International Politics and Economy

By Salih Yasun, Indiana University | – Turkey is heading toward a presidential runoff election on May 28, 2023, after no candidate won more than half the votes in the first round – the barrier needed to be declared an outright winner. Incumbent Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who has ruled the country for two decades, defied […]

Featured

Not just Cards and Flowers: The 1st ‘Mother’s Day for Peace’ was Held in New York in 1872

H. Patricia Hynes

Greenville, Mass. (Special to Informed Comment – Feature) – The 19th century origins of Mother’s Day differ vastly in spirit and purpose from celebrations of it in the 20th and 21st centuries. Mother’s Day was first inspired by two women with diverse but compatible social and political purposes. Prior to the Civil War, Ann Reeves […]

Authoritarianism

President Erdogan has Wrecked Turkey’s Economy – So What Next?

The Conversation

By Gulcin Ozkan, King’s College London | – (The Conversation) – Turkey’s 2023 election is one of the most significant in its hundred-year history. After years of currency crashes, vanishing foreign currency reserves and surging inflation, rethinking economic policy will be a top priority for whoever is sworn in after the vote on May 14. […]

Democracy

Turkey’s Opposition Chief is Leading in the Polls, but Sunday’s Election is a Cliffhanger

The Conversation

By Balki Begumhan Bayhan, Coventry University | – (The Conversation) – Turkey’s general election on Sunday, May 14 will see voters cast their ballots for 600 members of its parliament and the country’s powerful presidency. This election has become intensely competitive in a country which has undergone severe democratic erosion over the past decade, but […]

Africa

Trump joins ranks of Sexual Abusers-in-Chief like Gaddafi and Mussolini, but CNN thinks he Deserves a Townhall

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Donald John Trump was found liable by a jury on Tuesday for having sexually abused and then libeled writer E. Jean Carroll. The only reason he wasn’t also found liable for rape was that the victim said he inserted something else into her– fingers or some instrument — against her […]

Democracy

Turkey’s Erdogan is Facing Re-Election to hold onto Power – Can a Divided Opposition oust the Strongman?

The Conversation

By Khalid Al Bostanji, Australian National University | – (The Conversation) – As Turkish voters head to polls for the presidential and parliamentary elections on May 14, the biggest question is whether President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s two-decade-long grip on power can be challenged. Turkey’s main opposition parties have made a range of promises that include […]

History

Sudan’s entire History has been dominated by Soldiers and the Violence and Corruption they Bring

The Conversation

By Justin Willis, Durham University | – (The Conversation) – Sudan’s Central Reserve Police (CRP) recently announced it would be deploying officers to the streets of Khartoum to “secure public and private property”. That may sound puzzling in the context of the current violence: what are the police doing in the middle of this? The […]

Corruption

Not the Onion: U.S. Supreme Court Justices take Gifts – Then Raise the Bar for Bribery Prosecutions

Minnesota Reformer

By: Marty Schladen – ( Minnesota Reformer) – Justice Clarence Thomas might be the most egregious when it comes to taking gifts and not disclosing them, but he’s not alone. His colleagues on the U.S. Supreme Court also haven’t been shy about taking fancy freebies from rich people — many of whom have an interest […]