TURKEY
Ten envoys summoned
The government summoned the ambassadors of 10 countries, including Germany and the US, after they called for the release of a civil society leader, a Turkish diplomatic source said yesterday. Parisian-born philanthropist and activist Osman Kavala, 64, has been in jail without conviction since 2017 in a case that has fanned tensions with the West. Kavala faces a string of charges linked to 2013 anti-government protests and a failed military putsch in 2016. He has denied the accusations. Rights groups and some Western governments view his detention as a symbol of President Recept Tayyip Erdogan’s growing intolerance of dissent. In a statement on Monday, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden and the US called for a “just and speedy resolution to his case.” The ambassadors were due to arrive at the foreign ministry in Ankara yesterday morning. The envoys’ statement was “contrary to the rule of law, democracy and independence of the judiciary, which the ambassadors claimed to be defending,” the ministry said.
DENMARK
Petition to stop repatriation
A petition demanding that the government stop its controversial policy of revoking the residency of some Syrian refugees yesterday received the required number of signatures to be submitted to parliament. The government last year decided to re-examine the cases of about 500 Syrians from Damascus, saying “the current situation in Damascus is no longer such as to justify a residence permit or the extension of a residence permit.” The move, supported by much of the Danish political class, had sparked protests and a petition was launched in April asking parliament to change the law allowing the measure. The petition had been signed by more than 53,000 people, surpassing the 50,000 needed for parliament to consider it. Since last summer, at least 250 Syrians have had their temporary residency permits revoked, government statistics published in May showed.
UNITED STATES
Envoy Khalilzad resigns
Zalmay Khalilzad, the veteran envoy whose months of patient diplomacy helped end the US war in Afghanistan, but failed to prevent a Taliban takeover, resigned on Monday. In a letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Khalilzad defended his record, but acknowledged that he came up short and said he wanted to step aside during the new phase of the nation’s Afghanistan policy. “The political arrangement between the Afghan government and the Taliban did not go forward as envisaged,” he wrote. “The reasons for this are too complex and I will share my thoughts in the coming day and weeks.”
ISRAEL
Diver finds Crusader sword
A scuba diver has salvaged an ancient sword off the country’s Mediterranean coast that experts say dates back to the Crusaders. The Antiquities Authority on Monday said that Shlomi Katzin was on a weekend dive in the north when he spotted a trove of ancient artifacts that included anchors, pottery and a 1m-long sword. He was about 150m off the coast in 5m-deep water when he made the discovery. The weapon is estimated to be 900 years old. “It was found encrusted with marine organisms, but is apparently made of iron,” said Nir Distelfeld, an inspector in the authority’s robbery prevention unit. The sword is to be cleaned and further analyzed, while Katzin was given a certificate of appreciation for good citizenship.
James Watson — the Nobel laureate co-credited with the pivotal discovery of DNA’s double-helix structure, but whose career was later tainted by his repeated racist remarks — has died, his former lab said on Friday. He was 97. The eminent biologist died on Thursday in hospice care on Long Island in New York, announced the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, where he was based for much of his career. Watson became among the 20th century’s most storied scientists for his 1953 breakthrough discovery of the double helix with researcher partner Francis Crick. Along with Crick and Maurice Wilkins, he shared the
OUTRAGE: The former strongman was accused of corruption and responsibility for the killings of hundreds of thousands of political opponents during his time in office Indonesia yesterday awarded the title of national hero to late president Suharto, provoking outrage from rights groups who said the move was an attempt to whitewash decades of human rights abuses and corruption that took place during his 32 years in power. Suharto was a US ally during the Cold War who presided over decades of authoritarian rule, during which up to 1 million political opponents were killed, until he was toppled by protests in 1998. He was one of 10 people recognized by Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto in a televised ceremony held at the presidential palace in Jakarta to mark National
LANDMARK: After first meeting Trump in Riyadh in May, al-Sharaa’s visit to the White House today would be the first by a Syrian leader since the country’s independence Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa arrived in the US on Saturday for a landmark official visit, his country’s state news agency SANA reported, a day after Washington removed him from a terrorism blacklist. Sharaa, whose rebel forces ousted long-time former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad late last year, is due to meet US President Donald Trump at the White House today. It is the first such visit by a Syrian president since the country’s independence in 1946, according to analysts. The interim leader met Trump for the first time in Riyadh during the US president’s regional tour in May. US envoy to Syria Tom Barrack earlier
US President Donald Trump handed Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban a one-year exemption from sanctions for buying Russian oil and gas after the close right-wing allies held a chummy White House meeting on Friday. Trump slapped sanctions on Moscow’s two largest oil companies last month after losing patience with Russian President Vladimir Putin over his refusal to end the nearly four-year-old invasion of Ukraine. However, while Trump has pushed other European countries to stop buying oil that he says funds Moscow’s war machine, Orban used his first trip to the White House since Trump’s return to power to push for
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