Fethullah Gulen, a reclusive US-based Islamic cleric who inspired a global social movement while facing accusations he masterminded a failed 2016 coup in his native Turkiye, has passed away.

Abdullah Bozkurt, the former editor of the Gulen-linked Today’s Zaman newspaper, who is now in exile in Sweden, said on Monday that he spoke to Gulen’s nephew, Kemal Gulen, who confirmed the death. Fethullah Gülen was in his eighties and had long been in ill health.

The state-run Anadolu Agency quoted Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan as saying the death has been confirmed by Turkish intelligence sources.

Gulen spent the last decades of his life in self-exile, living on a gated compound in Pennsylvania’s Pocono Mountains from where he continued to wield influence among his millions of followers in Turkiye and throughout the world.

He espoused a philosophy that blended Sufism — a mystical form of Islam — with staunch advocacy of democracy, education, science and interfaith dialogue.

Gülen began as an ally of Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan, but became a foe. He called Erdogan an authoritarian bent on accumulating power and crushing dissent. Erdogan cast Gülen as a terrorist, accusing him of orchestrating the attempted military coup on the night of July 15, 2016, when factions within the military used tanks, warplanes and helicopters to try to overthrow Erdogan’s government.

Heeding a call from the president, thousands took to the streets to oppose the takeover attempt. The coup-plotters fired at crowds and bombed parliament and other government buildings. A total of 251 people were killed and around 2,200 others were wounded. Around 35 alleged coup plotters were also killed.

Gülen adamantly denied involvement, and his supporters dismissed the charges as ridiculous and politically motivated. Turkiye put Gulen on its most-wanted list and demanded his extradition, but the United States showed little inclination to send him back, saying it needed more evidence. Gulen was never charged with a crime in the US, and he consistently denounced terrorism as well as the coup plotters.

In Turkiye, Gulen’s movement — sometimes known as Hizmet, Turkish for “service” — was subjected to a broad crackdown. The government arrested tens of thousands of people for their alleged link to the coup plot, sacked more than 130,000 suspected supporters from civil service jobs and more than 23,000 from the military, and shuttered hundreds of businesses, schools and media organisations tied to Gulen.

Gulen called the crackdown a witch hunt and denounced Turkiye’s leaders as “tyrants”.

“The last year has taken a toll on me as hundreds of thousands of innocent Turkish citizens are being punished simply because the government decides they are somehow connected’ to me or the Hizmet movement and treats that alleged connection as a crime,” he said on the one-year anniversary of the failed coup.

Turkish Foreign Minister Fidan said on Monday that Gulen’s death “will not make us complacent. Our nation and state will continue to fight against this organisation, as they do against all terrorist organisations”.

Fethullah Gulen was born in Erzurum, in eastern Turkiye. His official birth date was April 27, 1941, but that has long been in dispute. Y. Alp Aslandogan, who leads a New York-based group that promotes Gulen’s ideas and work, said Gülen was actually born sometime in 1938.

Trained as an imam, or prayer leader, Gulen gained notice in Turkiye some 50 years ago. He preached tolerance and dialogue between faiths, and he believed religion and science could go hand in hand. His belief in merging Islam with Western values and Turkish nationalism struck a chord with Turks, earning him millions of followers.

Gülen’s acolytes built a loosely affiliated global network of charitable foundations, professional associations, businesses and schools in more than 100 countries, including 150 taxpayer-funded charter schools throughout the United States.

In Turkiye, supporters ran universities, hospitals, charities, a bank and a large media empire with newspapers and radio and TV stations.

But Gulen was viewed with suspicion by some in his homeland, a deeply polarised country split between those loyal to its fiercely secular traditions and supporters of the Islamic-based party associated with Erdogan that came to power in 2002.

Gulen had long refrained from openly supporting any political party, but his movement forged a de facto alliance with Erdogan against the country’s old guard of staunch, military-backed secularists, and Gulen’s media empire threw its weight behind Erdogan’s Islamic-oriented government.

Gulenists helped the governing party win multiple elections. But the Erdogan-Gulen alliance began to crumble after the movement criticized government policy and exposed alleged corruption among Erdogan’s inner circle. Erdogan, who denied the allegations, grew weary of the growing influence of Gulen’s movement.

The Turkish leader accused Gulen’s followers of infiltrating the country’s police and judiciary and setting up a parallel state, and began agitating for Gulen’s extradition to Turkiye even before the failed 2016 coup.

The cleric had lived in the United States since 1999, when he came to seek medical treatment.

In 2000, with Gulen still in the US, Turkish authorities charged him with leading an Islamist plot to overthrow the country’s secular form of government and establish a religious state.

Some of the accusations against him were based on a tape recording on which Gulen was alleged to have told supporters of an Islamic state to bide their time: “If they come out too early, the world will quash their heads.” Gulen said his comments were taken out of context.

The cleric was tried in absentia and acquitted, but he never returned to his homeland. He won a lengthy legal battle against the administration of then-President George W. Bush to obtain permanent residency in the US.

Rarely seen in public, Gulen lived quietly on the grounds of an Islamic retreat centre in the Poconos. He occupied a small apartment on the sprawling compound and left mostly only to see doctors for ailments that included heart disease and diabetes, spending much of his time in prayer and meditation and receiving visitors from around the world.

Gulen never married and did not have children. It is not known who, if anyone, will lead the movement.

Washington: Voters remain largely divided over whether they prefer Republican Donald Trump or Democrat Kamala Harris to handle key economic issues, although Harris earns slightly better marks on elements such as taxes for the middle class, according to a new poll.

A majority of registered voters in the survey by The Associated Press-NORC Centre for Public Affairs Research describe the economy as poor. About 7 in 10 say the nation is going in the wrong direction.

But the findings reaffirm that Trump has lost what had been an advantage on the economy, which many voters say is the most important issue this election season above abortion, immigration, crime and foreign affairs.

“Do I trust Trump on the economy? No. I trust that he’ll give tax cuts to his buddies like Elon Musk,” said poll respondent Janice Tosto, a 59-year-old Philadelphia woman and self-described independent.

An AP-NORC poll conducted in September found neither Harris nor Trump had a clear advantage on handling “the economy and jobs”. But this poll asked more specific questions about whether voters trusted Trump or Harris to do a better job handling the cost of housing, jobs and unemployment, taxes on the middle class, the cost of groceries and gas, and tariffs.

The poll found that 46 per cent of voters prefer Harris on middle-class taxes, compared to 35 per cent for Trump. Harris also has a slight advantage on the cost of housing. Voters are about evenly divided on whether Trump or Harris is better on prices for everyday essentials like groceries and gas, and neither candidate has an edge on jobs and unemployment.

Voters, meanwhile, are slightly more likely to prefer Trump on the issue of tariffs, which were defined in the poll as taxes on imported goods.

Poll respondent Amber Moody, 36, from Halifax, Virginia, said she trusts Trump — and Republicans in general — much more on economic matters.

“It seems to me that in my lifetime, every time a Democrat holds office, the economy suffers,” she said. “Prices go up, taxes go up and the national debt goes up. While I don’t approve of everything Donald Trump says and does, I do believe he is the better choice.”

Voters see Harris more favourably than Trump

Voters’ impressions of Harris and Trump have remained steady over the last month.

About half of voters have a very or somewhat favourable opinion of Harris, while 46 per cent see her unfavourably.

Meanwhile, about 4 in 10 voters have a positive view of Trump and about 6 in 10 have an unfavourable view. Trump’s favourability ratings have been remarkably consistent over the last few months, even after two assassination attempts and a felony conviction.

Compared to last month, views of the candidates are stable among Black and Hispanic voters, as well as among men and women. Black voters’ views of Harris are overwhelmingly positive — about three-quarters have a favourable view of the Democratic candidate — and their views of Trump are negative, with about 2 in 10 holding a favourable view.

Hispanic voters also view Harris more favourably than Trump, although the gap is narrower: About 6 in 10 Hispanic voters have a favourable view of Harris and about 4 in 10 have an favourable view of Trump.

The poll also shows a gender gap in views of the candidates heading into the final days of the election.

About half of women voters have a favourable impression of Harris, while only around one-third see Trump favourably. Among men, about half have a favourable view of Harris and a similar share have a positive opinion of Trump.

Voters are pessimistic about the economy and the country

Overall, voters remain pessimistic about the state of the economy and the general direction of the country.

About half of voters describe the nation’s economy as very or somewhat poor. Republicans and independents are more likely than Democrats to express that view. There are modest signs of improvement, however, compared to an AP-NORC poll from October 2023, when about 7 in 10 US adults thought the US economy was in bad shape. The number was even worse in October 2022, when close to 8 in 10 Americans described the economy as poor.

About two-thirds of voters also say the country is headed in the wrong direction, while roughly one-third say things are moving in the right direction. Pessimism on that question has been fairly consistent over the last three years, although closer to 8 in 10 Americans thought the US was heading in the wrong direction a year ago.

US adults were similarly gloomy just before the last presidential election, according to an AP-NORC poll from October 2020 when roughly 7 in 10 Americans felt the country was headed in the wrong direction.

Jeffrey Trimble, a 62-year-old Democrat from Hermitage, Pennsylvania, said he’s increasingly optimistic about the direction of the nation after “four years of hell” during Trump’s first term.

“We have some really good people at the top of our government who have a vision, they’re kind, they’re trying to get us back on track,” Trimble said.

Overall, the new poll highlights signs of trouble for both candidates as they work to assemble winning coalitions.

Younger voters are considerably more pessimistic about the health of the economy than older voters, and that’s not good news for Harris, whose party has long relied on strong support from voters of colour and young people.

Voters under the age of 45 are also slightly less likely than voters over 45 to trust Harris to handle the cost of housing or the cost of groceries and gas, although that doesn’t mean they prefer Trump. Sizable shares of younger voters — about one-quarter on both issues — trust neither candidate or both equally.

Trump’s strongest issue remains immigration

On other issues, meanwhile, Trump’s most consistent advantage continues to be immigration.

Forty-five percent of voters say he’s the better candidate to handle immigration issues, compared to about 4 in 10 who prefer Harris. About half of white voters trust Trump more on the issue of immigration, while about one-third say this about Harris. Hispanic voters are split on which candidate they prefer to handle immigration.

Harris’ strongest issues are abortion policy, with about half of voters saying she’d be better on that issue compared to about 3 in 10 for Trump; climate change, where about half prefer her leadership and about 2 in 10 prefer Trump’s; and election integrity, where about half prefer Harris and about 3 in 10 prefer Trump.

The candidates are about even on the issue of crime. Foreign policy is also a key issue this fall, although neither candidate has a clear advantage on the situation in the Middle East. There are some signs of weakness on the issue for Harris within her own party, however. Only about two-thirds of Democratic voters say Harris would be the better candidate to handle the situation in the Middle East. Among Republicans, about 8 in 10 say Trump would be better.

Diana Campbell Williams, a 72-year-old Democrat who lives in Auburn, Michigan, cites foreign affairs as her top issue.

She says she’s concerned about Russia, Iran and North Korea. She doesn’t like Trump’s questioning of NATO and his relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“I trust Harris more,” Williams said. “I feel she knows more about what’s going on, and I prefer the type of people she’d be surrounded by after the election.”

Deir al-Balah (Gaza Strip): Israel’s foreign minister has confirmed that Israeli troops in Gaza have killed Hamas’ top leader Yahya Sinwar, a chief architect of last year’s attack on Israel that sparked the war.

Sinwar has topped Israel’s most wanted list since the beginning of the Israel-Hamas war just over a year ago, and his killing strikes a powerful blow to the Hamas group. There was no immediate confirmation from Hamas of his death.

Foreign Minister Katz called Sinwar’s killing a “military and moral achievement for the Israeli army”.

“The assassination of Sinwar will create the possibility to immediately release the hostages and to bring a change that will lead to a new reality in Gaza – without Hamas and without Iranian control,” he said in a statement.

China’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning

Beijing: China said it lodged a diplomatic protest with India over the newly established office of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Centre (TECC) of Taiwan in Mumbai.

“There is but one China in the world and Taiwan is an inalienable part of China’s territory,” China’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning told a media briefing here on Thursday replying to a question.

“China strongly opposes all forms of official contact and interaction between Taiwan and countries having diplomatic relations with China, including the establishment of representative offices for each other. We have lodged solemn representations to the Indian side,” she said.

Mao said the one-China principle is a serious political commitment made by the Indian side and serves as the political foundation for China-India relations.

“China urges the Indian side to strictly abide by the commitments it has made, prudently and properly settle the Taiwan-related issues, not to conduct any form of official interaction with Taiwan and avoid disturbing the process to improve the China-India relationship,” she said.

The TECC in India opened a branch in Mumbai on Wednesday, bringing the number of its offices in India to three.

The TECC previously had its offices in Delhi and Chennai.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk

New Delhi: The world’s richest person Elon Musk has taken on Indian billionaires Mukesh Ambani and Sunil Bharti Mittal over the allocation of spectrum used in wireless communication using satellites, calling their demand for the auction of such airwaves “unprecedented”.

While Ambani’s Reliance Jio has been vocal about the need to allocate such spectrum through an auction to give a level playing field to legacy operators who buy airwaves and set up infrastructure like telecom towers, Mittal on Tuesday articulated the need to use bidding for such allocation.

Musk-led Starlink is demanding administrative allotment of licences in line with the global trend as it looks to tap into the world’s fastest-growing mobile telephony and internet market. This has found some backing in Telecom Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia, who said such airwaves will be given out through administrative allocation and not auctioned.

Scindia said the Telecom Act of 2023 passed in December has put the matter in ‘Schedule 1’, which means that for satcomm spectrum will be allocated administratively.

“That does not mean that spectrum does not come without a cost. What that cost is and what the formula of that cost is going to be, will not be decided by you or me …it will be decided by Trai…and there is a paper that has already been circulated by Trai, and we have a regulatory authority for telecom, and that regulatory authority of telecom has been empowered by the constitution to decide what that administrative pricing is going to be,” he said.

The minister said he is very confident that Trai will come up with the best pricing that should be adopted, provided that it is being given in an administrative manner.

“Satellite spectrum across the world is allocated administratively. So, India is not doing anything different from the rest of the world. Conversely, if you do decide to auction it then you would be doing something, which is different from the rest of the world,” the minister said.

Pointing out that satellite spectrum is a shared airwaves, Scindia said, “If the spectrum is shared then how can you price it individually”.

Musk first termed the demand made by Jio last week for shunning sector regulator Trai’s consultation paper on satellite broadband being allocated and not auctioned as “unprecedented”, and when Mittal on Tuesday in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi favoured bidding as the route, he asked if it was “too much trouble” to allow Starlink to provide internet services in India.

This is perhaps the first time that Musk, whose networth of USD 241 billion is more than the combined wealth of Ambani, Mittal and Gautam Adani, has spoken directly against demands for a level playing field made by the Indian firms.

Speaking at the India Mobile Conference, Mittal, who heads India’s second largest telecom firm Bharti Airtel, said existing telecom companies will take satellite services into the remotest parts.

“And those satellite companies, who have ambitions to come into urban areas, serving retail customers, just need to pay the telecom licenses like everyone else. They are bound to the same conditions.

“They need to buy the spectrum as the telecom companies do, and need to pay the license as the telecom companies do, and also secure the networks of the telecom companies,” he said.

Soon after, his firm issued a statement saying it has always supported the ushering in of satcom services to connect the uncovered as in the deep far-flung reaches for maritime services, aviation, defence and security.

“There is no question of Airtel having moved its stance,” it said, adding that “satellite operators who want to provide services to urban areas and retail customers indeed need to go through the regular licensing process of any country”.

In the case of India, this involved obtaining “a license, buying spectrum, undertaking all the obligations, including rollout and security, paying their license fee and taxes”.

“Therefore, mobile operators and satcom operators, who have worked in harmony for decades, can continue to do so to serve those who are still struggling to find internet connectivity,” it added.

Musk responded to Jio’s letter with a post on X, which he owns, saying, “I will call and ask if it would not be too much trouble to allow Starlink to compete to provide Internet services to the people of India”.

Last week, Ambani’s Reliance Jio had written to Scindia seeking the re-issuance of a consultation paper by Trai to ensure a level playing field between satellite-based and terrestrial-based communication services.

Jio had further urged the government to direct Trai to conduct an evaluation of the technical and economic feasibility of spectrum auction for satellite services.

To a post that quoted a news report on the letter, Musk on Monday stated that this “would be unprecedented, as this spectrum was long designated by the ITU as shared spectrum for satellites”.

India is a member of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), a UN agency for digital technology.

Musk’s Starlink and global peers like Amazon’s Project Kuiper back an administrative allocation.

Musk, the mind behind PayPal, founder of Tesla and SpaceX and owner of X (formerly Twitter), uses his social media platform on a daily basis to make his views known on a vast array of topics.

Airtel, in a statement, said it has always maintained that it will use all technologies, including satcom, to ensure that every nook and corner of the country is covered with high-speed broadband connectivity.

“This position remains consistent. Airtel has tied up with Eutelsat OneWeb, which has a LEO constellation, only the second one in the world, through which it proposes to provide satcom services in India and Africa,” it said.

Eutelsat OneWeb, in a joint venture with Airtel, has already set up two ground stations, one in Gujarat and the other in Tamil Nadu, to secure all communications arising out of India on the satcom network as it awaits the green light to commercially provide such services, it added.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu

Washington, Oct 15: The Biden administration has warned Israel that it must increase the amount of humanitarian aid it is allowing into Gaza within the next 30 days or it could risk losing access to US weapons funding.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin warned their Israeli counterparts in a letter dated Sunday that the changes must occur. The letter, which restates US policy toward humanitarian aid and arms transfers, was sent amid deteriorating conditions in northern Gaza and reports Israel had conducted a strike on a hospital tent site in central Gaza that killed at least four people.

A senior defence official said Tuesday that Blinken and Austin sent a letter to their Israeli counterparts as they saw a recent decrease in assistance reaching Gaza. The official said a similar letter sent by Blinken in April triggered a constructive response and “concrete measures from the Israelis”.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations, said the latest letter was a way to similarly address the problem.

For Israel to continue qualifying for foreign military financing, the level of aid getting into Gaza must increase to at least 350 trucks a day, Israel must institute additional humanitarian pauses and provide increased security for humanitarian sites, Austin and Blinken said. They said Israel had 30 days to respond to the different requirements.

An Israeli official confirmed a letter had been delivered but did not discuss the contents. The official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss a diplomatic matter, confirmed the US had raised “humanitarian concerns” and was putting pressure on Israel to speed up the flow of aid into Gaza.