The YPG is a Kurdish militia in Syria who are libertarian socialists. They fought ISIS and Assad, and Erdogan hates them and has attacked them along the Turkish border. The US had given them consistent support until Trump abandoned them in his first term.

I don’t know who the bereted man is though.

That looks extremely precarious. Impressive that it can navigate that and survive, but it looks like something you should never do on purpose. That won’t be able to navigate a swift current, and what happens if it gets caught on something underneath the water or capsizes