Crackdown in Turkey
Throttling of rivals of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan represents new level of authoritarianism
A Turkish court on Sunday jailed the mayor of Istanbul pending trial on corruption charges, according to the state-run Anadolu news agency, sidelining a potential contender in Turkey’s next presidential election and the top rival of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The mayor, Ekrem Imamoglu, was arrested at his home on Wednesday, four days before he was set to be named the presidential candidate of Turkey’s political opposition. He has denied the accusations against him, which Mr. Erdogan’s opponents have called a ploy to prevent a popular politician from running for president. The court ordered that Mr. Imamoglu be jailed on accusations of corruption pending a trial, the state-run news media said. State prosecutors have accused him of leading a criminal organization and overseeing bribery, bid rigging and other financial misdeeds at City Hall. Prosecutors also accused him of supporting terrorism through his political coordination with a pro-Kurdish group during local elections last year. The court has not yet ruled on whether he will be jailed for those accusations as well. The decision to jail Mr. Imamoglu, who has been elected mayor three times since 2019, raised the possibility that he would be removed from office. That alone may not prevent him from running for president, but he faces other roadblocks. The day before his arrest, his alma mater, Istanbul University, voided his diploma, citing improper procedures in his transfer to the school in 1990. Turkey’s Constitution stipulates that the president must have completed higher education. The mayor said before he was detained that he would contest the ruling. Critics of Mr. Erdogan, who has dominated Turkish politics for more than two decades, have long accused him of using state power to undermine his rivals. But, they say, arresting a presidential contender to eliminate him from the race before it begins represents a new level of authoritarianism.
Elon Musk's social media platform X has suspended several accounts belonging to opposition figures in Turkey amid widespread civil unrest in the country. Musk, a self-proclaimed protector of free speech, said he acquired X to restore free speech on the platform. The suspensions come after extensive demonstrations were sparked by the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu. Much of the opposition activity has centered around universities, and many of those connected to the demonstrations are now finding their X accounts suspended, observers report. The majority of the suspended accounts were "university-associated activist accounts, basically sharing protest information, locations for students to go," Yusuf Can, coordinator and analyst at the Wilson Center's Middle East Program, told POLITICO. Many of these accounts are "grassroots activists" with their followings in the low tens of thousands, said Can. Some accounts appear to be suspended only in Turkey and not in the rest of the world. Activist Ömer Faruk Aslan created a second account to avoid censorship. "Yesterday, my account was blocked by a court order because the tweets exceeded 6 million views," he posted. Turkey's Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said on X that authorities have found 326 social media accounts that are inciting hatred, 72 of which were abroad. A coordinated action between cyber and security authorities led to the arrest of 54 suspects related to the social media accounts, said Yerlikaya - Politico
UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer's plan for an international force to support a ceasefire in Ukraine has been dismissed as "a posture and a pose" by Donald Trump's special envoy. Steve Witkoff said the idea was based on a "simplistic" notion of the UK prime minister and other European leaders thinking "we have all got to be like Winston Churchill". In an interview with pro-Trump journalist Tucker Carlson, Witkoff praised Vladimir Putin, saying he "liked" the Russian president. "I don't regard Putin as a bad guy," he said. "He's super smart." Witkoff, who met Putin 10 days ago, said the Russian president had been "gracious" and "straight up" with him. Putin told him, he added, that he had prayed for Trump after an assassination attempt against him last year. He also said Putin had commissioned a portrait of the US president as a gift and Trump was "clearly touched by it". During the interview, Witkoff repeated various Russian arguments, including that Ukraine was "a false country" and asked when the world would recognise occupied Ukrainian territory as Russian. Witkoff is leading the US ceasefire negotiations with both Russia and Ukraine but he was unable to name the five regions of Ukraine either annexed or partially occupied by Russian forces - BBC
At least three people were killed, including a five-year-old child, after Russia launched a barrage of drones targeting Kyiv overnight on Sunday, according to local Ukrainian officials and emergency services. The attack on the Ukrainian capital came ahead of ceasefire negotiations in Saudi Arabia in which Ukraine and Russia are expected to hold indirect US-mediated talks on Monday to discuss a pause in long-range attacks targeting energy facilities and civilian infrastructure. The Ukrainian delegation is expected to meet with US officials in Saudi Arabia a day ahead of the indirect talks, Ukrainian President Voldoymyr Zelensky said. Ukraine is planning to send technical teams to discuss the details of the partial ceasefire. Russia launched 147 drones across Ukraine, according to the Ukrainian Air Force. Ukrainian air defenses shot down 97 and 25 others didn't reach targets due to Ukrainian countermeasures. The attacks also struck Kharkiv, Sumy, Chernihiv, Odesaand Donetsk regions - France 24
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney is expected to ask Gov. Gen. Mary Simon to dissolve Parliament today, triggering a weeks-long election campaign. Sources have confirmed to CBC News that election day will be Monday, April 28. The consequential election is largely expected to focus on how the leaders will take on U.S. President Donald Trump's trade war and his taunting of Canadian sovereignty. Just a few months ago, polls suggested Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre was destined for a majority government. But the political landscape has been turned upside down since former prime minister Justin Trudeau announced his resignation and Carney replaced him. Now, for the first time in nearly three years, the Liberals have inched ahead in the polls as support for the Conservatives and NDP slips, according to the CBC's Poll Tracker, which aggregates public opinion polling. It shows the Liberals would have a roughly three-in-four chance of winning the most seats if an election were held now. As of Sunday, they lead in Atlantic Canada, Quebec and have edged ahead in Ontario, polls suggest - CBC News
Israeli strikes across the southern Gaza Strip killed at least 19 overnight into Sunday, including a senior Hamas political leader and several women and children. The Israeli military also ordered people to evacuate from part of the city of Rafah on the border with Egypt. The military said it would soon operate against militants in the already heavily destroyed Tel al-Sultan area of Rafah and ordered people to evacuate on foot along a single route to Mawasi, a sprawling area of squalid tent camps. It was not immediately clear if the order signalled a renewed ground operation - Euronews
Authorities in the United Kingdom have ordered an inquiry into a power outage that shut down operations at London's Heathrow Airport. The outage, which was caused by an accidental fire at an electrical substation on Friday, shut down the world's fifth-busiest airport for almost a day. Although officials said Saturday that the airport was once again "fully operational," thousands of travelers were still stuck due to the severe disruption caused by the outage. The delays are expected to last for several days. British Airways, which is based in Heathrow, said it hoped for a "near-full schedule" on Sunday, although the airline's chief executive Sean Doyle warned Friday that the outage's "huge impact" could continue into next week. The British government has said it has ordered the National Energy System Operator (NESO), which is in charge of the country's electricity and gas grid, to investigate the incident.
Heathrow boss Thomas Woldbye went back to bed to make sure he was 'well rested' rather than work through the night as a fire raged through a power substation. He was at an event in central London when the power first went out at 11pm on Thursday, prompting him to return to the airport west of the capital. When the scale of the incident became clear, senior leaders were split into two 'gold commands'. In the early hours of Friday, it was decided that Woldbye's command group would go to bed. His deputy Javier Echave was left in charge and he took the final decision to close the airport, sending a notice to air crew at 1.44am. Woldbye resumed work by phone at 7.30am and was in his office at Compass House, Heathrow's head office, shortly after 9am. Insiders told the Sunday Times that the decision for Woldbye to go to bed was taken on safety grounds. It was felt vital that the person at the top was well-rested to make clear decisions. Sean Doyle, chief executive of British Airways, and Shai Weiss, the Virgin Atlantic boss, were reported to have worked through the night from their headquarters - Daily Mail
Pope Francis is set to be discharged from a Rome hospital on Sunday, ending his weeks-long stay for a prolonged respiratory illness. The 88-year-old pontiff was admitted to the Gemelli Hospital in Rome for bronchitis on Feb. 14, where his condition worsened as he battled a severe case of double pneumonia that doctors multiple times warned had put him in critical danger. The pope, who lost part of his lung in his youth, has long struggled with respiratory issues. Gemelli medical director Dr. Sergio Alfieri said on Saturday that the pope was well enough to continue his recovery, which Alfieri said would involve two months of rest, from his home at the Vatican. The Vatican also announced on Saturday that Pope Francis would make his first public appearance since his hospitalization on Sunday, when he is set to greet crowds outside Gemelli Hospital. - Politico
President Trump is undermining trust with key allies on the other side of the globe - with inexplicable decisions that are straining relationships with the Asian countries that the U.S. would rely on in the event of conflict with China or North Korea. Beijing was an early target of Trump's latest tariff war, but the White House appears to be applying its aggressive stance on trade to the rest of the region as well. Washington has imposed tariffs on aluminum and steel from Australia, threatened them on cars from Japan and hinted that South Korea could be next target of U.S. tariffs. Seth Jones, president of the defense and security department of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, says a trade war that punishes U.S. partners in the region threatens to weaken ties with Asian allies, possibly forcing them to reassess the reliability of U.S. security commitments. “Tariffs against the Australians, or current or future tariffs — particularly increases against the Japanese and South Koreans — would certainly not be helpful in contributing to a close partnership with those countries," he says. In the current Trump term, "we are in uncharted territory," says John Nilsson-Wright, head of the Japan and Koreas Program at the Center for Geopolitics at the University of Cambridge. "There is a profound sense of anxiety and I think a sense of urgency [in] countries like Japan, Australia, European states which have a stake in the Indo-Pacific, particularly the U.K." Tong Zhao, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, thinks Trump's focus on trade and toughness on China indicates that "he cares about economic benefits" the U.S. could reap. “He doesn't have strong issues with China's authoritarian system," he says. "He doesn't really have issues with China's regional aggression as long as those regional aggressions do not immediately threaten American interests." - NPR
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