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☆ Boss of Goldman-backed digital bank Starling to step down next month
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-25 | by ( Ryan Browne | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

The co-founder of Starling, one of the U.K.'s largest digital banks, is set to step down as CEO next month, the company said Thursday. Anne Boden is to step down on June 30, according to a press release. She will hand the reins to Starling's chief operating officer, John Mountain, who has been with the bank since 2015. "I have spent nearly a decade here as both the founder and CEO, a dual role which is unique in U.K. banking," Boden said in a statement Thursday. As Starling continues to evolve and grow, separating my two roles is in the bank's best interests."

Persons: Starling, Goldman Sachs, Anne Boden, John Mountain, Boden, It's, I've Locations: U.S

☆ 2024 US presidential election: who is in, who is out and who is still thinking about it
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-24 | by ( Ross Colvin | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +7 min

May 24 (Reuters) - Florida Governor Ron DeSantis announced on Wednesday he is seeking the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, joining former President Donald Trump in a growing list of Republicans seeking to unseat Democratic President Joe Biden. Here is a list of declared candidates and other potential 2024 hopefuls in both the Democratic and Republican parties. The former Kansas congressman was one of Trump's most loyal lieutenants and initially backed his false claims of a stolen presidential election in 2020. Several of his key staff, though, have recently joined the DeSantis camp, suggesting that Youngkin is not going to run in 2024. She ran as a Democrat in the 2020 presidential primary but dropped out of the race before any votes had been cast.

Persons: Ron DeSantis, Donald Trump, Joe Biden, JOE BIDEN Biden, DONALD TRUMP Trump, Biden, Trump, RON DESANTIS, DeSantis, SCOTT, Scott, NIKKI HALEY, Haley, ASA HUTCHINSON, Hutchinson, MIKE, Pence, Trump's, CHRIS CHRISTIE, Christie, CHRIS SUNUNU The, VIVEK RAMASWAMY, Ramaswamy, ROBERT KENNEDY JR, Kennedy, Robert F, MIKE POMPEO Trump's, GLENN YOUNGKIN, MARIANNE WILLIAMSON, Ross Colvin, Colleen Jenkins, Nick Zieminski, Mark Potter Organizations: Democratic, Republican, Biden, Trump, Republican Party, New, Walt Disney Co, Black Republican U.S, Reuters, United Nations, ASA, White House, U.S . Capitol, Republican White House, YouTube, Central Intelligence Agency, White, Democrat, Thomson Locations: Florida, U.S, New York, Ukraine, South Carolina, Arkansas, Pence, New Jersey, CHRIS SUNUNU The New Hampshire, England, Kansas, Virginia

☆ Biden, Democrats plan beefed-up 50-state fundraising strategy to overwhelm GOP rivals
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-24 | by ( Brian Schwartz | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Those four state committees did not fundraise with the Biden Victory Fund in 2020, according to OpenSecrets. The DNC, likewise, saw over $100 million through the Biden Victory Fund and finished bringing in over $491 million during that cycle. The beefed-up joint fundraising strategy could give Biden's campaign and the Democratic Party a major boost for the general election. The new agreement allows the Biden Victory Fund to reap up to $929,600 from an individual donor, according to the DNC official. A theoretical $929,600 check would be doled out through the Biden Victory Fund to the Biden campaign ($6,600), the DNC ($41,300), with $510,000 split between all of the state parties.

Persons: Joe Biden, Biden's, Biden, Julie C, Rodriguez Organizations: White, Democratic Party, Republican, Biden, Fund, Washington D.C, CNBC, Democratic, Democratic National Committee, DNC, D.C, MAGA Republicans, Biden Victory Fund Locations: Japan, Washington, Iowa , California, South Dakota, Illinois

☆ Erdogan Secures Endorsement of Former Rival for President
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-22 | by ( Ben Hubbard | Gulsin Harman | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The candidate who came in third in Turkey’s presidential election last week announced on Monday that he was endorsing President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in the runoff vote on Sunday, granting Mr. Erdogan an additional boost against his remaining challenger. Mr. Erdogan, the dominant figure in Turkish politics for 20 years, appears to have an edge in the runoff, whose victor will shape Turkey’s domestic and foreign policies for the next five years. Throughout the campaign, Mr. Erdogan aimed to link himself in voters’ minds with the image of a strong Turkey, with expanding military might and geopolitical clout. Although most polls in the run-up to the initial vote on May 14 showed Mr. Erdogan trailing his main challenger, the opposition leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu, the president overcame voter anger at high inflation and frustration with the government’s initially slow response to catastrophic earthquakes in February to win 49.5 percent of the vote. Mr. Kilicdaroglu, the joint candidate of a coalition of six opposition parties that came together to try to unseat Mr. Erdogan, won 44.9 percent.

☆ Biden bets DeSantis’ ‘Florida blueprint’ will help him flip the Sunshine State and win reelection
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-21 | by ( Edward-Isaac Dovere | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +15 min

Shevrin Jones, a Florida state senator and member of the Biden campaign’s advisory board of elected officials, said he’s eager to tell the country the story of what he’s seen under DeSantis’ leadership. Biden and DeSantis and their wives walk to meet with local residents affected by Hurricane Ian in Fort Myers, Florida, on October 5, 2022. The voter registration advantage Florida Democrats had when President Barack Obama narrowly won the state in 2012 has flipped to Republicans. An adviser to the former New York City mayor told CNN that so far, there has been no outreach to Bloomberg’s operation from either the Biden campaign or the DNC. There was also a fleeting belief that they could push Biden over the top in Florida – though Trump ended up carrying the state by 3 points.

☆ Maria Perez breaks women's 35km race walk world record by an astonishing 29 seconds
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-21 | by ( Aimee Lewis | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +1 min

CNN —There’s breaking world records, and then there’s demolishing them – which is what Maria Perez did at the European Race Walking Team Championships on Sunday. The Spaniard broke the women’s 35km race walk word record by an astonishing 29 seconds, beating the mark set by Peru’s Kimberly Garcia in March. Perez crossed the line in two hours, 37 minutes and 15 seconds in Podebrady, Czech Republic, more than eight minutes ahead of her nearest challenger, compatriot Raquel Gonzales. According to European Athletics, the last Spaniard to break a world record in track and field was Francisco Fernandez in the 10,000m race walk in 2008. “It is a nice feeling to finish the race and the time is a big reward for this,” Perez said, per European Athletics.

☆ Murray pulls out of French Open
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-21 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

May 21 (Reuters) - Former world number one Andy Murray has withdrawn from the French Open. Three-times Grand Slam champion Murray won the second-tier Aix-en-Provence Challenger Tour crown earlier this month, but suffered early exits in Monte Carlo, Madrid, Rome and Bordeaux. The Scot, who reached the final of the French Open in 2016, has opted to skip tournaments during the claycourt season in the past to focus on the grasscourt swing heading into Wimbledon. The French Open runs from May 28 to June 11. Holder Rafa Nadal, who has won the French Open a record 14 times, also pulled out of the tournament after failing to regain full fitness from a hip injury.

[1/2] People gather ahead of the "Festival of Fantasy" parade at the Walt Disney World Magic Kingdom theme park in Orlando, Florida, U.S. July 30, 2022. Lawyers for DeSantis, who is being sued for allegedly targeting Disney for company leadership's political views, filed a motion on Friday in Tallahassee, Florida, asking U.S. District Judge Mark Walker be recused in the case. Disney sued DeSantis in April for allegedly "weaponizing" state government in retaliation for the company's criticism of a law that banned classroom discussion of sexuality and gender identity with younger children. DeSantis' lawyers argued on Friday that the judge overseeing that case demonstrated potential partiality while handling separate cases in which the judge mentioned Disney as an example of state retaliation. Considering Walker's statements, "the court's impartiality in this matter might reasonably be questioned," DeSantis' lawyers said in the their motion.

☆ Ron DeSantis: What to expect from his presidential campaign
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-20 | by ( Zachary B. Wolf | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +10 min

Ron DeSantis is expected to make his presidential campaign official next week. WOLF: More than any other Republican, DeSantis has generated national media scrutiny and buzz that he could be the candidate best positioned to challenge Trump. Are he and his advisers concerned that all that attention has not translated to a stronger position in GOP primary polls? CONTORNO: As we previously reported several months ago, DeSantis’ political operation believes he has the money and the name recognition to launch a national campaign out of the gate. CONTORNO: Some of Trump’s top advisers once ran DeSantis’ political operation, and several former Trump operatives and donors are now in DeSantis’ camp, so the sniping is already becoming pronounced.

☆ Russia adapted to the game-changing HIMARS, but Ukraine's new Storm Shadow missiles could put the fear back into its commanders, warfare experts say
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-20 | by ( Jake Epstein | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +9 min

Experts say Russian commanders are now facing logistical headaches and a renewed sense of fear. Warfare experts say Storm Shadow missiles could spark new logistical headaches for Russia, giving Kyiv a massive capability to put the fear back into Moscow's commanders who thought they were safe and out of reach. With an operational range of 155 miles, Storm Shadow will more than triple the distance for Ukraine's long-range strike capabilities. "So the more that these Russian commanders are exposed to Ukrainian fires, I expect their survivability to decrease," Barros said. "Employed well, in conjunction with psychological operations and other capabilities, Storm Shadow offers myriad opportunities to cognitively attack the enemy," he said.

☆ 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.

☆ Expert Picks: Who Will Win the Preakness?
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-19 | by ( Joe Drape | Melissa Hoppert | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Mage, ridden by Javier Castellano, executed a frantic stretch run to capture an unpredictable Kentucky Derby that saw five contenders, including the favorite, scratched ahead of the race. Now, in only his fifth race, Mage moves on to Baltimore and the 148th Preakness Stakes, where he will be a Triple Crown contender and the only Derby horse in what is considered a weak field. First Mission, considered to be his biggest challenger, was scratched on Friday morning with a left hind ankle injury. Below, the Preakness horses are listed in order of post position, with comments by Joe Drape and Melissa Hoppert of The New York Times. The morning-line odds, set by Keith Feustle of Pimlico Race Course, were revised to reflect the scratch.

☆ How to watch the PGA Championship: Start time, channels, and other things to know
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-18 | by ( Jack Bantock | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +11 min

Rob Schumacher/USA Today Network Tiger Woods walks the 18th green during the second round on Saturday, April 8. David J. Phillip/AP Fred Couples waves to patrons after finishing his second round on Saturday. Patrick Smith/Getty Images Patrick Cantlay plays a shot from a bunker on the 18th hole on Saturday. Rob Schumacher/USA Today Network Adam Scott plays a bunker shot on the second hole Thursday. Rob Schumacher/USA Today Network Hideki Matsuyama, who won the tournament two years ago, looks over a putt on the second hole.

☆ DeSantis Is Set to Enter 2024 Presidential Race Next Week
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-18 | by ( Jonathan Swan | Nicholas Nehamas | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Ron DeSantis of Florida is expected to officially enter the presidential race next week, allowing him to raise the vast amounts of cash he will need to challenge former President Donald J. Trump, according to two people familiar with his intentions. Mr. DeSantis is expected to file paperwork declaring his candidacy with the Federal Election Commission ahead of a major fund-raising meeting with donors in Miami on May 25 that is meant to act as a show of his financial force. He must formally enter the race before he can solicit donations for his presidential campaign. The Wall Street Journal first reported that Mr. DeSantis would file the paperwork next week. Mr. Trump is running roughly 30 percentage points ahead of Mr. DeSantis in national polling averages, but the Florida governor would be the most credible Republican challenger to join the field so far.

☆ Erdogan rival pledges to repatriate all refugees before Turkey runoff
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-18 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/2] Kemal Kilicdaroglu, presidential candidate of Turkey's main opposition alliance, speaks during a press conference ahead of the May 28 runoff vote, in Ankara, Turkey May 18, 2023. Kemal Kilicdaroglu, the candidate of a six-party opposition alliance, won 45% support in Sunday's vote while Erdogan got 49.5%, falling just short of the majority needed to avoid a runoff vote. Kilicdaroglu's latest comments came amid expectations that a third candidate in the presidential race would announce his decision for the runoff. Sinan Ogan, a nationalist politician endorsed by an anti-refugee party obtained 5.2%, which made him a kingmaker in the runoff vote. "I am announcing here: I will send all refugees back home once I am elected as president, period," he added.

☆ Turkish lira hits record low as bonds steady after post-election rout
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-18 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

LONDON, May 18 (Reuters) - Turkey's lira weakened to a record low against the dollar on Thursday, after incumbent Tayyip Erdogan's lead in presidential elections surprised markets, while the nation's sovereign dollar bonds steadied after a three-day post-election rout. The cost of insuring the country's debt against default fell slightly, but equity markets and banking stocks endured fresh losses in afternoon trading. The lira weakened to a record low of 19.8050 to the dollar by 1904 GMT, bringing its losses since the election to more than 1%. The 2045 bond gained close to one cent to trade at just over 70 cents on the dollar by 1300 GMT, Tradeweb data showed. Credit default swaps, which measure the cost of insuring the country's debt against default, narrowed by 8 basis points (bps) by mid afternoon, to 684 bps, data from S&P Global Market Intelligence showed.

☆ Ron Johnson insists he won't pocket $8.4 million from donors. But thanks to Ted Cruz, he could legally do exactly that.
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-17 | by ( Bryan Metzger | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

That's due to a Supreme Court case won last year by Ted Cruz, who defended Johnson repaying himself. In October quarterly filings, Johnson's campaign declared that it was reinstating $8.4 million in loans, citing Ted Cruz vs. FEC. Furthermore, the door is now open for other self-funding candidates to demand payback of campaign loans that they had previously forgiven. And prior to Johnson telling Insider that he wouldn't seek a loan repayment, Cruz vociferously defended the hypothetical repayment. "It is perfectly reasonable that Ron Johnson, after 10 years of making an interest-free loan to the American people, can pay back his own money," Cruz added.

☆ Turkey opposition contests thousands of ballots after election
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-17 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

ANKARA, May 17 (Reuters) - Turkey's main opposition party said on Wednesday it had filed complaints over suspected irregularities at thousands of ballot boxes in Sunday's landmark election, in which President Tayyip Erdogan performed better than expected. He said the CHP had formally raised objections over 2,269 ballot boxes nationwide for the presidential election and 4,825 for the parliamentary vote that also took place on Sunday. In the presidential vote, Erdogan is headed for a runoff on May 28 against challenger Kemal Kilicdaroglu after falling just shy of the 50% threshold needed to win outright in the first round. "We are following every single vote, even if it does not change the overall results," Erkek told reporters in Ankara. There were a total of 201,807 ballot boxes set up for the election, in Turkey and abroad, Erkek said.

☆ Kentucky Republicans to Pick Challenger to Popular Democratic Governor
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-16 | by ( Arian Campo-Flores | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear was rated the most popular Democratic governor in the U.S. at the start of the year. Photo: Timothy D. Easley/Associated PressKentucky Republicans are heading to the polls Tuesday to pick the party’s nominee to take on incumbent Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear , in what is expected to be one of the most high-profile gubernatorial contests this year. The political parties will be scrutinizing the Kentucky governor’s race, along with the ones in Louisiana and Mississippi, for clues about voter sentiment ahead of the 2024 presidential election.

☆ Daniel Cameron Wins GOP Nomination to Challenge Kentucky Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-16 | by ( Arian Campo-Flores | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

This copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only. Distribution and use of this material are governed by our Subscriber Agreement and by copyright law. For non-personal use or to order multiple copies, please contact Dow Jones Reprints at 1-800-843-0008 or visit www.djreprints.com. https://www.wsj.com/articles/kentucky-republicans-to-pick-challenger-to-popular-democratic-governor-47815f18

Move Forward's main coalition partner would be the Pheu Thai party, backed by the billionaire Shinawatra family that was - until now - the main challenger of the conservative, military-backed royalist establishment that has held power for the last decade. Pheu Thai, which won the last five general elections but got pushed out of power each time, secured 141 seats, according to the latest projections, only 10 fewer than Move Forward. "There are many obstacles that Move Forward and Pheu Thai have to overcome." Full-time politics came in 2019, when Pita entered parliament with 80 other members of the Future Forward Party. To become prime minister, Pita must also navigate the upper house.

☆ Turkey’s Opposition Struggles to Make Up Ground as Runoff Nears
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-16 | by ( Ben Hubbard | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

After heading into elections with high hopes, Turkey’s political opposition is struggling to fight off despair and plot a course to give their candidate a fighting chance against the incumbent, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, in a runoff later this month. While Mr. Erdogan, bidding for a third five-year presidential term, failed to win a simple majority in Sunday’s election, he still led the opposition by a margin of about five percentage points. That, and a number of other indications, point to a win for the president in the second round on May 28. For one, Mr. Erdogan looks likely to be the primary beneficiary of votes from supporters of an ultranationalist third candidate, Sinan Ogan, who has been eliminated despite a surprisingly strong showing over the weekend. The first-round results, over all, pointed to growing nationalist sentiment across the electorate that will probably boost the president.

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.

☆ Kentucky Republicans to choose challenger to Democratic Governor Beshear
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-16 | by ( Joseph Ax | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

May 16 (Reuters) - Republican voters in Kentucky were casting ballots on Tuesday to choose their party's challenger to Democratic Governor Andy Beshear, setting up one of the most closely watched elections of the year. The winner will face Beshear, who enjoys high approval ratings despite being a Democrat in a strongly Republican state, in the November general election. Trump won Kentucky in the 2020 election against Democrat Joe Biden by more than 25 percentage points. While Cameron has Trump's official endorsement, other candidates have sought to claim the mantle of Trump's "Make America Great Again" movement. One Republican challenger, Stephen Knipper, has echoed Trump's false claims that the 2020 election was rigged and endorsed conspiracy theories about voting machines.

☆ Turkish Election Goes to Runoff After Erdogan Takes Lead in First Round
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-15 | by ( Jared Malsin | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan will face opposition candidate Kemal Kilicdaroglu in the second round of the presidential election on May 28. WSJ’s Jared Malsin explains what’s at stake. Photo: Jeff J Mitchell/Getty ImagesISTANBUL—Turkey will hold a runoff presidential election later this month, officials said Monday, with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan emerging from this weekend’s polls with a surprise advantage over his main challenger in a vote with far-ranging domestic and geopolitical implications. Mr. Erdogan won 49.51% and his opponent Kemal Kilicdaroglu had 44.88% in the first round of the election on Sunday, with all of the votes counted, according to the head of the Turkish Supreme Election Council.

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