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☆ Heat to Face Nuggets in N.B.A. Finals After Beating Celtics in Game 7
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-29 | by ( Scott Cacciola | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The Miami Heat stunned the Boston Celtics in the Eastern Conference finals on Monday night, clinching a roller-coaster, hold-your-breath, best-of-seven series in Game 7, 103-84, to extend their remarkable postseason run. 8 seed has seemingly surprised everyone but them, will face the Denver Nuggets in the N.B.A. The Nuggets secured their first trip to the championship round by completing a sweep of the Los Angeles Lakers in the Western Conference finals a week ago. The Heat are just the second eighth seed, after the 1998-99 Knicks, to reach the N.B.A. “Sometimes you have to suffer for the things you really want,” Heat Coach Erik Spoelstra said during the postgame trophy presentation.

☆ 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.

☆ The Miami Heat Are in Trouble, and It’s (Mostly) Their Fault
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-28 | by ( Scott Cacciola | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

It was a public vote of confidence after a game full of missed opportunities for the Heat. Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo, their two best players, combined to shoot 9 of 37 from the field. There he was in the second quarter, handling the ball at the top of the perimeter with the shot clock winding down. In the fourth quarter, for example, Adebayo grabbed the rim blocking a shot, which was against the rules and led to a 4-point possession for the Celtics. As a team, the Heat shot 35.5 percent from the field.

CNN —Boston Celtics guard Derrick White scored a miraculous putback to beat the buzzer and seal a dramatic 104-103 victory over the Miami Heat in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference Finals on Saturday. The Celtics’ unlikely victory erased a 0-3 series deficit and left them on the verge of NBA history as no team (0-150) has ever won a playoff series after being 0-3 down. Derrick White hits the game winner for the Boston Celtics. Everybody was asking me, did you get it off, and I was like, yeah, I think so, but it was so close, you never know,” White told reporters afterwards. Basketball at its finest,” Butler told reporters afterwards.

[1/3] A child walks at a polling station while people attend voting during the second round of the presidential election in Istanbul, Turkey May 28, 2023. REUTERS/Hannah McKayANKARA/ISTANBUL, May 28 (Reuters) - Here are some views from Turkish citizens as the country voted on Sunday in an election runoff that may extend President Tayyip Erdogan's rule into a third decade or see a transfer of power to his rival Kemal Kilicdaroglu. Nobody can deny this," said housewife Songul Aslan, 45, after voting for Erdogan. In Diyarbakir, largest city in the mainly Kurdish southeast:"In the first round I voted for Kilicdaroglu for the presidency. Change is essential to overcome the economic crisis and problems that Turkey faces, so I voted for Kilicdaroglu again.

☆ Jeff Bezos is ripped now. Here's how the Amazon founder went from scrawny to brawny.
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-27 | by ( Jyoti Mann | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has had a "glo-up" in recent years since stepping back from the company. He went from eating a tin of biscuits for breakfast every morning to putting in hours in the gym. With help from celebrity personal trainer Wes Okerson, Bezos is more ripped than ever. Jeff Bezos was a pretty scrawny guy when he founded Amazon in 1994. She told The Wall Street Journal in January that Bezos "stole" her personal trainer, Wes Okerson, who's also trained Tom Cruise and Gerard Butler.

☆ The DeSantis campaign will test whether Casey DeSantis can bring suburban women back to the GOP after Trump lost them
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-27 | by ( Kimberly Leonard | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +16 min

Ron DeSantis' wife, Casey DeSantis, is a chief confidant key to his political rise. He finished boasting about his "Florida Blueprint," and then his wife, Florida first lady Casey DeSantis, glided onstage. In the geography was Casey DeSantis' autobiography: raised in Troy, Ohio, and college-educated at the University of Charleston. As Florida's first lady, Casey DeSantis' initiatives included childhood emotional resiliency, child welfare, and — as a breast-cancer survivor herself — cancer research. "They did not want woke ideology shoved down the throats of their five years olds while they were in school," Casey DeSantis said.

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.

☆ I'm a butler on a luxury cruise where tickets cost up to $150K. I've traveled to Antarctica and enjoyed perks like submarine rides — here's what my job is like.
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-22 | by ( Claire Turrell | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Nehad Popovic, the cruise butler for the Scenic Eclipse. Since then, I've traveled to the Arctic and Antarctica, among other destinations, as a cruise butler. Scenic EclipseI started as a steward on fairy-tale river cruises across EuropeIn September 2014, I applied to Scenic Luxury Cruises and Tours to be a restaurant steward on its river cruises. In March 2015, I started stewarding the river cruises for Scenic Luxury Cruises and Tours. Moving from steward to butler gave me more opportunitiesAfter two years as a steward, I was promoted to cruise butler.

☆ Turks abroad begin voting in presidential election runoff
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-20 | by ( Daren Butler | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

The runoff election will be held in Turkey on May 28 after Erdogan fell just short of the 50% threshold needed to win the presidential vote outright last Sunday in what had been expected to be his greatest ever political challenge. Some 3.4 million Turks are eligible to vote abroad, out of a total electorate of more than 64 million, and will cast their ballots from May 20-24. Germany is home to the world's largest Turkish diaspora, where there are some 1.5 million Turkish citizens eligible to vote. Kilicdaroglu, candidate of a six-party opposition alliance, won 44.88% support in the presidential election, trailing Erdogan on 49.52% and confounding expectations in opinion polls that the challenger would come out ahead. Any decision by him to support one of the two candidates in the runoff could potentially have a decisive role.

☆ Erdogan says Black Sea grain deal extended for two months
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-17 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

ISTANBUL, May 17 (Reuters) - The Ukraine Black Sea grain deal has been extended for two more months, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said on Wednesday, one day before Russia could have quit the pact over obstacles to its grain and fertilizer exports. Erdogan's comments, made in a speech to officials of his ruling AK Party, came after the last ship left a Ukrainian port under the deal, which allows for the safe export via the Black Sea of Ukrainian grain and was due to expire on Thursday. "The Black Sea grain corridor deal has been extended by two months with the efforts of Turkey," he said in his televised speech, also thanking the Russian and Ukrainian leaders and U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres for their help. The United Nations and Turkey brokered the Black Sea deal for an initial 120 days in July last year to help tackle a global food crisis that has been aggravated by Moscow's invasion of Ukraine, one of the world's leading grain exporters. To convince Russia in July to allow Black Sea grain exports, the United Nations agreed at the same time to help Moscow with its own agricultural shipments for three years.

☆ Twitter objects to Turkish court orders after pre-election warnings
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-16 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

ISTANBUL, May 16 (Reuters) - Twitter said it had filed objections to Turkish court orders requesting a ban on access to some accounts and tweets on the platform, after keeping its service available during an election weekend despite warnings from authorities in Ankara. The court orders, which were shared by Twitter, requested the access bans on the grounds that they posed a threat to public order and national security. "So in order to keep Twitter available over the election weekend, we took action on four accounts and 409 Tweets identified by court order." Twitter said five court orders had been issued against it regarding these actions and it had already objected to four of them. Social media companies are required to appoint Turkish representatives and they face bandwidth being throttled by up to 90% immediately after a court order should the representative fail to provide information to the authorities.

Erdogan got 49.5% in Sunday's vote and fell just short of the majority needed to avoid a runoff in a vote seen as a referendum on his autocratic rule. But many of his supporters, including first-time voter Asim, were gloomy about Kilicdaroglu's chances in the runoff vote. The election is being closely followed in Washington, Europe and across the region, where Erdogan has asserted Turkish power. Opinion polls had shown Erdogan trailing Kilicdaroglu, but Sunday's outcome suggested he and his Islamist-rooted AKP were able to rally conservative voters despite Turkey's economic woes. Kilicdaroglu and his alliance want to restore a parliamentary system of government and scrap the powerful executive presidency introduced by Erdogan.

☆ Rusty Old Oil Tankers Fetch Big Bucks Thanks to Russia
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-15 | by ( Megha Mandavia | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

The age of a vessel isn’t a factor in how well shipping companies are doing these days. Photo: ISAAC URRUTIA/REUTERS“Gone With the Wind” anti-hero Rhett Butler’s brutal take on war still resonates almost a century later. “There were two times for making big money, one in the upbuilding of a country and the other in its destruction. Slow money on the upbuilding, fast money in the crackup.”

☆ The One Man You Don’t Want to Meet in the NBA Playoffs
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-15 | by ( Jason Gay | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

If I told you Jimmy Butler lived alone in a stone cave without furniture, would you believe me? If I told you he slept upside down, like a bat, and ate a boiling tub of batteries and lug nuts for breakfast, would you buy it? If you’ve watched Butler in the NBA playoffs, you might.

"The winner has undoubtedly been our country," Erdogan said in a speech to cheering supporters at the headquarters of his ruling Islamist-rooted AK Party in the capital Ankara overnight. Going into the election, the opposition had sensed its best chance yet of unseating Erdogan, encouraged by polls showing him trailing his main challenger Kemal Kilicdaroglu. But the results suggested Erdogan and his AK Party had been able to rally conservative voters despite a cost-of-living crisis. [1/4] Supporters of Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan and AK Party (AKP) gather on election night, in Istanbul, Turkey May 15, 2023. "During the campaign period ahead of the runoff, President Erdogan is likely to emphasise stability as he already retains the majority in the parliament," Dalay said.

Art of Craft is a series about specialists whose work rises to the level of art. The textile artist Bisa Butler was working in her studio in Jersey City, N.J., one day when her husband, John Butler, a D.J., played the song “The World Is Yours” by the hip-hop artist Nas. The song had a particular resonance for Ms. Butler and something clicked: “We can make of this world what we want,” she said. “Right now if you watch the news or read the wrong paper, or any paper, you can get depressed,” Ms. Butler said. Pieces in Ms. Butler’s new show are priced at six figures and up.

☆ I'm a Gen Zer who bumped my salary up by 40% with a career pivot to data analytics — and I learned the skills for free on YouTube
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-14 | by ( Jason Lalljee | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

A Gen Z worker was unhappy with his job, so he taught himself data analysis and switched careers. Two years ago — when I was 22 — I finally learned what someone with the title of "data analyst" did, while still working that first job. Switching to a career in data analytics changed my lifeIt wasn't costly for me to become a data analyst — and it changed my life. Upon entering the field, I was surprised to find out how many people were able to break into tech through data analytics, without needing a college degree. I used Khan Academy's free SQL course, for instance, one of the major tools for data analytics.

[1/6] Mehmet Ali Fakioglu arrives by bus from Istanbul to Hatay to vote during Turkish presidential and parliamentary elections, in Hatay, Turkey May 14, 2023. But as he prepared to cast his ballot, he voiced criticism of the state's slow response to the disaster in which more than 50,000 people were killed. We were forgotten, all of us, on that day, the second day even on the third day. Critics and earthquake survivors have accused Erdogan's government of both a slow response and lax enforcement of building rules - failures they said cost lives. He said around 1.5 million people had left the quake zone, only a portion of whom had registered new addresses for the purpose of voting.

☆ What the voters say as Turkey votes in landmark elections
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-14 | by ( Deniz Uyar | Oriana Boselli | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

ISTANBUL/ANTAKYA, Turkey, May 14 (Reuters) - Here are some views from Turkish citizens as their country voted on Sunday in elections that could extend President Tayyip Erdogan's rule into a third decade or see a transfer of power to his main rival Kemal Kilicdaroglu. I don't think it will go to a runoff," said school staff member Hasibe, 40, in the school where Erdogan voted on the Asian side of the city. I chose democracy and I hope that my country chooses democracy. "Of course, there are good things (Erdogan) did, but lately, they started to look down on and insult the nation. As you can see, even in elections, votes are being cast in ballot boxes outside," said school teacher Behzat Oz.

☆ Voting starts in Turkey elections
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-14 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

ISTANBUL, May 14 (Reuters) - Turks began voting on Sunday in one of the most consequential elections in modern Turkey's 100-year history, which will decide whether President Tayyip Erdogan extends his two decades in power. Presidential and parliamentary votes are being held, deciding not only who leads Turkey, a NATO-member country of 85 million, but also how it is governed and where its economy is headed amid a deep cost of living crisis. Opinion polls give Erdogan's main challenger, Kemal Kilicdaroglu, who heads an alliance of six opposition parties, a slight lead, but if either fails to get more than 50% of the vote, there will be a runoff election on May 28. Reporting by Daren Butler; Editing by William MallardOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Long stuck in the shadow of Erdogan and his Islamist-rooted AK Party (AKP), opposition leader Kilicdaroglu has flourished on the campaign trail with polls showing he has a slight lead. Kilicdaroglu said a fundamental problem of Turkey's foreign policy during the tenure of Erdogan's AKP was the exclusion of the foreign ministry in the policy making process. 'PEACE-ORIENTED FOREIGN POLICY'"We would pursue a peace-oriented foreign policy that prioritises Turkey's national interest. Before entering politics, Kilicdaroglu worked in the finance ministry and then chaired Turkey's Social Insurance Institution for most of the 1990s. A year after losing a mayoral run in Istanbul, he was elected unopposed as party leader in 2010.

☆ Heat become first eighth seed to reach Conference Finals in 24 years
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-13 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Six-time All-Star Jimmy Butler put up 24 points with eight rebounds and four assists to steer the Heat past a Knicks team that was desperate to stay alive in front of a raucous Miami crowd. They will next meet either the Philadelphia 76ers or Boston Celtics, who eliminated them in the conference finals a year ago. "We've been in games like this all year long, we're prepared for it," Butler said in a televised interview. The Heat, who dominated first seeded Milwaukee Bucks in their opening round, are only the second eighth seed to reach the conference finals after the Knicks, who did it in 1999. Reporting by Amy Tennery in New York; Editing by William MallardOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ 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.

Sources said some factoring companies were giving loans with a 70% interest rate, up from 30% in February. For the first time, the rates offered by banks and factoring firms are aligned," he said. Corporates which are not able to get loans from banks are now borrowing from factoring firms with high level of interest, said another banking source. The source said factoring companies and banks can use a funding facility at the Istanbul Settlement and Custody Bank (Takasbank) and these loans' interest rates are around 45%. "Some brokerage houses either trimmed down the leverage ratio for their clients or closed their positions due to the increasing interest rates at Takasbank.

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