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☆ Opinion | I Can’t Believe I’m Saying This, but I Have Hope for Gun Reform in My State
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-21 | by ( Margaret Renkl | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

In the context of a Republican supermajority state, these efforts reflect genuine political courage. Tennessee legislators aren’t obliged to do their governor’s bidding, or even work with him to reach a compromise, because they have the numbers to override his veto. They are not accustomed to being called on their pious declamations of thoughts and prayers, and the unusual way the aftermath of this particular mass shooting unfolded — with great swaths of Tennesseans ceaselessly demanding gun reform, week after week after week — apparently caught them off guard. Republican legislators seemed genuinely shocked at finding themselves the targets of overwhelming national opprobrium after they ejected Justin Jones and Justin Pearson, two Black members of the Tennessee House, for joining protesters in demanding gun reform. State Republican leaders called for the governor to drop his plans for a special legislative session.

Persons: aren’t, Justin Jones, Justin Pearson, Dudley Brown, Bill Lee, Governor Lee, He’s Organizations: Tennessee, Republican, Tennessee Firearms Association, National Association for Gun Rights Locations: Nashville

☆ Turkey election runoff 2023: what you need to know
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-28 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +6 min

[1/2] Women display flags with images of Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan next to an election campaign point, ahead of the May 28 presidential runoff vote, in Istanbul, Turkey May 25, 2023. Here is a guide to the runoff, the two candidates and the key issues as well as details on how the May 14 parliamentary election unfolded:PRESIDENTIAL VOTETurks will be electing a president for a five-year term. As president, Erdogan sets policy on Turkey's economy, security, domestic and international affairs. The ZP received 2.2% of votes in the parliamentary election. On foreign affairs, under Erdogan, Turkey has flexed military power in the Middle East and beyond, forged closer ties with Russia, and seen relations with the European Union and United States become increasingly strained.

☆ Turkey's Erdogan urges voters to turn out, rival sees 'last exit'
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-27 | by ( Ezgi Erkoyun | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

[1/6] Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan attends a rally, ahead of the May 28 presidential runoff vote, in Istanbul, Turkey May 27, 2023. The two candidates are aiming to attract some 8 million voters who did not go to the polls in the first round. Erdogan got a boost earlier this week when Sinan Ogan - a nationalist politician who came third with 5.2% - endorsed him. Kilicdaroglu, who is chair of Turkey's biggest opposition party, the CHP, meanwhile secured the endorsement of the anti-immigrant Victory Party for the runoff. Polls will open at 8 a.m. (0500 GMT) and close at 5 p.m. (1400 GMT) for more than 60 million voters.

But he fell just short of the 50% needed to avoid a runoff, in a race with profound consequences for Turkey itself and global geopolitics. His camp has struggled to regain momentum after the shock of trailing Erdogan in the first round. A closely-watched survey by pollster Konda for the runoff put support for Erdogan on 52.7% and Kilicdaroglu on 47.3% after distributing undecided voters. [1/5] Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan attends a rally, ahead of the May 28 presidential runoff vote, in Istanbul, Turkey May 27, 2023. Erdogan has fused religious and national pride, offering voters an aggressive anti-elitism," said Nicholas Danforth, Turkey historian and non-resident fellow at think tank ELIAMEP.

[1/2] Pakistan's former Prime Minister Imran Khan and his wife Bushra Bibi are covered with a white sheet as they arrive to appear at the High Court in Lahore, Pakistan, May 15, 2023. REUTERS/Mohsin RazaISLAMABAD, May 16 (Reuters) - Bushra Khan, the wife of Pakistan's former Prime Minister Imran Khan, is facing corruption charges in the same case that led to his arrest on May 9. It was not clear when or how Khan met Bushra, but former aide Aun Chaudhry said Khan was very impressed with her spirituality. Khan and Bushra married in 2018, seven months before he was elected prime minister, in a secret ceremony. While prime minister, Khan promoted the trust at official events, and the couple are the sole trustees, according to Law Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar.

We are experiencing the result of this marathon with you tonight," Erdogan, 69, told thousands of flag-waving supporters from the balcony of his party's headquarters. But Erdogan, a veteran of a dozen election victories, emerged comfortably ahead of Kilicdaroglu, though just short of the majority needed to win. The outcome reflects the strong support Erdogan still commands, especially in religiously conservative regions where voters long felt marginalised by a once-dominant secular elite. Over two decades, Erdogan has redrawn Turkey's domestic, economic, security and foreign policy, rivalling historic leader Mustafa Kemal Ataturk who founded modern Turkey a century ago. Erdogan's government said the purge was justified by threats from coup supporters, as well as Islamic State and the PKK.

The son of a sea captain, Erdogan has faced stiff political headwinds ahead of Sunday's election: he was already facing blame over an economic crisis when a devastating earthquake hit in February. Critics accused his government of a slow response and lax enforcement of building rules, failures they said could have cost lives. Two days before the vote, Erdogan said he came to office through the ballot boxes and if he had to, would leave the same way. A veteran of more than a dozen election victories, the 69-year-old Erdogan has taken aim at his critics in typically combative fashion. "I swear, Erdogan can solve it with a flick of his wrist," she said at a market in central Istanbul.

☆ Turkey votes in pivotal elections that could end Erdogan's 20-year rule
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-13 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

The election takes place three months after earthquakes in southeast Turkey killed more than 50,000 people. The pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) is not part of the main opposition alliance but fiercely opposes Erdogan after a crackdown on its members in recent years. Kilicdaroglu, a 74-year-old former civil servant, promises that if he wins he will return to orthodox economic policies from Erdogan's heavy management. Human Rights Watch, in its World Report 2022, said Erdogan's government has set back Turkey's human rights record by decades. If he wins, Kilicdaroglu faces challenges keeping united an opposition alliance that includes nationalists, Islamists, secularists and liberals.

☆ The Turkey candidates for president and other key figures
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-12 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +6 min

Only three candidates remain in the race for president after Muharrem Ince, representing a small party, withdrew. CHP LEADER KEMAL KILICDAROGLUKilicdaroglu, 74, head of the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP), was named the six-party opposition alliance's presidential candidate in March. Previously a staunch opponent of Erdogan, Bahceli's Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) began to work with the president and his AKP after a 2016 attempted coup. OPPOSITION FIGURES:IYI PARTY LEADER MERAL AKSENERFormer interior minister Meral Aksener, 66, leads the second-largest party in the opposition alliance, the centrist and nationalist IYI Party. ANKARA MAYOR MANSUR YAVASNationalist politician and lawyer Mansur Yavas, 67, defeated the AKP's Ankara mayoral candidate 2019 as the CHP candidate backed by an opposition alliance.

☆ Opinion: Turkey’s Erdogan is in the fight of his political life. The real winner may be Putin
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-10 | by ( Opinion Elmira Bayrasli | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

CNN —For Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey’s longest serving ruler, Sunday’s upcoming election may be the end of a two-decade winning streak. Following an attempted coup to unseat Erdogan, the Russian president called his Turkish counterpart and offered his country’s support. Still, it was not enough to change the eastern tilt of Turkish foreign policy. Whether Erdogan wins or loses, Ankara is unlikely to untangle itself from Moscow and turn back to the West. (The Turkish president has previously dismissed concerns about press freedom in his country).

☆ Factbox: Key players in Turkey's election campaign
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-09 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +6 min

Turkey's longest-serving leader logged more than a dozen election victories and survived an attempted coup in 2016. CHP LEADER KEMAL KILICDAROGLUKilicdaroglu, 74, head of the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP), was named the six-party opposition alliance's presidential candidate in March. HOMELAND PARTY LEADER MUHARREM INCEFormer physics teacher and headmaster Muharrem Ince, 58, is seen as having little chance of becoming president. OPPOSITION FIGURES:IYI PARTY LEADER MERAL AKSENERFormer interior minister Meral Aksener, 66, leads the second-largest party in the opposition alliance, the centrist and nationalist IYI Party. ANKARA MAYOR MANSUR YAVASNationalist politician and lawyer Mansur Yavas, 67, defeated the AKP's Ankara mayoral candidate 2019 as the CHP candidate backed by an opposition alliance.

[1/2] Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan addresses his supporters during a rally ahead of the May 14 presidential and parliamentary elections, in Izmir, Turkey April 29, 2023. As he seeks to shore up his appeal among conservative voters, Erdogan has also spoken against homosexuality, describing LGBT rights as a "deviant" concept he would fight. 'BUILDING TURKEY TOGETHER'Polls suggest voting could go to a second round and some show Erdogan trailing. "I swear, Erdogan can solve it with a flick of his wrist," she said at a market in central Istanbul. The interventions won few allies, however, and faced with a struggling economy the countdown to the election, Erdogan sought rapprochement with rivals across the region.

Under a new proposal following a weekend of political intrigue, two popular mayors would serve as vice presidents should the opposition win in the presidential and parliamentary elections on May 14. With polls showing a close race, the vote is the biggest challenge Erdogan has faced in two decades in power. Instead, Aksener proposed that either Ekrem Imamoglu or Mansur Yavas, mayors of Istanbul and Ankara, be the candidate. "She has conveyed the proposal that the two mayors serve as executive vice presidents," Zorlu said. The opposition has failed in previous national votes to pose a serious challenge to Erdogan, whose AKP came to power in 2002.

After serving as mayor of Istanbul, he stepped onto the national stage as head of the AK Party, which triumphed in 2002 national elections. Western allies initially saw Erdogan's Turkey as a vibrant mix of Islam and democracy which could be a model for Middle East states struggling to shake off autocracy and stagnation. Faced with a struggling economy, a weak currency and a countdown to this year's election, Erdogan sought rapprochement with rivals across the region. Now he must convince voters he is the leader to rebuild Turkey from the rubble after this month's earthquake. That will be, in all likelihood, to the detriment of the ruling AK Party and President Erdogan," said Sinan Ulgen, director of the Istanbul-based Centre for Economic and Foreign Policy Studies.

CAIRO — Known as Egypt’s “golden boy,” the mummified remains of a teenager buried 2,300 years ago have long remained shrouded in mystery. Now they have been “digitally unwrapped” by scientists, revealing intimate details that went undiscovered for over a century. Radiologists at Cairo University in Egypt used CT scans to non-invasively unwrap the remains, uncovering signs of wealth as well as efforts to ensure his safe passage to the afterlife. Amulets were both placed inside the “golden boy” and between the wrappings used to mummify the remains, the study published Tuesday found. The new study comes as museums in the U.K. reckon with whether the term "mummy" is appropriate to describe mummified remains, because of what some say are its “dehumanizing” connotations.

☆ 2,300-year-old 'golden boy' mummy was found with 49 amulets, including a gold tongue to let him speak with the gods
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-24 | by ( Marianne Guenot | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

The child, nicknamed the "golden boy," was mummified with 49 protective amulets. A team of scientists has digitally unwrapped the 2,300-year-old mummy using a CT scanner to uncover its secrets. The team found that the so-called "golden boy" was lavishly mummified with gold and semi-precious stones. Forty-nine protective amulets were precisely placed in three columns on his body, suggesting he was rich and of high status. A curved arrow shows the location of a dense golden amulet placed in the boy's mouth.

☆ A Wintry Twist on an Age-Old Tale
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-23 | by ( Keith Christiansen | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Unless you are a miserly curmudgeon, such as Charles Dickens imagined as the protagonist of his famous Christmas tale, the likelihood is that you have a favorite Old Master painting that depicts the birth of Jesus and his veneration by shepherds or those mysterious “wise men from the east.” These are among the most frequently painted subjects of Western art; illustrations of a story that has proved irresistible. Already by the second century, the account found in the Gospels had been fleshed out to create a narrative that resonated on multiple levels. On the one hand, there is the tale of a pious, 12-year-old girl whose virginal state is entrusted to an old widower, Joseph—a carpenter by profession—who is shocked when he discovers she is pregnant and considers what action he should take to avoid the disgrace that will inevitably follow.

Trawling through the debris, a teacher asked whose child had worn pink to school that day. "It turned out that that was my daughter," said Rian, her face stricken with grief at the loss of her 8-year-old child, Vira. At Tarbiyatussibyan Al Badruniyah Islamic school in Cianjur, Vira was among 20 students killed when the 5.6-magnitude quake shattered the town, reducing some homes and schools entirely to rubble. The quake hit just after 1.30 p.m., when many children were about to start their lesson in the Islamic school. "When the quake happened, the school building suddenly collapsed; the second floor just caved in," said Siti Maemun, a Koranic recital teacher at the school.

☆ Bono’s new book is more than a rock star memoir. It’s also a powerful tribute to America
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-08 | by ( John Blake | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +12 min

Born Paul David Hewson in Dublin, Ireland, Bono is a global rock star, an activist and an entrepreneur who is currently touring the US to promote his memoir. Bono’s book, though, is more than a rock star’s memoir. A belief in America as an idea, not a religionAs any casual fan of U2 knows, U2 has long had a close relationship with the US. Martin Luther King Jr., with their song, “Pride (In The Name of Love).”In “Surrender,” Bono pays tribute to America itself. “The search for common ground starts with a search for higher ground,” Bono writes in the memoir.

The headscarf was once a source of deep discord in Muslim but secular Turkey, but ceased to stir controversy after reforms by the Islamist-rooted AKP during its 20 years in power. "We are ready to take other steps including a referendum," Erdogan told AKP deputies in parliament. The AKP was to hold talks with three opposition parties, including the largest Republican People's Party (CHP), broadcaster CNN Turk said. When Leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu announced the CHP's planned legislation on the headscarf in early October, Erdogan responded by saying the issue had already been resolved. Erdogan and AKP lawmakers have toughened their rhetoric against LGBT+ people in recent years, frequently labeling them "deviants" or "perverts" and raising concerns among members of the community.

☆ 'Leave them alone': Tennessee mom slams homophobic attacks in viral video
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-31 | by ( Matt Lavietes | Matt Lavietes Is A Reporter For Nbc Out. | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +4 min

A Tennessee woman's speech defending the LGBTQ community went viral over the weekend, marking the latest flashpoint in America's simmering culture war. But in her speech last week, Graham flipped the script; she said that what's abusive is denying children knowledge and health care. "You don't need a moral compass to recognize that something is wrong when it immediately hurts other people," she said in her viral speech. Michigan state Sen. Mallory McMorrow, who went viral earlier this year for her own speech defending LGBTQ issues as "straight, white, Christian suburban mom," applauded Graham's speech on Sunday. Graham said she never expected her speech to go viral but hopes it will encourage others to speak out against hate.

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