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The Turkish northeast Syria offensive launched on 9 October in the wake of United States President Trump’s decision to pull US troops out of the region, has “severely impacted” an already dire humanitarian situation, says the UN, with civilians fleeing the border areas, including into neighboring Iraq. However clashes continued on the border between Turkey and Syria, according to eyewitnesses and Kurdish fighters, despite US Vice President Mike Pence’s announcement that he and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had brokered a ceasefire there. A handful of Christian-led aid groups remain in northeast Syria, despite pullbacks from major aid organizations. Nearly 300,000 residents have fled the fighting, and hundreds have been killed, including at least 18 children, according to the United Nations. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights confirmed that Turkey’s militias had initially prevented a convoy from the Kurdish Red Crescent and the Free Burma Rangers from entering Ras al-Ain to provide aid. It said it expected casualties to rise due to the high number of wounded who can’t access medical care. Turkey has justified its offensive, saying that the US allied Kurdish militia, which did the bulk of the fighting in the successful campaign against ISIL extremists, as terrorists. A Russian-negotiated truce saw the start of joint Russian and Turkish patrols on Friday, according to news reports, aimed at enforcing the “safe zone” to a depth of around 30 kilometers south of the border.

Scott Mc Kiernan, Founder & CEO, ZUMA Press

The contrast is staggering. On one side of a narrow track is cool, moist rainforest, stretching northwest for hundreds of kilometers through the almost intact Xingu indigenous reserve. On the other side is hot, bare ground being prepared to plant soy on a farm the size of 14 Manhattans.

This, says earth systems scientist Michael Coe, is the front line of deforestation in the Amazon—where the rainforest meets agribusiness, but also where a rainforest ecosystem is being degraded into savanna grassland. It is also “the perfect laboratory” for exploring how forests interact with climate, and how that changes when the forest disappears, says Coe, of the Woods Hole Research Center in Massachusetts. And it is where Brazilian and American scientists are keeping watch for the long-predicted tipping point—the moment when the Amazon, the world’s largest rainforest, begins a process of runaway degradation, when so much forest has been lost that the transition to savanna is irreversible.

NFL 2019: Jets 16:28 Dolphins

November 3, 2019, Miami Gardens, Florida, USA: Miami Dolphins defensive tackle Davon Godchaux (56) sacks New York Jets quarterback Sam Darnold (14) during an NFL football game at the Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida.

Scott Mc Kiernan, Founder & CEO, ZUMA Press

Wildfires in California dominated the news, the impeachment inquiry was passed by the House and anti-government demonstrations broke out in the Middle East, Europe, Asia and Latin America.

Thanks again to the amazing photographers and editors at ZUMA Press. This month’s show is a reflecting of everyone’s hard work!

Photographers:

Adryel Talamantes • Al Drago • Alejandro Garcia • Alex Wroblewski • Alexei Druzhinin • Ameer Al Mohammedaw • Amy Sanderson • Anas Alkharboutli • Andrew Mccaren • Ashraf Amra • Ben Birchall • Bilal Jawich • Bill Clark • Birdie Thompson • Brian Lawless • Bryan Smith • Carol Guzy • Cheng Min • Christophe Gateau • David Crane • David Parry • Deng Min • Doug Peters • Geovien So • Hans Gutknecht • Ian West • Ivandro Inetti • Jack Kurtz • Jan Woitas • Jesus Merida • Julian Stratenschulte • Karl-Josef Hildenbrand • Kazi Salahuddin Razu • Kazi Salahuddin • Kevin E. Schmidt • Khaled Omar • Liang Xu • Marcel Kusch • Marijan Murat • Marwan Naamani • Matthias Oesterle • Maxim Thore • Mohammed Mohammed • Neal Waters • Oliver Weiken • Owen Humphreys • Pablo Ariel Morano • Paolo Aguilar • Paul Kitagaki Jr. • Quique Garcia • Robin Loznak • Scott Serio • Scott Stuart • Shealah Craighead • Stefan Sauer • Sunil Sharma • Toby Melville • Valery Sharifulin • Wan Xiang • Wang Lili • Watchara Phomicinda • Will Lester • Xiao Yijiu • Yui Mok • Yuri Smityuk

Newspapers, Picture Agencies + Wire Services

APA Images • AdMedia • Bildbyran • CNP • COVER Images • CSM • Congressional Quarterly • DPA • EFE • Imago • Korean Central News Agency • London News Pictures • Los Angeles Daily News • NurPhoto • Orange County Register • PA Wire • Quad-City Times • SOPA Images • TASS • The White House • Xinhua • ZUMA Wire

Scott Mc Kiernan, Founder & CEO, ZUMA Press

1980 Los Angeles, California, USA: Ric Ocasek of The Cars.

Scott Mc Kiernan, Founder & CEO, ZUMA Press

October 29, 2019, Tel Tamir, Syria: IDPs, Internally Displaced Persons, that fled the conflict with Turkey in Syria and also local village residents receive food, water and blankets from Free Burma Rangers on October 29, 2019 in a neighborhood near the front line. Dave Eubank from Free Burma Rangers stated Call it Turkish zone of invasion, zone of genocide, ethnic cleansing anything but a safe zone. From an FBR tweet: This zone is one of ethnic cleansing with 300,000 people displaced. Many have been killed and wounded. Homes are destroyed. The Kurds are calling this area the genocide zone The safe zone is not safe by any definition. It is the zone of the Turkish invasion. We have seen their tanks and been fired upon by those tanks and their aircraft. There has been no ceasefire this whole time.

Scott Mc Kiernan, Founder & CEO, ZUMA Press

Brazil’s Indigenous lands and protected areas have experienced a massive surge in fires this year. Environmental campaigners claim ongoing fires in both the Amazon and Cerrado regions of Brazil are being lit deliberately to clear land for raising animals and growing crops. Many blame the current Brazilian administration, which monitors indigenous populations, the 306,000 Amazonian indigenous people, whose 422 demarcated territories make up 23 percent of the Brazilian Amazon, according to the Instituto Socioambiental. The problem centers on deforestation through the systematic chopping down of trees, which are either logged or burned, mostly to convert the land for raising cattle and growing crops. Sometimes forest land is cleared by landowners, however with the current Amazonian fires, two-thirds were on private lands, and in August 2018 there were 3,500 fires in 148 indigenous territories. The Brazilian constitution offers protections to both the environment and indigenous peoples, but local agencies often fail to safeguard either. About 300 different indigenous groups exist in Brazil, and for decades many of them have fought for the demarcation of their lands. The Brazilian constitution describes indigenous territories as areas where indigenous people can live permanently, that is, where they can practice their cultures and traditions. The Amazon still generates the rain that sustains it, but the removal of trees prompts precipitation to decline and, combined with warmer temperatures that make the ground dryer, may trigger parts of the forest to start dying off. Scientists have warned that the world’s largest rainforest – whose ability to absorb more than 20% of earth’s carbon dioxide and release oxygen is a critical element of the fight against climate change – may be approaching a tipping point in which much of it turns to savanna. At that stage, it could start contributing to global warming by emitting instead of removing greenhouse gases.

President MAURICIO MACRI, vice president candidate MIGUEL ANGEL PICHETTO by his side, concedes defeat on the general elections in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Sunday, Oct. 27, 2019. Opposition leader ALBERTO FERNANDEZ from Frente de Todos party came ahead with 48% against MACRI’s Juntos por el Cambio’s 40%, marking the return of peronism to Office after four years of conservatism.

Scott Mc Kiernan, Founder & CEO, ZUMA Press

October 20, 2019, Hong Kong, CHINA: Masked protester displays German National Flag as he parades through Nathan Road with thousands of protesters on Sundays march for freedom and democracy for Hong Kong.

Scott Mc Kiernan, Founder & CEO, ZUMA Press