Protests Erupt As Turkish Opposition Leader Jailed

Happy Monday! The second round of voting in our inaugural Dispawtch bracket is live, and not a single cat advanced to the Sweet 16. Get your votes in by 8 p.m. ET on Wednesday to have a say in which canines make it to the Elite Eight.

Editor’s Note: Penny seems totally unfazed by her early exit from the tournament and sends her congratulations to Adelaide on a well-earned victory, but Penny’s humans are a little distraught.

Quick Hits: Today’s Top Stories

• Israeli warplanes struck Hamas targets across the Gaza Strip overnight Saturday, killing Salah al-Bardawil, a senior member of the terrorist group’s political bureau. The ongoing aerial attacks came as Israeli troops expanded ground operations aimed at destroying Hamas infrastructure and creating a buffer zone along the Israel-Gaza border. Meanwhile, six rockets were fired at northern Israel from Lebanon on Saturday morning—the first such attack since December. Hezbollah, an Iranian-backed terrorist organization, denied responsibility for the rocket fire, which threatened to upend a November ceasefire agreement between Israel and Lebanon. Hours later, Israel carried out airstrikes on dozens of Hezbollah command centers and rocket launchers.
• Sudan’s army seized the country’s presidential palace on Friday, delivering the Sudanese Armed Forces an important political and military victory as it seeks to reclaim the entirety of Khartoum from the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces. The capital city has been at the center of fighting since the start of the war—which has left more than 28,000 people dead nationwide and displaced 11 million others—in April 2023. In January, the State Department determined that both sides of the conflict had committed war crimes. 
• The Trump administration plans to revoke temporary legal status for more than 530,000 immigrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela, according to a Federal Register notice published Friday. The move, which follows President Donald Trump’s January executive order directing the Department of Homeland Security to “terminate all categorical parole programs that are contrary to the policies of the United States,” will end the Biden administration’s two-year parole program for immigrants who arrived by air and had American sponsors. The administration urged the immigrants to leave the country before the change takes effect on April 24.
• Columbia University on Friday agreed to the many demands made by the Trump administration after the White House withheld $400 million in federal grants and contracts, alleging that the university created a climate of antisemitism on campus. In a memo, the university’s interim president, Dr. Katrina Armstrong, said that Columbia would hire a team of campus police officers with the power to arrest students, establish a committee dedicated to promoting free speech and academic freedom on campus, revise antidiscrimination policies and disciplinary processes, and require demonstrators to present Columbia ID when asked, among a slew of other policies.
• The Trump administration on Friday selected Boeing to lead the development of the F-47 fighter, the Air Force’s next-generation air superiority and drone coordination jet, a major coup for the embattled aerospace company. Named after Trump, the 47^th president, the fighter is expected to fight alongside autonomous aircraft made by Anduril Industries and General Atomics. The new projects are part of the Next Generation Air Dominance effort, meant to succeed Lockheed Martin’s F-22 Raptor, which had been paused earlier this year due to cost concerns.

• More than 100 staffers in the Department of Homeland Security’s Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties were put on leave Friday, as the DHS announced plans to cut the office, along with the Office of the Citizenship and Immigration Services Ombudsman. Both offices are responsible for ensuring that the DHS complies with equal protection and civil rights laws. “These reductions ensure taxpayer dollars support the Department’s core mission: border security and immigration enforcement,” a DHS spokesperson said.
• Pope Francis was discharged from the Gemelli hospital in Rome on Sunday, the end of a stay that began on February 14 when he entered the hospital with double pneumonia. One of his physicians, Dr. Sergio Alfieri, told reporters that the pontiff experienced multiple life-threatening episodes while in the hospital, but has recovered from his pneumonia and will require at least two months of rest. He is expected to return to his duties as soon as possible, and gave a public blessing while leaving the hospital.

Turkey’s ‘Navalny Moment’?

Hundreds of thousands of protesters gathered in cities across Turkey on Sunday night, with many calling for an end to President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s rule after more than two decades in power. The mass demonstrations, now approaching their sixth day, followed the arrest last week of the longtime Turkish leader’s chief political rival: Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu. 

Earlier in the day, some 15 million people supported İmamoğlu—the only candidate on the ballot—in the presidential primary of Turkey’s main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP). The party opened voting to non-CHP members, garnering a large turnout in a show of national solidarity with the embattled politician. Meanwhile on Sunday, Turkish authorities jailed İmamoğlu pending a trial and stripped him of his mayorship. The move—widely viewed as an attempt to preemptively bar the popular opposition leader from running in the country’s presidential election, which must be held by May 2028—marked Turkey’s latest and most dire departure from its democratic tradition. 

“As a defender of democracy and believer in the power of the people, I trust that the truth will prevail,” İmamoğlu said during his first appearance in court on Saturday. “I feel the strength of millions behind me and cannot even put into words the courage it gives me.”

Nationwide protests began on Wednesday, hours after police first arrested İmamoğlu in his Istanbul home on charges of “establishing and managing a criminal organization, taking bribes, extortion, unlawfully recording personal data and rigging a tender.” A day earlier, Istanbul University had revoked his degree under apparent pressure from Ankara, threatening his presidential bid as, under the Turkish constitution, presidential candidates must have completed higher education. The ousted mayor has also faced accusations of aiding a terrorist group—charges he categorically denies.

İmamoğlu rose to national prominence in 2019 after defeating Erdoğan’s handpicked candidate for mayor of Istanbul. Ever since, he’s faced dubious prosecution and threats of being banned from holding public office, including for “insulting” election officials who voided his victory in the local election, thereby forcing another race that İmamoğlu won by an even larger margin. But he continues to garner nationwide support, earning the reputation—even outside of the CHP—of being an impressive orator and capable potential challenger to Erdoğan when the time comes for elections.

“He’s got that sort of X factor, in terms of both rhetoric and presence,” Sinan Ciddi, a non-resident senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies who focuses on Turkish politics, told TMD. “But also, just being mayor of Istanbul really elevates you to a national status.” Erdoğan himself held the coveted office from 1994 to 1998. 

The demonstrators now taking to the streets calling for İmamoğlu’s release are a mixed bag. While some simply want the government to drop the charges against İmamoğlu to let the democratic process play out, others are demanding Erdoğan’s ouster after more than two decades in power. While many are longtime CHP supporters, most are young people who see a broader assault on their rights unfolding.

“Erdoğan has been in power for more than 20 years, as prime minister and now as president,” Utku Barut, a master’s student who attended a Sunday protest outside of Istanbul’s city hall, told TMD. “Young people who are voting right now were born in Erdoğan’s regime. … They’ve only seen one political party ruling the country.”

In Istanbul and other cities across the country, Turkish authorities sought to squash the protests before they ever began, blockading roads and shutting down metro stations. They also restricted access to various social media and messaging platforms, according to the NetBlocks tracker, forcing users to access the internet via a virtual private network. Several X accounts belonging to opposition organizers were also suspended, sparking accusations that the platform had booted the activists at the request of the Turkish government.

Police used water cannons, pepper spray, and tear gas at the demonstrations in an effort to disburse the crowds, and some attendees even reported being shot with rubber bullets. Hundreds have been detained. Meanwhile, the government has largely suppressed coverage of the unrest, using its nearly unfettered control over Turkish media to prevent the protests from being broadcast live.

For many people in Turkey, the events of the last week seem to mark a turning point. In recent years, elections have typically been regarded as free but not fair: The process itself is democratic, but Erdoğan, as Turkey’s sole executive, can marshall the resources of the state to influence the outcome. By seeking to prevent the opposition from choosing its own nominee, the president has plunged the country into new, uncharted territory.

“This is the first time I know of that Turkey’s government has said, ‘I get to choose who runs against me, not the people,’” Ciddi said. “It’s very difficult to describe Turkey now, even under the most simple definition, as a democracy.” 

“There’s increasing worry that this is a Navalny moment,” he added, referring to Alexei Navalny, the Russian opposition leader whose 2021 arrest led to mass protests and who later died in an Arctic penal colony.

And as the relatively muted response from the international community thus far has demonstrated, civil disobedience may be the only force holding the Turkish president to account. Erdoğan and U.S. President Donald Trump have long had good personal chemistry, with the Turkish leader welcoming the return of his “friend” to Washington after the November election. Trump is reportedly considering selling Turkey F-35 fighter jets, reversing its exclusion from the program in July 2019 over its acquisition of the Russian-made S-400 air defense system. Erdoğan is also eyeing a White House visit next month.

Responding to a question about İmamoğlu’s arrest during a Wednesday press briefing, State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce encouraged Turkey to “respect human rights” but added: “We’re not going to comment on … the internal decision-making of another country … except to remind them that we expect them to behave in a manner that respects the rights of all of its citizens.”

European countries, meanwhile, are looking to Ankara—a prospective European Union member—as a partner in their efforts to bolster the continent’s collective defense. Turkey has the second-largest army in NATO, behind only the United States. 

“It’s a NATO member, an aspiring European Union member, and a treaty ally of the United States, so we should be worried,” Ciddi said. “Turkey is headed toward a very, very dark place.”

Today’s Must-Read

Toeing the Company Line

Worth Your Time

• Hamas’ October 7, 2023, attack and the ensuing war laid bare major intra-Democratic Party divisions over U.S. support for Israel. But those fissures are increasingly evident on the American right, too, as antisemitic conspiracy theories take hold in populist circles, argued New York Times columnist Ross Douthat. “More so than in the Democratic Party, most Republican elites remain staunchly pro-Israel. But on what you might call the alienated right—younger, conspiracy-curious, anti-institutional and very online—there is a vogue for arguments about malign Jewish influences on Western politics, ranging from World War II revisionism to narratives casting Jeffrey Epstein as a cat’s paw for the Mossad,” he wrote. “There’s just no way for mainstream Zionist Republicanism and the anti-Jewish faction on the alienated right to get along. … Those parts of the alienated right that are most comfortable deploying antisemitic tropes also believe earnestly not just in some general theory of Jewish power but in a specific theory of Israel’s power, Israel’s malign influence, Israeli leaders and institutions and spies as conspiratorial and destructive forces in American life.”
• It’s been 18 months since devastating fires in Maui destroyed more than 2,000 homes. But only 6 have been rebuilt. In City Journal, Alex Hu examined the web of regulations, laws, and local government failures that have made the island’s efforts to rebuild so lethargic. “The political divide has only grown wider since the fires. Aside from activists seeking Internet fame by provoking viral confrontations at public meetings, radical councilmembers have called their pro-building colleagues names like ‘colonizer,’ openly questioned what would happen if they defied Hawaii state law promoting homebuilding, and advocated for secession from the United States. A general spirit of conspiracy and bad faith pervades the island’s politics,” he wrote. “These local dynamics discouraged Governor [Josh] Green from taking aggressive action. Suspicious residents interpreted his initial promises to rebuild Lahaina quickly as a plot to redevelop the historic town to profit ‘outside’ developers. He backed off in response. Even Mayor [Richard] Bissen has avoided taking strong actions or asking for strong state assistance for fear of looking like an outsider dictating terms to West Maui.”

Presented Without Comment

NBC News: Putin Said He Prayed for ‘His Friend’ Donald Trump After 2024 Assassination Attempt, U.S. Envoy [Steve Witkoff] Says

Witkoff said some people might question if he should have met with the Russian president because they see Putin as “a bad guy.” But he said: “I don’t regard Putin as a bad guy.”

A real estate tycoon and friend of the president who has become a top diplomatic envoy for Trump, Wiktoff said he appreciated Putin being open to meeting with him and communicating in a “straightforward” way.

“I liked him. I thought he was straight up with me,” he said, adding that “it was gracious of him to accept me, to see me.”

Also Presented Without Comment

Bloomberg: Secret Biden Deal Allowed Chevron to Pay Venezuela Millions

The Biden administration secretly permitted Chevron Corp. to pay hundreds of millions of dollars to the Venezuelan government despite a license that explicitly prohibited such disbursements, according to people familiar with the matter.

The supplement to a November 2022 sanctions waiver allowed Chevron to remain in compliance with US law while paying the regime of President Nicolás Maduro taxes and oil royalties, said the people, who asked not to be identified discussing non-public information.

Also Also Presented Without Comment

Axios: Seniors Won’t Complain if They Miss a Social Security Check, Lutnick Says

“Let’s say Social Security didn’t send out their checks this month. My mother-in-law, who’s 94, she wouldn’t call and complain,” Lutnick—a billionaire former Wall Street CEO—told the billionaire “All In” podcast host Chamath Palihapitiya. “She just wouldn’t. She’d think something got messed up, and she’ll get it next month. A fraudster always makes the loudest noise, screaming, yelling and complaining.”

In the Zeitgeist

The second season of Severance, the popular dystopian thriller starring Adam Scott of Parks and Recreation fame, came to a close last week on yet another cliffhanger. But don’t despair: Apple TV+ announced Friday that a third season is on the way. And thankfully, executive producer Ben Stiller said it won’t take another three years to make it.

Let Us Know

Did you watch the Severance season finale?