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ANKARA: Turkish pop star Gulsen has been arrested on charges of “inciting hatred and enmity” over a joke she made about Turkey’s religious schools, the country’s state-run news agency reported.
The 46-year-old singer and songwriter, whose full name is Gulsen Colakoglu, was taken away for questioning from her home in Istanbul and was formally arrested late on Thursday before being taken to a prison pending her trial.
The arrest sparked outrage on social media. Government critics said the move was an effort by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to consolidate his religious and conservative support base ahead of elections in 10 months’ time.
The charges were based on a joke Gulsen made during a concert in Istanbul back in April when she quipped that one of her musicians’ “perversion” stemmed from the fact that he went to a religious school. A video of the singer making the comments began circulating on social media recently, with a hashtag calling for her arrest.
Gulsen — who had already been the target of Islamic circles for her revealing stage outfits — issued an apology for the offense caused but said her comments were seized on by those wanting to deepen polarization in the country.
During her questioning, Gulsen rejected accusations that she incited hatred and enmity, telling court authorities that she had “endless respect for the values and sensitivities of my country,” the state-run Anadolu Agency reported.
A request that she be released from custody pending the outcome of a trial was rejected.
Kemal Kilicdaroglu, leader of Turkey’s main opposition party called on Turkey’s judges and prosecutors to release Gulsen.
“Don’t betray the law and justice; release the artist now!” he wrote on Twitter.
The spokesman for Erdogan ruling party, Omer Celik, appeared however, to defend the decision to arrest the singer, saying “inciting hatred is not an art form.”
“Targeting a segment of society with the allegation of “perversion” and trying to polarize Turkey is a hate crime and a disgrace to humanity,” Celik tweeted.
Erdogan and many members of his Islam-based ruling party are graduates of religious schools, which were originally established to train imams. The number of religious schools has increased under Erdogan, who has promised to raise a “pious generation.”
DUBAI: From Mustafa Moeen’s spot behind the counter, he sees the many faces of Dubai. They come — tired, hungry, stressed out — for a respite and a cup of karak.
Laborers stop on the way to work. Cab drivers linger after long shifts. Emiratis cruise by on midnight joyrides. A cup of milky sweet tea to ease the burden of the day, customers say, long priced at just 1 dirham, a bit less than 30 US cents.
But now, as supply chain shortages and Russia’s war on Ukraine lead to price spikes on everything from breakfast sandwiches in Manhattan to chicken tinga in Mexico, Dubai tea sellers are bumping up prices of what’s informally considered the national drink of the United Arab Emirates. Moeen says he had no choice but to raise the price to 1.50 dirhams, or just over 40 cents.
“Everything got more expensive for us — milk, sugar, tea bags. Even the price of cups doubled,” Moeen said from the one-room storefront in Satwa, a neighborhood bustling with South Asian workers on rickety bicycles that can feel a world away from Dubai’s flashy skyscrapers. “We also have to survive.”
For nearly two decades, karak — an elixir of sugar, dehydrated milk and cardamom-infused tea — has largely been the same price, just one nickel-plated steel dirham coin. A dirham is worth 100 fils.
“It’s not about the 50 fils. They are making small, small changes,” said Zeeshan Razak, an accountant from Kerala, India, sipping tea with his colleague. “We are concerned about what it means.”
It was one of the rare treats that a dirham could buy in Dubai, which draws both the world’s richest people and legions of low-paid migrant workers.
“It’s part of its brand that it costs 1 dirham,” said Abdulla Moaswes, a Palestinian karak aficionado raised in the UAE who’s known for his scholarship on the tea. “People stockpile the coins so they always have one on hand.”
But rising inflation has taken a toll. The price of another sweet staple in Dubai long worth 1 dirham, the McDonald’s soft-serve ice cream cone, recently spiked to 2 dirhams. McDonald’s UAE franchisee said it made the “difficult decision” due to a spike in “operating, equipment, manpower and the raw material costs.”
Residents are feeling the pinch.
“In the five years I’ve been here this is the worst time. Rent, food, petrol — I can’t catch up,” said Arslan, an app-hired chauffeur from Pakistan’s Punjab province who drinks four cups of caffeinated karak daily to fuel his 12-hour night shift. “There’s no way to cut back.”
He gave only his first name for fear of reprisals, saying his landlord is threatening to call the police because he can’t make rent.
Annual inflation in Dubai accelerated to a record 7.1 percent last month, with consumer prices growing fastest in food, transportation and entertainment, according to the emirate’s statistics authority.
Many are reminded of the impact each day — when they go for karak. At night, the empty lots and street corners of old Dubai fill with workers gossiping and scrolling through their phones over steaming cups.
“I’ll pay 1.50, fine, but it all adds up,” said Anayeg Ula, a 29-year-old food delivery rider from Bangladesh, taking a karak break beside his bike. “I came here to make money, not spend it.”
Though modest in size, a cup of karak contains volumes in terms of the UAE’s history.
“Karak was born from necessity,” said Moaswes, the karak scholar. “It’s what the economic situation allowed for decades ago.”
The tea exploded in popularity over the years, becoming a social ritual — as well as an indispensable routine.
The trend spread to Emiratis, who traditionally brew their Arabic tea ink-black but now claim the milky chai as part of their heritage. Dubai’s tourism authority promotes top karak spots to visitors.
“It’s nostalgic for me. That was breakfast on a daily basis, roaming around in our cars,” recalls Ahmed Kazim, an Emirati who helped found a popular upscale karak shop, Project Chaiwala. “It’s the UAE culture. You’ll see a guy with a bicycle pull up next to a Lamborghini.”
The price of karak was 50 fils for a quarter-century, rising to 1 dirham in 2004 as Dubai rushed to build its booming desert skyline.
Some fear that if prices continue to climb, the staple may be lost to the working class who created it.
Shashank Upadhyay, a bakery owner in Dubai’s old Karama neighborhood, tried to sell karak for 2 dirhams earlier this year. But he swiftly backpedaled after seeing his customers “disturbed.”
“In this area, chai is too important,” Upadhyay said. “If we keep raising it, it will become something for people who go to high-end restaurants. But it’s for local working people, like us.”
SOFIA, Bulgaria: A Belgian-British teenager became the youngest person to fly around the world solo in a small aircraft after he landed on Wednesday in Bulgaria, where his global journey kicked off five months ago.
Mack Rutherford, who turned 17 during the trip, landed on an airstrip west of Bulgaria’s capital, Sofia, to complete his task and to claim two Guinness World Records. Along with becoming the youngest person to fly around the world by himself, Rutherford is the youngest person to circumnavigate the globe in a microlight plane.
His sister, Zara, who finished her own trip global flight in January at age 19, previously held the ultralight record. Rutherford took the age record from Travis Ludlow of Britain, who was 18 when he made a solo flight around the world last year.
The record journey, which began March 23, took Rutherford through 52 countries over five continents. To set a mark recognized by the Guinness World Records, he crossed the equator twice.
Born into a family of aviators, Rutherford qualified for his pilot’s license in 2020, which at the time, made him the youngest pilot in the world at the age of 15.
His solo trip flying around the world kicked off in Bulgaria because his sponsor, the web hosting company ICDSoft, is headquartered in Sofia and loaned him the plane.
Like his sister, Rutherford flew a Shark, one of the fastest ultralight aircraft in the world with a cruising speed reaching 300 kph (186 mph). Normally a two-seater, it was modified for his long journey by replacing the second seat with an extra tank.
Initially planned to take up to three months, the trip lasted longer due to several unexpected obstacles along his way, including monsoon rains, sandstorms, and extreme heat.
But most of the delays were caused by waits to obtain permits and other documents required for further flight or having to alter the scheduled route if they were rejected.
The flight took him through Africa and the Gulf region to India, China, South Korea, and Japan. He crossed the northern Pacific and landed after 10 uninterrupted hours in the air on a volcanic island near the Bering Strait.
From there, he headed to Alaska and down the West Coast of the United States to Mexico, then he headed north again along the US East Coast to Canada, and across the Atlantic Ocean to Europe.
On Wednesday, a huge crowd of people had arrived at the airport to welcome Rutherford and to celebrate his achievements. Among them were the three members of his immediate family.
Father Sam Rutherford said he was extremely happy and proud of his children’s achievements. He told reporters that such an event is especially encouraging for children to follow their dreams and parents to support them in their endeavors.
His sister, Zara Rutherford, said she kept in close touch with her younger brother during his journey.
“While he was flying, I constantly tried to keep in touch and help him. Our parents called him every day, and I joined in those conversations. I gave him advice on the route, on the flight, so that I could be useful to him,” she said.
KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip: They fan out along the tense frontier with Israel in the pre-dawn darkness, setting traps and training their eyes on the other side of the separation fence — where the parakeets are. Dozens of Palestinian men and boys have taken up bird trapping in recent years. It’s a rare if meager source of income in Gaza, which has been under a crippling Israeli-Egyptian blockade since the militant Hamas group seized power 15 years ago. Their quarry is ring-necked parakeets, an invasive species of tropical bird that has proliferated in Israel and the Palestinian territories in recent years, most likely after being brought there as pets. In Gaza, the bright green birds with red beaks are sought-after as caged songbirds. “It’s a beautiful bird, and everyone loves it,” said Khaled Al-Najjar, a trapper and father of two. “I catch them to make a living and feed my children.” The birds nest on Israeli farms on the other side of the fence but fly into Gaza when workers head into the fields to tend crops. The Palestinian bird catchers on the other side lure them with chirping played on portable speakers and catch them in nets and other traps. It can be a dangerous occupation. Israel has imposed a 300-meter buffer zone along the fence and forces closely monitor the border, looking for any Palestinians suspected of trying to sneak into Israel, plant explosives or dig attack tunnels. Israel and Hamas have fought four wars and several smaller battles over the years, and earlier this month Gaza saw three days of heavy fighting between Israel and the smaller Islamic Jihad militant group. A bird-catcher was shot dead by Israeli forces last year, and Palestinian rights groups say several trappers have been shot at. Once they’ve netted their quarry, the trappers return to Gaza’s crowded cities, where they sell the parakeets to pet shops. Al-Najjar says he gets around $10 (30 shekels) for a pair of parakeets. At some pet stores in Gaza, a pair is resold for twice as much. There’s little if any regulation of the bird trade in Gaza, where unemployment hovers around 50 percent. The trapping of migrant birds like swallows and quail, as well as native species like goldfinches, has severely depleted the local population. But by trapping the parakeets, they might be doing the region a favor. The population of invasive parakeets and mynas — a bird of the starling family — has exploded over the past 15 years, driving a decline in the populations of local species like the house sparrow and the white-spectacled bulbul. A 2019 study by Israeli researchers found that 75 percent of the most common bird species in Israel have declined over the last 15 years, while the population of invasive species has grown at rates between 250 percent and more than 800 percent. Abdel Fattah Abd Rabou, an environmental science professor at the Islamic University of Gaza, said the parakeets threaten native birds like hoopoes because they occupy their nesting areas. They can also be a pest to farmers by feeding on grapes and figs, he said. For the trappers, and a smaller group of recreational bird-catchers in Gaza, it’s a way to pass the time. The blockade severely limits movement into and out of the narrow coastal strip, which is home to more than 2 million Palestinians. Israel says the closures are needed to contain Hamas, while the Palestinians and human rights groups view it as a form of collective punishment. “There is no work and there is nothing to fill my time other than hunting,” Al-Najjar said as he inspected a parakeet tied to dry branches that he planned to use as bait. “In the morning, my children ask me ‘where are you going?’ I tell them to hunt. Pray for me and thank God, who responds to their prayers and provides a living for me.”
LOS ANGELES: Serena Williams and Meghan recount challenges they’ve experienced as working mothers on the Duchess of Sussex’s first podcast, including stories of having to work soon after scary incidents involving their children. Williams, a 23-time Grand Slam champion who said recently “the countdown has begun” to her retirement, recounted on Meghan’s “Archetypes” Spotify podcast Tuesday that she played a match at the 2018 French Open after a nearly sleepless night after her daughter, Olympia, broke her wrist. “I somehow managed to win, but I was so emotionally spent and just like so emotionally drained that it was, it was crazy. And, you know, and then like every night after that, I just was with her the whole time and was like you’re going to be with me,” said Williams, who has indicated that her final tournament will be the US Open, which starts in New York next week. The tennis great and Meghan, who are friends, spoke at length on Tuesday’s episode about the challenges of balancing high profile careers in the public eye and motherhood. “So when you went and played that match the next morning, no one knew what your night had been like the night before. They forgot that human piece of it,” Meghan said about Williams’ French Open experience. Meghan recounted an incident during a tour of South Africa with her husband, Prince Harry, and their son, Archie, in which a fire broke out in her son’s room and the pair had to leave their baby to continue their official duties. Archie was supposed to be napping in the room at the time, but his nanny had taken him out to get a bite to eat. The incident left everyone shaken, Meghan said. She said she wanted to spend time with her son, but she and Harry had to go and do another official engagement. “The focus ends up being on how it looks instead of how it feels,” Meghan said. “And part of the humanizing and the breaking through of these labels and these archetypes and these boxes that we’re put into is having some understanding on the human moments behind the scenes that people might not have any awareness of and to give each other a break. “Because we did — we had to leave our baby,” she said. Williams, who turns 41 next month, and Meghan spoke about the tennis star’s recent announcement about stepping away from tennis. Williams said she discussed it with Prince Harry before revealing her decision publicly. “Obviously I’m retiring professionally, but it’s also an evolution. I’m doing more business things. And I really want to expand my family. And, you know, I’ve been putting it off for so long. And as a woman, there’s only so, so long you can put that off,” Williams said. Harry and Meghan have a multi-year deal to produce and host podcasts for Spotify under their production company Archewell Audio. Meghan has said the “Archetypes” podcast will focus on harmful labels and stereotypes applied to women. The Spotify deal is one of several high-profile deals the couple have struck, including one with Netflix. Harry and Meghan stepped away from royal duties in March 2020 over what they described as intrusions and racist attitudes of the British media toward the duchess. They have since relocated to California, where they are raising their children, Archie and Lili.
HELSINKI: Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin on Tuesday apologized for a picture that emerged from a private party she had thrown at her official residence in July, following a public stir over her partying in the past week. On Monday, a drug test taken by the prime minister, one of the youngest world leaders, came back negative. It was taken to assuage concerns after video footage was published last week showing her singing and dancing with Finnish celebrities at another party. This week, another image began circulating in social media, showing two well-known female influencers kissing each other, covering their bare breasts with a “Finland” sign from the Prime Minister’s official residence in Helsinki. “In my opinion, the picture is not appropriate. I apologize for it. That kind of a picture should not have been taken but otherwise, nothing extraordinary happened at the get-together,” Marin told reporters, confirming the photo was from her residence. Marin, 36, who has made no secret of her enjoyment of her leisure time, said the picture was taken during a private party with her friends after a music festival in July. “We had sauna, swam and spent time together,” she said, describing the party at her seaside residence. Finns have been divided over the premier’s behavior, with some voicing support for the young leader for combining a private life with her high-profile career, while others have raised questions about whether her judgment would be impaired by her leisure activities. Social Democrat leader Marin, who became the world’s youngest serving government leader in December 2019, agreed on Friday to take the drug test, saying she had never taken drugs and that she had not seen anyone doing so at the party she attended. Marin said in January that she and her fellow young female ministers have been targeted with extensive hate speech for their gender and appearance while in office.