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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.

He and his wife came by the Front Street office of U.S. Rep. Seth Moulton, D-Salem, Tuesday morning to explain the ongoing situation in a Kurdish region known as Rojava.

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.

On Tuesday, as Turkish troops continued to pound Kurdish enclaves in northern Syria, Yuksekkaya struggled to find the words to fully convey the consequences of President Trump’s abrupt decision last week to withdraw US troops from that area.

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.

The review committee’s report, published Tuesday, found that while Confucius Institute instructors avoided sensitive political topics, there is no evidence of CCP propaganda being disseminated through the institute’s language instruction or cultural activities.

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.

In a letter to the commander of the Army Corps’ New England District, U.S. Rep. Seth Moulton and U.S. Sens. Edward J. Markey and Elizabeth Warren stated the project — to remove sand, silt and gravel to return the river and portions of the Lobster Cove anchorage to fully navigable channels — is essential to protect Cape Ann public safety, transportation and commerce.

ONCE SEEN AS POTENTIAL RIVALS, Congressman Seth Moulton and his North Shore neighbor Gov. Charlie Baker are rowing in the same direction on how to prevent a repeat of the bureaucratic nightmare at the Registry of Motor Vehicles.

Notifications about infractions Massachusetts drivers committed in other states piled up unaddressed at the registry over a period of years, and Bay State regulators didn’t alert their counterparts about driving incidents that happened here.