What We're Watching – A Sea Goddess and Iranian Female Fighter
Taiwan's Sea Goddess Candidate – Terry Gou, a self-made billionaire and founder of electronics-maker Foxconn (a major manufacturer of iPhones), is running for president of Taiwan. (The election is scheduled for January 2020.) In contrast to current President Tsai Ing-Wen, the party Mr. Gou wants to lead, the Kuomintang, wants warmer ties with Beijing. Gou himself has strong ties to mainland China, where many of Foxconn's factories are located. Gou (pronounced "Gwor") just might win. The current president is unpopular, and Gou claims he was ordered to run by Mazu, a powerful sea goddess, who appeared to him in a dream.
An Iranian Female Boxer – Sadaf Khadem, the first Iranian woman to compete in an official international boxing match, cancelled plans to return home to Iran from Paris this week because, she says, Iranian authorities have issued a warrant for her arrest. The charge? Khadem says she's accused of violating the country's female dress code by competing in shorts and a t-shirt. (In Iran, girls as young as nine can go to prison for appearing in public without a headscarf). Having defeated her French opponent, we think that anyone who wants to arrest Sadaf Khadem should first meet her in the ring. #FloatLikeAButterfly
What We're Ignoring – Bashir behind Bars and Trump Gets a Rival
Bashir Behind Bars – Omar Bashir, Sudan's recently toppled tyrant, is now officially in jail. Last week, his military ousted him from power after months of protests against his oppressive regime. But we're ignoring Bashir's transfer to the slammer, because the protesters, still on the streets, appear unmoved. They're surely glad to see Bashir in jail, but want his military men, who continue to run the country, to pass power to a civilian government.
William Weld – Former Massachusetts Governor and 2016 Libertarian Party vice presidential candidate William Weld announced his candidacy for president this week as a Republican. President Trump has an approval rating with Republican voters that's well above 80 percent. Weld's chances of denying Trump the Republican Party nomination are about the same as your Friday author's odds of hitting the moon with a rock.
