KOBANI, Syria (AP) — Hundreds of oil tanker trucks were stranded in northeastern Syria's Kurdish region Wednesday after demonstrators blocked a major highway near the town of Tal Tamr in protest over rising fuel prices.
It was the latest evidence of rising discontent in the Kurdish region in the midst of a push to integrate a once-powerful Kurd-led force into Syria’s army and bring formerly autonomous institutions under the control of the central government.
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Women mourn during a mass funeral for prisoners who died in a fire that broke out during unrest at the local prison in the predominantly Kurdish city of Kobani, northern Syria, Monday, Sept. 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Baderkhan Ahmad)
Oil tankers from the Rmeilan oil fields are backed up along a road after being stopped by local residents during ongoing protests against higher fuel prices near Tal Tamr in northeastern Syria, Wednesday, Sept. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Baderkhan Ahmad)
Fighters with the Kurdish Women's Protection Units, or YPJ, rest during a break in military training in the countryside of Derik, also known as al-Malikiyah, northeastern Syria, Saturday, Sept. 12, 2026.(AP Photo/Baderkhan Ahmad)
Local residents block a road to prevent oil tankers from the Rmeilan oil fields from passing during ongoing protests against higher fuel prices at the entrance to Tal Tamr, northeastern Syria, Wednesday, Sept. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Baderkhan Ahmad)
Fighters with the Kurdish Women's Protection Units, or YPJ, stand during a funeral ceremony for prisoners who died in a fire that broke out during unrest at the local prison following days of tensions and protests in the predominantly Kurdish city of Kobani, northern Syria, Monday, Sept. 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Baderkhan Ahmad)
The integration agreement with the Syrian Democratic Forces has been widely regarded as a victory for the government of interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa.
But in recent weeks, a series of issues have sparked discontent among Kurdish communities in formerly SDF-controlled areas, testing al-Sharaa's ability to consolidate his rule and bring unity to a country emerging from 14 years of conflict.
Kurds, who made up about 10% of Syria’s population of 23 million before the country’s civil war began in 2011, were long marginalized under the country's then-ruling Assad dynasty. During the war, they carved out a de facto autonomous zone in the northeast.
With the new post-war government now reasserting control over the northeast, Kurdish communities are anxious about losing the rights they had under self-rule.
Students in the cities of Qamishli and Hassakeh have staged mass protests in recent weeks over a government decree that makes Kurdish an official language of instruction for the first time in Syrian history, but only provides for three classes a week in the language.
Under the rule of former Syrian President Bashar Assad, the Kurdish language was banned in schools. But during the war, SDF-affiliated authorities in the northeast set up a school system teaching mostly in Kurdish.
Anger rose further after a Kurdish former SDF fighter who had joined the Syrian army as part of the integration agreement between the SDF leadership and Damascus was abducted and killed by a group of Arab men in Hassakeh earlier this month.
Then prisoners rioted in a jail in the Kurdish-majority city of Kobani, igniting a fire that killed nine detainees. Former SDF commander Mazloum Abdi, now an advisor to al-Sharaa, traveled to the city to attend the funeral and attempted to defuse the anger.
"There is an outburst of tension among the people here,” Masoud Bouzi, a resident of Kobani, said as shops around the city shuttered as part of a day of mourning on Sunday. “This discontent will have a negative impact on the ongoing process here, the integration process — and it already has.”
On Sunday, the government hiked gasoline prices by about 30% and diesel by 40%, citing rising global fuel prices due to the U.S.-Iran war and repair work at the Baniyas refinery on the country’s coast.
Protests broke out in several areas, including in the northeast, where residents were already feeling the pinch of increased fuel prices. When northeast Syria — including its oil fields — was under the SDF’s control, fuel was heavily subsidized. After the central government took control, removing those subsidies shocked people there, even before the most recent price hike.
Demonstrators shut down the M4 highway near the town of Tal Tamr, blocking trucks bringing oil from the Qamishli and Rmeilan oil fields, and announced that they would only reopen the route if the price increases are reversed.
Noah Bonsey, senior adviser on Syria with the International Crisis Group, said the anger over fuel hikes has the potential to be “a real obstacle to the integration process."
“Among Kurds who are open to some of the benefits of integration, the rising cost of living undermines potential support,” Bonsey said. “Among opponents of integration, it’s just one more reason to object.”
Another point of dispute has been the fate of all-women fighting units of the now-dissolved SDF.
The Women’s Protection Units, or YPJ, played a significant role in the fight against the Islamic State militant group in northeast Syria. But the current military authorities in Damascus, most of whom came out of the Islamist former insurgent groups that overthrew Assad, are opposed to women in combat.
YPJ commander Nowruz Ahmad told The Associated Press that the group’s leaders had requested integration into the interior ministry’s security forces as a regiment within the special missions department.
“They said there are women inside the ministry and within General Security, and we would like to increase the number of them and we don’t have any issues with that,” she said. “But it can’t be within the special mission forces.”
Ahmad said the YPJ had also requested to remain in their current region of operation, in Hassakeh and Aleppo provinces and the government had been open to that request, but that details remained “under discussion.” The force currently has about 1,500 women enlisted, down from 5,000 at its peak, she said.
“The important thing is to preserve the essence and the substance of this force for the protection of women, the protection of the movement, and for the protection of our region especially,” she said.
Interior Ministry officials declined to comment on the negotiations.
Bonsey said the tensions should not overshadow how far the two sides have come since January, when the integration deal reached between the central government in Damascus and the SDF halted weeks of fighting.
“For them to have both stepped back from that further brink, negotiated an integration deal that not only stopped the fighting, that they’ve actually moved on to gradually flesh out and implement, is itself quite an accomplishment," he said.
The agreement's implementation has “entailed compromises made by both sides - albeit tilted in favor of Damascus, which is the stronger party,” he said. “You have a challenging, but overall positive dynamic, and then obviously you have all these major obstacles on the ground."
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Sewell reported from Beirut.
Women mourn during a mass funeral for prisoners who died in a fire that broke out during unrest at the local prison in the predominantly Kurdish city of Kobani, northern Syria, Monday, Sept. 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Baderkhan Ahmad)
Oil tankers from the Rmeilan oil fields are backed up along a road after being stopped by local residents during ongoing protests against higher fuel prices near Tal Tamr in northeastern Syria, Wednesday, Sept. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Baderkhan Ahmad)
Fighters with the Kurdish Women's Protection Units, or YPJ, rest during a break in military training in the countryside of Derik, also known as al-Malikiyah, northeastern Syria, Saturday, Sept. 12, 2026.(AP Photo/Baderkhan Ahmad)
Local residents block a road to prevent oil tankers from the Rmeilan oil fields from passing during ongoing protests against higher fuel prices at the entrance to Tal Tamr, northeastern Syria, Wednesday, Sept. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Baderkhan Ahmad)
Fighters with the Kurdish Women's Protection Units, or YPJ, stand during a funeral ceremony for prisoners who died in a fire that broke out during unrest at the local prison following days of tensions and protests in the predominantly Kurdish city of Kobani, northern Syria, Monday, Sept. 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Baderkhan Ahmad)
For a third time, the U.S. House has voted to end the war in Iran, approving a war powers resolution that would halt President Donald Trump’s ability to continue military action without congressional approval. The roll call was similar to earlier efforts this summer. None of the resolutions have made it to the president’s desk, where Trump would almost certainly veto the measure.
The Trump-aligned Kennedy Center board voted Tuesday to close most of the iconic performing arts venue just hours after a federal judge blocked the institution from returning Trump’s name to the building.
And Trump will travel to North Carolina on Wednesday to rally with Republican Senate nominee Michael Whatley as the former national party chairman tries to shore up his campaign against Democratic former Gov. Roy Cooper.
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“We spend too much time and resources treating chronic disease after it takes hold, and not enough time helping Americans reduce their risk before illness begins,” Saphier said. “We should treat illness when it occurs, but we also need to do a far better job of helping people stay healthy in the first place.”
At the start of the Senate health committee hearing, chair Sen. Bill Cassidy noted the “serious health issues” facing the country, highlighting the measles deaths.
“That is going to be a terrible legacy for this administration,” said Cassidy, R-LA, telling Saphier and other nominees that he hoped they would restore the public’s confidence in public health.
Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-WI, said HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s “career spreading vaccine conspiracy theories” has contributed to the outbreak.
“We need leaders who will stand up for science,” Baldwin said.
A radiologist and former Fox News contributor is facing lawmakers as Trump’s third nominee for surgeon general.
The position known as the nation’s doctor has been vacant throughout Trump’s second term. The confirmation of entrepreneur and wellness influencer Dr. Casey Means stalled over her background and vaccine views. Trump withdrew the nomination of Fox News medical contributor Janette Nesheiwat after her academic credentials were questioned.
Dr. Nicole Saphier is director of breast imaging at Memorial Sloan Kettering Monmouth, according to her profile on the New York-based institution’s website, which says she earned her medical degree from Ross University School of Medicine in Barbados.
Senators are likely to question her views on vaccines and her ownership of DropRx, which produces controversial, unregulated tinctures — concentrated liquid extracts promoting focus and calm — that contain ingredients, including kava kava root, described by the FDA as potentially causing severe liver injury.
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The market’s main event is coming later in the day, when traders expect the Fed will announce the first hike to interest rates in three years. They’re counting on the central bank to try to cool the inflationary pressures caused by the global energy crisis driven by Trump’s war on Iran.
U.S. data released last week shows inflation remains stubbornly high, and a gallon of gasoline in the U.S. rose again overnight, hitting $4.37 on average, according to motor club AAA. A week ago, gasoline averaged $4.22 a gallon. Diesel, which topped $6 a gallon on Friday, is now $6.31 a gallon on average, up from $5.94 a week earlier.
The stock market also is under pressure from higher U.S. Treasury yields, which have risen as the government finances the growing U.S. national debt.
The House overwhelmingly passed the AM Radio for Every Vehicle Act, which would require the Transportation Secretary to issue a rule require the devices as standard equipment in new vehicles sold in the U.S.
Similar bipartisan legislation has been considered by Congress before, but stalled out. Lawmakers say there’s a need for emergency broadcasts and other local programming to be available on the dial.
Under the bill, the secretary would have a year to come up with the rule, and it would take effect two years later. It passed unanimously late Tuesday. The Senate is considering a similar measure.
The U.S. military’s highest ranking officer says modern warfare is changing so quickly that Russian troops are killed by Ukrainian drones within minutes of reaching the front lines.
Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, spoke at the Air, Space & Cyber Conference outside Washington, where he talked about the rapid evolution of military technology.
Caine described Ukrainian drones that use “AI-enabled computer vision” to strike targets “even when there’s no GPS.”
“It shows how quickly software and autonomy are changing what is possible at the tactical edge, and the results are stark,” Caine said. “In certain locations on the front line of troops right now, the life expectancy of a new Russian recruit arriving on the front lines is as little as 20 to 30 minutes.”
A major scientific report has found that 12.5 trillion tons of ice from Greenland and Antarctica has melted since 1979. That’s enough to cover the continental United States in ice five feet high. The study published in Wednesday’s Scientific Data journal says satellite data shows the melting is accelerating, and abrupt changes are happening more often as the Earth grows warmer.
Trump has called climate change a “con job” and erased the very basis for federal climate regulations. He’s said that rising sea levels would only create more beachfront property.
In reality, study author Ines Otosaka says another 2 to 3 million more people get flooded at least once a year for every third of an inch of sea level rise, and the melting of the planet’s major ice sheets has tripled that. It’s already making the flooding worse in Miami, said Mark Serreze, director of the national snow and ice data center.
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Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh is barely four months into the job and stuck between two opposing forces: Financial markets that anticipate the central bank will raise interest rates, and Trump, who wants the Fed to cut them or leave them unchanged.
Economists expect Warsh and his fellow policymakers will side with the markets on Wednesday.
They say Warsh has largely boxed himself into a rate hike after delivering a high-profile speech last month warning that inflation remains too far above the Fed’s 2% target and might require higher borrowing costs to bring it down. A report last week showing inflation is still stubbornly high largely sealed investors’ expectations.
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Their lawyers blamed the activist’s assassination on a string of “reckless decisions” at Utah Valley University that exposed him to a rooftop sniper more than 400 feet away.
Kirk was shot while debating students in an outdoor courtyard surrounded by tall buildings with about 3,000 people in attendance. An Associated Press review showed the campus did not apply some standard safety measures. Campus police staffing was far below recommended levels for a school of that size. No drone was flown to monitor rooftops, and local law enforcement wasn’t brought in to secure the event. There were no bag checks or metal detectors.
“The risk of a rooftop shooter should have been especially top-of-mind given the attempted assassination of President Trump,” Kirk family attorney D. Loren Washburn wrote.
A spokesperson said the university’s “focus remains on supporting the campus community.”
About 6 in 10 Americans support limiting the number of new data centers that can be built, according to the new AP-NORC/EPIC poll. That includes majorities of Democrats and Republicans.
Roughly two-thirds of U.S. adults support requiring data centers to use clean energy sources, the poll found, and about 7 in 10 support requiring companies that build data centers to pay for the electric grid upgrades needed to support them.
Most Americans are “extremely” or “very” concerned about the impact of data centers on electricity prices or the water supply in the communities where they are built, the poll found. Data centers are powered by tremendous amounts of electricity, raising concerns about where that energy will come from.
Nancy Antunes, a 60-year-old Democrat from Waltham, Mass., told AP that she believes “decisions are being made for the company, not for the community that they’re being built in.”
President Donald Trump’s administration has cut or frozen roughly $177 billion in federal grants since his return to the White House in 2025, according to a new tracking tool released Wednesday by a pro-democracy nonprofit and a group of researchers and scientists.
The cuts affected all 50 states and the District of Columbia, with health, nutrition, the environment and disaster relief making up the largest share of cuts, the States United Democracy Center and Grant Witness organization found.
A message seeking comment was sent to the White House.
Four Republicans had previously voted in the House to halt the Iran war, but that number rose to seven during the latest war powers resolution vote.
GOP lawmakers from battleground Iowa, Rep. Zachary Nunn and Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks, and retiring Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina, joined GOP Reps. Tom Barrett of Michigan, Warren Davidson of Ohio, Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania and Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky in voting for the war powers resolution.
All Democrats also voted for the resolution to bring an end to the Iran war.
Trump will travel to North Carolina on Wednesday to rally with Republican Senate nominee Michael Whatley as the former national party chairman tries to shore up his campaign against Democratic former Gov. Roy Cooper.
It's the first campaign rally for Trump since his unusual midterm convention in Dallas. The president, despite voter frustrations over the Iran war and his economic leadership, has promised dozens more trips ahead of Election Day. Trump’s involvement creates a balancing act for Republicans like Whatley, who will depend on the president’s core supporters to turn out while also trying to appeal to moderates and disaffected conservatives unhappy with the direction of the country.
Whatley was the president’s pick for the Senate race and Trump’s pick to lead the Republican National Committee before that. Republicans viewed him as a strong recruit to hold the seat being left open by Sen. Thom Tillis, who decided to retire after clashing with the president last year. But Whatley, who is making his first bid for public office, has trailed Cooper in fundraising in recent months and polling from over the summer showed Cooper with at least a slight lead.
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FBI Director Kash Patel defended Tuesday a recent policy change to allow some applicants who have engaged in prostitution and bestiality to be considered for employment, insisting that the move was made to enable victims of those acts to apply for a job without fear of automatic disqualification.
The subject arose during a fiery Senate Judiciary Committee hearing in which Patel clashed with Democrats over his firing of agents who participated in investigations of Trump and suggested that agents might be dispatched to the polls on Election Day amid Justice Department and White House concerns about voter fraud.
Testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee, FBI Director Kash Patel says the bureau is fulfilling its key mission -- keeping Americans safe.
The hours-long hearing featured the name-calling and bitingly personal exchanges that have come to define Patel’s appearances on Capitol Hill, with Democrats characterizing the Trump appointee as unqualified, criticizing him for politically charged investigations into Trump’s enemies and highlighting travel that has included a trip to the Winter Olympics in Italy in which he partied with U.S. hockey players and a snorkeling excursion at the Pearl Harbor memorial in Hawaii.
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The Trump-aligned Kennedy Center board voted Tuesday to close most of the iconic performing arts venue just hours after a federal judge blocked the institution from returning Trump’s name to the building.
In a social media post, Trump said the closure was needed for safety repairs. But he said the repairs, which Congress has allocated $257 million to cover, would only happen if the board was allowed to move forward with plans to add his name to the building. A federal judge has twice said that can’t happen without the approval of Congress.
“Simply put, Defendants cannot install memorials for President Trump or anyone or anything else at the Kennedy Center without Congress’s blessing,” U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper said in the latest ruling Tuesday.
The Justice Department appealed the ruling. Trump, who was named the Kennedy Center’s chairman last year by loyalists on the board, participated in the virtual board meeting and said on social media he’d given $17 million to an endowment intended to support the institution.
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For a third time, the U.S. House has voted to end the war in Iran, approving a war powers resolution that would halt President Donald Trump’s ability to continue military action without congressional approval.
The roll call late Tuesday, 220-204, was similar to earlier efforts this summer, with a few more Republicans joining all Democrats voting to bring an end to the conflict. None of the resolutions have made it to the president’s desk, where Trump would almost certainly veto the measure.
The action is likely the last House vote on the Iran war ahead of the midterm elections, where the conflict overseas is playing a substantial role in the political campaigns. The war that Trump launched Feb. 28 has dragged, with on-again, off-again deadly missile strikes being exchanged and causing havoc in the region for nearly seven months.
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File - OpenAI CEO Sam Altman speaks in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, June 6, 2023. (AP Photo/Jon Gambrell, File)
U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche takes questions during a news briefing in the Rose Garden of the White House, Tuesday, Sept. 15, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington is photographed just after sunset, Tuesday, Sept. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)
President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump, attend a ceremony to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks at the Pentagon, Friday, Sept. 11, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta) (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
