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PRISTINA, KOSOVO — Persistent ethnic tension in north Kosovo could trigger a repeat of violence seen in the area last year when four people died in a gun battle and NATO peacekeepers were hurt in clashes, a senior official from the military alliance warned Saturday. Kosovo is predominantly ethnic Albanian, but about 50,000 Serbs in the north reject Pristina's government and see Belgrade as their capital. A former Serbian province, Kosovo declared independence in 2008, a decade after a guerrilla uprising. U.S. Navy Admiral Stuart B. Munsch, commander of the Allied Joint Force Command Naples — which oversees NATO's peacekeeping force in Kosovo — said the alliance remained concerned about the risk of repeated violence in the volatile north. "Heated political rhetoric could inspire some nongovernment forces to commit violence such as what happened last year," Munsch told reporters in Pristina. "I would not say that definitely conflict is coming; I think there is a persistent risk," he said, referring to a lack of progress in EU-mediated talks between Kosovo's government and Serbia. A police officer and three gunmen were killed in September 2023 when a group of heavily armed attackers entered from Serbia and attacked police in the village of Banjska. Four months earlier, more than 90 soldiers were injured when Serb protesters attacked NATO peacekeepers. Kosovo has accused Serbia of being behind the Banjska attack, but Belgrade has denied the accusations. The U.S. and the European Union, Kosovo's leading global allies, have criticized the Pristina government for taking unilateral actions in the north that could spark ethnic violence and risk the lives of some 4,000 NATO troops on duty there. Kosovo rejects such criticism, and the issue has strained Pristina's ties with its Western supporters. As part of the EU-mediated dialogue, Kosovo and Serbia have been holding talks for more than a decade to normalize their relations, but there has been little progress. Like the Serbs living in north Kosovo, Belgrade also considers Kosovo to be part of Serbia and refuses to recognize it as an independent state.

SAO PAULO — More than 1.6 million people in Sao Paulo were without power on Saturday more than 16 hours after a brief but powerful storm swept through South America's largest city. Officials in Sao Paulo state said that record wind gusts Friday night of up to 108 kilometers per hour knocked down transmission lines and uprooted trees, causing severe damage in some parts. The storm also shut down several airports and interrupted water service in several areas, according to the Sao Paulo state government. Authorities originally expected to restore power within a few hours. But several neighborhoods in the metropolitan area, which is home to 21 million people, were still in the dark on Saturday and authorities were urging residents to limit their consumption of water. One person died when a tree fell on an outdoor stall, authorities said. At least four other people in surrounding Sao Paulo state also died.

DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES — Iran has sent two locally made satellites to Russia to be put into orbit by a Russian space vehicle, the semi-official news agency Tasnim reported Saturday, in the latest space cooperation between the two U.S.-sanctioned countries. The development of Kowsar, a high-resolution imaging satellite, and Hodhod, a small communications satellite, is the first substantial effort by Iran's private space sector, the report said. Russia sent Iranian satellites into orbit in February and in 2022, when U.S. officials voiced concern over space cooperation between Russia and Iran, fearing the satellite will not only help Russia in Ukraine but also help Iran monitor potential military targets in Israel and the wider Middle East. Kowsar could be used in agriculture, natural resource management, environmental monitoring and disaster management, Tasnim said. Hodhod is designed for satellite-based communications and could be used in remote areas with little access to terrestrial networks. In September, Iran carried out its second satellite launch this year using a rocket built by its Revolutionary Guards. The launch came as the United States and European countries accuse Tehran of transferring ballistic missiles to Russia that could be used in its war with Ukraine. Iran has denied this.

SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA — The powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on Saturday accused South Korea of deliberately avoiding responsibility for the alleged flights of South Korean drones over the North’s capital and warned of a “terrible calamity” if they continue. The statement by Kim Yo Jong came a day after North Korea’s Foreign Ministry claimed that South Korean drones carrying anti-North Korean propaganda leaflets were detected in the night skies over Pyongyang on Wednesday and Thursday, as well as on October 3. The ministry said North Korean forces will prepare “all means of attack” capable of destroying the southern side of the border and the South Korean military — and respond without warning if South Korean drones are detected in its territory again. South Korea’s defense minister initially denied the accusation, but the South’s military later adjusted its response, saying it couldn’t confirm whether the North’s claims were true. In comments published through state media, Kim, one of her brother’s top foreign policy officials, said that the South Korean military’s vague statements should be taken as proof that it was “either the main culprit or accomplice in this incident.” “If the military stood by while its own citizens employed drones, a widely recognized multi-purpose military tool, to violate another country’s sovereignty, thereby increasing the risk of armed conflict with a potential adversary, this would amount to intentional acquiescence and collusion,” she said. “The moment a South Korean drone is discovered once again in skies above our capital, a terrible calamity will surely occur. I personally hope that does not happen,” she said. South Korea’s military and government didn’t immediately respond to Kim’s comments. Tensions between the Koreas are now at their worst in years as the pace of both North Korea’s missile tests and the South’s combined military training with the United States have intensified in tit-for-tat. The animosity has been exacerbated by Cold War-style psychological warfare campaigns between the Koreas in recent months. Since May, North Korea has sent thousands of balloons carrying paper waste, plastic and other trash to drop on the South, in what it described as retaliation against South Korean civilian activists who flew balloons with anti-North Korean propaganda leaflets across the border. South Korea’s military responded to the North’s balloon campaign by using border loudspeakers to broadcast propaganda and K-pop to North Korea. North Korea is extremely sensitive to any outside criticism of the authoritarian government of leader Kim Jong Un and his family’s dynastic rule. South Korean officials have been raising concern that North Korea may seek to dial up pressure on Seoul and Washington ahead of the U.S. presidential election in November. Experts say Kim's long-term goal is to eventually force Washington to accept North Korea as a nuclear power and to negotiate security and economic concessions from a position of strength. In written answers to questions by The Associated Press this month, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol said North Korea is likely preparing major provocations around the U.S. election, possibly including a test detonation of a nuclear device or flight test of an intercontinental ballistic missile, as it tries to grab Washington’s attention.

MOSCOW — An explosion at a gas station in Russia’s southern region of Chechnya killed at least four people, officials said Saturday. The explosion of a gas tank triggered a fire at the service station in the regional capital, Grozny, said Russia’s Emergencies Ministry, adding that two children were among the dead. The fire was extinguished. Grozny is about 1,500 kilometers south of Moscow. Regional authorities said a criminal investigation was opened. Last month an explosion at a gas station in the neighboring region of Dagestan killed at least 13 people and injured 23 others.

OSLO, NORWAY — Norway is introducing temporary border checks on its frontiers with other Western European nations after the domestic security agency raised the terror threat level, police said Saturday. The checks will apply until October 22, according to a police statement. It cited “a challenging threat picture” and the October 8 announcement by the security agency PST that it was increasing Norway's threat level from “moderate” to “high,” the second-highest level on a five-tier scale. PST pointed to an increased threat to Jewish and Israeli targets in particular. Norway isn't a member of the European Union, but the country is part of the European ID-check free-travel zone known as the Schengen area. It has land borders with EU and Schengen members Sweden and Finland. The border-free Schengen area guarantees free movement to more than 425 million EU citizens, along with non-EU nationals living in the EU or visiting the EU as tourists, as exchange students or for business purposes. That free movement of people is said to enable EU citizens to travel, work and live in an EU country without special formalities. The Schengen area encompasses most EU countries, with the exceptions of Cyprus and Ireland. Bulgaria and Romania are the newest countries to join the Schengen area, as of March 2024, meaning any person crossing the internal air and sea borders will no longer be subject to checks. Norway police said that the new temporary controls won't involve all travelers being checked, and that there's no reason to expect delays at border crossings.

The American Psychiatric Association says that as elections approach, stress levels go up, regardless of political affiliation. The constant stream of news, stressful arguments and concerns about the country's future all put pressure on mental well-being. Some psychologists call it election stress disorder. Maxim Adams has the story. Videographer: Andre Sergunin

WARSAW, POLAND — Poland's leader said Saturday that he plans to temporarily suspend the right to asylum as part of a new migration policy, pointing to its alleged abuse by eastern neighbors Belarus and Russia. Prime Minister Donald Tusk said that “the state must regain 100% of the control over who enters and leaves Poland,” and that a territorial suspension of the right to asylum will be part of a strategy that will be presented to a Cabinet meeting Tuesday, Polish news agency PAP reported. He didn't give details but said at a convention of his Civic Coalition that “we will reduce illegal migration in Poland to a minimum." Poland has struggled with migration pressures on its border with Belarus since 2021. Successive Polish governments have accused Belarus and Russia of luring migrants from the Middle East and Africa there to destabilize the West. Tusk pointed to alleged misuse of the right to asylum “by [Belarusian President Alexander] Lukashenko, by [Russian President Vladimir] Putin, by smugglers, human smugglers, human traffickers. How this right to asylum is used is in exact contradiction to the idea of the right to asylum." He said that he would demand recognition of the decision on the right to asylum from the European Union, PAP reported. Tusk's comments came after Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski said Thursday that Poland will tighten its visa regulations, stepping up the vetting of applicants. That decision follows an investigation into a cash-for-visas scandal under the country's previous government.

WASHINGTON — U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris is in “excellent health” and “possesses the physical and mental resiliency” required to serve as president, her doctor said in a letter released Saturday that summarizes her medical history and status. Dr. Joshua Simmons, a U.S. Army colonel and physician to the vice president, wrote that Harris, 59, maintains a healthy, active lifestyle and that her most recent physical, in April, was “unremarkable.” She “possesses the physical and mental resiliency required to successfully execute the duties of the Presidency, to include those as Chief Executive, Head of State and Commander in Chief,” he wrote in a two-page letter. Harris' campaign hopes to use the moment to draw a contrast with Republican Donald Trump, who has released only limited information about his health over the years, and raise questions about his fitness to serve, according to a campaign aide who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters. Trump has released very little health information, including after his ear was grazed by a bullet during an assassination attempt in July. Simmons, who said he has been Harris’ primary care physician for the past 3½ years, said the vice president has a history of allergies and urticaria, also known as hives, for which she has been on allergen immunotherapy for the past three years. Simmons said Harris’ latest blood work and other test results were “unremarkable.” Also in the report: Harris wears contact lenses for mild nearsightedness; her family history includes maternal colon cancer; she is up to date on preventive care recommendations, including having a colonoscopy and annual mammograms. As Harris' office released the medical report, her campaign highlighted recent media reports raising questions about Trump's health and mental acuity and his failure to provide information about health status and medical history. Trump, 78, eagerly questioned President Joe Biden's health when the 81-year-old president was seeking reelection. Since Biden was replaced on the ticket with Harris, Trump's own health has drawn more attention. Last November, Trump marked Biden's birthday by releasing a letter from his physician that reported the former president was in “excellent” physical and mental health. The letter, posted on Trump’s social media platform, contained no details to support its claims — measures such as weight, blood pressure and cholesterol levels, or the results of any test.

BEIRUT — A series of U.S. airstrikes targeted several camps run by the Islamic State group in Syria in an operation the U.S. military said will disrupt the extremists from conducting attacks in the region and beyond. The U.S. Central Command said the airstrikes were conducted Friday, without specifying in which parts of Syria. About 900 U.S. troops have been deployed in eastern Syria alongside the U.S.-backed and Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces that were instrumental in the fight against IS militants. Despite their defeat, attacks by IS sleeper cells in Iraq and Syria have been on the rise over the past years, with scores of people killed or wounded. The Islamic State group seized territory at the height of its power and declared a caliphate in large parts of Iraq and Syria in 2014 but was defeated in Iraq in 2017. In March 2019, the extremists lost the last sliver of land they once controlled in eastern Syria. The U.S. military said the strikes will disrupt the ability of the Islamic State group to plan, organize and conduct attacks against the United States, its allies and partners, as well as civilians throughout the region and beyond. It said battle damage assessments were underway and there were no civilian casualties. Last month, Iraq’s military said that Iraqi forces and American troops killed a senior IS commander who was wanted by the United States, as well as several other prominent militants. At its peak, the group ruled an area half the size of the United Kingdom where it enforced its extreme interpretation of Islam, which included attacks on religious minority groups and harsh punishment of Muslims deemed to be apostates.

YAOUNDE, CAMEROON — Humanitarian groups in Cameroon are visiting homes and villages in remote areas this week to mark Breast Cancer Awareness Month, advising women to go to hospitals for free screening and treatment. About 60% of the more than 7,000 women diagnosed with breast cancer in Cameroon this year have died because they were late in getting to hospitals, officials say. Breast cancer deaths are highly unreported because families abandon women to die at home. Thirty-year-old history student Emilie Nadege Atangana told a group of women and girls at the University of Yaounde 1 campus how she was psychologically and emotionally traumatized after receiving a diagnosis of breast cancer in 2020. Most of her relatives, friends and fellow students said she would not live long and abandoned her, she said. Atangana said she found hope when medical staff members of the Yaounde Gynaecology, Obstetrics and Pediatrics Hospital told her that 90% of early-stage breast cancers are curable. Cameroonian government officials and humanitarian groups say cancer survivors such as Atangana have been sent to towns and villages as part of activities marking “Pink Month.” The World Health Organization designates October as Pink Month, a time to teach people about cancer, including early identification and signs and symptoms. Forty-two-year-old Mesode Ngwese Agbaw, a cancer survivor, said people should stop hiding cancer patients at home to die because of the false belief that cancer cannot be treated. "You don't need to hide alone with your pain,” she said. “Share it with somebody, and the people will be ready to help you. I was operated on and after the operation, I have been following treatment and till now, I am fine." This year's theme for the month in Cameroon is "No one Should Face Breast Cancer Alone and Yes, No One is Expected to Fight Breast Cancer Alone." Ruth Amin, a public health specialist and project manager at the Yaounde-based Lifafa Research Foundation, said that sending people suspected of having breast cancer to hospitals would prevent many of the deaths caused because the women were abandoned or got to a hospital too late. "We are calling on the men to support their spouses, to support their mothers, to support their sisters in raising awareness, in carrying them to the hospitals to be clinically examined by professionals,” she said. “Women should speak up,” she said. “Women should go toward the health facilities to get examined because the earlier they are being diagnosed, the easier it would be for them to be treated." Amin spoke to VOA via a messaging app from Buea, a southern commercial city where humanitarian caravans were educating residents about breast cancer on Saturday. Cameroon says it has equipped all hospitals with qualified medical staff members and equipment to diagnose breast cancer. The World Health Organization estimates that Cameroon has about 20,000 new cancer cases, including breast cancers, each year, with 65% related deaths.

Kyiv, Ukraine — Russia said on Saturday it had downed 47 Ukrainian drones while Kyiv reported neutralized 24 drones fired by Moscow. The Ukrainian air force said many missiles were fired from the Russian border region of Belgorod, without specifying the number or the type. It said Russia had fired 28 drones at Ukraine, of which 24 were destroyed in the Sumy, Poltava, Dnipropetrovsk, Mikolayev and Kherson regions. The Ukrainian chief of staff also said Kyiv's forces had struck a fuel depot overnight in the eastern Russian-occupied Lugansk region, setting it on fire. It did not give any details. Moscow did not confirm the attack. But the Russian defense ministry said its forces had downed 47 Ukrainian drones overnight, including 17 in the southeastern Krasnodar region, 16 over the Azov Sea and 12 over the border region of Lursk. The Krasnodar governor said on Telegram that Ukrainian drone attacks had damaged three homes and set a vehicle on fire. Russian forces have made advances across the eastern front line and targeted Ukraine's power grid as the country faces its toughest winter since the full-scale Russian invasion started in February 2022.

chicago — With a neon-green net in hand, Annette Prince briskly walks a downtown Chicago plaza at dawn, looking left and right as she goes. It's not long before she spots a tiny yellow bird sitting on the concrete. It doesn't fly away, and she quickly nets the bird, gently places it inside a paper bag and labels the bag with the date, time and place. "This is a Nashville warbler," said Prince, director of the Chicago Bird Collision Monitors, noting that the bird must have flown into a glass window pane of an adjacent building. "He must only weigh about two pennies. He's squinting his eyes because his head hurts." For rescue groups like the Chicago Bird Collision Monitors, this scene plays out hundreds of times each spring and fall after migrating birds fly into homes, small buildings and sometimes Chicago's skyscrapers and other hulking buildings. A stark sign of the risks came last fall, when 1,000 migrating birds died on a single night after flying into the glass exterior of the city's lakefront convention center, McCormick Place. This fall, the facility unveiled new bird-safe window film on one of its glass buildings along the Lake Michigan shore. The $1.2 million project installed tiny dots on the exterior of the Lakeside Center building, adorning enough glass to cover two football fields. Doug Stotz, senior conservation ecologist at the nearby Field Museum, hopes the project will be a success. He estimated that just 20 birds have died after flying into the convention's center's glass exterior so far this fall, a hopeful sign. "We don't have a lot of data since this just started this fall, but at this point, it looks like it's made a huge difference," Stotz said. But for the birds that collide with Chicago buildings, there is a network of people waiting to help. They also are aiming to educate officials and find solutions to improve building design, lighting and other factors in the massive number of bird collision deaths in Chicago and worldwide. Prince said she and other volunteers walk the streets downtown to document what they can of the birds that are killed and injured. "We have the combination of the millions of birds that pass through this area because it's a major migratory path through the United States, on top of the amount of artificial lighting that we put out at night, which is when these birds are traveling and getting confused and attracted to the amount of glass," Prince said. Dead birds are often saved for scientific use, including by Chicago's Field Museum of Natural History. Rescued birds are taken to local wildlife rehabilitation centers to recover, such as the DuPage Wildlife Conservation Center in suburban Illinois. On a recent morning, veterinarian Darcy Stephenson at DuPage gave a yellow-bellied sapsucker anesthetic gas before taping its wings open for an X-ray. The bird arrived with a note from a rescue group: "Window collision." Examining the results, she found the bird had a broken ulna — a bone in the wing. The center takes in about 10,000 species of animals annually and 65% of them are avian. Many are victims of window collisions and during peak migration in the fall, several hundred birds can show up in one day. "The large chunk of these birds do actually survive and make it back into the wild once we're able to treat them," said Sarah Reich, head veterinarian at DuPage. "Fractures heal very, very quickly in these guys for shoulder fractures. Soft tissue trauma generally heals pretty well. The challenging cases are going to be the ones where the trauma isn't as apparent." Injured birds go through a process of flight testing, then get a full physical exam by the veterinary staff and are rehabilitated before being set free. "It's exciting to be able to get these guys back out into the wild, especially some of those cases that we're kind of cautiously optimistic about or maybe have an injury that we've never treated successfully before," Reich said, adding that these are the cases "clinic staff get really, really excited about."

Sviati Hory National Nature Park, Ukraine — Serhiy Tsapok surveyed the smoldering ruins of pine trees, blackened stumps as far as the eye could see.   "They're dead now," the weary ranger said of the trees he'd nursed for almost two decades. The 41-year-old's daily route through the Ukrainian forests, once a joy, has become a nightmare.   The fire he fought, caused by a blast of undetermined cause, wiped out three hectares of 80-year-old pine trees at the Sviati Hory National Nature Park in eastern Ukraine, according to officials there. Four-fifths of the park's nearly 12,000 hectares have been damaged or destroyed by fires or ordnance, they said.   It's a tiny portion of the damage caused by the war, which has brutalized the landscape of Ukraine and much of its 10 million hectares of forests. Both Russian and Ukrainian armies blast thousands of shells at each other every day, shredding the earth in grinding combat that echoes the trench warfare of World War I.    Reuters spoke to nearly 20 specialists in the field, including forest rangers, ecologists, demining experts and government officials, who provided a detailed picture of the ruin wrought on Ukraine's forests by the 31-month-old war.   Russian authorities didn't respond to requests for comment for this article. 'Enormous' loss The director of the Sviati Hory park, Serhiy Pryimachuk, told Reuters that Russian munitions had burned vast tracts of the area, once a rare and beloved beauty spot in a heavily industrialized region. "What we have lost is enormous," he said. Tending to forests is now a perilous occupation, with mines and unexploded shells hidden in the ground posing the biggest threat. Ranger Oleksandr Polovynko, 39, nearly lost a foot after stepping on a mine while tending the forest last year. "I crawled back to the car and drove home with one leg," he recalled. It took him six months to return to work. All that remains of many forests in eastern Ukraine are fields of stripped, broken trunks. Local wildlife, including deer, boars and woodpeckers, have been badly affected by the loss of habitats, the experts said. In northern Ukraine's Chernobyl nature reserve, the pre-war population of over 100 Przewalski's horses - a globally endangered species of wild horse - has been hit hard by the conflict, according to Oleh Lystopad, an ecologist with the ANTS advocacy group who said landmines were making it difficult to extinguish fires. "Right now, it's in question to what extent this species can continue to exist there," Lystopad said. Bleak legacy The damage to forests is part of a broader trail of environmental destruction caused by the war, which could leave a bleak natural legacy for decades to come, having poisoned the soil and rivers, polluted the air and left vast tracts of the country riddled with mines, according to the experts.    The dense pine forests common to eastern Ukraine catch alight easily and have been decimated by the conflict, said Brian Milakovsky, a U.S.-based forester who until recently lived and worked in Ukraine for eight years.    The war has torn through the habitats of some unique flora such as the chalk pine, a rare subspecies of Scots pine, according to ecologists and park officials. Milakovsky said the environmental crisis was particularly acute in Russian-held areas - nearly a fifth of Ukraine - where occupation authorities appeared to have little capacity to extinguish forest fires. He estimated about 80% of the pine forests in the eastern region of Luhansk had been destroyed. About 425,000 hectares of forest across the country have been contaminated by mines and unexploded ordnance, according to the environment ministry. Authorities say they still need to inspect up to 3 million hectares of forest that are or have been occupied by Russian forces and are likely riddled with mines and ordnance. The foresters interviewed said the Russians were heavily dug in and left booby traps and tripwires behind as they retreated. "If we want to extinguish a fire quickly, it's impossible because the entire territory is mined," Ruslan Strilets, who was Ukraine's environment minister when he was interviewed in July. "There is a risk of being killed or maimed." Indeed, on top of serious injuries to rangers like Polovynko, 14 forest workers have been killed by landmines, booby traps or shelling during the conflict, according to environment ministry data. Decades of work, billions of dollars The specialists interviewed said repairing the damage to the forests would take decades and cost billions of dollars. Some doubted whether some heavily mined areas of forest would ever be cleared, citing past examples of forests declared no-go zones after previous European wars. The official estimate is that demining all contaminated territory, including forests and other areas such as agricultural land, will take 70 years, Strilets, who has since been replaced as environment minister, told Reuters in Kyiv on July 22. Four ecologists with expertise in Ukrainian forests said the subsequent process of regenerating damaged areas would be complex and could take decades, plus billions of dollars of investment. According to a June 2024 study on the Ukraine war's carbon emissions, conflict-related forest fires directly emitted greenhouse gases equivalent to 6.75 million metric tons of carbon dioxide, the equivalent of the annual emissions of Armenia. Ukraine has also lost the carbon capture potential of those burned trees. The World Bank estimated in February that the damage wrought by the war on forests and other protected natural areas, including marshes and wetlands, exceeded $30 billion. 

BUENOS AIRES — Argentina's triple-digit inflation, among the world's highest, is starting to slow down but this offers little relief for workers whose salaries have stayed the same while costs of basic goods skyrocketed and the government slashed state subsidies. "We're losing track of what's expensive and what's cheap," said university professor Daniel Vazquez while shopping in Buenos Aires. "Prices keep going up and the only thing that isn't going up is salaries." "The gap is very, very big," he said. While annualized inflation in September remained well into the triple digits at 209%, month-on-month price hikes slowed to their lowest level since late 2021 at 3.5%, data from the national statistics agency showed on Thursday. The data landed in line with the forecasts of analysts, who predict that inflation will end 2024 at 124%. Libertarian President Javier Milei has cut subsidies to sectors such as energy and transportation, while vowing to trim what he calls bloat in the public sector, shuttering some offices and trimming jobs. "You've never seen inflation being fought like this before. It takes a little longer but it's genuine," Milei wrote on X after the inflation data was published Thursday. The tough austerity drive has prolonged a recession and caused poverty rates to surge to around 53%. Computer programmer Ivan Cortesi, 30, said that while food prices remained similar to last month, utility costs rose significantly. "This past month there has been a significant increase in all utilities," he said. According to the statistics agency, rents as well as water, power and gas prices led monthly inflation, up over 7%, followed by clothing and shoes which rose 6% and education costs that increased over 4%. Food prices increased just 2% from last month but more than tripled their level from a year ago, while housing and utility costs nearly quadrupled. Cigarettes, alcohol, health care, transport and communications also tracked annual inflation well above 200%. Milei devalued the local currency when he took office in December, and the sharp spending cuts have particularly hit informal workers, civil servants, pensioners, doctors and teachers. On Wednesday, Argentina's Congress failed to overturn Milei's controversial veto of a law that would have shored up university spending in line with inflation, following mass protests by students and university workers against the measure. Milei has vowed to veto any law that threatens the fiscal balance.

PAIMADO, Colombia — Sediment and pebbles are all that's left on the earth around much of Bernardino Mosquera's small riverside community in northwest Colombia's Choco region.  Just a year ago, healthy shrubs and trees filled this important biodiversity spot teeming with species native to the land. But then illegal miners arrived, using their heavy machinery to dredge the riverbeds for gold.  "It's just desert here," said Mosquera. "Illegal mining affects the ecosystem in every way … it leads to degraded land. There are no trees. The water sources are drying up, it's polluted by mercury."  Mosquera is a river guardian, a title bestowed upon him and 13 others. The unpaid guardians serve as the eyes and ears of the Atrato River: They liaise with government institutions on environmental and social issues in the face of aggression from armed groups and hope to reverse the devastation they see along the river. But after eight years, they are increasingly disenchanted by the lack of support from institutions and growing threats from armed groups that control the region.  Colombia's constitutional court declared in 2016 that the Atrato River running alongside this 2,500-person town was so important to life, it would have rights equivalent to a human. The region is home to thousands of species, with 25% of its plant and bird species endemic, according to the United Nations Development Programme. The river's legal status was a first for Latin America, and when the guardians were established.  "It's an unbreakable marriage between its inhabitants and the rivers," Mosquera, 62, said. "That's why we have to defend the Atrato."  Illegal gold mining has become the fastest-growing criminal economy over the past decade in South America. The boom began in Colombia and Peru and expanded to Ecuador, Venezuela and Brazil.  Illegal mining rife in Choco  Paimado, like many towns in the Choco region, is an illegal mining hub firmly in the control of the largest criminal organization in the country, known as Gulf Clan. Early each morning, small wooden boats carry plastic gasoline containers to feed the mining machinery dotted along the Atrato, a river that snakes some 750 kilometers (470 miles) through northern Colombian jungles.  Dozens of illegal mines pepper the river between Mosquera's home in Paimado — which lies on Rio Quito, the Atrato River's main tributary — and the state capital Quibdo.  Large wooden rafts propped on stilts reach deep into the riverbed to extract material that is sifted through the machine for gold. Deep inside the banks of the river, another type of mining takes place with heavier machinery. It is here that deforestation is glaringly evident.  Drone footage taken by The Associated Press shows large patches of empty land that stretch long behind the riverbanks.  "Many people think that because it looks very green there is no deforestation," said river guardian and agronomist Maryuri Mosquera, 42.  High rates of poverty have pushed many into gold mining, work that destroys land and contaminates their river. That destruction then destroys the local economy, making communities even more dependent on mining.  Colombia's human rights ombudsman's office said in April the government is failing to protect the river, saying "there is no evidence of any progress" since the river gained personhood. It called on the environment ministry to comply with the 2016 ruling.  In a written response, Colombia's environment ministry said its Minister Susana Muhamad has been coordinating efforts with the Ministry of Defense "to protect this important ecosystem." It added that a program will soon begin to work with the communities to restore the Atrato River basin and its tributaries.  Community lifeline destroyed  The Atrato River has long been an important source of water, food and transport for its rural, mostly Afro-Colombian residents who built communities on the riverbanks.  The tiny village of El Arenal along the Atrato is home to river guardian Juan Carlos Palacios, 33, who said that his role is a triumph for the Black communities who fought for the 2016 ruling.  "It makes me feel very sad when I see machinery pass by continually, without any controls. They arrive on our land and we can't even say anything, because the miners come along with armed actors," Palacios said.  For most of his life — even sometimes now — Palacios has been involved in artisanal gold mining. A short canoe ride to the other side of the river from El Arenal is his mother, bent over with a hoe and a wooden gold sifting pan. This has been her life since she can remember.  "I think that if I stop doing this, I'll die quickly, because I'm so used to it," said Ana Palacios Cuesta with a laugh. "The dredgers have emptied the whole river, so we hardly get anything anymore."  The tiny amounts of gold sediment she collects are sold in the nearby town of Yuto, or in Quibdo, about 40 minutes away.  'No other option' Mercury and arsenic offer the industrial-scale miners a low-tech solution to extract the gold. But they get pumped into the water, poisoning the river and the surrounding lands. The tactic has been killing marine life, changing the natural flow of the river, and further debilitating some of the most vulnerable communities in the country.  Palacios, who has a degree in biology, said fish in the river have been "highly contaminated" by mercury, which gets passed through fish to humans and can cause damage to vital organs.  "Of course we continue to consume them because we have no other option," he said.  Local women and their children stand in the river to wash their dishes and clothes, something only the most rural and needy communities do nowadays over fear of the water's contamination.  Guardians face violence, threats  The guardians have a precarious job in an area controlled largely by rebel and criminal armed groups, like leftist guerrillas the National Liberation Army and Gulf Clan.  Mining machinery along the banks are overseen by these groups and miners are forced to pay them protection money — known locally as "vacuna" — to be allowed to operate freely without becoming targets.  "The act of raising awareness and denouncing the situations that the Atrato basin is experiencing means we face certain risks," said guardian Maryuri Mosquera, especially her guardian colleagues in more rural areas.  Guardian Bernardino Mosquera has a bulletproof vest provided by the state after he got multiple death threats over the years, the last one in March. He has been kidnapped by Gulf Clan and had bullet shells placed under his door on several occasions "as warnings."  He almost quit.  "But I realized that if we pull out of the process, we are giving them strength ... no one is going to want to say what is happening, you'll end up riddled with bullets," Mosquera said as the tropical rain lashed the tin roof of his home.  "We must continue to make the process visible. It's the only way for them (armed groups) to feel that we, too, are in the territory. So that stopped me and made me carry on ... And here I am." 

new orleans, louisiana — Louisiana's Cajun and Creole heritage takes center stage this weekend when the Festivals Acadiens et Creoles marks a half-century of honoring and celebrating the culture through music, arts, food and community.  What started as a one day concert in 1974 to entertain 150 French-speaking journalists gathered in Lafayette — considered the heart of Cajun country — has grown into a three-day event and possibly one of the largest Cajun and Zydeco festivals in the world, organizers said. And, they note, the entire event is free.  Barry Jean Ancelet, one of the event's organizers, said when the idea formed 50 years ago, nobody knew if anyone would even come to hear the music.  "Cajun music at that time was largely considered 'old people's music,'" he said. "You've got to remember, we were in the throes of Rock 'n' Roll at the time. The people here loved it when they encountered it in dance halls, but this concert was designed to call attention to the music in a different way, to point out its value. They had to sit — not dance — and pay attention. And they ended up hearing it in a different way. It was so successful. We ended up turning it into an annual event where we could call positive attention to this important asset and get people to consider it."  The festival, now held annually in Lafayette's Girard Park, brings together multi-generations of musicians and artists who annually fight to preserve a culture that continues to evolve.  "We've always been about celebrating the past and handing it off to the future," Ancelet said. "If you value and respect evolution, the culture will produce things that will continue to surprise you. It all comes out in the wash. What's good will last and what's not, won't."  Festival co-founder Pat Mould said the festival is a "self-celebration of who we are, how we live, what we eat, the music and how we speak."  "If you know nothing and want to learn about the culture, this one weekend out of the year allows you to find out everything. Everything you want to know is represented at the festival. It's a quick study of Cajun and Creole living," he said.  Event features homegrown talent On tap musically for the Friday through Sunday event are performances by 60 musicians — all homegrown talent — including Steve Riley and the Mamou Playboys, Wayne Toups, CJ Chenier, Nathan and the Zydeco Cha Chas, Chubby Carrier and the Bayou Swamp Band, The Revelers, Beausoleil avec Michael Doucet and The Lost Bayou Ramblers.  On Friday, contemporary artists will pay tribute to the 1974 concert house band that included Zydeco pioneer Clifton Chenier, Cajun accordion maker Marc Savoy, the Balfa Brothers, a Cajun music ensemble of five brothers, Cajun accordion players Nathan Abshire and Blackie Forrester, and Jimmy C. Newman, a country music and Cajun singer-songwriter and long-time star of the Grand Ole Opry.  "Get ready for Louisiana pure fun," said Carrier, who's scheduled to perform with his band on Sunday. "Get ready to eat some really good food and have the time of your life."  "People all over the word have these dates circled on their calendar," he continued. "It's an event that helps the younger generations continue the traditions. I'm a third generation Zydeco musician. This is a family oriented festival that brings people together of all ages."  A 'celebration of everything Cajun' Riley, who's been performing at this festival since 1988, said he keeps returning for several reasons but especially because it helps preserve the culture.  "It's important to see us on stage, singing and speaking in French. That has an effect on people who come to see us and helps them fall in love with the culture," he said.  "There are a lot of events leading up to the weekend that focuses on the importance of the language, the culture, the food and, of course, the music. There's none other that celebrates it like this one. I think it's the biggest complete celebration of everything Cajun. It's also inclusive of different generations, bands with lineage. That's key," he said.  Riley, now 55, said he's very proud that his three children play music.  "It's a beautiful thing for my family and others like mine," he said. "Having your kids play with you is awesome. Most kids don't want to have anything to do with what their parents do. Mine think what I do is fun and it is."  Riley said when he first started there weren't too many young bands playing Cajun music.  "There was real fear that the music would die off and dissipate like the language," he said. "The opposite has happened. More young folks are preserving and playing this music than ever. The Zydeco scene down here is packed with young people. It's super vibrant and alive. The same with the Cajun scene as well."