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Attack on Ataturk Statue at Opening of Hagia Sophia Fuels Anger

People walking near the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul (AP)
People walking near the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul (AP)
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Attack on Ataturk Statue at Opening of Hagia Sophia Fuels Anger

People walking near the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul (AP)
People walking near the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul (AP)

Turkey's top cleric has been attacked for comments deemed offensive to the modern republic's founder Mustafa Kemal Ataturk during a sermon at Istanbul's iconic Hagia Sophia which was reconverted to a mosque.

Ali Erbas, head of the top religious body known as Diyanet, presided over prayers at the monument on Friday at a ceremony attended by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and thousands of others.

Politicians from the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) and İYİ (Good) Party claimed that Erbas’ remarks were targeting Ataturk, some calling on him to resign.

Turkey’s Union of Bar Associations also called on Erbas to resign.

“Mustafa Kemal Atatürk is the founding father who turned our people into free citizens via his revolutions in a country that was accepted as the sultan’s property. It’s unacceptable for the Diyanet head to say these remarks that are based on his hidden agenda,” the union said, while reminding Erbas that he owes the post he currently occupies to Ataturk.

“We expect him to urgently apologize from the people and to resign,” it added.

Erbas, whose Islamist statements often draw ire, on July 24 caused outrage for giving a sermon at Hagia Sophia that included apparent damning of Ataturk.

“Sultan Mehmed the Conqueror endowed and entrusted this outstanding place of worship as the apple of his eye to believers on condition that it should remain a mosque until the last day,” Erbas said, while holding a sword in his hand as a continuation of the Ottoman tradition of conquest.

“Any property that is endowed is inviolable in our belief and burns whoever touches it; the charter of the endower is indispensable and whoever infringes upon it is cursed,” he added.

His remarks drew anger since Hagia Sophia was turned into a museum by Ataturk in 1934.

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World

Glitch Delays Restart of World's Biggest Nuclear Plant in Japan

Local Japanese authorities have approved the restart of the world's biggest nuclear power facility, the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa Nuclear Power Plant, for the first time since the 2011 Fukushima disaster. STR / JIJI Press/AFP
Local Japanese authorities have approved the restart of the world's biggest nuclear power facility, the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa Nuclear Power Plant, for the first time since the 2011 Fukushima disaster. STR / JIJI Press/AFP
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Glitch Delays Restart of World's Biggest Nuclear Plant in Japan

Local Japanese authorities have approved the restart of the world's biggest nuclear power facility, the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa Nuclear Power Plant, for the first time since the 2011 Fukushima disaster. STR / JIJI Press/AFP
Local Japanese authorities have approved the restart of the world's biggest nuclear power facility, the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa Nuclear Power Plant, for the first time since the 2011 Fukushima disaster. STR / JIJI Press/AFP

A technical glitch pushed back the restart of the world's biggest nuclear reactor in Japan, its operator said on Monday, a day before local media reported it would go online.

Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) said it would need another day of two to check the equipment at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant, which media reports said was set to restart on Tuesday.

The plant was taken offline when Japan pulled the plug on nuclear power after a colossal earthquake and tsunami sent three reactors at the Fukushima plant into meltdown in 2011.

The Kashiwazaki-Kariwa facility would be the first nuclear plant that Fukushima operator TEPCO restarts since the disaster.

The company has never publicly announced a date to switch on the plant.

TEPCO has decided to run more checks after detecting a technical issue on Saturday related to an alarm linked to one of the reactors at Kashiwazaki-Kariwa, company spokesman Isao Ito told AFP.

The alarm issue had been fixed by Sunday, he added.

After the final checks, the utility will explain to nuclear authorities what had happened and proceed to restart the plant, the spokesman said, without providing an exact timeline.

More than a decade since the Fukushima accident, Japan now wants to revive atomic energy to reduce its dependence on fossil fuels, achieve carbon neutrality by 2050 and meet growing energy needs from artificial intelligence.

But it is a divisive issue, with many residents worried about nuclear safety.

About 50 people gathered Monday outside TEPCO's headquarters in the capital Tokyo, chanting "No to the restart of Kashiwazaki-Kariwa!"

"TEPCO only mentions a possible delay. But that's not enough," said Takeshi Sakagami, president of the Citizens' Nuclear Regulatory Watchdog Group.

"A full investigation is needed, and if a major flaw is confirmed, the reactor should be permanently shut down," he said at the rally.

The reactor has cleared the nation's nuclear safety standard.

Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi has voiced her support for the use of nuclear power.

Japan is the world's fifth-largest single-country emitter of carbon dioxide, and is heavily dependent on imported fossil fuels.

World

Trump Says 'World Is Not Secure' Unless US Controls Greenland

Danish soldiers walk in front of Joint Arctic Command in Nuuk, Greenland, January 16, 2026. REUTERS/Marko Djurica
Danish soldiers walk in front of Joint Arctic Command in Nuuk, Greenland, January 16, 2026. REUTERS/Marko Djurica
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Trump Says 'World Is Not Secure' Unless US Controls Greenland

Danish soldiers walk in front of Joint Arctic Command in Nuuk, Greenland, January 16, 2026. REUTERS/Marko Djurica
Danish soldiers walk in front of Joint Arctic Command in Nuuk, Greenland, January 16, 2026. REUTERS/Marko Djurica

President Donald Trump told the Norwegian prime minister in a message published Monday that the world would not be secure unless the US controlled the Danish autonomous territory of Greenland.

"The World is not secure unless we have Complete and Total Control of Greenland," Trump said in the message to Jonas Gahr Store.

The authenticity of the message was confirmed to AFP by Store's office.

World

Death Toll in Spanish Train Collision Rises to at Least 39 as Rescue Efforts Continue

Members of the Spanish Civil Guard, along with other emergency personnel, work next to one of the trains involved in the accident, at the site of a deadly derailment of two high-speed trains near Adamuz, in Cordoba, Spain, January 19, 2026. (Reuters)
Members of the Spanish Civil Guard, along with other emergency personnel, work next to one of the trains involved in the accident, at the site of a deadly derailment of two high-speed trains near Adamuz, in Cordoba, Spain, January 19, 2026. (Reuters)
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Death Toll in Spanish Train Collision Rises to at Least 39 as Rescue Efforts Continue

Members of the Spanish Civil Guard, along with other emergency personnel, work next to one of the trains involved in the accident, at the site of a deadly derailment of two high-speed trains near Adamuz, in Cordoba, Spain, January 19, 2026. (Reuters)
Members of the Spanish Civil Guard, along with other emergency personnel, work next to one of the trains involved in the accident, at the site of a deadly derailment of two high-speed trains near Adamuz, in Cordoba, Spain, January 19, 2026. (Reuters)

Spanish police said Monday that at least 39 people are confirmed dead in a high-speed train collision the previous night in the south of the country, and rescue efforts were continuing.

Video and photos showed twisted train cars lying on their sides under floodlights. Passengers reported climbing out of smashed windows, with some using emergency hammers to break the windows, according to Salvador Jiménez, a journalist for Spanish broadcaster RTVE, who was on board one of the derailed trains.

He told the network by phone Sunday that “there was a moment when it felt like an earthquake and the train had indeed derailed.”

The crash occurred when the tail end of a train carrying some 300 passengers on the route from Malaga to the capital, Madrid, went off the rails at 7:45 p.m. It slammed into an incoming train traveling from Madrid to Huelva, another southern Spanish city, according to rail operator Adif.

The collision took place near Adamuz, a town in the province of Cordoba, about 370 kilometers (about 230 miles) south of Madrid.

Spanish police said 159 people were injured, of whom five were in critical condition. A further 24 were in serious condition, authorities said. Transport Minister Óscar Puente said the death toll was not final.

In Adamuz, a sports center was turned into a makeshift hospital and the Spanish Red Cross set up a help center offering assistance to emergency services and people seeking information. Members of Spain’s civil guard and civil defense worked on site throughout the night.

Puente early Monday said the cause of the crash was unknown.

He called it “a truly strange” incident because it happened on a flat stretch of track that had been renovated in May. He also said the train that jumped the track was less than 4 years old. That train belonged to the private company Iryo, while the second train, which took the brunt of the impact, was part of Spain’s public train company, Renfe.

According to Puente, the back part of the first train derailed and crashed into the head of the other train, knocking its first two carriages off the track and down a 4-meter (13-foot) slope. He said the worst damage was to the front section of the Renfe train.

When asked by reporters how long an inquiry into the crash’s cause could take, he said it could be a month.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez expressed his condolences to the victims' families. “Tonight is a night of deep pain for our country,” he wrote on X.

Spain has the largest rail network in Europe for trains moving over 250 kph (155 mph), with more than 3,100 kilometers (1,900 miles) of track, according to the European Union.

The network is a popular, competitively priced and safe mode of transport. Renfe said more than 25 million passengers took one of its high-speed trains in 2024.

Train services Monday between Madrid and cities in Andalusia were canceled.

Spain’s worst train accident this century occurred in 2013, when 80 people died after a train derailed in the country’s northwest. An investigation concluded the train was traveling 179 kph (111 mph) on a stretch with an 80 kph (50 mph) speed limit when it left the tracks.