The EU could "respond swiftly and decisively" against the "unjustified" US visa bans on five Europeans involved in combating online hate and disinformation, a European Commission spokesperson said. European leaders including Emmanuel Macron accused Washington of "coercion and intimidation", after the visa ban on the figures who have been at the heart of campaigns to introduce laws regulating American tech companies.
Justifying the visa bans, the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, wrote on X: "For far too long, ideologues in Europe have led organised efforts to coerce American platforms to punish American viewpoints they oppose." Germany, Spain, the UK and a chorus of EU officials joined the French president in condemning the move. The visa bans were imposed on Tuesday on Thierry Breton, the former EU commissioner and one of the architects of the bloc's Digital Services Act (DSA), and four anti-disinformation campaigners, including two in Germany and two in the UK.
Turkish authorities said they have disrupted planned attacks on Christmas and New Year's events after arresting more than 100 suspected members of the so-called Islamic State group. Mass raids were carried out at 124 addresses across Istanbul, the city's chief prosecutor said, with firearms, ammunition and "organisational documents" seized. Officials said IS supporters had been actively planning attacks across Turkey this week, particularly against non-Muslims.
Police detained 115 suspects but efforts are ongoing to trace a further 22, an official statement read. The prosecutor's office said the suspects were in contact with IS operatives outside Turkey. The announcement comes two days after Turkish intelligence agents carried out a raid against the group on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. A Turkish national who is alleged to have held a senior role with the IS wing operating in the region was detained and accused of planning attacks against civilians. Turkey's security services regularly target people with suspected links to IS.
Pakistan's former prime minister, Imran Khan, and his wife, Bushra Bibi, have been sentenced to 17 years in prison after a Pakistani court found them guilty of illegally retaining and selling valuable state gifts. The sentence, handed down on Saturday (Dec. 20), capped a years-long saga that saw the duo accused of selling various gifts - including jewellery from the Saudi Arabian government - at far below market value. They have denied all charges.
In order to keep gifts from foreign dignitaries, Pakistani law requires officials to buy them at market value and to declare profits from any sales. But prosecutors claimed that the couple profited from the items after buying them at an artificially low price of $10,000, compared with their market rate of $285,521. Khan's supporters were quick to denounce the ruling, with his spokesperson, Zulfikar Bukhari, saying that "criminal liability was imposed without proof of intent, gain, or loss, relying instead on a retrospective reinterpretation of rules".
The head of an alliance of Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger declared Tuesday (Dec. 23) that the launch of a joint battalion "must be followed by large-scale operations in the coming days" in a region plagued by deadly extremism. Burkina Faso leader Capt. Ibrahim Traoré gave no details in his comments after being named the new head of the Alliance of Sahel States, whose three military-led members withdrew from West Africa's regional bloc this year. The alliance formed in 2023.
Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger are the most affected as the vast Sahel region south of the Sahara has become the deadliest place in the world for extremism, with armed groups linked to al-Qaida and the Islamic State group. All three countries have seen coups in recent years and struggled with overstretched security forces. The countries' leaders agreed in a summit Tuesday to boost security and economic ties, days after the weekend launch of the joint military battalion that's meant to fight the armed groups.
