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People view examples of the Parthenon sculptures, sometimes referred to in the UK as the Elgin Marbles, on display at the British Museum in London, Britain, November 29, 2023.
Turkey backs Greece’s Parthenon Sculptures claims
For more than a hundred years, Greece has demanded that the British Museum return a set of marble sculptures that were hacked off of the famous Parthenon temple by a British nobleman in the early 19th century, when Athens was part of the Ottoman Empire.
The Greek position is that the marbles were taken illegitimately and that they should be viewed in their original setting. But the British have always said Lord Elgin got official permission from the Sultan to take the sculptures, which he later sold to the British Museum.
But did he? The Turkish government, official successor to the Ottomans, now says that it has found no archival evidence that any such permission was ever given. Zilch.
For anyone who knows the fraught history of Turkey-Greece relations, it is very unusual for one side to give the other an assist like this.
The Daily’s Matt Kendrick suggests this meme might help to explain it …
In recent months, the possibility of the British Museum lending the marbles has gained some momentum, thought the two sides are still far apart on conditions.
We are now watching to see if the Turkish statement contributes to any unstiffening of the British Museum’s upper lip when it comes to the fate of the marbles, which we too would like to see in Athens one day (hides under desk.)
(Losing your marbles? See Alex Kliment and Molly Rubin’s GZERO Report on the Parthenon controversy and the broader politics of cultural repatriation here.)
Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan speaks during a joint statement to the media in Baghdad, Iraq April 22, 2024.
Hard Numbers: Erdoğan cannot bank on change, US asks EU to double down on sanctions, SCOTUS mifepristone ruling may not be final word, Chile’s giant camera, Menendez and his love of steak
5: Turkey’s Constitutional Court has ruled that President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan lacks the authority to fire the country’s central bank governor, a move he’s madefive times in the past five years. It’s a remarkable rebuke for a leader who is battling 75% annual inflation and has repeatedly compromised the independence of Turkey’s leading institutions.
50 billion: According to a leaked document, the US intends to organize a$50 billion loan for Ukraine that’s repaid by profits from frozen Russian assets – but only if the EU agrees to indefinitely extend sanctions against Moscow. Washington wants to avoid accepting full responsibility for the loan if the EU lifts sanctions before the end of the war.
60: The US Supreme Court must rule by the end of the court term in late June or early July on continued legal access to the drug mifepristone, which is used inmore than 60% of all US abortions. But even if they strike down the current challenge to mifepristone, the justices could leave an opening for Missouri, Kansas, and Idaho, each of which has a Republican attorney general, to try to quickly revive the challenge to abortion pills.
3.2: Chile is set to install the largest digital camera ever built for optical astronomy, with a resolution above3.2 gigapixels, in the Atacama Desert. The camera will weigh nearly three tons and is designed to help scientists understand the nature of dark energy and dark matter in the universe.
250: A lawyer representing Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ) told a judge presiding over Menendez’s trial on corruption charges, that his client dines at Washington’s famed Morton’s Steakhouse250 nights a year. That may not suggest Menendez is corrupt, but it certainly made this newsletter team feel poor – and a little bit hungrier.
Nigeria Labor Congress (NLC) protest against the high cost of living and massive suffering following a hike in petrol and devaluation of the Naira in Lagos, Nigeria.
Hard Numbers: Blackouts in Nigeria, Turkey’s soaring inflation, Deadly flooding in Central Europe, A new (but familiar) face in UK election, Murdoch ties the knot (again)
4: Millions have taken to the streets in Nigeria as unions began their fourth (and indefinite) strike against President BolaTinubu’s wage policies. Nigeria unions have shut down six power grids, leading to a national blackout at 2am on Monday that halted much of the country’s aviation activity. Unions assert the strike will not end until the government agrees to raise the monthly minimum wage, over tenfold from 30,000 Naira ($20 USD) to 500,000 Naira ($336 USD).
75.5: Inflation has surpassed 75.5% in Turkey, jumping up 5.65% in the last month. Finance Minister Mehmet Şimşek reassured Turkish citizens that “the worst is over,” as the government will begin pushing down inflation in June.
5: Heavy rains over the weekend led to widespread flooding in southern Germany and France, which killed five people, including a rescue worker. States of emergency have been announced throughout the region as highways, railways, and more have been submerged beneath several meters of water.
10: On Monday, Brexit “architect” Nigel Farage announced his plan to “make Britain great again” as the Reform UK party’s candidate in next month’s election. Although his party is only polling at around 10%, it is enough to further destabilize the ruling Tories, who are expected to be beaten soundly by Labour.
5: Is the fifth time the charm? Media tycoon Rupert Murdoch, 93, said “I do” last Saturday to Elena Zhukova, a 67-year-old retired molecular biologist. The couple looked very happy tying the knot in Los Angeles, CA, and showed us it’s never too late for love … particularly if you are a billionaire.
AJ McCampbell, Democrat state representative from Alabama's 71st district, calls on U.S. president Joseph R. Biden to "pick a side" on voting rights and the filibuster before a march in downtown Washington, D.C. from the African American History Museum to the White House on Wednesday, August 4, 2021.
Hard Numbers: Biden is losing Black voters, Southern Brazil gasps for air, Turkey strikes Kurdish militants, Vultures vanish from the skies of South Asia
62: A new poll finds that just 62% of Black Americans are “absolutely certain” they’ll vote in November, down 12 points since June 2020. Overall, American interest in voting dropped by four points. That’s bad news for President Joe Biden who – like all Democrats for the past half-century – has relied heavily on Black American voters at the polls. But the study, conducted by the Washington Post and IPSOS, shows Black voters, particularly younger ones, aren’t happy with his handling of the economy, criminal justice reform, or the war in Gaza.
75: At least 75 people have been killed and more than 100 reported missing after massive floods swept through the southern Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul over the weekend, washing away roads and bridges, knocking out power and water, and causing deadly landslides. The local governor said rebuilding will require “a kind of Marshall Plan.” Trivia: You probably know a famous person from Rio Grande do Sul – supermodel Gisele Bündchen.
16: A Turkish airstrike on a camp across the border in northern Iraq reportedly killed at least 16 members of the Kurdistan Workers Party, aka PKK. The PKK, which has waged a decades-long armed insurgency against the Turkish state, has long had a presence in Kurdish-controlled regions of Northern Iraq and Syria. It is designated as a terrorist group by Turkey, the US, and the EU. Allies of the PKK, however, have helped the US to fight against ISIS.
2: The Parsis, a tiny religious minority in South Asia who follow Zoroastrian burial rites in which dead bodies are left atop “towers of silence” to be picked clean by vultures, have a big problem: a vulture shortage. In Karachi, a city of 20 million, the 800 remaining Parsis have just two towers of silence left. In recent decades regional vulture populations have been decimated because of an anti-inflammatory drug in cattle that is lethal for the scavenging birds.Students gather in front of the Sorbonne University in support of Palestinians in Gaza, during the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, in Paris, France, April 29, 2024.
Student protests go global
As police ramp up efforts to dismantle pro-Palestine encampments and demonstrations on US campuses, the student protests are going global.
Students at four universities in Australia have jumped onto what they call a “global wave” of pro-Palestinian activism, vowing to occupy areas of campus with encampments until their schools cut financial ties with Israel.
In the Middle East, student protests are raging from Kuwait to Egypt to Lebanon, where students occupied central locations on campuses on Monday and Tuesday, calling for divestment and an end to the war in Gaza.
Tensions are also rising between students and authorities inFrance, a country with a history of protest and the largest Jewish population in Europe. Students in Paris at the Sorbonne and Sciences Po began occupying parts of their institutions last week. On Saturday, Prime Minister Gabriel Attal said his government “would not tolerate the actions of a dangerously acting minority trying to impose its rules and an ideology coming from North America,” while the president of the Île-de-France regionsuspended funding for Sciences Po until “calm and security have been restored.”
Encampments have also popped up at universities in the UK, Canada, Turkey, Germany, Japan, India, and Argentina. For many protesters, fighting for a cease-fire has taken on a larger meaning. They continue to call for divesting from Israel, but they also tie the plight of Palestinians to global structures of oppression and link the war in Gaza toissues like police brutality, the mistreatment of Indigenous people, racism, and climate change.
Israel's global image wanes further after killing of aid workers
Ian Bremmer shares his insights on global politics this week on World In :60.
Is Netanyahu losing the PR battle amid public outrage over the IDF strike killing seven aid workers?
I think Israel is losing the information war around the world, not just with the Global South, which was certainly true a few months ago, but increasingly even with Israel's closest allies. I'm hearing from the Germans, from the French, you know, from the Canadians, from the United States, that there is really a lot of upset with the unwillingness to take far greater care about civilian casualties while the Israelis are engaging in massive airstrikes still across Gaza. And of course, especially if we see strikes into Rafah, where well over a million Palestinians are trying to shelter. It's a big problem for the Israelis. It's a big problem for Netanyahu, but no end in sight, right now. And the potential for the war to escalate continues to be very, very real.
What's needed to garner bipartisan support for Speaker Mike Johnson's bill for increased Ukraine aid?
We have bipartisan support. There is overwhelming majority support among Democrats and Republicans to pass aid for Ukraine, likely 60 billion. Could be structured as a loan. Doesn't really matter. It’s not like anyone believes the Ukrainians will be in a position to pay it off any time soon. Makes it more palatable for Trump supporters who have heard the former president say, “not one more dime in direct foreign aid,” has to all be structured as loans in case we don't like them in the future, then they have to pay it back. What if they can't? Who knows? But anyway, that's the structure. The point is that the Ukrainians who have continued to be able to mostly hold their defensive lines, they've lost some territory recently, in part because they don't have enough troops on the ground. They are pushing through more mobilization, but also because they don't have enough artillery and ammunition, enough military equipment. And that is coming some from the Europeans, more soon from the Americans this month, I suspect the next couple of weeks that happens.
What's the significance of Turkey's recent local elections setback for President Erdogan's government?
It is the first time in a couple of decades since Erdogan took power that his party did not win. They didn't get a majority, and instead it was the opposition. And that's a big deal. Even those municipal elections. Look, it doesn't mean the end of Erdogan. He doesn't have to stand for presidential elections, no parliamentary elections until 2028. So it's quite a while. But it does show that elections matter in a country like Turkey as much as Erdogan would like them not to. And it is mostly about lack of comfort with his government's performance on the economy, a lot more pressure to perform adequately. And the mayor of Istanbul is an erstwhile serious challenger to the Turkish president. So, I mean, his ability to change the constitution and consolidate more power, his ability to ensure that his party is going to be in control after 2028 has just gone down quite a bit. And that means he has to be more careful, more cautious and more focused on performing on the economy for his own people.
Supporters of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, mayoral candidate of the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP), celebrate following the early results in front of the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality (IBB) in Istanbul, Turkey March 31, 2024.
Turkey’s AI elections
Voters across Turkey went to the polls on Sunday for local elections nationwide. While Recep Tayyip Erdoğan wasn’t on the ballot, observers expected the Turkish president to change the constitution to extend his own term limits should his AK Party win with enough of a mandate. Instead, the opposition Republican People’s Party won in a shock victory.
The consequential nature of these elections heightened concerns about disinformation spread with AI-generated media. Earlier this year, an AI-generated voiceover was used to alter a video of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoğlu to show him praising Erdoğan. Imamoğlu is a chief rival of the Turkish president and has served as mayor since 2019.
There have also been allegations of blackmail using AI. One politician, the former professional soccer player Gokhan Zan, withdrew his mayoral candidacy in the province of Hatay after receiving threats to release a video showing him taking bribes, a video he claims was generated with AI.
Erdoğan now faces the prospect of four years in power with an emboldened opposition led by the charismatic Imamoğlu. We’re watching for how each side harnesses AI to scrap for power in one of the world’s most important — and most flawed — democratic systems.
Supporters of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, mayoral candidate of the main opposition party, celebrate in front of the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality in Istanbul, Turkey, on March 31, 2024.
Turkish voters punish Erdogan in local elections
Turks delivered a blow to President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Sunday in local elections amid crippling inflation. The opposition beat Erdoğan’s Justice and Development Party, or AK Party, in Turkey's five biggest cities, with the biggest result rocking Istanbul's mayoral race
Erdoğan wanted his party’s candidate, former Environment Minister Murat Kurum, to unseat popular opposition Mayor Ekrem Imamoğlu in Turkey's largest city. But Imamoğlu was ahead by 10 percentage points early Monday, with most of the ballots counted.
Imamoğlu’s victory in the 2019 elections was a serious rebuke to Erdoğan and his Justice and Development Party, or AK Party, which had controlled the metropolis since 2004. Erdoğan launched his career in national politics from the mayorship, which he won in 1994 — and he wanted to prevent Imamoğlu from following in his footsteps.
Erdoğan heavily backed Kurum, going so far as to hold two preelection rallies in the city and attend prayers at the deeply symbolic Hagia Sophia mosque just ahead of the vote. The president based much of his appeal to Turkish voters on cultural issues and Islamist policy, in stark contrast to the secularism of the opposition CHP.
It's the economy, stupid. The win bolsters Imamoğlu's position as Erdoğan's main political rival. In the end, it likely came down to lira, as Erdoğan's economic policy has been disastrous. The country is struggling with a 70% inflation rate year-on-year, and interest rates are around 50%, putting tremendous pressure on businesses and families.
"At a time when Erdogan is looking to consolidate his power to rebalance the economy and maintain his foreign policy balancing act, these factors would pose fresh political challenges at home to Turkey's long-serving leader," says Emre Peker, a director for Eurasia Group’s Europe practice. While a general election won't happen anytime soon, Sunday's results will hurt Erdoğan’s hopes of a constitutional reform, leaving him in a weaker negotiating position.