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Ahead of Sunday's elections, a cost of living crisis is now hitting Erdogan's support in the southeast as elsewhere, threatening his prospects in a tough battle to maintain power. A survey published this week by pollster Rawest showed 76.3% support for opposition presidential candidate Kemal Kilicdaroglu in Diyarbakir province, with backing for Erdogan at just 20.5%. The Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), deemed a terrorist group by Turkey and its Western allies, took up arms against the state in 1984. Those talks collapsed in 2015, unleashing a period of ferocious urban warfare in the southeast, including in the streets near Aydin's shop. CHANGE IN ERDOGANThe HDP, parliament's third largest party, has itself declared its support for Kilicdaroglu.

The jury deliberated for just under three hours before rejecting Trump's denial that he assaulted Carroll. Trump has cited the Carroll trial in campaign fundraising emails as evidence of what he portrays as a Democratic plot to damage him politically. Jurors were tasked with deciding whether Trump raped, sexually abused or forcibly touched Carroll, any one of which would satisfy her claim of battery. Kaplan, Carroll's lawyer, told jurors during closing arguments on Monday that the 2005 video was proof that Trump had assaulted Carroll and other women. Previously Trump had said he could not have raped Carroll because she was "not my type."

Jurors were tasked with deciding whether Trump raped, sexually abused or forcibly touched Carroll, any one of which would satisfy her claim of battery. The trial featured testimony from two women who said Trump sexually assaulted them decades ago. Carroll's lawyer, Roberta Kaplan, told jurors during closing arguments on Monday that the 2005 video was proof that Trump had assaulted Carroll and other women. Carroll testified that she bumped into Trump at Bergdorf's while he was shopping for a gift for another woman. Trump has cited the Carroll trial in campaign fundraising emails as evidence of what he portrays as a Democratic plot to damage him politically.

Reuters interviews with Kar and a dozen other voters in Antakya reflected anger over what some viewed as a slow initial government response to the disaster. The voices are a small snapshot of Antakya and the wider area of southern Turkey hit by the earthquake, a region home to nine million voters and traditionally an Erdogan stronghold. Only 4.3% of voters viewed the quake as Turkey's biggest problem last month, with most more concerned by an economy racked by rampant inflation. Nearby, excavators resound as they demolish some of the 80-90% of buildings estimated to have suffered quake damage. The opposing sides present very different narratives about Erdogan and his government's response to the disaster.

☆ 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.

☆ Exelon CEO Calvin Butler joins Jim Cramer after beating on quarterly earnings results
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-08 | by ( Jim Cramer | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: 1 min

Exelon CEO Calvin Butler joins Jim Cramer after beating on quarterly earnings resultsExelon CEO Calvin Butler joins 'Mad Money' host Jim Cramer to discuss its recent quarterly earnings beat, invesment's in the company's future, and more.

☆ Sebastian Steudtner has turned to science as he chases the world’s biggest waves
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-08 | by ( Matt Majendie | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +15 min

CNN —Sebastian Steudtner holds the world record for the biggest wave ever surfed. Steudtner holds the world record for the biggest wave ever surfed. Win, win, win or perform, perform, perform. How boring is it to win and win and win? If I want to catch waves, I don’t think about you because you’re in my way, so you’re naturally competitive.

Analysts say what may appear as mixed messaging is the result of President Xi Jinping's renewed focus on national security, steeled by rock-bottom relations with rival superpower, the United States. A later speech in March at the National People's Congress was more pointed: China's security is being challenged by U.S. attempts to contain its rise, he said. In his October speech, he added "external security" and "international security", in what analysts say signals a new focus to counter foreign threats, namely Washington. Asked for its response to a list of questions for this story, China's foreign ministry said it was "not aware of the situation". BUSINESS JITTERSChina's security focus also risks isolating the country economically.

☆ Turkey's Kilicdaroglu exits Erdogan's shadow in election race
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-06 | by ( Daren Butler | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +7 min

I know the cost of living and the hopelessness of young people," Kilicdaroglu told a rally last week. Many wonder whether Kilicdaroglu can defeat Erdogan, the country's longest-serving leader, whose campaigning charisma has helped deliver more than a dozen election victories. The opposition has stressed that Erdogan's drive to slash interest rates set off the inflationary crisis that devastated household budgets. HEALING OLD WOUNDSBefore entering politics, Kilicdaroglu worked in the finance ministry and then chaired Turkey's Social Insurance Institution for most of the 1990s. "I have been boycotting the elections since 2018 but I will vote for Kemal Kilicdaroglu this time.

☆ Turkey's Kilicdaroglu exits Erodogan's shadow in election race
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-06 | by ( Daren Butler | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +7 min

I know the cost of living and the hopelessness of young people," Kilicdaroglu told a rally last week. Even if he prevails, Kilicdaroglu faces challenges keeping an opposition alliance including nationalists, Islamists, secularists and liberals united. Many wonder whether Kilicdaroglu can defeat Erdogan, the country's longest-serving leader, whose campaigning charisma has helped deliver more than a dozen election victories. HEALING OLD WOUNDSBefore entering politics, Kilicdaroglu worked in the finance ministry and then chaired Turkey's Social Insurance Institution for most of the 1990s. "I have been boycotting the elections since 2018 but I will vote for Kemal Kilicdaroglu this time.

☆ 6 Great Y.A. Fantasy Novels
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-06 | by ( Tracy Deonn | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

A Phoenix First Must Burn: Sixteen Stories of Black Girl Magic, Resistance, and Hope, edited by Patrice CaldwellI must admit, this recommendation is a bit of a cheat. Instead of a single novel, it is an anthology with 16 different stories from which to choose. Gathered in the spirit of Octavia Butler’s expansive body of work, the collection touches on Black culture, folk tales and fantasies, with stories pulling in lived experiences alongside speculative imaginings. What I love most is the concentrated, multivocal assertion that Black women and gender nonconforming folks are so multifaceted that they are, in fact, infinite. Tracy Deonn is the Coretta Scott King-John Steptoe Award-winning author of “Legendborn” and its sequel, “Bloodmarked.”

☆ Dark Shadows, Dark Times
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-05 | by ( Alida Becker | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The title of Tara Ison’s AT THE HOUR BETWEEN DOG AND WOLF (Ig Publishing, 296 pp., paperback, $17.95) comes from a French expression for twilight. Sure enough, her novel sends us to the dusk that borders the familiar and the wild, the known and the unknown. It’s where our beliefs and suspicions can cast dark shadows over our lives. But Marie-Jeanne is actually Danielle Marton, a Jewish child smuggled out of Paris by her recently widowed mother. And Berthe and Claude are actually her grandparents’ former maid and butler.

☆ Pat Riley, Once Front and Center, Reigns in the Background
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-04 | by ( Harvey Araton | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The network camera was drawn to Pat Riley after Jimmy Butler’s 22-foot jumper landed like a kick to the collective groin of the Milwaukee Bucks late in Game 4 of Miami’s first-round playoff series upset. While Butler, soon to complete a 56-point masterpiece, pranced in full-throated fashion, there sat Riley, a gray-haired Buddha, arms folded across his suit jacket and tie, smiling without celebrating, blinking but not moving. By this point in a long basketball life, what has Riley not already seen that would make him compromise on his veneer of calculated, unflappable control? Circulating online, the clip was another striking visual to add to the Riley collection. From the 1966 national championship game in which a Texas Western squad dominated by Black players defeated his all-white Kentucky team to his tenured role as the Heat’s president, Riley has been tethered to basketball history of tectonic magnitude.

[1/5] Former U.S. President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump reacts after arriving at Aberdeen International Airport in Aberdeen, Scotland, Britain May 1, 2023. REUTERS/Russell CheyneMay 3 (Reuters) - Donald Trump denied raping writer E. Jean Carroll in a deposition video played on Wednesday for a Manhattan federal jury, as the former U.S. president sought to defend himself in a civil trial without testifying in person. “It’s the most ridiculous, disgusting story,” Trump said in the video, hunched over a conference table as Carroll’s lawyers presented documents to him. "I hear we're doing very well in New York," Trump said on Wednesday when asked why he was not in court. The trial has also featured testimony from two women who say Trump sexually assaulted them decades ago.

[1/3] Former U.S. President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump reacts after arriving at Aberdeen International Airport in Aberdeen, Scotland, Britain May 1, 2023. Trump, front-runner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, said in the October 2022 deposition that the alleged rape in the dressing room of the Bergdorf Goodman department store in New York City decades ago didn’t happen. “It’s the most ridiculous, disgusting story,” Trump said in the video, hunched over a conference table as Carroll’s lawyers presented documents to him. The trial has also featured testimony from two women who say Trump sexually assaulted them decades ago. Another woman, Jessica Leeds, testified on Tuesday that Trump kissed her, groped her and put his hand up her skirt on a flight in 1979.

☆ Australia to ban recreational vaping in e-cigarette crackdown
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-02 | by ( Renju Jose | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

SYDNEY, May 2 (Reuters) - Australia on Tuesday proposed to tighten e-cigarette laws, including introducing new controls on import and packaging to stamp out vaping especially among kids, in the biggest crackdown on the tobacco industry in more than a decade. But Butler will say that vaping has become a recreational product now, mostly sold to teenagers and young people. "This is a product targeted at our kids, sold alongside lollies and chocolate bars," Butler will say. Tobacco firms were quick to switch to e-cigarettes that offer different flavours and created designs targeting a new generation of users. ($1 = 1.5088 Australian dollars)Reporting by Renju Jose in Sydney; Editing by Sonali PaulOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ LeBron James vs. Steph Curry: Old rivalries reignite as LA Lakers face Golden State Warriors
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-02 | by ( Thomas Schlachter | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +8 min

LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers took down the Memphis Grizzlies 4-2 in the opening round of the playoffs. In another battle of the old vs. the young, the Golden State Warriors beat the Sacramento Kings in an exhilarating seven-game series. José Luis Villegas/APBattles of old2015 FinalsThe first NBA Finals matchup between LeBron and Steph was in 2015. Greg Nelson/Sports Illustrated/Getty Images2017 FinalsThe Golden State Warriors responded to their 2016 Finals loss by recruiting Kevin Durant in the off-season. Following a disappointing end to his second stint with the Cavaliers, LeBron moved across to the West and signed with the Los Angeles Lakers.

Vaping involves heating a liquid that contains nicotine in an e-cigarette which is vaporized and inhaled by the user. “Vaping was sold to governments and communities around the world as a therapeutic product to help long-term smokers quit,” Butler said. “It was not sold as a recreational product – in particular not one for our kids. Vaping concerns across the worldResearchers have found links between nicotine addiction among adolescents and children as a result of increased vaping habits. Meanwhile, the United Kingdom is also tackling high-levels of youth vaping but is pushing it as an alternative to help long-term smokers quit.

☆ A law school named after the late Antonin Scalia is a haven for conservative Supreme Court justices to enjoy lavish treatment, New York Times reports
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-01 | by ( Hannah Getahun | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Antonin Scalia Law School at the Virginia-based George Mason University was renamed in 2016. The renaming was part of a plan to help its reputation by getting closer to the Supreme Court. Justices were given notable benefits to teach there, emails obtained by The New York Times reveal. This desire to keep Supreme Court leadership on their roster even superseded scandals the judges faced. The Antonin Scalia Law School and a spokesperson for the Supreme Court did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.

☆ Blue Wigs and Bad Words: Knicks Fans Are Ready for the Playoffs.
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-01 | by ( Kris Rhim | Gabriela Bhaskar | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

A group of Knicks fans spotted another Knicks fan and started cursing. Other people turned their heads, cautiously moving away from the group; a fight seemed to be brewing. But as the fans walked toward each other, locked arms and began jumping around, it became clear that this was not about to be a brawl. At the center was Darryl Thompson, in a blue custom-made Knicks shirt with a four-letter word in orange and the name of the Heat’s best player: Jimmy Butler. That was just the fans, uh, reading the shirt’s message out loud.

☆ Knicks Absorb First Blow in Throwback Battle With Miami Heat
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-30 | by ( Tania Ganguli | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The Knicks walked off the court at Madison Square Garden on Sunday afternoon with their shoulders slumped. The energy that gripped the arena at the start of the game against Miami had dissolved into a mélange of people shuffling out, Heat fans boasting and a few Knicks fans shouting insults, mostly at the game officials and the Heat fans. “I was horrific,” said Knicks point guard Jalen Brunson, who scored 25 points but missed all seven of his 3-point attempts. On Sunday, the Knicks lost to the Heat, 108-101, in Game 1 of the N.B.A.’s Eastern Conference semifinals. But despite the dour mood that engulfed the Garden after the game, it would be unwise to bury the Knicks for their performance.

☆ My Wife Secretly Told Her Friends I Was a Loser. Now What?
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-28 | by ( Kwame Anthony Appiah | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

My wife’s texts portray me as a deadbeat loser, and she questions why she’s stayed with me, lamenting what a burden it has been for her. I can’t get past the things she said and the betrayal I feel, and I am considering asking for a separation. But you’ll understand what brought it to mind: Neither you nor your wife are models of how spouses should behave. That your wife assumed her messages were private is established precisely by their brutal content. Yet the fact that you’ve wronged her doesn’t deny you the right to complain about what she’s been up to.

☆ Jack Teixeira: Accused Pentagon leaker's violent rhetoric raises fresh questions about top secret vetting process
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-28 | by ( Natasha Bertrand Sean Lyngaas Zachary Cohen Haley Britzky | Natasha Bertrand | Sean Lyngaas | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +10 min

But that didn’t stop the Pentagon from granting a top-secret security clearance to Jack Teixeira, who prosecutors say had an arsenal of weapons at home and a history of violent online rhetoric. And the Air Force’s Inspector General investigation is specifically examining the Pentagon’s vetting process and whether any procedures were violated or ignored, Pentagon officials said. Gen. Patrick Ryder told reporters on Thursday that when vetting someone for a security clearance, the adjudicator examines “a sufficient period” in someone’s life to determine if they are eligible. That program – largely run by the Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency (DCSA) – aims to continuously vet security clearance holders for warning signs than periodically investigate them every five to 10 years. “Social media is a new world that the government really hasn’t gotten ahold of yet,” said Brad Moss, a lawyer who specializes in national security and security clearance law.

☆ Why the Giannis Antetokounmpo ‘Failure’ Speech Is a Viral Phenomenon
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-27 | by ( Jason Gay | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

The underdog Miami Heat pulled off the upset of the NBA basketball season Wednesday, bouncing the top-seeded Milwaukee Bucks from the playoffs in a stunning five-game romp. Playoff tornado Jimmy Butler will now pivot to rowdy Madison Square Garden to face off with another unexpected surprise, the Cleveland-thumping New York Knicks. But hours afterward, it feels like the entire planet–or at least the online portion of the planet–is still obsessing about Giannis Antetokounmpo, and the topic of failure.

☆ Single people should be ‘valued’ as Jesus was single, Church of England says
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-27 | by ( Hafsa Khalil | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

London CNN —Single people should be honored as much as couples and families, the Church of England has said, pointing to Jesus’ own single status. The report’s suggestion to “honour” singleness is another deviation from the church’s traditional teachings of heterosexual marriage. While same-sex couples cannot be married by the church, a vote earlier this year favored blessing their marriage. “(The report reveals) that the shape of family changes through our lives,” Butler said. “It further shows that there is no one best shape, except that loving long term relationships are absolutely key for us all to flourish.”

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