Turkey arrests Swedish journalist over alleged terrorist connections to a pro-Kurdish group
Joakim Medin of the daily Dagens ETC was detained as he arrived at Istanbul airport on Thursday and placed under arrest on Friday on charges of 'membership in a terrorist organization' and 'insulting the president.'
The Counter Disinformation Center, part of the Turkish Presidency's Communications Department, said in a statement that Medin's arrest was 'not over his journalism activities.'
The Center accused Medin of taking part in a rally in Stockholm on January 11, 2023 attended by supporters of the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, which included an effigy of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
The PKK has waged a 40-year insurgency in Turkey which has cost tens of thousands of lives and is designated a terrorist organization by Ankara and its Western allies. A peace initiative between the Turkish state and the PKK was initiated in October, and the organization declared a ceasefire at the beginning of March upon a call to do so by its imprisoned leader Abdullah Ocalan.
The Ankara Public Prosecutors Office launched an investigation into the 2023 Stockholm rally two days after it was held, and identified 15 suspects including Medin who had organized, participated or covered the event according to the Counter Disinformation Center.
It added that Medin also facilitated communication between the PKK and the press.
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Los Angeles Times
7 minutes ago
- Los Angeles Times
Trump's politically motivated sanctions against Brazil strain relations among old allies
SAO PAULO — President Trump has made clear who his new Latin America priority is: former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, a personal and political ally. In doing so, he has damaged one of the Western hemisphere's most important and long-standing relationships, by levying 50% tariffs that begin to take effect Wednesday on the largest Latin America economy, sanctioning its main justice and bringing relations between the two countries to the lowest point in decades. The White House has appeared to embrace a narrative pushed by Bolsonaro allies in the U.S., that the former Brazilian president's prosecution for attempting to overturn his 2022 election loss is part of a 'deliberate breakdown in the rule of law,' with the government engaging in 'politically motivated intimidation' and committing 'human rights abuses,' according to Trump's statement announcing the tariffs. The message was clear earlier, when Trump described Bolsonaro's prosecution by Brazil's Supreme Court as a 'witch hunt' — using the same phrase he has employed for the numerous investigations he has faced since his first term. Bolsonaro faces charges of orchestrating a coup attempt to stay in power after losing the 2022 election to President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. A conviction could come in the next few months. The U.S. has a long history of meddling with the affairs of Latin American governments, but Trump's latest moves are unprecedented, said Steven Levitsky, a political scientist at Harvard University. 'This is a personalistic government that is adopting policies according to Trump's whims,' Levitsky said. Bolsonaro's sons, he noted, have close connections to Trump's inner circle. The argument has been bolstered by parallels between Bolsonaro's prosecution and the attempted prosecution of Trump for trying to overturn his 2020 election loss, which ended when he won his second term last November. 'He's been convinced Bolsonaro is a kindred spirit suffering a similar witch hunt,' Levitsky said. After Bolsonaro's defeat in 2022, Trump and his supporters echoed his baseless election fraud claims, treating him as a conservative icon and hosting him at the Conservative Political Action Conference. Steve Bannon, the former Trump adviser, recently told Brazil's news website UOL that the U.S. would lift tariffs if Bolsonaro's prosecution were dropped. Meeting that demand, however, is impossible for several reasons. Brazilian officials have consistently emphasized that the judiciary is independent. The executive branch, which manages foreign relations, has no control over Supreme Court justices, who in turn have stated they won't yield to political pressure. On Monday, the court ordered that Bolsonaro be placed under house arrest for violating court orders by spreading messages on social media through his sons' accounts. Justice Alexandre de Moraes, who oversees the case against Bolsonaro, was sanctioned under the U.S. Magnitsky Act, which is supposed to target serious human rights offenders. De Moraes has argued that defendants were granted full due process and said he would ignore the sanctions and continue his work. 'The ask for Lula was undoable,' said Bruna Santos of the Inter-American Dialogue in Washington, D.C., about dropping the charges against Bolsonaro. 'In the long run, you are leaving a scar on the relationship between the two largest democracies in the hemisphere.' Three key factors explain the souring of U.S.-Brazil ties in recent months, said Oliver Stuenkel, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace: growing alignment between the far-right in both countries; Brazil's refusal to cave to tariff threats; and the country's lack of lobbying in Washington. Lawmaker Eduardo Bolsonaro, Jair Bolsonaro's third son, has been a central figure linking Brazil's far-right with Trump's MAGA movement. He took a leave from Brazil's Congress and moved to the U.S. in March, but he has long cultivated ties in Trump's orbit. Eduardo openly called for Magnitsky sanctions against de Moraes and publicly thanked Trump after the 50% tariffs were announced in early July. Democratic Massachusetts Rep. Jim McGovern, author of the Magnitsky Act, which allows the U.S. to sanction individual foreign officials who violate human rights, called the administration's actions 'horrible.' 'They make things up to protect someone who says nice things about Donald Trump,' McGovern told The Associated Press. Eduardo Bolsonaro's international campaign began immediately after his father's 2022 loss. Just days after the elections, he met with Trump at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida. As investigations against Bolsonaro and his allies deepened, the Brazilian far right adopted a narrative of judicial persecution and censorship, an echo of Trump and his allies who have claimed the U.S. justice system was weaponized against him. Brazil's Supreme Court and Electoral Court are among the world's strictest regulators of online discourse: they can order social media takedowns and arrests for spreading misinformation or other content it rules 'anti-democratic.' But until recently, few believed Eduardo's efforts to punish Brazil's justices would succeed. That began to change last year when billionaire Elon Musk clashed with de Moraes over censorship on X and threatened to defy court orders by pulling its legal representative from Brazil. In response, de Moraes suspended the social media platform from operating in the country for a month and threatened operations of another Musk company, Starlink. In the end, Musk blinked. Fábio de Sá e Silva, a professor of international and Brazilian studies at the University of Oklahoma, said Eduardo's influence became evident in May 2024, when he and other right-wing allies secured a hearing before the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee. 'It revealed clear coordination between Bolsonaro supporters and sectors of the U.S. Republican Party,' he said. 'It's a strategy to pressure Brazilian democracy from the outside.' Brazil has a diplomatic tradition of maintaining a low-key presence in Washington, Stuenkel said. That vacuum created an opportunity for Eduardo Bolsonaro to promote a distorted narrative about Brazil among Republicans and those closest to Trump. 'Now Brazil is paying the price,' he said. After Trump announced sweeping tariffs in April, Brazil began negotiations. President Lula and Vice President Geraldo Alckmin — Brazil's lead trade negotiator — said they have held numerous meetings with U.S. trade officials since then. Lula and Trump have never spoken, and the Brazilian president has repeatedly said Washington ignored Brazil's efforts to negotiate ahead of the tariffs' implementation. Privately, diplomats say they felt the decisions were made inside the White House, within Trump's inner circle — a group they had no access to. A delegation of Brazilian senators traveled to Washington in the final week of July in a last-ditch effort to defuse tensions. The group, led by Senator Nelsinho Trad, met with business leaders with ties to Brazil and nine U.S. senators — only one of them Republican, Thom Tillis of North Carolina. 'We found views on Brazil were ideologically charged,' Trad told The AP. 'But we made an effort to present economic arguments.' While the delegation was in Washington, Trump signed the order imposing the 50% tariff. But there was relief: not all Brazilian imports would be hit. Exemptions included civil aircraft and parts, aluminum, tin, wood pulp, energy products and fertilizers. Trad believes Brazil's outreach may have helped soften the final terms. 'I think the path has to remain one of dialogue and reason so we can make progress on other fronts,' he said. Pessoa and Riccardi write for the Associated Press. AP writer Mauricio Savarese in Sao Paulo contributed to this report.
Yahoo
35 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Philippines condemns China's rocket launch after suspected debris sparked alarm
MANILA, Philippines (AP) — A top Philippine security official on Tuesday condemned China's latest rocket launch, which caused suspected debris to fall near a western Philippine province. Authorities said the incident sparked alarm and posed a danger to people, ships, and aircraft. There were no immediate reports of injuries or damage from the suspected Chinese rocket debris that fell near Palawan province Monday night, National Security Adviser Eduardo Año said. However, he added that these posed 'a clear danger and risk to land areas and to ships, aircraft, fishing boats and other vessels' near the expected drop zones. 'We condemn in no uncertain terms the irresponsible testing done by the People's Republic of China of its Long March 12 rocket which alarmed the public and placed the people of Palawan at risk,' Año said in a statement. People were alarmed after hearing loud explosions Monday night in Palawan's Puerto Princesa city and nearby towns, Año said, adding that 'local residents also saw a fireball cross the sky that later exploded causing the ground to shake.' Chinese officials did not immediately comment on Año's statement. China's official Xinhua News Agency reported that the Long March-12 rocket that lifted off Monday night from a commercial spacecraft launch site on the southern island province of Hainan successfully carried a group of internet satellites into pre-set orbit. It was the 587th mission by the Long March carrier rockets, Xinhua said, citing the launch site. It was not immediately clear if Chinese authorities notified nearby countries like the Philippines of possible debris from its latest rocket launch. Such Chinese rocket debris have been found farther away from the Philippine archipelago in the past. The Philippine Space Agency said Monday that debris from the rocket launch was expected to have fallen within two identified drop zones about 21 nautical miles (39 kilometers) from Puerto Princesa City in Palawan and 18 nautical miles (33 kilometers) from Tubbataha Reef Natural Park, an area of coral reefs in the Sulu Sea off eastern Palawan that is popular among divers and conservators. 'Unburned debris from rockets, such as the booster and fairing, are designed to be discarded as the rocket enters outer space,' the space agency said. 'While not projected to fall on land features or inhabited areas, falling debris poses danger and potential risk to ships, aircraft, fishing boats and other vessels that will pass through the drop zone.' Philippine aircraft and vessels were deployed Tuesday to search for the rocket debris, Año said. He asked the public to notify authorities if they find any piece of debris but warned them not to touch them because of possible toxic fuel residues. Solve the daily Crossword
New York Post
37 minutes ago
- New York Post
Young adults are less likely to follow politics or say voting is important, new AP poll shows
WASHINGTON (AP) — Mairekk Griffiths, a 26-year-old cook in a Denver suburb, doesn't think he'll ever pay a lot of attention to U.S. politics unless radical change happens. 'If another party was likely to win, I'd be interested in that,' said Griffiths, who voted for Democrat Kamala Harris in last year's presidential race but, like many his age, does not see voting as that valuable. 'I can't say either way that voting matters,' Griffiths said. 'It's just picking the least bad option. That's what I remember my whole life — both sides are bad, but this side is less bad.' 3 College students at a voter registration table. AP Young people such as Griffiths are less engaged with U.S. politics than older Americans and less likely to say voting is important, according to a new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. Young people — even those who follow politics closely — are less likely to say issues such as the economy, government spending and health care are 'extremely important' to them than comparable older adults. The findings point to a broad sense of disillusionment among younger people about the country's political system — even if, like Griffiths, they still end up casting a ballot. Alberto Medina, who leads the Center for Information and Research on Civic Engagement at Tufts University, which studies youth and politics, noted that turnout among young people hit record levels in the 2020 election and was high last year. 'There's a sense that democracy isn't working for young people. There's a lack of belief that democracy is even able to improve their lives,' Medina said. 'At the same time, we have been living in an era of high youth voting.' Disengagement from political parties and politics In another sign of their general estrangement from politics, the poll shows young adults are more likely to reject political party labels. About one-third of adults under age 30 identify as political independents who don't lean toward either major political party, compared with 17% of Americans age 60 or older. The poll also finds young people are far less likely to follow politics closely than older adults are. 3 In another sign of their general estrangement from politics, the poll shows young adults are more likely to reject political party labels. AP Only about 2 in 10 of adults under age 30 say they follow U.S. politics 'extremely' or 'very' closely, compared with about one-third of Americans overall. That's even higher among adults age 60 or older — 45% of this group says they follow U.S. politics at least very closely. Disengagement is higher among teenagers, with an AP-NORC poll from May finding 44% of teens ages 13 to 17 report following U.S. politics 'not very closely' or 'not closely at all.' Meanwhile, about two-thirds of adults under age 30 say it's 'extremely' or 'very' important to vote, compared with almost 9 in 10 over age 45 who say it's at least 'very' important to vote. Some of these habits could shift as people grow older. Younger people traditionally are less likely to vote than older people, and voter participation tends to go up with age. It's possible that engagement with politics could follow a similar pattern. Brittany Diaz, 28, follows politics closely for an unusual reason: Her oldest son, who is 7, is obsessed with the news and watches it every night. Diaz, a Republican who lives in an Albuquerque, New Mexico, suburb, acknowledges that she's unusual among her age group because she decided to start paying attention to politics when she had her first child at 20. 'Now that I have kids, I'm like, 'I need to care,'' she said. In closely following politics, Diaz is different from many other women under 30. Women in her age group are less likely than young men to say they follow U.S. politics, the poll finds. About one-quarter of men under 30 say they follow politics 'extremely' or 'very' closely, compared with 16% of women in the same age group. And about 4 in 10 young women say they follow U.S. politics 'not very closely' or 'not closely at all' compared with about a quarter of young men. Lower investment in key issues On a few issues, such as the economy and health care, the divide between the youngest and oldest Americans isn't large. About 8 in 10 Americans under age 30 say the economy is 'extremely' or 'very' important to them personally, compared with about 9 in 10 Americans age 60 or older. 3 In closely following politics, Diaz is different from many other women under 30. AP But older adults are much likelier to say topics that have taken center stage during the first six months of President Donald Trump's second term — including immigration and government spending — are 'extremely' or 'very' important to them personally compared with Americans under 30. That's even true for topics such as the situation in the Middle East, which has become a rallying cry for young activists since the Israel-Hamas war broke out. Only about 4 in 10 adults under 30 say this is highly important to them personally, compared with about 6 in 10 Americans age 60 or older. For some, that lack of interest could be related to a sense that the political system doesn't respond to their needs. At 18, Blake Marlar is just starting to pay attention to politics. As Trump's tax cut and spending bill moved through the Republican-controlled Congress, the aspiring geology major at the University of Nebraska emailed his state's two senators, both Republicans, objecting to its Medicaid cuts and increases in immigration enforcement funding. 'They didn't seem to take me seriously,' Marlar said. 'While I recognize they have to represent the whole state and the whole state doesn't agree with me, it could have been a different experience.' But he's resolved not to give up on politics: 'In the future,' he said, 'I'll do my part and vote.'
