stranded at the airport, with many forced to walk with their luggage on highways and across fields.

The protesters were responding to an online campaign by Tsunami Democratic, a loose, leaderless grassroots group that uses encrypted messaging apps to call for peaceful disobedience.
 
Spain’s caretaker interior minister, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, said that authorities were investigating the group.

Further protests by separatist groups were scheduled for Tuesday evening.

Supreme Court ruling

In a landmark ruling Monday, Spain’s Supreme Court acquitted the Catalan politicians and activists from the more serious crime of rebellion for pushing ahead with a banned referendum on Oct. 1, 2017, and declaring independence based on its results. But judges found nine of them guilty of sedition and handed down prison terms of nine to 13 years. Four of them were additionally convicted of misuse of public funds and three were fined for disobedience.

The court also barred all of them from holding public office. That has an immediate impact in the upcoming Nov. 10 election because six of them were planning to run as candidates to Spain’s parliament.

The verdict is likely to be a central issue in the run up to the vote but “it is unlikely to substantially alter the electoral outlook unless the situation worsens significantly in the region,” said Antonio Barroso, a political risk analyst with the London-based Teneo consulting firm.
 
He said Catalan separatist politicians wanted to use the backlash against the ruling to woo pro-independence voters to the polls.

Others have feared that swelling support for Catalan separatism because of the convictions could make the next political term even more key to either breaking the deadlock with separatists or making it a chronicle problem. Spain’s caretaker prime minister and Socialist leader Pedro Sanchez, who won the April election but failed to get support for a minority government, is hoping to remain in office.

But even from the early hours after the 493-page Supreme Court ruling was issued, very different views emerged from Madrid and Catalonia. While Sanchez called for beginning a “new phase” and urged Catalan separatists to abide by the law, the ruling invigorated the wealthy region’s independence movement, with many of its leaders making new calls to work toward effective secession or repeating the slogan “we will do it again.”

Call for dialogue

Convicted activist Jordi Cuixart told the Associated Press by email via his lawyer that he and the others sentenced by the Supreme Court will take their case to the European Court of Human Rights.

“We have the moral obligation to denounce (Spain’s) authoritarian drift and appeal to European citizens to defend human rights,” Cuixart said Tuesday.
 
The Catalan regional president, Quim Torra, said secessionists won’t give up their fight.

“A referendum is the most positive solution for solving this situation,” he told foreign reporters in Barcelona on Tuesday.
 
The caretaker Spanish foreign minister, Josep Borrell, soon due to become the European Union’s top diplomat, said the sentence wasn’t resolving the underlying political problems that only dialogue “in the framework of the Constitution” could.
 
Spain’s constitutional law says that the country is indivisible.

“Yesterday, today and tomorrow it is and remains a political problem that has to be solved,” Borrell told foreign reporters, adding that Catalan separatists shouldn’t ignore Catalans like him who are against independence.
 
“When one excludes part of the population because they don’t think like one, and only considers as the people those who think like one, this is a totalitarian attitude,” he said.

Additional protests
 
More protests took place during Tuesday, with on and off blockades of regional roads and railway lines. A three-day student strike begins Wednesday.

Spain’s airport operator, AENA, said that more than 1,000 flights were scheduled to operate normally in Barcelona on Tuesday, with around 20 flights canceled compared to 110 on Monday.

The regional emergency service, SEM, said that 131 people had been treated overnight for injuries, most of them at the airport. Two dozen people were taken to hospitals. One lost sight in an eye, private Spanish news agency Europa Press reported.
 

CEYLANPINAR, TURKEY — Russia moved to fill the void left by the United States in northern Syria, deploying troops Tuesday to keep apart advancing Syrian government and Turkish forces. At the same time, tensions grew within NATO as Turkey defied growing condemnation from its Western allies of its invasion across the border.

Now in its seventh day, Turkey’s offensive against the Kurds has upended alliances and is re-drawing the map of northern Syria for yet another time in Syria’s 8-year-old war.

U.S. rival Russia was quickly moving to entrench its de facto power broker role after President Donald Trump ordered the pullout of American forces in northeast Syria. The American move effectively abandoned the Kurdish fighters allied with the U.S. and opened the door for the Turkish invasion aimed at crushing them.

Desperate for a new protector, the Kurdish administration struck a deal with the Russian-backed government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, whose forces began on Sunday deploying in Kurdish-administered areas to shield them against Turkey.

A video posted online by Russian journalists traveling with the soldiers showed what appeared to be an abandoned outpost where American troops had been stationed earlier. Syrian troops waved flags in the city streets.

Outside Manbij, Russian troops began patrolling front lines between Turkish and Syrian army positions to keep them separated, Russia’s Defense Ministry said.

“No one is interested” in potential fighting between Syrian government troops and Turkish forces, Russia’s envoy for Syria Alexander Lavrentyev told Russian state news agencies. Russia “is not going to allow it,” he said.

Lavrentyev confirmed that Kurdish leaders and representatives of the Syrian government held talks at a Russian military base last week but said that he was not aware of any results.

Still, fighting flared near Manbij, a town west of the Euphrates River that Turkey has long wanted to wrest from Kurdish control. A mortar attack from Manbij hit Turkish forces, killing one soldier and wounding eight others, Turkey’s Defense Ministry said. The Turkish military retaliated with an assault that “neutralized” an estimated 15 Syrian Kurdish fighters, the ministry added.

Further east along the border, Kurdish fighters battled trying to retake the town of Ras al-Ayn, which was captured by Turkish forces days earlier. An Associated Press journalist reported heavy Turkish bombardment of targets in the countryside around Ras al-Ayn early Tuesday.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a war monitoring group, reported that Syrian Kurdish fighters had retaken the town. But it appeared it was still being contested, and Turkish media said the military was responding to attempts by the Kurdish fighters to infiltrate Ras al-Ayn.

Russia and Assad’s stride into place alongside the once U.S.-allied Kurds came as the United States tried to restrain the invasion by fellow NATO member Turkey.

Targeting Turkey’s economy, Trump on Monday announced sanctions aimed at restraining the Turks’ assault. The United States also called on Turkey to stop the offensive and declare a cease-fire, while European Union countries moved to broaden an arms sale embargo against their easternmost ally.

Washington said Trump was sending Vice President Mike Pence and national security adviser Robert O’Brien to Ankara as soon as possible in an attempt to begin negotiations over a stop to the fighting. Pence said Trump spoke directly to Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who promised not to attack the border town of Kobani, which in 2015 witnessed the Islamic State group’s first defeat in a battle by U.S.-backed Kurdish fighters.

Erdogan defended Turkey’s offensive in an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal, calling on the international community to support Turkey’s effort to create what it calls a resettlement “safe zone” for refugees in northeast Syria, or “begin admitting refugees.”

“Turkey reached its limit,” Erdogan wrote in reference to 3.6 million Syrian refugees in his country.  He said Turkey’s warnings that it would not be able to stop refugee floods into the West without international support “fell on deaf ears.”

Turkey invaded northern Syria aiming to create a zone of control the entire length of the border and drive out the Kurdish fighters, which it considers terrorists because of their links to Kurdish insurgents within Turkey.

Instead, after the Kurds’ deal with Damascus, a new de facto carving up of the border appeared to be taking shape.

Turkish forces control a truncated zone roughly in the center of the border about 100 kilometers (60 miles) long between the towns of Tel Abyad and Ras al-Ayn.

Syrian government troops were moving into or beefing up their presence in the regions on either side of that enclave, including Manbij west of it, and the cities of Qamishli and Hassakeh in the far northeastern corner of Syria.

With their deal with Damascus, the Kurds risk losing the virtual self-rule they have enjoyed across the northeast — the heartland of their minority community — ever since Assad had to pull his troops out of the area seven years ago to fight rebels elsewhere. They are hoping, perhaps with Russian mediation, to reach a final deal that would preserve some degree of that autonomy.

But they gain protection: So far, Turkey appears reluctant to clash with Syrian forces wherever they move in.

The main Kurdish-led force in Syria said it has lost 23 fighters in clashes with advancing Turkish-led forces over the past day, mainly at Ras al-Ayn and Tal Abyad. That raises the total of casualties announced by the group to 68 dead.

Separately, two people were killed in a new mortar and rocket attack by Syrian Kurdish fighters on a Turkish town bordering Syria, local officials said. The attack on the town of Kiziltepe, Mardin province, also wounded 12 other civilians, the governor’s office said.

Turkish officials say 18 civilians — excluding Tuesday’s victims — have been killed in a barrage of mortar and rocket shells fired on towns located on the Turkish border provinces of Mardin, Sanliurfa, Sirnak and Gaziantep, since the operation began on Oct. 9.

The U.N. humanitarian aid coordinator said at least 160,000 civilians in northeastern Syria have been displaced amid the Turkish operations, mostly from Ras al-Ayn and Tal Abyad, where people are fleeing south.

Separately, spokesman Rupert Colville of the U.N. human rights office said it was “not seeing large numbers of civilian casualties” so far — “a few each day” — but people were being killed on both sides of the Syria-Turkey border.

He cautioned: “Obviously we’re not necessarily hearing all cases, either.”
 

The German government recently unveiled a plan to tax carbon emissions from cars and buildings. It’s a big move in a country known for its fast cars, but whose young people are demanding climate friendly transportation. One way Germany hopes to reduce its carbon footprint – and appease the young climate activists – is by rolling out new and innovative trains.  Michael Scaturro has more from Berlin.

 Lee Juhyun contributed to this report.

U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw U.S. forces from Syria amid a Turkish onslaught is being watched closely in South Korea, where Trump has long hinted at a major military realignment.

Trump has been accused of abandoning the Kurds, who helped the United States fight against Islamic State, by removing 1,000 U.S. troops from northern Syria as Turkey carried out a long-planned offensive against Kurdish fighters.

Trump insists he is only trying to fulfill a campaign promise to remove U.S. troops from overseas entanglements, framing the Syria decision as a pushback against U.S. officials and pundits who support what he calls “endless wars.”

That kind of talk is especially relevant for South Korea, which has been in a technical state of war with North Korea since the 1950s and hosts over 28,000 U.S. troops.

Trump has criticized the U.S.-South Korea alliance for decades, but the relationship has grown more tense as Trump’s negotiators engage in talks aimed at getting Seoul to pay substantially more for the cost of the U.S. military presence in South Korea.

Though there are significant differences in the situations facing the Kurds and the South Koreans, some in Seoul fear Trump’s Syria decision could offer a preview of what he intends to eventually do in Korea.

“It certainly sends a message to South Korea regarding cost-sharing talks: past loyalty means nothing,” said Jeffrey Robertson, a professor who specializes in South Korean diplomacy at Seoul’s Yonsei University.

Unprecedented situation

An editorial last week in the Chosun Ilbo, South Korea’s largest newspaper, drew an explicit link between Trump’s “betrayal” of the Kurds and his intentions toward South Korea.

“The Kurds mobilized 150,000 troops to fight against Islamic State for the U.S., and more than 10,000 of its soldiers died. The reward for its sacrifice was President Trump’s betrayal. The main reason for the betrayal was money,” the editorial read.

Trump, the editorial continued, also judges the U.S.-South Korea alliance based on money, noting the U.S. president has threatened on several occasions to withdraw U.S. troops from Korea.

If Trump’s behavior emboldens North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, South Korea could face an “unprecedented” threat, the conservative paper warned.

Some of Trump’s conservative allies in Washington are making the same argument.

“By abandoning the Kurds we have sent the most dangerous signal possible – America is an unreliable ally and it’s just a matter of time before China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea act out in dangerous ways,” Republican Senator Lindsey Graham said in a tweet.

By abandoning the Kurds we have sent the most dangerous signal possible – America is an unreliable ally and it’s just a matter of time before China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea act out in dangerous ways.

— Lindsey Graham (@LindseyGrahamSC)

Ecuadorean President Lenin Moreno on Monday officially scrapped his own law to cut expensive fuel subsidies after days of violent protests against the IMF-backed measure, returning fuel prices to prior levels until a new measure can be found.

The signing of the decree is a blow to Moreno, and leaves big questions about the oil-producing nation’s fiscal situation.

But it represents a win for the country’s indigenous communities, who led the protests, bringing chaos to the capital and crippling the oil sector.

The clashes marked the latest in a series of political convulsions sparked by IMF-backed reform plans in Latin America, where increased polarization between the right and left is causing widespread friction amid efforts to overhaul hidebound economies.

Moreno’s law eliminated four-decade-old fuel subsidies and was estimated to have freed up nearly $1.5 billion per year in the government budget, helping to shrink the fiscal deficit as required under a deal Moreno signed with the International Monetary Fund.

But the measure was hugely unpopular and sparked days of protests led by indigenous groups that turned increasingly violent despite a military-enforced curfew.

Moreno gave in to the chief demand of demonstrators late on Sunday, tweeting on Monday that: “We have opted for peace.”

Then, later on Monday, he signed the decree officially reverting his previous measure. Moreno, who took office in 2017 after campaigning as the leftist successor to former President Rafael Correa, said fuel prices would revert to their earlier levels at midnight.

He added that the government would seek to define a new plan to tackle the fuel subsidies that does not benefit the wealthy or smugglers, with prices remaining at prior levels until the new legislation is ready.

“While Moreno has survived for now, he is not yet out of the woods. Once again, Ecuador’s indigenous sector has proven its strength and now will be emboldened to look for concessions from the government in other areas,” said Eileen Gavin, senior Latin America analyst at Verisk Maplecroft.

“This inevitably means a slower fiscal adjustment between now and the 2021 election,” Gavin added in an email.

Nonetheless, for the time being, Moreno’s actions brought a much-needed measure of calm to the streets of the capital Quito, where residents on Monday began to restore order and clear away the makeshift blockades that sprang up in recent days.

“We have freed the country,” indigenous leader Jaime Vargas said to cheers from supporters at a press conference. “Enough of the pillaging of the Ecuadorean people.”

The protests had grown increasingly chaotic in recent days after the government launched a crackdown against what it labeled as extremists whom it said had infiltrated protests.

Authorities reported that the office of the comptroller, a local TV station and military vehicles were set on fire.

Indigenous protesters who streamed into Quito from Andean and Amazonian provinces to join the protests piled into buses that departed the city on Monday.

“We’re going back to our territories,” said Inti Killa, an indigenous man from the Amazonian region of Napo. “We’ve shown that unity and conviction of the people is a volcano that nobody can stop.”

One of the government’s more immediate priorities will be to kick-start oil sector operations, which were suspended in some regions after protesters broke into plants.

“We need to re-establish oil production,” said Energy Minister Carlos Perez. He added that Ecuador stopped producing some 2 million barrels of oil during the protests, costing the government more than $100 million in lost income. “I expect things to be back to normal in about 15 days,” Perez said.

Along Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue, tens of thousands of New Yorkers and tourists celebrated the world’s largest display of Italian-American pageantry on Columbus Day, while New Mexico and a growing list of states and municipalities ditched the holiday altogether for the first time.

The Italian navigator namesake who sailed to the modern-day Americas in 1492, Christopher Columbus has long been considered by

Two Pacific Northwest tribes on Monday demanded the removal of three major hydroelectric dams on the Columbia River to save migrating salmon and starving orcas and restore fishing sites that were guaranteed to the tribes in a treaty more than 150 years ago.

The Yakama and Lummi nations made the demand of the U.S. government on Indigenous Peoples Day, a designation that’s part of a trend to move away from a holiday honoring Christopher Columbus.

For decades, people have debated whether to remove four big dams on the Lower Snake River, a tributary of the Columbia, but breaching the Columbia dams, which are a much more significant source of power, has never been seriously discussed.
 
Proposals to merely curtail operations, let alone remove the structures, are controversial, and the prospects of the Columbia dams being demolished any time soon appear nonexistent.

Tribal leaders said at a news conference along the Columbia River that the Treaty of 1855, in which 14 tribes and bands ceded 11.5 million acres to the United States, was based on the inaccurate belief that the U.S. had a right to take the land.

Under the treaty, the Yakama Tribe retained the right to fish at all their traditional sites. But construction of the massive concrete dams decades later along the lower Columbia River to generate power for the booming region destroyed critical fishing spots and made it impossible for salmon to complete their migration.

After a song of prayer, Yakama Nation Chairman JoDe Goudy spoke Monday at the site of now-vanished Celilo Falls near The Dalles, Oregon, and said the placid Columbia River behind him looked “like a lake where we once saw a free-flowing river.”
 
“We have a choice and it’s one or the other: dams or salmon,” he said. “Our ancestors tell us to look as far into the future as we can. Will we be the generation that forgot those who are coming behind us, those yet unborn?”

Celilo Falls was a traditional salmon-fishing site for the Yakama for centuries, but it was swallowed by the river in 1957 after the construction of The Dalles Dam.

Support for dams

The three dams operated by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers are a critical part of a complex hydroelectric network strung along the Columbia and Snake rivers in Oregon, Washington and Idaho that powers the entire region.

Government officials were unavailable for further comment Monday due to the holiday.

Supporters of dams along the Columbia and Snake rivers note the vast amount of clean energy they produce and their usefulness for irrigation and transportation. For example, they allow farmers to ship about half of U.S. wheat exports by barge instead of by truck or rail. According to the Pacific Northwest Waterways Association, about 40,000 local jobs are dependent on shipping on the Columbia and Snake rivers.

Salmon, orcas 

The Lummi Nation is in northwestern Washington state, far from the Columbia River, but it has also been touched by construction of the dams, said Jeremiah Julius, Lummi Nation chairman.

Chinook salmon are the preferred prey of endangered orcas but just 73 resident orcas remain in the Pacific Northwest — the lowest number in three decades — because of a lack of chinook, as well as toxic contamination and vessel noise. The orcas were hunted for food for generations by the Lummi Nation in the Salish Sea, he said.

“We are in a constant battle … to leave future generations a lifeway promised our ancestors 164 years ago,” he said. “Our people understand that the salmon, like the orca, are the miner’s canary for the health of the Salish Sea and for all its children.

“I choose salmon,” he added. “I will always choose salmon.”

Fish ladders built into the dams allow for the passage of migrating salmon, and migrating fish are hand-counted as they pass through. But the number of salmon making the arduous journey to the Pacific Ocean and back to their natal streams has declined steeply in recent decades.

The Columbia River Basin once produced between 10 million and 16 million salmon a year. Now there are about 1 million a year.

The Bonneville Dam was constructed in the mid-1930s and generates enough electricity to power about 900,000 homes — roughly the size of Portland, Oregon. The Dalles Dam followed in the 1950s and John Day Dam was completed in 1972.

Environmental groups applauded the tribes’ demand and said efforts to save salmon without removing the dams aren’t working because without the free flow of the Columbia, the entire river ecosystem is out of balance.

“The stagnant reservoirs behind the dams create dangerously hot water, and climate change is pushing the river over the edge. Year after year, the river gets hotter,” said Brett VandenHeuvel, executive director for the nonprofit group Columbia Riverkeeper. “The system is broken, but we can fix it.”
 

Brandishing red flares and shouting “glory to Ukraine,” thousands of far-right and nationalist activists marched Monday through Kyiv, protesting President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s leadership and his long-awaited peace plan for eastern Ukraine.

Zelenskiy sought to prove his patriotic credentials by visiting Ukrainian troops on the front line of the five-year conflict with Moscow-backed separatists, which has killed at least 13,000 people. Earlier Monday, he held a moment of silence at a monument to its Ukrainian victims.

Police deployed around key sites in the Ukrainian capital as more than 10,000 people marched under a blanket of yellow-and-blue Ukrainian flags, in one of several nationalist gatherings Monday to mark Defense of the Homeland Day. Zelenskiy urged participants to avoid violence and warned of potential “provocations” from those who want to stoke chaos.

Black-clad men holding up red flares like torches led the procession, some in white masks to conceal their identity.
 
“Glory to Ukraine!” they chanted. “No capitulation!”

The crowd included uniformed veterans of the conflict who are urging Zelenskiy not to allow a troop withdrawal, local elections or amnesty for separatists. All are elements of a long-stalled peace plan that the Ukrainian president is trying to revive.

“What price is Zelenskiy ready to pay? He’s ready to sell all of us out to make peace with Russia. And we will not be silent,” said 46-year-old veteran Taras Volochko.

“Withdrawing troops is a catastrophe for the country. Russia is using the situation to seize the territories we withdraw from,” Andriy Biletsky, head of the far-right group National Corps, told The Associated Press.
 
Zelenskiy, a comedian who rose to the presidency this year on promises to end the conflict, thanked Ukrainian troops for defending the country from outside influence — and urged them to “come back alive.”

“Ukraine is an independent, sovereign, unified and democratic state,” he told them, concluding his speech with his own “Glory to Ukraine!”

Ukraine, Russia and the separatists signed a preliminary agreement earlier this month to pull back heavy weaponry and to hold an election in the area at a later date. The pullback has not occurred because of shelling from both sides and threats from Ukrainian hardliners to hamper the disengagement.

Zelenskiy is sticking to the accord, insisting that it’s the only way for his country to move forward.

He still enjoys the support of most Ukrainians, who argue he needs to be given time to fulfil his promises to revive the economy. Ukrainians have also shrugged off his embarrassing phone call with U.S. President Donald Trump that unleashed an impeachment inquiry in the United States.

“I love my country but I’m not like those nationalists, I don’t have time for protests. And what good does that bring?” asked Nadiya Kuzmenko, 68, a former arms factory worker who cleans houses to supplement her $125 monthly pension.

The marchers in Kyiv rallied at the Maidan square, a symbol of Ukrainian uprisings against Russian influence. Thousands continued on to the presidential headquarters overlooking the capital. Kyiv authorities said the main march ended peacefully.

A crowd in front of the president’s administration accused Zelenskiy of being a “servant of the Kremlin” who is trying to “strike a deal with the devil.”

Critics call the accord a “capitulation” to Russia and fear it will lead to Russia having the upper hand in deciding the future for the conflict-torn region. “Peace after Victory” read one huge banner.

The head of one of the protesting groups, Veterans’ Brotherhood, said Zelenskiy held a closed-door meeting with nationalist groups last week to try to explain his position and calm tensions, but claimed the president said he has “no plan.”

While the nationalist groups gathered at key sites in Kyiv, at other spots in the city families with strollers just enjoyed the holiday, eating ice cream and basking in an unusually warm autumn day.
 

This month South Africa’s parliament debates the National Health Insurance bill, a plan for universal health care that proponents say will bring justice and equality to the healthcare system in this deeply unequal country. But critics say the plan is too ambitious and they doubt the government, which has been repeatedly accused of corruption in other public-sector projects, can do it honestly. VOAs Anita Powell reports from Johannesburg.

U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres called Monday for the “immediate de-escalation” of the situation in northeastern Syria, as the humanitarian situation rapidly worsens with Turkey’s military pushing farther into the area.

“The secretary-general is gravely concerned over the military developments in northeast Syria, which have already reportedly resulted in many civilian casualties and the displacement of at least 160,000 civilians,” spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters. “The secretary-general calls for the immediate de-escalation and urges all parties to resolve their concerns through peaceful means.”

Turkey began a military incursion into northeastern Syria on Wednesday, targeting the Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which Ankara considers as terrorists aligned with separatists inside Turkey. Western countries view the SDF as a key ally in the fight against the self-described Islamic State terror group.

While Guterres did not call for the offensive to end, he urged “maximum restraint” and said any military operation must fully respect international law, including the U.N. Charter and international humanitarian law, as well as the protection of civilians.

The U.N. chief also called for safe and unhindered access for humanitarian workers, as aid agencies said access was becoming more difficult and dangerous.

U.S.-based charity Mercy Corps, which has been aiding civilians in northeast Syria since 2014, said Monday it is suspending its operations in that area and evacuating its international staff.

“This is our nightmare scenario, there are tens of thousands of people on the run and we have no way of getting to them,” Made Ferguson, Mercy Corps’ Deputy Country Director for Syria, said in a statement. “We just cannot effectively operate with the heavy shelling, roads closing, and the various and constantly changing armed actors in the areas where we are working.”

Mercy Corps said it would make every effort to return as soon as possible.

The United Nations says 1.8 million of the three million people living in northeastern Syria were already in need of assistance and the current military operation will only aggravate an already dire humanitarian situation.

Among the residents, the U.N.’s agency for children (UNICEF) estimates nearly 70,000 children are among those displaced since last week.

“UNICEF confirms that at least four children have been killed and nine others injured in northeast Syria,” UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore said in a statement. “Seven children have reportedly also been killed in Turkey,” she added.

The World Food Program has been able to assist more than 70,000 people fleeing towns in the area, but said it is deeply concerned about the safety of civilians caught in the violence. The food agency said it is “vital” that supply routes be kept open and safe for aid deliveries.

The International Committee of the Red Cross reported that tens of thousands of people are fleeing villages and towns along the Syrian-Turkish border and warned that the displaced could swell to as many 300,000. The ICRC also expressed concerns that civilian infrastructure including dams and water stations are in the area of hostilities and, if damaged, could cause severe water shortages.

Fiona Hill, a former top National Security Council expert on Russia, was testifying to Congress behind closed doors Monday, the latest former Trump administration official to be subpoenaed as part of the House impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump.

Hill wouldn’t comment as she arrived on Capitol Hill, but her attorney said she had received a congressional subpoena and would “comply and answer questions” from lawmakers. She resigned from the White House National Security Council over the summer.

She is the first White House official to appear as part of the House impeachment inquiry . Her appearance comes despite a White House vow to halt any and all cooperation with what it termed the “illegitimate” impeachment probe. The White House did not immediately respond to questions about whether they had sought to limit Hill’s testimony.

Republicans called on Rep. Adam Schiff, the chairman of the House intelligence committee, to release transcripts of the depositions to the public. The California Democrat said Sunday that having witnesses appear behind closed doors would prevent them from knowing what other witnesses said.

“We want to make sure that we meet the needs of the investigation and not give the president or his legal minions the opportunity to tailor their testimony and in some cases fabricate testimony to suit their interests,” Schiff said on CBS’s “Face the Nation.”

Rep. Jim Jordan, the top Republican on the House oversight committee, said he learned Monday morning that Schiff had subpoenaed Hill.

“She was going to come, she’d agreed to come, she was going to come voluntarily but he’s going to subpoena her, I believe, so he could ask certain questions and again keep those secret except for the certain things he wants to leak,” Jordan said. “The tragedy here and the crime here is that the American people don’t get to see what’s going on in these sessions.”

Later this week, U.S. ambassador Gordon Sondland, Trump’s hand-picked ambassador to the European Union, is expected to appear for a deposition against the wishes of the White House, after being subpoenaed. He’s expected to tell Congress that his text message reassuring another envoy that there was no quid pro quo in their interactions with Ukraine was based solely on what Trump told him, according to a person familiar with his coming testimony in the impeachment probe

Sondland’s appearance, set for Thursday, comes after a cache of text messages from top envoys provided a vivid account of their work acting as intermediaries around the time Trump urged Ukraine’s new president, Volodymr Zelenskiy, to start investigations into a company linked to the family of Democratic rival Joe Biden.

One witness who may not be called before Congress is the still-anonymous government whistleblower who touched off the impeachment inquiry.

Top Democrats say testimony and evidence coming in from other witnesses, and even the president himself, are backing up the whistleblower’s account of what transpired during Trump’s July 25 phone call with Zelenskiy. Lawmakers have grown deeply concerned about protecting the person from Trump’s threats and may not wish to risk exposing the whistleblower’s identity.

Schiff said on Sunday that Democrats “don’t need the whistleblower, who wasn’t on the call, to tell us what took place on the call.”

Schiff said it “may not be necessary” to reveal the whistleblower’s identity as the House gathers evidence. “Our primary interest right now is making sure that that person is protected,” he said.

But Trump strongly objected.

“Adam Schiff now doesn’t seem to want the Whistleblower to testify. NO!” the Republican president tweeted early Monday. “We must determine the Whistleblower’s identity to determine WHY this was done to the USA.”

The impeachment inquiry is testing the Constitution’s system of checks and balances as the House presses forward with the probe and the White House dismisses it as “illegitimate” because there has been no formal vote of the House to open impeachment proceedings.

In calling for a vote, the White House is trying to press House Democrats who may be politically reluctant to put their names formally behind impeachment.

But House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., has resisted those efforts and is unlikely to budge as Congress returns this week. Democrats say Congress is well within its power as the legislative branch to conduct oversight of the president and it is Republicans, having grown weary of Trump’s actions, who may be in the greater political bind over a vote.

Sondland’s appearance comes after text messages from top ambassadors described their interactions leading up to Trump’s call and the aftermath. He is set to tell lawmakers that he did understand the administration was offering Zelenskiy a White House visit in exchange for a public statement committing to investigations that Trump wanted, according to the person, who demanded anonymity to discuss remarks not yet given.

But Sondland will say he did not know the company being talked about for an investigation, Burisma, was tied to Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, the person said.

 

A statue of Christopher Columbus in Rhode Island has been vandalized on the U.S. holiday named for him.

The statue in Providence was splashed from head to toe with red paint Monday, and a sign reading “Stop celebrating genocide” was leaned against the pedestal.

The word “genocide” was written in orange paint on the rear of the pedestal.

The statue has been the target of vandals on Columbus Day in the past.

The New World explorer has become a polarizing figure.

Native American advocates have pressed states to change Columbus Day to Indigenous Peoples Day over concerns that Columbus spurred centuries of genocide against indigenous populations in the Americas.

Police are investigating, and a spokeswoman for Mayor Jorge Elorza says the statue will be cleaned Monday.

Police in Guinea have fired tear gas and bullets to disperse thousands of opposition supporters, civil society groups and trade unionists gathering to protest against a bid by the president to extend his time in office.

President Alpha Conde’s mandate ends in December 2020 but he seeks a referendum to allow a third term in the West African nation.

Residents in the Wanindara district of the capital, Conakry, told The Associated Press that two young men were wounded by bullets Monday.

The National Front for the Defense of the Constitution, the coalition group that called for the march, said six of its leaders were detained over the weekend and it demanded their release.

 

Nigerian men who have left the Islamist militant group Boko Haram are finding it difficult to return to civilian life. They face stigma and many turn to substance abuse to cope with their experiences. A program at a psychiatric hospital in Maiduguri treats former insurgents, offering help as they transition to life after Boko Haram. Chika Oduah reports from Maiduguri.

Rabbit meat is a slowly growing part of Africa’s diet, with a burgeoning industry in South Africa and Nigeria, and a group of hardcore rabbit farmers promoting the meat as cheap, healthy and environmentally friendly. But will it take off? Critics say they’re reluctant to eat animals that are considered pets. VOA’s Anita Powell reports from Johannesburg. 

Japan began recovery efforts Sunday after a powerful typhoon hit the central island killing more than 30 people and briefly paralyzing Tokyo. Typhoon Hagibis left parts of central and eastern Japan inundated with rain waters and floods from overflowing rivers. Close to half a million homes have lost power. The government has sent thousands of troops and rescue workers to help residents fight the floods and search for missing people. VOA’s Zlatica Hoke reports the death toll could rise as some people are still missing after the storm.