
Kurdish PKK says it will disband and end armed struggle
The decision follows founder Abdullah Ocalan's call for the PKK to disarm and disband.
The PKK's insurgency since 1984 has cost more than 40,000 lives.
The Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) has announced its dissolution and the end of more than four decades of armed struggle against the Turkish state, the pro-Kurd ANF news agency reported.
'The 12th PKK Congress has decided to dissolve the PKK's organisational structure and end its method of armed struggle,' the group announced on Monday in a statement, after holding its congress last week.
The PKK's announcement to dissolve itself heeds a call by its founder Abdullah Ocalan, jailed in an island off Istanbul since 1999, who urged his fighters in February to disarm and disband.
In a letter, Ocalan urged the PKK to hold a congress to formalise the decision.

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Otago Daily Times
2 days ago
- Otago Daily Times
White House seeks fines from other universities after Columbia deal
Harvard University. File photo: Getty Images The White House is seeking fines from several universities it says failed to stop antisemitism on campus, including Harvard University, in exchange for restoring federal funding, a Trump administration official said on Friday. The administration is in talks with several universities, including Cornell, Duke, Northwestern and Brown, the source said, confirming a report in the Wall Street Journal. The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the administration is close to striking deals with Northwestern and Brown and potentially Cornell. A deal with Harvard, the country's oldest and richest university, is a key target for the White House, the official added. A spokesperson for Cornell declined to comment. Other universities did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Trump and his team have undertaken a broad campaign to leverage federal funding to force change at U.S. universities, which the Republican president says are gripped by antisemitic and "radical left" ideologies. Trump has targeted several universities since returning to office in January over the pro-Palestinian student protest movement that roiled college campuses last year. Columbia University said on Wednesday it will pay more than $200 million to the U.S. government in a settlement with the administration to resolve federal probes and have most of its suspended federal funding restored. The Trump administration has welcomed the Columbia deal, with officials believing the university set the standard on how to reach an agreement, the official said. Harvard has taken a different approach, suing the federal government in a bid to get suspended federal grants restored.

RNZ News
3 days ago
- RNZ News
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NZ Herald
4 days ago
- NZ Herald
Columbia University settles with US, pays $200m to restore federal funding
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In March, the Education Secretary announced $400 million in federal research funding would be cancelled over what officials alleged were the school's failures to protect Jewish students from discrimination. The next day, a Columbia student, Mahmoud Khalil, became the first pro-Palestinian advocate seized by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in a series of high-profile attempts to deport non-citizen activists. (A federal judge ordered Khalil's release from detention in June.) Columbia student and pro-Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil was seized by the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement during a rally. Photo / Getty Images Three days after the funding freeze, the Education Department sent a letter that set out its demands, including changes to student discipline, a mask ban, and the right to monitor an academic department as preconditions to restoring funding. Columbia announced several changes – some of them long in the works – including clarifying rules for campus demonstrations, appointing a senior vice-provost to review Middle East programmes, seeking to increase the intellectual diversity of the faculty, and training additional public safety officers to remove and arrest protesters. But its funding was not restored in response, and tense negotiations have been under way for months. The school had been the centre of protests over the Israel-Gaza war during the 2023-2024 academic year, with an encampment in the spring that sparked similar demonstrations at colleges across the country, and a takeover of a university building that was cleared by New York police officers. The protests were divisive: as college leaders struggled to balance freedom of speech with student safety, some Jewish and Israeli students at Columbia and elsewhere said that school officials had not done enough to stop rising antisemitism. Students reported being ostracised from clubs for supporting Israel, seeing protesters handing out fliers promoting Hamas, and instances of signs displayed with target symbols. Some other students, including pro-Palestinian activists, criticised the school for trying to stifle views critical of Israel and not standing up to federal intrusion into campus policies. Demonstrators take part in a Our City, Our Fight, Protect Migrants, Protect the Planet protest in New York City. Photo / Getty Images This past academic year was much calmer, but on the first day of classes in the spring semester, masked protesters burst into a course on the history of modern Israel and handed out fliers, including one labelled 'Crush Zionism' with a drawing of a boot stomping on a Star of David. And pro-Palestinian protesters swarmed the school's main library in May, disrupting hundreds of students studying for finals. Police dispersed the demonstration, arresting scores of people. The Trump administration's antisemitism task force praised Columbia's forceful response. But the school's research funding was not restored. In June, tShipman, told the campus community that the challenges to Columbia's research mission and the entire institution were 'becoming increasingly acute' and that they were reaching a 'tipping point'. She said it was essential to restore their research partnership with the federal Government and that the university will comply with the law. She also laid out some red lines: 'We must maintain our autonomy and independent governance. We decide who teaches at our institution, what they teach, and which students we admit.' Any agreement they might reach, she said, must align with those values. Columbia University's acting president, Claire Shipman, fought for the school's autonomy. Photo / Getty Images Columbia is just one of dozens of schools targeted by the Trump administration as it seeks to change campus culture, including university hiring practices, admissions, penalties for antisemitism, and other matters. The administration has frozen billions of dollars in federal research funding to several high-profile schools – including more than $2 billion at Harvard, which has fought back with two lawsuits. This month, the University of Pennsylvania agreed to rescind a transgender athlete's awards and apologise for allowing her to compete on the university's swim team in 2022. The Trump administration had announced it was freezing $175 million at Penn over the issue. A White House spokesperson said Friday there are no restrictions to Penn's funding. While focused broadly on a campaign to change the nation's higher education system, President Donald Trump has taken particular interest in Columbia. Then-candidate Trump was in New York City for one of his criminal trials when the anti-Israel demonstrations erupted on the Upper West Side campus, producing images of clashes between students waving Palestinian flags and police dressed in riot gear. He asked to go to the campus to 'show solidarity with Jewish people', a senior White House official said. His team ultimately rejected his request because of logistics and security concerns, the official said. Trump and his allies have put immense pressure on powerful institutions, often winning significant concessions. Since winning a second term, Trump and his administration have struck deals or reached settlements with media companies, social media titans and prominent law firms. rump this year issued executive orders hitting law firms he disliked with heavy penalties, including saying they should be stripped of federal contracts and their employees blocked from federal buildings. Four firms filed lawsuits challenging his actions, and judges have blocked the orders aimed at those practices. But nine other law firms, hoping to rescind or avoid similar sanctions, instead struck deals with the administration. Mark Berman contributed to this report.