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Relatives of French jihadists and their families held in Syria say the Turkish offensive and the ensuing advance of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s forces have added to the urgency of bringing them home.Hundreds of radicalized French men and women traveled to Syria to join IS at the peak of the group’s dominance, sometimes taking their children with them.Most were captured when the extremist group was militarily defeated by Kurdish-led forces, backed by an international coalition.Around 12,000 IS fighters, including 2,500-3,000 foreigners, are being held in Kurdish prisons with a further 12,000 foreigners — 8,000 children and 4,000 women — detained in camps in northeast Syria, according to Kurdish sources.Turkey is now taking control of parts of the area as it presses its operation against Syrian Kurdish fighters. At the same time Assad’s forces are advancing from the south to contain the Turkish offensive.Referring to the fate of the jihadists, Asma, a French woman whose brother is being held in a Syrian Kurdish prison, asked: “If Bashar al-Assad retakes the prisons, what is going to be their future?””Either they will be tortured or they will be used for bargaining or they are going to escape,” said Asma, who like other sources interviewed by AFP for this story asked for her name to be changed.The worst scenario, she said, would see them end up back in the hands of Islamic State, allowing “a terrorist organization to be rebuilt.”The fate of the foreign fighters and their relatives has divided the Turks and their Syrian Kurdish foes, with both sides accusing each other of freeing prisoners in a bid to sow chaos.”I’m hoping for just one thing — that the state repatriates them,” said another woman Estelle, who believes a male relative is being held in Derik prison in Syria.”If Bashar al-Assad’s regime retakes the prisons I do not know if it will be possible to go and find him,” she said.
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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.FILE – Police charge against demonstrators during clashes outside El Prat airport in Barcelona, Spain, Oct. 14, 2019.Supreme Court rulingIn 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.”Catalonia’s former regional president Carles Puigdemont, center, holds a banner with others during a protest in front of the European Commission headquarters in Brussels, Oct. 15, 2019.Call for dialogueConvicted 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.
 
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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.
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The Trump administration is set to impose economic sanctions on Turkey, potentially as early as this week, for its military incursion into Syria. Ankara launched the offensive last week, after President Donald Trump abruptly pulled American forces from Northern Syria, where they had kept a fragile peace among competing forces. White House Correspondent Patsy Widakuswara has this report.
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Syrian government troops have arrived in several northern Syrian towns where they are joining local Kurdish forces in an effort to repel the invading Turkish soldiers and militias. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan remains adamant that Turkey will remove Kurds from northern Syria and replace them with Arabs. VOA’s Zlatica Hoke reports Erdogan is dismissing international calls to stop the incursion in Syria.
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Ken Bredemeier contributed to this report.U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper says Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan “bears full responsibility” for the resurgence of Islamic State, a growing humanitarian crisis, and possible war crimes.This was the Pentagon’s strongest condemnation so far of Turkey’s military operation against Kurdish fighters in northern Syria.Esper calls Turkey’s attacks on the Kurds “unnecessary and impulsive.” He says it has undermined what he calls the “successful” multinational mission to defeat Islamic State in Syria by allowing “many dangerous ISIS detainees” to flee detention camps that had been guarded by the Kurds.FILE – U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper addresses reporters during a media briefing at the Pentagon in Arlington, Va., Oct. 11, 2019.Esper says U.S. relations with Turkey have been damaged. He says he plans to go to Brussels next week to press other NATO allies to slap sanctions on Turkey.Turkish forces entered into northern Syria last week after U.S. President Donald Trump ordered the pull out of the approximately 1,000 U.S. forces in the area. They will be redeployed elsewhere in the Middle East to “monitor the situation,” according to Trump.The U.S. had been fighting side-by-side with the Kurds in Syria to defeat Islamic State. The extremists were just one rebel faction trying to overthrow the Syrian government.Turkey regards the Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces as a terrorist group aligned with Kurdish separatists inside Turkey.Vice President Mike Pence says Trump is sending him to the Middle East in an apparent attempt to push Turkey and the Kurds to the negotiating table.Pence says Trump spoke to Erdogan on Monday, calling for an immediate end to the military operation.The U.S. is “simply not going to tolerate Turkey’s invasion of Syria any longer,” Pence said.’Irresponsible’ actions Syrian Kurds say they feel forsaken by the United States. They also believe much of the Arab world and the U.N. Security Council are ignoring them.FILE – Members of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) prepare to join the front against Turkish forces, near the northern Syrian town of Hasakeh, Oct. 10, 2019.But Esper says Turkey’s “irresponsible” actions have created an unacceptable risk to U.S. forces in northern Syria, including the possibility of the U.S. getting “engulfed in a broader conflict.”Trump continued Monday to defend his decision to order the U.S. out of the area against strong criticism from both parties and European allies.”Do people really think we should go to war with NATO Member Turkey?” Trump tweeted. “Never ending wars will end! The same people who got us into the Middle East mess are the people who most want to stay there!”Trump said he is raising tariffs on Turkish steel imports and is stopping trade talks with Turkey while Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin announced sanctions on the Turkish defense, interior, and energy ministers and their departments.”I am fully prepared to swiftly destroy Turkey’s economy if Turkish leaders continue down this dangerous and destructive path,” he said.’Gravely concerned’Democratic Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi has called on the entire House to pass a resolution condemning Trump’s decision to pull out of Syria. But she also agrees that Turkey must be condemned for its actions.FILE – Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., speaks to reporters during a news conference at the Capitol in Washington, Sept. 17, 2019.Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said he is “gravely concerned” about the Turkish offensive, contending it will jeopardize “years of hard-won progress” in destroying Islamic State.But the top Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Michael McCaul, says the sanctions Trump and Mnuchin announced “do not go far enough to punish Turkey for its egregious offenses in Syria.”In Syria, government forces entered a town near the Turkish border Monday, a day after reaching an agreement with Syrian Kurds to move into the region in an attempt to counter the Turkish onslaught.Syria’s state-run SANA news agency reported Monday’s troop movement in Tal Tamr, about 20 kilometers from the border, saying it was done to “confront the Turkish aggression” and was welcomed by the people there.The fighting since the Turkish operation began nearly a week ago has killed dozens of civilians, observers say.The U.S. State Department has condemned reports of pro-Turkish fighters executing civilians.
 
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A woman alleging she was raped by Serbian forces during the Kosovo War filed a criminal complaint Monday with the country’s Special Prosecution’s Office, asking that her attacker be prosecuted.Shyhrete Tahiri-Sylejmani became only the second among an estimated 20,000 raped during the 1998-1999 war to publicly recount her experience.”I am here with you to share with you the pain I have in my soul,” she said in front of reporters and TV cameras in Kosovo’s capital, Pristina. “I represent all mothers, brothers, sisters, daughters that suffer the same pain. I want to give them courage. It is never easy. Think of the kind of pain that shatters your heart and it can never be healed again. I am here to demand justice.”Feride Rushiti of the Kosovo Rehabilitation Center for Torture Victims, who stood beside Tahiri-Sylejmani, expressed dismay that justice still eludes the victims and that those who committed rape and other war crimes are still at large.”These crimes remain unpunished. That is why we are here today to demand justice for the 20,000 women, men, girls and boys who have experienced this crime, horror, torture and mistreatment during the war,” she said.Public faces of survivorsIn October 2018, Vasfije Krasniqi Goodman became Kosovo’s first survivor of wartime rape to publicly accuse her alleged attackers and tell her story.In April of this year, she recounted her harrowing experiences in testimony before the 5,000 dresses and skirts hang inside a stadium, in an exhibition titled “Thinking of You” by Kosovo-born Alketa Xhafa-Mripa, in Pristina, June 2015. The artist hoped to draw attention to the stigma suffered by victims of wartime sexual violence.Shedding the stigmaMany survivors kept quiet for decades, fearing the shame and public humiliation that rape can bring to an extended family in a historically patriarchal society.As Kosovo struggled to rebuild and secure international recognition in the wake of its 2008 declaration of independence, the issue of sexual violence remained largely on the back burner.Last year, the government started to provide reparations for victims of sexual war crimes under a law that compensates veterans of the Kosovo War.Claimants welcome the lifetime monthly compensation of $275 for the physical and psychological trauma — about 90% of the average salary for Kosovar women.Even so, Tahiri-Sylejmani and Krasniqi Goodman insist the compensation is no substitute for justice.
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Thousands of protesters in Catalonia took to the streets Monday and blocked Barcelona’s El Prat airport after Spain’s Supreme Court sentenced nine separatist leaders to lengthy prison terms for their attempt to declare independence from Spain in 2017.Riot police charged at the demonstrators with batons, and fired foam balls.Health officials say 37 protesters were injured in the clashes at the airport.
Spain’s airport operator says that at least 108 flights were canceled.Protesters in the Catalan region also stopped some train service in the region by placing wood on the tracks and blocking roads. Police say two people have been arrested in the region.The protesters converged on the transportation hubs Monday after Spain’s high court sentenced nine former Catalan separatist leaders to between nine and 13 years in prison for their role in pushing for the region’s independence.The former regional vice president, Oriol Junqueras, received the longest prison term of 13 years behind bars for sedition and misuse of public funds.The court found three other defendants guilty only of disobedience and did not sentence them to prison.The court, however, acquitted all defendants of the most severe charge, rebellion.The former head of Catalonia’s regional government called the Monday ruling an “atrocity.”Catalan President Carles Puigdemont, center, speaks to the media at a sports center, assigned to be a polling station by the Catalan government and where Puigdemont was originally expected to vote, in Sant Julia de Ramis, near Girona, Spain, Oct. 1,Carles Puigdemont wrote on Twitter: “100 years in prison in total. An atrocity. Now more than ever … It is time to react like never before. For the future of our sons and daughters. For democracy. For Europe. For Catalonia.”Puigdemont was not a defendant in the landmark ruling over the banned referendum and short-lived independence declaration because he fled to Belgium, where he now lives in self-imposed exile.After its ruling, the Supreme Court issued a European arrest warrant for Puigdemont.Catalan’s current regional leader, Quim Torra, called the court’s ruling an insult to democracy.Spain’s caretaker prime minister, Pedro Sanchez, said in a statement broadcast on live television that the sentences of the Catalan separatists must be carried out.He also said he hoped that the sentences will help to “turn the page” in relations between Catalonia and greater Spain. 
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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.Activists and supporters of Ukraine’s nationalist movements take part in a rally in Kyiv, Ukraine, Oct. 14, 2019.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.Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy visits positions of armed forces in Donetsk region, Ukraine, Oct. 14, 2019.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.
 
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Pope Francis’ chief bodyguard has resigned over the leak of a Vatican police flyer identifying five Holy See employees who were suspended as part of a financial investigation.
 
The Vatican said Monday that Vatican police chief Domenico Giani bore no responsibility for the leaked flyer but resigned so as not to disrupt the investigation and “out of love for the church and faithfulness” to the pope.
 
The person who leaked the document to Italian newsweekly L’Espresso remains unknown.Giani has stood by Francis’ side and jogged alongside his popemobile during hundreds of public appearances and foreign trips.The police chief signed the Oct. 2 flyer after his agents raided two Vatican offices in the investigation of financial irregularities surrounding a London real estate deal.
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New legislation likely to be introduced next month in Russia’s Duma, or lower chamber of parliament, would see tighter restrictions on the internet and on computers, tablets and other devices used to access the internet.The proposals include a provision for the identification of all email users and a requirement for new internet-able devices to be sold with pre-installed Russian software — a legal obligation that could stop Apple, which won’t install non-Apple software on its products, from selling computers and laptops in Russia.When the details of the legislation were first revealed last week, most media attention was focused on the proposal to limit to 20 percent the share foreign investors can own in Russian tech companies, a provision analysts calculated was aimed at Russia’s largest internet company, Yandex. On Friday, Yandex saw  the value of its shares plunge more than 18 percent on the Wall Street stock exchange, the steepest decline in a year. Yandex owns the most popular Russian search engine and provides other online-based services, including food delivery and taxis.While the proposed ownership limiting foreign stakes in IT companies immediately alarmed foreign stock markets, the other provisions are adding to a slow burn of doubt with investors fearing further tech and internet restrictions will make it increasingly difficult to do business in Russia — or to do so ethically.For rights campaigners and anti-Kremlin opposition groups, the entire package — which was drafted by pro-Kremlin lawmakers, but which local media say has the backing of the Russian government — amounts to a tightening of control by the authorities of the internet and a further enhancement of their ability to monitor online activity.The government has been ramping up its internet regulations, seeking to exercise greater control over its physical infrastructure as well and regulate the content that can be accessed by Russians. In the past few years, it has required search engines to delete some search results and oblige messaging services to share encryption keys with security services.In March, President Vladimir Putin signed two measures into law, one banning the publication of “unreliable, socially significant information” on the internet and another introducing fines and jail time for internet users who “disrespect” the authorities.’Online Iron Curtain’Ahead of his signing, thousands staged a rally in Moscow opposing the measures, saying the provisions would isolate Russians behind an “online Iron Curtain” and pave the way for nationwide censorship. “If they take that, we will have nothing,” said Mikhail Svetov from the Libertarian Party. “We don’t have free elections, we don’t have press freedom, the television is completely controlled —the internet is the only place where we talk about corruption.”The fresh legislation rewriting the rules again would allow authorities to block individual email or users from messaging apps that circulate banned content. Internet companies would be required within 24 hours of notification to block individual users when asked to do so by Roskomnadzor, the state communications watchdog.FILE – People hold a banner reading “Hands off the Internet” during a rally in protest against court decision to block the Telegram messenger because it violated Russian regulations, in Moscow, Russia, May 13, 2018.One of the lawmakers who drafted the legislation, Anton Gorelkin, says the new rules are needed on national security grounds. The lawmakers say fresh legislation is needed to combat a wave of hoax bomb threats. “It is more efficient to completely block a user, not the individual messages sent by them,” said Andrey Klishas, another one of the lawmakers behind the measure.Pavel Durov, the Russian creator of encrypted messaging service Telegram, has been under intense pressure to hand over the company’s encryption keys. He has declined and been engaged in a cat-and-mouse game with the authorities who have sought to little avail to block Telegram from operating in Russia.Last week, Russia’s state communications watchdog announced it and its Chinese counterpart will sign a cooperation treaty aimed at combating illegal content on the internet, adding to the alarm of internet freedom advocates. Roskomnadzor says the agreement is scheduled to be signed on October 20 at an international internet conference.China has been even more effective than the Russian authorities in controlling content on the internet behind a so-called Great Firewall. Legions of censors constantly trawl (sift through) what’s posted and delete anything thought inappropriate — an effort that assists in technical blocks and pressures foreign online companies to restrict content as well as apps that can be used in the country.Russia doesn’t can’t match, as yet, China’s technical capabilities, say industry experts, as its failure to shut down Telegram demonstrates. It has also banned the use of VPNs, unless approved by the authorities. A VPN is a virtual private network and enables users to send and receive data across shared or public networks anonymously. So far, though, VPNs function in Russia. 
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U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday promised “big sanctions” against Turkey for its invasion into northern Syria against Kurdish fighters, but again defended his withdrawal of American troops who had been fighting alongside the Kurds against Islamic State terrorists.”Do people really think we should go to war with NATO Member Turkey?” Trump said on Twitter. “Never ending wars will end! The same people who got us into the Middle East mess are the people who most want to stay there!”….Kurds may be releasing some to get us involved. Easily recaptured by Turkey or European Nations from where many came, but they should move quickly. Big sanctions on Turkey coming! Do people really think we should go to war with NATO Member Turkey? Never ending wars will end!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) Turkey-backed Syrian rebel fighters ride on a vehicle at the border town of Tel Abyad, Syria, Oct. 14, 2019.Syria’s state-run SANA news agency reported Monday’s troop movement in Tal Tamr, about 20 kilometers from the border, saying it was done to “confront the Turkish aggression” and was welcomed by the people there.The extraordinary deal between the Kurds, Syria, and Russia — Syria’s main ally — comes four days after Turkish forces moved against the Kurds in northern Syria after Trump withdrew nearly all U.S. forces.Turkey regards the Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces as terrorists aligned with separatists inside Turkey, although Western countries have viewed them as a key ally in the fight against Islamic State.A Kurdish statement said, “In order to prevent and block this assault, agreement has been reached with the Syrian government whose duty is to protect the borders and Syrian sovereignty, for the Syrian army to enter and deploy along the length of the Syrian-Turkish border.”Syrian Kurds say they feel totally forsaken by the United States after fighting side-by-side with U.S. forces. They also believe much of the Arab world and the U.N. Security Council are ignoring them.”We had to find a solution… now you see what has happened to us and they don’t want to support us,” the defense minister of the Kurdish city of Kobani, Ismat Sheikh Hassan, said Sunday. “Again, we should not trust anybody. We should rely on ourselves. Every Kurd should carry a gun and prepare himself.”With the United States moving to withdraw all of its remaining troops from northern Syria, Trump said Sunday, “Very smart not to be involved in the intense fighting along the Turkish Border, for a change.””The Kurds and Turkey have been fighting for many years,” he wrote on Twitter.  “Turkey considers the PKK the worst terrorists of all. Others may want to come in and fight for one side or the other. Let them!”U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper addresses reporters during a media briefing at the Pentagon in Arlington, Va., Oct. 11, 2019.U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper told Fox News Sunday there will be a “deliberate withdrawal” of the last 1,000 U.S. troops from northern Syria”We pushed back on Turkey to not do this operation,” Esper said. But he said Turkey was “fully committed to do this no matter what we did.””This is part of the terrible situation that Turkey has put us in,” Esper said, adding that the U.S. “didn’t sign up to fight Turkey, a long-time ally, on behalf of the Kurds.”French president Emmanuel Macron welcomes German Chancellor Angela Merkel prior to their meeting at the Elyse Palace in Paris, Sunday, Oct. 13, 2019. (AP Photo/Francois Mori)French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel said at a joint news conference that Turkey is risking an “unbearable humanitarian situation.”The World Health Organization said Monday it is “gravely concerned about the humanitarian health situation in northeast Syria.”It said the military operations have already displaced 200,000 people since last week, and that there are fewer health workers able to provide services due to displacement and health providers suspending operations.
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Spain’s Supreme Court sentenced nine former Catalan separatist leaders Monday to between nine and 13 years in prison for their attempt to declare independence from Spain in 2017.The former regional vice president, Oriol Junqueras, received the longest prison term of  13 years behind bars for sedition and misuse of public funds.The court found three other defendants guilty only of disobedience and did not sentence them to prison.The court, however, acquitted all defendants of the most severe charge, rebellion.The former head of Catalonia’s regional government called the Monday ruling an “atrocity.”Carles Puigdemont wrote on Twitter: “100 years in prison in total. An atrocity. Now more than ever … It is time to react like never before. For the future of our sons and daughters. For democracy. For Europe. For Catalonia.”100 anys de presó en total. Una barbaritat. Ara més que mai, al vostre costat i al de les vostres famílies. Toca reaccionar, com mai. Pel futur dels nostres fills i filles. Per la democràcia. Per Europa. Per Cataunya.— Carles Puigdemont (@KRLS) October 14, 2019Puigdemont was not a defendant in the landmark ruling over the banned referendum and short-lived independence declaration because he fled to Belgium, where he now lives in self-imposed exile.
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