Turkey’s Election, Wagner’s Proposal, & Ja Morant Suspended
May 15, 2023
Erdogan? More Like Might-Not-Be-President-Again
As votes continue to trickle in, it appears that Turkey’s presidential election is headed for a runoff. Turkish voters cast their ballots in divided presidential and parliamentary elections on Sunday, with 20-year incumbent leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan facing off against opposition candidate Kemal Kilicdaroglu. Erdogan served as prime minister from 2003 to 2014 before becoming president.
Turkish elections require one candidate to win over 50% of the vote, or runoff elections will be held. At the time of writing, official polls saw Erdogan with 49.34%, while Kilicdaroglu has 44.99% (97.95% of votes have been counted). Both sides have welcomed a runoff election if the results remain steady, though early Monday, Erdogan told the press, “We believe we will finish this round with over 50% of the votes.”
This year’s election is the most mortal Erdogan has looked in years. He’s faced heavy criticism in the wake of a weak response to the massive earthquake earlier this year, and the economic successes that have bolstered his past campaigns seem to have slowed. Additionally, the government’s increasingly repressive policies in the wake of a 2016 coup attempt – jailing journalists and critics, stacking the courts, and replacing local leaders with his own people – have made the president’s stock fall even further.
The election has also seen its fair share of sideline circus activities – and not the nice kind, either. Twitter announced on Saturday that it had “taken action to restrict access to some content in Turkey” during the election, sparking outrage among critics who say Elon Musk is giving in to the demands of Erdogan’s increasingly powerful government. It’s unclear what content, exactly, has been restricted. Also looming over the election is the specter of Russian interference: Kilicdaroglu claims he has evidence of Moscow’s role in releasing deepfake videos that interfered with the election process, though he didn’t specify what content he meant.
Some Good News
- New York City passes bill banning weight discrimination (CNN)
- Wind is main source of UK electricity for first time (BBC)
Incumbent Incapacity In India
- Ahead of national elections slated for next year, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist party has dropped a crucial state assembly election to the opposition Congress party. According to voting counts in India’s southern Karnataka state, the Congress party secured 123 seats in the state assembly, well ahead of Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which is projected to win 64. A simple majority of the assembly is 113 seats.
- Karnataka is considered a forecaster of next year’s elections due to its prominence as a tech hub and younger demographics. Its population is also 84% Hindu, 13% Muslim, and under 2% Christian, which should have handed BJP a lead in the race. BJP campaigned on promises of social welfare and development (while also occasionally leaning into some Hindu nationalism), while the Congress party called for subsidies and financial assistance and rations for disadvantaged groups, while targeting the incumbent government’s failures in infrastructure and corruption.
Prigozhin’s Pissed-Off Ploy
- According to U.S. intelligence documents leaked on Discord, Wagner Group head Yevgeniy Prigozhin may have proposed an illicit trade with Kyiv this January. The documents, part of the massive leaks which dropped earlier this year, show that Prigozhin contacted Ukrainian commanders and offered to trade the positions of some Russian troops for the withdrawal of Ukrainian forces from the city of Bakhmut, where Wagner Group forces have been engaged in a grinding war of attrition.
- The news comes as Prigozhin has publicly criticized Russian military leadership, especially calling out their failure to supply his forces with ammunition. Despite this, Ukrainian officials remain skeptical of an actual divide between Wagner and Russian leadership, and won’t confirm if they’ve actually been in contact with Wagner’s leader. It’s a common tactic during war for opposing sides to maintain communication with one another, and the move could simply be a Russian ploy to feed Kyiv bad information. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky refused to confirm the leaks to the Washington Post, and also noted that they might even benefit Russia.
Additional World News
- China and Russia are increasing their military collaboration, Japan’s foreign minister warns (ABC)
- Imran Khan accuses Pakistan’s military of ordering his arrest (Guardian)
- Russia may have just lost four aircraft in one day. Here’s what we know (CNN)
- Thousands evacuated as Cyclone Mocha makes landfall in Myanmar (Guardian)
- Israel and Islamic Jihad agree ceasefire after days of violence (CNN)
- Thailand’s opposition opens up big election lead as army parties slide (Reuters)
- Belarus leader Alexander Lukashenko misses event, fuelling health rumours (BBC)
“We cannot change anything until we accept it. Condemnation does not liberate, it oppresses.” – Carl Jung
Governing For Good
- The governor of North Carolina – Roy Cooper, a Democrat – vetoed legislation Saturday that would have banned nearly all abortions in the state after 12 weeks of pregnancy. The veto took place publicly in front of a crowd of activists in a somewhat nontraditional display.
- The GOP-controlled General Assembly recently gained veto-proof majorities in both chambers, but some of those Republicans made campaign promises to “protect women’s reproductive health,” according to Cooper. The legislation passed along party lines last week in the House and Senate, and override voting could begin this week.
Let’s Debt It Together, Folks
- Amid the looming June debt ceiling limit deadline, one idea floated by the Biden administration was for the president to use the 14th amendment to bypass the stalemate. The amendment states that the “validity of the public debt of the United States … shall not be questioned,” and while the use of it to solve the debt limit problem has been considered by previous administrations, many (including Biden) see it as more of a last resort than an actual solution.
- While Biden is, reportedly, still considering using the 14th amendment, even his own party isn’t so sure about that decision. During an interview with “Meet the Press,” NBC News’ Chuck Todd asked Democratic Senator Chris Murphy about the idea, and Murphy seemed to imply it’s the easy way out, saying, “I don’t want to give Joe Biden advice, but I think we should do our job. I think that’s a precedent to just absolve Congress from being adults.” We’ll likely see in the coming week if his colleagues agree.
Additional USA News
- Trump rages after sexual abuse verdict but legal woes have only just begun (Guardian)
- Shooting in downtown Louisville, Kentucky, leaves 1 dead, 4 wounded (AP)
- Mexican border crossings are down 50% since Title 42 expiration, homeland security chief says (Reuters)
- An unusually early heat wave in the Pacific Northwest is testing records (NPR)
- Florida teen is arrested after fake bomb threats force disruptions at Ft. Lauderdale airport, multiple schools (CNN)
- New York City to open first asylum-seeker arrival center and additional relief center for migrants (CNN)
- Wrongful death lawsuit filed against Meta and Google in Buffalo supermarket massacre (CBS)
Ja Morant, All-Star Boundary Pusher
- Following his team’s first-round NBA playoffs exit, Memphis Grizzlies guard Ja Morant has gone for a second round at something a little different: waving his gun at cameras. The All-Star received an eight-game suspension earlier this year for flashing a gun at a club in Denver (while being filmed), and has decided to follow up that performance by waving a pistol around while being filmed on a friend’s Instagram Live stream. “We are aware of the social media post involving Ja Morant and are in the process of gathering more information,” said the NBA this morning. The league is still reviewing the evidence, though the Grizzlies have preemptively suspended Morant from all team activities (it’s currently the off-season).
- Along with the first suspension, Morant was also forced to join a counseling program. He claimed that the incident made him realize “what I have to lose” and said he would try to be “more responsible, more smarter and staying away from all the bad decisions.” He’s also found himself in trouble for multiple off-court incidents this year alone, including picking a fight with a high school prospect at a pickup game.
- Morant will begin his $194 million, five-year max contract this upcoming season, but the first gun-related suspension made him miss out on almost $40 million more. The eight-game hiatus also meant he narrowly missed being voted an All-NBA player, which in turn ruled him out of a supermax contract totaling about $233 million. Morant’s brand deals with Nike and Powerade mean he’s taking home more than just an NBA contract, but they’ve also pumped the brakes in the wake of the first gun incident, with Powerade pulling an ad campaign featuring the star after he pulled the gun.
Additional Reads
- AI presents political peril for 2024 with threat to mislead voters (The Hill)
- Michigan boy uses slingshot to thwart sister’s kidnapping, police say (NBC)
- One of Africa’s oldest lions killed in Kenya, conservationists say (CNN)
- Off-grid solar brings light, time and income to remotest villages (AP)
- Taylor Swift Tells Security to Lay Off Fan at Philadelphia Show (Variety)
- Minneapolis city council nomination brawl leaves 2 injured; no candidate chosen (ABC)
- Scabby the Rat gives bite to union protests, but is he at the tail end of his relevancy? (AP)