The latest on Turkey's invasion of northern Syria (all times local):
11:20 a.m.
Turkey's pro-government dominated media is hailing the U.S.-Turkish cease-fire deal in northeast Syria as a victory for Turkey's president.
Children gesture to the camera in Akcakale Sanliurfa province, southeastern Turkey, at the border with Syria, Friday, Oct. 18, 2019. Fighting continued in a northeast Syrian border town at the center of the fight between Turkey and Kurdish forces early Friday, despite a U.S.-brokered cease-fire that went into effect overnight. Shelling and gunfire could be heard in and around Ras al-Ayn, as smoke billowed from locations near the border with Turkey and the Turkish town of Ceylanpinar. (AP PhotoLefteris Pitarakis)
After hours of negotiations between Recep Tayyip Erdogan and U.S. Vice President Mike Pence, the two nations agreed to a five-day cease-fire in Turkey's weeklong offensive against Kurdish fighters in northern Syria.
The agreement requires the Kurdish fighters to vacate a swath of territory inside Syria along the Turkish border. That arrangement would largely solidify the position Turkey has gained after ten days of fighting. The Kurds were U.S. allies in the fight against the Islamic State.
Yeni Safak newspaper's banner headline on Friday hailed a "Great Victory." It wrote: "Turkey got everything it wanted."
In this photo taken from the Turkish side of the border between Turkey and Syria, in Ceylanpinar, Sanliurfa province, southeastern Turkey, smoke billows from targets in Ras al-Ayn, Syria, caused by shelling by Turkish forces, Friday, Oct. 18, 2019. Fighting continued in a northeast Syrian border town at the center of the fight between Turkey and Kurdish forces early Friday, despite a U.S.-brokered cease-fire that went into effect overnight. Shelling and gunfire could be heard in and around Ras al-Ayn, as smoke billowed from locations near the border with Turkey and the Turkish town of Ceylanpinar. (AP PhotoLefteris Pitarakis)
Sabah newspaper's headline read: "We won both on the field and on the (negotiating) table."
Kurdish-led forces have invited the Syrian government's military, backed by Russia, to deploy there to protect them from Turkey.
9:20 a.m.
Associated Press journalists are seeing continued fighting in a Syrian town at the center of the fight between Turkey and Kurdish forces, despite a U.S.-brokered cease-fire.
Shelling and smoke could be seen around Ras al-Ayn on Friday morning, a day after Turkey and the U.S. agreed to a five-day cease-fire in Turkey's offensive.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a war monitor, reports intermittent clashes in Ras al-Ayn, but relative calm elsewhere since the cease-fire.
The agreement requires the Kurdish fighters to vacate a swath of territory in Syria along the Turkish border, largely solidifying Turkey's position.
Turkish troops and Turkish-backed Syrian fighters launched their offensive a week ago, two days after U.S. President Donald Trump suddenly announced he was withdrawing American troops from the border area.
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — A state appeals court is being asked to dismiss felony voter misconduct charges against an Alaska resident born in American Samoa, one of numerous cases that have drawn attention to the complex citizenship status of people born in the U.S. territory.
In arguments Thursday, attorneys for Tupe Smith plan to ask the Alaska Court of Appeals in Anchorage to reverse a lower court's decision that let stand the indictment brought against her. Her supporters say she made an innocent mistake that does not merit charges, but the state contends Smith falsely and deliberately claimed citizenship.
Prosecutors also have brought charges against 10 other people from American Samoa in the small Alaska community of Whittier, including Smith’s husband and her mother-in-law. American Samoa is the only U.S. territory where residents are not automatically granted citizenship by being born on American soil and instead are considered U.S. nationals. Paths to citizenship exist, such as naturalization, though that process can be expensive and cumbersome.
American Samoans can serve in the military, obtain U.S. passports and vote in elections in American Samoa, but they cannot hold public office in the U.S. or participate in most U.S. elections.
About 25 people gathered on a snowy street outside the courthouse before Thursday's hearing to support Smith. One woman, Fran Seager of Palmer, held a sign that said, “Support our Samoans. They are US nationals.”
Smith's husband, Michael Pese, thanked the American Samoa community in the Anchorage area. “If it wasn’t for you guys, I wouldn’t be strong enough to face this head on,” he said.
State Sen. Forrest Dunbar, a Democrat who attended the rally, said the Alaska Department of Law has limited resources.
“We should be going after people who are genuine criminals, who are violent criminals, or at least have the intent to deceive,” he said. “I do not think it is a good use of our limited state resources to go after these hardworking, taxpaying Alaskans who are not criminals.”
Smith was arrested after winning election to a regional school board in 2023. She said she relied on erroneous information from local election officials when she identified herself as a U.S. citizen on voter registration forms.
In a court filing in 2024, one of her previous attorneys said that when Smith answered questions from the Alaska state trooper who arrested her, she said she was aware that she could not vote in presidential elections but was “unaware of any other restrictions on her ability to vote.”
Smith said she marks herself as a U.S. national on paperwork. But when there was no such option on voter registration forms, she was told by city representatives that it was appropriate to mark U.S. citizen, according to the filing.
Smith “exercised what she believed was her right to vote in a local election. She did so without any intent to mislead or deceive anyone,” her current attorneys said in a filing in September. “Her belief that U.S. nationals may vote in local elections, which was supported by advice from City of Whittier election officials, was simply mistaken.”
The state has said Smith falsely and deliberately claimed citizenship. Prosecutors pointed to the language on the voter application forms she filled out in 2020 and 2022, which explicitly said that if the applicant was not at least 18 years old and a U.S. citizen, “do not complete this form, as you are not eligible to vote.”
The counts Smith was indicted on “did not have anything to do with her belief in her ability to vote in certain elections; rather they concerned the straightforward question of whether or not Smith intentionally and falsely swore she was a United States citizen,” Kayla Doyle, an assistant attorney general, said in court filings last year.
One of Smith's attorneys, Neil Weare, co-founder of the Washington-based Right to Democracy Project, said by email last week that if the appeals court lets stand the indictment, Alaska will be “the only state to our knowledge with such a low bar for felony voter fraud.”
Bohrer reported from Juneau, Alaska.
Michael Pese and his wife, Tupe Smith, stand outside the Boney Courthouse in Anchorage, Alaska, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026, ahead of the Alaska Court of Appeals hearing a challenge to the voter fraud case brought against her by the state. (AP Photo/Mark Thiessen)
Michael Pese, left, his wife, Tupe Smith, and their son Maximus pose for a photo outside the Boney Courthouse in Anchorage, Alaska, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026, ahead of the Alaska Court of Appeals hearing a challenge to the voter fraud case brought against her by the state. (AP Photo/Mark Thiessen)
FILE - Tupe Smith poses for a photo outside the school in Whittier, Alaska, May 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Mark Thiessen, File)
