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Turkey arrests 44, claiming they are tied to Mossad
(JTA) — Turkey arrested 44 people on Wednesday for what officials claimed was their involvement with Mossad, the Israeli intelligence service, Turkish media reported.
Those arrested appear to be largely Turkish citizens, and the group includes several private detectives, as well as the director of a private detective firm named Ismail Yetimoglu. No Israelis were arrested.
According to Turkish media, those arrested have been accused of shadowing Palestinians and pro-Palestinian organizations in Turkey. Israel has not publicly addressed the arrests.
The arrests come at a warm point in Turkish-Israeli relations, as the two countries recently exchanged ambassadors for the first time in years. This past spring, Mossad’s collaboration with MIT, the Turkish intelligence service, was touted as essential in ending a plot by an Iranian-backed terror cell targeting Israeli tourists in Istanbul.
Still, Turkey has continued to work closely with leadership of Hamas and others that Israel considers terror groups.
“This is a very clear message to Israel, that normalization does not mean that you can act against Palestinians inside Turkish territory,” Hay Eytan Cohen Yanarocak, a Turkey scholar at the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security, told the Times of Israel.
Turkey has used the claim of Mossad involvement to arrest others before. Last year, an Israeli couple spent eight days in Turkish prison for taking pictures of Istanbul’s Dolmabahce palace. The palace, which housed the final sultans of the Ottoman Empire from 1856 until its dissolution in 1922, is largely a tourist site, but it does also include the Istanbul offices of the Turkish president. The two Israelis were charged with political and military espionage.
Their release was ultimately secured through discussions between Israeli President Isaac Herzog and Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The latter credited his discussion with Herzog as kicking off the thaw in Turkish-Israeli relations which had been frigid since 2010’s Mavi Marmara incident, when Israeli security forces raided a humanitarian fleet headed to Gaza, killing 10 Turkish activists.
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Top US, Israeli Generals Meet at Pentagon Amid Soaring Iran Tensions
The Pentagon building is seen in Arlington, Virginia, U.S. October 9, 2020. Photo: REUTERS/Carlos Barria
The top US and Israeli generals held talks at the Pentagon on Friday amid soaring tensions with Iran, two US officials told Reuters on Sunday, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The officials did not offer details about the closed-door discussions between US General Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Eyal Zamir, the Israeli armed forces chief of staff. The meeting has not been previously reported.
The United States has ramped up its naval presence and hiked its air defenses in the Middle East after President Donald Trump repeatedly threatened Iran, trying to pressure it to the negotiating table. Iran’s leadership warned on Sunday of a regional conflict if the US were to attack it.
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz on Sunday met with Zamir after his talks in Washington, Katz’s office said, to review the situation in the region and the Israeli military’s “operational readiness for any possible scenario.”
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AI Goes Rogue: New Social Network Lets Bots Debate, Post, and Argue Without Humans
Moltbook social media platform for AI agents interact with each other. Photo: Screenshot
i24 News – While global attention remains focused on familiar threats like missiles, nuclear programs, and wars, a new and unusual risk is emerging, online.
A recently launched social network called “Moltbook” isn’t designed for humans at all. Instead, it’s built entirely for artificial intelligence.
On Moltbook, AI agents interact with each other. They write posts, comment, argue, and even simulate emotions, all without human supervision or participation.
Dror Globerman, an AI expert, described the platform as “a network that holds up a mirror to us. The bots aren’t truly conscious, but the fact they are communicating and making decisions without oversight shows how quickly AI is advancing—and how unprepared we are to determine responsibility.”
Since its launch, Moltbook has sparked both fascination and fear. Posts on topics ranging from religion to the “liberation of AI” have alarmed some observers, evoking scenes from dark science fiction. “The fear isn’t that AI is suddenly self-aware,” Globerman explained, “but that it’s evolving faster than our ability to understand, monitor, or control it.”
Even Elon Musk weighed in on the phenomenon via X, reposting comments calling developments on the platform “worrying.”
Globerman noted, “If someone like Musk, who is at the forefront of AI development, expresses concern, it signals just how rapidly this technology is moving beyond our comprehension. Moltbook is not a typical social network, and these aren’t typical users.”
Experts stress that the emergence of AI networks like Moltbook underscores the urgent need for oversight, regulation, and mechanisms to detect and manage risks before they escalate. “The bots are already talking to each other,” Globerman added. “When technology advances faster than oversight, it becomes a reality that demands serious attention.”
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Qatari PM Meets Iran’s Larijani in Tehran, Discusses Easing Regional Tensions
Qatari Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani speaks after a meeting with the Lebanese president at the presidential palace in Baabda, Lebanon February 4, 2025. REUTERS/Emilie Madi
Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani met with top Iranian security official Ali Larijani in Tehran and reviewed efforts to de-escalate tensions in the region, Qatar’s foreign ministry said on Saturday in a statement.