Türkiye Orders 83 Arrests Over Online Praise for School Shootings

Mortuary vans are parked in front of a hospital morgue, after a deadly shooting at a school, in Kahramanmaras, Turkey, April 16, 2026. REUTERS/Ensar Ozdemir
Mortuary vans are parked in front of a hospital morgue, after a deadly shooting at a school, in Kahramanmaras, Turkey, April 16, 2026. REUTERS/Ensar Ozdemir
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Türkiye Orders 83 Arrests Over Online Praise for School Shootings

Mortuary vans are parked in front of a hospital morgue, after a deadly shooting at a school, in Kahramanmaras, Turkey, April 16, 2026. REUTERS/Ensar Ozdemir
Mortuary vans are parked in front of a hospital morgue, after a deadly shooting at a school, in Kahramanmaras, Turkey, April 16, 2026. REUTERS/Ensar Ozdemir

Turkish police said on Thursday they had ordered dozens of arrests for people accused of posting controversial content on social media after two deadly school shootings this week.

"Arrest orders were issued for 83 individuals found to have engaged in posts and activities praising crime and criminals and negatively affecting public order, and legal action has been taken against them," the police said in a statement.

Funerals will be held on Thursday for nine people killed when a 14-year-old opened fire at a school in Türkiye, sending shock waves across the country.

The attack in the southern province of Kahramanmaras was Türkiye's second such incident this week in a country where such shootings have been rare.

The funerals will be for eight children aged 10 and 11 and a 55-year-old teacher, the local authorities said.

Police said Thursday that the teenager had referenced US mass killer Elliot Rodger in a photo on his WhatsApp profile.

"Initial findings from the investigation revealed that the perpetrator used an image on his WhatsApp profile referencing Elliot Rodger, who carried out an attack in the United States in 2014," the police said in a statement.

Rodger -- a 22-year-old American-- killed six people on the campus of the University of California, Santa Barbara, before taking his own life.

Rodger explained in a video released before his crime that the attack was "punishment" for the women who had rejected him.

The 14-year-old who carried out Wednesday's shooting died at the scene, officials said, though it was not clear how his death happened.

The father of teenager, identified as a former police inspector, was arrested on Wednesday and taken into custody, the police said.

"Digital media seized during searches of the perpetrator's home and his father's vehicle have been confiscated and are currently being analyzed," the police said.

"Based on initial findings, no link to terrorism has been established. This appears to be an isolated act."



Ukraine Strikes Industrial Facility in Russia’s Volgograd as Russian Drone Attack Kills 1

 Firefighters work at a site of a Russian missile and drone strike, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Poltava region, Ukraine, in this handout picture released June 27, 2026. (Press service of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine in Poltava region/Handout via Reuters)
Firefighters work at a site of a Russian missile and drone strike, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Poltava region, Ukraine, in this handout picture released June 27, 2026. (Press service of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine in Poltava region/Handout via Reuters)
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Ukraine Strikes Industrial Facility in Russia’s Volgograd as Russian Drone Attack Kills 1

 Firefighters work at a site of a Russian missile and drone strike, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Poltava region, Ukraine, in this handout picture released June 27, 2026. (Press service of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine in Poltava region/Handout via Reuters)
Firefighters work at a site of a Russian missile and drone strike, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Poltava region, Ukraine, in this handout picture released June 27, 2026. (Press service of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine in Poltava region/Handout via Reuters)

Ukraine struck a major industrial facility in the Russian city of Volgograd, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Saturday, while a Russian drone attack killed a man in Ukraine’s northeastern Sumy region overnight.

Ukraine has stepped up its long-range aerial attacks on Russian military industries and energy facilities, aiming to cut Moscow’s revenue for the war and make Russians feel the consequences of the invasion, now in its fifth year.

The campaign, which Zelenskyy has said aims to bring Russian President Vladimir Putin to the negotiating table, has choked Russian fuel supplies and military deliveries, stalling Moscow’s efforts on the battlefield and heaping pressure on Putin, Western officials and analysts say.

Writing on X, Zelenskyy said that FP-5 Flamingo missiles hit the Titan-Barrikady facility in Volgograd in southwestern Russia, describing it as a “major industrial complex” where Russia “produces artillery systems and specialized military equipment, including components for missile launch systems.”

According to Ukraine’s General Staff, the facility manufactures equipment for missile systems, including self-propelled launchers and transport-loading vehicles for the Iskander-M missile system, which it said is “the same system Russia regularly uses to strike Ukrainian cities.”

Volgograd Gov. Andrei Bocharov confirmed an attack on a business in the region’s Krasnooktyabrsky district, saying 10 people had been wounded and taken to a hospital. He said production facilities at the site were damaged but did not identify the company.

Ukraine's state security service said Saturday morning that Ukrainian forces also struck an oil pumping facility in Russia’s Vladimir region that supplies fuel to Moscow, for the second time this month.

The attacks came a day after Ukraine launched what appeared to be one of Kyiv's biggest drone assaults since the Kremlin’s full-scale invasion more than four years ago. The major nighttime attack targeted a dozen Russian regions, Russian-held Crimea and the surrounding seas, Moscow’s Defense Ministry said Friday, noting that Russian air defenses intercepted 660 Ukrainian drones.

Zelenskyy said Thursday he had ordered “a 40-day influence operation,” believed to mean an escalation of attacks, aimed at “compelling (Russia) to end the war” after US peace efforts over the past year yielded no breakthrough.

Meanwhile, in Ukraine’s Sumy region, a 66-year-old man was killed in a Russian drone strike on a private residence in the region, regional head Oleh Hryhorov said Saturday.


Burkina Faso Cuts Diplomatic Relations with France, Once a Key Ally

FILE - In this photo provided by RIA Novosti, Burkina Faso President Ibrahim Traore arrives at the Grand Palace at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, on May 10, 2025. (Stanislav Krasilnikov/RIA Novosti via AP, File)
FILE - In this photo provided by RIA Novosti, Burkina Faso President Ibrahim Traore arrives at the Grand Palace at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, on May 10, 2025. (Stanislav Krasilnikov/RIA Novosti via AP, File)
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Burkina Faso Cuts Diplomatic Relations with France, Once a Key Ally

FILE - In this photo provided by RIA Novosti, Burkina Faso President Ibrahim Traore arrives at the Grand Palace at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, on May 10, 2025. (Stanislav Krasilnikov/RIA Novosti via AP, File)
FILE - In this photo provided by RIA Novosti, Burkina Faso President Ibrahim Traore arrives at the Grand Palace at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, on May 10, 2025. (Stanislav Krasilnikov/RIA Novosti via AP, File)

Burkina Faso’s military government severed diplomatic ties with France, its former colonial ruler that had been a key security partner for the West African nation before relations fractured.

The junta said in a statement Friday it broke off relations with France effective immediately, accusing it of "blatant neo-colonial ambitions and active support for subversive networks and terrorists,” without providing evidence.

France’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Pascal Confavreux said in a statement that the country regrets the “hostile and unfounded decision, which illustrates the worrying drift of the Burkinabè authorities.”

“Necessary reciprocal measures are currently under review,” he said. Confavreux added that France is monitoring the safety of French government personnel and citizens in Burkina Faso and urged them to exercise heightened vigilance.

The West African country of 23 million people has been battered by yearslong violence perpetrated by extremist groups linked to al-Qaida and the ISIS group, as well as government forces often accused of extrajudicial killings.

It was unclear what would follow the end of diplomatic relations or how the French embassy in Burkina Faso would be affected.

“The conditions essential for fostering relations based on mutual respect, reciprocal trust, and respect for the principle of non-interference in internal affairs and national sovereignty are no longer met,” Burkina Faso’s Communications Minister Pingdwende Gilbert Ouedraogo said in a statement.

The two sides suffered broken relations for years.

Burkina Faso's military government has in the past targeted foreign diplomats, including the French, whom it has often accused of working against its interests. In 2023, the junta asked France to recall its ambassador and declared the United Nations’ resident and humanitarian coordinator in the country persona non grata, while in 2024, it expelled three French diplomats for alleged subversive activities.

France was Burkina Faso's major security partner until a 2022 coup. The junta then sacked hundreds of French forces sent to fight extremist groups.

The violence has worsened under the military government that had promised to curb it, analysts say.

In the two years following the coup, Burkina Faso forces allegedly killed twice as many civilians as extremists, according to a recent report by the Human Rights Watch, which blamed government forces for at least 1,200 of the 1,837 civilians killed in the country between January 2023 and August 2025.


Iran Accuses US of 'Blatant Violation' of Peace Deal

Oil tanker Al Shaffiah sails at the sea near the Omani coast, as seen from Musandam, Oman, June 26, 2026. REUTERS/Stringer
Oil tanker Al Shaffiah sails at the sea near the Omani coast, as seen from Musandam, Oman, June 26, 2026. REUTERS/Stringer
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Iran Accuses US of 'Blatant Violation' of Peace Deal

Oil tanker Al Shaffiah sails at the sea near the Omani coast, as seen from Musandam, Oman, June 26, 2026. REUTERS/Stringer
Oil tanker Al Shaffiah sails at the sea near the Omani coast, as seen from Musandam, Oman, June 26, 2026. REUTERS/Stringer

Iran on Saturday accused the United States of a "blatant violation" of the peace deal reached between the two sides to end the Middle East war after the latest American strikes on the country.

"These brutal attacks, which targeted Iranian coastal surveillance facilities, are a blatant violation" of the memorandum of understanding to end the war, the Iranian foreign ministry said in a statement.

The US military said its forces struck Iranian missile and drone storage sites and coastal radar locations on Friday in response to an Iranian attack on a cargo ship transiting the strategic Strait of Hormuz.