latest

An Arizona Republican lawmaker on Wednesday called for the execution of a Democratic congresswoman because she urged people upset with President Donald Trump to protest in the streets.

Kingman Republican Rep. John Gillette wrote on the social media site X that U.S. Rep. Pramila Jayapal, a Democrat from Washington, was calling for the the government to be overthrown and should be hanged.

“Until people like this, that advocate for the overthrow of the American government are tried convicted and hanged.. it will continue,” Gillette said in response to a video of Jayapal.

The post Gillette responded to claimed that Jayapal was making a call to violence because she said protesters should be “strike ready” and “street ready.” The Arizona Mirror watched the video in its entirety and found no calls to violence or advocating for overthrowing the government; it was focused on “non-violent resistance” to Trump and advising people on how to do that.

In contrast, Gillette has expressed support for the Trump supporters who stormed the U.S. Capitol in January 2021, who violently assaulted police officers and broke down doors and windows in order to access the building so they could stop Congress from certifying the 2020 election. In several posts on X, he called the 1,600 or so people who were prosecuted — and since pardoned by Trump — for their actions that day “political prisoners.”

In a message to all his fellow lawmakers that included a racial slur, he placed blame for political violence solely on Democrats and the political left, accusing them of stoking hate and violence against Republicans.

“The tone was set by your party; unity is no longer an option,” Gillette wrote to the 59 other members of the state House. “We handed you an olive ranch (sic), and you broke it. Your party invited the radicals to the table and they took over. Now you own them. As the J**s did at Peral (sic) Harbor, Radical Muslims on 911, your party has woken the sleeping giant.”

Turkey moves to deport Syrian migrants for eating bananas in a ‘provocative’ way on TikTok

The Turkish government has opened deportation proceedings against at least seven Syrian nationals accused of eating bananas in a “provocative” way while participating in a TikTok video challenge, in a move that underscores rising hostility toward Syrians in a country with a reputation for being welcoming to refugees.

The challenge was inspired by an Oct. 17 encounter on the streets of Istanbul that was captured on video, during which a man complained that he could not afford bananas, a staple that has fallen out of the reach of many consumers amid a poor economy. Turning to a female Syrian student, he alleged that refugees from Syria were buying the fruit by the “kilos,” a reference to false rumors that displaced people were living in luxury off Turkish taxpayer largesse.

In response, Syrians in Turkey and elsewhere posted videos of themselves eating bananas to poke fun at the incident. In one video, a group of young Syrians sat around the room, chuckling as they ate their fruit.

On Thursday, local media reported that immigration authorities in Istanbul had detained 11 Syrians involved with the videos on charges of “inciting or humiliating the [Turkish] people with hatred and hostility,” in an action that an Amnesty International coordinator called “appalling.”

Amid double-digit inflation there has been a “considerable decrease” in “acceptance and solidarity” in recent years.

Turkish people have started looking at Syrian refugees as a “scapegoat,”. The U.N. refugee agency report suggested that more than 80 percent of Turks believe displaced Syrians thrive on government subsidies.

The mounting hostility toward Syrian refugees in Turkey has translated into violence. Law enforcement detained 76 people in August, after a mob stormed an Ankara neighborhood where many Syrian immigrants live, overturning cars, vandalizing businesses and chanting anti-Syrian slogans.