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We’ve had two heatwaves already this summer with warnings that even young and healthy people should rethink their fitness routines in the heat.

So how can we keep exercising when it’s so hot you barely want to move?

James chats with physiologist Damian Bailey from the University of South Wales.

Next, James is at Rother Valley Country Park in Sheffield to meet Calli Hauger-Thackery who made headlines for running the Boston marathon while 22 weeks pregnant and physiotherapist Ros Cooke to find out what changes in the body during pregnancy – and see what exercise is safe.

So we’ve worked up a sweat… but what’s the best way to recover?

We’re in the lab at the University of Westminster to put electrolytes to the test with Dr Lewis Mattin and we cool off with Ros Cooke while chatting about active recovery versus total rest.

Presenter: James Gallagher
Special appearance: Hannah Fisher
Producer: Gerry Holt
Editor: Ilan Goodman
Production coordinator: Stu Laws

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Reuters

‘Enough is enough’

Trump’s rhetoric harkens back to how he talked about Syria during his first term, when he derided the country – which has an extraordinary cultural history dating back millennia – as a land of “sand and death”.

“Donald Trump, himself, I think really wanted very little to do with Syria during his first administration,” said Robert Ford, who served as President Barack Obama’s ambassador to Syria from 2011-14, and who argued within that administration for more American intervention in the form of support for Syrian moderate opposition groups to counter Assad’s brutal suppression of his population.

“But there are other people in his circle who are much more concerned about counterterrorism,” he told the BBC.

The US currently has around 900 troops in Syria east of the Euphrates river and in a 55km (34 miles) “deconfliction” zone bordering Iraq and Jordan.

Their official mission is to counter the IS group, now much degraded in desert camps, and to train and equip the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF – Kurdish and Arab allies of the US who control the territory).

The SDF also guards camps containing IS fighters and their families.

In practice, the US presence on the ground has also gone beyond this, helping to block a potential weapons transit route for Iran, which used Syria to supply its ally Hezbollah.

Mr Ford, like other analysts, believes that while Trump’s isolationist instincts play well on social media, the realities on the ground and the views of his own team could end up moderating his stance.

That view is echoed by Wa’el Alzayat, a former adviser on Syria at the US Department of State.

“He is bringing on board some serious people to his administration who will be running his Middle East file,” he told the BBC, specifically noting that Senator Marco Rubio, who has been nominated for secretary of state, “is a serious foreign policy player”.

These tensions – between isolationist ideals and regional goals – also came to a head during his first term, when Trump withdrew remaining CIA funding for some “moderate” rebels, and ordered the withdrawal of US forces from northern Syria in 2019.

At the time, Waltz called the move “a strategic mistake” and, fearing an IS resurgence, Trump’s own officials partially rowed back his decision.

Trump also diverged from his non-interventionist ideals by launching 59 cruise missiles at a Syrian airfield, after Assad allegedly ordered a chemical weapons attack that killed scores of civilians in 2017.

He also doubled down on sanctions against Syria’s leadership.

The blurred lines of Trump’s “it’s not our fight” pledge were summed up by Waltz.

“That doesn’t mean he’s not willing to absolutely step in,” he told Fox News.

“President Trump has no problem taking decisive action if the American homeland is threatened in any way.”

Metin Corabatir, head of the Asylum and Migration Research Centre, predicts that a “gradual return” will take place within a year at best, provided that the necessary preparations are made.

“There are still risks in Syria in terms of both security and daily life. An internationally recognised government must take office in Damascus,” he told the BBC.

Ibrahim agrees that for many refugees there will be nothing left to return home to: “In some areas there are no houses, no schools left. Even big cities like Aleppo are in a bad situation.”

“But this country has come out of a 13-year war and we cannot wait for everything to be ready for us. As the Syrian people, we will try to rebuild everything little by little.”

In other words, Ibrahim says the identity of Syria’s next government is less important than Syrians going home to influence their future.

“Whoever comes will be better than Assad,” he says. “If we don’t return, who will go to the elections, who will decide how the country will be governed?”

Metin Corabatir points out that the big influx into Turkey came initially as Syrians fled the Assad regime from 2011-2013. The later exodus came when Syrians fled the rise of militant Islamist group IS and the spread of political instability.

“It’s not easy to tell how the groups that come to power will behave, and Syrians will naturally expect to see that,” he says.

“What kind of regime will be created there? The team that came says ‘we are not jihadists, we will allow diversity’ – but only time will tell to understand whether this is real or not.”

Armed gangs are reportedly expanding their zone of operations, taking control of additional neighbourhoods and further isolating communities. This is despite the deployment of a UN Security Council-backed Multinational Security Support (MSS) mission, drafted in to bolster the national police force, which is struggling to keep the peace as it grapples with a severe lack of resources.

20,000 displaced in four days

On Wednesday, Ulrika Richardson, the Humanitarian Coordinator in Haiti, briefed UN correspondents on the parlous situation, noting the closure of the airport due to gangs shooting at, and striking, commercial aircraft, and an increase in killings over recent days: over a four-day period, over 20,000 people in the Port-au-Prince region fled their homes in search of safety and shelter.

In a separate briefing, Miroslav Jenča, the head of UN peace operations for the Americas, said that the gangs have “encircled the capital and all access roads” and, by some estimates, control around 85 percent of the capital.

On Monday, they even attacked the Petion-Ville suburb, home to international staff, UN offices and the diplomatic corps which was formerly seen as relatively safe.

If any more evidence were needed of the gravity of the security situation in Haiti, it came in the form of a press release on Tuesday, published by Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF).

The healthcare charity, which routinely operates in the world’s most dangerous conflict zones, announced the suspension of activities in the Port-au-Prince metropolitan area until further notice, following an attack on one of their ambulances, in which at least one patient was killed.

Food and health aid operations continue

Nevertheless, the agencies and entities of the United Nations System operating in Haiti have been at pains to insist that they are committed to remaining in the country.

“Our humanitarian operations have, in fact, continued since the onset of this escalating crisis,” noted Ms. Richardson. “We’ve provided thousands of meals, healthcare and psychosocial care, and clean water.” The senior UN official added that a UN helicopter used to transport humanitarian supplies, which had been impacted by the closure of the airport, has now resumed flights between Cap Haitien and Port-au-Prince.

Two million hot meals

Since the beginning of the year, the World Food Programme (WFP) has distributed more than two million hot meals. This weekend alone, despite the risks, WFP and partners were able to deliver almost 38,000 hot meals in Port-au-Prince and nearby town of Arcahaie, a record amount in a single day.

WFP’s aid is not restricted to the region around the capital, however. The agency and partners are providing daily meals to more than 430,000 school children, 70 percent of which are prepared entirely with locally grown ingredients. Some 97,000 people are also receiving cash transfers, as part of efforts to create a social safety net.

The UN migration agency, IOM, is also maintaining its operations in Haiti, keeping migrant protection centres open, and providing life-saving assistance through mobile medical clinics, rental subsidies for displaced persons, protection of services, psychological support, water delivery to displacement sites and supports at border crossings.