News

The United States and Turkey have agreed to a temporary cease-fire in northern Syria that gives Kurdish fighters five days to leave the area, with President Trump lauding the deal as “a great day for civilization” even as it appears to favor Turkish interests in the region.

SALEM — The unfolding military and humanitarian "disaster" in Northern Syria has hit home for a Kurdish-American family that lives in Swampscott who fears the region is witnessing a genocidal campaign by invading Turkish forces.

"As we speak now, the bombs are being dropped on top of the houses," said Seyhmus Yuksekkaya, 50, co-founder of the New England Kurdish Association.

Seyhmus Yuksekkaya of Swampscott, a Kurdish native of southeastern Turkey, said he knows firsthand what Turkish oppression looks like. It’s an enduring, embedded hostility that originated long before he came to the United States for safety and freedom 20 years ago, he said.

Tufts renewed its contract with the Confucius Institute, a Chinese government-funded language and cultural education center, until 2021, after a semester-long review process that was triggered by concerns over Chinese Communist Party (CCP) influence and suppression of academic freedom.

Gloucester’s congressional delegation is urging the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to pony up the additional $2.4 million necessary so the long-sought dredging of the Annisquam River can begin on time on Oct. 1.